Ed Burzminski
Welcome to More Non-Dues Revenue, a podcast series where we talk with Chamber of Commerce leaders and visionaries to share their creative and innovative strategies for generating non dues revenue. I’m your host, Ed Burzminski, president of Chamber Marketing Partners. Our guest today is Robert Goltz, CEO of the Key West Chamber of Commerce in Florida. I met Robert at the FACP conference in Jupiter a few weeks ago, that’s the Florida Association of Chamber Professionals. And I was struck by the bold, creative ways that he uses to generate non dues revenue. Some of Roberts peers told me he has a knack for monetizing just about everything. So I just had to invite him to the show, and share his guerrilla tactics with the rest of the chamber of worlds. So glad you could join us, Robert.

Robert Goltz
Hey, thanks for having me Ed. I’m excited to talk today.

Ed Burzminski
So let’s jump right in. Tell us a little bit about your chamber, and your community so we can get a feel for what kind of a community you represent what Key West Florida is all about.

Robert Goltz
Sure, I’ve been here at the Greater Key West Chamber of Commerce since April of this year. And so I’ve been in this position for about six months, but I’ve been in the industry for just over 22 years, working with chambers. And this is my fourth large chamber that I’ve been working with, been working with in my career, and it’s been an exciting time. And, you know, it’s been a great time, over the last 20 years in developing new programs and services to help the chambers that I go to. And so that’s kind of why I get hired is really to go in and bring in new revenue streams.

Ed Burzminski
So one of your non-dues revenue strategies is to monetize the chamber CEO, meaning you tell us why you do that. And what does that look like?

Robert Goltz
Yeah, it’s not just about monetizing me. It’s also about monetizing all my staff. And so when I look at hiring, and I’ll give you a little background on this, when I look at hiring people, I’m looking for people that want to be professionals in their career. And I think we all do, and I think CEOs are undersold, a lot of time we come in to a chamber, we typically know the most about the community that we serve. We also are very diverse in different areas of business, whether it be marketing, government relations, business building, QuickBooks, for some, for some, it’s using email and systems like that. And so many of us in the chamber industry, we end up adding on these educational programs. And when we add on these educational programs, we bring in our members or professionals that do that work. Well, some of our members, especially our small members, don’t have the individuals to do that type of work. So what I’ve done over the last couple years, is that we’ve monetized that for staff. So for me, it may be sometimes a business comes in and says, Hey, I’m brand new, I’m gonna open this new business. And I want to know how to market my business in this community. Okay, I’m more than willing to talk to you. Let’s figure out how many hours that’s going to be. And let me give you a rate for that. And so what I typically do on my rate, for me, personally, is what is my hourly rate that the Chamber pays me, because now I’m only working with one business. And so when I’m working with one business, one business instead of the majority of them, someone has to pay that to give back to the community. So we charge whatever that going rate is. So here at Key West, I have a research development person. And we were just talking this morning, it’s kind of funny, he came up and he said, Hey, this realtor’s came to me, and he wants to do some surveys and have some surveys done, and asked us if we would do these surveys in the community. And I looked at them and I said, be more than happy to do those surveys. But we will charge for those. And so those are the types of things that we look at. So. So same thing, though, a lot of chambers already do a lot of chambers out there, do economic development surveys of their community, and then they sell or wage and labor surveys, and they sell those books to their members. I’ve just taken it one step further and said, Hey, if you want to sit with me and you want my personal advice, my professional advice from a person that’s lived in this community, then there’s $1 amount to be put on that. And the hard part about that is figuring out what is chamber related and what is not. So if anybody wants to talk to me about how to utilize the chamber, that’s free. That’s what I get paid my normal hourly to do. When I look at charging a member to do the search versus it’s based on, is this something that the whole membership is using? Because that’s what I’m looking for I’m looking for, is it just for one member specific? Then I charge? If it’s something that I will use over and over again, I may not charge for that.

Ed Burzminski
So the thought that comes to mind is, if there’s a member of business, that’s a chamber member, say that does QuickBooks instruction, if somebody is looking for that? Would you refer them to the member? Or would you take yourself?

