Connecting your members to corporate buyers

Jason Rae: We hear from our businesses often, "Oh, I've built a new relationship. I've got a conversation with this individual now, and I have already gotten three emails this morning from folks who said, 'I met someone who is really going to help me in business last night. This is really going to move me forward.'" What we've really done is focus on that piece of leveraging the value in the stories and the human relationships. I believe in business, we're only as good as we are to the people that we're connected with in this. We don't want to be transactional, and we make sure that we have created a culture within our chamber where it isn't necessarily how many business cards can you collect at any networking event. It's about how many relationships can you build and nurture and strengthen through it.

Ted Wind: Hi, I'm Ted, and I build software for chambers of commerce. For the past decade, chamber tools were all built the same way. One clunky system for every chamber. But if I've learned one thing, it's that no two chambers are alike. That's why on this show, we go beyond the ribbon cut with top chamber leaders to share the unique programs, processes, and what makes their chamber work. And to give you new ideas you can take back to your chamber. This is Beyond the Ribbon Cut.

Hello, and welcome back to Beyond the Ribbon Cut, the podcast for chamber leaders. I'm your host, Ted Wind from Diagonal for Chambers, and my guest today is Jason Rae, president and CEO of the Wisconsin LGBT Chamber of Commerce. Jason, thank you so much for joining us on the show today.

Jason Rae: I'm excited to be here, Ted.

Ted Wind: Thanks for hopping on. Now, before we jump into things and get into the playbook, can you paint us a picture? What is the Wisconsin LGBT Chamber of Commerce, and who are the kind of 750-plus businesses you guys serve?

Jason Rae: Yeah, it's a really great question, and one I'm really proud of. I actually helped found the chamber. Just We're coming up on our 14th anniversary in September. Particularly because we saw a need in the community. We saw there were great work being done in LGBTQ philanthropy, healthcare, political advocacy, but there was really no one doing the economic development side of things. How are we supporting LGBTQ and allied owned businesses in our community?

We actually started as a young professional networking group before that that I was organizing for about a year. And while it was fun to organize a happy hour once a month, we said, "Is there something more substantive we should be doing to really help drive business growth within our community?"

I put a board together, made a quick website, put out a press release, and 14 years later, we are still going strong with about 750 businesses from across Wisconsin as members and with hubs in the Milwaukee area, Madison area, Northeast Wisconsin as well. A mix of both LGBTQ owned businesses, sole entrepreneurs, smaller businesses, allied owned businesses who are just committed to building a more welcoming and inclusive economy in Wisconsin, all the way up to major corporate partners as well who are really invested in this work. And all coming together really to again, as I said, make Wisconsin a welcoming and inclusive place for all

Ted Wind: I love that. And and you mentioned you have that Milwaukee home base, but obviously your chamber being an affinity chamber is statewide from Madison, Appleton, Green Bay, etc. How does a small team of six cover the whole state?

Jason Rae: We are on the road a lot, which is actually something I really love about doing this work is getting to go and visit different communities across the state. You know, when we started in particular, I always tell people we started as a Milwaukee in Milwaukee. And then our second location a couple months later was going up to Appleton before we ever went to Madison. We didn't want to be branded as just a Milwaukee-Madison group in the state where the rest of the state came as an afterthought. So, we're really strategic about saying, "Let's go to Northeast Wisconsin and really build a base." so our team is in those communities doing networking events. We just hosted an Out After Work in Milwaukee last night. We're up in Appleton coming up soon for a culture elevation series workshop. So, we are exploring Wisconsin on the roads all the time, which is something we really love.

Ted Wind: Absolutely love that. Getting out there, going after it. So awesome. Now, we've had a lot of amazing chamber guests on the show, but as you mentioned earlier, you're actually our very first guest who have actually founded the chamber that you run. Can you tell us a little bit more about your background and how that kind of story culminated in you founding the chamber?

Jason Rae: Yeah, it's something I never quite thought I would be in this space and not doing this work, but I've absolutely fallen in love with it. So, for me, I had a background in politics and was working at a public affairs consulting firm in the Milwaukee Doing some great client work, a little bit of association management, a little bit of government affairs, some PR, event

And then again, just I saw a need after graduation from college with a few years out that most of my LGBTQ classmates and fellow alumni started leaving Wisconsin. They started heading down to a Chicago market, New York, DC, And the line that they had was you couldn't be an out professional and grow in leadership in a position in in business here in Wisconsin. And I didn't think that was the case, so started with those networking groups, the young professional networking group to just build a relationship.

