Welcome everybody to midday magazine for this March 12th, 2024.
Have your host James J. Mailoff here at 3.30.
Welcome in David Farmboro.
He is a broker with Colwell banker realtors looking forward to talking with David.
Right now, looking forward to talking with our great friend, Lacey Ailing events
and engagement director with our heart of Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce.
Lacey, good afternoon.
Good afternoon, James.
Thank you for having me.
Thanks for being here.
We appreciate the time.
How have you been?
Good.
It's been a very calming.
I mean, it's only Tuesday, but it's been a call week so far.
Good, good.
Here's hope and not going to award and all that that continues that way.
Lacey, we got some great events coming up.
Let's jump right into it, especially because we have our annual meeting recap coming up.
Or I wanted to do a recap of the annual meeting.
Yes, absolutely.
So last week, we didn't celebrate.
I do want to give a list of the winners.
Yeah.
So I know not everyone could be there.
And it's, I mean, with it being on a Wednesday, I know it can be a little tricky.
So our small business of the year winner was quality plus printing.
Large business of the year was Dom Tar, innovative business of the year.
Jacobi custom cues, community impact of the year.
Miss Wisconsin rapid scholarship organization.
And then ambassador of the year.
Steps mid business professional of the year.
Sky Manning and investor, like investor of the year will be a whole chunk gaming into Kusa.
A big shout out to everybody involved in all of them.
And everybody deserving candidate and there is no wrong answer.
When it comes to these, like all of these are great winners.
And honestly, a lot of other businesses you could have mentioned.
I just said the same thing.
Like we got so we're so spoiled in this area with so many great people and great businesses.
And it's part of the reason why we encourage people to be a part of the chamber.
Tonight, I only give a chance to highlight these things and the PR that can come from it.
But also just showing how you back your community and you support the community and all of these businesses do that.
Absolutely.
It was a wonderful, wonderful night.
We have some more.
Thank you is for specific people to kind of help make that such a success.
So the ridges for obviously letting us host it there.
Shout out to Michelle.
She was very accommodating.
We I was kind of like, okay, I want to get in here really early.
I want to make sure everything's perfect.
And she was great and, you know, communicating and letting us know when we could do stuff,
what stuff we could do, what stuff we couldn't do.
And just making sure that she was definitely there for us every step of the way.
As well as I do want to give a shout out to the Lincoln High School chamber orchestra.
They played during cocktail hour.
We had it was it's such a great thing to walk in.
We had a red carpet.
We had stanchions that hold chunk donated to us to kind of just elevate that event.
And so it was really great to walk in and have that live music.
Definitely really, really grateful to Ginger for taking a little bit of time out and having those kids come in.
It's hard to get, you know, to be involved in those things, especially when it's 45 minutes, right?
So the kids are coming there.
They're warming up, essentially playing for a little bit while everyone's staring at them.
And then, and then kind of just going home, just leaving it.
So definitely really fun.
The board, the board loved it.
I was, I was like, okay, when I was kind of floating the idea around, it was, we had never done that before.
So definitely really grateful to everyone that, you know, supported that.
Stacey was more than accommodating to let me do stuff like that.
Great idea.
It's a really good idea by you.
It was so fun.
I loved, I think just the live music and Stacey was outside to greet every single person that walked in.
So it was really nice.
And I think it just makes the process when it starts out that way, just really enjoyable for everyone.
Definitely, thank you to Wisconsin Rapids Community Media, so you can actually watch it on their YouTube channel.
If you'd like to hike your COD photography, she took wonderful pictures of staff,
follow the winners of people that were there, as well as Ken Day from the rafters.
He donated, let us use some of his up lighting and things like that to kind of just have
this certain level of ambiance to where, you know, it felt really grand with the red lights on the sides.
As well as Rapids Awards and more, they did the custom insulated cup that I wanted to give out to everybody.
So it really excited for that as well as Heather and Gary Sayers.
So it's, Heather is always so helpful.
She kind of, she's kind of everywhere.
If you just walk somewhere and she's touched it.
So she was great in helping us do this gigantic bloon ring that was seven feet wide.
So people could take pictures in there, as well as she, I really, really wanted to do this photo app.
Opportunity for the winners in a different room.
So she donated some, some, you know, pipe and drape and things like that.
And then Gary printed, I want to say over 100, 3D, little small Oscars.
