Why Every Filmmaker Should Join Their Local Chamber: Here’s What Happened When I Did

Episode Transcript
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Vipul Bindra (00:04):
Stephen, thank you .
Thank you for coming, sir.
I appreciate you taking thetime out.
So, for you know, this is theseason finale, episode 20.
I can't believe I made it here.
So I was kind of thinking, whenI was kind of telling you this,
I was like I'm going to bringsomebody special.
And when I ended on a bang andI was like who should I bring?
And then I was like what have Ibeen saying?

(00:24):
For 19 episodes I've beentelling people go network, go
network.
And how do you network?
Go find, and you know, joinyour local chamber of commerce
and be active.
And so I have Stephen here.
You're the president ofEstorian Chamber of Commerce,
one of the chambers that I'm amember of and I'm very active.
So, like I said, thank you fortaking time out of your busy

(00:45):
schedule and coming here andhopefully my audience, which is
most likely, like I said, videopeople, can benefit from this
conversation and learn how toget more involved and obviously,
at the end, find more clients,right?

Stephen Lewis (00:58):
Absolutely, absolutely.
I appreciate the opportunity tobe on here, certainly.

Yeah, that's good.

Big shoes to fill obviously, 20 episodes in.
That's fantastic.
So appreciate you having me onhere and appreciate the
opportunity to talk about thepower of Chambers.

Yes, no, I you know.
Funny enough, as soon as I, youknow, I started this company
2018, right before that, I wasjust a freelancer.
And first thing I did 2018right before that, I was just a
freelancer and first thing I didliterally I established the
company you know and joined thechamber.
Uh, obviously, I was uh for.
So I started in orlando, I wasfreelancing and then, briefly, I
left it was in alabama actuallyum, so as soon as I came back,

(01:38):
I was like, oh, I have to jointhe chambers, and restaurant
chamber was one of the firstones I joined.
Uh, so it's so interesting tosee full circle right now.
It's been what?
Three, four years and beingable to talk to you and, like I
said, to me, the Chamber is themost powerful asset that we have
as business owners Because, youknow, especially as B2B I don't

(01:59):
think you even have to be B2B,but as B2B businesses, guess
where our clients hang out Atthe chamber right.
And then the chamber is not onlyhelping me find clients, it's
helping me, you know, be anadvocate in the community, be
involved in the community, thatwe belong, and there's a lot
more that goes with the chamberthan just events.

(02:21):
Absolutely, so let's get intoit then.
So, what does a chamber do forsomebody who has no idea?

Yeah, so the chambers are multifaceted, right
.
We don't just have networkingevents and things like that.
Of course, that's whateverybody thinks of first and
foremost.
Whenever you think of a chamber, you think of the networking
events, the opportunity to getyour business out there.
We do all of that, but it's somuch more.
There's the opportunity to pusha legislative agenda, make sure

(02:50):
that we're representing thebusinesses in our area before
the state legislature, beforelocal elected officials.
We have the opportunity forworkforce and professional
development.
That's something that the WestOrange Chamber is getting into
quite a bit this next year.
But we also provide theopportunity for businesses such
as yours to showcase yourself.

(03:11):
Showcase your skills providesan opportunity for you to refine
your art, you know, get to knowthe businesses in your
community.
It's a great gathering place.
We have members that are notonly businesses, but we have
elected officials that aremembers.
We have nonprofit organizationsthat are members, and all of
them come together at thechamber for the greater good of

(03:32):
not only the business communitybut the community as a whole.

Yeah, no, that's.
That's incredible and well put,because here's what I want
people to listen.
Obviously, if you'reestablished, great.
But if you're new, you knowit's not just about finding
clients and revenue.
You have to.
You know, for you to become abusiness leader, you have to get
involved in the community.
But then you have to advocatewhat's better for the business

(03:56):
community and you know it's veryhard.
You know especially as a smallbusiness to you know you can't
join that many PACs or whateveryou know to.
To make change versus chambers,I think is a powerful
organization where all thebusinesses can come together and
then we can make real impact.
And I'm talking laws and youknow legislation that can, that

(04:16):
can help the business communityin general.

Well put.
And, and you know, I think theother thing that that you hit on
is it's it's not only the onlythe opportunity to do the work
for it or the businessdevelopment and things like that
, but when you start to put thecollective power together, that
network that you start to build,the network that you start to
build by going to our networkingevents and things like that,

(04:39):
builds into something greater.
Get involved in committeeservice, you start to work
within the chamber, you start toget to know people, people, and
it leads to the business.
I always tell folks you can'tthink of it as a transactional.
You know your membership can'tbe transactional.
You may not get out of it whatyou put into it in that first
year your membership dues.
You know that first year it'sgoing to be an investment, but

(05:00):
it's an investment in the future.
As you get to build thoserelationships and start to
network, the business starts tocome.
I always want people to thinkabout that.
And then the other thing that Iwant people to think about is
you know you get out of it whatyou put into it.
So, you know again great, you'reinvesting in the chamber, maybe
some time before you see thatROI, but I promise you at some

(05:21):
point the ROI is going to comeand I have that testimony time
and time again as I get outthere and start to talk to our
members.
you know, everybody has that onestory of that one per chance
meeting that they had that endsup turning into a long-term
relationship businessrelationship, personal,
professional relationship thatleads to another one, and I hear

(05:42):
these stories time and timeagain.
It's about putting yourself outthere, making sure that you're
putting yourself in the rightsituation to get out there what
you do and advocate for yourbusiness, but also for the
business community as a whole.

No, absolutely.
And just so people understandmy chamber history you're
absolutely right.
The chamber is not where you go.
You're like I need sale today.

Yeah.

Chamber is where you go to build a business right
, a legit, you know network.
And, for example, sometimeswith the chamber it takes me a
year, almost a year and a half,meeting someone multiple times
over the course of, let's say,10 events and you know, know,
online messages or whatever,before we can close the sale.

(06:27):
But here's the advantage by thetime that sale closes, at least
for me, they're already like afriend, and then it's not just a
sale, they're a promoter of mybusiness.
Not only are they, they reachout, they're like hey, finally I
need videos, ripple.
And then it's like oh, now alsomy friend needs video.
And then slowly that networkbuilds and once you do this for,

(06:50):
let's say, three, four years,you have built a massive network
for sure.
And, um, you know, like I said,not each person may not be
buying from you like every monthright but let's say you get
four sales, but four times let'ssay 10 that's 40 sales that you
weren't getting before.
So it's a massive, like it's abenefit, but it doesn't come
immediately.

(07:10):
A lot of times it may takeyears to build those
relationships and I think theunderstated.

Part of that is it provides credibility.
It provides legitimacy to yourbusiness because folks see that
you're not only trying to make asale, but you're also trying to
develop a relationship, andthat's the important thing.
Whenever you're going into this, you have to think about it, as
I'm not just thinking aboutthat sale, I'm not just thinking
about that bottom line.
You know the ROI that will come, but you have to remember you

(07:38):
have to build thoserelationships and it's like
anything else.
Once you establish thatrelationship, you're going to be
the first person they callwhenever they need video
production, whenever they need.
You know that that product orservice that you have You're
going to be the person they callbecause they've developed that
relationship with you, they havethat repertoire.
They know that you are theperson that is going to provide
them with the service they needand do it the right way.

They have a trust.
It builds trust.
Yeah, and yeah, and and yeahexactly, and also, um, like I
said, it may not just be themdirectly.
It may be because, guess what,we're business, who business
owners hang out with otherbusiness?
Owners so it may be somebodyelse.
They're not.
Like I said, another meetingfriend or whatever right where
they go, hey you know I've beenthinking about doing videos and
they go oh, bendra orindra, oryou know whoever like that.
And then immediately you can bea recommendation and you're no
longer even a cold lead, you'rea warm lead, which is so

(08:31):
incredible, and that couldn'thave happened without that power
of networking.

Absolutely, Absolutely.
And again, you know, networking.
Again, like I mentioned,everybody thinks about Chambers
is networking and we certainlyprovide unparalleled networking
opportunities.
But so much more.

Yeah, exactly.
So let's go, let's think from anew person, right, who's no
idea about chamber or anything.
Obviously, they're listening tothis and they're like okay, so
I'm going to go find my localchamber.
Find my local chamber, uh, andin a obviously small cities you
tend to only have one.
But you know, in a bigger citylike um, orlando, there can be,

(09:09):
you know, tons of chambers tochoose from and picking the
right one because, like we'vealready laid the groundwork,
look, you have to be active andyou cannot be active in 10
chambers.
It's impossible.
You have to pick, uh, the bestone that may be the right fit
for you.
So how do they go about findingthat right fit?
And I guess I don't know,auditioning chambers.

Is that even a?
Thing?

And starting that relationship.

Sure, not all chambers are created equal.
I'll start out by saying thatJust because the experience that
you're talking about may not bethe experience everywhere, and
so I want to make sure thatyou're talking about may not be
the experience everywhere, andso I want to make sure that
you're finding a crediblechamber.
What we've seen over the yearsis Chamber of Commerce, because
of the legitimacy that we add tobusinesses and that we have in

(09:55):
the business community with ourelected officials, is there's
folks that want to takeadvantage of that, and so you
want to make sure that you'reidentifying a chamber that is
legitimate, not just one that isone individual that's looking
to capitalize on the solidfoundation that chambers of
commerce, which have been aroundsince the 1500s, have laid.
You want to find one that isofficial, right, that has those

(10:20):
relationships, that has thoseyou know, a solid base of
members large businesses, smallbusinesses and a good way to do
that is utilizing the US Chamberof Commerce.
The US Chamber of Commerce doeshave an official listing of
chambers of commerce that aremembers of the US Chamber of
Commerce.
So, just like you join the WestOrange Chamber of Commerce, the

(10:43):
West Orange Chamber of Commerceis a member of the US Chamber
of Commerce and is listed on theregistry.
There you can find us as alegitimate chamber Also
utilizing state chambers ofcommerce.
So the Florida Chamber ofCommerce is a great place to
find your local chamber.
A lot of times if you justinteract with the business
community, you know reach out toother business owners.

(11:04):
That's a good way to find thechamber of commerce that's the
right fit for your business.
And if all else fails, you knowlook for the stickers on the
doors, the plaques in theoffices.
That's a good way to do it too.

Of the businesses you like that's so smart?
No, that's exactly what I did.
So, you know, I moved back toOrlando and I knew exactly what
I had to do.
Right, I was going to join thechamber of commerce, so for me
at least, it wasn't even a thingof question.
But you know, I came from, likeI said, I left for a small city
and you know there was only onechamber, so it made it very
easy to to to join the chamber.

Where were you at ?

So I was in Muscle Shoals or Florence area North.
Alabama, near Huntsville, Idon't know if you know that.
Okay, so there was only onechamber.
I joined it, like I said, veryactive, so, but then you know,
like I said, I took my firstopportunity.
I knew day one.
You know, when I started thebusiness I wanted to come back.
So you know we're a Disneyfamily Plus, you know we started

(11:55):
from here.
So, it was kind of like why didwe leave?
But you know you made a mistake.
So anyway, like, yeah, it's notgreener on that side at least.
So I mean again, good, smalltown feel, but it wasn't for me.
So, especially running abusiness, it's very difficult.

(12:16):
I travel a lot, the airport issmaller, not direct flights.
There was a lot more actualissues, um, so anyway, so I came
back and immediately I go okay,chamber of commerce.
And here comes the list.
So my, my technique wasactually interesting now that
you say that.
I was like, okay, I don't knowwhich is legit, which is not.
So I went to us chamber ofcommerce search for chambers,

(12:38):
saw the names and then, of thoseones, I went on the website and
I saw who's more active.
And because you, you know,orange County is huge, so
there's a ton of chambers andobviously I can't join all of
them, so I wanted to pick thebest one and, from my research,
best Orange Chamber of Commerce,the most active, you know, one
of the longest ones, with long,you know, almost 100 or over 100

(12:59):
year history.

Yeah, so 1972.
We came on board with one ofour large employers here in
Central Florida, disney.
But yeah so we've been aroundfor a long time.

So okay, so a long time, and I was like, okay, so
it has a history, it has, youknow, reputation, it has, you
know, main thing for me also isthat you guys were active.
It wasn't just a boring oldchamber, you know, that's not as
active.
So, anyway, and I saw him and Ihad joined it.
So that's, I think, an easy wayto replicate locally.

(13:28):
Just go to US Chamber ofCommerce, find them.
Go to the website, look at thelocal businesses, see who
actually people are members ofbecause, that's the point of
joining a chamber.

It is, it is, and you know, a lot of times we
also have.
You know, depending on whoyou're working with and getting

(13:59):
your business established, youknow, if you're going into banks
to get a small business loan orwhatever, however you're trying
to do that, a lot of times theywill refer you to a chamber of
commerce because they know that,as you're opening a storefront
permitting things like that, Ican't tell you how many calls I
get from new businesses comingto town that you know, even
franchise businesses that youknow a lot of times that's
turnkey there.
You know they have resourcesavailable to their franchisees.
They come to us and say, hey,can you help us to get a CO?

(14:22):
Or you know, get a healthinspection, and we're there for
that.
That's the.
That's the thing that peopledon't realize about chambers is
we can help you access thoseelected officials or government
agencies that you know it may bemore difficult for you to get
access to.

Exactly and and and, like we've we've said so
far already.
Like you know, you have to getinvolved, you have to ask the
chamber for help and you'd beamazed what all the chamber can
do until you ask for it.
Like on my standpoint as avideo company, I'm like, okay,
especially in this town, there'sthree colleges churning out
hundreds of people every year.
You know who say they're?
They're video professional.

(14:58):
You know they're not.
All the same, it's a service.
So, um, you know not.
You know it's art, art andtechnicality all in one, very,
very hard to do correctly.
So not everyone that's comingout is going to be skilled to
get a business, the results thatthey want.
And how do you stand out wheneveryone is offering the exact
same thing?
I'll make you videos.

