Growing together: strategies for building your nonprofit and community hand in hand with Jamie Keyser Thomas

Jamie Keyser:
One of the things when I came in, I mean I knew in the CEO role I knew there was a lot to do. There was a hobbled budget, and a very small staff and we had to do a lot to really be able to rebuild and climb out of the pandemic

Lee Wochner:
In 2020, Jamie Keyser Thomas left her position as a community manager and liaison for the Walt Disney Company in order to assume the leadership of her local Chamber of Commerce in Burbank, California. And then the COVID pandemic hit, and everything she was walking into changed.
What was it like, shifting gears from representing a well-oiled Fortune 50 company to instituting big change to a nonprofit organization at a time when all the economic and societal cards had been reshuffled?
We’ll talk with Jamie to learn what she did, how she did it, and what’s next, on this week’s episode.
Jaclyn Uloth:
Welcome to the podcast that lightens the tension when things sort of get hard…
That’s What C! Said, the Counterintuity podcast, featuring interviews with leaders and doers who have helped to make our world a better place through their actions — and especially through marketing, communications, and embracing change. Here’s host Lee Wochner.

Lee Wochner:
So delighted to be here today with Jamie Keiser, my longtime friend and president, or no, CEO, sorry, CEO of the Burbank Chamber of Commerce. Hi Jamie, how you doing today?

Jamie Keyser:
Doing great and thank you so much for bringing me in. I am excited to have this conversation with you.

Lee Wochner:
Well, we’ve had lots of conversations.

Jamie Keyser:
We have been involved in the community together for like you said 15 years and just being able to sit down and talk about the Burbank community and some of the work that that I’m doing now at the chamber is exciting for me.

Lee Wochner:
That’s great. And we’ve had lots of conversations over the years. And since you assumed this post, and I think it was, is it three years now you’ve been in the big chair, three years?

Jamie Keyser:
Officially, I started in a consulting role, but officially it was January of 2021 that I took the role, I took the seat as CEO.

Lee Wochner:
Okay, and so we’ve had lots of great discussions since then, and I think when you were still a consultant, we were having breakfast and talking about things, and then you’ve certainly put some change in place. So I’m eager to ask you, as a leader and as an agent of change, how you’ve been able to manifest and change. So it’s really delightful to have you here today.

Jamie Keyser:
Thank you. I feel the same.

Lee Wochner:
So, you just referenced it. You just referenced it. You’ve certainly been a committed volunteer. and you’ve served on the boards of by my count, 11 billion nonprofit organizations. I think that’s the correct number.

Jamie Keyser:
Yeah, I think

Lee Wochner:
is it now leading one? How is it serving as a CEO?

Jamie Keyser:
You know, it’s really great. So I worked at the Walt Disney Company for 30 years, which is a very different experience, working for a large conversation corporation versus a small nonprofit. But
the role has been really great. The chamber is a small business with six employees, but the plus of that is that everyone gets to touch many aspects of the work. We can make decisions quickly. We can, we get to know each other intimately and have really been able to create a fun, positive working environment where everyone supports each other. And no day at the chamber is ever the same. We have a broad reach in the community with community connections, our businesses, to city leaders and departments. to nonprofits and school districts, hospitality. So our reach within the community is really broad. And I think that that’s one of the most exciting aspects of me serving in this role at the Chamber. What I love so much about being able to connect with the community.

Lee Wochner:
So probably a lot of people aren’t that aware of chambers of commerce. Can you tell us what a chamber of commerce does?

Jamie Keyser:
Yeah, so in my role at the chamber, what we do is we’re an advocate on a resource hub for businesses. We help businesses really focused on our small business community that’s coming out of economic recovery from the pandemic to really help them promote, be able to navigate the city and be able to show up at city council meetings when we need to. with our advocacy hat on to be taking a look at certain bills and measures that we need to do that are really going to affect the community and how the Chamber can serve in that role, but really also being this great hub for our members and the community at large where we give them a platform to come out and mix and mingle. and really get to talk about their business and get the community to know who they are within Burbank.

Lee Wochner:
Well, I think a well-run Chamber of Commerce that’s really integrated in the community is a real lifesaver. And I first got involved with the Burbank Chamber of Commerce in 2004, and it really helped me build my business. And then since Counterintuity was created through a merger, I mean, it’s really helped us and it’s been a great partnership. We’ve learned a lot. We’ve made really good friends. And we’ve made a lot of money and it’s just been a terrific partnership. So, you know, hats off to you and your forebears.