We simply organized on Facebook, put an event out there and said, "Let's just see if anybody shows up." And we had 50 folks come to that very first event that we did. Kept doing it for a year and then did a focus group and really saw the need for a chamber. So, using kind of my nonprofit hat, I'd been on a number of in the community and said, "I I I I have an idea, of we can create, something we can launch and put it out there and I slowly build it over time.

You know, it started with me doing that work, you know, just a few hours a week to a few hours a more a week to then bring on a part-time staff person in addition to myself to now growing we're a team of five at the moment. But it has really been able to grow over that period of time and kind of scale it. No different than any of our businesses that we're working with and trying to help them grow and scale as well.

Ted Wind: I love that. And you obviously still wear a couple of hats outside of the chamber. How do you keep the chamber's lane around like business clearly separate from some of the other work you

Jason Rae: Yeah, it's one that I spend a lot of time to be really deliberate on to make sure that no one is assuming that I'm wearing a different hat at a different time cuz I remain involved in politics and things like that at the moment and active in the community in a number of other ways, but always really making sure to just put the chamber first and foremost in everything that I do and really center that mission of the organization and make sure that the mission is going.

But I also want to give credit. I know many chambers, you know, we're small staff doing a lot of work with active members who want to be engaged and doing tons of events and everything from your ribbon cuttings all the way up to your networking events, your big signature events, but I also want to just give credit to the team that we've built at the chamber. They are a remarkable group of individuals who are pouring their heart and soul. They believe in the vision, they believe in the mission, but are just doing great work each and every day.

Ted Wind: I love that. And like you said there, there's so many incredible chambers across the country. Part of the reason why we're really excited to have you on though is beyond just the networkings and the ribbon cuttings that we talked about, one thing that your chamber is doing incredibly well is helping a member land a contract with a Fortune 500. That certainly isn't the norm with chambers, but it's one of the the value propositions you've built your chamber around. Why is this idea of supplier diversity, i.e., getting members in front of corporate buyers, one of the biggest value adds a chamber can offer?

Jason Rae: So, we are an affiliate of the National LGBTQ+ and Allied Chamber of Commerce. They've been around about 25 years. And they created the LGBT Business Enterprise Certification. So, businesses that are 51% or more LGBTQ owned and operated can get certified. They're also launching an allied small and medium enterprise business certification this year, and we're a pilot program.

But, really it's about for them and one of the biggest benefits of being an affiliate and them having the certification is it is completely free for any of our members to get certified. If they were to go to the NGLCC and pay for certification, about $899. But, if they belong to the Wisconsin Chamber, it's completely free. It's a member benefit that we can give.

And it's a great tool. It's a tool that opens up doors. Now, it doesn't guarantee a contract for anyone. It doesn't guarantee that they're going to get business. But, it opens up that door to have that conversation with corporate partners and buyers to say, "Hey, I'm nationally certified. I've been recognized this way. I'm a legitimate business." There's an application process businesses go through. There's a site visit. There's a national review committee.

For some businesses, getting certified is meant to be, you know, just a marketing tool to say, "Hey, I'm an LGBT certified business." For others, it's really about opening up that door. And we really believe it's a great way for us as a chamber to help our members grow.

Our mission and our objective, I think, as chamber leaders across the board, whether you're an LGBT chamber, a general market chamber, another affinity chamber, should always be trying to find opportunities to help your businesses reach new customers, reach new consumers, reach new buyers. And that is really something that we have put as our key focus because we want our businesses to grow. We want them to be more successful. We want them to thrive. And that's why we're on this journey with them, from starting businesses to getting those contracts to thriving and doing amazing work in the community.