(15:18):
So a business owner looking forI want videos can find anything
from everything and they haveno idea how to read it.
Because if you're not in theindustry, you don't know.
And the best thing for me waslike, okay, so here's what I can
do.
If I make good videos and ifother people see my good videos,
they'll want the good videos.
Right, and where's the best, uh, partner to have people, you

(15:40):
know, because not everyone'svideos are great.
So I'm like, if we make goodvideos and we share them,
there's no better sales thanthat, cause every business owner
needs videos.
That's not even a question.
It's where to get the videosfrom.
And um, and the best thing forme was to approach the chamber.
I was like, hey, how can wepartner on that?
I would like to make a videofor the chamber and not
necessarily, again, you're goingto get money from it, so don't

(16:03):
go in charging the chamber theregular rates.
I think it's more about a giveand take partnership.
Right, you go approach them andyou tell the problem like, look
, there's so many videobusinesses and I obviously do
better work First, obviously dobetter work, so maybe work on
that, but let's assume you aredoing good work.

(16:28):
Then go to the chamber and belike you know I would like to
share my work with the rest ofthe members, but the best way is
let's pick an event, let's seean event where the chamber can
find value using that videoproduct, cause you also don't
want to be making videos thathave no purpose.
And I think that was the way Ifound being able to share my
work with the other members.
Show them what we can do, whywe're different, why we're
better.
I want you to kind of speak onthat behalf, so as a chamber

(16:50):
president, when you know it maynecessarily be the West Foreign
Chamber, right Assumingsomebody's in California or New
York or wherever they approachtheir chamber, they join it.
Obviously.
Don't do that day one.
First go build relationships.
But then you know, I think thebest way is when their craft is
there to share their craft.

(17:10):
How can they partner with thechamber?

and what would be the right way to approach it,
you know.
So I'll talk about the the bestway to partner with the chamber
.
But before I talk about that,one thing that I'll say is also
a benefit.
You know you talked aboutnetworking and getting getting
your name out there, making surethat people know that you're
delivering quality product.
The other benefit that thosekinds of events offer is you

(17:32):
have an opportunity to listen towhat the business owners in
your community need, and toooften you know businesses come
into town.
You know you're from out oftown.
You come into wherever you'resetting up shop and you think
that whatever was working whereyou were before is going to work
here.
That's not always the case, andso chambers provide a unique

(17:53):
opportunity to get a broadperspective of what the business
community in this area needsVideo production.
But what does that videoproduction look like?
Is it the onsite videoproduction?
Is it a studio?
Does nobody in town have astudio?
What does that look like?
What are the needs of thebusiness owners based on your

(18:14):
location?
What are the industries thatare big in your area?
Obviously, here in CentralFlorida we have tourism,
hospitality.
Those are big businesses here.
That's not going to be the caseeverywhere.
You have to find what thatbusiness is and what the
business needs are in yourcommunity and utilize that
information to kind of tailorwhat your sales pitch is,
whenever you're at thesenetworking events or whenever

(18:34):
you're trying to drum upbusiness.
you want to start to identifywhat the needs of the business
community are and the chamber isuniquely positioned to provide
you with that information.
You have a broad spectrum ofbusinesses that are looking for
products and services and goingto chamber events and being
around the chamber, followingthe chamber on social media

(18:55):
channels and things like thatprovides you with the
opportunity to really dive intowhat the needs of the business.

I love what you're saying here.
So here's a piece of advice,right Directly.
So first find the chamber, join.
So here's a piece of advice,right directly.
So first find the chamber, jointhe chamber.
Go to the meetings, look attheir social media, be active.
Find out what industries arepresent in your area, what's the
need of the community.
Hear other members' talks, seewhat they're looking for, what
services are they trying to sell, and then try and cater your

(19:23):
services to them and or solvingtheir problems.
So that's perfect, so that'sincredible.
And now let's move to the nextpart of that.
Now you're like okay, I'm ready, I understand the market, I
understand that yeah.
How do I get involved?
How do I get myself out there?

Yeah.
So baby steps, baby steps iswhere I'm going to go with that.
All too often I get phone callsand well, I say, I get phone
calls, our office gets phonecalls and everybody wants a
meeting with me and they thinkthat that, that I'm, I'm the
golden ticket, right.
The president of the chamber isthe golden ticket to getting
business.

I'm not, uh, I hate to you know pull the
curtain back To both the Amy'shere for now.

Yeah, I hate to pull the curtain back on that,
but you know I'm not the personthat you want to talk to
initially.
I think that there's a place intime when we can have a
conversation.
But you know, get to know thevolunteers.
You know we have a strongambassador program.
A lot of chambers havesomething similar.
You know the ambassador program.

(20:29):
Those are some of the superusers we'll call them of the
chamber and those are the folksthat have businesses.
Those are ones that have gotteninvolved in the chamber, have
found value in the chamber andare now looking to help other
businesses find value in thechamber.
And so whenever you getinvolved with a chamber, my
recommendation is seek out thoseindividuals who are our chamber
super users, whether it beambassadors, people that are
going to networking events.

(20:49):
That's the first place you wantto start.
From there you're going tostart to build relationships
with the chamber staff.
So if your chamber is fortunateenough to have a staff, you're
going to want to get to know thestaff members, because I'll
tell you, I have relationships,but my relationships are unique
in that there are a lot of timeswith the business owners or the

(21:11):
C-suite executives in theselarger organizations.
Those are the folks that I'minteracting with most because
the things that they're askingfor, you know, when it comes to
legislative or policy typethings, those are the
conversations that I'm having.
My staff, on the other hand,are the ones that are setting up
those events, that are talkingto the members you know on a

(21:35):
daily basis and know you knowso-and-so needs this particular
product or service.
That's the person that they'retelling that to.
I'm not involved in everysingle one of those
conversations, so the morechamber staff members that have
you know the membership managers, the you know events managers,

(21:56):
things like that those are thefolks that you want to establish
relationships with early on,because the next time that they
hear somebody's looking forsomeone to do some, some video
work for them, they're going tothink, oh, people just joined
the chamber, but you know theyhave.
They have the knowledge of whatfolks are looking for.
I have it too yeah but I'm onlyone person and everybody thinks

(22:17):
oh, you know the the top of theplus, I doubt I've never asked
you to recommend me.

uh, you know this type of business or whatever.
It's always the staff, yeah,and, like I was saying, amy,
both the Amys are my contacts atthe chamber and they've been
great and every time I'vepartnered with the chamber I've
technically started with them.
Obviously, the conversation mayhave led to Stina in the past,
or you now Right, right, right.
But it was an eventual step, itwasn't necessary.

No.

So you're absolutely right.
I don't think they need to goimmediately.
Start talking to the presidentof the chamber.

Build a relationship with the staff,
because they're ultimately thepeople who are actually
recommending you anyway rightbecause, again, I doubt disney's
talking to you and asking for avideo person that's not
happening and you know I don'twant to say it doesn't happen,
but that's not how.
That's not how it happens.
So does it happen?

has disney asked you I need a video?

I don't remember getting the call, not yet you
know the problem that I thinkthat a lot of people don't look
at it is you always want to.
The more tentacles that you canhave in the organization, the
better.
So when you establish thatrelationship with the membership

(23:24):
person or the events person orthe office manager, any of those
folks those are the ones thatare taking the phone calls of.
You know, whenever somebodycalls the Chamber of Commerce
and says, hey, I'm looking forthis product or this service,
they're the people who aregetting those phone calls.
Those phone calls, unfortunately, don't make it up to me most of

(23:45):
the time.
If I answer the phone and I canhelp somebody, I absolutely
will.
But a lot of times those aregoing to be the best resources
for you as a business owner tostart to establish relationships
to where you come to mind andlisten.
I'll just tell you we don'tplay favorites.
So if somebody calls and says,hey, we don't play favorites.

(24:08):
So if somebody calls and says,hey, we're looking for a
videographer, I'm going to sayhey, we have these members that
can do it If they ask for ourrecommendation.
We've worked with thisindividual.
We've worked with thisindividual or we know that this
company's worked with them, andwe'll point them to someone
who's done work with them.
We don't put our name on it.

Yeah, you're not going to play favorites.
You can't do that.
We can't.
We can't.

But I think that you know, the more you establish
those relationships top of mind, you know you make sure that
you're a person that they thinkof as a resource.

And it's not always going to lead to the sale
, but I promise you that it willlead to you developing deeper
relationships and expanding yournetwork to a point where, if
and when the time comes thatthere's someone who needs that
service, you're a person theythink of exactly no, oh my
goodness, so many golden nuggetsin this one.
All right, so that, like I said, so far great.

(24:53):
So they've started now formingthese relationship with the
chamber staff.
And now how do they approach apartnership?
Um, you know, eventually, again, like, so I would give it at
least a year before you do this.
Like I said, chamber is along-term game, but it's worth
it, trust me.
All right, so let's say, sixmonths to a year now how do they
approach the same staff membersthat they have, uh, you know,

(25:15):
built these relationships with?
How about, like, doing somekind of partnership?
And again, I know it's verynuanced, but we are talking
specific to a video businessowner audience, so kind of like.
So you kind of see how we havekind of partnered with.
I'm imagining that's the rightway, unless you have another way
that you can think of.

No, you know, I think that there's a couple of
ways to approach it.
And you know, one thing that tokeep in mind whenever you are
trying to establish thatrelationship is you know, folks
in in in my position andchambers as a whole have to be
careful.
You know, whenever we co-brandwith somebody, we have to make

(25:54):
sure that it is a legitimatebusiness, that you know we are
not um, you know somebody who'snot taking liberties with our,
our, our IP, whether it be ourlogo, whether it be our um, you
know anything, chamber branded,because when you put that
chamber logo next to yourbusiness's logo, that

(26:15):
automatically adds somelegitimacy.
And so that's what we talkedabout a little earlier is, you
know, it can add legitimacy toyour business, it can provide
you with some credibility.
But on the flip side of that,if we get into business with the
wrong company, the wrongindividual, that you know ends
up burning bridges in thecommunity.
That not only reflects poorlyon that individual, but that

(26:36):
could reflect poorly on thechamber.
So I have to be very carefulwhenever I'm choosing who we
work with, making sure that Iknow the quality of their work.
I know their you knowtrustworthiness, I know that I
can rely on them, I know thatthey're going to deliver a
quality product, and so the bestway to do that is start to do
business with folks that I'mdoing business with, so other
chamber members.

(26:56):
You know you're not going toautomatically go in and the
first contract that you get orthe first business opportunity
you get is going to be with thechamber.
I want to see something thatyou've done with other
businesses.
I want to see something thatyou've done with other chambers.
I want to see something that youhave done that would lend
itself to what we're trying todo in our chamber and so my

(27:17):
biggest piece of advice is makesure that you have a body of
work that you can point to, thatI can look at and that's how
our relationship started.

Yeah, exactly yeah , because you have to have
credibility, because we findother businesses in that year.
Hopefully, again, if you foundzero sales, then something is
wrong.
But ideally, in that time framethat you're going there, you're
building these relationships.
You're working with all theseother chamber members.
Look, here's the truth Ifthey're at a networking event,

(27:49):
they're looking for networkingtoo.
Nobody's there and they don'twant networking.
So if you're a networking event, that's what everyone wants,
it's already.
No, everyone like it's out inthe air, like nobody's trying to
hide that.
So the idea is to just go buildgenuine relationships.
You don't need to, like we saidalready, you don't need to be
extra anything.

(28:09):
Don't be the card ninja, don'tjust start handing cards out to
everyone.
Just be genuine, just buildgenuine relationships.
And ideally, it's very highlyunlikely that you've been there
a year in a chamber very activeI'm talking going to events,
talking to people and uh, notfound any, any.
You know sales and uh, and youknow, as long as you're good is,

(28:29):
is that what you're saying,right?
You've built relationship,you've worked with other members
, you have body of work that thechamber can then look at and be
like, okay, this is legit.
You're doing good work.
You're not burning bridges.
Everyone's happy that's workingwith you.
The chamber staff is happyYou've established yourself at
that level.
Now may be a good time to thinkabout maybe partnering with the

(28:52):
chamber.

Yeah, and, and you know there's other ways to
go about it too, right?
So that's I would say is youknow.
Option one.
Option two is you know chambersnot for profit, so you know
we're always looking for eventsponsorships and things like
that.
Another good way to do that toyou know, get the name of your
business out there and what youdo is, you know, think about

(29:14):
sponsoring an event.
Most chambers have events thatare you know, relatively low
barriers to entry when it comesto sponsorship.
There's higher sponsorships ofdifferent events, but there's
also in kind, and so I, you know, starting that relationship by
saying, hey, I think I can dosomething unique for you.
Let me do it, you know, let melet me put together, um, you

(29:37):
know, something that I thinkwould be beneficial, free of
charge.
You know able to to showcasethe work and then start to
establish that relationship sothat long-term, you know, okay,
I see that you can do this,You're putting out there, you're
putting a good, it's a goodbenefit to the chamber.
I know that you're not going todo anything to destroy our

(29:57):
credibility or reputation, andthen that leads to more
opportunities to do that kind ofwork.
And when I say sponsorships,that's all good too, If your
budget isn't such that you cando something like that or can
afford to take the time to puttogether something like that.
You know, even, you know you goto a networking event and you
do a highlight reel that you puton social media.

(30:19):
I mean even something as smallas that Chamber will see it.
The chamber will see it and say, OK, you know, this is, this is
good.
I see that they can putsomething together.

