Hometown Happenings

Building Bridges in Business, Education, and Community Events in Harrison

• Angela Ballard & Aundrea Rogers

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Discover how the very fabric of Harrison's business community is being strengthened when Wilson Marseille from the Harrison Chamber of Commerce joins us to illuminate the chamber's amplified role. Transforming from a mere facilitator to a critical nexus linking education, commerce, and community events, the chamber's initiatives are sparking a renaissance in local enterprise. From empowering women in business to the ambassador program's outreach, Wilson unveils the chamber's multifaceted strategies that are not only fostering connections but celebrating each milestone that paves the way for a thriving economic landscape. Get the inside scoop on how these programs are rewriting the narrative for business owners and local talent alike.

Strap in as we chart the journey from early childhood education to the frontier of entrepreneurship, examining how Harrison is equipping its youth for future success, especially in burgeoning fields like tech and manufacturing. As we unpack the chamber's role in workforce development, we peel back the curtain on industry tours and firsthand job experiences that are shaping the ambitions of tomorrow's workforce. And we're not just stopping there; we're gazing skyward, prepping for the Solar Eclipse spectacle that has the entire town buzzing with anticipation. This episode is packed with revelations on how membership in the chamber can unlock marketing might, community integration, and a platform for advocacy that can supercharge your business's position in the market—just in time to make the most of an astronomical phenomenon that promises to turn Harrison into a celestial hotspot.

The Home Team
Angela Ballard & Drea Rogers
870-577-6754 | 870-577-0276
Weichert Market Edge

https://aundrea-rogers.weichertmarketedge.com
www.angelaballardrealtor.com

Speaker 1:

Well, guys, welcome to hometown happenings. This is our first episode of 2024 and we're gonna start off with a bang by meeting with Wilson Marseille from the chamber in Harrison. So I'm Angela Ballard, my co-host, and then we have Wilson.

Speaker 2:

Yes, hello, starting off with a bang New year, your first line up, first episode. Happy to be here.

Speaker 1:

Right.

Speaker 2:

Thanks for the opportunity.

Speaker 1:

Well, we just thought it would be cool to let people know at the beginning of the year, kind of what's happening in Harrison, what the chamber is doing. Um, I know I actually have recently gotten some texts from people because they see I'm a member of the chamber and Asked me about joining and kind of benefits and things like that. So we make it into that a little bit, but just informative for people in the community to know about the chamber. So, um, I did send you some questions so we'll kind of go through some of the questions that I sent you. Um, so let's start off with how does the chamber of commerce envisioned supporting local businesses?

Speaker 2:

So, what are your thoughts?

Speaker 1:

I know, I know there there are really meaty questions that I Sorry yeah, so so you want, you want me to do me first and then go to your question.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so.

Speaker 2:

Wilson, marseille president, ceo of the chamber of commerce, have been for the last six months or so. Uh, joined the chamber in late 2019. So I, just in november of last year, I celebrated four years in the chamber, but was promoted in july of last year, so served for A couple of different roles under bob largeant, who was president, ceo of the time. He just retired at the end of the year. So we are, we are back and ready to roll for 2024.

Speaker 2:

But the chamber so you ask about the chamber right, chambers been around for since 1964, for I think is when we were cooperated. But chambers been here for a long time and and and should live on Way longer than my leadership here. Right, right, it's one of the Cornerstone entities of any community. Right, you have city government, you might have a community college or a university, chamber of commerce, convention of visitors bureau. Like all those entities, should, should live and work together. For a long time, we old chambers, right, used to be the concierge for anything you wanted to know or do or see when you should shop, where you should stay, where you should visit, like, instead of the phone book, they called the chamber right and since google.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I kind of feel since little birdy, since all of those things. Right, people, there's lots of places they can find information. Since trip advisor people, I'll call the chambers quite as much anymore, and so we? We do less phone call referrals Than we did 30 years ago, that's for sure. But chambers today have transitioned into a much. I think it's a much more impactful line of work, which is being that connective tissue between education, between businesses, between community happenings. It's downtown, it's the arts, it's all the things that make a community a place where we all want to live, work and play right. And so we Are only a staff of four, okay, but we have to pick our spots a little bit of where we can help and where we can have an impact.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's awesome so that was a very broad answer.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, how we envision helping businesses.

