In this episode of "Not Just Buildings," host Foster Garrett and guests from the Bedford Area Chamber of Commerce discuss the podcast’s rebranding, upcoming events, and new initiatives to support local businesses. They highlight the value of the Community Guide, Smart Networking series, and enhanced advocacy efforts. The conversation emphasizes intentional member engagement, updated mission and vision statements, and the importance of collaboration for regional prosperity. Listeners are encouraged to get involved, share feedback, and explore the many resources and opportunities available through the Chamber to help Bedford thrive.
Transcript:
Foster Garrett 00:01:07 Hello and welcome back to Not Just Buildings. Now, you might be wondering, do I have the right podcast? What on earth is not just buildings? Well, listener, I'm pleased to tell you that we have renamed Chamber Vibes to something that more accurately reflects the purpose of this podcast, which is to tell the stories of businesses, non-profits and institutions in the area of Bedford, Virginia, which we do by talking to the real local people working behind the scenes.
Foster Garrett 00:01:31 Plus, the new name is pretty catchy, and it's inspired by longtime chamber and board member Bill Moss, who always says that businesses aren't just buildings, they're people. Thank you, Bill, for your years of service to our chamber and business community. We appreciate you. Anyway, thanks so much for sticking with us as we grow. And if you're new to the podcast, we're glad to have you join us as we kick off 2026. Now for our official introduction. Welcome to Not Just Buildings, where we interview the local people behind businesses, nonprofits, and institutions in the area of Bedford, Virginia. My name is Foster Garrett, and I am the Director of marketing and events for the Bedford Area Chamber of Commerce, which is a membership organization whose mission is to serve as a catalyst for local business success, a convener of regional leadership, and a champion for a vibrant and resilient economy. However, before we get to the interview, I would like to highlight some of our upcoming programming and events. We offer a little bit of everything for everyone, so I encourage you to stick around to learn more about what's next.
Foster Garrett 00:02:27 But if you want to just jump straight to today's interview, no worries. You can find all of our programming on Bedford Area Chamber. Com and I'll drop our phone number at the end of this episode, so make sure to listen all the way through. But welcome back everybody. I am so grateful to be here with you in this new year. We have lots, lots of things planned for 2026, and we have only been back in the office for about three days now, but we are swamped. We have so much to do because we have a great year ahead of us. January is an amazing month because we do all of our partnership renewals, we have new members that are coming on, and we have our kickoff event for the year, which is called in with the new. this year will be held on Thursday, January 29th from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Bedford Area Welcome Center. And it is an amazing way to start the year off strong. Start accomplishing your business goals, start making new connections with other chamber members and people living and working in Bedford and the surrounding areas.
Foster Garrett 00:03:31 It'll be a really fun night just to come by, say hello, shake some hands, meet some new people, enjoy some more d'oeuvres, and share some business cards. So we really hope to see you there. It's a free event. you don't have to register to come. We'll also have some table set up by some of our newest chamber members from last year. So you can come learn about some of the new businesses that are in our area and some of the people that are just new to our chamber. But I really encourage you to come out there because it kind of just sets the tone for chamber involvement for the year. If maybe last year you came to a couple of events, or maybe just a podcast or the radio or one offs with some of our programming. This is a great way to kind of dip your toe back into it. And if you've never come to anything chamber related before, whether you're a member or not, this is a great way just to meet me and Kayla, our board members, our ambassadors, everybody that's kind of the core of chamber leadership will be there.
Foster Garrett 00:04:31 And it's just a good way to figure out, you know, what exactly we're about and how you can get involved and how it can serve you and what you do. like I said, that's January 29th, and that's really the start of the year for us. I could go through everything, but I'll just I'll highlight a couple other things that are happening in the spring. We have our spring job fair on April 17th from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Blue Ridge Community Church at New London. Registration is open for that. And our fall job fair, which is happening in August, also at the same place. we're so excited to have Blue Ridge Community Church in New London be our permanent home for this event. We loved partnering with them last year. They have an amazing space and we're just excited to continue growing this event. and welcoming job seekers and employers alike. If you think that you'll be needing to hire great people, in April or August, you can go ahead and sign up. We actually are offering 10% off for anybody that bundles both job fairs.
Foster Garrett 00:05:33 we have a lot of people that come year after year to every event. and this is just a good way to get it all on your calendar and save a little money, too. also in March is our CTE Expo Career technical Education Expo. that's happening on Wednesday, March 11th, and it's kind of an all day event. It's from roughly 930 to 3:00 and it's happening at Susie G. Gibson Science and Technology Center, which is right in the town of Bedford. Off it. Off of Edmunds Street. I am super excited for this event. This is something that our chamber has partnered with Bedford County Public Schools to do since 2017. It, of course, fell off during Covid when we couldn't do a whole lot, especially with students, and we have brought it back over the past three years and tried to make it a little bit more relevant and impactful to the experience offered by Bedford County Public Schools. if you didn't know, we actually have over 60 different, career and technical education courses offered across all of the high schools and middle schools.
Foster Garrett 00:06:39 And that's in addition to Susie Gibson, which offers 15 different programs that typically end up with some type of certification in a technical field, such as nursing or HVAC or construction or auto body or anything like that. So we're really grateful to have those programs in our community. And we want to, you know, tell students more about those things because a lot of people don't know about them until they're in high school, and then they're having to make those decisions. We want to try to give students the opportunity to come into their ninth grade year with an expectation of what is available, and we also want to show off all these great programs and teachers and students that are doing this great work to our business community. So if you, as a business person, would like to give back to students and inspire them as they start their high school education journey and very shortly, their career journey, this is a great way to get involved with the schools. we are just inviting everybody to come participate. There's no cost to it, and all you have to do is get in contact with me.
