SPEAKER_01: 0:18

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Gamma Podcast where we give you the tips, tools, and strategies you need to be successful. Today we have a very special guest, a true leader in our business community here in Arlington. Joining us today is Michael Jacobson, president and CEO of the Greater Arlington Chamber of Commerce. Michael has served in this role since 2016, leading Arlington's oldest and largest business organization, representing more than 1,000 businesses and nonprofits. Under his leadership, the chamber champions economic and community prosperity by bringing together public and private sector partners to identify trends, solve challenges, and create long-term opportunity. Before Arlington, Michael held senior leadership roles at Intel, where he led corporate responsibility, strategic alliances, and site development initiatives across the U.S. and globally. His career also includes leadership within the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce and service at the federal level within Washington, D.C. In addition to leading the chamber, Michael serves as a chair of the Arlington Economic Development Corporation and sits on numerous nonprofit and civic boards, making him one of the most influential voices in the region's business and economic landscape. Michael, welcome to the Atma Podcast. We're excited to have you here, but before we get started, let's say thank you to our sponsors. Today's episode is sponsored by NouveauDesk Coworking, the home of Arlington's most accessible production ready podcast studio. Whether you're launching your first show or leveling up your content game, Nouveau Desk gives you a professional studio environment where you can walk in, hit record, and create. But NouveauDesk is more than just a podcast room. It's fully equipped business hub with private offices, conference rooms, and workshop and event spaces designed to help you host, collaborate, and grow. If you're ready to elevate your brand, your business, or your voice, book your next recording or your next tour at nuvodesk.com. Create here, work here, build here. Today's episode is brought to you by Nuvio, the all-in-one business platform designed to help you build, manage, and scale with confidence. With Nuvio, you can build your own website in minutes, manage all of your leads and customers through a powerful CRM. And if you're in the restaurant industry, you can run your entire operations using Nuvio's modern point of sale system. Whether you're a startup, a service provider, or a full-scale restaurant, Nuvio gives you everything you need in one place. Simple, connected, and built to grow with you. Discover why entrepreneurs are switching to Nuvio. Visit Nuvio.com and run your entire business on one platform. Well, welcome back, everybody. And like I said, we have a very special guest, Michael Jacobson, the CEO of the Greater Arlington Chamber of Commerce. And like I've said about the show, this show is about uh helping businesses and organizations build, launch, grow, and scale. And before we did this podcast, it uh it astonished me how closely it is to the Greater Arlington Chamber of Commerce's framework, which is grow, foster, amplify, and develop. So, Michael Jacobson, thank you for being on the show with us. Uh say hello to the to everybody and tell us who you are. And I mean I kind of did that already, but you did.

SPEAKER_00: 3:32

Well, thank you, Brian. I appreciate it. Um I appreciate it very much. And I'm the CEO of the Greater Arlington Chamber of Commerce. You know, we have over a thousand members like Advent Trinity, and you know, our strength as an organization is the bringing together of those members who then work in common purpose to try to achieve greater things.

SPEAKER_01: 3:51

That's awesome. And and you know, Advent Trinity has benefited from the Greater Arlington Chamber of Commerce. We have we were just on uh uh a uh case study show just yesterday with Brian Weatherford talking about our story, and it's true. I mean, everything that we've done with the the Greater Art International Chamber of Commerce has helped has heavily helped us grow our organization and business. Um and it's it's so funny that when uh when we were putting this together, how close it was to your framework. So you tell me a little bit more about your framework.

SPEAKER_00: 4:20

Sure. So um I've had the opportunity to be involved with a lot of chambers, you know, as a as a corporate representative sitting on the board of chambers. And you know, during that time it it it it became clear to me that as you look at all these different chambers, the things the thing that they have in common in the in the Arlington chamber back before I got here, similar, there's really there's really four key things that a chamber does. They help our members grow, both grow their business and grow themselves professionally. Um we work to foster overall economic growth, because the economy grows, we all benefit. We amplify the voice of business, which means we you know bring power to business by bringing a thousand people together so that if we go and talk to the city or the state or the federal government, that voice has been amplified and is stronger. And then if you're a good chamber, you're gonna worry about developing the future. So what are we doing to make the future better? And for our chamber, that really means workforce development, education, and work with the nonprofit communities is how we do that. But um I think those four things uh should be core to every chamber.

