In this episode of Chamber On!, host Matt Appenzeller, President and CEO of the Southern Ohio Chamber Alliance (SOCA), sits down with David Peterson, Executive Director of the Madeira Chamber of Commerce in Cincinnati.
Matt and David discuss how the Madeira Chamber is evolving to meet the needs of today’s business landscape—focusing on supporting solopreneurs, fostering connection in a work-from-home world, and leveraging technology and AI to tailor engagement.
Tune in now for fresh ideas and inspiration for chamber leaders and small business owners alike!
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Episode Transcript:
Matt Appenzeller:
Hello and welcome to the Chamber On! podcast, the go-to podcast for small employers and local Chambers of Commerce in Ohio. I'm your host, Matt Appenzeller, President and CEO of the Southern Ohio Chamber Alliance, more commonly known as SOCA. We are an alliance of 130 Chambers of Commerce in Ohio, and today, we're actually going to talk with one of our chamber directors across Ohio. Today, our guest is David Peterson, the executive director of the Madeira Chamber of Commerce located in Cincinnati. David, thanks for being on the show.
David Peterson:
Great. Thanks for having me excited to do it.
Matt:
Very cool, very cool. So I'd like to start off with this. Like, you know, when we all go to college, there's not a there's not a major that says, hey, I want to be a chamber of commerce executive director. So, so can you give us a little background of how you got started in Madeira, kind of a volunteering for one thing or another, and here we are.
David:
So my background is in media and marketing, and really thought that'd be the kind of full trajectory that I would go, as you know, but maybe others don't. The executive director role for me is a part-time role, so I am kind of that dual business owner Executive Director, which makes me a little more unique in the business, just because I do wear a lot of those different hats. But yeah, really started with just to kind of get involved with my local chamber, in the local community, helping out in various ways. One thing leads to another. You're helping in a few more ways. Next thing you know, there's, there's an offer for a full time or a part time position, and a little more work that goes with it. So, but, yeah, it's been a it's been a fun journey, excited to be a part of it and see where we keep going.
Matt:
Yeah, before you know it, you're working 80 hours a week, right?
David:
Exactly. You've been there.
Matt:
Hey, so let me ask you this, though, because you're also a business owner, does that give you a little more street cred with some of the members that you have in the community there?
David:
I think so. It just allows, for me, a little bit more sympathetic and empathetic to the needs. You know, when our businesses talk about hiring challenges, I get it. I've been there when they talk about, obviously, some of the SOCA benefits, how do I, how do I put together a healthcare program for 1k, I've been there as well. I've had to figure that out for my own employees. And then just really, just understanding, especially this past year, right tariffs, construction issues, there's been a variety of things that we've dealt with, at least in Madeira, that I think can can resonate a little bit more than than maybe some other directors or other situations.
Matt:
That's right, that's interesting. It's interesting that you have that. So tell us about Madeira, like, why should people live, work, play, do business in Madeira?
David:
Yeah, it's a really unique community. It's referred to in a couple of different ways. More typically, it's a it's a bedroom community. We're also considered Metro adjacent, which means we're one of the, the few, or the first suburbs on the outskirts of a big metro area like Cincinnati. So there's a couple of our neighborhoods that are like that, that are that are unique in that way, meaning a lot of people are really moving here, younger families, for the schools, for the community, and then its proximity to downtown Cincinnati. So your P and G, your Cincinnati Children's, your GE, a lot of those big employers of the metro area, you know, we're only 1520 minutes from downtown, so it makes it very easy and commutable in that sense. And so it's, it's a unique area in that way. We do have a really robust retail community. We have some proximity to the village of Indian Hill, which is fairly well known, which does not have a commercial business district. So we kind of have this, this interesting vibe of we have a Madeira business district, but it's also kind of the Indian Hill business district, and then your proximity to everything around it really has some unique challenges from that perspective as well.
Matt:
Yeah, we go over there in that area, my wife and I probably once or twice a month, it is a great area. Yeah, so awesome area. So, but now, having said that, what would you say are, you know, your biggest challenges there, within the chamber and the community, and how can you turn these into opportunities for growth or improvement?
David:
Yeah, I think the biggest challenge is that they're even in a smaller community. You have several different business sectors, right? We've got the retail we have a great service business. Some of the service guys are more more B to C. They want the Madeira folks to shop local, where the retail is a little bit more regional. So we have to adapt to we want, obviously, Madeira people to shop in Madeira, but then going to those surrounding communities and making sure that they're supporting the business district and. Then we've really seen in this kind of post-covid world, just an explosion in the work from home business. And so that's really been a focus area for me. I think because I again, I live it, I work from home, I have my home office, everything's kind of changed, where the physical businesses with physical office space or a physical retail space, those are the ones we know about. It's easy to walk in. How are you? How's life, how's business? There are so many more work-from-home businesses and marketing agencies and a whole ton of employment recruitment, just a bunch of these businesses that are happening out of other people's home offices and trying to get that group to connect. And that kind of solopreneur work-from-home business owner, has been a real big focus for us as we continue to look ahead to 2026.
