Hello world, welcome to WFHR's rapid support for this September 9th, 2025, probably brought
to you by Crockett Septic, big thank you to them, and a thank you to our guests.
We have the heart of Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce with us right now, and Danielle Wetstein
was us, a new member, a new person to join our show.
She is a marketing specialist over there.
Danielle, one of the more important questions I'm going to ask, did I get your last name
right?
I believe you did.
Okay.
Wetstein.
I'll write that.
Yep.
Just like that.
All right.
Great.
Great.
Then we're off to a good start here.
We appreciate you joining us.
We like to kind of get to know people a little bit when we first introduce them to our audience.
Can you tell us a little about yourself?
Yeah.
So I actually started as a marketing intern for the heart of Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce this
summer.
If you saw any of our Facebook lives that are events such as lunch by the river, you probably
saw my face.
I did a lot of those Facebook lives.
I've done a lot of our business spotlight interviews, and they asked me to stay on part
time for the school year.
And I happily accepted because I really do love working at the chamber.
And so I am a senior at UW-Steamans points today in marketing.
Right on.
Congratulations on that, by the way, making this a senior year.
I know that was tough for me.
But it's also really cool to hear.
I appreciate you sharing that on a number of different levels.
One, we love seeing locals, you know, being able to be in these positions and everything.
It goes a long way.
It's also cool to hear of an internship turning into something like that.
I think a lot of us experience that.
And we don't hear as many stories as I'd like to about it, so thank you for sharing
that.
Yeah.
It's been really, really cool.
It's been a very fulfilling experience for me to have.
Good to hear.
Very good to hear.
And not surprising at all.
They got some amazing people over there at the chamber and everything.
That's very cool.
We're happy to have you joining us and looking forward to hanging out together and diving
into some great events coming up like we have some big upcoming events coming up in
this area.
First of all, we are giving away a lot of money.
A lot of money.
We are kicking off.
We actually kicked off on Sunday after our downtown Grand Affair, which thank you for coming.
If you did show up and we did see you, thank you for being there.
We did kick off our Chamber Cash calendar, Raffle, where we will be giving away $1,600
of Chamber Cash in 16 days.
So we are on, I believe, day three of giving away Chamber Cash.
And so the way that we are doing that is that it's going to be via Facebook Live.
So if you tune into our Facebook every single day, you'll be able to see a quick minute
long video where all we're doing is drawing the name.
We'll call you up if you've won.
And you can come to the Chamber and redeem your Chamber Cash to be spent at any of our
member businesses.
So it's a great opportunity to shop local.
Now when doing this, and when the creation of this, I remember talking about it with
earlier years ago about it, one of the things was to bring people to the website and do
some of that.
I bring this up in part because it's something that the Chamber has done very well when
marketing other businesses as well as, you know, certainly their own.
It's something that the Chamber is very good at, very in touch with, and two businesses
out there that might be on the fence or haven't become a Chamber member already.
This is one of the advantages of being a part of the Chamber is not only the way they advertise,
but the intuneness they have with the community and how to reach people, how to get a hold
of people.
The website and doing this drawing is one of those ways and giving away free money.
That helps.
It's not a bad thing.
It's a good way to do it.
That's a fun contest you guys do.
Yeah, it's really fun.
And it's been great to call up the winners and hear how excited they are to come.
Now, shop local.
Here is something we can relate to because in 20 some years of doing radio, it never
gets old giving things away.
It feels great every single time.
And I saw some of those Facebook lives and seeing you at some of the events, you could
see you were very excited, very happy to be doing that.
Yeah, it's awesome.
There's a fun thing.
Encourage you to follow them on Facebook.
Just throw it in the research bar, Wisconsin Rapids Chamber of Commerce if you haven't done
so already and subscribe and keep up to date in their page.
Networking at night is coming up.
This is one of our favorite events to talk about.
I love networking at night.
So this month, our networking at night is taking place on September 15th from 5 to 7
pm.
And it's going to be taking place at Whiskey Rapids and partnership with the Wisconsin
Rapids Convention Visitors Bureau.
So it's a cool little partnership that we're doing here.
It's open to members, future members.
And it is totally free to attend.
It's just a great opportunity to, you know, network with some people in the local area
and kind of, you know, really build those connections because we're all about enhancing
the quality of place.
Yeah.
You know, one of the things that I enjoy about this or some of the other events that you
guys do is the certain stuff that you plan.
You guys got these things loaded.
They got the free advertisers.
I think you're beginning to learn this going from interning to being on the job and everything.
If you're going to have an event, you've got to have a raffle.
Like you've got to have a raffle involved.
So you got that covered check, got that done.
