Heart of Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce – March‘25

Welcome everybody to Midday Magazine for this Tuesday, March 11, 2025.

Have your host, James J. Maylough here.

At 4.30 today, we're going to have real-a-t radio.

David Farnborough is going to be joining us, looking forward to that.

Right now, though, in part one, our good friend, Promise Bach,

and can move with us, Marketing Communication Director

with the Heart of Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce.

Promise, good to see you, how you been.

Good morning, good to see you too.

I've been great, how have you been?

Doing good, thank you for asking.

We got so much to talk about today.

You guys are so busy over there, but if you don't mind,

we do want to rewind really quick.

And just to hear how things went with the event, the other week.

Oh, sorry, annual awards.

Yeah, yeah.

You have a 77th annual awards meeting banquet.

I thought it was the 77th, and I was afraid to say it,

because I wasn't sure if I was right.

But yeah, how did that go?

Overall, I think it went really well.

We had around 250 people show up to it.

We had Janelle Haverman from Haverman Counciling,

maybe our mission moment speaker.

And we had some really great awards that were awarded out

throughout the night.

I did have Dan McCervill from Heart tell Monuments

won the Business Professional of the Year.

And it just touched a soft spot for me,

because he's also in our leads group,

and he's very active in the community.

So that's one of the ones that I really was happy to see happen.

So that's good to hear.

And to shout out to him and all the award winners and nominees

and everything, it's such a cool thing

that you guys do over there, and a nice opportunity

for us to highlight so many of our great individuals

in our community.

And I want to thank you guys for treating Pam well.

I know that she had a good time down there too.

So thank you for that.

I was just talking to her about it.

She had a really good experience.

She was happy with everything.

And then she was excited that she got to dress up a little bit.

And we did see a lot of people dressing up.

So I was pretty happy about that.

It was amazing.

I really plan on being at next year's in part

so that I can, I don't get to dress nice very often.

So just if anything for that.

But it's a great event we're looking forward to next year's.

And we're looking forward to the legislative breakfast.

That is right around the corner promise.

Yeah, actually.

So we're gearing up to close registration

pretty soon on this one.

So I know we've been saying that it closes on March 14th,

but we are filling up pretty fast, especially today.

We've been having a lot of registrations coming through today.

So we might actually fill up and sell out.

So if you're interested in attending legislative breakfast,

it's March 21st over at Midstate Technical College.

And it's from 7am to 9.15am.

And I would register today if you can get in on our website

at WisconsinRabbageChamber.com and register there.

Or give us a call.

We can register you too on our end as well.

But this is a really great one to come to.

We sit down and we have some breakfast.

And we hear some updates from the legislators

and local community representatives.

And there's also an opportunity to ask questions from the floor.

So if you are an attendee, write down your questions.

There'll be time for those to be answered towards the end.

And just a shout out to our sponsors on this one, US Bank

Fendor, Fortune Gaming Accusa, Enbridge, Damtar,

in Midstate Technical College.

We couldn't do this event without their sponsorships.

So thank you.

Big shout out to them.

And big thank you to all the representatives

and all the people that are going to be coming down for this

and everything.

This is an important one.

It becomes more and more important every year.

And I'm fortunate I get to speak with Senator Testin,

Representative Krueger once a month.

And I talked to these guys on air and off air.

And I cannot stress enough to people out there

how important these are to them.

This is an opportunity for them to hear straight from you.

Like, you know, straight up at being able to ask your questions,

the ones and they want to answer,

they want to listen to their constituents.

Regardless of where you fall politically

and whether you agree or disagree with these gentlemen,

I will put my name on this.

These guys care about this community.

And they want to hear from you.

Whether we agree or disagree,

I will encourage people to act like adults.

I will encourage people to be, you know,

be on your best behavior and all that in part

because I think we need to get back to that.

So here's a great opportunity for it.

As well as a great opportunity for you

to ask these questions to our representatives

straight up they want to hear from you.

I appreciate Midstate hosting this,

all of these great sponsors.

Certainly all the people coming down

to be, you know, talked to.

And the chamber for hosting this

and having an event like this,

it is too good of an opportunity to miss out on everybody.

If you want to be a part of this register now,

like I wouldn't wait until the 14.

I would not wait on this one.

And it's interesting how these things happen promise

because sometimes we were talking about an event for a month

and then all of a sudden like a week before,

and oh, that's right around the corner.

So it gets lost in the shuffle sometimes

and it's understandable.

But get to that, get over to hard,

WisconsinRapidsChamber.com and register today, everyone.