And so you know, know what is a, what is a bigger
project look like, and then youstart to think about it in that
regard, um, and also remember,uh, like you said, there's
smaller events that the thechamber may be, you know,
inclined to participate in, likeyou don't, you can't just go
for the big events, but you canalways go.
Hey, here's a smaller event.
I think the chamber alwaysneeds photography video, some
kind of highlight reel.
There's a lot of things thatyou can.
You can just go and, and youknow, and and show your craft at

(30:56):
um, so you can always partneron those right where you can be.
Like, hey, this is a small event, I'd love to be the, the
photography sponsor or the videosponsor or whatever.
I'd love to make, um, you know,I don't know a highlight video
or something or recap video, andobviously show some examples
like, hey, look, this is what Ikind of can make, so the chamber
knows what to expect and alignswith the brand guidelines.

(31:18):
I think this is a perfectexample how to get started and,
like I said, don't go in it's,you know, expecting any kind of
money for it.
I would definitely do it inkind, rather.
Sometimes, like I said, it maybe best if you have if you are,
you know you have clients maybetry and even sponsor an event
somehow, and that may be a goodstarting point.

Yeah, yeah, no, and I think that's the best
starting point.
You know again, nobody is goingto stake their credibility on
you until they see that it'ssomething that you can do, they
see that there's a product therethat is mutually beneficial,
right, because when you co-brandwith that Chamber logo it adds
legitimacy, but I'm not going todo anything that's going to

(32:01):
jeopardize the Chamber'sreputation in our community.
It's not something that I'mwilling to stake the
organization's reputation on.

Yeah, considering, you know, just looking at our
market, like you know, some ofthe companies that you're
dealing with, like we said, atcompanies like Disney, you don't
want a video guy coming in and,you know, doing something silly
and ruining, you know, like yousaid, chamber's reputation or
anything in general that's notup to par because it's not worth
the risk.
So you have to make sure thatwhatever you're presenting to

(32:33):
the chamber is A beneficial toboth.
Right, like you're gettingexposure I hate the word
exposure in our industry, by theway.
So I don't know if you knowthis, but everyone wants you to
work for free and they sayexposure bucks.
So I always am like, yeah,don't work for exposure, but
this is one organization I feellike that may be worth it
because you know, like I said,I'm established.

(32:55):
I've done this for 15 year nowand I'm still, uh, partnering
with chambers, you know,sponsoring because of the or,
you know, sometimes it's either,you know, coal costs like
chamber will do part of it andI'll do majority of it or
completely, completely free onsome videos, because it's
totally worth it.
Even at this scale, I'm likeit's worth it.

(33:16):
So I'm definitely sure thatsmaller scale is going to be
absolutely worth it.
So you know.
But at the end they look outthat you're not a risk and you
can only determine that at first, before you start that
conversation.
Until you feel ready, don't.
And that's why, like I said,it's important to get involved.
Take that time, build thoserelationships.

(33:36):
You'll know, because when youstart to show up at these events
and people know you, thechamber staff knows you, you
know that you're kind of gettingthere.

Right, yeah, absolutely, and that's the other
thing.
No-transcript.

(34:14):
But you're also representingthe chamber and what we put out
to the business community.
You know we have a hugefollowing here in central
Florida, but it it, you knowit's not only with businesses,
it's with elected officials,it's with elected officials,
it's with the communities withinwithin central florida and you
know they automatically you putthose logos together.

(34:34):
It's very important to us thatwe maintain brand integrity, and
so we want to make sure thatit's quality product, yeah, um,
so now let's assume they'retaking care of that.

How is there a certain way to approach?
Or, um, I don't know, like is,what are the precautions, or if
anything, uh, outside of this,like, what I'm trying to get to
is how is the best way to havethis conversation and when is
maybe the best time to have thisconversation?

yeah, so I think that, again, look at the events.
I think that something that youkeep hitting on that is
important to talk about is thethe first year that you're,
you're trying to get acclimatedto the chamber.
this goes back to what we talkedabout Listen to the needs of
the businesses in your community.
Also listen to the needs of thechamber.
So don't necessarily you knowthat first awards that you have

(35:22):
coming up go and say, hey, I'mwilling to do this.
Don't just you know this event,I want to sponsor this event.
Take a year, get acclimated, gothrough a cycle, go to
everything for one year.
Go check out the networkingevents, go check out the awards
banquets, go check out theprofessional development
opportunities and see where youcan provide the most value,

(35:45):
because it may not be ahighlight reel of an award
ceremony, it may just be somesocial media post of a
networking event or somethinglike that.
Don't bite off more than you canchew and then, you know, put
yourself in a bad position forfuture work.
So really take a look at theorganization, get to know the
organization, because that's theother thing right Is you know,

(36:08):
you know that this part of yourwork is small portion.
The interview.
The other thing right Is youknow you know that this part of
your work is small portion theinterview the video footage,
whatever that's a small portionof it.
You have to go then edit thatwith and you want to make sure
that you understand what thesnippets you know because you're
doing highlights, right, you'renot going to do.
You know you're not going tohave the opportunity to do a 20

(36:29):
minute video or 30 minute video.
It's going to be broken down to, you know, three to five
minutes, something, somethingshort.
And so you want to make surethat you understand what are.
What are the things that thatchamber is trying to emphasize?
What's the message that they'retrying to get out?
It's going to help them recruitnew members.
That's going to help themretain their members.
It's going to help showcasewhat they're doing in the
community, and the only way todo that is if you have an

(36:50):
understanding of what thechamber's priorities are.
So get to know your chamber,get to know what they're
focusing on, get to know how youcan fit into the bigger picture
, rather than going in and justsaying, hey, I can create a
great video.

I can create a hell of a video.
You don't want to do that.
I think that you have to.
Oh, you put, this is so good,but yeah, no, I've seen so many
times where people go I can makeyou an awesome video.
And then they'll go, you know,at an event or whatever not
necessarily a chamber event,just chamber event in general
and then they'll capture alittle bit of everything and
they put it together in like amontage with music and they cut

(37:25):
it to music and then they shareit, which, creatively, may sound
good because you know it flowstogether, but you show it to a
client and then they go.
What do we do with this now?
Because it's irrelevant.
You know, just showingbeautiful images, maybe for
social media, might be fine, butyou know this isn't necessarily
helping the chamber or anyorganization get anything out of

(37:47):
it.
You have to look at the storybecause at the end of the day,
what we're doing is tellingstories and we're storytellers.
And if we can't figure out whatthe story is and not
necessarily here's what I wantto say, the other side we don't
not necessarily get the storyfrom the organization.
So the chamber may not directlytell me oh, we need to do this.

(38:08):
We need to highlight thisBecause, like I said, chamber
may not be able to pay favorites.
You have to figure out whichare the businesses I want to
highlight, which are the membersthat I want to show in this,
and you pick and you may getsoundbites from everyone or a
lot of people, but notnecessarily when you make the
edit.
Everything goes into it.
And there's an art to it, butthat's very important because at

(38:29):
the end of the day, we want tomove the message of the chamber
forward because we benefit ifthe chamber benefits right from
the video.

Right and you know also double-edged sword If
you don't know the nuances,don't get to know that chamber,
don't get to know the nuances.
I know you know Vipul, you'refamiliar with um.
You know we have, uh, severalmajor um.
You know health care networkshere.
We have several major tourismpartners don't get me started,

(38:59):
yeah yeah, and so you know thatyou could also shoot yourself in
the foot, in the sense that ifyou don't know the dynamics of
the chamber and you know, youstart putting videos together
that have logos in them thatshould not be placed next to
each other, or should not, youwon't say it, I'll say it.

Don't put Orlando Health and Advent Health
together.
I mean yes.

We have great relationships, and that's the
beauty of the chamber is we havegreat relationships with all of
these organizations and we knowthe nuances of how you know
they.
They want to make sure thatthey maintain their brand
integrity, and so I would neverwant you know someone to go off
and do something that they thinkis fantastic and you know we're
given this free video.
No, like, you always check withus, you know, before you do any

(39:45):
video work with us and you makesure that you know we're happy
with the way that things arepresented, because you know
there's there's sponsorshiplevels that you have to worry
about, and so you know somebodygets more screen time, yeah, and
so you want to make sure thatyou know we are recognizing
appropriately the folks who areinvolved with an event, and the
best way to do that is to, yes,do those videos, videos, but I

(40:08):
wouldn't put anything out beforechecking with exactly.

Always have your revision process.
Always send a you know,unpublished video to your
chamber contact, have themreview it and it's okay.
Uh, also, some filmmakers, youknow we get to like no, this
tells the best story, yes, butit may not be the best story for
the chamber you have to, orjust any organization in general
.
I think this applies to anywork that you do and which is

(40:33):
what, as filmmakers, in thecorporate and commercial world,
we have to understand that, yes,as filmmakers, we want to make
the prettiest videos that soundgreat, that look great, but
that's not necessarily alwaysthe best video, and I would love
for you to speak on thisbecause it's very important for
somebody to get this because,like you said, there's a lot
more that goes behind.
There's, like, from just let'slook at Chambers perspective,

(40:54):
there's dynamics.
There's, like you said, like inOrlando, there's Disney and
there's Universal.
Both are great companies, butyou need to understand where
your chamber stands and who'sthe bigger sponsor, how you, how
you do it.
There's very, very much nuance.
That would go in editing tobuild a video, for sure that
would not step on any shoesthere, right, and it's very

(41:19):
important for you to understandthat before you can even start
to do it and then obviously thensend it to the chamber to you
know.

Comment on it Right and we can make changes
and stuff like that.
We're not going to step on your.
You know, obviously we're notin the business of making videos
.
So, you know, we want thatcreativity, we want to utilize
your skill set and expertise,but we also have to make sure
that we are cognizant of, youknow, what is putting these

(41:45):
logos together.
What is, you know, highlightingthis company over another
company?
What is this?
Due to the dynamics of thesponsorship levels that we have,
and so it's very important thatyou know, especially if you're
trying to do something pro bonothat you think is good, and make
sure that you're checking inwith your chamber staff before

(42:06):
you put something like that outpublicly, because I don't want
to have to call you and say, hey, that's fantastic, creatively
that's fantastic, but that'sgoing to present a problem for
me it's going to present aproblem for you because I'm not
going to, I'm not going to workwith you in the future, if I
can't trust the product thatyou're putting out is putting
the chamber in a favorable lightand our sponsors and our

(42:26):
members in a favorable light,I'm going to have to make sure
that I'm protecting ourmembership, protecting those
folks who are part of ourmembership, and you know so.

Make sure that there's no daylight between you
and Trevor and I'm so gladyou're here because you know
people need to hear that frombecause you know you're not a
video guy, right, you are aprofessional that runs a
business organization in CentralFlorida.
So people need to hear becauseour clients tend to be
organizations that, yes, like Isaid, we want to make awesome

(42:56):
videos that look good, thatsound good, and that's very
important.
Obviously, that's our craft,but the other biggest craft is
storytelling.
But the nuanced storytellingthat it is, it's not always as
straightforward as here's anevent, here's what happened and
the story like uh, and I've toldthis story before, but I want
to tell you one of the bestthings that happened with me

(43:18):
last year was I worked with thiscompany, one of our bigger
clients, for the year, and youknow they had a big event, like
a million dollar event.
And then the owner uh, you knowthe, obviously you you start
out first with the employee,right, I don't, I don't remember
their title, but let's just domarketing manager.
Okay, so we have an event, wewant a recap video.
Sounds perfectly easy.
We do hundreds of those everyyear.

(43:40):
But then I'm like, okay, sowhere?
And then I could have left that, sent a bill.
Bad idea, they would have hatedit.
Because I'm like, okay, so whatare you going to use the video
for?
Oh, we're going to use it tofind new clients.
Well, technically, you don'tneed a recap video.
Then that's not the same thing.
Then it's like okay, well, nowI understand the purpose.
Where are you going to post it?
Oh, we're going to share itbecause we have captive audience
, you know.

(44:01):
So I was like, oh, that'samazing.
So you do events matters, time?
Now I'm like, oh, time doesn'tmatter because you have a
captive audience.
And then it's like, by the way,uh, you know, even though it's
our 25th or 50th anniversary,whatever, um, you know, uh, the
the owner needs, you know, isvery important in this.
So I slowly realized I don'tthink they put it that way, but

(44:21):
the the thing is at the end ofthe conversation realize, okay,
the story isn't companycelebrates 25 years.
The story is how awesome theowner is, how awesome the
clients are and come work withus.
Right, do you see what?
I'm saying If you, just take itat face value.
You don't get it and we madethe video exactly, not so
obviously in the contract itsays we're going to make a recap

(44:42):
video, but what did we make ismore essentially I would call a
sales recruitment video, butcalled it a recap video because
the clients don't know theterminology and they loved it.
Best response straight from theowner.
Best video I've ever seen in mycompany Awesome.
But that only happened byasking those questions.

And you know there's pre-work that goes into
that, right.
So you know and I'm not goingto pretend to know your world,
but you know asking the rightquestions ahead of time and you
know, uh, doing it in aninformal manner and then a more
formal manner, and then you knowthe actual shoot, making sure
the the day of making sure thatyou're checking in and doing all
of that, but then follow up.

(45:22):
You know, follow up before youpublish anything, making sure
that you know they have a chanceto look at it.
Uh, make, um, you know,critiques, not of your
creativity or your ability, butyou know more so in making sure
that those, the message thatthey want portrayed, is
portrayed.
So there's a lot of pre-workthat goes into it.
But that goes back to and Iknow I keep going- back to it.

(45:42):
Make sure you know theorganization before you start to
put yourself out there as aresource for that.
The better you know theorganization, the better you
know the event that you want torecap, the better you know the
individuals that you're tryingto capture, the companies that
you're trying to capture, themore likely you are to succeed.
The more likely your chamber isgoing to be happy with that

(46:03):
video, the more likely thatyou're going to get business
because of it.

