In this episode of Chamber On!, host Matt Appenzeller, President and CEO of the Southern Ohio Chamber Alliance (SOCA), sits down with Mike Throne, President and CEO of the Chillicothe Ross County Chamber of Commerce.
Matt and Mike talk about how the Chillicothe community is coming together in the wake of a major economic change—rallying around local businesses, supporting workers, and finding creative ways to tell their community’s story.
Tune in now to learn how collaboration, advocacy, and a little optimism are helping shape a stronger future for Ross County.
Listen here:
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're an alliance of 130 Chambers of Commerce in Ohio, and today we have a very special guest. We're talking with one of our chamber presidents, Mike Throne, the President and CEO of the Chillicothe Ross County Chamber of Commerce. Mike, thanks for joining us today.
Mike Throne
Matt, it is my honor. Thank you for inviting me.
Matt Appenzeller
Awesome. I gotta say, right off the bat. that this is like, one of my favorite people to talk to in the chamber business. So, this, this ought to be a lot of fun.
Mike Throne
I appreciate that.
Matt Appenzeller
Awesome, awesome. So, let's start off with this. Mike, right? I know there's not a school where when you're a little kid and your dad asks you what you want to be when you grow up, and you say, hey, I want to go to Chamber of Commerce school. Well, that school doesn't exist. So how did you end up being the president and CEO of the Chillicothe Ross chamber?
Mike Throne
So, I did have that conversation when I was a kid, not that specific conversation. I had a conversation that said I wanted to be a journalist when I grew up, and so I did that. I did that for 25, 30 years. The last 20 plus years, I was the editor of the newspaper here in Chillicothe, and I had a variety of different roles in there. Sometimes I was over the newspaper, the actual newsroom staff. But there were other times when I was a general manager, which was over the entire newspaper. And it was at that time when I was a general manager, they asked me to be on the Chamber of Commerce board here, and it actually was the guy that brought me to Chillicothe as the publisher that asked me to be on the board. And so, I sat on the board for about two years before I had to transition to a different role back in the newsroom again. And so, it ended up to where I couldn't, I couldn't serve on the board anymore, but man, it just left such a great impression on me about what the chamber does. And so, you know, flash forward to a few years later, and the job came open and I went after it with all my might. And so, I was fortunate enough to get this job, and I’ve absolutely loved every moment of it since late 2018,
Matt Appenzeller
Well, I think a local journalism background is probably one of the best backgrounds that you could ask for of the chamber director, because yes, you have to report the truth, but you also have to build relationships and trust. And I'm sure that probably worked out for you.
Mike Throne
Yeah, it did. And I'll tell you, you know, like and you know, as the industry declined, I found myself almost every day managing very difficult situations. I joke with people, you know, the last two or three years that I was on staff there, it was like triage every day. Well, that came in pretty handy with a year into my tenure, you know, covid hits, and suddenly you have to, you know, manage every day is a crisis for about a year after that. And you know, I have nothing bad to say about the journalism profession. It prepared me very well for all the things that I've been doing, you know, as a chamber executive and honestly, it was those communication skills that I leaned heavily on during covid to help communicate very complicated concepts back to our members and our businesses. And it also, you know, really, just gave me a good sense of, this is a community issue. We've got to solve it at community and so, you know, that's, it's been really good for that as well.
Matt Appenzeller
Well, that's a great lead in, I suppose, to the first question here. Like so you've got a great perspective, not just as you know, former journalist, now your chamber director. So what do you see as the biggest challenges facing not just the chamber but your community? And you know, what are the opportunities for growth and improvement?