Jamie Keyser: Thank you

Lee Wochner:
Well, you’re welcome. So what are the joys of running a nonprofit? You know, I sit on a board who this morning we had a little panicked text and then some board members had a call and there was a you know there’s there’s always some problem that might come up unforeseen and there was one of those. So this is not a cake walk and I don’t even know what a cake walk is. I should look that up after this. Running a nonprofit is like running any other business. It’s not a cake walk. What would you say are the joys and what are the hard parts?

Jamie Keyser:
So the joy I think is that I get to wear many hats. So no day is ever the same at the chamber. You never know what’s gonna come at you, what are the priorities for that week. It’s really also nice to be able to be, serve in this leadership role and to take some of my leadership experiences on boards and through trainings and different things like that and be the leader that. I see that I would like to have in front of me or that I would like to be with my community, with my staff and within the community. And I like that we’re constantly evolving and we’re constantly working on new things. So once we tackle one assignment, we’re moving on to the next and that keeps the work exciting. And that’s what I love. We don’t ever come in and have the same. mundane day-to-day roles and responsibility. It’s always different, it’s always collaborative, and we always find a way to have a good time, even when it may be a stressful situation or we’re up against a deadline. The team has respect for one another. We do the all hands on deck model when we need to, and it’s just been something that’s worked really great for us, and we’ve established a really wonderful respect for one another here at the Chamber.

Lee Wochner:
What are some of the hard parts?

Jamie Keyser:
what are some of the hard parts? There are hard parts. And especially, you know, working 30 years for a large corporation where you have resources at your fingertips, you don’t have that necessarily at a nonprofit. So we have to be mindful all the time of our spend where there’s no wiggle room. I mean, now I used to walk into a huge supply closet and have everything at the ready for me to take. Now we scrutinize everything of how much is that going to cost? Can we print our documents in black and white so we’re not using up the ink? Those types of things. But here’s kind of a funny scenario. At Disney, when I was there, we had a line that you were able to dial at any time called 6800. So when you needed help with the facilities team at Disney because there was a leak in the bathroom or… your trash can was overflowing or something else like that. You dialed 6,800 and you got a guy. Well now working in the nonprofit world, I am the guy. There is no 6,800, I’m that. So I come in and I pull it in the morning and we have a leak in the sprinkler or something out front, or I notice that there’s a leak in the ceiling. We have to figure that out. And that can totally derail your day, but you don’t have to. those resources that you once had working for the small business. And even the technology side of it too, we had someone that we could call if we had those incidents. Now you kind of have to feel, you have to figure out how to manage those resources inside on your own. One of the other things that’s kind of a blessing and a curse, to be honest with you, is that is that now I have 26 bosses, you Lee Wochner being one of them. And that’s my board of directors. So I report up to a board of directors. B e accountable to all of these people that are working outside of the chamber day in and day out. And on one hand, there’s so many aspects of it that I love, but also that can be challenging because I’m not just reporting to one person anymore.

Lee Wochner:
So, anybody who has crossed from being a funder to being a funding recipient knows what this might be like. So, when you were at Disney, you helped coordinate corporate giving in the community. And now, as the CEO of a nonprofit where Disney is headquartered, you’re actually seeking corporate sponsorships from them and from others. How did it feel switching hats to go from, Jamie is giving money through Disney, a Fortune 50 company, and Jamie’s asking for money from the Fortune 50 company and Warner Brothers and others.

Jamie Keyser:
I am not going to to lie about that, but let me tell you, it’s much easier to be on the side where you’re giving the money than asking for the money. And I remember a good friend of mine, David Levinson, David Levinson is the head of Big Sunday. And he said that, you know, he had so he has so many friends in the community. But now when they see him coming, they usually cross over to the other side of the street. because they know he’s coming in for an ask of some sort. And now that I’m on this side of the house, I completely get what that entails. And here’s the other thing too. When I’m getting these donations, which I’m so grateful for and that we count on here at the chamber, the large corporations now, they have a robust online system that you have to go onto and fill out these extensive surveys on exactly what you’re dealing with. So it could be as much as a thousand dollar donation, but then you have to go online to figure out, to fill out all the information and figure out exactly what they’re looking for. But they’re painting a landscape, so in their annual report, that they can really capture what their annual giving report looks like. So you’re asking, you’re answering questions for a thousand dollar donation on What’s the diversity and inclusion plan? Who is the people that is getting this money? How is it gonna be divvied up? What is the outcome? What’s the mission statement of the Burbank Chamber of Commerce? So even going in for that, it’s not just all the time like a check just shows up in your office. There’s a lot of work behind the scenes that take place to make those donations happen.