Speaker 2:

There's a lot of nuances there, so maybe I'll say it Sometimes looks like networking, networking events, so the ways that people get connected to each other and building their social networks. It might look like lunch and learn or technical assistance of some kind. We're convening people around a topic. It's social media best practices. It might be how to start a podcast or how that.

Speaker 2:

You know how can. How can you leverage a podcast or the online platforms to for your brand, for what's happening in your businesses or around your businesses? Um, or it might be a business after hours, of course. What we're best known for are bread and butter as the ribbon cuttings.

Speaker 1:

Yes, you see those in the paper all the time it's business milestones or it's grand openings of kinds.

Speaker 2:

It's groundbreaking's we're celebrating when a business is about to open, so that's that's where we get a really big media splash. But then we we did the hard work too of like how are we setting up our future employees for success?

Speaker 3:

Right, okay so. Well, it's awesome behind the scenes more than just the big media splashes that. You see wilson in the paper for then right.

Speaker 1:

Right, yeah, there's lots going on here that we don't see right. So, um, you guys do a lot of those lunch and learn things, don't you like monthly.

Speaker 2:

We yeah, what's it? Roughly Okay, they're not scheduled, it's not like the second Tuesday of every month, okay, but we try to have.

Speaker 1:

I just see them advertise them.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we try to have something going on every month and whether we're hosting or we're bringing in like the North Arkansas Human Resources Association or if you're familiar with Startup Junkie out of Northwest Arkansas, they do a lot of entrepreneurial support, so they come over and help host workshops with us.

Speaker 1:

It's pretty cool. Okay, you also. A part of this is that women in business. I see that as well. That's something that someone here does too.

Speaker 3:

I have no idea what that is yeah, that's terrible, isn't it?

Speaker 1:

So you want to talk about that in a minute, amy? Amy, that's who does it. You're in our office.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, she's our director of investors and events, but she coordinates some of our groups like that. So there's like our leadership programs and then we have like a collection of other groups that like to assemble, like our ambassador program.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Where they go out and they help us celebrate at grand openings.

Speaker 3:

Oh, those are the jackets.

Speaker 1:

The red jackets, the red jackets, yes, the ambassador program.

Speaker 2:

And then another one of those is like our women in business group and so occasionally they'll do some sort of lunch where they all say, hey, here's where we're going to go, and just the time to be together and network and talk and support each other. Cool, they did. They've done a couple of workshops last year. They're sometimes hit and miss, but she's grown that I thought it would be fun to do like a young professionals group.

Speaker 1:

Right.

Speaker 2:

And I had grown that to like maybe 20, 25, 30. I was like she was like well, maybe I'll start women in business group and then went 20, 30, 40, 50. It's like over a hundred people.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that's awesome. So there's a lot of people that are interested in that kind of kind of journey.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so can you share any specific things that's going to be happening in the chamber this year?

Speaker 2:

Well, I could share all sorts of stuff. Let's talk about.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, we can have him on several times of the year. Let's talk about.

Speaker 2:

I'll give you our three main focuses this year and then something I'm excited about. Not that I'm not excited about the three main ones, but we set out a program of work every year, our kind of our roadmap for what we want to do and for 2024, I would call. Our three main focuses revolve around entrepreneurship. It's like, how are we building a culture of entrepreneurship here? How are we supporting people who are just starting that side hustle, that maybe want to make it full time, or how are they at the full time spot and they need to hire their first employee, or hire their second employee, or getting to the next milestone in their business?

Speaker 3:

How can we?

Speaker 2:

create some of that. So growing our own right, because Harrison's got a rich history of homegrown businesses. You talk about Clareg or Cavenders, or the brand of Burlesworth Foundation, or how about what's another one?

Speaker 1:

Well DSI.

Speaker 2:

DSI right here. Yeah, fedex freight, which was formerly American freightways, which was formerly Arkansas freightways, so pretty big deal. Yeah, lots of big businesses started here, so a lot of history here of people who have started and grown their own, so it's kind of who we are.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so making sure that you can keep reciprocating that into the community.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and from an economic development perspective, how can we create jobs or how can we create economic empowerment where there was none before, right? So I'm excited about that. So of course, we're starting from scratch. We haven't done a ton of programming or emphasis on entrepreneurship, so we're going to start from scratch there. But so that's one.

