Steven Latour With Westfield Chamber of Commerce & Downtown Association

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Association Leadership Radio. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here another episode of Association Leadership Radio and this is going to be a good one. Today on the show we have Steven Latour with Westfield Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Association. Welcome.

Steven Latour: Thank you so much. I appreciate being here.

Lee Kantor: Well, I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about your work at the chamber. How are you serving folks?

Steven Latour: Yeah, I’ve been in my current position for two years now, and we happen to be in a community that is growing leaps and bounds. So we’ve got new businesses here all of the time coming into Westfield. And so it’s a real opportunity to connect those businesses and the people working for them with city services, networking, connections, all the things that they need to be successful and what they’re trying to accomplish here in Westfield.

Lee Kantor: So what’s your backstory? How did you get involved in this line of work?

Steven Latour: My back story is that I was a former fraternity CEO, so I worked for a national college fraternity and we had chapters across the country, 80 different chapters across the country. And I loved it. Got to travel the country, been to over 300 colleges and universities. And I knew that I wanted to get into public service at some point. And so I had purchased a home here in Westfield, started to get involved in the community, and the chamber job opened up and I thought this may be the ticket to get involved in the community and may eventually lead to public office at some point.

Lee Kantor: Now, when you’re working at a chamber, can you talk about your vision of what that optimal chamber experience would be for a member?

Steven Latour: Yeah, I think some members kind of join and then think something magical happens and then suddenly they have new leads and people that are calling them and stopping by their office. Maybe if you’re a donut shop, you’ve got people stopping by, but for the most part it’s really a way to engage in the community. You know, I’ve got the benefit of knowing our entire city council and the mayor and several of our elected folks. But I also have the benefit of knowing almost all of the CEOs of our larger businesses here in town, all the way down to the restaurant chain managers and owners. So when you’ve got those connections, it’s really easy to begin to help people find out the folks they need to meet and connect with. Learn and grow. I think we after school or training, you want to stay sharp and stay on top of what’s going on. So the chamber offers those educational opportunities. It offers networking opportunities, social opportunities. It’s a real way to feel integrated into the community deeply.

Lee Kantor: And you brought up a great point. I think a lot of folks, when they see there’s a chamber or they decide to join the chamber, they might be looking at it as a transactional opportunity where I’m going to go in, I paid money, so therefore I’m going to get business when it’s really a connection and relationship opportunity where you can build deeper relationships. So you might do business down the road, but it isn’t really to go there and show up with a bunch of business cards and then leave with a bunch of money.

Steven Latour: Yeah, absolutely. If that were the case, we would be doing very well. But we’ve got a lot of in our chamber, we’ve got 500 businesses that are a part of that, which represents about 8000 individuals who work for those companies. And I always tell folks that it’s being engaged, it’s coming to things. And it’s true for most chambers around the country. Most of what they do is free. It’s the occasional luncheon and stuff that you’ve got to pay for. So if you’re not sure, go check it out, Attend some of the free things, meet some folks, and I think you’ll start to see the benefit of your own engagement, and that will prove that it’s worth investing in.

Lee Kantor: But is that some kind of part of the education you have to give in order to manage the expectations of a member that it isn’t something that you just pay dues and then money appears that this is something that you have to lean into and really invest your time into if you want to get the return you like.

Steven Latour: Yeah, I think that’s it exactly. I often use the analogy. My mom was a toy buyer for Kmart and they would come up with the best toys in the world, but until they were on the shelves, people weren’t able to buy them. So you’ve got to be the person on the shelf in front of folks so that they can see what it is you’re doing, who you are in the community, what it is you’re trying to sell them so that they can get involved and potentially buy your product. It’s not enough to just have an ad somewhere or to say that you’re a member. You’ve really got to engage and be on the shelf.

Lee Kantor: Now is part of your bio. You use the the phrase high velocity culture change brand enthusiast and advocate. Can you talk a little bit about what you mean by high velocity culture change?

Steven Latour: Yes. So there is this book by Price Pritchett and Ron Pound. And it’s it’s a simple quick read called High Velocity Culture Change. But I found this book about, I don’t know, 15 years ago, and I have used it time and time again. And it’s really proven to be a good resource for me, but also a source of inspiration. So in every case that I have come into in my career, I often find those organizations are a little stale. Maybe they’re looking for some change in direction. And so how do you make that happen in a way that is quick? Because sometimes it could take a very long time to turn turn the corner. So when you’re trying to find those quick wins, it’s important to have kind of this guide. And so, you know, some of the concepts from the book are really freeing your people to be themselves and to do their best selves, expecting some casualties from that. Meaning you may lose some board members, you may lose some staff members, but if there is a vision that people have bought into, then those losses may be a moment of sadness, but they’re not going to be an anchor that weighs you down and keeps you away from accomplishing your goal. I’m a big believer in achieving hard results in a hurry. So, you know, when you’re trying to make some change, you want to put some wins on the board because then people start to feel like, well, this is a winning team and I want to be a part of it. When I got to our chamber, there was two full time individuals on staff. We had about 420 members and we were up 225,000 chamber. Two years later, we’ve got four people, four full time people on our staff. We have I just presented a budget to the board last week for 580,000. That would not have been possible if I didn’t bring everyone along. I have a really strong communications plan and really promoted the vision of Westfield and how we were a part of that, both as the chamber and the Downtown association.