Lee Wochner:
You know, that works the other way around too. We do annual reports for a number of our non-profit clients. And they need to be able to tell that story quickly and ideally visually at a glance in their annual report to go get more funding. So it’s important to collect that data on both sides of the spectrum from the grantor and the grantee.

Jamie Keyser:
And it’s hard sometimes when you’re doing an event, let’s just say maybe like state of the city or something, it’s hard to be able capture

Lee Wochner:
What is state of the city?

Jamie Keyser:
yes, the state of the city is our local version of state of the union by our president, where we have our current chair, or excuse me, our current mayor that comes out and talks about what is going on behind the scenes in the city of Burbank. But even with that, and you have, you know, you’re selling a table, and you don’t necessarily know who the guests are at the table beyond names on a spreadsheet, it’s hard to be able to talk about the diversity in the room. So those are some of the challenges now that with what we’re doing with the charitable giving aspect.

Lee Wochner:
Well, I personally know how much positive change you’ve already manifested. So it’s not bringing me down. I’m excited to have you in that seat. So have you had any change in your thinking going from being a leader, a community leader at a Fortune 50 company to being the leader at a nonprofit? Have you had to adjust your thinking or your operational mode or anything?

Jamie Keyser:
Absolutely. And it’s much more of a big picture now that I have. Before I focused on my day-to-day responsibilities and what my role was, knowing that there was a ton of leaders above me that were focused on their aspect of it now. Now everything in this CEO role, I have to take a look at everything from content that we’re sending out to programs that we’re developing to board development. to all of those different types of things, I find myself sometimes it takes me into the weeds where I need to just make sure that I’m still, you know, looking at everything through my leadership lens, but it’s hard not to have to get into the trenches and be able to put your stamp on all of the work that’s done with a small team.

Lee Wochner:
So every leader makes, I wanna talk about organizational change for a bit because part of my interest in speaking with you in addition to you being so successful and my friend is that I know that you’ve made change at the Burbank Chamber of Commerce and it’s been exciting to me. And so every leader makes change. and hopefully for the better. And I just finished reading Jack Welch’s memoir of his time running GE, General Electric, where he put massive successful change in place. Peter Drucker called him the most successful manager of the century. I mean, that’s pretty impressive.

Jamie Keyser:
Definitely.

Lee Wochner:
So I wanna ask you, so now, let’s take the six months as a consultant. What were your first six months like? How did you get into this and what did you discover?

Jamie Keyser:
Well, I gotta tell you, the first six months were really tough. And a lot of that had to do because I came in smack dab in the middle of the pandemic. So everything was on lockdown. The chamber, the normal day-to-day operations of the chamber and the events that we were working on and different things like that, it all had halted. So the first thing that I had to tackle when I came into the chamber in late 2020, was State of the City, which we talked about. So this, normally what we do is we fill the Marriott Ballroom with over 600 guests at a nice luncheon where everyone’s there, can mix and mingle, and hear the mayor up on stage talking about, you know, what’s going on within the community. But the first year that we did that, I was doing this with Mayor Sharon Springer, and it was our first ever virtual State of the City. So trying to do something like that, where you’re actually doing it on Zoom, basically, was challenging. How are we gonna do this? How are we gonna get people to tune in? What else can we add since we’re not having the mix and mingle or the lunch component? So we did a panel discussion with some key leaders within the community. But what really hobbled us too, was there were really no funding streams. So normally what you’re doing is you’re selling a sponsorship, people are coming in and buying a ticket. being treated to a nice lunch. You don’t have that when you’re tuning in to Zoom. So that made it, it definitely made it challenging. We were able to adapt, but at the end of the day, we weren’t able to get the funding that we normally do for one of our large scale events. And it

Lee Wochner:
How

Jamie Keyser:
was

Lee Wochner:
did

Jamie Keyser:
also

Lee Wochner:
you,

Jamie Keyser:
hard to,

Lee Wochner:
what

Jamie Keyser:
to

Lee Wochner:
did

Jamie Keyser:
be

Lee Wochner:
you do

Jamie Keyser:
honest,

Lee Wochner:
about that? And how did you ever come

Jamie Keyser:
it

Lee Wochner:
back?

