Welcome, everyone, to Midday Magazine for this December 12, 2023.
Have your host, James J. Mailov here at 330,
or to talk real estate with our friend, Lindsay Shider,
and friends over at Cole Banker, see your real estate.
Let's talk real estate.
Looking forward to that. That's going to be a good time.
Right now, in studio with us, our great friend,
Lacey Ailing, events and engagement director,
with the heart of Wisconsin Chamber.
Commerce, Lacey, good to see you.
Good to see you.
How you doing the day?
Good, how about you?
I'm doing good. I would be doing better if I was as smart as you,
the best. Good idea.
Oh my goodness.
Good idea.
Yeah, that's a good idea with the best.
I like it up.
Lacey, I appreciate the time,
appreciate everything you and the chamber does for our community.
I know how busy you guys are normally.
This time of year,
got to be even busier.
It's got to be twice the amount of time.
Yeah, it definitely keeps you on a shovel, right?
Yes, yes, that's certainly why I keep busy.
I want to start about joining,
get into some upcoming events with you if you don't mind.
Let's start right there.
We got some an annual meeting and awards coming up.
Yes, so the annual meeting and awards,
2023 nomination form is out.
You can find it on our website,
as well as we have some just copies of it.
If you want to come into the office and fill it out,
you can also print it down,
print it out, and then I think complete it.
You can also, we've had people even faxing it in,
just they kind of wanted to be like,
I think a little bit more like,
I don't know, mysterious about it.
Yeah.
But yeah, definitely help us recognize
successful businesses in the heart of Wisconsin.
Please indicate your award choice for the business,
organization, or individual you are nominating.
And then nominations are due by January 13th of 2024.
Lindsay, do we have previous winners to maybe give people
that don't know you aren't familiar with this
an example of the type of businesses
that we're talking about, or I don't want to reference businesses
that haven't won or something, you know, maybe.
Yeah, so yeah, so on the awards,
so obviously there's large business of the year,
innovative business of the year,
entrepreneur, small business of the year,
community impact of the year,
and then professional executive of the year.
It has, so it has each one of those nominations,
and then it has the previous winners below that,
because then you, it has kind of, you know,
we don't want to have the same people winning this year.
Right, that's what I was thinking.
So yeah, they have it broke down to where,
like these are the previous ones that you can't nominate
for this year, so that way it makes it a little bit easier
for you to be able to do it.
And then hopefully we've been getting,
we've been getting some pretty good traffic for it,
so definitely exciting, it's really fun,
and you can nominate yourself.
So we've been, a lot of people have been calling
and asking that, so you absolutely can.
I think that people, you know,
if you believe in yourself, you know, do that.
You know, definitely, you know,
I think that we had a couple that did last year,
and I think they kind of felt weird about it,
but I think that you absolutely should advocate for yourself.
And our morning show, we just did a story last week
about a politician who was running,
lost by one vote, didn't vote for himself.
Like, yeah, this is, you know,
it's not a bad idea to vote for yourself,
it's not a bad idea.
That's that.
And then we are looking for sponsors
and donations for this event,
so definitely reach out to me,
my communications at Wisconsinapidschamber.com.
If you'd like to sponsor, we have the wine liquor poll
as well as raffle baskets,
and I would absolutely love to talk to you about those things.
We always encourage you to buy local support local
and that includes with advertising, of course.
I also would think advertising an event like this
might be a good way of letting people know
that you might be good from to nominate
for something like this.
Absolutely.
I, we have some great businesses
that have always been kind of staples for this event,
and I think that a lot of them have already,
a lot of the packages have actually sold out,
which is wonderful.
So I'm very excited about that, but yeah, it's my first one.
So, and I'm, I'm really excited about like,
I love planning things, so it's really, really fun
to get to decorate and get to pick color schemes
and things like that.
Can't help but notice there's no category for local DJ,
local radio announcer.
Okay, well, next year, next year, maybe?
I mean, we are, we already know, we know, we know.
You're good, that was good, that will play.
We encourage the public and business and companies
to buy Chris Chamber gift certificates this time of year
as well.
It's a great way to, especially if you're not sure what to do.
Yes, absolutely.
So purchasing a Chamber gift ticket ensures
that money is spent locally and helps build
this area's economy.
Chamber gift certificates are redeemable
at participating Chamber investor merchants.
And they do make wonderful Christmas presents,
as well as when you come in, you can get any dollar amount.