And registration is filling up quick.

So I'll keep that in mind.

A career's unlimited job fair

is right around the corner as well.

Yeah, so our career's unlimited job fair

is going to be held on April 2nd at the Lincoln High School.

We are now accepting booth registrations.

I think there is about a handful left.

It's first come first serve.

We're filling up on that one as well.

If you're interested in participating,

I would register for that one

because the deadline's on the 12th for that one as well.

One of the great things about this one too

is we're going to have about 100 high school students

funnel through the job fair prior to opening it

to the general public.

And I think that gives them a great opportunity

to experience firsthand what a job fair looks like,

feels like, how they should behave, how they should dress

and get that face-to-face interaction

with businesses that are hiring.

So if you're a company in town that is looking

to hire younger talents for some of those more physical jobs,

this is a great opportunity to be right in front

of 100 high school students that are actively looking

for employment.

Everything I was saying before about asking our representatives

questions face-to-face, here's the same type of thing

for employees out there.

Yeah, I totally agree with you on that one.

You mentioned the registration deadline.

That's March 12th.

Yep, yep, that's this week as well.

So like I said, there's a couple of booth spaces open.

I could be completely wrong on that.

Or from what I'm hearing, I think there's

about a handful left.

There might be six, seven, eight, maybe 10.

But I know that we're trying to fill it with 40 to 60 booths

there.

So it's going to be a bigger one, especially

with a space like over at Lincoln High School.

There's an opportunity to really have a lot of booths there.

I've actually been to a job fair at Lincoln back

when I was a senior over there and everything.

And it was a game changer for me.

I did not meet, I did not find my future job there.

I didn't find necessarily a future career there.

What I was able to do was really talk to businesses

and people and ask questions and understand

a little bit more about all this industry.

OK, well, maybe this isn't for me.

Or oh, wow, I never would have thought of this.

I never would have, I love radio, I really do.

But like a lot of people out there,

I like listening to radio and never thought about being on it.

Even as a young actor and all those things,

the job fair really opened my mind to more up,

well, where can I take my skill set?

I've got this particular skill set,

what can I do with it?

And oh, I didn't even know this fit my skill set in some of that.

Or things that I enjoy doing.

There's so many of those questions

you're able to ask right there.

And there's the other part of this too,

where we have a fear and understandably

to a degree of the people skills in our younger generation.

And then having more opportunities for that.

Here's a great opportunity for that.

And a great opportunity for you as a business

to help with that, to be a part of that.

We all know, like you touched on promise,

how much people are looking for good young employees

and everything.

Here's an opportunity not only to do that

and let people understand your industry a little bit better,

but even just, you don't know who they're going to tell.

So I came across a place that did staining

and did some of that and everything.

And I've done a lot of that work in my life,

but it wasn't looking, what it was looking to do for a career.

But my best friend was, and I told him about it.

And that's what he ended up doing.

So you just don't know who you might connect with

or who might share this information.

There's so many levels of opportunity with this.

Are there, you mentioned boots are still available?

Are there any sponsorships available still?

Nope, we are, we, again, I love that in there, but.

No, that's good news, that's great.

We were looking for one more, but we did sell that last week.

So all of our sponsorships are full for this one.

But another great way of getting your business

and included is doing the booth there.

And I think another great thing about the job fair too

is that it's really easy to just drive down a street

and not even realize how many businesses you're passing.

So the job fair will provide an opportunity

for all the businesses that are actively looking for employees

that are coming soon here, so.

I do this job.

I talk to multiple people a week

about things going out of their community.

And I kid you not everybody.

I did not know there was a Marshalls in town.

I didn't know, it took me like a,

probably two weeks after it was open or something like that

before I finally realized it was there.

And I am very in tune with this community.

And I shout out to Marshalls, glad to have you in town.

Welcome them here.

But I just use it as an example.

When my family moved to the west side of Rapids,

we didn't know about the little pink restaurant.

And my parents went there for years

or went there for quite a while before they retired

and everything.

There's so many great businesses in this area

and we're very fortunate to have this.

This is kind of a good problem to have in some ways

where there are businesses that get lost in the shuffle,

but that's all the more reason for you to be a part

of something like this and get your business out there.

I agree.

Again, if people want to register for this one,

WisconsinRapidsChamber.com, be sure to head on over there.

We'll give you a phone number to call as well

before we wrap up today.

Or actually, it's a different number.

So you want to give that one for if people want to be a part

of the career's unlimited job fair?

Yeah, if they want to just call Laura Bonna Ridgway directly

and sign up for the career fair,

her direct line is 715-422-4860.

