Connie Rhind Robey, Member Engagement Director for the Greater Rockville Chamber of Commerce

Eric's interview with Connie Rhind Robey, Member Engagement Director for the Greater Rockville Chamber of Commerce, sheds light on the importance of member engagement and how it can help them maximize the value of their membership.

Episode Transcript

(00:08):
Hey, they're rock stars. Thisis Eric Faguero and in this episode we
have a very special guests Connie RyanRobbie. She is the Member Engagement Director
and we had such a wonderful conversationand I want to share it with you
so you can learn more about what'sgoing on in your chamber and how she
can be an asset to your success. Hey, Connie, welcome to the

(00:33):
podcast. How are you. I'mhi Eric. Thanks so much for having
me on. It's my pleasure.You know, we've been trying to do
this for a while, right,been playing fun tag and missing each other,
and finally I got you on thepodcast. Man, this is really
good. I'm delighted to be here. I have wanted to know about what
exactly you do for the chamber becauseyour title is Member Engagement Director, right,

(00:59):
yes, yes it is. Thatmeans so it's a great question.
And the member director, the memberEngagement director of the chamber actually works with
members and the work I work tobring forward people to be members. So
we like to work and bring peopleinto the chamber. It's a wonderful chamber.
We'll talk about that more, Iknow. And so we like to

(01:21):
have more businesses that goose to thatand get the advantages of being part of
our chamber. Of course, havingnew businesses is an advantage to the people
who are already in the chamber.And then also with the word engagement in
there, I work with members tomake sure that they get as much out
of the chamber as they can getout of the chamber many businesses. Businesses
join for different reasons, and thensometimes they're busy, they're busy with their

(01:42):
own businesses, they're busy with theirown payroll, or they're in a certain
function in the company, and theydon't or the organization and they don't think
fully about how to make use ofthe chambers. So I spend some time
working with members to have them thinkabout how to use the chamber most effectively
for them. Wow, that isa lot of stuff right there, and
it's great to have somebody who doesthat because usually when you have what would

(02:06):
probably be a membership director or somethinglike that, it's about bringing you in
and that's about it, right,But you're more like yeah, and you're
more like a success a member engagementand success director. Right. You want
us to be successful, yes,in the member, so that in the
member Oh my God in the Chamber. So that is excellent. I just

(02:27):
wanted to clear that up because Isee that on your title and I'm like,
okay, hold on, explain thatto me. So, Connie,
how long have you been with theChamber. I've been with the Chamber a
little bit over a year now overa year, and we run into each
other in different events and different things, and I really want to get to
know you me on a personal level, and hopefully the rest of the chamber.
Tell us a little bit about yourself, because you were a business owner

(02:52):
as well, right, Yes,just prior to this, I was my
husband and I had a business.We started in Montgomery County and we were
part of a small franchise. Itwas called speed Pro, and we were
in a franchise. We were thevery first one in this area. So
we had a great experience building up, creating. You know, we had
to hire people and getting to bepart of the business community. My responsibility

(03:15):
in that was to be the businessdevelopment person, sales and also any marketing
that we did, and so Ijoined two local chambers to us and I
also was active in other networking possibilitiesand I really grew to love my experiences
with the chambers and just the smalland medium sized and even large sized business

(03:35):
companies. I really enjoyed being withthose organizations, and even I was on
the board of one of the chambers, and I really enjoyed making sure that
everybody was connecting in the way thatthey really wanted to connect with the chambers.
So I when Margie called me andasked if I would be coming in
and talk about this job, Iwas so excited because I had thought what
would I like to do in Oneof the things I really thought was that

(03:57):
it would be so great to bethe membership rectors at a chamber. I
like the addition of the engagement too, though, so I'm just pleased with
that. No, that's awesome.You know. One of the things I
like about the rock Fild Chamber isnot only is Margie doing a great job
at you know what she does andshe's dynamic, but then she has a
team around her, including herself andDon, that has just extraordinary people dedicated

