Welcome, everybody, to Midday Magazine for this Tuesday, January 28th, 2025.
Have your host, James J. Mailov here at 430 today.
We're going to talk to our friends at the Wisconsin Rapids Family Center, looking forward to that.
Right now, we've got our good friend, Promise, back in in with us,
marketing a communication director with our Hardow, Wisconsin,
Chamber of Commerce, all calm, cool, and collected promise.
I don't know, I'm just messing with you.
We appreciate you being here.
Thanks so much for the time.
And you brought in a guest.
We've got Ben Kessler with us from the ACE leadership program.
Ben, of course, works in our local public schools.
And Ben, thanks for being here.
Yep, thanks for having me.
We'll get to talking to you in just a moment here.
But before we do, I do want to just catch up with Promise a little bit.
I've got some great things going on over at the Chamber.
Where would you like to start about some upcoming events, Promise?
Do you want to start there?
Yep, we have networking at night on February 17th from 5pm to 7pm.
That one's going to be located at Midstate Technical College
inside their gourmet cafe.
So this is an event that's open to members and future members.
If you're looking to join the Chambers,
it's a great way to make connections,
come and enjoy some snacks and some raffle prizes.
And that's at the Midstate Technical College campus in Wisconsin Rapids.
These networking at night things are to me from what I'm hearing from people
becoming more and more popular, more and more people wanting to attend them.
And it becoming more, especially in the winter,
we just don't have enough events to bring people together
and to, you know, for, especially people from other industries
to be able to hang out and get to know each other or anything like that.
Whether it's sharing information or a business connection,
they're a lot of fun.
They've been very popular for quite some time.
And I feel like you know how to do this job better than I will ever will, Promise?
But I will say that raffles should, we got to bring that up right away.
People love these raffles, man.
Any event you're doing, have a raffle attached to a people.
Right.
You got to have that.
It's going to be a fun one and a shout out to Midstate.
Great place to have this.
We always appreciate being able to shout out our friends over at Midstate.
Another very popular event that you have going on is coffee with the chamber.
That one's coming up next month.
Yep.
So our next coffee with the chamber is February 26th.
It's from 8.30 AM to 9.30 AM.
It is hosted at our offices in the boardroom downstairs.
This one's really great.
So throughout 2024, we did some business outreach program business
and kind of learned more of what our members wanted.
One of the big things that they really wanted was more information
on marketing and how to market their business.
So our discussion topic for this one is marketing made simple, essential tips
and strategies for success.
Our speaker is Lisa Rose.
She's the owner of dimensional marketing.
And she's located right in town here too.
She's a great marketing person that can help you with all of the marketing needs
that you have.
Oh, and then when if you come, bring a cup because we have coffee sponsored by Duncan.
Again, that is February 26th from 8.30 to 9.30.
Register online at WisconsinRapetsChamber.com or give us a call at 715-422-4852.
I apologize, promise.
You're doing your job and doing it very well.
And I lost everything after you said Duncan.
I didn't hear anything you said after a dunk knob.
That's a great, that's a perfect sponsor if you ask me.
I really appreciate not only the taking the time on this topic.
This is a topic that no matter what industry you're in, you're paying attention to.
Marketing, selling your business, selling your, even if you're a nonprofit, doing that.
It's so key.
And there's so many resources out there nowadays.
But I would say, and I know this just from looking at it myself from my own business or
my own part perspective, I would say 7 out of 10, if not more than that, out of those
businesses are in another country or in another state, a lot of those things.
And the things that they're telling you, they're not bad, but they don't really apply
to maybe central Wisconsin or where you're listening or some Lisa's right here.
Lisa's from here.
Lisa, she's going to know this stuff better than most.
So not only does she have the education, the brain of marketing and all these things,
but she's a local.
She gets the area and she's not going to really be talking about things or pitching things
necessarily that really wouldn't work with this market.
That's a really cool thing to be able to offer the community.
Right.
I agree.
And she's very good at what she does, too.
That should be mentioned.
This is going to be a really nice discussion, a very similar to networking at night.
While there is a speaker and there's that going on, this is still a great opportunity
to connect with others, to connect with people that you may not always do that with.
Is this one of those events that we want to register for again, promise, as you mentioned?
Yeah, register online, it's free for members and I think there's just $10 for non-members.
So if you're not a member yet, you can still attend this coffee with the chamber, just register
online at WisconsinRapageChamber.com.