Speaker 3:

There's one, that's a long answer for one.

Speaker 2:

I'll try to do shorter answers for two, you're doing a great job.

Speaker 2:

Let you ask follow-up questions the other two look similar but different of workforce development. Ok, so the one that we've been doing for four years now is kind of that focus on 10 through 12th grade and then a little bit into college. When we work with North Ark about those are the emerging pipeline of employees Statewide. The statistics tell us that Arkansas High School graduates about 60% of them are going to go on to college and 40% are going to enter the workforce here locally. That's inverted.

Speaker 1:

So about 60% are going to go straight into the workforce. Oh OK, Just going to set them up.

Speaker 2:

So four years ago we were having conversations like where are they going? Is it McDonald's, Sonic, Walmart Not that any of those places are better or worse than the others. But what about our manufacturers?

Speaker 3:

here We'll set them up for success.

Speaker 2:

We've got a lot of major manufacturers here that are using technical skills, that are careers that you can build on, that you can make a living wage, not just a minimum wage. And so how are we helping connect and advertise the opportunities that are right here? They don't have to leave and go to Fayetteville or Springfield or Little Rock or Jonesboro. There are a lot of opportunities right here, and so our workforce programs for the last four years have been iterating on that kind of program.

Speaker 3:

Have you seen any of?

Speaker 1:

that. I don't have a kid in public school here.

Speaker 3:

Well, I helped out Let Hill and Let Hill loads their kids up and they go to NAC and they spend days talking to different colleges. They even tour and I was not rocked in anymore West Rock and they do all that and they get to see it upfront and personal and get to see what the actual and the job stuff is like. It makes a big impact on the kids because it makes it real life instead of just something that their dad did or something.

Speaker 1:

Well, I know from just having friends kids like that. They toured a lot of the different businesses and comparing that to where Lauren went to school in Missouri. They didn't do any of that. They even went to NAC here and talked to them about college and she didn't get any of that at her public school. She had to do all that out on her own.

Speaker 2:

We often talk about how students need to see it to be it.

Speaker 1:

Right yeah.

Speaker 2:

They often don't even know what's out there until they can.

Speaker 1:

I know what's in there about my kids?

Speaker 3:

She doesn't know Until they have guest speakers come into the classroom or they get to take tours outside.

Speaker 2:

When you go to West Rock, you drive by it on an industrial park but you have no idea what happens by it.

Speaker 2:

You have no idea what they do or Wabash or any of those things. It's been fun for me because I like taking the tours. Yeah, the technology and stuff that they have there is insane and it's highly technical and people still think of manufacturing as being really dirty and grimy and dangerous and it's highly technical. Now it's a lot of computer programming that's running. Most of them, like pace industries, is a ton of robotics and so people find that fun.

Speaker 1:

I find it fun. So yeah, and it's not near as grimy dirty as people think it is.

Speaker 3:

Times have changed.

Speaker 2:

So part of it is exposing students to that and part of it is also how do we help educate the teachers and the counselors and the principals on that side as well. So we've been putting them through a leadership academy for three years now doing a book study, and then they take some tours and they have industry roundtables talking to our business leaders about what are they seeing with students in the workforce when they're coming in. Or what schools from, or what classroom skills are highly applicable to on the job skills.

Speaker 2:

And how are they helping bridge those, or what kind of in-class projects can they do are going to tie in really nicely.

Speaker 3:

Right.

Speaker 2:

And so that's been the most fruitful thing we've done in the last three years.

Speaker 1:

That seems very, very helpful. Yeah, that's huge Because I think a lot of kids I know this is how I was taught is like you're not going to get anywhere if you don't go to college, and I don't think that that's the case in there. A lot of the children who college isn't for them.

Speaker 3:

Right so.

Speaker 1:

I think, teaching them that there are other options and you can have a successful life by doing these other tasks.

Speaker 3:

Right and they're needed around here.

Speaker 1:

jobs and technical careers we need these businesses to stay, so if nobody's going to do those jobs, it makes it hard for them to want to stay here.