(04:20):
to what we're doing. And anytimeI have a question, I have a
need, I pick up that phone. I get an answer, I get
the support that I need. Sokudos to you guys, and thank you
so much for for what you're doing. Let's not even talk about the boards.
I think the leadership in this chamberin particular is fabulous. That's why
I've been a member for over threeyears. You know, actually I think

(04:42):
that's a great team part of it. Yeah, I want you to tell
us why you believe somebody should jointhe Greater Rockfield Chamber of Commerce. I
know I can list out of adozen reasons, but from your perspective,
that's a great question. And differentpeople do join the Chamber for different reasons.
So I have a a couple ofreasons that people do join, and
I would expound on them a littlebit the first time. I think this

(05:04):
is the first thing people often thinkof when they join a chamber is that
they want to make some business contacts. They just want to meet more people
for networking. They want to knowmore people, and they want to find
more people. One aspect of thatthat people don't always think about, but
actually is really quite important is youfind people who can help you with all
your business needs. So depending onwho you are, but let's say you're

(05:25):
a small business owner and you canfind people who do all the kinds of
things you might need help with Youcould find somebody who's in the PPA.
You can find somebody who's an attorney. If you have a physical space and
you need to work on the physicalspace, you can find somebody who can
help you with your physical space.So it has the opportunity for you to
get to have a good, widenetwork of business associates who help you in

(05:47):
all different ways. A second reason, I don't know that people join the
chamber for this, but it's actuallyquite important, and that is to impreciate
the credibility in the community. It'sone way to show your commitment to the
business communities. Be part of achamber for many people and for us it
was almost the first thing we didwhen we started a business. As soon
as we had any ability to moveforward. Then we've joined the local chamber

(06:10):
and we really thought that was important. Also, you can get involved in
the chamber. You can get involvedin a small way or a big way.
You get a membership committee, you'reinvolved with a young professionals. You
can do something and you can makea commitment to people and you can follow
through on your commitment, and thatgives you extra exposure and people understand that
you do the things you say you'regoing to do, even if they're not
necessarily directly in your business. Maybeyou're helping do something about an event or

(06:33):
something. So it's not exactly whatyou do in your own business, but
you're able to show that you're thekind of person who can follow through.
So it gives you a larger localpresence. You also can find and again
you're expanding your network. You canfind good referral partners, and that's an
important thing, but not the onlything. One thing that people don't always
think about, but you can learnabout other industries and how they will affect

(06:55):
you a business. So every monthwe have events. We have lunch and
learns, or we have speakers ofsome events. Some events are purely networking,
but some events have a learning componentwith them, and it's very important
because if you can attend those things, you learn a lot about what's going
on in the world. For example, we've done some artificial intelligence recently,
and so when you think about it, you may think I don't need that

(07:16):
right now, but if you learnmore about that, then you understand if
that don't when it comes down theroad and it affects you. So the
chamber is a wonderful place to learnabout how other industries might affect your business.
You can also gain critical business resources. We can help you with extra
marketing. We can help you cutthrough red tape. If you find that
you have a problem you're opening yourbusiness and you can't get the final permit,

(07:38):
that's having a problem, or youknow you can't get your business even
started because you can't. You know, with the permits, you can't get
the things started. In the bankonces you to start by a certain date,
you can't. We can help withthat kind of thing, So please
keep the Chamber in mind for that. That's very important. We're here for
you. I've got a couple ofquestions coming from those that how would you

(08:00):
say the chamber differs from a businessnetworking you know group that there's many out
there, What would be the majordifference? And I don't want to mention
any games. But you know,I'm not going to chain names either.
But because I had a small business, I'm familiar with them. And most

(08:20):
of these organizations work in tandem witheach other, so you don't have to
choose. It's a very good ideato join your local chamber, and you
can join another networking group as well. In fact, many many people join
both. We have lots of activemembers in our chamber who are parts of
other networkings. How does it differ. The Chamber is a way for people
to get together in a collegial way. It's not purely about I was mentioning