Foster Garrett 00:07:49 We'll put you in contact with the teachers if there's a relevant course to your your industry, and you guys can come up with a hands on demonstration for the students. we'll have like 10 to 20 students per group. they'll spend like 15 to 20 minutes with you. And it's just it's a great way to just kind of plant that seed early in the minds of students about maybe I if maybe they're not college bound or they're looking at different options. this is a great way to show them.
Foster Garrett 00:09:18 Alternate avenues to success. Especially right here in our local community. I've talked a lot. We have lots of things going on. I'll keep telling you more and more as those things get closer. But if you want to learn about anything, like I said before, everything that we offer is on veterinary chamber. Com and you're always welcome to reach out to us with questions. The chamber would love to hear from you. Whether you're a chamber member or community member, or just a listener who enjoys our podcast. But that's enough for me. Without further ado, please allow me to introduce today's guest, Caleb Boone, with Bachelor Chamber of Commerce. Kayla, welcome to the podcast.
Foster Garrett 00:09:58 Thank you. I know it's so funny introducing you, Kayla, but with Bedford Area Chamber as if I don't see you every single day, right? Well, Caleb. Welcome back. it's always fun to have you on because I feel like we could just chat forever, but it's always cool to kind of give the chamber itself a platform to talk about what we do. That's not before everybody scroll speeds through and get to the actual chunk of the podcast.
Kayla Boone 00:10:25 It's funny, too, because I always tell people when we are meeting with members or potential members, we have to kind of go through and see what they are looking for most out of chamber membership, because if you and I just went through every single thing that we offer, we would be talking all day. And that's kind of how this podcast could go. We could probably be here for six hours.
Foster Garrett 00:10:47 We probably could. I've always thought it would be fun if, like, I dedicated, you know, like the last 15 minutes of the podcast to just asking, so what are your business goals for the year? And then I can like give them some suggestions how maybe opportunities that we offer, things we just know about could help them, but unfortunately it would not be 15 minutes.
Foster Garrett 00:11:03 It would be five hours because every time I have one of those meetings, we dedicate like 30 minutes to it, and then we're there for like an hour and a half.
Kayla Boone 00:11:10 Yeah, I mean, that's that's a really great issue to have.
Foster Garrett 00:11:14 I think that's a great issue.
Kayla Boone 00:11:15 And really depending on people's schedules, if you need us to give you a quick five minute, here's the most important thing you should do. We can totally do that. But if you want to hear everything, we'll give you everything.
Foster Garrett 00:11:26 And like prepping for it too. I'll have a page of notes. I'm like, here you go. Here's all my possible suggestions. Let's go through it. It's I love doing that. Yeah, because there's so many ways that we can just help people. It's not always obvious. We're often the connectors and the door openers more than anything. But that matters because you never know what you don't know exactly. Well, Kayla, let's let's give everybody I mentioned what the chamber is in my spiel.
Foster Garrett 00:11:52 But do you want to just give an overview in your own words? Sure.
Kayla Boone 00:11:58 the way that I always explain it is that we're a membership based organization. We help businesses, individuals, nonprofits. And there's a saying in the chamber world, if you've seen one chamber, you've seen one. So just generally what that means is that every chamber, while we have very similar goals, big goals, big vague things that we're trying to accomplish, the way that we accomplish them is very different across the board. so, you know, we have a lot of people that don't know what a chamber of Commerce is whatsoever. Some people think they might know. Some people are like, yeah, you know, when I lived in this other town, I was involved in that chamber. And half the time when that's the case, what we do is totally different than what that other chamber does. So, you know when you're trying to get involved with the chamber. I think that it's always really important and really impactful to meet with the staff and figure out what exactly that chamber does, so that you can know exactly how they can benefit you the most.
Kayla Boone 00:13:02 And I always like to throw out there because a lot of people don't know. Our Chamber of Commerce is an independent, non-profit organization. There are chambers out there that are part of the local government. They're fully funded by the government, what have you. That's not the case for us. We partner with our government and they're great collaborators with us. But at the end of the day, we are an independent nonprofit and we rely on people paying membership dues. We rely on having sponsors and having people come to events and participate in our things so that we can continue what we do.
Foster Garrett 00:13:36 I think that's like both the great strength of our chamber and most chambers, but also a great weakness because we are an organization that is made up of members or made up of people, made up of businesses. And if people aren't engaged, then you know what's kind of the point? Because we're doing this for our community. And I think it's been awesome to really see people as we've kind of grown over the past three years and change some of the things that we do and offered new things.
Foster Garrett 00:14:07 Talking to everybody, you know, what is it that would serve you best? What are you most interested in? And seeing people kind of come out of the woodwork and come together in not only support that, but be a part of it. It's so it's amazing and it gives us a lot of freedom to be innovative compared to if we had to deal with the red tape of local government. And I think our partners often see that, and that's why it's great to have them as collaborators in what we do, because we have their support, but we have a lot more freedom and ability to serve in different ways.
Kayla Boone 00:14:40 We do. And that's one of the great things about having such an amazing board of directors is that they hired me to do this job. I hired you to do your job. And for the most part, I'm able to make the important decisions day to day. I don't have to wait until board vote to do certain things. And that's, you know, when I first was hired, I made it very clear that I was not one to just continue doing things for the sake of doing them.