And here's what I'll tell you Just ask the best
thing is.
And here's I'll tell you justask the best thing is.
so here's what happened, so justrecounting what we do for the
chamber.
So you guys have big orangeawards, very huge event we love
to partner with that on everyyear.
So, um, what happens is I wantto attend the event.
I don't want to be filming itbecause what I am there to is
network and build myrelationships.

(46:25):
I can't do that if I'm behindthe camera, so I'll generally
bring a crew to film with that.
Now, the crew doesn't knowthese nuances or who to film and
who not to film.
So what I'll technically do orI say my julie will do that, but
we will tell.
We know what the story we wantto tell.
Right, we will compile it.
We'll even have pictures ofpeople like who you, who to

(46:46):
target, who to film, who tointerview and just imagine like
this pegboard with all thesepictures on it, you know kind of
like yeah, no, like a highwayrock.
You know everything, yeah it'smore like a pdf document.
Then I'll have julie puttogether, but we'll share it
with the shooters so theyunderstand because, like you
said, they don't know the nuance, they don't know who these
people are and and who we wantto highlight and what the story

(47:09):
we're trying to tell.
So I'll generally give them alist of names.
Sometimes, like I said, we'lleven include pictures and we're
like this is the people we wantyou to interview or highlight or
whatever, and then I'll ask ourcounterpart at the chamber, amy
, and I'll be like okay,anything that I'm not thinking
of, any people that I'm notthinking of.
Can you tell me their names,maybe their pictures, and you

(47:30):
would be amazed how helpful thestaff is.
But you have to first ask youknow, just don't go guns blazing
ready to make the video.
I think it's very important todo what we call pre-production.

And you know, and like I said, the easiest thing
is just ask- Well, and the otherthing that just to pile onto
that is, it's not going to bethe same every time.
So you know, just because youyou did um this event in the
past and you have a goodunderstanding what the event is,
it the dynamics may havechanged with the members of the
sponsors and so you want to makesure that you're just keeping

(48:02):
in contact with, you know, treatthem like you would a new
client every time.
Um, it's nice because you havethat relationship and you can.
You know the questions to ask,you know the buttons to push,
but you also want to make surethat you are are are every time
going into it with a freshperspective, because things may
have changed.

Exactly.
It's always good to check inand ask about this year, what
are we doing different?
And it sounds crazy.
It's simple as just graphics.
It's crazy, it's simple as justgraphics.
Sure, so sometimes you know, itcan be like, oh, big orange
word, we have a package for it.
So like no, no, no, it couldhave changed.
So it's as simple as hey.
You know, amy, is the graphicsthe same or do we need new
graphics?
You know something like that.

(48:39):
I'm just saying it's again, it'svery simple.
It's just ask, you know,collaborate, because at the end
they were there to make thechamber look good and the
chamber is there to give uscredibility.
So we're both winning.
So it's a partnership.
And the only way thepartnership will succeed is
there's communication, sure, butagain, I don't know how you get

(49:00):
there if you don't already havecommunication.
So start there maybe and thenget to the partnership part
Right.

Take it one step at a time.
And again, you know, once youstart to build that trust, once
you start to build thatreputation within the chamber,
that's when your chamber isgoing to look at you as a
resource for this businessesthat are in similar industries
or provide similar services.
What separates those businessesis their ability to listen,

(49:34):
their ability to go about it theway that we're talking about
you know, not just go inthinking I provide the best
product, I provide the best, youknow, the best service.
You have to listen to the needs, make sure that you understand
what you're getting into, whoyou're working with, and that's
when the opportunities presentthemselves.

Yeah, and and, uh, like um, I've said in the past,
you know people will.
Uh, you know there's a lot ofgood filmmakers that are what we
call starving artists.
There's a reason, you know,it's not just the art form.
Yes, Be good at what you do,that's very important.
Obviously.
Get better at it, but thatdoesn't necessarily mean you'll

(50:14):
get successful, because you haveto learn how to communicate.

No-transcript say is is don't take it personally
if you don't get that shot thefirst time, or if you know
there's, there's something else,that if there's another project
that you know somebody doessomething in the same space and
they're, you know, utilized forsomething else.
The reality of it is, wheneveryou start to, whenever you start

(50:58):
to work with the chamber,there's going to be other folks.
Once they see you come out withsomething, they're going to say
, well, I can do that, I wantthe opportunity to do that.

I wonder how many are going to call?
The chamber which I'm happy toLook.
There's nothing wrong with it.

I'm I'm openly saying please go, and if you're
in the orange county, please gojoin uh and he didn't pay me to
say that, but you know what I'msaying go join the restaurant
chamber because I didn't join it, you know, out of nothing.

It is definitely a great chamber, so why wouldn't
anyone want to join it?
And I completely understandthat.
Now I have 10 other businessesjoined that do what I do and
they want they do that.
That whole process, they buildthat relationship and
credibility and the chamber goes.
Hey, for this event we, wewould love to try partnering
with this chamber or thiscompany.
I'm gonna somehow be mad aboutit because I'm literally telling

(51:46):
people to do this right here onthis podcast, but yeah, don't
be, don't get emotionallyinvolved, because again, it's
business at the end of the day.

Chamber can't build a relationship if you
force them to well, and it goesback to those nuances that we
talked about, right.
So there's nuances that werecognize within our membership
that, hey, this, this particularcompany, this particular style
may be better for thisparticular project, whereas your

(52:16):
company may be better foranother project.
So, don't give up.
I would say that Don't give upon the opportunity, looking for
the right opportunity to do work, but don't jump at every
opportunity either because thenyou're going to again leads back
to you may not be suited for it, shoot yourself in the foot and
then you destroy anyopportunity for future.
Don't listen to other people.

Trust me, I wouldn't have even been doing
this because, like I said, assoon as I went to become a
production company, I was likeI'm going to be better than a
freelancer.
I'm going to start a companyand you know they're like this
is a small town, there's alreadyan established company.
You're going to get nowhere.
Blah, blah, blah.
Had I listened to those, Iwould have gotten nowhere.
Don't listen to all thenegative energy around you.
Just stay positive, do yourthing.
And also you don't need to gobadmouth anyone, just go be good

(53:01):
.
You'll be amazed how much morebusiness you find by just being
a good person and doing goodwork and how much business you
lose, even if you're good, ifyou start to now burn bridges or
just be a bad person to hangaround with, because again, it
comes down to relationship.
People don't, you know even theless that they're not in video.
You go, you know, to anetworking event and you're

(53:23):
talking to someone you're likeoh yeah, but they do terrible
video.
And you know, and I do greatvideo, guess what?
Even if terrible video and youknow, and I do great video,
guess what?
Even if, though, you do greatvideo, they go oh, what are they
saying about me?

to someone else you know, yes, and that's very
easy to, I think, burn bridgesand relationships and and you
know we talked a little bitabout it at the beginning um,
you know, the other thing isfinding the, the right chamber
for you.
So if you know that you're the,the chamber that your first
choice saturated, maybe look atanother chamber to get involved
with.

(53:53):
You know there's chambers, again, make sure it's a credible,
legitimate organization.
But if there's somebody in youknow West Orange County and that
market's saturated there'sseveral other chambers that are
in our local area that may be abetter starting point.
You know one of these morecommunity focused chambers.
You know a chamber that maybeyou look at the directory, you

(54:15):
look at who their membership is,doesn't have that type of
business.
Maybe that's a better startingpoint.
I'm not saying you know youcan't join both.
Certainly you know optionsthere.
But you know, think about it asif my opportunity isn't going
to be there.
I need an opportunity to, toshowcase my work worker.
Maybe try to identify one ofthose chambers that better align

(54:36):
with with your organization,your ability, your skill set
yeah, or you could be a rebellike me.

Like I don't care, I'm just gonna go do my best
until I'm.
I don't care how saturated itis as long as you belong, you
belong I get obviously yeah,don't do how saturated it is.
As long as you belong, youbelong Again.
Obviously yeah, don't do thatif you don't.
It's a business philosophy,right yeah yeah, yeah, exactly,
and I think both is good.
That's why you go join both,and obviously only if you can be
active.
Otherwise, in my opinion, youknow you're just giving money

(55:02):
for no reason.
The idea is the chamber is anadvocate for you, you kid for
you, you.
You give your membership duesbecause they're doing so much
more for you, but at the sametime, like I said, you'll only
get back what you put in it,they'll only join the chamber
that you're willing to put yourtime and effort into.

Um, but like, like we said, we've talked about
this already but like, how muchyou'll get back is great when
we talk about the opportunity to, to you know, build credibility
and build your reputation byjoining a chamber, by getting
involved with the chamber Toyour point.
The same thing could happen ifyou join a chamber and then
aren't active and don't getinvolved, the folks that are

(55:41):
active and involved, they'regoing to look at that and say,
well, that guy's never anything.
They're not willing to investtheir time and energy to get to
know us, to get to know ourchamber, to get to know our
community, and then it couldalmost be a negative against you
.
You know, compared to the otherfolks that work in your same
space.

Exactly.
No, that's very smart.
That's why I'm like join one ortwo at most, be very active and
be very involved and also, likeI said, don't start to offer
things until you're ready.
I think that's to me key.
Don't do bad work.
That's not the place where yougo find free work.
In my opinion, you go to achamber to find paying clients.

(56:21):
Obviously, I'm not talkingabout the chamber itself, I'm
saying the people that you'renetworking with.
So when you're new, mysuggestion is always find the
businesses that you want to workwith and offer to work for free
.
That's okay, but only whenyou're learning, and I wouldn't
go do that at the chamber.
That's okay to do that ingeneral and get your craft right
, because when you're joiningthe chamber, you should be good
enough to offer your services.

(56:42):
And then obviously, then dogood work Because, like I said,
they talk, they're there becausethey want to be part of a
community and I because, like Isaid, they talk, they're there
because they want to be part ofa community.
And and I think the wordspreads like wildfire if you go,
do good work, um, you know,people will know, and that's
what what I love about coming towestern chamber I've never once
told you know, I make uh, youknow, I'm like, okay, we'll make

(57:03):
a good looking video.
Sure, I, but I never talk aboutthe cameras we use, the audio we
use, even though in thispodcast I may have talked about
it a lot.
But you know, tell me, you knowfrom your experience, I've
never gone to a chamber and said, oh, we use, you know, this
camera or this Because theydon't know.
The chamber members have noidea and they most likely don't
care, right, they care about iswhat's the result, what's the

(57:27):
problem they have?

and can we offer a solution?
Right?
I trust your craft.
You know, I don't know.
I don't know a lot about thisworld.
I've seen videos that I love,that I'm sure were shot on an
iPhone, and I've seen other onesthat you know are, you know,
tens of thousands of dollarsworth of production equipment,
you know.
It again goes back toidentifying what the needs of
the chamber are, you know, andhow you can offer them what they

(57:55):
need and, based on the event,based on you know what they're
trying to get across, sometimesit may be a more low budget,
other times it's going to be abigger production.
And so, you know, certainly Idon't think that we're as in the
weeds on the technicalspecifications.
I want something that looksgood and paints the chamber in a
good light.
Make sure that our businessesare painted in good light and

(58:17):
that what we're putting outthere is a quality product.

Okay, that is well put again.
So here's what I want to knownow.
I think you have a perfectclient's perspective.
In a way, too, I think peoplewant to hear.
So for us, you know, obviously,we know a difference, right, I
could bring a camera this tiny,this five grand, a camera this
big, that may be $500.
You don't know because, like Isaid, it all looks the same, or
maybe bigger or smaller.

(58:40):
So here's the thing that peoplesay and I also say it when
clients don't know what camerais, a bigger is better, just
because it's that perceivedvalue when you're paying for it.
Or or you know, when you orderradio, and if somebody shows up
with this tiny camera, itdoesn't matter if it's like 20
grand.
And somebody shows up with abig camera, full rig, it to

(59:02):
somebody who is not in theindustry may look, and I'm not
saying there's cameras that arethat bad, that that big, they're
really good, but you don't know.
So I'm saying to somebody who'sout of this industry, that does
matter.
What's your opinion on that?

Doesn't matter.
It's the quality of the product.

So if two you hired and obviously let's say
both were good quality Onecompany showed up with a tiny
camera, one with a big camera.
Does that change perceivedvalue or no, according to you?

No, no one with a big camera.
Does that change perceivedvalue or no, according to you?
No, I, no, I, it's theprofessionalism of the
individual.
Um, I, I think that it'll showin the quality of the product,
the final product, but I'm notgoing to know the difference
between, uh, you know, uh,twenty thousand or twenty
dollars you know I.
And now, if you come out with a, you know one of those
Polaroids or something like thatI'm probably going to start
questioning something like thatyeah, Somebody pulled that knife

(59:54):
on you.
Yeah, I'd be like sure you canget the job done, you know, but
I think at the end of the day,no, for me it's about the
finished product.

Vipul Bindra (01:00:02):
So you know, knowing that, that your your,
your skillset and what you'regoing to put out there is good,
and how are you looking at that?
So again, we, you know, look ata lot of things, like you know
depth of field, foregroundelements, background elements.
You know a lot of stuff that weare looking at.
But to to somebody again who'snot looking at the craft, you're

(01:00:22):
looking at the end product.
What are you?
How do you separate, let's say,a mid tier product from from a
high tier product?
What are you?
Yeah, perceiving?
I'm saying so.

Stephen Lewis (01:00:33):
So for me, when I look at something, personally,
I'm looking at what is my membergoing to see, what is the
message that they're going toget.
You know, um, if we're talkingabout technical, you know
specifications, you know.
When you're talking about thosebackground or foreground, you
know shots, shots.
You know who's in thosepictures, what are they doing.
You know and maybe getting alittle bit into the weeds here,

(01:00:55):
but I want to paint myorganization in a good light.
So if you're doing video shootand in the background there's a
bunch of folks standing aroundwith cocktails in their hands,
for me that's a limited useopportunity for my video.