SPEAKER_01: 5:33

Right, right. Well, you know, um you've been a part of a lot of of organizations and nonprofits, and you've seen them um kind of do what we said here is build, launch, grow, and scale. And you know, you're talking about um that what do you believe is the fundamental foundation for any city, any business, any organization to help them uh create a foundation to help them grow economically and have that momentum.

SPEAKER_00: 6:00

All right. Now I'm gonna do this more on a city, but then we'll see how we can relate it back. Okay, so I think you know, key for um a community are a couple of things. Um you need to have good infrastructure. Um education matters. You um the cost of business needs to be um needs to be um reduced as much as as much as you can. You want the cost of living to be reasonable. Um you want a great quality of life around that, so you don't want it just to be really inexpensive, but then you don't invest in parks or other things, so the quality of life suffers. Right. You want to balance all these things the best you can, tax, regulatory, the ease of doing business, all of those things really matter in helping drive a community. And then this notion of having um having civic will. So this willingness to come together and do bigger things is is really important. So there are communities that have good infrastructure and they have okay education, but the community never gets together in any sort of with any sort of common will. And so they can't move the ball forward because they can't agree on what forward is. Right. So for businesses, understanding what forward is is critically important. Where am I trying to go? What's my vision and what's my mission? And then how do I take the resources that I need and pull them together to achieve maximum result? And in that regard, that's similar to a a city or a community. You know, there there are those similarities.

SPEAKER_01: 7:43

Awesome. Yeah, you kind of said something too. I think that it's important for businesses, because in a community you want uh not just businesses, but you know, the the the the where they're living, being part of the community, um civic duty, that kind of things, and I think that's also important for a business, right? Um to have a culture where um the employees and and the team they have a purpose and they're on the same mission and vision, uh, but they're also on a vision and mission to to help people and help the community and be a part of that community.

SPEAKER_00: 8:13

You know, I had the pleasure being very young. I joke, I must have been twelve at the time, but I got to work for President Reagan. And President Reagan used to say that um that communities are only as good as the businesses located there, right? That business matters. Okay. Some people will take the polar opposite uh view, but but it's not really polar opposite, but the pol that says a business is only as good as a community it's located in. But you take those two statements, and the one thing that is common in those two statements is that the community and business are connected. Right the success of a community is going to rely on both, they're intrinsically involved. You know, whoever you put leading and but the reality is if you want to have a prosperous community, you need you need strong businesses and you need a vibrant community. Those two things you need to bring hand in hand. And and when you do, it's pretty powerful.

SPEAKER_01: 9:17

That's awesome. And you know, it's funny is that um it kind of leads us to the next question. It's like you're you're bringing businesses, you're part of the Arlington Economic Development Corporation, and and part of your job is to bring these type of businesses um to um to Arlington. And so what would you say is like um some of the strategies that you put together, whether that's infrastructure, workforce, um, the type of strategy to help fill in those gaps that if if they're saying, well, I'm not sure Arlington's where I want to go, right? And so how do you explain the foundate the fundamental foundation of Arlington?

SPEAKER_00: 9:48

Well, so one is you're you're you're really telling the story and you're you're telling the story with data, right? You're showing them the capabilities that we have that will minimize those holes. Whenever you make a move, there's likely going to be some gap of of some sort, right? It's a new place you're going to. But you tell the story about about infrastructure, you tell the story about education, you tell the story about workforce and all the ways that you have to provide the resources to help that business be successful. That's part of what you do during the recruitment phase. And of course, again, if you're smart at doing economic development, the story that you're telling them is a factual story. Right. Right. So you know those pieces are there and you're steering them to where they can get the support and that they need. Um and so um, you know, when you move in, there could be gaps around workforce. We have an unbelievable infrastructure to create workforce. Whether it's our K-12 and you know, the Dan Dypert uh Career Tech Center, whether it's our community college, whether it's University of Texas at Arlington, or one of the other universities in the region or the trade schools in the region, we've got Texas Workforce Solutions. So I can spill all that out, right? So one of the things the chamber can be really helpful with is just helping a company that moves in understand the community that they've moved into, how it works, how it fits together, right? Right? Because every city, every community is slightly different. So how do you come into that community to be successful? The good news is I don't have to create workforce solutions, I don't have to create UTA, it's there.