And then we also, so it's cash or check,
we do not take card for that.
It's not like a different system,
but we have a little, so it comes in an envelope
as well as we're a list of where you can spend those.
So I think it's great, especially if you know someone's
here in the area and you really don't know where,
there is hundreds of businesses that, you know,
that you can use that at.
And we definitely want you to make sure that, you know,
they feel, you know, recognized.
And I think it's, it fits in the stockings perfectly.
So we have a lot of people, whether it's a business party's
and you're not sure what to get somebody or something,
something like this is not only local,
but it's, you know, covers your bases,
because there's so many businesses
that these can be used at.
I know there's a lot of people out there doing things,
you know, kind things for our mail carriers.
A lot of that, that goes a long way.
There's all of these factors to it too,
but one of the things that I think is interesting
about this too, Lindsay, Lacey, is for me,
when we, when growing up, gift cards were one of those things
you did last second, you know,
and it always came across as a last second gift.
Nowadays, though, it's the, almost the opposite.
It's a kind of scene as a thoughtful thing to do.
I'm not going to give you this specific thing.
I'm going to let you choose what to do with this,
especially with the younger generations,
that a lot of them ask for gift cards nowadays.
That's what they prefer instead of just doing something.
It's never a negative to buy something specific for somebody,
especially if you have something in mind,
but we all know how that can be.
You know, most of us, it's our dads.
Dad, what do you want for Christmas?
Oh, I don't need anything.
Thanks, Dad.
Thanks a lot.
That really narrowed it down for me.
I'll get him a gift card.
He can figure it out.
Yes.
Well, and I think it's really nice to where you're showing.
I think we've had people where they give it,
but they also are like, okay, highlight.
I'm going to highlight all of their favorite places.
So then they're giving it to them,
and then they're like, oh, you do listen.
You do hear that this is where I like to go.
So that way, they know it's on there.
And then, okay, right away,
you're kind of making them feel like you did put the effort in,
but then you're also giving them the freedom
to be able to get what they want, what, you know,
and then also a lot of people, if you tell them,
oh, I want this, you tell a bunch of people the same thing,
and then you're going to get a bunch of the same thing.
So I think it's definitely a great way to support local,
as well as supporting someone being able to have options
and have choices.
That's the best in both worlds.
That's a great idea.
I really like that.
That's very thoughtful.
You're a good gift giver, aren't you?
Yes.
Yeah, I bet you are.
And I definitely listen, because I think that people,
they drop hits.
Yeah.
I think that some men forget that.
We tell them, we may not use our words,
which we should just be more direct and tell people
what we want, but like my kids,
I think they've told me about 15 times what they wanted.
Yeah.
And I said, okay, well, you're supposed to be telling Santa,
not me, but they're like leaving lists on the table.
And I'm like, okay, or like just like they'll like go
through like a Walmart catalog,
and then they'll just like circle things,
and circle things, and circle things.
And I'm like, oh, my goodness, guys.
But yeah.
What are my favorite things about kids is wild and amazing
as their imaginations are, they're so literal.
Yeah.
They're so, and they're, they're, they're, they're so blunt.
And you know, right directly, this is what I want.
And then I'm telling you, yeah, Santa, wink.
I take here, here, mom, here.
And then we're getting them socks.
And they're like, I don't remember socks being on that list.
We're speaking with Lacey Ailing
from a Heart of Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce.
And Lacey, we have some upcoming work first programs
and events, some really important ones coming up.
Either we want to make sure everybody knows about.
Yes, absolutely.
So we have our community leadership, as well as team leadership.
They happen once a month from May, from October to May.
And we, it's a wonderful, wonderful program.
I know we talk about it usually when we have
our community leadership person here.
But December, we actually don't have them coming
because Christmas is crazy.
But for the teens, they are going to be going
and they're going to be visiting quite a few businesses,
but they're focusing on information technology.
So they're going to go to cyber one security,
Solaris and Junkam, and talk about the things
that those businesses do, as well as classes
that they can take at mid-state,
if they are interested in those things.
So I think that the cool teen leadership program
is wonderful and like the fact that there is technology here.
I understand that some people think
a certain way about Wisconsin happens,
and about that we don't have things to compete
with those bigger cities, but we do have businesses
that they definitely want to keep people here.
So I think it's great that Laura's able to go
and tour those places, definitely educate them.