And one that we see having huge impacts, whether it's a Fortune 500 or Fortune 100 company putting out a bid, we've had everything from during Pride Month, one of the business resource groups at a corporate partner said, "Hey, we're going to do a big event. We want to use an LGBT certified caterer in here. Who can we bring in and give a contract to host our big corporate event that we're doing?"

to larger opportunities. We worked with one a few years ago who was putting out to bid a three-year janitorial contract for office space and was looking for a business to do that. That helped that business grow. Get, you know, they were able to expand, bring on a new employee, which employed someone else within our community as well. So, we were creating a real workforce pipeline as well during this. So, it wasn't just about getting a contract, but it allowed that business itself to grow.

The other thing that we're really seeing and and we're loving is it's companies who are not just focused on what we call the prime or tier one contract, which is the direct spend, but companies are also asking these certified suppliers that they're using to also track their spend. So, perhaps if it's a a big contract that goes out to someone, maybe they need to hire a a small graphic designer to do some graphic design work for them or they need to hire a new CPA to do some accounting because their operations have expanded. And they're also doing business two tiers down here with certified businesses.

So, we're really helping not just those who are what I'm going to call corporate ready and want to do the corporate work, but we're helping those small entrepreneurs as well in the community who are also looking for those opportunities. So, business-to-business connections are just as important to us as that business-to-corporate side.

Ted Wind: Mhm. And you're not just saying that, you're also doing that through your actions. So, one of the first parts of this pipeline, especially for small businesses, starts on the front end. In 2022, you launched the LGBTQ+ Entrepreneur Bootcamp with Harley-Davidson's supplier diversity team. That's now a dual-track program, Discover and Build and Grow and Scale, running virtually. Milwaukee and Madison do sessions with the fee again covered. What does that bootcamp actually teach, especially for these smaller member

Jason Rae: Yeah, it's a great question, and it's one that we really love. This program is probably one of my favorites that we do. Because I think we as chambers often focus on those businesses that are already existing in our communities, that are operating on the main street, that are there, that come to established and operational. And I really think it's important that we also focus, whether you're an affinity chamber like us or you're a general market chamber, that you say, "How do we actually help those in our community who have a vision, an idea, and just need the support to actually launch that business?"

So, our program was really designed as a way to say, "Someone who has been always thinking about doing it, or maybe doing something as a side hustle for a while, how can they really put it in place to really be successful?"

So, it starts with everything from a session on ideation to we get to bring in an attorney who talks about legal formation structures to help folks understand what's at risk and why why you might want an LLC or an S corp or a C corp or what that may mean for a business. To bring in some of our financial institutions to talk about lending and setting up their books for success to marketing and branding. We have consumer research, really everything that helps a business kind of build that business plan and be prepared.

And one of the things that I love most about it is that we're getting to feature our members who are professionals in this area. So, we're not only helping people who want to start a business, but we're bringing in our other members to show off their knowledge and their expertise in building those relationships for there. So, it becomes a win-win for all of our business members that they get to be that subject matter experts for us and we get to use their talents.

And they have been so gracious. I mean, they our speakers travel across the state with us. We're actually working on one for Northeast Wisconsin right now and they've traveled, they've come up and traveled, you know, 2 hours away because they've valued this program and they see the impact. So, you know, we've done 4 years of it. We're now looking at how we can take that and take the alumni that have graduated and really help them and see where they're at and then to have them come back as mentors to help those new businesses that are just getting off the ground.

Ted Wind: I love that, especially when it's cyclical like that, right? Where you have these members that go through the program originally and then coming back and being mentors. I mean, that's clearly a sign that you're doing something really right there. How many members and businesses have actually come through this program at this point

Jason Rae: We had four across the state last year. Always really trying to make sure, you know, while we're statewide that we're really getting into communities. So, you know, doing it in Madison and bringing out the Madison entrepreneurs and really having them

Partly because for us, it's not just about educating them once. It's really about this cohort mentality for us that we think is really important because we want them to support one another.

And that's one of the things that I love about it is that when they leave that they're not ending the conversation and relationships. They're just beginning those conversations and relationships and that as they're navigating their entrepreneurial journey together, they're reaching out to each other for support, for help, for ideas and really setting each other up for success, which I think is important for all chambers to do. It's not just about promoting our communities, but how do we help all of our businesses really succeed and support one another and really make it we like to view it as like a whole community. Like our job is to foster connections and conversations and let everyone feel like we're one big chamber family.