Speaker 2:

For sure.

Speaker 1:

So, I think it's great being able to teach kids to go in and do these jobs.

Speaker 3:

What's your number three?

Speaker 2:

Number three is it's a variation of workforce that's extremely new to a lot of people in the state us as well but it's something along the lines of early childhood education. Yeah, like the statistics tell us that from birth to third grade, until third grade, you have to learn how to read.

Speaker 3:

Right.

Speaker 2:

And after third grade you have to be able to read to learn, and so third grade is often the metric that is talked about of. You can look at a community's third grade reading levels and determine what the future prosperity of that community is going to be that makes sense. So if we can focus early on some of those things and we're doing pretty well- yeah.

Speaker 2:

Harrison School District is a really well resourced and is doing well, but we think there might be some opportunities to help before they get into formal school, before they get into kindergarten, so we can help increase some of their kindergarten readiness.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. Then there might be it might take some of the stress off of well, because I know first when I did student teaching and I wasn't had first graders. That's a huge leap in reading for kids and it's a huge pressure on those teachers. So if you could have them prepared better before they hit that point, they don't have to make as big of a leap that year. So to set them up in early childhood, before in pre-K, that would be huge.

Speaker 2:

I should probably clarify too.

Speaker 3:

Oh, no yeah.

Speaker 2:

That I'm not even sure what this looks like yet.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Our role so far has been how can we help pull people to the table and talk about what it looks like? We're just the middleman kind of to bring people together. That's pretty cool. So we're talking to the Boone County Imagination Library that since books to students. If y'all haven't interviewed Imagination, Library.

Speaker 1:

We do want to. So there's National Book Day coming up, so, guys, hopefully we're going to get in with the library this month.

Speaker 3:

If the library is going to scheduling it.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, well, either actually Boone County Library or the Imagination Library.

Speaker 1:

Imagination Library, the thing that's definitely part in sponsor. Yes, yes, they came and talked to us at Lions.

Speaker 2:

Club? Yeah, they did. Kinsabells is their chair of that and that's that organization is just some really important work.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I got all my boys signed up on that.

Speaker 1:

I know I sent everybody. I knew that had kids. So thanks, I'm kids up get these books.

Speaker 2:

So we're working with both of them and the hospital, and so, like the hospital now is signing up every baby that's born to start receiving books. That's cool, so they're going to sign up with the Imagination Library, so that's helping with our enrollment. Yeah, it's helping with our community's access to books, which is frequently the number one reason that it's hard to read to your kids Is, if you don't have books in the home, then hard to read to them.

Speaker 3:

Right, that makes sense. Amongst a few other things, but so you're getting that up off the ground, trying to create community to talk about how we can Right Cool.

Speaker 2:

And I'll tell you, I'll tell you one, a dream of mine.

Speaker 3:

Oh, buddy OK.

Speaker 2:

Oh buddy.

Speaker 1:

She said oh, buddy.

Speaker 2:

She thought she was going to be the one that had been centered. I mean, it's awesome, is we're talking about? Have you ever seen like a booktree?

Speaker 3:

No.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that was a strange question. No, it's probably the only answer.

Speaker 3:

I'm just mentioning this, but it's not what we're talking about.

Speaker 2:

It's like a little tower with like little shelves on it, right, that are like perfect for setting books, yeah, and it go like this, and some communities have started putting book trees at all these different spots, okay, and communities specifically like restaurants where you sit down and you order, and so there are a couple of ways that people can spend time with their family right before they order their food.

Speaker 2:

Some of it's coloring or they could read a book and if our community had a book, a lot of our schools do a one school, one book thing and they all read the same book and they have a celebration at the end and they do like a themed party based on a book. Could we be taking that same model With all those partners I mentioned earlier? They ran in some others and do a community book and have those little book trees stationed at Naver's Mill or Colton State House or Jamie's and all the places that you sit down and eat and put your favorite trees around.

Speaker 3:

Yeah Cause my kids would be way more well fishing.

Speaker 1:

Luke would be happy, yeah.

Speaker 3:

They would love to have books at their table instead of a coloring thing, Cause they knew that it you know.