Jamie Keyser:
was also hard to connect with our members. We weren’t doing any kind of member mixers or anything like that. So we were trying to support them by promoting their business through our e-blast or on social media, but there wasn’t a lot that we were able to do with our members as well. And because a lot of our small businesses were struggling in the pandemic, we lost

Lee Wochner:
Mm-hmm.

Jamie Keyser:
a significant amount of members as well.

Lee Wochner:
Yeah, when this by the way, I was opposed to the pandemic right from the outset. I was against it. I never voted for it Um when uh when the pandemic started and everything shut down um, so you know, we have to take in six figures a month and I would I would walk home because the office Of the time was it was near my house. I’d walk home and tell my wife. Well, we took in 235 today Um, it was uh, it was no joke

Jamie Keyser:
Right.

Lee Wochner:
but you know at least at least we’re privately held and we had resources, a small nonprofit must have been, it must have been hair-raising.

Jamie Keyser:
Absolutely, and thank goodness for the PPP loans that we were able to tap into.

Lee Wochner:
Well, what would you, what did you, so, okay, so now we got the pandemic situation, right? And now you’re a consultant at first and then an employee running a nonprofit, an important nonprofit in the community. What did you discover? What do you think you found out in those first six months that hadn’t occurred to you or that you didn’t know? And you’re very connected in the community, by the way. So I’m curious to know what you didn’t, what you felt you learned that you hadn’t known.

Jamie Keyser:
So what we learned initially was how to pivot, is being able to take in this information and quickly figuring out how to adapt, like so many of us did, that’s not isolated to a chamber or a nonprofit, but even what you were sharing out with your business. So that’s what we had done. And really looking at things through a different lens to understand that were things gonna come back to the way that they’ve always been. or how were we gonna adapt as, you know, as all of us are having to adapt? Are people coming back to the office now? Are people still working remotely? Even when we started with our board meetings, it was, I didn’t really, I knew a lot of people on the board of directors. I didn’t know all of our board members. And it’s really hard to get to know your board when you’re doing a monthly board meeting by Zoom. So unless you’re an agenda item or unless you have something to share with the board, I didn’t hear from anyone. Sometimes it was just a photograph on the screen for the duration of the meeting. So it took me a while to really get to know my board of directors, to really be able to get out there. We weren’t able to do any ribbon cuttings to celebrate the new businesses that were coming into town. So it was really kind of a quiet time. But also I think what worked to my advantage was that I came in with not a lot of chamber knowledge. I knew what the chamber had done. I never served on the board. I didn’t know exactly what it was, but I knew we were kind of rebuilding after our 100 year celebration with all sorts of different things that we were doing. So it gave me an opportunity to really look at things differently and figure out who the chamber was going to be in our next 100 years and as we adapt as a community and a society from the pandemic. So I think that actually kind of worked to my advantage at the beginning. It kind of broke down the barriers, if you will. And then the sky was the limit. Okay, here we are with a clean slate. How are we gonna make this work? Was really what we had to do to approach the work.

Lee Wochner:
As someone who has run a number of nonprofits himself, I think that that glass half full attitude you just shared is essential. It’s really important, because you have to be looking ahead all the time, and you have to look at what you’ve got and how you’re gonna get there. And it has to be built on hope and optimism and working toward that goal.

Jamie Keyser:
I absolutely agree with you 100%. And I kind of knew that going in, that it was gonna be an upward battle. And again, a lot of that was pandemic. So that was a challenge that I took on from day one and we just rolled up our sleeves and said there’s a lot of work to do, so let’s get to it.

Lee Wochner:
So how do you decide what needs to change? I mean, you know, knowing it’s probably a long list because, you know, look, everything everywhere can be made better somehow, right? I mean, how do you prioritize?