Mike Throne
So, the biggest challenge that we have in front of us here in Chillicothe is earlier this year, actually, on Tax Day, the paper mill here was announced that it was going to close. There were some machinations in there, 800 jobs that we're going to go away. You know, whenever any chamber executive or any community has to go through something like this, it is a very anxious time. And so, you know, I'm the type of person that I'm unusually optimistic, but at the same time, I'm also very realistic. So, I try to tell people that, you know, look, we've been here before, right? We've had floods and fires, and we've gone through the recessions together and things like that. But at the same time, it's obviously a thing that causes great unease in the community, and whenever people start to get uneasy or anxious in a community, they spend less, and so that's going to impact our businesses. So, we've tried to walk through these waters for folks to help lead the community through this economic transition and recovery, you know. And I think the best way, you know, there's two prongs that we've kind of looked at it is like, we know we need to handle the workforce issue and get people new jobs. But then there's this other ancillary issue of all these supply chain businesses that are going to lose a lot of revenue and helping them navigate the waters of all that. And that's where we've really tried to, you know, focus our attention, because we know, you know, our friends in economic development are going to find a new tenant for the site and all that stuff down the road. And there are folks from Ohio Means Jobs and all these other different places that will help you find jobs for these displaced workers. We got to, you know, really focus on our businesses and making sure I have, I have one business that probably lost 70 to 75% of his revenue because all of the work that he used to do at the paper mill. So that's our biggest issue right now. In all honesty, you know, it's really consumed a lot of our time. But I think the other thing that you can do in that type of situation is also, you know, portray strength, and that's what we've done. We added another employee to our team a couple weeks ago, and she's going to be a marketing and communications person that's going to help us, you know, communicate better our story as a chamber, but also our community story, because we want to make sure that people understand this is still a vibrant place to live. We lost jobs, but we know that this is the type of thing that we have to do, that you know, that we have to continue to portray ourselves as a strong place with a strong downtown, and we still have, you know, a Kenworth truck facility that's going to give us a lot of jobs and a lot of income for the future. So, you know, I think you know, looking forward and looking for all the ways that you can fill the gaps in those types of situations are the best strategies out of the challenges that your community faces.
Matt Appenzeller
I think one of the other things to that Mike, when, when a company, you know, the paper mill, was a fixture there for years. I remember seeing one of your articles where you said you were taking your evening walk, and, you know, the first thing you noticed was that it was very still and quiet. Yeah, right. How long was the paper mill there?
Mike Throne
I mean, we've had paper making has been an industry in Ross County for well over 200 years.
Matt Appenzeller
That's awesome.
Mike Throne
Yeah.
Matt Appenzeller
Wow. So now that that change is here, you know, kind of forces the chamber to focus on economic development or workforce development right away. I mean, so, I mean, what initiative? I mean, do you have some, you're kind of in triage right now, but do you have some specific initiatives or programs that you're working on in those two areas?
Mike Throne
Yeah, so we helped form a partnership called Scioto Valley forward, and that collaboration for us includes the Ross County Commissioners, the city of Chillicothe, Ohio Means Jobs, a partnership with education and business and economic development to bring everybody together to do a couple different things. The task force that we have started will help us collect our thoughts and have strategy sessions about, you know, what if a liquidator buys the mill and basically decides to gut it? Well, that's a different approach than if somebody comes in and says, we're going to land another factory there, and we can do it in six months and have 500 jobs. So, we have to plan for all these strategies. So those planning sessions really are one part of Scioto Valley Forward. The other part is a website, Sciotovalleyforward.com, that we create and maintain that basically aggregates all the resources for displaced workers and for local businesses to let them know, here's how you apply for unemployment. Here are some things that you can do to upskill yourself and make yourself a better candidate for a job down the road. And then the other side of it for the businesses is, have you thought about government procurement? Have you thought about different strategies and reaching out to these companies to help replace some of that revenue that you've lost? And so, Scioto Valley Forward to us, has really been our first foray into that. We're finishing our strategic plan for the next three years right now, and, you know, we're going to do a lot of assessment work for our affected businesses in the supply chain to make sure that we connect them with the right financial, you know, resources and business development support. But also, provide advocacy support for the policy changes that they need to aid in the recovery. And so, you know, trying to leverage all these assets really is, you know, we always look at ourselves as collaborators and connectors, and so we want to make sure that we connect everybody to the right resources and get as many people in that room to help as we can.
Matt Appenzeller
Yeah, it kind of brings a new layer to advocacy, you know, for your businesses, in a way that you normally wouldn't think of, right? Because now that, as you mentioned, you know, it's just this, like triage situation. You have a lot of jobs leave. You have these, all these suppliers that have been impacted. So, like, what are you doing as far as local advocacy and maybe state advocacy that maybe you weren't doing before?