Obviously, there's leaders everywhere.
So definitely getting to shine with that.
But the Junkam, they are wonderful in supporting us
with walkie talkies for all of our events
so that we can communicate with each other,
because obviously that's very important
for successful events, but definitely wonderful
to all of our sponsors.
Walmart, Mariani, mid-state, quick trip, Pepsi,
chatterbox, the Spiris, Wisconsin Rapids Police Department,
Altman Construction, Nikusa, Lion Energy,
they all have definitely made the teen leadership wonderful
because those kids eat.
They are always hungry.
So she has to feed them, and definitely lunch sponsor,
paper, city savings, good luck,
because they will literally eat you out of house at home.
Laura will bring boxes of snacks, and I was like,
ooh, maybe we'll get some leftovers in the office
and she's probably not.
Nothing comes back, it's 10th graders,
and I think that even if they're gone the whole day,
they're starving.
But yeah, definitely wonderful to talk about
how to be a highly effective teen,
things that they can do, ways they can volunteer,
get active, and definitely work on those communication skills,
because I think that even though they have a phone
in their hand, you'd think that they'd be able
to communicate better, but they cannot.
Yeah.
They'll stare at that phone over having a face
to face conversation, so I think that definitely
having a good understanding of the things
that we do here, and definitely explaining cyber one data,
and going over the things that we have to offer,
I think it's great for those kids.
When it comes to, first off, yes, teenagers are part goat.
They are always hungry, and they will eat just about anything,
so it's a great point right there.
When we're talking about the leadership program,
adults, teens, all these are great points to make
for all of them, focusing on the teen part of things,
Lindsay, one of the things that's at Lacey,
I keep doing it, because I got Lindsay next.
I keep doing that too.
Pam, no more two elves in a row.
Lacey, when it comes to this part of the leadership
program with the teens and everything,
you mentioned the communication aspect of this.
Recently, at the theater that I teach at,
we haven't had this very often,
we have a couple of 16-year-old students with us,
and we usually have people 18 plus.
These two students that we have, their parents,
thought that this would be really good for them,
because of the fields that they want to get into,
and they have a very hard time communicating with people.
So they're learning improv and learning acting
in these things, just to kind of get themselves
out of their shells, and they don't want to be
the next great actors or anything like that.
They're just doing it for those reasons.
I think of this leadership program in a similar way.
This is, first, leadership can be taught anywhere.
Whether there's a, it's a tech city,
or a quote-unquote tech city, or not,
that these things, you can be learned here.
And we have got, here in Wisconsin,
a very thriving tech industry in tech world.
And interestingly enough, you don't have to look very far
to see it, you just look at our ag industry,
and our farmers, who have been so on top of this
in communicating and using the tech world
on the ag industry, that's blown me away
as somebody who doesn't know much about that part
of the world, and that's with that,
let alone all these other industries.
There's virtually no industry that tech doesn't touch
as it got his fingerprints on.
Getting kids more comfortable with communication,
with technology, feeling that is gonna make them
feel like leaders, that is going to,
and only build their confidence,
which when we say leadership,
isn't that a big part of it, Lindsay,
whether it's an adult or it's a kid?
I think leadership means a lot of things
to a lot of different people,
but confidence is pretty universal.
Absolutely, I think if you're confident,
and especially if you're educated
with them getting so much information at these things,
they can speak, they can go home,
and they can say, okay, mom, dad, I don't wanna do,
I thought I wanted to go into tech,
I thought that I wanted to do IT,
I thought that I wanted to do AI,
but then they go there, and they were like,
that's a lot of communication,
that's a lot of, they use a lot of inside words
that no one understands, and a lot of acronyms,
and I think that it's definitely like it's growing,
and I think it's having a better understanding
of things when you're a kid,
it makes you more well-rounded,
and then at least, and for some reason,
I've noticed with my kids,
someone could tell them the same exact thing
that I have just told them,
and then they're like, oh yeah, that's a great idea,
and I'm like, I literally just told you that five minutes ago.
Just said that, just said it.
But if it comes from someone else,
it has so much more power than it's like,
yeah, you're just my mom, you're not a real person.
So frustrated.
But yeah, so I think them hearing it from someone else,
you could be telling them every single day,
you are so good at this, and then it takes someone
that they maybe respect in a different way,
or they think that they're more successful
in a different way to say it,
and then all of a sudden the life all goes on.