Lee Kantor: So how do you keep score? How do you define the metrics that matter?

Steven Latour: Yeah, for me, a big one of those. There’s this concept and it’s in the book as well called Seizing the Schools. You know, you want to be sort of the go to person or company or organization that people rely on for educational support, statistics, information. And so that’s really what I and our staff have started to do. We we look at all that data and information that’s in the community and then folks come to us for that source of information. So I think the engagement that we’ve seen increase the sponsorships that we’ve seen increase and participation just in person at events, the connections that people are making. And we’re also looking at when people are upgrading their membership, that tells me that they’re finding value in the relationship that they’re having with us.

Lee Kantor: And how do you kind of determine what is important to your members at any given time? Because things obviously, if you were pre-pandemic, things that were important are different today than they are post-pandemic?

Steven Latour: Yeah, certainly. I think it’s really taking a hard look at your community and trying to understand what direction is the community going in. We’re very fortunate that Westfield is a suburb outside of Indianapolis and we’re next to a suburb called Carmel. That’s done extraordinarily well. It’s been one of the top places to live in the United States several years in a row. Westfield’s recently started to get some of those accolades, and it’s because we’ve taken some of the best that we’ve seen in our region and we’ve put our own touch to it. And so I think we’re looking at a community that’s growing at a fast pace. We know that we have people moving into our community that are coming in from, frankly, all over the world. We just had to have it labs open, a new facility here, and a third of their staff don’t speak English as a first language. So how are we as the Chamber, encouraging our restaurants and other businesses to make sure that they have bilingual menus and all those things? That’s where I think that the community sees value in us having those conversations and bringing that to the forefront. So it’s understanding the community, it’s knowing the direction we’re going in and then trying to meet the moment.

Lee Kantor: So how do you work as a bridge between the different constituents in terms of, you know, universities and or large enterprises and the solopreneur? Like you have to you know, you’re serving all of those constituents. How are you able to kind of engage them in a way that creates connections and creates opportunities for each of them to play nice together?

Steven Latour: Yeah, it’s a great question. We’re fortunate that we have a very large community college based here in Hamilton County called the Ivy Tech. We have a great relationship with their staff and the Chancellor. We have a great relationship with a lot of entrepreneurial entrepreneurs who are looking at getting some of their business up and running and connecting them to well established businesses here in town that are looking for people to help manage communications, people to do it, people to do accounting. And so I think it’s having that mixture of in a base of membership. And when we have people that look at joining, we say, you know, yeah, we’ve got a couple of accountants, but I can tell you that we’re referring accountants all the time or we’re referring I.T. support all the time. So having those folks that we can connect to and meet with and share with. It’s all, I think, all about understanding where those companies are and having that. I’ll use an old term, but Rolodex available, although it’s all on the computer now of people to go to and connect with and refer to. So and we track kind of those referrals, but knowing that we have those abilities to make those connections quickly can often save some time and some money.

Lee Kantor: Now, any advice for a leader of a chamber that maybe, you know, you’re in a couple of years, but when you first started, can you share maybe the advice of what those first hundred days look like?

Steven Latour: Yeah. One of the things that I actually did when I worked for the fraternity and became the CEO was I visited every single chapter in a year. It took a year, but I got to all at that time 68 campuses and met with their students and I learned a ton and it positioned me to be able to make some very intentional changes going forward. And I did the same thing when I got to the chamber job. Within the first three months, I met with 100 of our members. And so it was a lot of coffees and a lot of sitting there and having great conversations. But what it did for me is give me insight into what are their company struggles, individual struggles, what is what is their relationship with the city and the city staff? What’s the relationship with the chamber? And then it’s allowed us to begin to make the modifications and changes that need to be made to meet folks kind of where they are, to support them and help them be the best organization or business that they want to be. And so that was a big piece of it. I think the other was understanding what is our direction, what is it that we want to be in the community because we can’t be all things to all people.

Steven Latour: I think we can name tons of companies who’ve tried to do that over the years and we’ve watched them fall. So what is it that we do really well? Let’s keep doing that and let’s do that even more on a broader scale. So I think the connecting part, the education part, there’s no one in the community that can educate like the chamber because we have the ability to bring people and resources together. We also have the ability to bring businesses together. Last year we launched a Hoosier Chocolate Fest and it was an opportunity to highlight chocolatiers and bakers who didn’t have an ability to organize all that on their own. So we brought everyone together and had a sell out event over the course of two days and had over 1200 people come through and and raised 40,000 doing it to support our chamber and two other chambers that we’re doing with us. So I think it’s those those initial meetings, it’s having an understanding of what the vision and purpose is going to be and then beginning to build the operation.

Lee Kantor: I think you brought up a great point in terms of investing the time to listen to the constituents before you make kind of massive change. So here first, learn first, and then based on that data, then you can make a better informed choice and kind of craft the vision that really works hand in glove with the expectations and the desires of your constituents.