Yeah.

I'm not going to want to put that out there in
places where that may not beaccepted or one of my members
may not appreciate having, youknow, somebody from their
organization in the backgroundhaving a cocktail.
So I want I don't want to haveto think about that I want the
person that I'm hiring to do thework or that is volunteering
their services to think aboutthose things.

(01:01:35):
Think about what is this goingto portray to my membership?
Is this going to paint theorganization in a good light?
It goes back to and I know Ikeep harping on it making sure
you know the organization andyou know the needs and you know
the message that they're tryingto get across.
Because my focus is well, Ilove our networking events and

(01:01:56):
our members find great value inthem.
My focus is not delivering agreat networking event that's
part of what I'm doing but myfocus is making sure that we are
showing the value of chambermembership, the value of
connections, and the way thatI'm doing that is if it's being
told through your video, throughyour storytelling.
I want to make sure that that'sbeing done.

(01:02:17):
That paints the organization ina positive light.
So when I look at these videos,when I look at things,
production quality is obviouslyimportant.
Are you interviewing the peoplethat we talked about?
Are you capturing the shotsthat we talked about?
You know what's going on in thebackground.
You know, is it painting theorganization in a good light?
Are you capturing the shotsthat we needed in a way that is,

(01:02:40):
you know, painting the folksthat are being caught on camera,
captured on camera in apositive light, and then you
know what can we utilize thisfor?
Can we utilize it in multipleways?
Can we utilize it in futureadvertising?
Can we utilize it as a recap?
You know how?
How much tread can we get offof this particular video?

(01:03:01):
How much uh tread can we getoff of it for our recruitment
and retention, and you know howmany ways can we use this.

The more ways we can use this, the better, which
is also better for you as thevideo gets seen, more, right,
yeah and uh, because all we'lldo, look at that, uh here.
Here's all I, at least the wayI partner.
All I want to do is put a tinylittle logo at the end of the
video that says video partner.
So you have to understand frommy perspective.
I'm just trying to get peopleto watch to the end.

(01:03:30):
Funny enough, believe it or not, in videos that's the hardest
thing, if you know.
I don't know if you've noticedyourself, if you ever go on
social media, how much peoplescroll.
Very few people actually get toan end of a video.
But the people that get to theend of the video are the most
dedicated people and they'regonna do the call to action that
you put at the end, right, um.
So all strategy has been, atleast with Chamber is A partner

(01:03:51):
with the right chamber, thenpartner at their major events
and then also make good videos.
And at the end, all I'm tryingto do is put a tiny little logo
at the end Because I'm like, hey, ideally, if you make good
video, chamber gets a goodbenefit.
They get whatever the messageis or whatever the purpose of
the video is, but if people makeit to the end, they'll know who

(01:04:12):
made the video.
So so every business needsvideo.
So when they do, hopefullythey'll come to me.
Simple as that, right and umand and and it's like I said,
it's worked for me.
I love the strategy and andit's both ways, you know,
beneficial because it's onlytowards the end.
So if they're making it to theend, they better be interested
in the video.
Otherwise they're not even, youknow, making it to the end.

(01:04:33):
That's just how videos are,which is why you have to limit
them.
You don't want to go intoanalytics.
Two minutes Most people don'twant to watch anything over two
minutes.
It's very hard, except it'slong form.
For some reason people lovepodcasts, so it's kind of like
that you have to, very nuanced,find, uh, what the audience will
bear.

I think what you're saying is get to know
your chamber and get to knowwhat they need exactly.
Look at that.
Yes so go to the chamber, get toknow them, be involved, find
out what they need and thebusinesses too same same thing
with the businesses that areinvolved with the chamber get to
know what they need and, andyou know that's um, there's a
lot of folks in in that spacehere and you know here's the

(01:05:11):
reality of it and feel free tospeak on it if, if if you
disagree, but, um, we're in aplace where there is
professional uh folks in thisspace that can do this
professionally, and you knowthey have production companies,
they have millions of dollars,and so you have to offer
something that's unique and to aunique client.
you know, have productioncompanies, they have millions of
dollars, and so you have tooffer something that's unique
and to a unique client.

(01:05:32):
You know, that's the that's thedifference here in central
florida yeah may not be the caseeverywhere but, yeah, you know,
making sure that you know youraudience and you know the space
that you're working and it'simportant.

no, we, we're literally next to disney, I mean
the, I think what the one ofthe biggest media companies in
the world, right, so if you'retrying to, and it may be
different in a different market,but regardless, if you want and
plus, it's accessible now, seein the past it wasn't.
It was very easy to vet peoplebecause they're like well, if
you can afford a $100,000 camera, you must not be doing this for

(01:06:05):
a hobby.
Now it's like a $3,000 cameralooks so good that you don't
need the hundred thousand dollarcamera for most of these
corporate type of jobs.
So it becomes harder becausefull sale will literally give
you, uh like an fx6, which is afive, six thousand dollar camera
, as part of your kit when youjoin.
You know, to learn filmmakingor whatever.
So now everyone's walking outwith a industry standard camera

(01:06:27):
and the skill level may vary alot, right?
So the equipment doesn't matteras much anymore, it's more the
skill level and then the like,like we've been talking about
the, the relationship building,the, the storytelling ability,
um, so here's what I want toknow from you.
I think to me, uh, the biggestissue that I've noticed for our
industry isn't actuallyequipment or all of this, is the

(01:06:50):
.
The best people I love to workwith are small businesses,
because you can work directlywith the business owner, right?
I love where we can go a rooferor or a dentist, or wherever we
can immediate make impact,because videos work, like we've
talked about, so you make themreally impactful videos.
You can integrate them intotheir processes.
They they can, within threemonths, usually double triple

(01:07:11):
their revenue.
It's amazing.
And you can directly work witha business owner who goes, yeah,
changed my life.
You know essentially prettymuch, and for us it's like such
an incredible feeling becauseit's again a mutually beneficial
thing.
You're impactful Exactly.
However, since the education isnot there, because you know, all
these big companies are payingfor researches and, like Disney,

(01:07:31):
knows what video can do.
That's why they're spending somuch on video marketing.
The small business doesn't haveaccess to this knowledge, so
they typically don't know theimpact.
Business doesn't have access tothis knowledge, so they
typically don't know the impact,so they'll go oh, 15k, 20k,
that's like too much money forme.
So we end up typically workingwith you know a lot of more
times with bigger companieswho'll just come and say, oh
yeah, we want to make this videohis 50k because they know what

(01:07:52):
it?
costs and what it works, as longas they know you can execute it
.
There's a budget.
So you end up going uh you know, do I spend three weeks
educating this client that Iknow can be so amazing?
Or I can go take this immediatecash and go make this big
company a commercial or trainingvideos or whatever.
So that's what we're fighting.

(01:08:12):
Once you get established,you're like all the monies and
the big companies, and the funnything also I've talked about is
that they'll, they'll trustyour craft, they're the only
higher experts so they'll giveyou money and also go let you do
what you want to do right.
Very rarely on my biggerprojects I have like more than
one revision versus on smallerprojects they are more concerned
about oh, I look a little fathere, or my you know, or

(01:08:35):
whatever the things that don'tactually matter.
It's more about just beingauthentic and putting it out
there.
So the the thing I'm trying toget to is how do we business
owners go about educating ourfavorite clients, small
businesses, who can benefit themost from it?
uh, value of it, you know, Idon't know yeah, if there even
is a solution to that so I thinkthe numbers don't lie.

Um, you know, first and foremost, the the
product that you're puttingforward, making sure that you're
delivering the quality product.
You know that's visible, that'svery visible.
But beyond that, you know,having those testimonials that
you're talking about, you knowif there's folks that are
doubling or tripling theirrevenue, that no longer becomes

(01:09:18):
a, you know, an opportunity.
That's a straight return oninvestment.
And so if you have thosetestimonies of folks that are
experiencing that, get thosetestimonies, maybe take a video
of them you know.

if you have that ability, yeah, exactly.

But get those testimonials.
And then I would also say thatyou know, get yourself a good
white paper, and this is whereyou've got to think about your
opportunities.
There's a lot of benefits andresources available to you as a
chamber member, and, while I'mspeaking specifically on the
West Orange Chamber, mostchambers have a similar business
model in that, depending onyour membership level, you have

(01:09:58):
the ability to do social mediaposts, you have the ability to
do email communication, you havethe ability to advertise, and
so, if you have these data factsthat you can put out there,
find the right medium, find theright opportunity to advertise
within the chamber's membershipand get that data out there,
because there's folks that are.

(01:10:20):
You know, we have a great openrate on our emails because we
try to make sure that we'reputting relevant content and
information in them, and sowhenever you're sending that
stuff out, um, you know it's anopportunity for you as a
business owner to advertise withthe chamber.
So not only do you have thecredibility and reputation you
know, you're putting credibilityand legitimacy around your

(01:10:40):
business, but when you start toput out those data facts that
are that are sharing that story,folks are looking at it and
saying, okay, there's a straightreturn on investment.
If I spend this much money here, that's going to double my
revenue, triple my revenue.
That becomes a.
There's a business case forspending that money right away.

Yeah, so I think that's very smart, so put up a
case study.
Obviously, we don't promiseanything.
So, for example, at the end ofthe day, what we're doing is
we're making you know videos.
Right, simple as that.
We're going to make the bestvideos at a given budget.
That's all I promised myclients.
I'm like look, I anything, butthis is the data points that are

(01:11:22):
being given by our existingclients.
It works.
Clearly, it works.
Otherwise, these companies arenot stupid.
They're spending hundreds ofthousands with us making similar
videos.
Right, clearly, it works.
Uh so, and because you know, asyou know, bigger companies are
actually even more stringentwith spending.
So if they're spending on videolike nobody's business, it
actually works.
Uh, no, but that's actually avery smart idea, I think.
Uh, and most people, I think,listening can do that.

(01:11:43):
Once you do have those clientsthat it has worked for, go
record those testimonials, putthe data points.
You can always put a disclaimerlike look, we're not a
marketing company, we're nottrying to sell you kpis or
whatever.
It just works.
You know, as long as you makeyou listen to the problem of the
business owner, you solve thebusiness owner's problem,
whatever that may be, you'regonna give them results because

(01:12:05):
that's right literally what thevideo is accomplishing and, as
we know, people buy from peoplethey know like and trust.
Yeah, and video is the fastestway to skip that year-long like
we're talking about businessrelationship.
I go to build at the chamber,um, and it can be a lot easier
if you're, what you're sellingis a lot easier to buy.
obviously it may not work forvideo, but I'm saying it may

(01:12:29):
work for, like, if somebody thatyou're meeting is like I don't
know, a real estate agent or, um, they sell some kind of product
, makeup, whatever uh, it's alot easier to get them that ROI
by making these good videos,absolutely.
So I think that's that'samazing.
Yeah, that's a good way to putat it, because, at the end of
the day, what we want to do isobviously make money for

(01:12:50):
businesses, but we want to makeimpact while doing that.
So we want to work with themost, you know, biggest
organizations.
We can make impact, like.
Last year I had the opportunityto work on this documentary um,
you know, and it's going to savelives.
And when you do that, you'relike, oh, I'm getting paid to
capture, um, you know thiscontent.
And then once we put it outthere, you're telling me we're

(01:13:10):
going to save a plane, the waythey put it, a plane full of
people every day, and I'm likethat's so impactful, right, and
so we as filmmakers just want totell these, these stories, but
at the same time, we want to payit and that tends to end up
being, like I said, these biggerbusinesses with bigger budgets

(01:13:30):
but, like I said, my favoritepart at least is helping small
businesses.
So I would love to put some ofthese data points together and
share with the community and usethe resources, like you said,
of the chamber.

Yeah, and you know that's.
The thing is.
That's, you know, not only istaking advantage of your chamber
membership, attendingnetworking events or you know
other events that are offered,but, you know, taking advantage
of those mediums that we have,the network that we have and
have established.
Take advantage of that, checkout what the advertising
opportunities are and utilizethem to the fullest extent and

(01:14:06):
to your fullest advantage.

Yeah, so Chamber can offer social media
advertising.
Chamber can offer emailnewsletter type of blast Chamber
.
You can do like we've talkedabout already the events.
There's a lot moreopportunities, anything I'm
missing.

No, I think that you're capturing.

I'm good there also the website.
I remember in the beginning,when we joined, I put my banner
on the website too, so that'sanother way.
So there's a lot of ways you canget you know.
Again, uh, advertising,credibility, recognition is just
by putting your logo, uh, youknow, with an organization like
the chamber, and so, yeah, onceyou get some money, I would
highly recommend.

(01:14:42):
Again, in my opinion, obviously, we've shown, with Ben being
here, how you can do Instagramads and other stuff to gain
sales.
But I think, again, for mewhat's worked is Chamber because
, again, like I said, you havetwo different perspectives.
I had a buddy, ben, explain allabout how he can get sales
through Instagram.
My thing is, I'm trying to sell.

(01:15:03):
You know, my product isn'tcheap.
It's not expensive for what itis, but it's not cheap and I
don't think those people aresitting on Instagram going let
me buy this 10 grand video orwhatever.
So I find that the Chamber is abetter advertising opportunity
because, uh, chamber owners, youknow you can build those
relationships and take your timewith it, um, so I think, yeah,

(01:15:25):
that's, that's very good andit's a long term right.

That's the other thing, and we talked about that
early on.
Is is a long-term investment,it's a long-term commitment, but
once you establish thatrelationship, once it's there,
it's going to pay dividends yeah, and you can benefit from other
ways.