Speaker 2:

And people. You'll spill water on them and you'll get cheese dip on them, or whatever.

Speaker 3:

Real life, but that's life. Yeah, that's what's going on. That'd be sweet. That's a good idea.

Speaker 2:

I think that came out of our last meeting.

Speaker 3:

Someone suggested that and I'm like sounds really cool, yeah, and actually Bergman does the one book, one school, one book thing.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

And my kids eat that up. It goes all the way through the preschool. So they all yeah, we read it. Oh, it's a big deal.

Speaker 1:

So the fourth saying the big thing, what is it?

Speaker 2:

Oh, more of our programming for this year, and so something that I'm excited to try, which I think will be received well, we've done. We call them our eggs and issues breakfast. Yeah, we've had business and community leaders to come together and have breakfast, and we've had state of the city, state of the county, state of the state and had some of our legislative representatives here, and we're going to expand that this year into state of K-12 education, state of health care, state of transportation, state of the economy and like all of these different topics, because I think what we find whenever we host those breakfasts is that people come with all sorts of questions around different topics. So if we can go more topical, then we could actually have some real conversations with presenters.

Speaker 2:

So like early February we'll do state of K-12 education and we'll have some of our superintendents from the Boone County Schools all on a panel, kind of talking about what's going on in their school district, what the outlook is, what businesses should know, how businesses in our community can help support our students in the schools for their mission.

Speaker 1:

That's something we've been discussing is how we can get and go and help the schools.

Speaker 3:

We'll be involved.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So trying to do more topical community breakfasts, I think will be interesting, because we're at our best whenever we're convening people together to talk about challenges and opportunities. That's when we're at our best. That's our job.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that's how I do that job. He does a lot more than I thought he did oh yeah, yeah, I guess I did right.

Speaker 1:

Should I say thank you.

Speaker 3:

Right or is?

Speaker 2:

this like oh, we need to do a better job marketing.

Speaker 3:

Yeah yeah.

Speaker 1:

All of the above.

Speaker 2:

All of the above.

Speaker 1:

OK, so can you tell us a little bit about being a member of the chamber and what that entails?

Speaker 2:

Yes, so people join the chamber for a variety of reasons, but they come down to three main ones. Right, and some of it looks like marketing, so people join the chamber. It's the ribbon cutting, it's the story in the newspaper. We've got an online directory where people find local businesses. Some people receive phone calls from other states that are trying to verify if a business is real, and so they call the chambers.

Speaker 1:

They're trying to verify that. Is this real?

Speaker 2:

It's credibility and marketing at the same time. And then some of the sponsorship opportunities around it, like those breakfasts we talk about. There's a sponsor, there's typically a presenting sponsor at each one that will welcome everybody. It has all the logo and branding around it. So marketing some of it's community involvement, and so they'll support the literacy efforts or the workforce development with the high school students or the entrepreneurship efforts. They'll support that in some way, whether it looks like a sponsorship or whether it looks like an underwriting sponsorship of some kind or buying lunch for our leadership programs and taking care of those youth leaders or those adult leaders.

Speaker 2:

And then the third one is advocacy, and chambers are typically like the voice of business. So we work through the state chamber for Arkansas level policymaking, but the state chamber, the president's CEO there, is named Randy Zook, and Mr Zook, when he came and talked to our leadership class, like my first year at the chamber, he said the reason that we focus so much on advocacy efforts is because if business isn't at the table talking about it, we'll be on the menu, and so we better be there. And so our job is to kind of relay some of the information to the state chamber about what our local businesses are saying. It's like when they're in session. We're watching, we're tracking the bills, we're kind of bouncing it off of.

Speaker 2:

There's some pharmaceutical things happening. We're asking our local pharmacies how they feel and our hospital how they feel. Do we wanna sign on in support or against? And that sort of work is meaningful for some but again, not everybody joins for that kind of advocacy. Some of your businesses down on the square yeah, that's not necessary, it doesn't really move the needle, but there's different reasons.

Speaker 1:

And then you guys do have a calendar that we can email and put events on that we're having as businesses, correct?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so we try to host a community calendar. So if you're trying to plan an event or if you're trying to look to attend an event, you can find both things there of looking for conflicts.