Jamie Keyser:
Yeah, so one of the things when I came in, I mean, I knew in the CEO role that there was a lot of work to do. We had a hobbled budget and a very small staff and we had to do a lot to really be able to rebuild and climb out of the pandemic. So what I did was I really couldn’t look at the big picture because it was quite frankly too daunting. So what I did was I made it a priority to set three goals for myself every year in my CEO role. So these were the things that we wanted to accomplish. So we were able to focus on those. And then once that was done, then we were able to pivot and do the next three things that we needed to do. Honestly, if I looked at it holistically, I would have wanted to crawl under my desk and go fetal. So I couldn’t do that. And so there’s still more work to do. But now that I’ve been here for two and a half years, it’s really nice to be able to look at that strategy that we did with those goals that we’ve accomplished and really see how we’ve been able to rebuild the chamber and really take this work to another level. So that was what proved to be successful, to be successful for us. And some of the successes. that we’ve had with that model was we did rebranding with a whole fresh new look and feel. We build a positive relationship with the city of Burbank. We didn’t have that at the beginning and I think doing this work together is essential. We created the What’s Brewing in Burbank member and community mixers. And what we did was we now are doing this at unique venues throughout the city. It could be a morning coffee chat. or it could be an evening happy hour with beer. So a lot of different things capturing a lot of different audiences. And we had heard that a lot of the mixers that we had, it was low attendance and you had a lot of the same people coming over and over again. Well, now what we’re finding is just using what we did at West Coast Customs. We did a mixer and had 160 people there. We did have some topic speakers of a race to end homelessness. And we had Home Again LA talking about the services that they did, as well as the city of Burbank, their homeless service program and what they were doing. And it was really well attended. We do it every other month now instead of every month. And people are constantly looking at us. What’s next? What do you have to offer? So that’s been really successful. We also created the Chamber Excellence Awards. The Chamber Excellence Awards is we just finished our second annual. And it’s about celebrating small businesses and Burbank heroes who go above and beyond to support the community. The small guys that we don’t get to hear about who are truly doing amazing things within the community. We just launched about a month ago, we just launched a brand new website. It looks fantastic. The traction that we’re getting is absolutely incredible. It’s exceeded expectation. And one of the things that we’ve been working on as well is board development. making sure that our board is diverse, that we have representation from our large businesses, our nonprofits, our small businesses, and a really robust group of leaders that can really help to guide where we’re going with the chamber. We also wanna make sure that whatever we’re doing is providing a personal connection with our chamber members. It’s not just sign up and you don’t hear from us until we come knocking on your door to ask for something, but our doors are open for you, you’re our members. What can we do to support you? So that’s been a bit of a different approach that’s been extremely successful. And one of the things that we’re working on right now is we took our physical guide to Burbank, and we took it to a whole new impressive level of this interactive digital version. That’s been really great. So in the two and a half years, those are some of the key buckets that we’ve been able to achieve. There’s a lot more work to be done. Over the summer, I’m gonna be working on some of the strategy work. I’m hoping that you as my board member are gonna be able to put your hat on and help me with that. But that’s some of the work that we’re looking to do moving forward and our big priority for the summer.

Lee Wochner:
Well, I’m looking forward to that. And that is indeed my role on your executive committee these days. So I’m excited about that. We’re gonna take a short break. We’ll be right back in just a few minutes when we talk with Jamie Keiser about how she helps to build community, when we learn some more from her about leadership and we get a look at the landscape and the future. So stick around, we’ll be right back.

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Lee Wochner:
And we are back on That’s What C Said with Jamie Keiser, CEO of the Burbank Chamber of Commerce. Jamie, so your role with Disney, let’s hear a little bit about what you did with Disney and your role was to be a community representative and to build community, is that right?

Jamie Keyser:
Yes, so over the 30 year span, what’s great about working for a large corporation like Disney is that I had five very diverse careers, if you will, when I was there, but ironically all in corporate. I never made it out to any of the other business segments, but the last 19 years of my career was in CSR, Corporate Social Responsibility, where I worked in… community engagement for the greater Los Angeles community. But because Burbank was our corporate home, I also was tasked with building the relationships within the Burbank community. I grew up in Burbank, so that is why Burbank is so near and dear to me. So I did a lot of charitable giving, community outreach, and I also ran the Disney Volunteers Program. So I was connected in the community wearing my Disney Volunteer shirt. all the time doing fun things like going to Children’s Hospital with Minnie and Mickey and delivering Disney gifts room to room to all the patients. You know, that’s pretty nice that you get paid to actually do that work. It was really exciting and I loved it.