It's smart, too, because if I'm not a chamber member, I am when I leave.
I am by the time I leave.
That's one of those events.
I think you get new members from that, that's smart.
And speaking of a member's and our community, the 77th annual meetings and awards banquet
is coming up, 77, that is impressive, that's really something.
And it's right around the corner.
Yep, I just want to touch base on this one real quickly again, as a reminder that it's
coming up here on March 6th.
The doors open at 5, dinner starts at 6.
I do need those registrations in.
By February 20th, we did send out invites to all of our members.
So look for your in-your-mail boxes for those and send your RSVP back in ASAP.
Get those in by February 20th.
I have no excuse to forget that, that is my birthday.
So I have no excuse to forget that RSVP.
And we want everybody to attend this.
This is such a celebration, not everybody may get an award or anything like that, but if
I could be honest with the audience, it matters and it doesn't.
It matters that the people winning them and that's really cool.
But we're coming together as a community to celebrate our community and celebrate investing
in our community and believing in this area.
I don't think you have to look very far to see other cities and other communities that
may not be thriving as well as ours.
I think that this is a great opportunity for people to come together and celebrate that.
While also realizing that there's plenty more to do and kind of like looking ahead to
the future into that.
It's a wonderful event.
Encourage you to RSVP for that event and make sure you get in them before February 20th.
You can do that at their website and we'll give you all that information before we wrap
up with promise today.
Careers unlimited job fair.
Another great thing that you guys are so good at doing over there is giving people opportunities,
whether it is we're talking marketing or networking or anything.
But certainly our most prized position, our young, our youth and giving them opportunities
to find employment, to find careers and not just jobs or jobs and leading to careers.
Yeah.
So the careers unlimited job fair this year is going to be held at Lincoln High School
on April 2nd.
Right now we are accepting booth registration.
So if you're a company out there that is looking to hire employees or to gain a little
bit exposure in our community, I would definitely recommend getting in on this career job fair.
We also have a few sponsorships left open as well for this event.
And you can register online at Wisconsin Rapids Chamber.com.
Registration deadline does close on March 11th for booths and for sponsorships.
So I highly recommend for anybody that is looking to hire or get more exposure in the area
to get registered for this one.
It's going to be a bigger space.
And then we're also incorporating the Lincoln High School so there's going to be Lincoln
High School students that will be attending this fair as well this year.
Shout out to my fellow Lincoln Red Raiders out there.
This is not only one of the better investments you guys make in our community and helping
this and that bridge between young people and looking for employment and employers looking
for good workers.
That's I think needs to be said and that's really cool there.
But honestly just between you and I promise and Ben I'm going to ask you to keep this
between the three of us.
I've been thinking about this for years about us here at WFHR and WIRI being there.
We are very fortunate in this area.
Steven's point has an amazing radio program over there and we're looking to always make
more and more get more and more young people involved in radio and keep radio alive.
So we've thought about putting a booth there and I've asked some other guests that we've
had in for the show and everything and I've heard such wonderful things about this.
Again, I don't mean to repeat myself but it is a similar theme here with networking
at night or coffee with the chamber where this is an event where we're going to help people
hopefully find a not just a job but a career, a passion, something like that.
But also the networking part of this where this happens all the time and the three of us
know this in our industries.
We all come from very different industries but we're friends with and we talk to people
from other industries and those connections help us in ours.
So these young people are having an opportunity to right away get that even if they they
have a conversation with somebody in a booth and maybe they don't get hired there or
they work there but that's somebody that remembers them, that's somebody that knows them.
I deal with this as an actor all the time.
This is acting 101.
I don't get a lot of the roles I go for but those casting people I make sure they remember
me so that when a part comes up and they're like well there was this guy who put perfect
for this, there I am.
That's marketing, that's connections, that's all of that and that is very much what you're
able to do with this job fairs, make those connections and that person remembers you
or remembers your name or your face or something where it may not lead to a job or career
right now but it could down the line or connections.
Yeah.
I think one of the great things about it this time is we added the little twist of having
it over at Lincoln so that way we could start incorporating more exposure for our students
in the area to attend some of these fairs so I'm really excited about it.
I hope that it's going to be a great turnout.