So we've had them on all the tables, as well as everyone at the table got to take
when home, if they're, if they were sitting where this tape was, and then as well as all the winners.
But it takes about 24 hours to 3D print each one of those with a schooled filament.
So I was really grateful that Gary did that.
He was, he was like printing in different sizes and he was really, really like, he really wanted to do it.
And he didn't even want anyone to even know that he did it.
So of course I had to make an entire slide slide to him because I was just so grateful that he did that.
And I love 3D printing.
I think that that's, I have been doing a lot of research about 3D printing.
And I think it's so fun to just, yes.
And it's, it looks so cool, especially on each table.
So everyone could kind of see that.
So definitely shout out to Gary and Heather for, you know, just all the things that they did
beforehand to make the event a great, really great success.
And Mark Skibb, I saw in there too.
Mark Skibb, so he was our MC.
And I had a lot of fun with him.
He is a very, very like straight shooter.
So I knew that he was going to tell me what he thought of the slideshow as well as I did his,
his pramter slides too.
So on the TV for him to then read off of, which I had never done before.
And I didn't know how to do that.
But I did it the day before the event and he loved it.
So definitely really grateful for him.
There's something about someone who can speak about anything.
And it's like, he should just, I asked him to narrate essentially like if you could just
narrate my life, follow me around as well as do all of my voice mails.
Yeah, it's, it's Morgan Freeman and Mark Skibb.
Like that's the list of narrators that you want to narrate your life.
He's just so calming.
Like you can, like, I was like, everything's got to be perfect running around.
And he's like, lazy.
Yeah, yeah, it's a common story.
I'm just like, what?
He didn't even say anything.
It wasn't like he had, you know, had this long motivational,
you just kept saying my name back to me and I was called part of the reason I'm in this
chair, part of the reason I'm any good at this job is Mark, Mark Skibb.
Like that, that's the guy right there.
He means a lot to this station to this community.
And it's great to see him any chance to hear that voice and hear him MC and stuff or something.
That's a wonderful person to have MC.
That's great.
And a great group of people, great event, great night already looking forward to next year.
Yes, we are already like, I already started.
We did send out the post survey.
So definitely if you were there, please fill that out.
I want to hear everything.
I want to know what you didn't like, what you did like, what you want more of,
what you want less of the only way that we can, you know, learn and grow is by taking
that constructive criticism.
So I don't take any of it personally.
I definitely will put that into where we can get it to where I don't have anyone like,
oh, okay.
But I think that I think year over year, it's going to just kind of get, you know,
a little bit more elevated, but also I want to make sure that the price is to where
everyone can afford to come and just really a fun event for everyone.
Lase, this is one of those things you and I have in common too, because I don't believe
that there is this thing as such as negative feedback.
I think it's all data and you can learn from all of it, the good, the bad, all of it.
And so like you, we always encourage the same thing here at the station.
I appreciate that.
I respect that a lot.
It also, it seems like it helps because you continue to come up with some fun new
things to add to some of these events that have been around for a while.
There's a great idea with the Lincoln kids bringing them in.
It's a local talent.
You're given them a chance to not only get some experience and get more
platforming in front of people, but also supporting one of our local high schools.
Like these are good ideas and it shows.
It's been showing with these events.
Yeah.
It's been, it's been a lot of, a lot of learning because I haven't, I never, I mean,
my daughter's in the orchestra, but I didn't really know a lot about it until
just being a part of, oh, okay, they're, you know, they're playing at these events.
Definitely she, when I spoke to her after she was like, oh, I would have loved
to have stayed the whole night.
And I was like, oh, so we're going to figure that out for next year.
But it was, it was really fun.
And I think it's really nice to have those kids be more developed.
And obviously they're in front of a lot of business, you know, business
professionals as well as a lot of nonprofits.
And that's obviously, you know, the schools in nonprofit.
And I think that those, you know, and so is the chamber.
And I think a lot of those nonprofits, like if we can work together and, and feature
local talent and, and kind of have them grow and learn more about those things, I know
that she did mention that quite a few businesses had approached her and said, hey, how do we
do this?
How do you do this at, you know, I, we want to have, you know, this, when our business
opens or when our new location opens, or we want to do something fun to bring in the
younger kids, we want to keep them here, like I want to keep, I mean, not even
being selfish, I want to keep the kids here.
So, and then like, I don't want our talent to leave and move away.