And now they're like, yep, that's what I wanna do,
and you're like, I've literally been telling you that
for five years, but okay, at least the light bulb, what happened?
At least to win out, that's what matters.
I think it's wonderful.
I think that it's crazy because there's so many leaders,
and we always think, okay, it's the captain of the football team.
It's the class president, it's the valedictorian,
but there's so many leaders,
and there's so many people that I think are overlooked,
or like, yeah, that's not me, I'm not a leader,
I'm not gonna jump in, but like, I mean, my own daughter,
she's very shy, very reserved,
and she says I've fallen, told her,
she was gonna work at these things,
but like, she will jump in, if she can see,
oh, that person's going down a road,
that they shouldn't be going down,
even if it's an employee of that place,
and they're messing with her,
and they're like, no, I don't work here,
at hotel mean, John was like, I don't work here,
and she was like, then you can't be in here,
this is for Santa, and she told him, you need to go,
and he was like, I run this way, girl,
but it's funny that she would never,
she wouldn't even say something to anybody,
but then when she's put in this role,
she's got her hive, hive is stuff on,
and she's like, okay, I have to do this,
I'm representing the chamber,
it's crazy how all of a sudden that it's like,
then she'll step in, so it's nice,
it's nice, I think it's all about, we need to develop them,
we need to believe in them.
My brother works for the Bucks organization,
and he's had, of course, a lot of games and everything,
and my nephew Mason is son, who's eight, and nine, nine.
Mason, it can be a little bit of an introvert,
a little bit of shy and stuff,
but he's at these games,
and he sees Yana sent it to Koopa, or somebody like that,
and all the other little kids are kind of sitting back
and waiting, he goes running up to him,
and he just goes up to him.
My brother sends me these pictures,
like my son is trying to go talk to Yana's right now,
like these things, and he does this stuff
because my brother said to him,
you can, he built him up,
he built the confidence in him and these things and stuff.
There's never gonna be a time where we're doing too much
of this, where kids can always use these kind of things,
and we just never know what we could say or do
that might impact them in that way.
And this leadership program is really good for that.
Lindsay, I wanna get into the round table revitalization.
This is another one that's important in our area.
Yeah, so we are very excited about the changes
with all of the workforce stuff.
It's been kind of like a slow process
where we're kind of revamping things,
and definitely trying to make sure that we are absolutely
dedicated to continually enhancing services
and benefits offered with that commitment.
We are, we're delighted to announce
that the forthcoming adjustments to our round table
aimed at making them even more valuable
and engaging for all participants.
So it's now going to be,
it's what's gonna go from HR round table
and safety round table to network exchange
for HR professionals and network exchange
for safety professionals.
So we're looking for speakers,
we're looking for people to come in there.
They, it's really interesting in the fact
that like a lot of small businesses, you are HR.
Even if you don't think that you are,
that's your that head.
And so learning more with safety round table,
same thing with that.
There are things where there is,
do you have a safety protocol, if you're new business,
are you, you know, are you setting yourself up
to be successful with your understanding of,
okay, I understand that you can get tunnel vision
when you have a small business
and you're like, okay, I just need to make money.
I need to do this.
You know, I need to do all these things.
So you can't overlook that you need to make sure
that you're having, you know, certain things in place
and they absolutely will help you do that.
They have templates to where they can help you set up,
you know, for safety for if things are happening
and I think it's great to have that kind of support
as well as it's obviously, it's a safe space.
So making sure that you can,
you can have those conversations like,
okay, I have this going on or I have this going on
and maybe you don't have someone internally
you can speak to.
So if you're in charge, you know, you have to,
you have to make those decisions
and sometimes you don't have a lot of time.
So I think, okay, well, this is what's happening here
and then they don't record those minutes.
So it is, it is safer to where if you want to have
conversations about things that maybe you don't want
being public, I know that that's important to Laura
to make sure that everyone understands
that those things are confidential.
Yeah, confidentiality is incredibly important
in this day and age.
It always has been, especially in this day and age
where we can get information so easily.
Yeah.
And understanding, I feel like,
and I don't think this is a reach here or anything,
but I feel like all the greatest bosses or owners
that I've known, not just that I've worked for,
but that I've met in a job like this or anything,
they understand that working with their fellow employees
or making sure their employees are safe
or well taken care of and everything.
That makes them work better, work harder, be more loyal,
which means your business is that much more profitable
and doing that much better.