Kayla Boone 00:15:08 That's how we've always done it. I if it's not impactful, if it's not serving people, I don't see the point in spending your time and energy and resources on it. So we've changed so much over the years very intentionally, not just for the sake of changing it, but because we want clarity. We want things to be impactful. yeah.
Foster Garrett 00:15:34 It's it's funny to say that because I feel like that's not like a crazy take, but a lot of people just aren't able to do that, or they don't have the vision to do it. and it's been really rewarding for me to be a part of this team and really evolve our chamber. And even since you came on last summer, we talked a lot about, you know, your role as president, CEO and some of the things that we had changed at that point. But even since then, I feel like a lot has shifted and morphed.
Kayla Boone 00:16:04 It has. I mean, we're we're really constantly evolving because our community is constantly evolving. The economy is constantly evolving.
Kayla Boone 00:16:13 And our role, what people need from us is always evolving. And that goes back to being a membership organization. If you're not keeping up with the ever changing landscape of your community, the economy, at some point you'll be completely irrelevant as an organization. So you have to keep up. even if you know there are people out there that don't love changing things or they say, well, the chamber's done this as long as I can remember, but if it's not serving people today, then it doesn't really matter if that's what we've always done.
Foster Garrett 00:16:46 Yeah, and we've changed. I mean, we can go into some of the things that we've like changed and added. But even just renaming this podcast, I mean, God, that was a good feeling. I love I love that we're finally getting to do that because I absolutely love this podcast. But we always just refer to it as the podcast because the name doesn't give you an idea of what it is that we do and why we do this. And the reason that we do this is to tell the stories of our chamber members, and to connect you as a listener to them and to our community.
Foster Garrett 00:17:19 And I always say, like, I love I love doing this because I love talking to people first of all. But yeah, but I also just like learning about new things in our community, the hidden gems, the different resources if I ever need them. the services that I now use, the fun things I get to do with my friends and family, and the referrals that I get to give.
Kayla Boone 00:17:39 Yeah. I mean, there are so many things that you and I know about our members solely because of this podcast. Yes, we have a ton of people that are. Everyone's always slammed. Everyone's busy. No one has enough staff. No one has enough time in the day. But people carve out an hour, an hour and a half to come do this podcast, and the amount of information that we can get out in that amount of time is so beneficial. It really helps us accurately refer your business, and it helps us just know more about your business in general. Because a lot of things I mean, I'm thinking about Russ with Pinnacle Financial Partners.
Kayla Boone 00:18:18 He's been on our board the whole time I've been here. He's been vice chair, chair. He's been on the executive committee. I know Russ very well, but there were tons of things about pinnacle that I did not know until he came on this podcast.
Foster Garrett 00:18:31 And I think it's hard sometimes, especially through chamber work, to kind of separate the person from the business. But I think this podcast gives like a nice blend of both. You're getting their personal stories. You're getting professional stories, you're getting the organizational story. And it's all from like the people that are doing the work and know what they're talking about. And it's I think when I ask people to like, you know, think about talking about what they want to say, it kind of forces them to reevaluate, you know, what is what is it that I do? What do I want to actually tell people about our organization? And there's some a lot of the nonprofits that come on, they have to cut themselves off because there's so much that, like, nonprofit members are able to do.
Foster Garrett 00:19:16 And with businesses, it's a little bit more straightforward. And there's certain things you can and cannot say. But even then, like I find, I just discover the most interesting things about people. And I will tell you, I listeners, you would love to be a fly on the wall once we finish this podcast, because then we're like, by the way, I wanted to say this thing, but I couldn't say it on air. I'm like, yes, tell me more. But it really is great. And I, I've loved like seeing our our listenership grow and it's it's sometimes a little creepy when I'm out in public and people are like, I recognize your voice. Are you the host of the Chambers podcast? And I'm like, yes, I am. Or like, but it's it's great. And that's happened more times than I can count at this point. Yeah. Which is really interesting. But I mean, it like freaks me out a little bit because I'm like, oh my God, it's crazy.
Foster Garrett 00:20:04 Recognize me from my voice. But it's also good to know that people are actually listening and that it's helpful.
Kayla Boone 00:20:09 Yeah. And for our members, it's a member only benefit to be able to do our podcast with us. It's no extra cost to you. And a lot of the times if you like the the cost breakdown, if you will, of a podcast episode nearly pays for your chamber membership in the entire year if you looked at it that way. So just if you only do the podcast and you don't do anything else the whole year, you pretty much get your money's worth. And like we said a minute ago, that's an hour of your time. So it's a really great benefit. I'm so glad we've been able to continue it all this time. and I'm looking forward to continuing it under the new kind of branding with the new name and all that. but another thing that is coming up new is our 2027 Community Guide.
Foster Garrett 00:21:00 Oh, yes.
Kayla Boone 00:21:01 And I just want to touch on that for a few minutes.
Kayla Boone 00:21:05 because it really is kind of one of the most visible ways that we support and promote our local businesses. You don't have to be a chamber member to advertise in the community guide. We are transitioning back to a one year guide instead of a two year guide. We've done the two year guides for, I guess, two editions, so for years. but going back to changing things very intentionally, it was a very intentional decision to go back to a one year guide because things change so quickly. Businesses open and close and move, and there's just so much that can change in a year. So we wanted to make sure that that information was as accurate and up to date as possible. and, you know, it's just so widely distributed, especially through the Welcome Center, it goes directly into the hands of new residents, visitors.