And, and I think that if we can show them all the things that this, you know, that
Rapids has to offer, they will stay.
Mm-hmm.
Agreed.
Um, networking, networking at night is coming up with two hearts catering.
Love this event.
Love our friends of two hearts.
Yes.
Very, very excited.
March 18th from five to seven.
Those are our new hours.
Um, so that's open to members, future members, and free to attend.
A little birdie told me that they are going, is going to be a martini bar as well as
a sweet and salty bar.
Mm-hmm.
So, very excited.
I did pitch a couple of ideas that I had for martinis because I was like, Hey, I know
that I've saw these in some of the bigger cities.
Yeah.
And I think it will be really fun to kind of do that kind of stuff.
And I think that we don't have a lot of that kind of, like fork to, fork to table.
Yeah.
I've heard, especially with COVID and vendors and trying to get that stuff local, I really
think it's important to support the businesses that are, you know, trying to get things local,
trying to support the farms, trying to support the smaller businesses, and definitely excited
to have, um, to have it there.
Um, the VFW is a great, a great place to have it.
I think that it's just, it's me, it's just kind of speaks of like how we all work together.
Um, because you may not expect a VFW to be pairing with a catering business, um, but
in our community, we are able to keep our talent because we're able to work together.
And I think this overhead is a lot.
So if you can, you know, you can have multiple businesses in the same area, um, working together,
I think that's really great.
And definitely why Wisconsin Rapids has been able to continue, um, to have that kind of
stuff.
So very excited.
I think that, um, the organization team work, uh, supporting each other, um, being stronger
together.
These are all themes and these are all reasons why central Wisconsin specifically our area
here has been thriving and done so well.
Um, there is nobody that wasn't hit by the pandemic, but our area wasn't hit nearly the
way some, uh, even in our surrounding area were let alone the country.
Uh, and it, there's a, there's a reason behind that.
I've, I've studied and I've been following this from this chair and it, it stands out.
If you take a step back, it's so noticeable, nonprofits working with nonprofits, businesses
working with businesses, the cooperation, that's what stands out so much around here.
The people, the cooperation and incorporating something like an event like this.
We love our friends of two hearts.
Do great work over there, fantastic ideas and crafts and, uh, the, the food that they create
and the craft that they, uh, the food that they craft is what I was trying to say, um,
but including the VFW, you're so right about this.
Any opportunity to highlight our VFW, we love to take.
And here's a great opportunity to doing that.
And for people, you know, not everybody gets a chance to go to a VFW, not everybody can
attend or go walk, you know, take events in over there and everything, something like this
that's open to the public and a little bit more gives them an opportunity to see that
too.
And that creates empathy.
That creates more people to understand and hopefully empathize with our soldiers and
there's no downside to that.
Absolutely.
I think the education piece as well as the people in this area that run businesses are so
humble.
I don't have this, they don't have this feeling of like, I, it's mine and I have to keep
it just to myself.
It's where it, they really are like, okay, it takes a village and it takes a lot of people
to be successful in, you know, a specific area.
And I think that two hearts, I think that's just, I think I love the name because obviously
it's, you know, I think it's cute from where it came from and then as well as like, I've
got to try some of their food and I can, like, I can cook.
So I think when you can cook, it's a different experience with food.
Yeah.
Okay, I can just make this at home, but they can cook, I mean, we had blood orange sorbet
as well as mango sorbet at one of their business outreach programs.
They also have some pop ups there where they're featuring, I saw a chicken parmesan stuffed
pepper.
So I love the way that it's like something you, you do know, but a different twist on
it because I think that unfortunately, you get used to making the same meals and you do
this, you know, that you cook the same things.
And I think that sometimes that's good, but I think it's good to have a little change
in there, and especially with people trying to be healthier and trying to make those, you
know, the better decisions as well as wing the cost.
You don't want to just eat something that you're not getting, you know, you're not getting
anything out of it.
So I'm really excited to go, you know, try stuff and I love that they're doing a pop
up for St. Patrick's Day with like a different take on like the corn beef and stuff like that.
I think it's really cool that we're able to do that because Wisconsin Rapids isn't that
big.
Yeah, really well known for our food, but I would love to be known for like, hey, have
you were drove through this town and then you know, you were able to find all of this
homemade food and I think that's really great.
And I hope that we can keep growing and expanding on that.