Mike Throne
Yeah. I mean, a lot of stuff is stuff that we were doing before. But I think the two things that I would point to in this case is, you know, we had an application before the Labor Department us, Labor Department for $2 million grant to help us aid in the recovery of these folks, help people find new skills, things like that. It seemed like that was lagging for a while, and so we collectively wrote a letter. We, we, I authored the letter myself, but everybody else signed off on it to help kind of grease the skids a little bit so that grant came through last Friday. We're really excited about that, because it does give us an influx of cash that we can then use at our Ohio Means Jobs centers and our local career tech schools and our universities to help upskill people. And then, you know, we've been coordinating a lot of job fairs as well on that side. And then I think the other thing too is just making sure that we put people in a position to take a job, you know? I mean, child care is still a huge issue in Ohio, and we've had some. Our state representative, Mark Johnson, authored a bill that created a tri share program in the state of Ohio. It passed and got into the budget. And so now we've got to really advocate for people to use these programs, so that way we can turn 10 million into 20 million, maybe down the road, and get people the, you know, the child care that they need so that way they can take these jobs and work, you know, second shift jobs and third shift jobs. And, you know, figuring out how to do that. The other side of that coin, of course, is making sure that we get enough child care providers. And there's still a very strong dearth of child care providers in southern, southeastern Ohio, and so we've got to figure out policies, and that's what we're lobbying for right now to create even more child care providers so that way there's not, you know, long waiting lists. Instead, they're just going right into day cares.
Matt Appenzeller
Yeah, it's a statewide issue. Childcare is a really big deal, which, I mean, who would have thought that childcare would become a primary workforce issue, you know, 20 years ago, but here we are, right? So, you, you mentioned the grant, which is a good win, right? So, what other wins would you be able to share with us here. Mike,
Mike Throne
Yeah. I mean, you know, as far as you know, we also as far as the workforce issue goes. I mean, we've also established a workforce hub here where folks can go in and meet one on one with a career counselor. They can do mock interviews. They can go over their resume with those types of things, and I think that's really been a great win. I've heard over and over again about, in fact, I was just talking to a guy yesterday who told me that, you know, he didn't have to even, he had worked there at the paper mill for 30 years. He didn't have a resume, and he didn't do an interview. He got a recommendation from his neighbor, hey, we've got a job open at the mill. You should go down and talk to so and so about it. He went down there and talked to the guy, and guy said, well, if your neighbor, I know your neighbor real well. If he's good enough for you, you're good enough for us. When can you start? So, I mean that those are the types of conversations that took place 30 years ago that don't take place now, right?
Matt Appenzeller
Right.
Mike Throne
So those types of skills they had no background in them. So being able to help them connect with those skills and create, you know, possibilities for them is really, really key for us. You know, from another advocacy standpoint, one of the things that we campaigned very, very hard about was there's a main thoroughfare. It's our big retail thoroughfare here in Chillicothe, it's called Bridge Street, and it's undergoing a huge facelift right now. It's going to be widened, there'll be sidewalks, there'll be a lot of amenities added to it that are going to help improve traffic flow through there. But there was one big problem, it's going to take two years to do this entire thing, and so the entire project, the length of time was going to cost us two holiday cycles. And of course, on your main retail thoroughfare, that's a big, big potential loss. So, we effectively lobbied ODOT to get the end of October as the shutdown period. And so, from October until January, they won't be doing construction, and traffic will be able to move freely. That's a little thing. But in all honesty, that came from our conversations with our member businesses along that thoroughfare. Hey, what are your concerns? How can we help? And we actually approached that from the perspective of we're here to help sell the plan from, you know, we're here to help ODOT sell the plan. But when we started hearing about these concerns that people had, you know, we had to react. And so, we said, well, you know, what would it take, and how much would it, you know, kill the timeline if we did try to figure out a stoppage of work in that timeframe, they've gotten so much done very quickly. They think they may not have to go into a second holiday season now, and so that, actually, to me, just felt like a huge win, because it helps save, you know, a holiday season for folks that really, really need it.
Matt Appenzeller
You know, you mentioned two things during this conversation here. Two examples of collaboration, right? That's a really good example. And then earlier on, you mentioned that, you know, universities, different other community groups were getting together just due to the changes there. So, I guess, kind of an observation, a question, right? The observation is that adversity tends to bring people together or tear them apart, right? And in your case, you know we're chambers of commerce, right? We have the convening authority here, right? So, have you found that maybe networking events have maybe a different flavor or a different power to them, since you've had this sort of negative event of the paper mill in your community?
Mike Throne
Yeah, we, we feel very strongly that, you know, we do our monthly business After Hours event. We call it Business After Business. And what we've noticed is that attendance is down a little bit, which is interesting, because we hadn't had that problem at all. We would average 80 or 90 people, we’re around 50 or 60,
Matt Appenzeller
Which is still a pretty strong, that's still a good event. That's strong,
Mike Throne
Yeah, I mean, but at the same time, we've had to sort of adjust our attitude a little bit and say, okay, what can we offer here? And so, what we've tried to do is just try to make it very light hearted and very fun. We had a live band at ours last month that seemed to be a huge hit. We've had giveaways, things like that that were unexpected. And so, you know, I think for us, it's more about, how can we also be, you know, a pool of water in a desert, right? Like, how can we give people a little respite and to get away from the struggle for a little while? And I think, you know, from our perspective, we have always looked at this, this place, this chamber, as this place that we're here to help alleviate your concerns, not add to them. So, you know, we don't want to have anybody come away from one of our events and not feel pretty good about themselves. You know, we tend to try to find stories out of each and every event that we do that we can then highlight on social media. Hey, these two folks met at our Business After Business, and now they're doing business together. There's a picture of them working together, you know, those types of things. And you know, to me, that just feeds the community environment that really chambers are supposed to foster.