Foster Garrett 00:21:59 I think they had something like 30,000 visitors for the whole year last year. Yeah, and D-Day had 60,000. And our, our guides are really there at the welcome Center, of course.
Foster Garrett 00:22:11 And they mail them to people and give them out. But also, there's the train, my old friend. there really anywhere that you can think of there at Poplar Forest? there are all the airports in the area, anywhere with a lobby. If you go to the salon, you might see a guide there. If you go to Bedford Country Club, they fly off the shelves there. It's ridiculous. People come in for tournaments and stuff, and they leave with a handful of guides to share with people, but they they really do travel far. And it's not just demographics of our community, which is of course useful, but it's also telling the stories of like Smithtown Lake and the Peaks of Otter and giving people, you know, an idea of what Bedford is like at the heart of it. We can't capture everything. Yeah, but we want to make it aesthetic. We want to make it informational. We want to make it inspirational so that you want to come here and you want to live here, and you want to play here.
Kayla Boone 00:23:04 Yeah. And for a lot of people, it's like the first kind of introduction to our community, our business community. and I think that being included as an advertiser, it's more than just advertising. It's the credibility of your business. Yeah. Saying I'm I'm an established business here. I'm a trustworthy business here. The credibility of being a chamber member and being in an addition like that is, is really important. So that the ad sales are open right now for the community guide. They'll be open for the next nine or so months. and you'll see some information in the newsletter and in our office and wherever else you look, because we have it everywhere. But we have an estimated publication of January 2027, so it'll be a full, you know, 12 months that that guide is out there. So we're really looking forward to that, new addition and moving back to the one year to make sure our information is as up to date as possible.
Foster Garrett 00:24:09 Yep. And we have a lot of different we have a lot of programming that we've like tightened and strengthened and grown, but we also have some new things going on this year.
Foster Garrett 00:24:19 Kayla, is there anything in particular that you want to highlight specific programming? Yeah, I know, I feel like we're still in like the I haven't announced this stage for some of it.
Kayla Boone 00:24:31 Yeah. We're still, you know, confirming some things. But one thing that I think will be really exciting is a new advocacy event that we're working on putting together. We don't have all the details yet, but just the importance of being kind of the center of your community and advocating for different things has become more and more important, especially in our local elections. We already do our legislative wrap up breakfast in the spring to kind of recap the General Assembly. And of course, that's more like a state level. But our candidate forum in September is for local elections to do a Q&A with anyone, any candidates that are up for election. And we've changed that kind of over the years. People said they wanted to see the candidate forum before early voting started. So we made that switch, I think last year or the year before.
Kayla Boone 00:25:27 So we're looking at adding a third advocacy event this year to just kind of strengthen. I think all of our advocacy programming as a whole. I think that it would be able to add a lot more perspective as we go into the candidate forum. So excited about that. We'll announce that once we have more of the details all together. But I'm excited about that and I'm excited to, kind of strengthen and improve our smart networking series. We started that, I guess, two years ago now.
Foster Garrett 00:26:02 Years ago.
Kayla Boone 00:26:02 And the concept is just really neat. I mean, we take topics that people are specifically asking for from our member survey, and it can be anything we've done hiring, marketing, grant writing. It can be anything that you're suggesting that you say you need help with in your business. And we spend more time than you would probably believe trying to figure out how many of these we can do, because we want to solve as many problems as we can. So the grant Writing smart session or smart networking has been extremely popular.
Foster Garrett 00:26:35 Very popular, very helpful.
Kayla Boone 00:26:37 We're this year trying to kind of expand that a little bit. I think we have hopefully four or more that we'll be able to pan out. So it's it's just really nice to be able to directly answer issues that people are facing and just kind of, you know, make our like, we're talking about the whole kind of concept of this podcast ever changing, ever evolving to make sure that we're giving our members what they need most.
Foster Garrett 00:27:04 Yeah. And I love the smart networking sessions because it is it's so focused on what people are asking us for. they're not terribly long. They're generally two ish hours, and they're very affordable if you're a member. if you remember, it's free. If you're not a member, it has a very low cost, and we just want to make it accessible to everybody. we're really excited to keep doing it this year and to make it better. And if you're interested in facilitating anything, anything at all, we have a couple ideas on what we want to do and we have a plan.
Foster Garrett 00:27:39 But the hardest part is finding people that are willing to teach others or to just talk about their own experience. Some of the Smart Network networking sessions are facilitated by awesome people like Joanne Miller and Emily Joseph, who do our grant writing workshop, and they know a lot about grants. They know a lot about writing for grants and distributing them and helping others, you know, complete those applications. But some of the other ones that we're thinking about are going to be panel focused. So if you are willing to talk about what is that you do, let us know. Let us know. We might not, you know, need your experience at the time, but it's nice to have it in our back pocket if we do for sure.
Kayla Boone 00:28:20 I mean, there, there. It's hard to find people that are willing to talk about certain things because they don't think that they know enough about it or they don't feel like their subject matter expert on whatever it is. But a lot of the times, people just want different perspectives.
Kayla Boone 00:28:36 And the people who come to these sessions are not coming here because you're the number one person to talk on this subject. It's because you are able to offer a perspective that they don't have. Yeah, especially when we have a panel, because we are sitting down in our office trying to say, if we have five people on this panel, let's get five totally different people that do totally different things, so that our audience will be able to see as many types of perspectives as possible when they leave.