So here's how I benefited.
I needed to buy a house.
I'm like, all right, where'sthe mortgage guy?
Right?
That's how you look around youand you go, oh, I, I'm meeting
this guy for a while, so let metalk to you.
And and so chamber can help youin other ways.
Or you can go, oh, I need to todo this, or I need to do
security cameras.
Who's the the low voltageperson?
Right?
So you slowly start to not onlybenefit from your own business

(01:16:04):
but from the network in generalyou're building, again, giving
business to other chambermembers and again, if you're
active, you have theserelationships.
I would rather do business withother chamber members than you
know just some random vendorthat I don't know.
Again, I don't understand theirquality or trust their quality
or any of that 100%.
So you can actually end up,funny enough, giving back to the

(01:16:27):
people that you know you'renetworking with.
So it's actually a give andtake relationships because, as
you need services, Chamber isthe best place.

Hopefully you already know someone who does
that Right, but if not, you canalways pick up the phone, call
the chamber and be like, hey,I'm looking for a real estate
agent or whatever.
They'd be happy to give yousome options to pick from.
Right for sure.
And and you know we get thosephone calls every single day is
you know the power of networkingand you know doing that?
You know we get phone callsthat it's funny.

(01:16:56):
Now I've been in my positionfor, uh, you know, about 16
months and and I now get textsfrom my neighbors.
They're looking to me for hey,you know who's the chamber
member that can do this or who'sthe chamber member that can do
that.
And you know it's cool becauseyou see the power of networking
right and I've met so manypeople that offer everything

(01:17:17):
from soup to nuts, that offereverything from soup to nuts,
and to be able to establish thatnetwork.
And you know, know that you'retalking to somebody, that you're
liable because they're notgoing to want to deliver a bad
product or service to you,because then, what are you going
to do the next time that you're?

you know asking somebody's asking you for a
recommendation or you're at anetworking group somebody's
asking they want to make surethat they're putting the best
foot forward, and so you knowreferral marketing, especially
when you're in a good in thecommunity, so powerful because,
guess what, like you just said,if somebody called you they need
a roof or whatever, you're notgoing to recommend someone.
You know who you know is goingto do a bad job.

(01:17:51):
Right, you're going to send alist of you know.
You know people that arecredible, that have members that
provide a good product.
So when you're putting that,you're also putting, like you
said, chamber's reputation andyour reputation on the line.
And same thing with me I willnever recommend someone who I
don't trust.
But when you do do those, youknow when, like, for example, I
needed a fence or whatever, whenI got that recommendation, I'm

(01:18:14):
like, oh, I trust this, I don't.

you don't even have when the vendor comes, I'm
like just give me a code.

I don't need to worry about you building trust
or whatever I already trust theperson who recommended you to me
, and that can be I don't know,very beneficial.

Yeah, and I think this is an interesting full
circle moment.
When you talk about yourrelationship with Chambers and
your ability to do work for them, you also reach a point where
you know some of the nuancesthat we talked about, and so it
provides a better opportunity,long-term opportunities, for
those relationships and you knowyou're the person that they're
going to go to.

(01:18:48):
And so, speaking specificallyfor the video world, you know
the, the, the videography world.
You know that's how youestablish that relationship is.
You know, once you deliver aquality product or service the
first time, next time it's goingto be that much easier to get
through it, and then the nexttime you're going to get to a
point where you send them overthe first edit and they're like
this is great, this is fantastic.

Exactly, yeah, and it's always generally if people
want to change it, somethingvery small or little, and that's
okay.
Very rarely once you have thatunderstanding, so it makes your
job easier too, like our job togive that better result.
No, I think this is incredibletalk that we're having so far,
like people are learning so much.
I'm learning and so I'm hopingother people are.
So now I want to know, likehigher level, what does a

(01:19:31):
chamber press?
Obviously I know when we getinvolved, mostly I'm dealing,
like you said, with the chamberstaff.
It's either just aboutmembership or you know events
and the way we can get involved.
When we are obviously doingradio for the chamber, you and I
will talk or whatever, buttypically I'm dealing with the
chamber staff.
So what does a chamberpresident do?
Because you're very busy andyou know I don't know.

(01:19:54):
What does a chamber president'slife look like?
Comes on to podcast, you knowuh does that kind of stuff, you
know that's why, when I asked, Iwas like I hope you have two
hours.
This is a long one, so thankyou.

Yeah, no, absolutely.
Um, you know my day to day it'sa little bit different from day
to day.
Um, you know my job is tofacilitate the governance of the
organization.
So in my day to day I work withour board of directors, I work
with our executive committee.
I have, you know, work with ourcommittee structure, so my

(01:20:26):
staff also works with ourcommittees.
But at the end of the day, youknow, I make sure that I'm
heavily involved with what ourcommittees are doing to make
sure that we're delivering valueto our membership, delivering
value to our membership.
So when I talk about thegovernance of the organization,
that's focusing on the strategy,making sure that we have a
strategic plan that's deliveringvalue to our membership,

(01:20:49):
delivering value to ourcommunity.
I have relationships andestablished relationships with
our elected officials.
We get involved heavily instate politics, local politics.
You know, at the county level,I build relationships with the
municipalities that we represent, and so this goes back to a

(01:21:09):
member benefit is.
I'm establishing theserelationships so that if you
have an issue with your localgovernment, your state
government, I have a contactthat we can reach out to to help
you with your business issue.
So a lot of that you know.
Working with other communityorganizations and community
partners.
I try to make sure that I havegood relationships with folks

(01:21:31):
that are working in this spaceso that if there is an issue
that's impacting our communitythat's broader than something
just the West Orange Chamber canfocus on.
I have a Rolodex of contactsthat I can reach out to if it's
in the, you know, depending onwhat industry it is, you know I
can reach out to my counterpartthat is over a trade association

(01:21:52):
or a chamber that also doeswork in that space.
So, establishing thoserelationships with community
partners and then also justworking with our members to
understand the needs of thebusiness community, make sure
that we're responsive to them,that anything that we're
advocating for politically isaligned with what our business

(01:22:13):
leaders need, aligned with whatour industries and organizations
that we represent need andorganizations that we represent
need.
And then you know, just on aday-to-day level also, just like
you all as business owners, I'mfocusing on the finances and
operations of the organization.
So we run an organization thatI have a staff of six to seven

(01:22:36):
we're in the process of hiringright now that I'm managing
day-to-day operations.
So, just working with our staff, we have a team that focuses on
membership.
A team that focuses on events,marketing and communications.
Then we have someone thatfocuses on government affairs
and community relations.
So, you know, making sure thatthe operations of the chamber,

(01:22:57):
making sure that we'redelivering value to our
membership, and we're also, youknow, delivering on our purpose
of advancing communitycollaboration and leadership.
That's the three areas that wefocus in, and so everything that
I do ties back to our purposein delivering community
collaboration and leadership.
That's a lot.

That's a lot, but so are business owners, you know
.
Sometimes you know you havethose long days, long hours,
because at the end of the daythere's so much to do, right
From managing staff to managingall sorts of other things for
you.
Obviously, like you said, it'salso on the governance level and
community relations, and that'swhat I like.
So as a business owner, I'mvery busy.

(01:23:34):
Half the time I'm on a plane.
It's so annoying you don't wantto know.
You know airport is where I endup finding myself a lot,
because a lot of projects tendto be all over the country and
so I can't actively be involved.
You know, going meeting likelocal elected officials or any
kind of laws that are beingpassed.
You know it's very hard toremain focused on that because

(01:23:56):
it's already hard to just keepup with the video industry,
because our industry moves likeat such speed.
You know that it can be hard andthat's why I love being you
know.
Like I said, remember we'repart of the business community.
Once you form a business andyou want to make sure the laws
being passed are pro-businessand uh, benefit you know,

(01:24:16):
business community is, ingeneral, because you are part of
it right and sometimes they benuanced, they can hide things we
don't know, and that's why Ilove being a member of you know,
chambers because, at the end ofthe day, I know that my dollars
are going towards making surethat no law is going to pass, so
nothing silly is going tohappen in the community.
That you know is going to hurtme indirectly and if something

(01:24:40):
like that is even at the table,I'll know from a newsletter or
something like that.

And you know, I don't know, I've left that part
of it too.
And we, you know, we try tomake sure that our businesses
are protected.
We facilitate the conversationswith elected officials so that
they know what our businessowners are facing, and then we
try to keep our members informed.
So, you know, we're not alwaysgoing to be successful in, you
know, supporting or opposinglegislation that impacts

(01:25:09):
businesses, but I can promiseyou that we're aware of them and
we're doing everything we canto advocate on your behalf.
And then, at the end of the day, we also want to make sure that
we are a resource to you, as abusiness owner, in knowing
what's coming down the pike,what's going to impact you, so
you can be prepared, so you canbe prepared, and then offering

(01:25:31):
ourselves as a resource foragain facilitating those
connections.

And I think it's the power right.
I think US Chamber of Commerceis one of the largest.
What?
What's the word?
I'm late trade organization yeahyeah, in the in the country,
and then it's built up off the.
So you invest, I think, in yourlocal chamber.
Then the chambers work together, like in our state through
florida I think, chamber ofcommerce, then that works to use
chamber.
What I'm saying is there.
You know there's peopleadvocating from you and it's

(01:25:56):
small little thing can become,you know, very powerful because
you know it's small little thingcan become.
You know, very powerful becauseyou know it's small businesses
that join together and slowlyyou can reach you know, that
higher level and at least youknow, like you said, we can't
guarantee it.
I don't even know what'shappening.
Like I said, I'm not involved,like you are.
I'm just like I don't want anyanything that to make it.
It's already hard being a smallbusiness owner, you know, and

(01:26:17):
I'm one of the lucky ones, likeI said, I reached seven figures.
So many business owners in thevideo world I mean they're, like
you know, just trying to makeit to six figures, right.
So I'm saying like it's, andit's so hard to keep up with any
of this.
So just just good, knowing thatthere's an organization you
know and other partneringorganizations that are trying to
yeah advocating and making surethat you know it's.

(01:26:39):
It doesn't become harder to dobusiness than it already is.

And you know that's what we focus on.
We really do.
You know we talk about theshiny objects which are the
networking events, thesponsorships, the opportunities
to advertise, but you know we'realso doing this in the
background too.
Right, we're making sure thebusiness is protected, we're
making sure the businesses areadvocated for and that we are
are able to help you navigatethe the complex network of

(01:27:07):
government agencies, electedofficials, things like that that
you don't have the time, as abusiness owner, to focus on plus
, I'm pretty sure if Iapproached them they wouldn't
care because, like I said, I mayseem like, I may feel like, oh,
I'm doing really well in thevideo world.

I'm like nothing like you.
Compare me to disney.
It's like, uh, what avengerwho's?
And that's true so.

So for them, they're gonna focus on these
bigger organizations and I thinkI'd rather go through the
chamber if I ever neededanything you know, here's the
cool thing about it too, rightis is when you join a chamber,
you're joining a somethingthat's so much bigger than you.
So, yes, while you may becompeting in the same space, you
are also.

(01:27:46):
When you join collectively youknow, in the West Orange Chamber
or whatever chamber you're amember of comes together, then
you have the power behind you.
You have the power of a largenetwork of businesses that
represent a broad spectrum ofindustries that you know, vendra
, and your team of individualsthat you employ yes, small, but

(01:28:12):
when you add that to the networkof members in the chamber, you
start to add up the economicimpact there and we start to put
numbers around that that'ssomething that your elected
officials that you're, you know,can't ignore.
So it's the power of thecollective, when we're all
working together, when we're allfocusing on the same issues

(01:28:34):
that impact businesses.
Yes, you can compete by day,but at the end of the day, you
know, what's good for thebusiness community is good for
the entire business community.
What's bad for the businesscommunity is bad for the entire
business community.
And so putting yourself andinvesting in an organization
that allows you to pullresources and make sure that
your voice is heard, whether inthe state capitol or, you know,

(01:28:58):
washington DC, or even locally,it's important, and the only way
to do that is to join somethingthat's bigger than yourself,
broader than yourself, that isadvocating on your behalf.

And Chamber is a nonprofit organization right, it
is yeah.
So it is.
It's very like I said, it'ssomething bigger than you but,
like I said, immediately join,like I said I'm happy to.
My strategy is very simple andif anyone wants to copy it, be
my guest.
Find the chamber, like we'vesaid before, in your local area
that you feel obviously is alegitimate organization and is

(01:29:30):
the most active.
Be involved, be active, offeryour services, make a good
Nuance product that they'relooking for so they can share
with their audience, and as longas you're doing a great job,
you'll find sales, which is whatI think most people are
listening to.
This, are looking for higherrevenue, higher sales and, at
the end of the day, know thatit's not just that, the shiny

(01:29:52):
part, which is the networkingand use the, you know the
advertising resources andeverything.
But then now you have a resourcewhere you can just pick up the
phone and you can ask forwhatever you need, whether
that's another render orsomething to do with elective
officials or or something on thelocal government side, right
ship to nuts everything awesome.
So before we uh start wrappingthis up, I want to know what

(01:30:14):
else does um uh chamber do?
That may be something that wewe don't think about normally.

Yeah, you know some unique things that we do
here.
West Orange Chamber, we makesure that we are providing.
We talk about advertisingopportunities, right, so you
know our business directory andthings that we put out there.
You know we talk about thebusiness community, we talk

(01:30:44):
about getting engaged withelected officials but, believe
it or not, chambers are still areal resource for, like,
travelers or folks that aremoving to the community, and so
something that we do is we tryto make sure that we're a
resource to our municipalitiesand our municipal partners come
to us.
You know we provide literatureto them on.
You know, businesses in thearea and, you know, try to make

(01:31:08):
sure that folks that are movingto the area know a little bit
about the area.
We think that you know everybodythinks that that's all done
online.
You would be shocked at thenumber of folks that walk into
our chamber office and are like,hey, I'm visiting from you know
out of town.

Can you yeah?