Lee Wochner:
So I wanna make sure that people listening know that the Volant Ears, the logo is, it’s Mickey Mouse ears, so they’re Volant Ears. And when you see them, because every community event you see the Volant Ears, you know that Disney is part of building community and the Volant Ears take it very seriously. They do an incredible job

Jamie Keyser:
Absolutely.

Lee Wochner:
when they show up. It’s always good to see them.

Jamie Keyser:
They are the highest standards.

Lee Wochner:
Yeah. And Disney is high as standards. I mean, there’s

Jamie Keyser:
Absolutely.

Lee Wochner:
a corporate ethos there. There’s a culture there that goes all the way down. And, you know, we’re proud to have them here in Burbank, California.

Jamie Keyser:
We were always proud of good Disney show, good Disney show. And even if you’re at the studio lot and you see trash on Mickey Avenue, you stop and you pick it up because it’s the pride that we have for our company.

Lee Wochner:
Yeah. So, you know, between that and all of your board service, I mean, you are recognized as a community builder. And you were the, wow, you were the Zonta Club, I think I got this right, you were the 2014 Woman of the Year by the Zonta Club of Burbank. And then our Congressman, Adam Schiff, designated you the Congressional District Woman of the Year in 2016. And 2016, you were also the Women Achievers Award recipient. 2017, the Burbank Temporary Aid Center, Top Award for Citizenship, and on and on. So you are certainly not just a community builder, but someone recognized for making a big difference in the community.

Jamie Keyser:
Well, thank you for saying that. I’m humbled by all of that.

Lee Wochner:
Yeah, I probably left out about three times as many other credits. Um, so we always want to try to, you know, who will be the people who carry the legacy forward. So how, how do you go about building community and what can other people learn about how to build community? Because we are in a fractious time where a whole bunch of people don’t want to talk to each other. And it’s heartbreaking to me.

Jamie Keyser:
Yeah. Yeah. I totally agree with you. One of my challenges is, you know, because we have a small team, I often get caught in the weeds. But what I really need to be doing
Jamie Keyser:
is focusing on my role as a CEO and really be out and about in the community. I need to be shaking hands and kissing babies and really building these key relationships. The community needs to see the chamber in action and truly earn their trust. And we’re not gonna be able to do that if I’m sitting in my office behind closed doors. I’ve gotta get out there and I’ve gotta have a presence within the community. It’s harder to do now with people working remotely and some of the things, people being tethered to their, their electronic devices and things like that. I miss the days of just sitting around and just having like what you and I are doing today, just having conversations with people. It’s almost like at times I feel like it’s a lost art.

Lee Wochner:
Let’s talk about marketing and messaging for a little bit. One of the things that I have to tell you I really enjoy is I get more emails now from the Burbank Chamber of Commerce, and I’ve been on that board for I think 150 years. The emails are more valuable. There’s more content in there. and they’re clickable to different events and such. And still I can skim it in like two minutes, find what’s useful and then get rid of the rest of it. How did you, why did you make the determination to improve those emails and what’s been the success of it? Is the open rate pretty good?

Jamie Keyser:
The open rate is great. Our social, so we do weekly e-blast. There now we’ve had so much great content that we’re doing two a week. And our social media platforms are going crazy. We have Instagram and Facebook, and we’ve just launched LinkedIn as well. So that one’s newer, but we’re making great strides and our statistics are great, you know, when it comes to that. But what I say here in the chamber at Nausium, you can ask my team, is I’m constantly driving home the personal touch. I really feel that that is our role. We need to make sure that we are selling, at the end of the day, especially when it comes to membership, we’re selling a product. And we’ve got to make sure that people want to come back and continue to invest in the product that we’re selling, or we’re not doing a good job. So that has a lot to do with our marketing and what we’re doing is taking a close look at what the chamber was rolling out and making sure that it’s good, robust content that’s speaking to a broad audience. So what may appeal to you and you may find interesting may not be appealing to the next guy that’s opening it. So we really want to paint a great picture about not just our members and promoting their business, but what’s going on within the community. What’s going on with the City of Birmingham? What’s going on with City Council? What information does the police department want to share out with everyone? So those are what we’re doing as well, as well as offering tools and resources that could truly benefit the business community.