But it's all the organic things that happen with these.
And we don't have as many opportunities as we used to have just, you know, random stranger
and stranger being in the same room and having, finding commonality or fellowship or anything.
And that's what communities are made of.
So this event, while it has a lot of business intent to it, certainly, I think that that
part of it is just as important as being able to get out of the house, running this
in new people or maybe see some people you haven't seen in a while.
Yeah.
It's just a great opportunity to, you know, it's not, they always say it's not really
about what you know, but more about, so who you know, and I think this is a really great
opportunity to take advantage of that.
And we do also, we're also going to have appetizers and raffles.
And that's always great.
So come say hi.
Yeah.
It's going to be a really fun event, especially if you haven't done one of the networking
nights.
This is a great one to check out.
Whiskey Rapids is fantastic.
Great people over there.
And again, this is open to anybody.
This is open to members, future members, free to attend.
And what is the date again for that one?
Just want to nail that one more time.
September 15th from 5 to 7 p.m.
Fantastic.
And Danielle, new networking exchange for women professionals is coming up.
This one I was talking with my mother about this one and I was partially raised by a
hippie feminist.
So it comes from with a little bit of that to it and everything.
But talking with her, she was so excited about this and almost a little jealous in some
ways that there weren't more of these kind of things when she was younger.
We're seeing more and more of this and it's something that the chamber has been really
promoting and really doing a great job of, I think, of giving women more and more opportunities
to not just, okay, make connections in the business world.
That's very important for many reasons.
But again, going back to what I was saying about the networking night, women supporting
women.
This is the main part of it.
My mom really pointed out that we just don't have as many opportunities for that as we
would like in society.
Here the chamber is not waiting around.
They're creating some of these.
Yeah, it's really exciting.
What I like about these networking exchanges is we do this one for women professionals.
We also have one for safety and we also have one for HR and so what's really nice about
that is it's a more specialized networking event where people are coming into it from the
same perspective and they're able to kind of collaborate and throw around ideas.
This one is going to be taking place on September 24th from 8.30 to 10 a.m. at Midstate Technical
College.
Our discussion on the topic is from women to Western Kenya, women with them and the will
to lead.
We are also going to have light snacks and water provided by Silvertree.
If you are looking for more information, please visit our website.
We are WisconsinRapidsChamber.com and you can go to our events tab and it will pull up
a calendar of all of our events and you can click on that one for some more info.
We'll certainly be talking about that, hyping it up and making sure that we get a really
good turnout for everybody when it comes to that and we get closer to it.
We'll promote it on our morning shows and other spots.
Another thing we'll be talking quite a bit about, especially here at a new station, is
the legislative breakfast that is going to be coming up.
That is on October 17th.
It's a wonderful opportunity for the community to be able to talk to representatives face
to face, be able to ask questions.
As we like to talk about around here, I am fortunate enough in our audience is once a month
a senator test and representative crew come on the air, join us, put up with my questions,
all of that.
We are very fortunate in this area.
I think that a lot of our representatives are pretty able to be talked to and reached
out to and everything.
So I don't know if it's as important with some of that local representation but some
of the others that may be there at the legislative breakfast really don't get a lot of opportunities
to be able to be face to face.
I was like to remind people treat each other with respect and ask your questions respectively.
That's how you get heard and if you really want to be heard.
This opportunity that the chamber is a part of in creating here is really important, especially
as we get deeper into 2025 and into 2026 and we have elections coming up in some of these
things.
Yeah, I definitely agree.
I think that a legislative breakfast like this is such a great opportunity because being
from Wisconsin rapids, I feel like sometimes you can fall into the trap of thinking that
like, oh, you know, these things, you know, maybe in Madison or maybe in Milwaukee.
But it's being able to have it come here and being able to feel that like we matter and
that we are being represented is very important.
And so I really appreciate that the chamber is offering this opportunity.
It is going to be taking place on October 17th again at Midstay Technical College.
We love them.
From 7 a.m. to 915, our registration is now open until October 10th.
If you were a member, that is $35.
If you are a non-member, it's $45.
Our discussion is going to actually be facilitated by the president of our Board of Directors, Craig
Tim and Victor Communications.
And we just really look forward to seeing you there.
I think it's going to be a very insightful discussion and really great group of people.
I want to thank the sponsors of this as well.
Yes.
That's a great sponsor as a part of this.
Yes, we do.
Midstay Technical College, U.S. Bank, Fundorf, and Dom Tar.
And if you want to hear updates from legislators, local community representatives, this is the
event to be a part of.
Be sure to market on your calendars and make sure to attend everybody.