Matt:
So are you finding that that gives you some challenges, as far as you know, getting people to engage? Because, as you said, before you know, you know, if you're in the storefront, you can just walk in, hey, I'm with the chamber. How you guys doing, you can't just walk into somebody's home, right? So, so how are you overcoming that challenge?
David:
Yeah, I mean, I think you can walk into someone's home. It's just very frowned upon, even even in a community like ours, yeah, for us, it's been a lot of trying different types of events and trying different events at different times, knowing that again, that bedroom community, there's a lot of folks who want to they want to get their kids off to school and then they want to start their day from there. So where a typical chamber community might do business activity, 7:30, 8 in the morning, ours might be more nine, 9:15, let's get kids off the bus, off to school and then connect from there, but it's also looking at some programming, like a coffee with champions, or some of these other ones that really trying to say, Hey, you're you're working by yourself. But how do you still create that community that you're still dealing with some sort of challenge, whatever the case may be. So it's a little a different tweak, maybe on the networking idea, because it is, it is some unique challenges that the solopreneur is going to be dealing with. But yeah, it's been unique in that way, for sure.
Matt:
Yeah, that is interesting. I also want to ask you specifically, you know, with the chamber and working from home now, in this, in the post-COVID world, just as far as technology in innovation, right? So obviously, in your business you have, you've probably incorporated some technology that has helped you innovate in some way. So how are you also using technology to innovate for the chamber and get your messaging out, and get the convening authority of the chamber together, right? So how are you using technology to do that?
David:
Yeah, I mean, well, obviously selfish plug for the SOCA benefit. We've, we've dabbled in the chatGPT stuff, obviously, like a lot of folks have, but getting into the Magai world, where really the whole being able to see it from a couple of different perspectives. I think that's been my biggest deal, is we really focus on those three pillars for our chamber of savings, connection and growth. But then each one of those pillars, you have to communicate differently to work from home, versus how you communicate with the local retail shop versus how we communicate with the local Kroger. You know, each, each one of them are looking for savings and connections and growth. So for us, it's been the the AI has really been helpful in just kind of adjusting that messaging a little bit to be specific, I still want to say the same core thing, which is, I want you to save on benefits. I want you to connect with us, and I want to help you grow your business, but getting those little specific details, headlines, messaging into the mix to what resonates with with each one of them individually has been a challenge that we've had to address for sure.
Matt:
Yeah, is it allowing you to leverage your time too?
David:
100% because then you can, you can take that central message that we want to focus on and then spit out, you know, three different variations of, how do you how do I promote savings for this category, this category, this category. So, yeah, huge time savings for that, which is, for me, is a big deal because I don't have the full time schedule to devote there for sure.
Matt:
Yeah, so for listeners who are not familiar with what David was saying about Magai, so we have entered into a partner, partnership that allows chambers to use and employers, quite frankly, to use 30 different large language model platforms in on one platform and and the the company we use is called Magai. If you want to learn more about Magai, go to our website at joinsoca.com, but since David brought it up, you know, I. I'll go ahead and give it the plug too. But you know, so you're trying to get these folks together and, and you, you mentioned, like, timing on, on, maybe networking challenges. But what are some of the other events, maybe bigger events, that the chamber is involved in that people should be aware of?
David
Yeah, the biggest thing we do some more, again, that kind of B2C retail piece. We'll do a couple of retail shopping events throughout the year. We've got a really big holiday push that we're getting ready to make for for that space, really just continuing to try to connect those shop local dots as much as we can on the for more of the service businesses, it's really just kind of that ongoing networking. So we have bi-monthly events that we do, and then have, more recently, gotten back into, again, one of those things that covid kind of killed off for a little while, the multi-chamber networking. At some point, even a chamber our size, you can run into the same people coming to the same events, right? And so it's good from time to time to be able to make sure that we're in our case, we'll go down the hill and partner with the Madisonville area Chamber, Blue Ash, Montgomery, some of these, again, neighboring smaller neighborhoods, and be able to just kind of rub shoulders with other business owners, and that we don't see from that often.
Matt:
So with that in mind, you know, as far as community, how do you feel like the Madeira chamber is contributing to building a strong community culture? You know, Can you can you share any like initiatives that you guys are doing in addition to networking events? Or what is your core strategy there?
David:
Yeah, the big thing, I would say, has really just been, I'm a big people person in trying to connect business owners stories, with our obviously, with each other, but then with the with the residents themselves and so and really it's it, the unintended consequence has been creating a better atmosphere even amongst our own members. And just that, hey, putting a face behind the pink box. It's not just a retail store where women can buy clothing, but that's that's so and so shop and connecting with these business owners, as in understanding their passion. I think that's really where the coffee with champions has been a fun program for us, because people get a little more open about they get a little more open about their struggle, but through those struggles and those challenges that they're dealing with, you really get to understand a little bit more about what makes them tick and everything behind that.