Ted Wind: I love that and clearly you guys are crushing it on that that first side there of attracting members into these programs, getting them certified. Can we swap over now to the the buyer side? You've got around 50 plus corporate partners from Molson Coors, Kohler, Rockwell, Northwestern Mutual just to name a few. And those go from a ladder from a gold at $2,500 to diamond at $10,000. How do you turn a corporate partner from just a logo on the gala banner, which is I think where they sit for a lot of chambers into a company that's actually buying from your

Jason Rae: It's a really good question and one that we've been really intentional about. So for us, I think an important thing that we have learned especially in the corporate side that has helped sustain us is making sure that we are getting multiple point of contacts in a company And especially it's not always in the buying side to begin with. The corporate you know supplier diversity side, meaning we've rebranded it now as supplier inclusion or just under procurement in general, but often folks come to us from, you know, either an HR, diversity, equity and inclusion arm, maybe government affairs, coming and looking at the chamber and saying, "Hey, what can we do?"

So we've been able to launch a number of programs that have helped those corporations. So one is our We run an LGBTQ Workplace which connects corporate business resource groups. Well, one of the things we do with that is we have an annual summit to help those groups share best practices with each other.

And this past year, we did a whole session on why business resource groups need to be engaged with their company's procurement opportunities. And walked through what corporate buying looks like, walked through what certification looked like, walked through that opportunity so that they could be the internal champions in their company to actually go and get the buyers to say, "Oh, I've got a business that you should use." And or why aren't we including more LGBT owned businesses in our corporate supply chain? Or why are we including more women owned businesses, minority owned, veteran owned, disabled owned businesses, but really trying to get some of those business resource groups to really start thinking in that way.

But as I mentioned at the beginning, for us it's been about really intentional about asking at each company. And something I think every chamber should do is help say, "Who else at your company should we connect with? Do you have anybody in this department? Do you have anyone here?" One reason it's allowed us to get those corporate buyers and those individuals in procurement and supplier diversity connected to our programmatic work.

So we did a matchmaker session last year where we brought in our certified businesses and our corporate buyers together so that our businesses could pitch them. And they each got about 5 minutes to go table-to-table and got to meet 10 different companies and get an opportunity to explain who they are. Now it didn't necessarily result in a contract that day, but it helped build those relationships, those connections where they're staying in touch and they're relevant. And when that new opportunity comes, we've been able to help our corporate partners connect with our small business members and really open those doors for opportunity.

Ted Wind: I love that. And that matchmaking, meet the buyer event that you talked about, how did you get that started? For a chamber that's listening at home that's that's interested in doing maybe a small version of that, where would you recommend they they start?

Jason Rae: Yeah, for us we took it really simple. We reached out to one of our corporate partners and just said, "Hey, would you be willing to host?" And they had a conference space and they said, "Sure, come on in."

So then we purely sent out a note to a number of our contacts and said, "We're looking at this event. Would love you to come. It's meant to be a no pressure situation. You're not needing to buy, but here's the Friday I think we did a Friday afternoon when we knew kind of calendars were quieter for a lot of folks and said, "Come in and just we'd ask you to just meet with five to 10 small businesses, hear their pitch, and then give them some feedback on it.

And what was amazing was the corporate side on the procurement and supplier inclusion side, they raised their hands instantly. They were so excited to be there because they want to help mentor and strengthen small businesses. They want to diversify their pipeline when it comes to who they're using. And they want to give that feedback so that when businesses when opportunities come up, those businesses can succeed in their pitches and get those opportunities.

So, it was really a kind of a simple process and we made it almost like um I guess I'll call it a speed dating type thing of sorts. And like kind of went table to table. We did our best to kind of match up. We did it once before. We've, you know, grown it since then and you know, we're a little more intentional our second time around making sure to match the companies that were coming with where their buying needs were coming so that we paired them with businesses that would be a good fit.

But if a chamber's just starting to think about this, our very first time doing it was simply kind of 5 to 10 minutes per table. We would bring a little buzzer. They would just hop to the next table and they just got practice pitching and the businesses and the corporates got practice giving feedback back to them. So, we made it really simple that first time, learned some lessons, and then grew it the second time.