And I do believe she is in office today

in the rest of the week.

Oh, very cool.

Networking at night is coming up.

One of our favorite events you guys host.

Yeah, Networking at night is on March 17th

over at Paper City Savings Bank on A Street there

from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

So this one is an opportunity for our members

to network together.

And we also have it open to future members.

So if you're in town and you have a small business

and you're trying to figure out ways of expanding

or growing or increasing your exposure in the community,

this is a great one to come to.

Not only will you be able to meet other members,

but then we'll be able to give you some information

on membership for the Chamber as well

and include all the things that we do for our members.

Give you some information there as well.

There's going to be raffle prizes.

And I'm wondering if they're going to do a Mardi Gras theme.

Oh, yeah.

That would be nice.

That would be cool.

That's a good idea.

But then I'm also very excited for others

to see their new building, their renovations.

Yeah.

The outside of it looks really pretty good.

It really does.

I'd love to see how it looks on the inside too.

Shout out to our friends at Paper City Savings Bank too.

Great people over there.

And always putting into the community too.

And hosting an event like this just shows that even more.

It'll be nice to see the new building and everything.

But something that I promise and I talk about

every time we get together and we talk about these,

so much what the Chamber does is certainly helping

our local businesses be promoted and get them out there

and add all these things.

Another key part of what the Chamber does

is giving people an opportunity to communicate

and to run into each other for synergy,

for camaraderie, for fellowship, for all these things.

We want business A and business B

to be able to work together.

We want non-profit A and B to work together.

But we also just love the idea of community members.

Just being able to interact and talk and hang out

and share likenesses and things.

And it only brings us closer as a community

and stronger together as a community.

I love talking to people.

I remember when you guys first started doing this

and I would have people come in and talk about,

oh, you got the Chamber coming up.

Tell them I love this event.

Tell them I ran into so-and-so

and I haven't seen them since high school

or something along those lines.

While the event is great to get these businesses out there

and to even see businesses,

maybe you haven't seen the new paper city savings building

and this is a good opportunity to do that.

Those are all great reasons.

But I love the fact that we have this organic kind of thing

that's going to happen with this as well,

where people get in the run into each other.

And people get in the talk and come, you know,

just communicate in person, not through text

or social media, but just hanging out.

You know, we just don't have enough of that in life.

And I love that you guys do this.

Along with certainly all the opportunities

that we have here where, well, I didn't think

that this business and this business could work together

very well, but you know what?

I think we have something here.

Let's talk this out and you're able to do that

through these events.

Right, yeah, I totally agree.

And then one of the things that, too,

that kind of want to piggyback off some of the comments

you made about like that face-to-face interaction

is I think I should mention that we have a new program

called the Community Connection Program.

And what this is, it's a program that allows our employers

in their community to reach out to us.

You know, they have like a new hire

that they're trying to recruit.

So they're trying to sell their business, their company,

but they're kind of like needing help selling the community.

And that's where we can step in at the chamber.

So if you have those new hires that are flying in

for interviews and you kind of want somebody

to sell the community for you, reach out to us.

We have some great package deals.

We take them out on tours.

We get to know them a little bit better,

know what they're interested in.

If they have a family, you know,

what kind of extracurricular activities they like to do.

And then we highlight those areas in our community

for that person, for your company.

So Stacey Kiwi is a great person to reach out to for that one.

Otherwise, you can reach out to me directly as well.

You can give us a call at 715-422-486-1.

And this is really a great program.

I did some training on it with Stacey

because she's done a couple of the tours prior, too.

One with Lauren from Irko Worldwide.

And she's now on our board.

She said that the tour was like fabulous.

And it's what kind of sold her on the area.

We can show you where there's available like housing,

you know, what kind of communities you would like to live in.

And then we can show you where the stores and, you know,

the good food is.

And I think that anybody that's looking to hire from recruits,

a potential hire from out of state,

could really use, you know, our services

in helping sell the community.

Because we have so many assets in the areas.

And the business itself wants us there and focus on, you know,

what they can offer their employee.

But then once they're outside of that building,

there's kind of like these gaps

that we want to fill in for our members.

You know, promise, my one problem with this

is that it wasn't around 20 years ago when I moved to this area.

I would have loved to be, but this is such a cool idea.

What a fantastic idea.

And our community is growing and getting stronger,

whether it's a bit new businesses we see in town here,

or it's new individuals to run, you know,

be in those buildings and everything.

This is a great opportunity for those families

to really just understand what our communities like

and what it is to be a part of this area.