Speaker 1:

Find information about it.

Speaker 3:

Yes, we should share that more often With the world. I'm wondering that I didn't even know it existed till this moment.

Speaker 1:

Okay, well, yeah, we should tell everybody Check the community calendar on the Chamber website.

Speaker 2:

This is an educational experience for you today.

Speaker 1:

Most of the time, the podcasts are very edgy. Well the farm stand was so we did interview the farm stand in Lead Hill. It's called redeeming the time farm stand and. I live out there, I drive by this thing every day and I had zero idea what it entailed. So that whole podcast, I was just into it like learning all the things and she was over here. Yeah, I knew that already. I knew that already.

Speaker 2:

So, but for the most part, all the rest of them.

Speaker 1:

You're learning and I'm not.

Speaker 2:

Are y'all talking to anybody about the Solar Eclipse?

Speaker 3:

We're getting there. Who should we talk to?

Speaker 2:

You've got some time. Of course Matt Bell would be. Matt Bell and Explorer Harrison are doing a lot of coordinating for Harrison about the Solar Eclipse, so all the events related to the Solar Eclipse they're hosting on their website.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and that's gonna be a big deal, right? That's stuff you guys have been in meetings about how to prepare for that, haven't you?

Speaker 3:

That's because there's like Airbnbs and all sorts of things booked out of Russellville because we're like in the direct path or something.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we'll be in the path of totality.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that thing.

Speaker 2:

It should be really cool. Okay, do you have your glasses yet? I don't have glasses yet, but the library has ordered a lot. Explorer Harrison has ordered a lot, the Welcome Center has ordered a lot, so there'll be places to get glasses. I think for us, we're on the edge of totality, right, so we're gonna be in totality, but for not near as long as. Jaspers, or even Jasper. Yeah, they're closer to the center path.

Speaker 1:

I was read something it's like around Clinton. It's like the best place.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it goes right through Central Arkansas. Yeah, yeah, so.

Speaker 3:

I mean how I'm gonna have to swim with people. That's what I'm hearing.

Speaker 2:

Well.

Speaker 1:

I would Traffic will be, and I was told people are renting their yards out for tent space in some areas like to people. So well, I'm not either, but I'm just saying that that is a thing.

Speaker 2:

If you wanted to order a porta potty because you had people camping in your yard, you couldn't find one.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's already.

Speaker 2:

They're all booked up. Yeah, you needed to do that almost a year ago. Yeah, crazy. And so like there are some people that are talking about it like it's apocalyptic, like we're going to run out of gas and we're going to run out of water.

Speaker 1:

Yes, this is things I've heard.

Speaker 2:

And that might be the case for some people in Central Arkansas. I'm not certain that we'll feel it that drastically here in Harrison. Traffic will be. There'll be a lot of cars on the road. Yes, we might. You might want to plan to have. If you're going to have a delivery or if you're going to stock up on food, do that a week before. Yeah, try not to do it that day.

Speaker 1:

But yeah, maybe a couple of weeks beforehand, be prepared for what's kind of like you plan for a winter storm.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's not. You can't see the snow in the background right now.

Speaker 1:

Oh no, the snow is gone. It stopped. It stopped, but so do you. Is there anything we haven't covered that you feel like we should have today?

Speaker 2:

I almost like want to ask you more questions of Okay ask away.

Speaker 1:

We're going to open, we're semi open books.

Speaker 2:

Or like what have you seen? What do you think is interesting about? What do you see that's going on in the community?

Speaker 3:

What do you think I?

Speaker 2:

should know about. Yeah, or what do you think is exciting? I?

Speaker 3:

remember asking. You know more than me what do I think we were nominated to be best of the best. That's a community thing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so the best of the best is happening, and she was nominated on the photography side and I was nominated on the real estate side.

Speaker 3:

So that's, exciting.

Speaker 1:

So that was kind of exciting to me. Yeah, what do you see?

Speaker 2:

on. So you don't do this podcast to talk about what you do on your other jobs, but we can't, but that has Sometimes. That has an impact on the business community and my job in economic development of. What are you seeing with home prices? What are you seeing with real estate availability?

Speaker 3:

Well, I know, with listing photos, I have shot more houses in the last week and a half, so things are hitting the market.