Robert Goltz
If we had a member that does QuickBooks instruction, I refer to the member first. Okay? If we don’t have that, then I would go to my accounting person, my bookkeeper and say, Hey, can you train somebody on QuickBooks? Typically, what I do is say, Hey, can you train our members on QuickBooks and strive to do a full training with that? Or then I’ll go, hey, this person needs one on one training, would you do that for them, and an hour training something quick, sometimes it’s a little bit more

Ed Burzminski
So, so like, for instance, a person that wants that market research or survey done, that’s something that you have staff available, and chances are that there’s not necessarily a member that might have that service. But if I understand you correctly, if there is a member who has that service, you’d refer that person to the member first, and then to internally.

Robert Goltz
Always, we always try to refer to our members first, there are certain things that our members may not know, or very specialized, if they’re looking for a general practitioner. And again, when you’re looking at our costs, that’s what also plays into it a little bit, too. So if you’re hiring somebody, a professional marketer, to do a full marketing plan for you, that’s not what I do. What I do is I go, Hey, would you like it? If you come to me and say, hey, I want to better my business. Okay. And this is probably the number one thing I do, I’ll go, okay. Let me come out to your business and look around. What are you doing for advertising and things of that nature. And then what I do is I sit with that person for an hour or two hours, and plan out what they need. Because a lot of times, this is kind of how this started, was, I would have members coming into my office every week, asking me how to fix their business. And it was taking away time for me doing my chamber job. And so we taught me in the board talk, and I said, this is what’s going on. I have small businesses, they’re coming in, they can’t afford some of the some other people. I have the specialty that these people are coming back over and over to me again. What can we do about it and me in the board, talked candidly about it and said, You know what, Robert, we need to put a price tag on that. I said, Okay, let’s put a price tag on it. Make sense? These rules are rules of the game. And so we created those rules. And after that, I started doing consulting, I started saying, Hey, let me come in. It’s almost like for some chambers out there, they do secret shoppers. And you’ll go out to the store, and you’ll evaluate everything. And then afterward, you’ll walk back and go, Hey, this is what you need help on, same concept. So we look at certain things in that. So I do also training on personal development. One of the other things that is in my wheelhouse. And so with that we’ll talk it’s usually three or four sessions that we’ll do about how to get them to a different level than what they currently are and what they should be doing to be considered a professional in your industry. And so that’s a some of the big pieces that we do. Again, it’s not like it’s not something I do every day, in a given year at my last chamber. No, it may be something that we generate $1,000 – $2,000 off. It’s not much.

Ed Burzminski
So it’s really a small slice of your time.

Robert Goltz
It’s a very small slice. And really what they’re doing is they’re paying back the chamber for my time that you’re using above and beyond what your membership dollars should go to.

Ed Burzminski
Makes sense. See, I was going to ask you how you qualify who pays and who doesn’t pay. And if I understood you correctly, if it’s part of your chamber related work functions as you do as a chamber, referring people understanding their business and what they do, connecting them with other people. That’s of no charge because that’s part of your responsibilities as a Chamber of Commerce is anything other that’s a that will benefit that business If it goes over and above what the chamber does, then you’ll attach a price to that you’ll attach a fee.

Robert Goltz
Yeah, if if I have a, if there could be a member in my organization that would charge for that service, I would charge for that service to equal it out. Because what happens is, all of a sudden, some of my coaches and stuff would get upset, right? Why are you doing it? Well, we’re charging also. But very rarely, I don’t compete with my members. If there’s a member that does the same service, I would pass them on to them. Sometimes for small chambers, we do not have that. We don’t have personal coaches and stuff like that. So that’s something that we can make as a revenue for our organization. Makes sense?

Ed Burzminski
So this kind of leads me to another question along these lines, if there are, say, several people that are approaching you for something similar business coaching of some sort, have, do you do any kind of business roundtables? Or do you do any kind of like seminars around that particular subject so that more people can participate?

Robert Goltz
If it’s definitely something that our members really want. And we see more of than one will hire to bring in for a seminar for somebody outside the area. If we don’t have it in our backyard, we may do little, what we call our chamber universities, which are little hour to two hour programs for that training. Or we’ll ask our members who may be me, you know, it may be the printer out there. And people are having a problem figuring out what the way to construct their business card will bring them in to do a seminar under our chamber university program. So we definitely use a lot of other people in different ways. So I have some some members that have picked up on this and said, Oh, well, you know what, I can give guidance. And I’m going to charge or will do you know, over the years, I’ve also done mastermind classes, which will last about anywhere from a month to two months on a particular subject. Those types of things we’ve done also, we’re recharged our members to be a part of that mastermind for a month or so.