Ted Wind: That's great. The speed dating analogy is perfect for that. I absolutely love that. And one more thing that you mentioned on that kind of specific matchmaking event was around that's setting up the first step of the process, right? You're not getting a contract signed right then and there, but it's maybe leading to a relationship down the line that can eventually lead to a major contract for one of these businesses. So, I think that's really incredible. As part of that though, and inherent with any of these kind of corporate buyer programs is these contract wins are slow and they're also private. A member isn't always telling you when they landed the deal. How do you then in turn kind of measure the impact of this work and especially what do you show your board and your members when communicating the value of

Jason Rae: I think one that we're still struggling with to actually always be able to show that value in the right way because you're right, we don't always hear and know exactly when a contract happens and businesses also don't want to share, you know, how much the contract is sometimes with it. So you can't really go and say, "Oh, we helped leverage this amount of resources."

But what we have heard are the anecdotal stories. And I think one of the things that chambers we can all do a better job of is leverage storytelling. And I think it's hearing the stories and we hear from our businesses often, "Oh, I built a new relationship. I've got a conversation with this individual now." And it isn't just on the corporate side, it's on the small business side as well where people come to us and we just had a networking event last night and I've already gotten three emails this morning from folks who "I met someone who is really going to help me in business last night. This is really going to move me forward. Oh, I've been looking to find someone who does XYZ. I met somebody last night. Thank you so much for organizing this event."

And what we've really done is focus on on that piece of leveraging the value in the stories and the human relationships because I believe in business we're only as good as we are to the people that we're connected with in this. And that if we are doing it, it's not we don't want to be transactional and we make sure that we have created a a culture within our chamber where it isn't necessarily how many business cards can you collect at any networking event, it's about how many relationships can you build and nurture and strengthen through it.

So I think that's something we can all focus on is just what does our culture of our organizations look like so that folks feel connected. So I think that helps obviously with retention and renewal by having folks feel like they belong to something that is bigger than just getting a contract or growing their business, but that they're part of a like-minded business community. But it also, I think again we can also all do a better job and I know we're working out of leveraging our storytelling. Quantitative numbers are great, but that qualitative piece is what can really hook someone in and get them to want to invest because you're telling a story. You're you're explaining who you are and what you're doing in that way.

Ted Wind: Mhm. And I think that qualitative piece is something that also resonates sometimes more with the business owners you're working with, right? Like the solo consultant probably realistically doesn't necessarily going to get a contract with Molson Coors and the numbers associated with that aren't really relevant to them. But when you share those kind of stories, you share the kind of relationships that get formed at these kind of events, that is 100% where the value is. However, do you want to touch a little bit on the quantitative? Especially maybe less so for communication with your members, but internally with your board. When it comes to these kinds of programs, what numbers are you trying to track? Is that kind of like certification count, contract dollars, jobs, anything of that nature that you're kind of having internally with your board?

Jason Rae: Yeah, we are really focused in internally on collecting data when it comes to number of certifications, when it comes to like a matchmaker event, you know, number of matches successfully We are always pushing out.

We're also tracking when a corporate partner reaches out and says, "Hey, I have an opportunity. Do you know any businesses who fit this need?" So we're tracking the number of kind of outreach opportunities that we do based on businesses coming to us so that we can report back and say we've helped, you know, X number of corporations with Y number of opportunities and trying to find things that way. So those are some of the the quantitative metrics that we're looking at.

Really aligning that what are the strength of the network, but also we're starting to build out how can we track, especially from entrepreneur boot camp, how many jobs are created. So have they launched the business? What does that look like? Have they hired any employees? We're trying to track them on that journey.

It's why for us we've really been building out and making sure that it isn't just a one-and-done program and that nothing that we do is something that people sign up for once and you never see again, but how do we get people plugged into a program where we keep an eye on them and keep a relationship with them so that we can ask that follow-up data 6 months to a year later to be entrepreneurial camp, we look to say, "Have you launched your LLC? Have you filed with the Department of Financial Institutions? Have you Have you done the the paperwork side?" Great, we're going to count that to see how many businesses actually got started.

Then we're going to follow up and say, "Have you hired anyone? Have you put out anything out?" and track the number of employees that are engaged that way. So, we're really trying to see that local microeconomic impact. It may sound small, but you know, being able to go and say, you know, we helped five businesses and they've all hired 10 new people in the course of a year. I can it seems small, but it's really impactful and we think about our communities that way.