(08:43):
some of these things, but increasingyour credibility, finding, you know,
letting people show your commitment, cuttingthrough red tape, adding extra marketing.
Those are things that the Chamber providesthat generally, these these other you know,
business network things really much more justabout getting referrals, and of course
everybody does need referrals. They needbusiness. That's an important part and you

(09:05):
can get that through the Chamber.But you also have these other kinds of
things that are available to you.And it's a broader people as well.
So if you're in most of thoseother networking groups, they are great groups,
many of them, but you're ina smaller group of people you get
introductions. But this group, youknow, we have three thousand people,
for example, on our email marketinglist, so there's a potential of so

(09:30):
many people that you can meet whenyou come to things and do things.
You know, one event would haveall of those people there, but it's
a broad number of people that youcan reach out to a part of so
I think it gives you a veryvery good base. And then if you
have time for more networking, there'sno reason you can't do some more networking,
right right, And I think oneof the great things about the chambers,

(09:52):
in my eyes, is that youwork on, you know, your
good name, because part of franchising, right Let's say, for example,
if that's something that somebody wants todo or build a business to sell it,
you know, you're really selling yourgood name. Apart from your processes,
your income, your revenue streams andall that, you're selling the good

(10:15):
name. So that brings value.And I think saying hey, I'm a
member in good standing with a GreaterRockfield Chamber of Commerce, I'm well known
in the community for what I door for what my business does, I
think that lends a lot of credibilityto that business. And it's a good
name, so very good. You'reabsolutely right. And I think a lot

(10:35):
of these referral networks, I thinkthey're basically at the connector level, which
is what you mentioned earlier. AndI know that one of the things that
the chamber has done, has reallymoved towards a value based packages. Let's
say, for example, versus justsimply does tell me a little bit about

(10:56):
that. So that is a newway of thinking about mymbership in the chamber.
You become a member and then youdecide which package in the chamber.
It's where you are, So wedo as you mentioned, the connector level.
That's sort of a basic membership level, and that is a great place
if you're starting out, if you'rea small business. Some people have been
in business a long time, butthere's still small businesses and they want to

(11:18):
stay a small business. So thatthese different value based packages, they are
designed for where you are and yourbusiness growth and your business needs. So
for example, that connector level isdesigned to create new opportunities to relationships,
designed for new businesses, home basedbusinesses, salespeople. Sometimes there's salespeople at

(11:39):
larger corporations. Nonprofits are often inthat category, but not always. Some
of them are looking for more marketing, and so that is there if people
are a little more established or theyhave to have a main street category.
It's designed to have more marketing topromote your business or your organization as a
destination throughout the rock Fell chain beyond, so for example, restaurants, retail,

(12:03):
recreation, museums. It comes withaddigital marketing opportunities, including the possibility
of doing our the opportunity really ofdoing a podcast with you, and there's
a whole bunch of them out thereand they're fantastic, so I really encourage
people to download the app, orif you don't do podcasts regularly, we
have them all loaded on our website. And for people who are a little

(12:26):
you know, been a business longer, or are much bigger businesses so they're
larger businesses, or just if they'dlike to be there. The Achiever level
is designed to let each organization workwith influencers and also of course to market
your business in the Rockville area andbeyond, because every time you go to
a different level, you get allthe benefits of the previous level, so
you're never losing anything. And wehave a category for Leader. It's designed

(12:50):
to give you interaction with government leaders, work with influencers, and market your
business of course. And then finallywe have a stakeholder and just as it's
designed for companies wanting to help theregion at cracks and retain talent, build
a robust workforce, and drive agrowing economy. There's actually groups for CEOs
out there, right, just exclusiveCEOs. Wow, you're the value based