Matt:
So why don't you go ahead and tell our listeners what coffee with champions is?
David:
Yeah, it's a really great program to just be a force for good, is their tagline. And so again, for us, we really saw this as an opportunity for to kind of bring our work from home in a solo printer. We just have a lot of those single member LLC businesses in our chamber. And so that kind of strength in numbers. It's very easy to get caught up, especially when you're working from home in your own world, and kind of forget that, that there are people just like you, regardless of your industry, that are dealing with some of the same struggles of business ownership, especially because you're dealing with it by yourself. There's not there is no HR department, there is no IT department, there's no marketing department. And so some of those really just the opportunity to get together and even complain about things I think makes people feel better. You know, it's, it's an unfortunate byproduct of that covid world, as we've all kind of siloed off, and it's just very easy to eliminate those relationships and connections that we've had before.
Matt:
Well, I agree with you. It's, it's good for people to fellow business owners, to get together, like you mentioned two things there, like, one of the things I love about chamber work is the stories, right? Every every business, every successful business, has a story, and, quite frankly, every failed business has a story too. I mean, the stories don't always end well, right, but that's how you are able to make that connection, you know, with with business owners, the other thing I would say is that, you know, I call it the oh crap moment, where a business is growing and the vision is actually, you know, coming true, and then the business owners like, Oh crap. Now I have all this other the it just like you mentioned. HR, I've got all these other things I need to do. Do you encounter that with some of the small business owners that you deal with?
David:
Oh, yeah, 100% and I think that goes again, going back to some of my unique ability is to really resonate with that, that there's, you know, when we sit around a table at a coffee with champions and talk about how, yeah, we all used to have a five year plan for our business, but, you know, it went astray this way, or whatever it there's a huge opportunity to resonate with that, even as a business owner, even as the chamber director, right? I mean, we, we very easily can get distracted from our mission and our focus and where we're headed. And we. Not being willing to make changes when we need to, etc, etc. So it's, it's just good to have those compassion points together and move forward strategically.
Matt:
Exactly right? So that's a nice segue into, I guess my next questions is, so looking ahead for the Madeira chamber, what are your key goals, or, you know, strategic initiatives for the chamber, and how do you envision achieving those over the next three to five years?
David:
Yeah, I think, like I mentioned before, our big focus is that work from home, that kind of an untapped marketplace. I think we have a good I think we have an okay handle on the physical business community. I think some of the direction that obviously stock is taking us with the benchmarking, there's some soul searching there of understanding your your market penetration. But for us, we kind of have those, those, what opened up my eyes was there's this whole other market that we don't even know how big or how small it is that we're not penetrating that is this, you know, people running a two to three man operation out of their home office, so that's really become more of a passion of mine over this last year, a lot of our conversation at the board level has been, how do we continue to tap into, to your point, people who don't have a physical address or just have a PO Box in town, but are still looking for connection in some way, shape or form. That beyond that, I think there's another group of because we are that bedroom community, there's a whole other untapped market of people who do run businesses elsewhere, but they're running successful real estate firms, or whatever the case may be, that we have so much talent here in Madeira that we want to be able to tap into that you never know where the local guy who or girl who works for P and G can be helpful to the independent insurance agent down the street. So there's a lot of great just connection opportunity, I think for us in the next five, six years, for sure,
Matt:
That's cool. And so for those, all of those working from home businesses out there, you can find the Madeira chamber. You can become a member of the Madeira chamber by going to Madeirachamber.com. David, you've been a great guest? But like everybody else, you got to answer this, the one question that's on everybody's mind. So who is the greatest rock and roll band of all time? David is it The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, or Led Zeppelin?
David:
So my biased answer would be the Beatles, because of their long lasting of legacy, to the point where even my now eight-year-old son, through the through the Yodo device that these kids have these days, is still listening to Beatles songs. It might be a different person singing them, but the legacy and the you know, the fact that you know for years now, he's still singing along the Beatles songs, Yellow Submarine, all that fun stuff, I think, means they've got the longest lasting legacy, for sure.
Matt:
That's a great answer. You can make a compelling argument for all three. David, thanks for being the guest today. Do you have any final thoughts that you want to share with us.
David:
No, I just appreciate being a part of it. I love what I do, even if I get to do it part-time. I do love connecting with our business owners. It's a ton of fun. Love the support from SOCA, obviously, and excited to just be a part of this crazy chamber world.
Matt:
Well, thanks again, David, once again. This is David Peterson with the Madeira Chamber of Commerce, you can become a member there by visiting MadeiraChamber.com. David, thanks so much for being with us today.
David:
Thanks, Matt.