Ted Wind: Mhm. I love that. And again, going back to the relationships piece, it's it's so so important there. I think so much of this was super valuable, but I can already hear the chamber listener who's listening in right now thinking, you know, this is great coming from this massive statewide affinity chamber, but you know, I'm just a a local chamber in a town of 20,000. We don't have an affinity focus and my members maybe have never sold to anything bigger than, you know, the local hospital, right? What's the first step to connecting them with bigger

Jason Rae: I think one of the things that I would happily encourage some of those local chambers to do is connect and build partnerships with any affinity chambers in their market and their network.

There are 50 LGBTQ chambers across the country. There are other, you know, there's black chambers, Hispanic chambers, veteran chambers, Disability IN has a number of chapters. So, I'd first start with building connections. It's It's really important to remember that our members overlap. We don't ever view us ourselves as in competition to other chamber. We view ourselves as in partnership with the general market chambers out there.

Then for us it really is about how can we help support? We have tools that might help their small business get that opportunity. Maybe it's certification, maybe it's our entrepreneur boot camp. It's For us that's I think the very first thing for some of the smaller chambers listening to think about is how can we partner together?

We love our partnerships with our general market chambers that we have across Wisconsin. We're cross promoting each other's events. We're talking to each other. We're doing joint things. Because again, it this is about how can we all grow together? And I think sometimes we get so focused on what we do that we don't the chambers we don't often think about how can we do it in collaboration with one another.

Ted Wind: I love that. That's so great. And I think that is something we've seen whether it's multi-chamber events, whether it's large statewide events, that cross promotion of chambers, chambers collaborating with one another. Not only does it help you as the chamber leader, but for your members as chambers, our whole job is, you know, connecting business owners together. And the more spread you can get, the more ground you could cover, the more region you can cover, and the more other membership organizations you can interact with, the better those connections will be and the wider those connections will be. So, I think that is some really, really great advice there, Jason. Now, last question we love to ask every single guest on the show. It's the same one for everyone. I think you know what's coming here. What's one last piece of advice you'd give to the other chamber leaders at home listening in?

Jason Rae: It's a good question and one I've been thinking about a lot because I've learned so much from other chamber leaders in this space and especially as someone who has not just stumbled into this work and have have made it a career over the last decade and a half. I think the one piece of advice is something that we're constantly trying to do at our chamber is just always always innovate and We sometimes get stuck in Well, we've always done it this way. We've always done it this way.

We're seeing with our programs that just because we've always done it this way doesn't mean it's the way we should be doing it. And listening to our members and hearing them and just trying new things, we've discovered so much by just saying, "Let's try a program." And if it fails, it fails.

And with that, one of our mottos that I've been trying to do and I know I get guilty of this is not letting the perfect get in the way of the good or great. I'm making sure that we can still do good things and it doesn't have to be that perfect event. It doesn't have to be that perfect program launch as long as it's good and great and can have impact, your businesses are going to benefit from it.

You can always iterate. You can always take it to the next level the second time, the third time and continue to enhance and grow. But, don't let that perfect get in the way of the good or the great.

Ted Wind: I love that. And I mean, literally just what we talked about earlier, that matchmaking event, right? That was something that started off and maybe it was a little rough around the edges when you started out, but you innovated, you did something new, and it's bringing so much value back to your members and the businesses you serve. So, huge kudos to you guys and some great advice there, Jason.

Jason Rae: No, thank you.

Ted Wind: Awesome. So, thank you so much for coming on the show today, Jason. Some congratulations are in order as well. You guys just won the National LGBT Affiliate Chamber of the Year Award last week. So, huge kudos for that. Congratulations. Well deserved.

And I we've covered a lot of great ground on today's episode, but what I'm really taking away is that a chamber can be more than the room where members just meet each other, right? It's more than just the business card trading. It really can be a door to customers and resources that they never have access to on their own. So, I think that's absolutely incredible what you're doing.

If you want to see how the Wisconsin LGBT Chamber does it all, all the links are in the description below. And to everyone listening, thank you so much for tuning in to Beyond the Ribbon Cut. We'll catch you on the next