Matt Appenzeller
Well, you're trying to shape the culture, right? Things have changed, and everybody else needs to change like so what are some other examples of that sort of shaping that you're trying to do there?
Mike Throne
Yeah, I think, you know, I'll give you a great example. So, we own our own building here in downtown Chillicothe, and we have two tenants commercially, and then our two apartments upstairs. So, you know, for the last two or three years, all of the problems that this building could have had have landed at my doorstep. So, if anything, I should probably be trying to sell this building. But I'll tell you what I did. I was sitting in our new member breakfast one day, and a new member was there. His name is Marco Chavez. He is the owner of Square Ghost Creative. He's a guy that does T shirts and mirror wraps and things like that. And so, as we're sitting there having a conversation, it just dawned on me I have a huge canvas to paint on outside. So, I took him as soon as we walked, as soon as we adjourned, I walked him outside and said, look at the space. Wouldn't the space be awesome to put a mural on? And he was like, yeah. I said, well, here's what I'm thinking. My concept is a Chillicothe postcard. He's like, okay. So, I said, go and marinate on it and see what you get. The next week, he was in my office with a storyboard that basically showed me the vision come to life. We put it up on the building this last this summer, and last Thursday, we had our own ribbon cutting. We don't we get, we do ribbon cuttings for everybody else, right? We did one for ours. The community showed up. We gave out T shirts with the mural on it. Gave out stickers. We had 80 people there maybe. It was a great community event. And in the middle of all this stuff, this mural has kind of served as another positive sign that, look at all these things that are detailed on this mural. They stood the test of time for a long, long time, and Chillicothe will do the same thing. And I think, you know, I didn't intend for that. I mean, we had this conversation. It was the fall of last year. I certainly didn't know the paper mill was going to close. I certainly didn't know tariffs were going to hit our trucking industry so bad. So, like, I didn't know any of those things, but it's now become sort of a rallying point. So, we have people coming out taking pictures in front of it. We had homecoming last weekend. People were taking pictures in front of it. It's really kind of become this thing that has just had a significant impact, and it was, it's really unintentional to be quite honest with you. It's actually going to give us a revenue stream, because now we're going to have t shirts and stickers and things to sell.
Matt Appenzeller
So, the mural is part of your storytelling, and you've sort of created this rally point with the mural there. That's really cool, yep. So now that we've gone through all this, you know, straightforward question, right? Why should people live, work, play, do business in Chillicothe or Ross County, Ohio?
Mike Throne
Well, I always tell people that this is Ohio's untapped playground. You know, we have such great amenities here, right? You know, I came here in 1997 to work at the newspaper. And I was, you know, journalists are transient people. We're always looking for the next opportunity. And I thought, I'll be here four or five years, and then I'll move on. But what I found when I came to this place, and I was, I don't want to say warned about it, but I was cautioned that, hey, look, when you get there, you're going to see what's special about the place, and you're going to want to stay. And I thought, that's crazy, you know, I want to go to work at, you know, the New York Times, or USA Today, or something like that, right? Well, when I got here, I started to see and, you know it, it's just such an accepting place and such a great place that there's such a strong sense of history. Here it was Ohio's first capitol, and right really tried to respect all that, and that, I think, is part of it. I think the other part of it too is that there's just this, this great, vast natural resource. We've got bike trails, we've got, you know, state parks, we've got a World Heritage Site now, with the advent of the Hopewell Culture Earthworks becoming a World Heritage Site. And so, we have this mix of amazing things. And you know, 75,000 people live in Ross County, but they're spread out, and there's great hills here. They're not mountains. I learned that very quickly when I got here, but just the topography and the people, they just, you know, they make you feel pretty special when you're here.
Matt Appenzeller
So, if you want to learn more, if our listeners out there, if you want to learn more about Chillicothe and Ross County, Ohio, you can go to ChillicotheOhio.com, that's the Chamber's website. So, Mike, I do have to ask you here, I know you're in this like transition here, you know, for the chamber itself, you know, what would you say are your key goals, or maybe strategic initiatives over the next three to five years?