(13:16):
packages actually addresses that. If you'rea CEO of a major corporation, let's
just use I don't know, Westthat or another big you know, the
ADVENTISD health or something like that.You're not necessarily looking to connect with somebody
like me, you know at mylevel. You're probably looking more at government,
CEO, leadership, development, workforcedevelopment, something at a higher level

(13:39):
that maybe I'm not there yet,And you in the chamber provides that ability
to connect with other CEOs in acollegial level, like you said earlier,
and I think that's very valuable.So I really like that. Yeah,
So people connect to the level andthe types of things they're looking for.
So it's not surely about being aCEO, but it also is that those

(14:01):
people, people who are in differentpositions or different sized companies are looking for
different things out of the chamber andout of their network. What does your
day to day look like? That'sa great question. I spend a lot
of time responding to people I alsocalled a lot of times we have people
reach out to the chamber themselves andthey call and they say they're interested in
the chamber. Just as we didwhen we were small business owners, we

(14:22):
do in the chamber. Nobody approachedus. I knew it was a good
thing to do, and we callthe chamber. So we have that kind
of thing happen. You know,regularly people call into the chamber or want
to know about the chamber. SoI speak with a lot of people who
want to know about the chamber,and I talk about what the value of
the chamber is. And I alsowill call businesses in the Rockville area and
the rock Hille you know, productualarea that are you know, businesses that

(14:46):
I think might make sense for themto be in the chamber. So I
will do some outreach and I willsay this is a you know, we
have this a kind of place thatyou might want to meet the kinds of
people that you would like to meet. So I've talked to people about the
chain in that way, talk tothem about the different levels of the chamber.
I know Margie and John are alsodoing these things in different ways,

(15:07):
so it's not just me, butwe're all doing this kind of outreach.
We also have people just join theChamber who no one's spoken to, So
sometimes they call and ask about theChamber. Sometimes they just join. When
they do that and they just join, I immediately call them, always within
a day, but sometimes they's inan hour. I call them and I
talk to them about what it iscan they get out of the Chamber.
I'm very driven to make sure thatpeople get engaged with the Chamber in a

(15:31):
way that makes sense for their particularbusiness so or their organization. I'm you
know, we have a lot ofnonprofits and we value them as well,
very very much, so sometimes Imake connections immediately. We then do have
new member orientations and also if youcome in as a new member and I
don't know how many people who listento this who haven't yet you're in the

(15:52):
Chamber. But we always have anew member orientation and opportunity for people to
learn more face to face. Sowe have a whole different ways people can
learn about the Chamber, so youknow, it can come to a new
member orientation. I also have awrite up so about how you can you
know how to interface with the Chamber. So when people are new members,
I talk to them and then Isend them something so they have something written.
And we also have videos about howto use your benefits to these different

(16:15):
levels. So we have videos aboutthat I can share with people. I
like to keep people very active.One of the things when people first join
the Chamber, they have an opportunityto fill out their profile. Everybody who's
a Chamber member has a full pageon our website. And we have a
new website as of March and ora I'm sorry and it is. It's

(16:37):
a great website and people should putin their website. And if you have
social media, you can put thatin as well. Why is that good
Chambers are trusted links, So whenGoogle or any other search engine is looking,
they want to see that your websiteis listed on another website. That's
a good thing for your business toget what they call search engine optimization,

(16:59):
so you're you're shown higher up.The great thing about this is that it's
free. Once you've joined the Chamber, you put that in. We also
allow you to put in up toten or fifteen pictures, one video.
You can put in member benefits ifyou'd like to. You can if you're
looking for people to hire, youcan post jobs. All of these things
you can actually post events as well. I just came from such a Chamber

(17:21):
Events, which is one of ournew members, and they had an event
that they wanted to advertise and peoplefrom the Chamber were coming because they posted
that on the chamber website. Sowe have all of those things as well.
Amazing, So you have a verybusy day. I do. I
do, and what I love aboutit is all the time I'm connecting with
people. I'm connecting with business owners, people in organizations, helping them figure