SPEAKER_01: 11:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 11:37

Or TCC. So how do we just help them see the structure that exists within the city and guide them so they learn to operate in the environment that they moved into? Every community has a different operating environment. So, you know, it's not always hard stuff. Sometimes it's the it's the soft skills that can really help um a company make that transition and be successful in that transition.

SPEAKER_01: 12:06

That's awesome. And it's funny you say um that looking at the data and some something that we do here is when we teach people how to to market and thinking about the psychology of how people make decisions, right? Um you want to go into we call it the gain logic fear. And so what are we gaining, which is the value of the place that, you know, or the the product or service that you're uh presenting, the logic, right? Is this does this logically make sense? And like you said, hey, you gotta look at the data, right? You gotta look at the data. And then finally is the fear, which is a fear of of missing out, is who else is interested? And if I don't do this, then who else is gonna come into place, right? And so um it's kind of funny how you how you started with data and it kind of just led into uh some things that we've been teaching here.

SPEAKER_00: 12:48

Well they're they're they're similar. I don't know if we deal a lot in fear. I I understand when you're uh you know when you're selling a product and you've got a lot of potential competition and then there's customers and how you try to close close that deal, I get it. I don't know how much we deal in in fear because um um you know I think we probably deal more than in opportunity. Right. Um but I think there always is a recognition, right? At the end of the day, there's only so many deals we can do, there's only so much land, there's only so many buildings. Yeah. So do you want to be a part of us? You know, come be a part of us.

SPEAKER_01: 13:25

So we get into launching, right? And the and the chamber hosts uh a a lot of events, right? And and it's impressive, to be honest with you. Um and you have some major initiatives. How do you think about launching opportunities for businesses uh so they're not just attending events, but actually activating relationships?

SPEAKER_00: 13:44

Okay. It's it's yeah, we have a lot of networking events. And the one thing that I always tell people is networking is great, building trusted relationships is better. So if somebody comes to me and they say, Boy, I'm a people person, you know, you ought to hire me, I'm a people person. I'll say, Well, what matters to me more, I said, You're talking to me with language that doesn't, you know, connect with me, even though I am a people person, right? But it's like, no, what you need to tell me is you know how to build trusted relationships, and through those trusted relationships, you know how to achieve results.

SPEAKER_01: 14:21

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00: 14:22

Okay, that that matters. So the one thing I tell people all the time, even at our networking events, don't just go around and shake hands and and build buddies. You want friends, right? But at the same time, you need to understand why you're there and what you're trying to achieve, and then using those relationships to achieve those, to achieve those goals. Doesn't mean by the way, you come in and you immediately just you know browbeat people because you're trying to sell some product, yeah. That's gonna turn them off.

SPEAKER_01: 14:50

Right. No.

SPEAKER_00: 14:51

But as you build your relationship, have a purpose for that relationship that's gonna get you to the result you want to get to. You are representing a business or a nonprofit or somebody, so you need to keep their interest in mind. Um we've added over the last couple of years a lot of small business development tools. It's important that you engage in those exercises as well and come to our professional development. Um, go to our website, look at what's there to help support small businesses. I'm really excited we're about to um bring the Small Business Development Center back into the chamber. That's awesome. Which is great. So that'll provide great support. Um and so you're you're creating things around um if we always the one thing we say is look, we do we we brought, and I should know the number off the top of my head, but it was somewhere around 25,000 people together last year. That's that's a lot of people, maybe more than that. I can't but it's a lot. Um but we should always bring people together for a purpose. Right. You know, what's the purpose behind bringing people? So state of the city. What's the purpose of 800 people going to state of the city? Well, it's hearing from the mayor and understanding the strategic direction of the community you live in, and then coming together with a lot of um celebration and joy at all the positive things that have happened, but also understanding where the challenges exist and how do we come together to maybe uh improve and maybe resolve those challenges. So there's a purpose to going to State of the City beyond, hey, I've got 50 friends that are gonna be there. I can't wait to shake their hands and see them and hang out with them.