Foster Garrett 00:29:05 Yeah. And what I often hear at smart networking and business roundtables and really any other event where we have a topic, oftentimes people learn much more from each other. And just like answering questions and sharing their own experience than they do from just a presentation. So we want to make these as interactive as possible if maybe you're like a grant writing expert or your very experienced HR manager and you don't really think you need the help, but you are willing to attend and share your experience and make new connections with others in the room.
Foster Garrett 00:29:41 Please come. We want to have you there. We want to have you as part of our chamber, even if that's like what I always tell people to like, if they feel like they don't really need, like, help with their business or they're already established like, that's awesome. We still want you to be a part of this because you have a lot that others can learn from. And it's a great way to kind of, you know, foster a healthy competition in our workforce.
Kayla Boone 00:30:03 Yeah. And it's amazing to go from being the person that needs a lot of help to being the person that can offer help to others. That is amazing growth and not everyone experiences that. So if you have made it to the other side, again, that's a great perspective that you can offer someone who's just starting out or feels like they have a ton of questions, or they don't know what the future looks like in that subject. You are a great example of what an extra year of work or whatever could be.
Foster Garrett 00:30:34 That's awesome. We want to celebrate you. Yeah, we want you to be part of our community. Well, I'm going to kind of soft on the programming because how on earth have we ever been talking for this long? Time flies. Time flies. But we have a lot of other stuff to cover, and we can talk about programming for literally days. something that I think is a really exciting, new change is our new mission and vision statement. And you have kind of been the brains behind the operation on that. So I'm going to let you just delve right into that.
Kayla Boone 00:31:03 Perfect. I wrote some things down, so I did nice. Everything I wanted to say. we have had our at least the mission statement. I don't know for sure about the vision statement, but our mission has been the same since we were incorporated in the 39, so that's crazy.
Foster Garrett 00:31:21 That's a very long time.
Kayla Boone 00:31:23 86 years of the same mission statement, and it has served us well over the years. but again, we talked a lot about how the chamber has evolved, the community has evolved.
Kayla Boone 00:31:38 And just in the last few years, even since the two of us have been here, we've seen a lot of changes in how businesses operate. We have put a lot more focus on workforce collaboration, especially with our schools, with the CTE Expo, with our local government. So we wanted a mission and vision statement that really clearly reflect what we do every day. It wasn't just we didn't change it just for the sake of changing it. We changed it so that we could have that clarity, have the relevance, and people would be able to see who we are, what we do and where we're trying to go. So you mentioned our new mission statement in your introduction.
Foster Garrett 00:32:27 I did.
Kayla Boone 00:32:28 But the official new mission statement is to serve as a catalyst for local business success, a convener of regional leadership and a champion for a vibrant and resilient economy. So again, going back to intentionality, we were very careful about the wording that we chose. We wanted it to really represent who we are and what we do.
Kayla Boone 00:32:50 in our new vision statement, you know, meaning what kind of future are we working towards? The dream is a thriving region where businesses grow, communities prosper, and leadership works together for a shared future. And again, all of this super, super intentional. I spent months going back and forth, changing little words here and there. But one thing that I noticed when I first started here in your role, everyone is doing amazing things in Bedford, but no one talks to each other. No one knows what other groups are doing. So a lot of times you have people that are all rowing in the same direction, but they're in all different boats. If we would just all get in the same boat and keep rowing that same direction, we would get there so much faster. So I'm really made it a priority to collaborate more, have more intentional partnerships. and we've we've really taken huge strides in those things over the years. But kind of how the mission vision is impacting us is it gives us a really clear kind of pathway.
Kayla Boone 00:33:59 When we have someone suggest a new program, suggest a new event, we can kind of go through our mission, our vision, our strategic plan, our community impact pillars, which will mention in just a second and see, does that align with what we're trying to do? We really are trying to bring everything together, make sure that everything is as impactful as possible as we move into the future. So our four community impact pillars are. Regional prosperity, workforce and talent and development, civic engagement and future leadership. And what these four things do are really bring focus, consistency and purpose to everything that we do. So, you know, we've we've changed a lot of programming. We've cut some things. We've added some things. And again, these four pillars really give us that framework to be able to figure out what means the most, what matters the most. Who does who does this program serve? Why does it exist? So I'm really looking forward to these changes. You'll start seeing them on social media and website and all that as soon as we can get to it.
Kayla Boone 00:35:07 But as of January 1st, it's our official new branding.
Foster Garrett 00:35:13 That's so exciting. Yeah, I love it so much. And it's it's amazing from like a staff perspective, how it changes, how we frame everything, how we talk about ourselves. Everything that we do. Yeah. But also for a member. Do you want to talk a little bit about, you know, how this affects them and their experience as a chamber member, whether they're, you know, super close to us in a committee or whether they're, you know, maybe not super involved yet or just getting started with their involvement.
Kayla Boone 00:35:45 Yeah. I mean, I think that changing this kind of helps us shift. We're already kind of doing this internally as a staff, but we're shifting from kind of a one size fits all approach to chamber membership to something that's more. Sectioned off, if you will. I mean, we want things to really benefit each member as much as possible. And the things that benefit the BWF and from Atom and big businesses like that.