This all ties together, it's not rocket science,
this is not that difficult to figure out.
You give your employees a good environment,
they're gonna respond, they're gonna give you good work.
If you don't do that, your chances are
you're not even gonna be able to keep those employees
and you're gonna spend half your time trying to hire
but you good people.
Employees have power now.
They've gotten a lot more power
and you're not putting the genie back in the bottle.
That's not going backwards.
In order to work with, get good people,
you need to work with them.
And one of the first things people are looking for
in an environment that they're gonna work at is,
is it safe?
Not just like, you know, not making sure
that an animal doesn't fall on you,
but the people I'm working with safe,
am I in a positive environment and everything?
Yes.
I don't think that's asking a lot.
I don't think that that's, and if you think it is,
I don't know how long you're gonna stay in business
and I'm not trying to be mean or blunt here,
but it's the day and age we live in.
Employees have more power.
Yeah, it's very important, especially with,
that's why we're making those changes
to make sure that people, I think that,
sometimes we have things and we're like,
okay, we don't need to reinvent the wheel,
but we do need to make updates with,
with where we are, with social media,
with things that can get said
and then all of a sudden it's getting shared
and you may have deleted it,
but then I was screenshot and sent it.
And so it's like, we need to make sure
that we have a better understanding
and I think if you're kind of old school
and you aren't updating those things,
you're leaving yourself open
to where you could be in a situation
where obviously if that's your business,
that's your livelihood.
So we wanna make sure that the businesses feel supported.
We want the look, we want the small businesses,
we want the community to do well,
so definitely making sure that we have,
we have those kind of things
and they are free to all investors.
I know sometimes people are like,
oh, well, everything costs money and I get that,
but that is free.
If you are an investor, you are absolutely welcome
and welcome to go to those.
And definitely if you wanna be a part
of the wonderful changes, please contact Laura
at Workforce at Wisconsin RapidsChamber.com
or at 715-422-4860.
And again, do anybody out there
that would like to advertise with this
or be a sponsor of these events
or anything please reach out as well to Laura?
Absolutely, so I know she is looking for speakers,
definitely with like different topics for HR
as well as safety.
I think that if there's new safety things coming out,
new regulations, obviously 2024,
it seems like they add things every single year.
So definitely make sure that if you have an update
or if you're something that you're passionate about
or you've experienced, reach out,
we're definitely looking for speakers.
Lacey, we always like to wrap up
with our investor of the month
who is our December investor of the month.
Yes, that's Edward Jones, they've had a lot of changes.
Yeah, absolutely, so definitely shout out to them.
They've been very, very like,
they've been a stakeholder in the chamber
and we definitely love Sharon Zeman.
She's an ambassador for the chamber as well
as definitely being very involved
and we definitely appreciate that.
We want to support them when they support us.
I think it's important, but yeah,
they have a wonderful space with a ribbon cutting
and that we had there last month
and it's been great to get to watch.
I love getting to see the before and after,
especially when they have all these different open spaces now
and they've been adding more agents
and that's great where we're growing, obviously,
they're coming here for a reason.
So we're doing something right.
We appreciate our friends over at Edward Jones
and appreciate all of our local businesses
that put back into this community
and certainly, most importantly,
appreciate our chamber that's the mission over there.
Putting it into this community,
making this community stronger, us being more unified
and all that, we appreciate you guys so much
over there, Lacey.
Thank you for the time.
If people have followed questions that want to know more
about some of the things we talked about,
how can they be getting in touch with you?
Absolutely, so definitely reach out.
You can reach out to either the office
or you can reach out to me,
but I'm available at communications
at WisconsinWappetsChamber.com
and you can also give us a call.
I have a direct line and that one is 715-422-4859
or by office at 715-423-1830.
In that round table revitalization,
Laura's information, again, if you want to be a part of that,
you can contact Laura Bonner,
Ridgeway at Workforce at WisconsinWappetsChamber.com.
That's Workforce at WisconsinWappetsChamber.com
or 715-422-4860.
That's 422-4860.
Lacey, always good talking and hanging out with you.
Thanks for the time.
If we don't talk soon, will you have a great holiday?
Yes, you too.
Thank you, thank you.
We'll talk soon.
You as well.
We'll talk with you later
and we'll talk with Lindsay coming up.
We have a let's talk real estate right around the corner
on WFHR's Monday magazine.