I remember I think it was my senior year at Lincoln I'm doing something very similar
to this having a job fair there and for me I was able to like I already knew what I wanted
to do and I was all gun hole and set on that and everything but I popped around and
talked to all these different people and businesses and everything and here like 20 years
later they're coming in here from midday magazine or something and I have a connection
with them already and we were able to talk and have these steps it's it has so many
layers to it along with certainly of course helping people find employment and employers
find a good business people but it's also got other layers to it that are really fun
and encourage you to find out register online at Wisconsin Rapids Chamber dot com make
sure to get that registration in before March 11th.
So did you want to dive into the East leadership now promise or you want to keep did you
have some other stuff for us?
No we're good we can go to East leadership to hear all about it.
I am too I wanted to talk a little bit about this we have Ben Kessler with us from the
Wisconsin Rapids public schools right now he is an East leadership partner participant
and we're going to cover some of this education workforce development some of the things
that you're doing with the East leadership program Ben first if you don't mind I
would like to get people's origin stories a little bit where you from how did you get
into public education?
So I'm originally from Northwestern Wisconsin came to school down and point was a teacher
for over 10 years and then just kind of started an administration role for it and now
I'm an associate principal at Rams so yeah that's really cool we're happy to have you
in the area how long have you been in the area?
This is my first year at Rams but I've been in the Wasa area for a number of years.
Right on right on how did you hear about the East leadership program?
So it was actually emailed out in Ron Rasmussen our superintendent with me being new to the
district and new to the area said it would be a great opportunity for me to get to know
the businesses in the area the nonprofits in the area and make some of those great connections
as well.
It's smart around and smart to have this program for these kind of reasons that right
out the gate awesome thing to hear we have a lot of people move into this area or not
from this area necessarily that are looking to do that or looking to make those connections
and any business or any industry but I would think especially in public schools that this
is a really important thing for you.
Yeah it is it's great connections with the mix of members that we have in our cohort
I think we have about 17 of us this year they come from industry ranging from manufacturing
to healthcare other public service as well so it's just a great because you hear a lot
of different perspectives on the same things and just learning about what is in the community
as well so it's really really great.
One of the things that we've heard from over the years of the East leadership program
is certainly some of the stuff we've touched on about connections and giving to know people
in other industries and some of those things.
Are there some of the other things that you've noticed about this program that you've enjoyed
or you think have been really noteworthy?
Just how they move us around throughout the county a lot for different meetings that
we have just to get us to see what all is in wood county and specifically south wood
county you know from you know learning about our native tribes that have been here we
spent time there to this last month we were at mid-state and learning about all of the
great opportunities that mid-states doing and how they continually evolve to meet the
needs specifically of wood county and they're in a little bit of portage county and
stuff but they're area that they cover and really what their mission as a school is was
really great.
It's really cool to hear that's very encouraging to hear too and whether whether it is you know
the history of our tribes in this area which is is incredibly interesting first off and very
cool but also very noteworthy and something that every person in this state should learn
but it's also the that part of that history learning those things just helps you in the area
I would say I moved around a lot in my life and anywhere I've lived learning the history of that
area has only given me not only let's be honest and icebreaker sometimes with people but also
just a little bit more appreciation of the area every area is uniquely different wherever we're
talking whether it's in Wisconsin or any other state in order to do your job promise or what you're
doing then it's so key to know that area to know the people to get it understanding a vibe if you
will of the area this program really helps you with that especially for people who aren't from here
but I will note one thing we've had you know longtime residents rapids residents in this program
that say the same thing that they learn things about their area or that they just get a new appreciation
of the area have you found that appreciation part when you moved to a new area can kind of
sometimes take a little while to get your footing and everything if you felt that have you been
enjoying it yeah I mean it's definitely is it's a little different from especially from where I
grew up and stuff but a lot of still that same small town like feeling those connections is what
you really get like when we go through and we talk about our different you know populations that
we have here at Rapids and things and we go out in the community and we see the different things
that we have whether it be from the McMillan Library or Midstate again or like down with the tribe
like it was very like it's very similar to some other areas but there's a different mix and
connection so it was just really great to get to know that and then you feel a lot more connected
once you start to learn these things things don't seem so foreign or so different anymore it's
you just create a better understanding and that better connection so you know like in my role when
I do have him talking to families and stuff like that I have just kind of a greater understanding of
the area yeah especially with your industry the amount of parents and the amount of people that you