Kayla Boone 00:36:23 Those things don't always necessarily benefit the really small mom and pop coffee shop that's downtown. So we're really trying to kind of section off our programming and making sure that we're working as well as we can for each person and each individual member. But one thing that's kind of difficult with that is we don't want to say we can do this for you, but not for someone else. Yes, that is not the point at all. It's this is what we do. Here's how we can tailor it to help a non-profit versus a large business. So we're really making sure that we're sticking to what we do, what we do. Well, we're not over committing. And this mission, vision, community impact pillars our strategic plan. Everything helps us shape everything really nicely so that we can present to you what it is we really do every day. Because there are tons of people right now that still have no clue what we do every day. Yeah. People come into our office every day. Oh, what is this? I thought I thought this was.
Foster Garrett 00:37:24 Can I jump off my electrical bill here, please?
Kayla Boone 00:37:27 Yeah. So just changing this is kind of helping us move to the future of more comp. Having a compact way of saying this is what we do and this is what we can offer, not just to our members, but to the community as a whole.
Foster Garrett 00:37:42 Yeah. And I think that circles back to come talk to us. Come talk to us even if it's just a quick phone call or email or if you happen to be in town, you just want to pop by for ten minutes. Come talk to us.
Kayla Boone 00:37:53 Yeah. And we have our chamber chats. We have a Calendly link. It's on our Facebook website. you can schedule a 30 minute meeting with us. It's probably the best way just to make sure we're not in a meeting or anything when you pop by. But we're more than happy to get on a zoom call. If you don't want to come to Bedford or, you know you can come to us, we can come to you.
Kayla Boone 00:38:17 And just kind of walk through things. What what we do, how we can benefit you, what you're looking for. If you have any suggestions, if there's anything, you know, legislative type things that you are really passionate about. While we don't directly impact that. I can take any suggestions, especially things that I'm getting multiple times, and I do make sure that I get those to our town council, our board of supervisors, our delegates, even if it's more of a state issue. So if there's something like that that is important to you or your business, come to the chamber, let me know. Send me an email. Even because it goes back to kind of the credibility of chambers of commerce and being a member. If we, as the chamber say, hey, delegates, this is what we're hearing from businesses in Bedford, it it kind of can be a little bit more impactful.
Foster Garrett 00:39:16 I mean.
Kayla Boone 00:39:16 For them to know that multiple. We're hearing this from multiple people, and it's not just a random one off here and there.
Foster Garrett 00:39:26 I'm like trying to decide if we need to be quiet now, if we need to wrap ourselves up because we've been chatting for a while, but and we had a lot of other things that we want to talk about, of course. But I think, I think like kind of the message of this episode is we're changing because we want to help you as the world changes, and there's so many ways that we can equip businesses with the knowledge and the training that they need and the opportunities that they need to get in the door with people. And if you aren't a part of our chamber, now would be a great time to join. like I said, at the very beginning of this January 29th, we're having our, kickoff event for the year. Again, that's a great way to just come meet everybody. That's kind of at the core of chamber leadership. learn more about, you know, what we're about. And also, we want to learn about you, because that's the best way that we can, you know, tell you about the things that we're not going to tell everybody, you know, come to our Christmas market.
Foster Garrett 00:40:26 We want you to sell your your goods there, but we probably will tell you, you know, we have, a great workshop coming up that we think that you could be a part of or we want to have this type of networking event next year, but we need a great space for it. Do we think your building could be great for it? Or even just if you tell us about yourselves, we're going to talk about you to everybody. Yeah, we talked so many people we do.
Kayla Boone 00:40:50 Our referrals are one of the biggest things that we do. I mean, people that even people that don't totally know what a chamber of Commerce does, they know that they can go to the chamber chamber to get a referral for a business. We have people call stop in, and sometimes it's very niche. We may not always have someone in our membership, but you do have to be a chamber member to be referred.
Foster Garrett 00:41:18 Yeah.
Kayla Boone 00:41:18 From us. So that is another kind of piece of that credibility and another great benefit of being a chamber member.
Kayla Boone 00:41:25 I mean, even connecting, I had a member who had recently joined. They came in for a chamber chat, and we were going through some different options of things that they could do with us, and I ended up mentioning Media Squatch to them, and they were like, oh, you know, they had never heard of it. And I was like, go, go talk to it. So yeah. So, I think, you know, looking ahead, we're kind of focusing on like a deeper impact. Like you're saying we're not just focused on more activity and just trying to get you to do everything. We want it to be impactful for you and your business. and that's also why we have shifted so much of our programming over the years is because just because we have five events a month doesn't mean that it's impactful. Yeah. So we you might feel like we have less events on the calendar. We don't do as many.
Foster Garrett 00:42:21 Freeform network.
Kayla Boone 00:42:22 Freeform networking the business after hours before hours. We really don't do those anymore because people don't really enjoy them with us.
Kayla Boone 00:42:30 And you know there are other groups that might do that kind of thing better than us. And I don't mind saying that, you know, if you do something that is successful, go for it. For us, it was not very successful after Covid. So that's why we switched. And now we're doing the smart networking where you get a little bit of that freeform networking, but the bulk of it is educational and you're walking away with a lot of information and resources plus those connections.
Foster Garrett 00:42:57 Yeah. And I like that we have those opportunities that you can kind of make what you want out of it, even though there's some structure and doing speed networking too. I love doing that because you I, I've gone to we've done so many of the freeform networking, and it can be really fun sometimes, but it can also be like, why did I just talk about the weather with five different people when I'm here to make business connections, or there's like a ton of people at one but nobody at the next? It's just.
Kayla Boone 00:43:26 Yeah.
Foster Garrett 00:43:27 I like having structure. I like being able to guarantee that people will talk about their business with others, they will promote themselves. They will get X number of new connections out of it. You're going to go home with a nice bag of business cards for yourself. And it's I just love that we can do that. And our job fairs have grown are I love the job fairs. Yeah, I love the job fairs.