Lee Wochner:
It’s that content mixture that I like so much, right? Here are the events the Chamber’s doing, here are some workshops that the Chamber’s partnered on because you wisely assessed, well, we can’t do all of these workshops, we don’t have enough people power, but there are organizations we can partner with. Here are some did you know things, did you know these grants available or this loan or this whatever. And the content is always a really good mix, always interesting and relevant. And as I said, I can skim it quickly, matters the most to me and then get out of it because all of us with our own businesses are pretty busy.

Jamie Keyser:
I appreciate you saying that because we’ve worked really hard on this. And also what we’ve learned is we don’t always have to reinvent the wheel. So there’s a lot of stuff that’s already out there that we can research and capture and be able to share that out if it’s something that’s relevant to the business community or just the community at large here in Burbank. And we also want to make sure that we’re recognizing all of these amazing new businesses who’ve chosen Burbank. to open their doors. We wanna make sure that people know who they are, that we’re welcoming them, but we do it on a small scale. So we’re not bombarding you with that, but we highlight in each E-BLAST once a week, we highlight two new members, not two new members, two new businesses that have opened their doors in Burbank.

Lee Wochner:
That’s great. You know, a lot of chambers, my sense of this, and we at Counterintuitive belong to more than one chamber and still do. You know, some are thriving and you’re certainly contributing to how the Burbank Chamber is poised for further growth. And some are really struggling and have gone out of business. So let’s talk about the landscape of chambers and nonprofits and the future. What advice would you give other chambers of commerce?

Jamie Keyser:
So I think that that has a lot to do with collaboration. So I’m involved in the United Chamber, the California Chamber, so it’s really sitting back and hearing what other chambers are doing and doing well. The Chamber of Commerce is kind of an old model. And if chambers aren’t really adapting to the world we live in today, a lot of them are closing their doors. So what we need to do is make sure now that we’re relevant. out there in the community with what we’re doing. So the model of the chambers have changed. So it’s working with other chambers, other CEOs of Chamber of Commerce, what’s working well for you? How have you been able to pivot and being able to take that information, you know, as a valuable resource back and with the work that we’re doing here at the Burbank Chamber of Commerce. I think that’s one thing that’s been really, really successful, is working with other leaders in this space and having really great thought partners.

Lee Wochner:
The first chamber of record, the chamber model, arose in Amsterdam in the 1300s. So I do like to think some things have changed over the past 800 years, but I’m not sure that every chamber has.

Lee Wochner:
So you hear how excited I am about now your e-payments and your emails, and that finally, we’re heading down the digital path that… Some of us have been talking about for a long time of we need to get away from this paper-based thing.

Lee Wochner:
What advice? Well, think of all the tools you have. I mean, you know, when I was a boy growing up in a very remote area, I met people by writing letters into comic books. I mean, because there was nobody around and the comic book would print your letter and your address and then you see other kids’ addresses and you wrote to them. And I mean, you know, now we have the internet.

Jamie Keyser:
The early world is social media

Yeah, that’s right. Now we have social media. Now you are, I think, a mile away from my office here, and we’re doing this over a video platform. So the world has opened up, and there’s no reason that we can’t get together and work together better. And it’s something that in my own little corner of the world I try to work on every day.

Jamie Keyser:
I totally agree with you and it’ all about collaboration for us.

Lee Wochner:
What advice would you give people who suddenly find themselves running a nonprofit? Because there are special challenges and opportunities to nonprofits, which are still businesses, but are of a rather different sort. Like there’s a board to work with as an example. There’s gonna be some degree of fundraising. Some nonprofits is not tax deductible, others it is tax deductible. There are different compliance things. So what advice, so let’s say that someone, just got a nonprofit leadership position next week and you were tasked to give some advice. What advice would you give?