Now working at night, two with two hearts catering taking place Monday, March 18th from
five to seven over at the VFW 2711 Red and Road right here in Wisconsin Rapids, keep
a mind open to members, future members, and it is free to attend.
Eat, drink and buy local coming up.
Yes, very, very excited.
So last year it was a kind of like a week almost during Mother's Day.
Now we're extending it, making it a little bit bigger.
So I think that this one, for my, for my like, how I feel about it, this is great marketing
for any small business, for any business that even if they don't really feel like, okay,
I'm doing well.
I don't why do I need to do that?
It's $35 in a raffle basket.
So the one you're going on all this print material, you're going to be on the, you're
going to be on this bingo sheet as well as you're going to get a sticker showing that you're
supporting small business.
It's Holly loves that it almost looks like edible if you would follow a drink of my local
and she just keeps every time she says it, I'm like, you're make, she makes me forget
that it's eat drink of my local food because I keep wanting to say edible.
But I love the fact that it's small local businesses.
Every single time we do this, we hear about, we even had an ambassador who, their sister
lives in Madison.
So obviously, when you think of Madison, you think of, they have a lot to offer from
shopping, small big, you know, all of that.
And they come here that weekend every single year because they love the quality.
It's handmade items.
It's not something that you're going to be able to, oh, you're wearing the same shirt
as me.
And I think that it's great to support someone who, this is their passion.
It wasn't made in a different country.
It was made here locally.
It, I think that it's just a great way to support small business as well as supporting
each other as well as getting your name out there for marketing because it's $35.
And I think that if you separate $35, you split it up between the mark of May 6th to
the 19th.
I'm not sure exactly what that is for a price point, but I would assume it's a couple
dollars a day and you're spending that just to boost one of your Facebook posts.
So I think that it's a great way to get it out there.
And if you are not doing it, reach out.
If you've done it for years and you're like, oh, I don't know, we're trying to get, we're
trying to get it out in advance as well as leaning on our ambassadors to also go out,
take pictures of your, you know, places we're having a new website.
So I think it helps us with material to show what you guys have to offer as well as it's
a give and take.
So if you're wanting to be in on this kind of stuff, you have to be able to reach out
to us.
Let us know.
Give Holly a call 715-423-1830.
You can also register online if you have your username and password for Chambermaster.
You're so right about the advertising end of things.
If you're taking, you know, everybody has a market, a budget put aside for advertising.
And usually you're getting in the three digits, you're getting in the somewhere wrong there,
whether you're talking about newspaper radio TV, what have you.
Something like this for 35 bucks and the amount of eyeballs that are going to see this, the
amount of people that are going to get an opportunity to see your business, your logo, especially
if you are somebody who doesn't get seen by many people.
But to your point, Lacey, about some of our local businesses that are doing well and
may feel like they don't need the extra attention or anything like that, I wish you well.
And I support you and I buy local, support local more than most around here.
So I put my name on that.
And I will also say there are no guarantees.
And I'm not wishing ill or anybody, but if I'm running a business heck even in the business
I'm in, my job is to be thinking about tomorrow.
My job is to be making sure that we're, the lights are on and this station is running,
not just today, but the tomorrow, the next day, the day after that.
One of the ways to guarantee your business survives and thrives is to continue PR, to continue
spreading the word.
Here's a way of doing that, especially to a business that is doing well already.
Well, it's not a lot of money you're spending and you're staying in the public eye.
You were keeping out there and maybe is important and just as important as all of that is you
are supporting local, you are supporting things when you are a part of things with the chamber,
you're showing you're a part of a team, you're a part of this community.
Yes, absolutely.
And even I think when you think, when you have the mindset of I don't need to do that,
McDonald's is McDonald's and they still spend millions of dollars in marketing and advertising
because they are successful and they're putting that money back into the company.
So even if it's like, well, it's $35 and a raffle price.
Okay, but you're putting that back into your business because the $35 is going to have
people more than 35 people probably come into your business as well as then someone's
going to win that raffle basket.
And if you put your marketing material in there, your brochures, maybe you have some coupons
for certain things of coming events, press releases, maybe some of your like more sought
after products that people are then going to, oh, I've never tried this before.
And now I'm hooked.
You could get a lifelong, you know, I mean, like person out of that, just from that $35
investment.
And I think you need to look at it as an investment, not just it's just another expense.