Kayla Boone 00:43:50 One thing that I do want to make sure we mentioned before we wrap up is just heading into the new year. People seem like they get busier and busier. They don't want to make the time for different things. Kids, you know, there's so many things that keep you from going to just another event or another work meeting or anything like that. But kind of a piece of advice going into a new year is to just be intentional about how you're engaging with us, and that goes back to you saying you're not going to tell everyone to come to the Christmas market, because that's not going to benefit everyone.
Kayla Boone 00:44:29 If you're being intentional about how you're engaging with us, what you're doing with us, show up in the ways that make sense for your business. you know, and with the new is a really great way to connect early. I mean, you you can't be out of place there. We'll have so many board members and ambassadors there. If you walk in looking lost, you won't take two steps before someone over there talking to you. So it's it's just a really kind of inclusive environment, where you can kind of meet some new faces. And then between the expertise of us, our ambassadors and our board members, we will be able to give you connections to people, even if they're not in the room that day. but another really important piece of chamber membership in general is the visibility. And that goes back to things like the community guide, the podcast, the radio. You're looking for ways to tell your business's story. And we have so many opportunities to be able to do that and kind of help you long term.
Kayla Boone 00:45:39 and my final point about this, okay, is that chamber membership is not always like quick wins. Sometimes you have to think of the long term. And I always think about the job fair and the CTE Expo, the CTE Expo. We're focusing generally on middle school students. There are businesses that have a hard time saying, why would I spend all day talking to eighth graders when I need people to work right now? the answer to that is those eighth graders will be working for you in just a few short years, and if you are able to put the time and energy into these kids now, it will really, really pay off for you in the long run. We get it 100% that we're busy. We don't have the time either, but just being able to think long term really can benefit you with chamber membership in so many ways, because there are so many things that while it may not give you what your what you think you need right here in this moment, it will in six months, in a year.
Foster Garrett 00:46:48 And I think it's I think so many businesses are community minded nowadays. Like they really think about what is going to benefit the Bedford area. And I love that. And I think sometimes we get down in the drag, especially later in the year when we're burnt out and we're like, we just need to. We need the quick fix of money, of employees, of time, getting everything done, wrapping up and I totally get it. But sometimes it's important to think about, you know, what is? Why is the chamber doing this? Yeah, we're doing this for your benefit as an individual organization. But our like our true purpose is by helping the businesses, nonprofits, organizations, institutions and people in our chamber. We can therefore serve our entire area and help Bedford prosper.
Kayla Boone 00:47:38 Right. And that's one of the best things, in my opinion, about Bedford is the people, the sense of community. Everyone is so proud to be from Bedford. They're proud of this community, and they want to do whatever they can to help it prosper.
Kayla Boone 00:47:55 So, you know, it's I'm from a small town very much like Bedford, but the kind of community feel of having so much pride for your town really is different here, and I hear that from everyone else. That's like, oh, I just moved to Bedford a few years ago. The people here are so nice and it really is true.
Foster Garrett 00:48:19 It is.
Kayla Boone 00:48:19 True. Just the difference in people here and just seeing how people want to be able to improve our students and our community in general, because eventually those kids are going to have to make a decision. Do they move away, go to college, get a job somewhere else, or do they come back home? And for a lot of people, it can seem like coming back home is the worst choice, if you will. But that's just not the case at all. We have such a great area here. We just have to show people why they should stay here.
Foster Garrett 00:48:52 Yes, yes, and I, I like I'm a person that's from here that came back here and I got a lot of like, are you okay? Like, did something happen? Why are you back? I'm like, no, I love I love my hometown, I love Bedford, I love working here.
Foster Garrett 00:49:05 I love my job. I love what we're able to do for Bedford through this work, and I think it's just important for us to when it comes to like the student partnerships especially, is show students that it's not just get out or be stuck. There's so many different things that are available right here, and whether it's training or a career or a college or just a great place to live your life and raise your family or whatever. I think it's really what you make of it, and I think it's just really, I don't know, I think it's important for businesses to be involved with that. And we offer a lot of different ways to get involved with schools, but also to get involved with workforce development and the chamber as a whole and other businesses. So if maybe some of the things we've talked about strike a chord with you if you want to come out to some programming, or maybe you want to be more involved and you want to serve on a committee or you're interested in being on our board, we would love to to talk to you about it.
Foster Garrett 00:50:05 there are so many great untapped resources and different people and potential here, and our goal is to to collect them all, to collect them all, and to work together and do great things together.
Kayla Boone 00:50:17 Yeah, absolutely.
Foster Garrett 00:50:19 Okay. I think that I think we should end on that note.
Kayla Boone 00:50:21 Yeah. I think we're at a good stopping point.
Foster Garrett 00:50:24 Well, if people want to get in touch with you to learn more, or maybe they're considering becoming a member, what's the best way to do so?
Kayla Boone 00:50:32 The best way to get in touch with me is by email its CEO at back. Org. It's also on the website under the staff tab. Both of our email addresses are listed there. our office is open Tuesday through Thursday, 9 to 5. You can stop by if you'd like. one downside of having a small staff is that we do sometimes need to close the office for a little bit. Like, right now, it's 10:00. No one's there because we're both here. So, you know, I think that email is probably the best thing.