SPEAKER_02: 16:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 16:36

So all of our events like that, we we try to have a purpose for them. And I would tell anybody attending one of our events, have a purpose when you attend the event. Think of five people that you want to meet that you didn't know, and use that event to meet them.

SPEAKER_01: 16:53

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 16:54

You know, put a scorecard up there for yourself and hold yourself to it. So actually come up, even sometimes here's the three specific people I want to meet.

SPEAKER_01: 17:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 17:04

And then at the end of it, then I meet these three people. Score yourself on it. So that way it it m starts moving people to activating versus just sitting back and enjoying.

SPEAKER_01: 17:16

Yeah. You know, it's funny you say that too, because uh obviously I'm a member, so I've gone through this right before and and um and one thing that I learned early on as a chamber member is like you said, hey, don't try to um don't don't try to to go off and meet people and try to sell because when when you do that, um you're only gonna come off wrong, right? And so the best thing to do is is like you said, build relationships. I can't tell you how you know, just as podcasts alone, this is a relationship building tool. Uh having lunch with people is a relationship building tool. Not necessarily um trying to sell them your product or service, it's just getting to know as as as people, right? Sure. And then finding um similarities. Like how you know, I I can't we have like a little fantasy football league in our and you know, some of the chamber members, and and it's fun. It's just hey, we get to have this competitive spirit with fantasy foot. It takes us away from that, hey, we know we're all business people and we have uh businesses to grow, uh, but people only buy from people they know, like, and trust, right?

SPEAKER_00: 18:21

I think you're right. And I I tell people this who some people are, you know, maybe they're more introverted, maybe they're sometimes nervous walking into a large room and how do I have a conversation with someone and you know what am I what am I telling them? And I said, Well, here's the cool thing. You don't actually have to tell them anything, just ask them. Yeah. Ask them who they are, ask them what challenges that they have, what great successes do they have? You know, engage them to and get them to answer questions. You you just need to care about the person you're talking to.

SPEAKER_01: 18:54

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00: 18:55

And when you care about the person you're talking to and you learn something about them, somewhere here in your mind should be All right, well, how do I help them meet whatever that challenge, or how do I help them extend that opportunity that they have? But if you if you if you do it based on them first, right, then I think this the success is is is uh will come your way. Um yeah, if you approach anything, any chamber, and it becomes it's all about you, chances are, and you've seen it because it's happened at our chamber, people will sniff that out. Yep. And they probably um will end up in some ways pushing you maybe not out, but pushing you to the side. And the good news is we don't have much of that, right? We have a really, really good culture within our chamber, a welcoming, supporting, um, a supporting um um culture. So Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 19:54

And I think it's because you have to be intentional, right? You have to be intentional with um truly wanting to help the other person, um not necessarily with the product or service that you have, right? And I think that's the art of networking too, is like you meet so many people and you're like, Well, actually, you know, I could connect you with this person because this person can help you. And then that person is going to be like, Wow, he you know, he he he or she didn't help me directly, but she he connected me somebody. Now it's like I want to help them, right?

SPEAKER_00: 20:26

And it becomes a helping community, and and that's what I think that's what the chamber's all about is well and when you talk about what gaps do corporations, like if someone moves here, the gaps that they have, earlier question you asked, the reality is these two things are in common. What what you really if you can become a connector, yeah. Right, if you can help connect, as I mentioned earlier, that company to the services that are out there. And it's amazing how much people value somebody who can connect them to um to things that'll bring them value.

SPEAKER_01: 21:01

Yeah, yeah. And and that's a um it kind of goes back to your your your your mission statement. Together we champion economic uh economic and community prosperity. Um and I th I think we're making some edits here in the next future, right?