Can you tell me?
You know what they're, what'sthere to do around town?
You know where?
Where's the nearest park orwhere's the nearest um.
You know, uh, where's a goodrestaurant to eat?
I, I, you know it's funny, butpeople still come in.
I didn't know that.

But that's pretty cool.
It's an older demographic.

These days, you know, most folks are on the
phone or, you know, on theircomputer looking this stuff up,
but there's still folks thatcome into the office and ask for
that kind of stuff.

So you're also being a community resource, yeah
absolutely Community resource.

you know, not only for businesses, but you
know folks will come in andliterally you know a couple last
month, a couple months ago, youknow folks come in and you know
we're're like do you have apaper map?
And I'm like, well, we do youknow, we don't get rid of.
You know we don't.
We don't get rid of them often,but you know we do still have
that stuff.
So a lot of folks still look atthe chamber of commerce as

(01:32:09):
their their stop whenever theyget into town so that they can
find out I don't think what arethe locals, but I don't think
I've ever looked at the papermap.

I have looked okay , so the only map I've ever
looked at.
I don't play video games.
I bought gta5 a long time ago,so you know they do inserts.
So the video game came with thefake like a map of the fake
city yeah that's the last map Iremember ever touching yeah,
that's crazy that you know.

Last one I touched it was probably at a
theme park you know, theme park,theme park.

Okay, I wasn't thinking that.
Yeah, you know it's funny, buteven those were there.

Yeah, well, I grew up here and it's funny, I
grew up here and still, everytime I go into a park I grab a
map.
I'm like I've been to all theseparks a hundred times.

My daughter did.
We've been here hundreds oftimes, you know what Something
about it's sitting there.

It's a freebie so you can grab it.
But folks still come into thechamber for that kind of stuff
and we're happy to provide thatresource.
Some people come in to lodgecomplaints against businesses
and we try to work through itwith them.

That's interesting too.
Yeah, you know it doesn'thappen often, but you know folks
are coming.
I mean I get that one.
I'm like, okay, you know you'dgo to a business organization,
yeah.

I'm like.
Well, talk to the BetterBusiness.

Bureau.
I'm not going to talk.

You know badly on my members, but you know folks
do come in with that.
And then you know somethingelse that we do and we touched a
little bit on it is developingthose relationships with other
organizations in the community.
You know we have therelationships with elected
officials and stuff like that.
But you know, I'm sure in yourworld there's organizations that

(01:33:43):
focus solely on folks that areproducing.
You know that are videographers.
There's organizations and tradeorganizations that are focused
in specific industries.
I can't be an expert on all ofthose industries, so if I don't
know something I'll reach out tomy counterpart that's an expert
on tourism or hospitalityconstruction.
You know we have theseorganizations that we partner

(01:34:06):
with, that we have relationshipswith that.
We can, you know, rely on toprovide.
You know either greaterknowledge on a subject so really
establishing thoserelationships.

And I love that about the restaurant chamber of
commerce because you know youwould think, uh, you know well,
maybe somebody would think Idon't think, but you know that
it would be like, oh, allenclosed, no, this is it.
No, I I love about restaurantchamber of commerce because you
guys are not only doing all thestuff that we've talked about,
you're also partnering withthese other organizations and
treating them as friends andmore resources than enemies.

(01:34:41):
Because, like, I've gone to somany events just two that come
into mind are like Rotary Club.
So people have been to chamberevents and talked about like,
hey, I'm a member of the RotaryClub or a member of.

Horizon West Happenings.

These are separate organizations, but they are
part of the chamber because,like you said, it's a whole
network of community that wehave, and I love that.

I think that's that's how you build a better,
bigger yeah, and you know that Ithink that that's a good point
to touch on is, you know, whenyou join your chamber, well, I
want that to be your first stopand I want that to be a great
resource for you.
Different organizations canoffer different benefits, and
that's something that I try totell our members, you know,
whenever they're looking to comeon board, and that I stress

(01:35:25):
with my staff is not every everythis.
We're not going to be the rightfit for every business.
I hope you support us for thecauses that we talked about,
because we're advocating on yourbehalf, but we're not going to
necessarily be the best placefor you to network, if you know.
But we're not going tonecessarily be the best place
for you to network, if you knowyou are looking for a more
individual based.

(01:35:45):
You know you're looking forthose direct sales with
individuals or or, you know,households.
You know we can offer some ofthat, but I don't have a lot of
individuals.
Most of the folks that arecoming to chamber events are
representing businesses and soyou know that's the opportunity
for that broader networkingrotary clubs, things like that
that are also members of thechamber.

(01:36:06):
Those are good places tonetwork if you're trying to, you
know, depending on what yourline of work is.
So chamber can offer a lot, butyou know I would also encourage
folks to look at othercommunity organizations that
they can expand that network.
And there's going to be a lot ofoverlap and things like that,
but there's also some uniqueopportunities when you start to

(01:36:27):
get involved in a community andcan identify what would be
another good group whether it bea Rotary or something like that
to get involved with.

Oh, that's incredible.
So here's something that youknow, I guess if people are not
local, they would not know soRestaurant and Chamber.
So I started the relationshipwhen I joined.
You know, I guess if people arenot local they would not know
so restaurant and chamber.

So I started when I joined you know, stina was
the president.

She was president forever.
So how does it feel to takeover an organization with such
strong legacy?
Yeah, I don't know.
Tell me more about that part.
I just want to know.

Yeah.

How do you feel?
You know how you fit in now.
Yeah, so you know how how youfit in now.
Yeah, yeah, so you know howlong have you been president now
, Uh?

going on 16 months so yeah, yeah.

So we're now fully integrated Rocking and rolling
rocking and rolling.

Um, you know it's a.
Um.
It's interesting this chamberthere was such a legacy that was
left by my predecessor and justcoming into a situation where
we had a very healthyorganization.
We have great volunteer leaders, we have great members, we have

(01:37:34):
money in the bank, whichsometimes with not-for-profits
that's where we talk aboutfinding the legitimate chambers
and the legitimate organizations.
We're very fortunate that wewere in a good financial
position and that a lot of greatthings have been done.
We we built a reputation.
Steena and her team had built areputation that, you know, kind

(01:37:55):
of the reputation precedesyourself, and that was me right.
So there was instantcredibility when I came on board
, because folks had been doingbusiness with the West Orange
Chamber for so long that they,you know I automatically had
credibility within my peernetwork, within the chamber
world and the community.
So, you know, folks saw me asthat, the new person that was

(01:38:16):
coming on board, and so that wasreally nice, so that that made
the transition a lot easier.
Um, I also had the addedbenefit of growing up here in
central Florida.
So, born and raised in centralFlorida, I'm one of the few
native.
Floridians.
Um, so had that as a benefitand you know that also helped to
establish some of thoserelationships and cultivate some

(01:38:37):
of those relationships that, um, you know had all the ones that
the chamber had and that mypredecessor had but I also had
some relationships here in thecommunity and so that's been
really nice to be able to bringsome new folks, new
organizations, new, you know,community groups into the fold
and be able to really continueto build on that great legacy

(01:39:00):
that the Western chamber has.

That's awesome, yeah, cause, like I said, she
was there a long time 22 years22 years, and then, when she
finally made the decision toretire, I was like I don't know
who's going to step up to fillher shoes.
So what made you want to applyfor the role?
What did you do before this?

Yeah, so it's funny.
You talked about being on on anairplane.
I was on an airplane for thelast 12, 13 years of my career
um, and you know, I worked for anational trade organization
based out of washington dc theassociated builders and
contractors.
Um, you know, we had officesacross the country, 68 chapters

(01:39:37):
in 48 states, oh, wow so yeah,you were, yeah, so I was I was
all over, always based here incentral Florida, but prior to
this was working for thatorganization for 16 years.
So started when I was in collegeworking at the local office up
in Tallahassee FSU go Knolls andthen, you know, moved back down
to central Florida aftergraduating and went to work for

(01:40:01):
the local organization, uh, downhere.
And then, uh, shortly afterthat, got hired by the national
organization and that's kind ofwhere my, my um, my um, uh,
career in association managementtook off Right.
So I I, you know did thegovernment affairs side and
really enjoyed that aspect of it, but my passion was really the

(01:40:24):
association and not-for-profitmanagement.
And so, you know, moved backdown here and had been involved
with um ABC for for a long time.
Kids are getting a little bitolder and I'm like you know what
it's time to to get off theroad, and so, uh, there had
never been anything that hadreally interested me.

(01:40:44):
I loved my job and my role, butI saw it as an opportunity.
I mean, how often does anorganization with a reputation
like the West Orange Chamberhave, apparently, once in every?

22 years, once in every 22 years.

And so you know it aligned with my personal, you
know personal beliefs and youknow, philosophically it was an
organization that my beliefs andyou know pro-business could
obviously get behind.
And so, you know, took the leapof faith and you know,
literally I live in West Orange.

(01:41:19):
I've always lived in WestOrange, born and raised in
Apopka, but, you know, movedover to the area that I'm in now
and it's literally, you know,12 to 15 minutes from my house,
depending on how the traffic isthat day.
You can get there as quick as10 if there's no traffic on the
road.
So you know how often does aroll like that?
open up in your backyard.

That's incredible.
I couldn't even find a housethere.
Talk about it, you know.
So I appreciate you driving allthe way to Winter Park.
That was my big problem I wastrying to find you know, I've
always lived in that either DrPhillips, millennia, yeah, yeah,

(01:41:59):
yeah, so well, trying to find ahome in Dr Phillips area and I
could not find everything has.

HOA.

And that was my one requirement.
I was like I cannot have HOA.
My real estate agent went sofar to like email these HOAs.
Can he park a van here?
And I'm like no, I don't care,even if they say yes you know
they could change.

I don't want to change it.
I was like no, no, no, notworth it, so I had to move.

Well, I mean, I wouldn't say that far, but still
you know, I don't, I don't.
This is my first time everbeing on this side of town yeah,
so I appreciate you.

We'll bring you back over to west, yeah no,
exactly that's what I told her.

I was like it's so funny, I don't think how many
uh clients she has.
Who's buying a home saying Ialready know I'm gonna be
selling, yeah uh, and movingback.
But then you know, to be real,I've been here now a few months
and I'm actually starting tolike it it's not the same.
Going to a theme park is not asas fast yeah, because you know
we could just get up 15 minuteshere at magic kingdom you know
five minutes here at universal.

(01:42:52):
Yeah, it's not the same.

It takes 30 45 minutes, so that's the only
negative but it's not bad untilthose daughters are getting a
little bit older.
You're gonna be like I can'tkeep doing this.

Yeah, no so it's gonna be interesting.
Yeah, so that was theunfortunate part.

I'm technically not in west orange anymore, but
your office is still therethough, yes, so the company's
not moving.

I was like nope, we're established, our office is
still there, so the company'stechnically in rest orange and
I'm not planning to change thatwell, you know um can't pass up
the opportunity to say that WestOrange is the best place to
live, work and do business.

So you know anyone who's living there.
I agree with you.

I'm not disagreeing with you Because
technically, like I said, mybusiness is still based out of
that millennia area and I'm notplanning to really change that
Because I've worked for years.

Why change it Absolutely Plus?

I barely go to office.
Like I said, my office is aplane or a phone.

You know, that's basically it.
When you have a great setup,like you do, it's amazing.

By the way, this plan wasn't to use this space.
So, like I said, mostbusinesses that we have we want
to film at their location yeah,their location.
So I was really excited topartner with them on the Big Air
Angiovertis here.
When you gave that idea, I waslike, oh, this space would be
incredible Cause, um, you know,I built it, uh, primarily to do
this and just, uh, a space towork.

(01:44:06):
But I was like this studio is,uh, and you know, funny enough,
I have friends of studios thatare smaller than this that they
charge money for.
So your project is the firstone going to be done here.
Oh cool when we're going to haveclients over.
What do you think?

Yeah, is it good enough?
You've done a great job.
You've done a great job gettingthis set up.

I'm glad you're here so you can confirm this is
good enough to get clients here.
You know, we even put a makeuparea.

Yeah.

We put candy for them.
Hopefully they're going to behappy Because, like I said,
typically we don't film instudios anymore.
I find that's changed.
Maybe commercials, yeah, butmost businesses now want to be
authentic.
They want to show that.
But what we're doing for BigOrange Awards, the studio made
more sense, yeah.
So this was like the perfectcombination of like oh, it's

(01:44:54):
just getting done.
Now you know we have thisamazing project, yeah, and plus,
it'll be very efficient forthem too, because they can just
come in, get it done, get out ofthere.
We don't have to like spendhours setting up at their
location so it doesn't take thatmuch time out of their day.
So that was very interesting so.

I'm looking forward to that.

Now, before we wrap this up again, I want to
know we have some time 15minutes so how else can a
business owner no, actually,let's take it more so we've
talked about how they can getinvolved.
What I want to know is, as avideo business owner, right,
you're new to business.
You don't know much.
Obviously, you've joined thechamber, you're very active.
What to do next?

(01:45:34):
Give some pointers, because youhang out with business owners
who are at the top of CentralFlorida to small business owners
.
How can they level up fast?
Do you have any tips or tricks?

You know I want to be careful on the leveling up
fast.
I think that it has to be a—youhave to be careful with that.