talk to in the community being able to relate to that being able to understand that every every
family is different in every community so getting an understanding of that I can't imagine how much
that helps in this job and the the leadership part of this job where where you're to me the greatest
leaders have never called themselves leaders they just lead they just do it and in the what you're
doing is very much that but I imagine too that it helps so much more getting an idea of the kind
of people that you're around the kind of community that you're on the the it makes it the more reps
you have with that and talking with locals the more you're going to feel comfortable when you're
in your office and you have to bring parents and our parents do come in or something like that I
imagine yeah no it's great it's just you know the leadership aspect of it like we do through
mid-state they have an accredited program that they have for leadership now that they're starting
so it's it's a great thing to go to and to hear them talk about it and the things that they
present and hear others ideas on it as well and it's a great you know a reminder reminder for me
about those two yeah I have you know to be a to be a principal you really you actually get a
degree in leadership for it so it's great to go through and for me to have a lot of those
reminders about different ways of leading and how to effectively lead so that's a really
has been beneficial as well so you you already had an ed job this this class you've literally
got a degree that says leadership I didn't even know that that was a requirement for principals I
just learned that that's yeah so when you go to and you get your administrative degree like if
like the program I went through for it it's an educational leadership degree so how have you
found this program or helping you in your job in leadership it's just great like you know the
reminder of you know realizing everybody's that kind of a different places and things like that
and then you know sometimes no matter what industry you're in you get kind of really just
focused on your things so kind of broadening that view back out again is always a great thing
to give a better perspective so when you have certain situations you can handle them
would you recommend this program to your colleagues to other people I would I recommend it to
anybody who is looking to you know move up in their career in any way or take on more of a
leadership role in whatever company that they're in or if they are currently a leader to take it as
a great refresher and a great reminder about you know what they can do and help lead them in some
self-reflection on it as well because that's a big part of the leadership program that we do
being led by mid-state is reflecting on ourselves and that's kind of one of the biggest things that
leaders really do is they continually reflect on themselves and their practices
in what they are doing to further their organization whether that be an educational organization
or business or just philanthropic be anything like that there's a lot of self-reflection that
has to go on there so that you can effectively lead others well said yeah very well said Ben
and great to meet you man thanks so much for being in here today greatly appreciate you and your
colleagues and what you're doing for our kids and really the greatest investment any of us will
ever make in our kids in the future I appreciate the work you're doing on that front right and if
I can I just want to give a plug out because you said the stuff happening with the chamber is going
to be at mid-state oh at this school all right Lincoln high school but there's a thing at mid-state in
cafe networking at night yeah not working at night I would strongly recommend to go especially
if they're going to give you a tour of that campus because they're doing some really great things
there and some of the plans that they have responding to the needs of the community is really great
so I do recommend like taking that opportunity that's a great opportunity to learn what they have
and what they can do for a community even if you're not a student there yeah a hundred percent yeah
it's a great note man he's good he's good it's good what are you you're setting right about that
they shout out to mid-state I mean at last time I was there it was last year but they had just
put in their hair salon and all that and just some great things that they're doing over that's
a great note and it's been great getting the know you've been thanks a lot for the time and
promise we want people to be a part of the leadership program and everything and when it comes
back around again so want to let people know how they can and employers out there and know how
they can be a part of this and then get their employees a part of this how can they do that promise
so when registration opens watch for our website for the next coming season or session for those
or otherwise you can reach out to Laura Bonner Ridgeway directly she is our workforce and community
development director and she can be reached at seven one five four two two four eight six zero
or at workforce at Wisconsin Rapids Chamber dot com and you go to their amazing website
Wisconsin Rapids Chamber dot com and I really do think it's a great website I love your guys
this website there is a tab there for workforce you can go right to and find out more if you'd like
or go to under the events page and be sure to find out all these great events I promise and I
am in talking about today there are so many other great things there resources as well it is a
one-stop shop for really local things and the what is on your mind of what you're looking for
Wisconsin Rapids Chamber dot com also encourage you to follow them on social media it's a great way
to keep up to date and things they're doing and sharing their events on your pages you just never
know who might see it they wouldn't otherwise promise if people want to get in touch with you how can
they do that you can email me at marketing at Wisconsin Rapids Chamber dot com or call my direct line
at 715-422-4856 great job today guys thanks so much for being here we appreciate you
thank you we'll be back more midday magazine coming up right here in 975 FM 1320 AM WFHR
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