SPEAKER_00: 21:15

Um to your to your Well we have a vi we have a we're gonna add a vision statement. Okay. We're not changing because to me the mission statement still works. As you say, if if our mission statement, which is together we champion economic community prosperity, how are we gonna do that? We're gonna help our members grow, we're gonna foster overall economic growth, we're gonna amplify the voice of business, we're gonna develop the future. Right. That structure works really, really well. What we uh did just go through is a process of of sort of what's our long term vision. Where are we trying to go? And we have language, and this language won't be exactly correct, but it'll be close, which is um we really want to support um Arlington becoming The city to create a bright future. Right. And I emphasize the not just one of many. We want when people look at Arlington, they see Arlington as a place they can go to develop for them and their family a bright future. And um that's a big goal for a chamber. I mean it's a big vision for a chamber, but to me that's what it's all about. I mean, that's why we want that mission statement. That's that's why we do those four buckets underneath our strategic objectives. It's all about um uh creating bright futures. Yeah. And um when a city is begins to be thought of as a place where that where you can achieve. And I know the city, you know, the the they're the American dream city, which is similar, right? You come achieve the the American dream, but um I want somebody, anybody who's coming out of college, um, somebody who's 45 years old and making a career transition, wants to go somewhere, um, somewhere different. I want them to bring their talents to Arlington. I want them to see us as a place to have a bright future. For a kid who's in elementary school right now, and maybe is not in the best circumstances in their life, have whatever struggles that they have and struggles in front of them. I want them to realize that if they do stay here, work hard, um, um, develop that there is a bright future for them. Hope is an incredibly powerful tool. But hope, you need to be hoping for something. So to me, if we can get them to hope for that bright future and they see that it's accessible in Arlington, so whether you live here, whether you move here, or whether you're cons with a company, or whether you're looking for you know a place in the United States or in the world where you believe that's possible, I want that to be, I want that to be Arlington.

SPEAKER_01: 24:06

Yeah. It's it's it's funny because uh I was born and raised here. Uh I went through my entire life in Arlington, so went to Blanton, uh, which we know what's going on there. Uh, but then I transitioned to Duff, went to Bailey Junior High, Arlington High, UTA. And uh it's interesting to now be out of you know the education system, um, you know, working, building a business, selling the business, you know, to the new owner, Charlie Fam, and but still giving back to the community. I I can't count how many times we've reached out and uh to UTA students, TCC students, you know, um UNT students, right? Uh beyond Arlington, which is the greater Arlington Gamble Commerce, uh, and just giving back to those students and um you know investing in them because at the end of the day, they're the future, right? They're the future. Um and so um you you have um we talked a little bit about you know the vision, how now that you're gonna be you had the short term, which is the the mission statement, now we're doing a long term. So uh for business owners listening, um listening who feel stuck or at plateaued, what role can the Chamber of Commerce realistically play in helping them break through the next level?

SPEAKER_00: 25:22

Well, I I think um where we can be helpful is potentially giving them some skills that maybe um maybe they don't have through professional development. Maybe we can help them make a connection with someone who will help them break through. Um, you know, um maybe we could create a a support system that that that is there and encourages, you know, a lot of times there are people who don't break through because at some point um they um they're emotionally not there, right? They've struggled. So having a support system that's there, wanting you to succeed and pushing you, um, I think we can we can help in in in that regard um and certainly connect you to players that can that can help you. Um now I do say this that if if if you have a flawed business strategy, yeah, chances are we're not gonna fix that. Okay. You know, you could you could come in and you could meet somebody who could say, hey, you're kind of doing, but you ought to maybe have you thought about this. You've probably done that before with people. I have. Have you thought about this? Yep. And and it changes the course, but you know, sometimes there are people who come into the chamber and they think, I'm gonna join, and everything is gonna be is gonna be great.

SPEAKER_01: 26:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 26:46

But they don't engage. Yep. They don't change whatever was causing challenges to begin with. And because they don't engage, and because they don't change, what do you think happens? Yeah, their business doesn't succeed. It's a it's a very, very difficult, um, it's a difficult thing. But I do believe that if you're there and you're working hard and you've gotten to a point and you're trying to get to the next level, well, having people around you who can help who can help you understand what that next level looks like, who are the players that need to be involved from a strategic standpoint. You know, if you go to a networking group and you've been involved in networking groups and you build relationships with a group of people, they all become your business advisors to some extent. You ought to tap into them and not be afraid to use them that way. Absolutely. And um sometimes you need that extra a bit of knowledge, um, knowledge to help you. But we can also connect you to, you know, people at UTA who who maybe are experts in a particular area. They could help you think through your process. We have business coaches. Those business coaches can help you um as well. So a whole group of ways.