Ed Burzminski
So okay, I want to ask you this. What are some of the more audacious ways that you’ve used at chambers to make money? Oh, my gosh, like really crazy things that even you are shocked.

Robert Goltz
So years ago, I had, I had businesses from my first couple chambers, they used to pay me to mention them in my presentation. So at the time, I was going around speaking at state conventions, and different organizations, and I would talk, so I used to get money every time I mentioned their business. So I would have a little clicker. And I’d videotape myself, they have a little clicker of oh, I’ve mentioned Lazy Boy chair or eminent whatever it was, and they would pay me one to $5 Every time I mentioned their business, or if I incorporated it into my presentation. I’ve had it where in my when we went to the virtual aspect. On my zoom, I would put their logo and say that I was sponsored. Anytime I was on. Anytime I was on Zoom, I was sponsored by them for my business. And so that was a gift for them.

Ed Burzminski
And then it was a one time sponsorship, right? Because you weren’t giving away the background.

Robert Goltz
$110 sponsorship per month, I would always put it per month. So after a month, I switch over and it used to say that chamber guy with my little logo and under is sponsored by whoever wanted it. And I would charge it minimal. It wasn’t anything major, it was like 50 to 100 I think it was like 50 bucks a month for that. But that’s 50 bucks that I didn’t have before. And so you know, almost anything, you can do that. And in fact, I used to laugh, I used to tell my staff that if I could get away with it, and get the logos tattooed on people’s forehead, I would charge people and make my staff as a requirement of their job to have some kind of tattoo on their head. But almost anything, anything is available. And that’s what most of us don’t understand is that there’s value in everything that we do. And so there, there’s businesses out there that will pay for their logo to be put on doors. You know, we see it all the time for some of these small things. My belief is everything is for sale. Everything is for sale out there. And we just have to figure out who wants those products.

Ed Burzminski
And I think that’s one of the challenges that maybe a lot of smaller chambers, but they don’t have the value of having other people to bounce ideas off of may not know what can be monetized and may not know how to go about monetizing it. You were talking about the mentioning the names. You were just a human pay per click.

Robert Goltz
That’s all it was.

Ed Burzminski
Yeah, yeah. Would you say in your chamber. You have a staff of six did you say? Correct. It’s including you? Yep. Okay. So say, are you guys meeting as a team bouncing some of these ideas off of each other where are some of these ideas coming from?

Robert Goltz
You know for me, they come from everywhere. I, you know, I think it was maybe maybe 15 to 18 years ago, there was a big run on tattoos. So you saw especially in Las Vegas, you would see people that would get their whole back, and their head tattooed as a sponsorship, someone would pay them 1000s of dollars to do this. I’m not that crazy, because I can’t get rid of a tattoo. That’s a lifetime commitment. You get to pay me a lot of money for something like that. For sure. To put somebody think about how much most of us are advertising, other organizations, other businesses for free? How many of you wear your Nike shirt with a nice little swoosh there? Why are you letting Nike advertise for you?

Ed Burzminski
You’re paying them, you’re paying them to advertise

Robert Goltz
your I’m paying them to wear their stuff to advertise? I don’t need that. Right? I make sure everything I buy is very plain. If he has a marking, I’m like, no, because I know I’m gonna get my own sewed-on.

Ed Burzminski
Now I’m covering up my shirt.

Robert Goltz
Got your alligator on? Oh, your little Yep, little Hilfiger guy, I would, I’d be going. I don’t need to be showing off and promoting a brand for free. And so for me, that’s what it is. So every like, if I was buying the shirt for a golf outing, I’d be selling the shoulder with a logo automatically. Every time I’m looking at an event or a program, I go where can I put somebody’s logo in? Where Well can I make the the hardest part of that is trying to figure out who will buy. And I truly believe someone will buy anything you just have to keep on asking.

Ed Burzminski
But which is your approach? It sounds like your approach is the approach of major brands to this. You don’t want to have, you don’t want to promote somebody else’s brand. You want to promote the Chamber’s brand and more more you want to promote somebody brand who’s willing to pay you for it.