The opportunity along with that to kind of be,

to be able to promote certain businesses in general.

And just our schools, all of the above.

Again, while the chamber focuses,

or you may think the focus is on businesses

and that there's certainly some focus there,

but the chamber is about promoting rapids.

The chamber's promoting this whole area.

So this is a way of doing that.

And also, really, I think showing what a great way

to be able to show people what we're about.

You know, and I don't know if I'm wording that right

or very well, but I feel like the intent is there.

I don't know how you'd put in the words

what it is to be in this area, live in this area.

But this shows you how it is.

And that's very cool.

Yeah, we will physically drive your potential new hire

or the person you're trying to recruit

to areas of interest tailored to that person

to help sell the community and help sell that business for you.

So you can have, we like to keep our talents in the area.

So that's one of the other reasons too

why we decided to launch this program.

And we're ready.

We're ready for people to reach out

and we're ready to start taking tours for new hires.

This has been an issue since we were kids,

not just in rapids here,

but in all rural communities and hanging onto your talent.

One of the things that's been I think encouraging to see

is a lot of that talent either staying there

or coming back to the area after school

or after they do a job here and they come back here

or something along those lines.

But I think just as encouraging

is seeing this new blood come into town.

Some of this new life being brought into town.

It's all very positive and very encouraging.

Today is five years since the COVID-19 hit really.

And it was announced as an epidemic.

And I'm a very big on perspective.

And I saw this as an opportunity for us

to be able to kind of to all check us,

take a step back and have some perspective

on our given area here in Central Wisconsin.

And around the country there are a lot of places

that are hurting pretty bad.

And I'm not making light of anybody struggling out there

but our area is doing pretty good in consideration.

And I think it's never bad that I did appreciate that

but also to appreciate the people that helped that.

I think the chamber is a major part of that.

I think that promoting these local businesses

is a big part of why we're doing well

and why we're thriving and bringing in new people

and new businesses.

So all the more reason to have a program like this.

If there's somebody out there hearing this

and they'd like to learn more about that program promise

with the contact you or as you mentioned Stacy,

you can get that information again.

Yep, you can contact me directly or Stacy Keevy.

You can give us a call at our office line at 715-423-1830.

Or we do have some information on our website right now

and our emails are listed as well.

And speaking of the website promise,

you teed me up perfectly there.

As we're talking about the job fair

and some of these other things,

I want to remind our audience and employees

or employers out there that another great thing

about your website is the workforce segment

and the economic development segments on there.

We don't always get a chance to touch on those things.

They're great resources for anybody out there.

If somebody out there is looking for employment

and maybe you're not seeing the jobs

you were hoping for on other websites

or anything like that,

please check out the Heart of Wisconsin Chamber

of Converses website.

And especially to any businesses out there

if you're looking to advertise,

this is as local as you get.

Right, yeah.

It's straight, right local.

So it's a great opportunity to be really

get a lot of that in between stuff out of the way.

And just no middleman, none of that.

You're straight up with the employee.

It's good opportunity.

Yeah, and if you are a member,

you can post as many open job positions

as you'd like on our job board.

That's a free benefit for our members.

And there's no cap on those or limits on those.

You can have 10 jobs one day and 20 jobs the next day

if you need to hire a whole new staff.

You can put all those positions on there for free.

What a great resource.

And there's other great resources along

with everything promise that I just talked about.

All that WisconsinRapidsChamber.com.

Be sure to bookmark that page and keep it handy

because you're gonna be using it a lot.

I was a lot of great events going on.

A lot of good things happening.

Promise we're gonna wrap up here.

Before we do, if people have follow the questions,

they would like to reach out to you

or the chamber and ask more, how can they do that?

Yeah, they can definitely give me a call at my direct line

at 715-422-4856

or shoot me an email at membership or not membership.

That's my old one, marketing at WisconsinRapidsChamber.com.

Be sure to reach out to Promise with all of those needs

that you have and be a part of these events everybody.

And promote these events as well.

Follow the Chamber on social media,

especially on Facebook.

When you see them post things, share them on your page.

You just never know who might see them

that wouldn't otherwise.

It's a great way to also help the Chamber promote your area.

And by doing that, you're helping our economy.

And all you did was hit share.

That's it.

And the impact of our community.

So that's a great way of doing that.

And always great talk with you, Promise.

Say hi to the team over there for us.

We'll see you soon.

Right.

And we encourage you to stick around.

We got more Midday Magazine coming up for you right here

at 97.5 FM 13.20 AM, WFHR, locally grown radio.