(01:46:11):
You know, when folks that are,you know, have risen to these
high levels in theirorganizations are looking for
who they're doing business withyou get 100 phone calls a day of
somebody that wants to do an,that you have to make sure that
you are taking an approach thatfolks are comfortable
establishing a relationship.
I would say that some thingsthat folks are looking for is

(01:46:32):
don't waste their time.
Whenever these folks that I'mdealing with on a daily basis,
you cannot waste time.
Time is a valuable resource.
If folks are giving you thetime of day, make sure you know
what you're asking for.
Make sure that you know whatyou can deliver on.
Don't provide expectations thatare unrealistic for you or for

(01:46:53):
them, because it is going tolead to problems down the road.
So make sure that I think,whenever you're doing that and
you know you're doing that andyou're having, uh, those
conversations and you have theopportunity to have those
conversations don't over-promiseand under-deliver because you
do that one time.
Um, what you'd be surprisedabout and I can speak to central

(01:47:13):
Florida, but I can tell youthat it's the same everywhere is
I go to several events a week,a month, whatever that.
You would be shocked at how manyof the same people, the same
executives, that I run into ateach of these events.
And that's a good thing,because if you put a consistent

(01:47:35):
product out there, you put aservice out there that somebody
wants and you deliver on it.
It's going to spread likewildfire.
But just as easily you get onebad review.
That review is going to spreadlike wildfire because these
people are in these samemeetings, these same events,
these same community events,these same business meetings,

(01:47:55):
these same community events,these same business meetings.
And if you destroy yourreputation with one of them,
it's not going to take longbefore the rest of them you know
whether it's word of mouth,whether it's the product that
you put out there.
So make sure that whenever youdo have the opportunity to work
with these folks, you aredelivering on expectations and
that you are not over promising.

(01:48:16):
Yeah.

No, I completely agree, don't do half-baked
projects, cause what I and Ithink that's a mindset change
right.
For me, the biggest thing isit's very easy to scale video
business up to like you know,let's just say like a hundred K
or whatever, because then youjust all you do is you get good
at your craft, tell everyone youknow you're there, get hired by
other marketing agencies orvideo people and you can get

(01:48:39):
there Fine.
But when you want to scale upfrom that, you have to become a
business owner.

And.

I think it's very, very important to understand
that.
That's a very differentballgame.
It's not the same as I makegood videos.
It's very different.
It's very much like you said,if you want to get into these,
these big companies, they allhang out together.

(01:49:05):
They all know each other.
So if you are going to do aproject and let's say it's not
up to your rate or or where youwant to be, don't half uh,
half-ass it, you know.
Don't list, uh, you know, justdon't do it.
I would rather them say no, Iwould.
My advice would be don't don'tdo it, or rather, treat it as a
great opportunity and 2x youreffort.
You know, don't take it.
What I'm saying is like don't bedisappointed in the rate, uh,

(01:49:25):
because otherwise your product'sgonna suffer and as soon as,
like you said, they're gonna seeit, um, you know they're,
they're not gonna care.
You didn't have enough money orbudget, whatever.
Uh, you know you're better offeither saying no if you can't
have enough money or budget, orwhatever.
You know you're better offeither saying no if you can't
accomplish it or just doing thebetter job anyway.
Because, like I said, they alltalk, they're all going to tell
each other, and one bad reviewis like equal to 200 good

(01:49:48):
reviews, so you don't want one,and, especially when they hang
out, you're losing your chancesof ever finding, you know, work
with these big, big companiesand there's only so many of
those right.
The last thing you want to dois ruin that relationship just
because you weren't happy or youweren't, you weren't, you know.
Whatever, whatever the reasonmay be, I wouldn't risk it

(01:50:09):
because it's not worth it no um,because, like you said in in
here and at least in centralflorida, it's only those you
know same Disney, universal seaworld, whatever it's a tourism
based economy or maybehealthcare based economy, it's
only those five to 10 companiesthat you're going to end up at.

There's a lot more than that.
But you know, at the same time,I you know everybody's running
in the same circles and and theminute that you destroy your
reputation with one, you mightas well just give up on the
others, because it's going tohappen.
But the flip side of that isyou deliver a good product, you
deliver a good service and folkssee that they're going to want

(01:50:48):
to do business with you.
So it's a double-edged sword.
But at the end of the day, it'simportant that you stick to what
you're good at and make surethat you you stick to what
you're good at and make surethat you're delivering a
consistent product.

And but, but, but I'm telling you the reward is
worth it, because when I get,sometimes, a call and somebody's
I'm like.
Somebody's like, oh, we wantthis project.
It's really, it sounds reallyawesome.
I'm like, oh, perfect.
My next question always is so,where'd you find out about us?
And when they say, say, oh, wefound out from you from a
restaurant chamber.
Or uh, yeah, we worked withthis client, you know, or we
know this person who recommendedyou and I know it's a

(01:51:20):
restaurant chamber member, it'ssuch an incredible feeling.
And what I love the best thingfor me is they'll reach out and
they'll say, uh, you know, we'llstart talking about like.
They're like, yeah, I love yourquality of work, or I love what
you did, and I'm like, that'sso incredible when you don't
have to ever even talk aboutlike we do good quality work or
whatever right, they alreadyjust come in already knowing
that our work is going to begood.

(01:51:41):
So now we can focus on actuallygetting the project right and
getting their budget right, orwhatever it may be.
I love that because it makes myjob easier.
Right, it very easier to closedeals, to do good work, because
we're spending less time, youknow, like I said, building
their credibility or buildingtheir relationship, especially

(01:52:01):
with these warm leads.
And you never know where itleads because with most video
businesses it's yours.
You know those 5, 10 topclients that pay, I would say,
70, 80 of the revenue andeveryone's just trying to find
those companies because, like,like I said, everyone needs a
video, right, it's just tryingto find those companies Cause,
like like I said, everyone needsa video.
Right, it's just finding thatcompany that you know meshes
with you, right, thatrelationship, and you never know

(01:52:22):
where that may come from.
Absolutely, but that's, like myfavorite part.

I hope it comes from the chamber.
Yes, no like you said, I'm I'mvery bullish on chamber today is
please join your chamber, bevery active and I think what
they learn from you is get toknow your chamber right, Get to
know the chamber, get to knowthe people.
Yeah, Get to know it, Just likeyou know.
It's like the dating game,right.
Get to know your chamber, getto know the you know, the folks

(01:52:48):
that are involved, the folksthat are, you know, actively
involved, and learn from them.
Learn from them, learn what madethem successful in their
chamber.
Journey and take that and, youknow, put your spin on it.
You know, make sure that you'reyou're selling yourself, you're
selling a product and servicethat you do well and you're
going to be successful.

Yeah, and I'll be upfront with people Look, here's
the truth, I get it.
If you're new, you're startingout, you know you're making, I
don't know.
I, you know you're making, Idon't know.
I've even had people here whowent from 10 grand to 100 grand.
So if you're making 10 grand,you're making 50 grand.
I get it.
A chamber investment, uh, maysound a lot when you have rent.
You know your things, do somaybe wait, I get it like you

(01:53:26):
don't have to join if you're inthat stage.
At that point, then work onyour craft right.
Work on where you can findenough clients that you're not
struggling for money.
But as soon as you have it, inmy opinion, the best investment
you can make is go join achamber, like I said, because
and and the other thing I wouldsay is most chambers I'm pretty
sure restaurants just do theyhave a non-chamber rate where

(01:53:47):
you can go attend a few eventsyeah, some events right, yeah,
so you can.
So what I'm saying is you canalways audition a few.
So when you're starting out,nothing stops you from just
going to a few events here, afew events here, until you find
the chamber that you fit well in, that you think you can benefit
the most from, and then makethat investment to join Because

(01:54:08):
at the end of the day, like Isaid, I get it.
It's a lot of money when you'restarting out and it's a lot of
time, but I don't think I'veever made a bad investment at
any chamber.
I have a hundred percent recordit always comes back and it's
always good, but it takes time.
Yeah, give it at least one plusyear, if not longer.
Don't ask for immediate returns.

(01:54:29):
But again, like I said, I'mvery bullish on it and I will
tell any video person listeninghere look, if you want to be a
camera guy or an editor, it'sokay.
Chamber is not for you.
Just get your craft better, godo your thing.
I'll have season two.
I'll bring more video people on.
But if you want to be any kindof business, like you want to do
, be a production company orwork with other businesses, like

(01:54:52):
I said, I think I think that'sthe best thing that we've got
out of today.
If they haven't learned at thispoint, two hours into it, that
they should join the chamber.

I don't know what else to say at this point Join
the chamber, be active.

Remember and also act like a business owner.
Like you know, you're not justthere to sell.
You're there to be part of thecommunity.
You're trying to make you knowdoing business in your community
easier, better and, like I said, you get what you put into it.
So put in a lot and I'm prettysure you'll be rewarded back, as
long as your craft matches whatyou're trying to sell and don't

(01:55:26):
burn bridges.
Even if you don't like achamber, you know, don't, don't
burn bridges, Just say you know,just don't renew.

I don't know, but you know that's what I'm saying
.
Find your chamber that you likeand stick with it.
I will say it's it's alsoimportant.
You know I'm always looking forfeedback.
It's the feedback loop.
Uh, we want to make sure thatwe are meeting expectations.
Just like you as a businessowner, you know you want to make
sure that you're meetingexpectations for the product or
service you're putting out.
Your chamber is also concernedabout making sure that we're

(01:55:56):
delivering value to our members.
So, you know, whereas youmeasure your success based on
your income, you know yourrevenue, your you know folks
coming back to you again andagain.
We measure that, yes, throughour members renewing their
membership, but it's not therevenue aspect.

(01:56:16):
Our sole purpose is to delivervalue to our members and make
sure that we are promoting ouryou know and supporting our
business community.
And so you know, the way thatwe can get feedback is by you
sharing it with us, telling uswhat your needs are, making sure
that you are happy with yourinvestment in your chamber,
because we can't fix that, wecan't go out and recruit new

(01:56:37):
members or retain the existingmembers if we don't know if
there's an issue.

Exactly, and that's where I would say use the
video brain, because my biggestthing is we need to be problem
solvers, not just video people.
So if you see a problem at yourchamber, obviously give the
feedback and, funny enough,offer a solution.
If video is the right solution.
Offer that.
I would not just present aproblem.
I don't like to just be theproblem guy like, hey, this is

(01:57:02):
wrong.
If you can fix it, then offer asolution.
And again I would offer to doit pro bono because again I
think the return would be worthit.
And plus, if you can help yourchamber be better, why not?
But to be honest, I've notfound that many problems with
chambers.
Now I only join you.
Know, again, you do yourresearch, you join the good
chambers.
But if you do, they're genuinelyout there to do what you just

(01:57:25):
said.
Sat here like, told me what youdo.
I know you do that, so I don'tknow why I would have a problem
with that, uh, but I'm justsaying, if you are part of a
chamber that's not as active,that's not going out out there
and doing you know what theyshould be doing, then nothing
stops you from approaching themand saying because you know it's
okay to be in a tier two, tierthree city where there may be a
smaller chamber, and approachingthem with a solution like hey,

(01:57:46):
let's do more videos or let's dosomething.
Yeah, communicate your needs,yeah to get better engagement or
whatever.
You know stuff like that soawesome.
Stephen before we go, anythingelse you want to say or add.

No, just appreciate the opportunity and
certainly appreciate the craftthat you provide to our chamber.
But I know there's a lot offolks that are out there that
are listening, that are lookingto do something similar and just
appreciate the work that youprovide and the spotlight that
you put our chamber in.
I hope that everybody has theability to do that for their

(01:58:19):
local chamber.

No, absolutely, and I don't know if you want to
speak on that.
What's the benefit the chamberhas gotten out of some of the
videos that we've done for it.

Sure.
So you know, more than anything, it really highlights we try to
put those videos out and itreally highlights what the
chamber has to offer by way ofevents.
Most of our videos are of ourevents, you know.
We want to get the word outabout those.
I think that there's futureopportunities for collaboration
in different areas, whether itbe on getting our legislative
agenda put out there and thingslike that.

(01:58:47):
I've done something like that,yeah.

It was again.
It was during Stena's time butwe worked with the what's the?
The West Orange Foundation.
Yeah, yeah, I did something forthat.
But, yeah, exactly, no, there's, there's a lot of opportunities
out there to to collaborate andpartner with, but at the end
they, like you said, the way Ilook at it is, you know, we want
to not only recap the event,but we want all the people that

(01:59:10):
weren't there to go.
Ooh, I wish I was there.

And then that's something that's a story that
only you all can tell.
And so having, uh, having thatas a a um, you know resource for
us to tap into, to be able toshare the stories and kind of
share what was the um, you knowwhat?
What?
What did this event do?
What did it look like?
It makes it easier for us to goout to our members in the
future and say, hey, you want toattend this event or you want

(01:59:35):
to sponsor this event.
So we utilize that all the timeand then just building hype and
giving recognition to ourmembership.
You know, again, that's whatwe're trying to do is put a
spotlight on our members andwhat our members are doing, the
great things that they're doingin our community, and what
better way to do that than havea video to tell the story.

Remember, we can tell emotions through videos.
That's the best thing out there.
Anyone who's where?
I would say West Orange or justOrange County in general,
claremont what areas you wouldsay, dr Phillips?

Winter Garden, winter Garden, ocoee, oakland,
windermere and Orlando are themunicipalities represented, but
O-Town West, dr Phillips, all ofthose areas, orlo Vista, pine
Hills, all of those areas inbetween.

So if you're in any of those areas, I would
highly recommend, you know, lookinto joining the Restaurant and
Chamber of Commerce.
Sure, so if somebody wasinterested, how did they get?
Who did they reach out to?
Yeah, absolutely.

Amy Cervantes on my team is a fantastic starting
point for that.
Or you can go to our chamberwebsite wochambercom.
And you know, we would love totalk with you about the benefits
of membership.

Awesome, david, again, I really appreciate you
taking the time out and comingand talking to me.
I appreciate you and, like Isaid, hopefully you have to.
I would love to bring you backin the future, in a couple of
seasons.
I want to have a couple ofpeople who join get benefits out
of, hopefully, any chamber butour restaurant chamber and then
we can follow up and see youknow how that process went.
That'd be incredible, you know,maybe in a year or whatever to

(02:01:03):
follow up on.
But, thank you, I appreciateyou taking again time out and it
was a great conversation, allright.

Thank you, sir.

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