SPEAKER_01: 28:02

That's awesome. You know, it's funny you you you said that you touched on two things. Um one, um uh our our vision statement at Adventure is to change the world through innovation and inspire businesses to grow. And part of that route to inspire businesses to grow is because business is never going to be um, you know, always smooth selling. There's always gonna be bombs on the road. It doesn't matter if you're you're scaling, it doesn't matter if you're startup, like you're always gonna have something that hits you and you're like, man, how do I get over this and plateau? And so to build a community where we're partners in that and to help them inspire them, saying, Hey, you gotta keep going, right? We know it's hard right now, but you gotta keep going. And uh it it's dissimilar at the chambers. Like, hey, we're building a community that we're gonna hold each other accountable, but I'm not just accountable, we're gonna we're gonna lift each other up when we're down, right? Yeah, and um to your point, I've built relationships in the chamber with some friends that when I have and and these conversations they just happen. Like we'll be talking about football or we'll be talking about food, and next thing you know, it's like, hey, have you tried this? And then that conversation turns into like a uh a business advice conversation, right? And um, I'll be honest with you, I've implemented some of that advice with my company and it's helped us, you know. Um, there's somebody who's gonna be on the show later this this year who um who really helped me start up the webinars, and he grew his business just completely doing webinars. And so I was just like, how did you do that? And so he kind of gave me some advice and we started doing webinars, and all of a sudden we started getting some leads and business. So I think it's important that um that you are building those relationships and using that advisory council for your business, it's just gonna happen naturally if you're if you're helping each other, right?

SPEAKER_00: 29:49

I think if you if you understand, you know, what your strengths are and what you know well and the the areas that you don't, and in those areas that you don't know as well, you you're you're not afraid to ask somebody. So if you don't know um, if you don't know marketing, social media, right? Well, there's Brian sitting right over there and he does, so you know he's someone I can rely on. And then there, as you know, there are other companies as well in the chamber, right? That someone could go to. Um, ask questions. Don't be a don't be uh don't be afraid to ask, and and understand where you're not an expert and look for people who are. And then where you are an expert, share that information, right? Then it becomes this this um ecosystem of support that's really powerful.

SPEAKER_01: 30:38

Absolutely. So uh you know, we're going to go into the amplify. You know, one of the chambers key strategies is amplifying the voice of the business. How does advocacy and public policy play into scaling not just individual companies but the entire you know regional econom economy?

SPEAKER_00: 30:54

Okay. Well, I think um it's important and from a business standpoint to have a to be in a in a city, we'll do the city first, in a city that cares about business, that's passionate about business, and if you're really lucky, works at the speed of business. So that's really important. So for us to be there as a chamber, um, being a voice for our businesses to our elected officials, to our city staff, um, whether it's in Arlington or Pantiago or Dow Worthington Gardens, you know, on the local level, us being a voice to help um help guide that, um, there's a real value and a real strength to that. Um you know, this is back a while ago, there was an issue in Arlington about grease traps. I won't go into it. But if we can pull the bunch of businesses together to have a good conversation with the city to figure out what a solution is that works for the city and works for what you know they're required to do from a code standpoint, but simplifies the process and lowers the cost, that's a win for everybody. Right. Right. So that's one of the ways having amplifying the voice matters. And you can see it, um, one of the big um priorities for us in this last legislative session in Austin um was on um water infrastructure. All right, so water infrastructure in Arlington we're pretty well served by water. It's not a huge issue for us. So why would our chamber care about that? Well, for the state of Texas, it is an issue. You don't have to go far west of Fort Worth to start running into water supply challenges. So if we want this economy in Texas to continue to grow, we know that we've got to invest in infrastructure. Otherwise, the growth that we want chokes the growth in the future, right? Because you're not meeting that growth with the right amount of infrastructure to support it. So we made water infrastructure because we could see that was a challenge that wasn't being addressed fully and would impact the state's ability to continue to grow, we need to get ahead of that and address it. So it becomes one of our top policies as a chamber. We meet with our legislators and we meet with people during the session and we share with them our priorities and who our members are. In some instances, we didn't do it on this particular issue. We'll actually have our members write letters. Um so you find ways to to engage them. But it's it's there's more power in together than there is alone.