Jamie Keyser:
What I would do is, first of all, really understand what the nonprofit climate is like in Burbank. One of the things that we always said when we were at Disney is we wish that more nonprofits would work collaboratively if they were all focused on a certain mission. So they’re looking to fight hunger. So why can’t they work more collaboratively instead of continuing to grow new nonprofits that are doing the same thing, that are going to the same funding streams to get the money to do some of that. I think that there’s opportunity for that collaboration. I feel really fortunate that in Burbank, we have formed a nonprofit coalition. So monthly we get together and we have different topic speakers about different things, but it’s where people can talk about successes, people can share challenges. And we can really be great thought partners to one another and work collaboratively and share successes of things that are working good. Or, oh, maybe you wanted to think of this, or we didn’t have success when we approached it this way, so you might wanna do something. So that is, I don’t really see that happening in a lot of other communities. That’s… uniquely burbank from what I understand. And I think that that’s really helped us. Even when it’s, you know, we just finished up in the spring, we just finished up gala season. So what we do is we have a master calendar and we’re making sure that we’re not stepping on each other’s foot and we’re being respectful of one another and that our doors are open should we just wanna, you know, be able to, you know, I’ve had coffee chats with many people and they’re like, hey, I would just love to sit down with you and talk to you about this. I’ve approached others as well as now, you know, going from the world of for-profit that I’ve been in my entire life to working for a non-profit. Some of this is new territory. So I’ve really been able to build some great friendships and really get some good sound advice from non-profits in the communities that I admire and respect. And that’s really helped me from a chamber perspective. And now in the two and a half years that I’ve been doing this work, I only hope that I can pay it for.

Lee Wochner:
That’s fantastic. Is there a leader that you think about the most, historical figure or person you know personally, some leader who you learn from and try to emulate in any way? Anybody you want to give a shout out to?

Jamie Keyser:
I’ve had so many great leaders that I admire and respect and that have really helped me in almost like a mentoring role. Some of the people that come to mind were T.J. Bafty. T.J. was the one who took me under her wing. She was my boss at Disney. She was the past board chair at the Chamber of Commerce and she knew all that. And when she retired from that position, She said, Jamie, I want you to take my role and I really want you to build something in Burbank. So at the time, my boss Joan McCarthy, she was focused in Glendale. TJ was in Burbank and when she left, she kind of passed that torch to me. And she always did what she could to help me behind the scenes, to be a better leader. And she was just a wonderful mentor for that. Sue Georgino also served in that role, learning her early on and getting to know her. when she worked for the city and then through leadership Burbank and some other things. She’s another incredible leader that I’m respectful of and I admire and she has really been a great leader teaching me leadership skills. And the third one too is Lisa Rollins. Even though that I was at Disney, she was at Warner Brothers, but we served on some boards together and she challenged me. she wouldn’t just accept the norm and she’d say, well, give me more, tell me why, how did you come up with that? And it was hard sometime to be able to come up with the answers, but it pushed me. It really pushed me in that role. And those are three leaders that I can think of that really were instrumental to me and helped me become the leader that I am today. these strong women within our community.

Lee Wochner:
Mentorship is really important and invaluable. And now at this stage of your career, you are the mentor. And I’m sure happy to call you a friend and to see how you’re building young lives and future lives through your work in the community. So thank you so much for doing that.

Jamie Keyser:
Well, thank you for saying that too. And I always try to make sure that even in my busy day-to-day work, that I have time to meet someone for coffee and just have a casual conversation if that’s something that they’ve done. It’s important to me personally because it meant something to me early on in my life and has helped me become the leader I am today.

Lee Wochner:
But I know how busy you are because you text me at night, you text me on the weekends, and I thought that’s when she has the time to get to this. So hats off to you. Hey, Jamie, thank you so much for joining us today here. It’s been an absolute pleasure having you here on That’s What C Said. And thanks again for everything you’re doing in the community and for being a nonprofit leader.

Jamie Keyser:
Thank you, Lee, and thank you for your leadership. I’ve served on several boards with you. I appreciate the work that you do for the chamber, but also the work that you do at Counterintuity, which is an incredible organization. And I love that you’ve taken this to a podcast. I saw that you did one recently with Dan Schnurr, who I met through Leadership Mervin when he was our keynote speaker, but that was a relationship that you built and it was really great. So I love that you’re doing these podcasts. I think they’re fantastic and thank you for letting me be a part of it.

Lee Wochner:
Well, thank you. And you know, the podcast team does most of the heavy lifting and that’s Lisa Pham and Joe Curet. And you know, we wouldn’t be able to do any of this without them. So thank you for saying that. And yeah, we’re pretty excited about the podcast and super excited to have you on here as our esteemed guest today. So thanks again, Jamie.

Jamie Keyser:
Thank you, Lee. I appreciate it. Thank you, everyone.

Jaclyn: Thanks for listening we’re glad you came. That’s What C! Said is produced by Lisa Pham and engineered by Joe Curet. It’s available on Apple podcast, Spotify and wherever you get your podcast. Please like and follow the show. Visit Counterintuity.com to sign up and learn more.