Robert Goltz
Absolutely. It’s and this is what you do in that sales aspect. I go to XYZ bank and say, Hey, I’ve got this great sponsorship. And they say no, I’m not interested. Please tell me of another bank that might be interested in purchasing this. Because this is designed for a bank. Oh, that’s beautiful. What do you mean? Well, you’re not the only one I’m coming to. And this is where a lot of times we limit with the first person that says no, we say, okay, it’s a bad sponsorship. No, it’s not, it may not be the one for them. It may be overpriced. A lot of times when I’m developing sponsorships, one of the first things that I do is I may give that sponsorship away the first year. And I give it away to somebody that’s a big player in my community. So now everybody thinks, hey, the big players like says sponsorship, I can’t wait to something else opens up for me. And so sometimes, I’ll be sitting with a member and they’ll go, oh, I want to do stuff, I would tell me your the amount you want to spend. Tell me the amount you want to spend? Or what does your office have that I could use? So I’ve hit sponsorships. And then this is the funny part where I go to a small business, and they don’t have any money. They have barely any cash to give me. And I’ll go Oh, do you have pens? Yeah, we have pens. Okay, for $100 or $50. For the next X amount of months, we will only use your pen in our office. And we will throw out every other pen in this in our office. And yours will be the only one that we use for that month, or those three months. Is that worth 50 bucks for you to have your pen in our office, knowing the amount of traffic that we get. And that’s the only type of pen we’re going to have your and I’m going to tell you I’m going to go to every desk. We’re cleaning everything out. We’re throwing it all away. You do that for 50 bucks for six months. Yeah, you’re providing me pens, all the pens I need and it has your logo on it. No one else is gonna be here. Is that value to you?

Ed Burzminski
Well, yeah, it is. That’s the key question is that value to you? So you’re as a chamber you’re you’re providing a vehicle, a method, a value proposition. For a business that makes sense for them to give them some exposure, it’s not big exposure, but exposure that meets their budget and gives them visibility.

Robert Goltz
Yeah, so one of the other things. So one of my other big pieces that I’ve done for a couple chambers out there is, you know, on the walls of most of our businesses, we have these great quotes of leadership and all that fun junk. Well, what we do, or what I’ve done in the past, is I’ve looked at my walls and said, Okay, I can put in changeable signage. And what I’ll do is I’ll go to a company, and I’ll say, we’re doing a thing, like, the last chamber I was at was a three C chamber through the WAC program. So they already create some really great posters. Well, we took those posters, and we looked at and said, Oh, there’s a community one that has a bunch of people with T shirts. We go to the hospital, and we say, Hey, can we get a picture of you guys volunteering, and you’re gonna pay us $500 this year? To have that in a picture frame? With our tagline our logo on it? What’s going to have your people with your shirts on? Is that worth $500? For you, for the amount of people that I get to come through our office? Well, yes, it is. Excellent. Let’s get the picture done. Let me put it together. These are the words, I already have the word set, because they’re been given to me, and I loaded into the system, boom, I have a great picture. Now, that’s local, makes me look like I’m caring about my community. It’s not using stage photos. And I’m making money for it. And guess what? January 1 comes around? Do you want to renew it? Or do you want me to sell this to a different hospital? What you say to a different household? Absolutely. You have to put timeframes on things. It’s not a one time buy. That’s the other thing that a lot of chambers make the mistake. I’m going to sponsor a room and you forget to put in the contract that it’s only for a year, two years, or five years, and then you’re stuck with that. I want money continually generating. So you got to price it. And sometimes it means you have to price things a little bit lower. But you’re looking for longevity.

Ed Burzminski
Well, it makes sense. The recurring revenue stream. Yeah, that makes a whole lot of sense. Wow, Robert, you are just like, the font is revenue. And I’m fortunate grateful that you haven’t charged me for. Robert, if if a chamber profession wants to get in touch with you, are you available to talk with people and how can people get in touch with you?

Robert Goltz
Absolutely. If anybody wants to give me a call, they can call me on my cell phone. I’ll give that out first. That’s 908-343-1717 Or they can reach out to me right here at the Chamber at Robert@KeyWestChamber.org.

Ed Burzminski
You sound like a creative genius. As far as non just I don’t even know what else creatively we haven’t even gone there yet. We will save that for another time. Forever. Thank you so much for being here and sharing your insights. It’s greatly greatly appreciated. It’s um, it’s a pleasure chatting with somebody who’s as creative and entrepreneurial as you are. I’m Ed Burzminski. For Chamber Marketing Partners, connect with me on LinkedIn and let me help you supercharge your non dues revenue. stay relevant and keep on making a difference for businesses in your community. If you found value in this episode, then be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss another episode. The show is brought to you by Chamber Marketing Partners, check out www chambermarketingpartners.com To find out more onward and upward and keep making progress every day.