Speaking with Lacey Ailing events and engagement director with our Heart of Wisconsin chamber
commerce, got just a couple of minutes left, Lacey, I want to make sure to highlight
some of the other great workforce program events that are coming up, like women's professional
network exchange.
This sounds good.
This sounds exciting.
Very, very excited.
So we actually started working with Mrs. Wisconsin, Tiffany Wharton.
And she had said, why don't we have any kind of women, you know, networking groups?
And I think there's been some little ones in people's houses, things like that.
But we want to expand it to where it's for everyone.
Everyone can come.
We can fit everyone.
We had such an overwhelming response to it.
I think we had over 60 people within 24 hours say that they wanted to do it.
That we are starting that March 27th at the Nikusa Community Center.
So you can register online as well as after this first one, it's going to then be separated
so that there can be different times that kind of, as I said, some people were more available
in the morning afternoon.
And so then it'll be kind of separated based off of your preference as well as it will
be hard to have 60 people to be able to network in an hour and a half.
She was separating it so that everyone has time kind of working it to where, yeah.
And then as well as if you have, you know, if you have businesses that have a lot of people
that are part of the chamber, someone can go to one, someone can go to the other one,
as well as trying to get everyone out there, not just necessarily one person from your business.
Definitely reach out to Laura if you are interested in that, as well as she's also doing
the diversity and business luncheon.
And that's going to be April 8th.
Definitely, I think that this is our first one.
We're very, very excited.
We have Lynette Lugard, I don't want to pronounce her name strong, Fidel Perez, owner of El
Cafe, so really local Olga Meza from the Wood County Health Department, they are going
to be on a panel where we're going to be asking them questions, obviously with, you know,
women, obviously Lynette, she works at Ho Chiang, and I think it's great to have just kind
of how they've had, what experiences they've had as a woman, as a man, different races,
things like that.
I think that it's good to have a better understanding of what they've been through, the things that
they've overcome, as well as asking them some questions on things that are definitely
important that we don't necessarily talk about.
If I can be blunt real quick, and I've done this before on the year, there was my family
and I, we've been in this town for a little over 20 years, and there was a point in time
when we came here where we were pretty much the only ethnic family in this area.
Like, you couldn't find a Jew for an Italian or anything like that anywhere.
This area is grown, it's changed, and it's gotten more diverse, and it's gotten more
enriched and better, and to be able to highlight that and also encourage it and support it
is a wonderful opportunity.
There is no business that's going to survive without diversity, period, like going forward.
There's just no way.
It's impossible to think of.
So it's not only integral to your business and to the future of this area, but it's also
a really cool opportunity to be able to hear from these people, be able to get some
feedback and maybe find some commonality too.
I don't think you'd be that surprised, but maybe you would have how much you have
in common with these individuals, and it creates more of a bridge there, more of an empathy
there.
There's nothing but a win-win in this situation.
That's a really great luncheon, that's a really great idea.
That's all Laura, so I know we're still actively looking for our MC, fingers crossed that
we can get James, hopefully you guys can all bother him later, but we definitely want
someone who understands it.
I think that having someone, which I, nothing against that, you know, that certain straight
lace blue collar, cookie cutter, but I want some flavor, I feel like James could bring
some flavor.
You are good.
Oh, she's good.
So I really want him, but...
I am all red-faced, so we're going to go and we're going to have nothing to eat.
You are not.
We're going to wrap up the interview.
But definitely, definitely reach out.
That's all Laura, workforce at WisconsinRapidsChamber.com, or always call the office, come
in, where they're eight to four Monday through Thursday, as well as our job resource and
transfer fair.
We are currently looking for sponsors, as well as booths.
So if you are a business that you're looking to recruit, business that you're looking
for interns, anything at all, please reach out.
You do not have to be a member.
This is open to everyone, and we want our community to grow, thrive.
We want people to stay here.
We want to attract talent, as well as if you are a, you know, a business that is even looking
just for the future, or you're looking for apprenticeships.
We have tons of talents here.
So please reach out.
It's going to be at mid-state.
Appreciate you, Lacey.
Nice work, as always.
You can find out more and reach out to the team over at the Chamber at WisconsinRapidsChamber.com,
WisconsinRapidsChamber.com.
Be sure to follow them on social media as well.
It's a great way to keep up the data on everything going on in your community.
Looking forward to talking again real soon, Lacey.
Thank you.
Thank you.
We'll be back with more Midday Magazine right here at WFHR, locally grown radio.