Speaking with our heart, I was kind of into Chamber of Commerce and Daniel, we'll keep
moving on here, but I have to stop for a second because are you sure you haven't done this
before?
I am sure.
You've done other interviews and I'm just fighting out because you're very good at this.
You're doing a great job.
It's fantastic.
I love that.
Thank you so much.
The business expo is coming up at the end of October.
That will be here closer than we think.
That's a big one for a lot of our community.
Yes, I'm actually so excited because I was actually in charge of making our flyers for
this year and the theme is Candyland.
So it's going to be really, really fun.
It's going to be taking place on October 28th from 2 to 6 p.m.
And it's just really going to, again, be a day of networking and making those business
connections, kind of immersing yourself in the business community of Wisconsin Rapids.
And so we're going to have business to business networking from 2 to 4 p.m.
So that's going to be kind of, you know, just businesses talking to other businesses,
that type of thing.
You must show your business card to get in and then our open to public is free.
It's from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and that's just going to be for everybody.
So if you're a business looking to find maybe some potential employees or if you're somebody
who's looking to be employed or you're looking to make, just strike up any type of partnership.
Like this is definitely going to be the event for you.
Again, this is a Candyland theme.
So decorate your booth for the chance to win an award.
What else?
Redistration is now open.
It closes on October 14th.
Again, this is an event you are not going to want to miss.
For members, it is $100.
For non-members, it is $120 and non-profit, $50.
Our sponsors for this event.
Thank you so much.
Our U.S. bank, Ho Chiang Gaming Nekusa, Samuel's group, Marshfield Clinic Health System,
Security Health Plan, and the Heart of Wisconsin Table of Commerce.
We also do have a few sponsors spots left open, so if you are interested, contact us.
Again, WisconsinRapisChamber.com or you can call us at 715-423-1830.
Where will the event be taking place?
Oh, perfect.
That is what I forgot.
Bullseye Golf Club.
Excellent.
We love our friends over at Bullseye.
Great place to have this.
You can have a glass of water over there and have a good time.
Let alone something like this, a big shout out to them.
We talk about this a lot, especially on our morning shows and other things we do around
here about employees and employers, and those matching up and finding the right fit for
people.
I credit, really, your generation and a lot of the younger generation with this when
it comes to the idea of, okay, for mine, it was a good job and eventually a career.
You guys aren't waiting around.
Like, I want the career now, and I admire that.
I think that that's really pushed a lot of the workforce in the way we approach work differently.
And certainly from employers, this event is really leaning into that and really giving
people an opportunity like, hey, my skill set is valuable and I bring something to the
table.
What do you bring?
What do you offer as an employer?
And a little bit more of that.
I see that going on as much as I see businesses having an opportunity of like, okay, here I
am.
I actually get to be here.
You don't have to come to me.
So I can come to you and meet you halfway and I can share to you.
You might think my business is this, but I can explain to you that it actually involves
all of these things.
Radio is an example.
You hear me talking on the air and you may think that this is the job and radio, that
this is about it.
There are at least 15,000 people behind me doing a lot harder work and working their tails
off to make me be able to do this.
That's a lot of industry.
So beginning of the chance to be at one of these booths and talk it out with businesses,
really going to be an advantage for the employees and employers.
It's a wonderful opportunity.
Yeah.
It really just opens out line of communication and really just creates those partnerships
and those connections that are going to build up our community.
Just between you and me, who came up with a candyland idea because I really like that.
That's a great theme.
I believe it was Stacey R.
It wasn't Stacey R.
I thought it might have been her.
Okay.
I thought it might have been Stacey.
I wasn't sure.
It was a Stacey R.
Stacey.
It was a little bit neck and neck on that one.
Okay.
Stacey Ferretastic.
Danielle, we always like to wrap up with letting people know how they can find out more
information or register for some of these events if they'd like to.
Yes.
So if you are willing to contact us further, you can visit our website at WisconsinRapidsChamber.com
You can also call us at 715-423-1830.
Also, be sure to check out our Facebook page.
That's where we're going to be posting a lot of updates about our community events.
And just overall having a great time over there.
So be sure to check us out.
Encourage you to do that.
Everybody again, WisconsinRapidsChamber.com is the website.
Be sure to follow them on social media as well and share their posts on your page.
You just never know who might see it otherwise.
And be listening for another edition of the Rapid Support Featuring.
See, Heart of Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce will be doing that very soon.
Danielle, great work today.
Thank you so much.
Thank you for having me.
Yeah, that's great.
Please say hi to the staff over there for us and everything.
And we'll talk to you again real soon.
Awesome.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Everybody for joining us and a big thank you to Crock Acceptic for sponsoring our next
our edition of Rapid Support.