Speaker 1:

So rates have dropped. So interest rates have dropped and with that drop in interest rate we've seen a lot more buyers come to the table and now that we're through Christmas, those people that were even considering selling they're now like, okay, we're we're through.

Speaker 2:

Christmas or through Thanksgiving, like we're let's get this ball.

Speaker 1:

Rolling Houses are taking a little longer to sell than they were, say, a year and a half ago, but but they were.

Speaker 2:

Really quick.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So we're more at a normal pace.

Speaker 1:

And so when something's sitting for 60 or 90 days, that's not unusual, that doesn't mean there's something wrong with it, and actually it's kind of nice, I feel like, for my sellers, because they're not so stressed about where they're going to go and you know they have to buy something, yeah. And they're not buying things they didn't want and what have you. So things have kind of mellowed, but I feel like once we hit spring it might get a little crazy again is how I'm, with rates dropping into the sixes we have.

Speaker 1:

You know, I think people kind of figured out that. I think they figured out that like going back into the twos is not realistic again. You know, I'm not saying it will ever happen again.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, sorry I am not saying it won't ever happen again, because it potentially could, but it may be a while, I think, before we get there. So dropping from eight to six is a huge amount of income that you know you can actually purchase. That made a big deal in your purchase power and so when it dropped to six, people are like, okay, let's, let's get this ball moving, because I can buy so much more. Things are picking up.

Speaker 2:

Yeah yeah, that's good news. You know, part of our job here is also like maintaining relationships with our major employers and our manufacturers are our major employers and I think a lot of people were seeing a slowdown in the last quarter. Yes, it wasn't just with the economy, with rates going up, economy, some people, like a lot of theirs, their vendors, a lot of people that place orders, that are manufacturers, were hesitating something we're looking for, but maybe delaying or pushing their orders into January.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, we're good yeah.

Speaker 2:

So so, like nobody was laying off people, but they definitely weren't hiring people Right.

Speaker 3:

They were not as aggressively as they were a year and a half ago, for sure.

Speaker 2:

So we're, we watched some of that as well, and they all expected to come back in late Q1. So late spring, yeah, I really.

Speaker 1:

I'm trying to prepare myself for that and, like Draya, has an experience like the 2021, 22, 2022 real estate market, so I've been trying to prepare her like let's get everything together now, let's be organized, let's be ready, because come spring, I feel like we're going to get really busy, and it's good thing. Yeah, I'm not complaining. I'm here to help everybody however I can.

Speaker 3:

So I just move fast paced and I need to just slow my roll a little. That's what she's saying, yeah.

Speaker 1:

She likes results quickly, which there's not anything wrong with that, but sometimes you just got a well as a wedding photographer, it's best to turn over pictures early.

Speaker 3:

You know what I mean. So I like efficiency, and that's not how this world works in other fields.

Speaker 1:

Well, sometimes it's better to just kind of sit back and see what kind of offers you can get and not necessarily take the first one, or you know, there's just lots of different aspects where being slower is better. So yeah, the eye roll again. I did it behind your back most of the day. She rolls her eyes at me most of the time. I didn't tell you that earlier, but that's the other.

Speaker 2:

I've seen it when you're looking at me.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's. The other part of this is yeah, you roll your eyes at me on 10 things. What? Wrap it up, pal? Okay, Well, Wilson, anything else you want to add?

Speaker 2:

I'm just saying thanks for the opportunity to talk a little bit about what we do here. I'm glad we could give you an education. I am both glad and also thinking differently about just like in the back of my mind, thinking okay, how can we market differently If you're sitting here going oh well, you know that Chamber guy always just out there in the newspaper all the time.

Speaker 3:

Wilson's really nice, but I didn't realize they did all of that.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, I appreciate that we certainly stay busy here. We hope it's meaningful. Yeah, we hope people are following some of the work that we're doing and they find it meaningful and then also look at us as a vehicle to help launch or give their business credibility or find connections into our community that's maybe different than their current circle. So if we can help add value for people, that's what we want to do.

Speaker 1:

Okay, fantastic. Well, thank you for being on the show and see you later, guys. See you, bye.

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Angela Ballard

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Aundrea Rogers

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