SPEAKER_01: 33:27

Absolutely. 100%. Yeah. Yeah. And so you um you're looking, Pat, you know, for the next five to ten years, what excites you most of Arlington's trajectory and what should business leaders be doing right now to prepare for what's coming next?

SPEAKER_00: 33:43

Yeah, it's a great question. I wish I had a great answer for it. Okay, so Arlington is is is developing and changing. You know, we're we're 99 square miles, we don't have a lot of real estate left. So for us, we're really a community that's going to have to redevelop. Yeah. So I think what's really important for us looking forward is what does that look like? Who are we wanting to be? What do we want to do with the land that we have and how do we that needs to be redeveloped? How do we do that in a way that serves the overall direction that we want to move? For me, I want to see us continue to recruit as many high-paying jobs as we can. Um I would love to see um see with it within Arlington over the next 10 years our buying power increase, our income of our citizens increase. Um so bringing in high-paying jobs matters. Right. Um, this bright future, you know, I I want to see Arlington um have a vibrant community of 25 to 45 year olds. Right? People who are starting their careers and growing their careers. I want to make sure that Arlington is a community where they're building and and their lives and like Arlington did 50 years ago, you know, or 30 years ago, or 20 years ago. How are we feeding that to make sure that there's that opportunity um across the board? Um if we do these things in the correct way and we look at those opportunities, whether it's you know, through some sort of accreditation at the Dan Diapert Career Tech Center, or if it's through a community college degree or a college degree, it's how are we advancing the capabilities of the citizens of Arlington and creating for them a more prosperous life? And if we can create for them a more prosperous life, it'll allow us to attract others and to build on that and make our community um stronger. Now, all that said, look, there's gonna be more hotels built, there's gonna be more stuff in the entertainment district. We're gonna have an unbelievable amount of events that put that put our city, you know, on the global scene from the World Cup to Grand Prix, but you know, going out into the future, uh, the Final Four, uh, you know, college basketball tournament. There's believe me, we're gonna continue to do big, big things in Arlington that put us on um very much on the global scene. Right. Um, and so you're gonna see a lot of that, those sort of things being announced. You're gonna see our downtown continue to develop dramatically. You're gonna see the entertainment district continue to um continue to evolve and and be a place that not only do you go there for events or games, you live there. Yeah, you eat there. Like you'll see all this in the next 10 years. Downtown and the entertainment district begin to grow together in this holistic ecosystem that supports some really cool stuff and generates tax revenue that then benefits the entire city. So that will happen. Okay. The question is with all that good stuff happening, I live in South Arlington. By the way, there's all kinds of great growth going on in South Arlington, eSpace, the airport, and great economic development strategy down there. But anyway, wherever I live, what does all this stuff mean to me? And what I will tell folks is it it it means that you're getting a lot more value because we're having people from outside of Arlington pay taxes in Arlington, which is allowing us to use those tax doll tax dollars to do good things for people living in Arlington. But with that, you also want people to see, but what does it mean to me in my future? Great, all that's going on, but I'm having trouble finding a job.

SPEAKER_01: 37:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 37:42

Or I'm a kid in school and my parents are having trouble. So we just need to make sure that looking out 10 years, that we are that community focused on a bright future for everybody that lives in Arlington. And how do we help them achieve that? And everything we do, there needs to be a strategic purpose in achieving that.

SPEAKER_01: 38:02

That's wonderful. That's awesome. Well, there you have it. We had Michael Jacobson, CEO of the Greater Arlington Chamber of Commerce with us. Thank you again for being on the show. And um, it's it's been an honor, and it's been an honor because we're part of this community. Uh we've we've grown, we've um we've gone to school here, uh here in Arlington, and just to be a part of this journey and and to be a part of you know your journey, Michael Jacobson, as the CEO of the Chamber of Commerce, it's been an honor. And we thank you for being on the show, guys. Uh, we thank you guys for listening in once again. My name is Brian, CEO, co-founder of Adibit Chain Marketing Agency, and we will see you next time.