(17:45):
out how to make the Chamber themost effective thing for them possible. And
it benefits the chamber, it benefitsthe businesses, and if they're connecting with
other people and other organizations in ourchamber, it's benefiting everybody. You know.
It just reminds me when I firstmet Margie and we talked about me
becoming a member of the Chamber andwhat I could do. As far as

(18:07):
you know, this podcast for theChamber, which I thoroughly enjoy, and
I recommend everybody give me a call. You know that qualifies for a podcast
interview with me. I'd love tohave you on the podcast and learn more
about your business. But one ofthe things that I got to do,
and I just thought to myself,I'll tell you what it is, and

(18:29):
I think it's a great thing foranybody to do. It is. I
went out with Margie and I actuallytalked to several small business owners down in
downtown Rockville when it was what wasit? It was Shop Small Saturday,
Yeah, a few years ago,and I got to make some great connections

(18:52):
with some people that I never inmy life thought I would ever meet,
you know, especially not walk intotheir business and go straight to the owner
and shake hands and to know themon a personal level. So I don't
know if it's a thing that youdo, but if you go out,
you know, give me a car. I'd love to go out with you
one day and shake hands. Ohregularly. Yeah, I'll be happy to
engage you with that. We've beendoing that recently, is doing what we

(19:15):
call walk around and going to differentparts of town and walking into business business.
Some of them are Chamber remembers,since some or not, and we
obviously have slightly different conversations if you'rea chamber member. We've been taking pictures
and then putting those on our websiteto give our chamber members a little extra
exposure we like to you know,you know, we like to highlight our
members when we can, and sothat's a wonderful thing. And you talk

(19:37):
to lots of different people in differentsituations, and you know what, and
it's a way to give testimony,firsthand testimony from an actual chamber member to
a small business who may either notbe a member or not as engaged as
they should be, right because Imean, this chamber has been phenomenal to
my business, so I definitely recommendit. Oh, it's a phenomenal chamber.

(20:00):
Connie, we're about to end thepodcast. Do you have any advice
to somebody who's listening and says,you know what, maybe I'm not taking
full advantage of all the benefits andeverything I have with this chamber. What
advice would you give them? Sothat's a great question and an important question.
So the first thing I would dois exactly what we just said,

(20:21):
is fill out your profiles. Alot of people aren't doing fully and it's
great. But then as far asyou as a person goes individually, starting
to participate in things is really important. We have some masterminds, business owner,
women's nonprofit, We have a realestate coffee If any of these things
fit you. It's great. Startcoming out to events, come to lunches.

(20:44):
We have lunch and learns, cometo after hours we call them cocktails,
and commerce. So those are wonderfulthings. Start to get engaged.
You'll start to know people as youcome more regularly. We also do we
have committees young professionals. And remember, once you're in the chamber, everybody
in the organization is part of thechamber as well. So if you join
the Chamber and you're not really ayoung professional, but you have young professionals

(21:07):
on your team, they're all partof the Chamber and able to participate in
any of those things. Also,if you need help with your business,
please let us know. As Imentioned, Margie down and I have all
been business owners and we can helpdirect it to resources and more. And
Margie's fantastic at cutting through red tapeor helping with things that need permitting or
parking, all these kinds of things. Just call us and see how we

(21:30):
can help you. If you're inthat it's chamber has I love this chamber
because there's business conducted, friendships made, and it's a friendly and serious group.
Also, I am happy to speakwith anybody about how to make the
Chamber as effective as possible for theirspecific organization. We've had a good but
general conversation. If somebody has aspecific business unless to think about how they're

(21:52):
going to interface with the Chamber.I'm happy to speak with everybody. Fabulous,
fabulous Connie. Thank you so much, Thank you so much for much
you're doing, For everything that you'redoing every single day for the Chamber.
I appreciate it, and thank youfor doing the pockets. I really love
them. I have them, Ilisten to them as soon as they come
out. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much,