Kayla Boone 00:51:04 Or you can go on our website and sign up for a chamber chat. In that way, you know that, you know we have a meeting time on the schedule, but I'm totally open to hearing any thoughts, ideas, feedback, suggestions. kind of as we move into the future, like, like we've mentioned, we're we're kicking off our new mission vision community impact pillars. Our new strategic plan is starting this month. So we have a lot that's kind of looking into the future, and I'm always open to hear what thoughts people have. So feel free to send me an email anytime or stop by.
Foster Garrett 00:51:40 Well, thank you so much for taking the time to join me today, Madam President. Anytime, anytime I'm going to remember that. Well, you're listening to Not Just Buildings, hosted by the Bedford Area Chamber of Commerce and produced by Media Squatch. There are so many great people working together to make the Bedford area a great place to live, work and do business. And we hope that by telling their stories, our listeners are able to become more connected to our community.
Foster Garrett 00:52:03 After all, there are so many hidden gems, services, resources and amazing opportunities just waiting to be seized right here in the area of Bedford, Virginia. If you liked this interview, I have great news for you. New episodes come out every week, and we have lots of episodes for you to catch up on in the meantime. Episodes are available on Mediawatch plus our producers local streaming app as well as Spotify, Apple Podcast, our weekly newsletter, Facebook and website, and anywhere else you can find podcasts. If you want to learn more about us at The chamber, we encourage you to check out our website, Bedford. Com or give us a call at (540) 586-9401. Thanks so much for listening and keep an ear out for the next episode of Not Just Buildings.
Time Stamps:
Podcast Introduction & Rebranding (00:01:07) Host introduces the podcast, explains the rebranding from "Chamber Vibes" to "Not Just Buildings," and its community focus.
Upcoming Events & January Kickoff (00:02:27) Overview of January partnership renewals, new members, and the "In With the New" kickoff event on January 29th.
Spring & Fall Job Fairs, CTE Expo (00:04:31) Details on spring and fall job fairs, and the March CTE Expo for career and technical education.
CTE Expo Details & Community Involvement (00:06:39) Explains the CTE Expo’s purpose, student opportunities, and how businesses can participate.
Weight Watchers Advertisement (00:08:18) Another Weight Watchers ad, focusing on member experiences and program flexibility.
Grainger Advertisement (00:08:49) Grainger ad featuring an HVAC technician and the company’s product support.
Transition to Interview & Chamber Overview (00:09:18) Host introduces guest Kayla Boone, discusses the chamber’s role, and the value of membership.
Chamber Membership & Customization (00:10:25) Discussion on tailoring chamber benefits to individual member needs and the diversity of chamber offerings.
Chamber Structure & Independence (00:13:02) Explains the chamber’s nonprofit status, funding sources, and independence from local government.
Chamber Growth & Community Engagement (00:13:36) Reflection on chamber growth, member engagement, and the benefits of innovation and collaboration.
Chamber Leadership & Decision-Making (00:14:40) How the board and staff make impactful decisions and intentionally evolve programming.
Podcast Renaming & Purpose (00:16:46) Significance of renaming the podcast and its role in sharing member stories and community resources.
Podcast Benefits for Members (00:20:04) Podcast as a member benefit, its value, and the upcoming 2027 Community Guide.
2027 Community Guide Details (00:21:01) Information about the new annual community guide, its distribution, and advertising opportunities.
Programming Updates & New Advocacy Event (00:24:09) Highlights new and improved programming, including a planned advocacy event and the Smart Networking series.
Smart Networking Series (00:26:02) Description of Smart Networking sessions, their member-driven topics, and opportunities for involvement.
Member Involvement & Peer Learning (00:29:05) Encouragement for experienced members to share knowledge and foster community growth.
New Mission & Vision Statement (00:30:34) Introduction of the chamber’s updated mission and vision statements, reflecting evolving community needs.
Mission, Vision, and Impact Pillars (00:31:03) Details on the new mission, vision, and four community impact pillars guiding chamber activities.
Member Experience & Tailored Benefits (00:35:13) How the new mission and vision shape member experiences and programming customization.
Chamber Chats & Member Communication (00:37:42) Promotion of Chamber Chats, open communication, and advocacy for member concerns.
Referrals & Impactful Programming (00:40:26) Importance of referrals, impactful programming, and focusing on quality over quantity of events.
Networking Structure & Job Fairs (00:42:57) Shift from freeform networking to structured events and the growth of job fairs.
Intentional Engagement & Long-Term Value (00:43:50) Advice for members to engage intentionally and consider the long-term benefits of chamber involvement.
Community Pride & Student Retention (00:47:38) Discussion on Bedford’s community pride, encouraging students to stay, and the value of local opportunities.
Closing Remarks & Contact Information (00:50:19) Wrap-up, contact details for the chamber, and encouragement to connect and participate in future programming.
Key Words:
Not Just Buildings, Chamber Vibes, Bedford Virginia, local businesses, nonprofits, institutions, Foster Garrett, Bedford Area Chamber of Commerce, podcast, meal delivery service, Cook Unity, Weight Watchers, Grainger, marketing and events, community events, networking, job fairs, Career Technical Education Expo, CTE, community guide, membership benefits, advocacy, Smart Networking series, business success, regional leadership, economic development, community engagement, business directory, local partnerships, workforce development, event participation, member engagement, strategic plan, mission statement, vision statement, community impact pillars, collaboration, business referrals, educational events, networking opportunities, local economy, small businesses, community pride, student partnerships, business resources, hidden gems, podcast platforms, Bedford area services, Media Squatch.