Mike Throne
Well, I think, you know, obviously the biggest one, and I will belabor this point, because we've already made it, but I think we really focusing on folks and transitioning folks through this, this economic transition is so is so big, we're hopeful to transition Scioto Valley Forward.com into a true regional workforce development hub that would include access to steam programs and other things that we could then take and go to local schools with to help bolster the, you know, the workforce down the road and get kids more interested in careers. You know, we lose a lot of people with brain drain, they leave the community, they don't come back. We would love to show them all of the things that they can do without leaving their hometown. And so, I think that's a real big one for us. We want to do more in the in the work force trend reporting area, so kind of becoming an intelligence center for the entire region to say, here's what we have and here's what we could probably have more of and develop a real strong pipeline of talent in there, so that way we can anticipate future workforce needs and a real big one for us. And I think, you know, in all honesty, I look internally a lot and say, you know, I've added this new member to my staff. I've got staff, including myself, of four now. I need to make sure that as their leader, I'm continuing to grow them and to continue to, you know, try to help them optimize everything that they can do. So, I'm creating specialized strategic plans for membership, marketing and events to help grow those things, and to help grow them as employees, because you win with people and so, and I want to make sure that they grow as long as we grow as well.
Matt Appenzeller
That's right, you do win with people. So, what kind of events do you have going on upcoming in Chillicothe or Ross County?
Mike Throne
Well, we do, it's probably one of our more fun events of the entire year. It's called Putt’in on the Ritz. It is a combination mini golf event and costume contest. There are teams of four that go out and play, and they're encouraged to wear costumes. We've seen amazing stuff. We've seen, one was all four phases of Johnny Depp. So, there was like someone as Edward Scissorhands and Captain Jack Sparrow. And then they had a couple others. We've seen the Beatles over time. We've seen, oh, man, a lot of different stuff. Usually, we had one year where all four were characters from Stranger Things, which I thought was pretty neat. So, you know, we give out a costume, a team costume award, and we give out, of course, just the mini golf award as well, but we do it in downtown Chillicothe. We've always been blessed to have pretty good weather for it. So, it's a great event. Gets everybody involved. And we, we love to see the creativity that that that folks put into it. So that's a pretty big one for us. And then, of course, we have our business expo in November, which we'll have 60 to 65 businesses there. And that's the one business after hours event that we invite the entire community to. So, we'll have 250, 300 400 people there, you know, free food and the whole deal. So, but it's a great opportunity for us to get our businesses in front of a lot of people that they don't get to see too often, you know, so, and, you know, I think it's been great. We have real strong events here. And so, you know, anytime you can try to leverage them to make it a little better, down the road, we're going to do that.
Matt Appenzeller
That's right. Well, Mike, you've been a great guest on the Chamber On podcast. Really appreciate it, but I can't let you go just yet.
Mike Throne
Yep, right.
Matt Appenzeller
So first of all, before we do anything else, you can find the Chillicothe Ross Chamber of Commerce at ChillicotheOhio.com, but Mike, here's the question I know that you've been waiting for, who is the greatest rock and roll band of all time? Is it the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, or Led Zeppelin?
Mike Throne
All right, this is probably going to be controversial, but I'm going to say the Rolling Stones, because the Rolling Stones got me into listening to rock music really. I was kind of a pop music guy for a long time, and then a buddy…
Matt Appenzeller
I wouldn't admit that, but you went ahead and did it, but go ahead.
Mike Throne
Yeah, I definitely got into rock music through the Rolling Stones. So, I have to say the Rolling Stones, but I know that we're probably going to differ on this, right?
Matt Appenzeller
Well, that's okay. You can make a compelling argument for all three of them. I'm a Zeppelin guy, you know, but that's, that's the whole point of the question.
Mike Throne
I would go that one over the Beatles. I mean, I'll be honest.
Matt Appenzeller
Well, there you go. See, we could probably get someone and split an adult beverage debating that topic, right? So, but Mike, thanks again. Hey, as we get further down the road here, and you know, things, you know, get on the up and up for Chillicothe. Would you like to come back on the show?
Mike Throne
Absolutely, I think SOCA should come here for your annual meeting next year too.
Matt Appenzeller
Well, there you go. Just send us an invite. All right, Mike, thanks for being on the show. Mike Throne, Chillicothe Ross, Chamber of Commerce.
Mike Throne
Thanks, Matt.