Steven Latour: Yeah, 100% agree. I think you have to do that to be successful. We all have hunches, right? We kind of think we know what some things are are going to be or are not going to be. But I would tell you that I you know, 30, 40 people in there were things that I thought were issues that weren’t issues. And there were things that I didn’t even considered that were brought to my attention that seemed like easy wins for us. So definitely worth the time and energy. And I still do that. I probably meet with four or five different people every week outside of all the other structured meetings and things that I have just constantly listening now.

Lee Kantor: Have you do you have kind of a vision of the role of a chamber in today’s world that might be different than, you know, your father’s or grandfather’s chamber?

Steven Latour: Yeah, you know, this chamber is 40 years old and it was actually started as a local business association 20 years before that. So, you know, back in 1960 when they kind of got things going, the little town of Westfield was about 4600 people or so, maybe less than that. And the chamber then was really meant to be a social connector for the men and women who were involved in the business community and also do some things for the community. So they were the first ones to have the parade and the first ones to do some events around the 4th of July. I think there’s still a place for that in 2022. But what I have been really pushing among our membership is to say we are the best ambassadors for our community. There’s probably no one who will be better ambassadors than us, and we want to be successful and we want to win because if if we’re all doing well and the community is doing well and our schools are doing well, then the community as a whole is going to be the best of the best. So it’s not we’re not going to get anywhere by tearing each other down or complaining about streets or parking or anything like that.

Steven Latour: As businesses, what we need to do is come together. Think of ourselves as ambassadors. And then how do we work through? Negotiate and come together on finding solutions for problems in our community so that we can move forward. And so I think that’s one of the biggest shifts that I’ve seen. The other pieces, I think that we as a chamber need to have a hand in hand relationship with the development office within the community so that we can be at the table with them so that when businesses come in and go through all of that city process on what needs to happen to to build something or put something in. Then they look at us and say, well, what are the schools like and what will my employees do for fun in the evening? And what are the experiences that they’ll have? Because so much now is about the experience that people have. It’s not just what they do from a traditional 9 to 5. So I think we’re a good connector there. And the ability to help the city sell us on being a great place to live. But in the end, I really think our chambers in 2022 are the ambassadors for the cities they represent.

Lee Kantor: So what do you need more of? How can we help?

Steven Latour: Well, I think the biggest hurdle we’re now facing is that we’ve we’ve grown up in a world where you have a person from a company who is the, you know, the contact at the chamber office. And so there is, for example, a hospital when I got here that we had one contact name in our database at the time, and it’s a hospital that employs 1300 people. And so I sat down with their CEO and HR director and I said, I appreciate that we’ve got this person to go to. And they’re phenomenal. But you’ve got an entire company of people who we have an opportunity to connect them, to volunteer opportunities and mentorship opportunities and community events that not only that we’re hosting, but that service organizations are hosting, that the police are hosting, that the city’s hosting. Just recently we had a huge trick or treat night that was companies sponsoring that for the community. So we want to your individuals working for your companies to be the member of the chamber, and we want you as the company to be our partner. And so that’s one of the shifts that for us at Westfield we’re making. And I think it’s working so far, but we view the company as our partner because we wouldn’t be here without them. And we we view the individuals working for that company as the member. So I think really it’s those folks who are running companies, it’s giving your employees the opportunity to connect, to serve on boards, to volunteer, to engage, to go to events. And so that means sharing those emails and that contact information and then talking to your staff about why that information is important to share with the chamber so that they can really feel a connection to the community. And we know that if they feel connected, they’re going to be happier employees and they’re going to be in those positions for years to come.

Lee Kantor: Yeah, that reframing of what a member could be or should be in an organization, it shouldn’t be one person in a 1000 person company. That’s absurd because there are so many young people that are part of the organization that would benefit so much by leaning into their chamber by, like you said, volunteering and showing leadership skills and networking, and not only to help them within their organization, it’s going to help them within their career. I mean, when somebody else sees them as, hey, look at this young person, volunteered and took over this leadership position, look how well they did. Look at how proactive they were. They might be a good candidate for a leadership position in my organization. It’s a win win win all the way around. So I, I can’t I can’t emphasize enough, especially to young people to consider joining your chamber, because that’s where the rubber hits the road. You can demonstrate real leadership skills to a lot of people in an easy manner because those organizations are hungry for people to volunteer and show leadership skills.

Steven Latour: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: So if somebody wants to connect with you, what is the coordinates? What’s the website?

Steven Latour: So our website is Westfield Chamber Indie dot com and I know that seems a little funny, but there’s a Westfield in New Jersey and a Westfield, Massachusetts, and sometimes people confuse the two. So we thought, we’ll go with Westfield Chamber Indeed.com. So that’s our website info at Westfield Chamber Intercoms or email address. But you can find us on all of the social media outlets and reach out, connect, happy to meet with folks, happy to share ideas with not only people in Indiana but across the country.

Lee Kantor: Well, Steve, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Steven Latour: Thank you for the opportunity.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll show next time on the Association Leadership Radio.