EW 076 – How To Build An Award-Winning Chamber of Commerce – Winning with Lisa Dressler, Executive Director of the Southeast Alberta Chamber of Commerce

Gordon Sheppard (00:00.718)
Lisa Welcome to the show.

Lisa Dressler (00:03.657)
Thank you. It's great to be here.

Gordon Sheppard (00:05.696)
It is so wonderful to have you here because of the experience that you have leading your organization, the experience that you have on multiple senior leadership levels at different levels in all different areas and the just the the raw enthusiasm that you're bringing, certainly to the pre-work that we did getting ready for this interview. And I know the impact that you're having in your area. But there's a lot of people that haven't met you just yet. So if you had to describe yourself, what would you say?

Lisa Dressler (00:33.479)
I would say I'm a community builder and a champion for Southeast Alberta. I've been in various leadership positions with the Southeast Alberta Chamber of Commerce, previously the Medicine Hat and District Chamber of Commerce, and really excited about what we do in the community. Have had the opportunity to work on membership events.

government relations, public relations, and everything in between.

Gordon Sheppard (01:03.854)
Where did you become you y w what is your current official title and tell me when you got started in that title?

Lisa Dressler (01:11.241)
For sure. So I'm the executive director of the Southeast Alberta Chamber of Commerce and I've been doing this work since November two thousand and nine. So I'm in my seventeenth year in this particular role.

Gordon Sheppard (01:23.128)
Seventeenth year, what keeps you around for seventeen years in that type of role? What's what keeps you coming back day after day?

Lisa Dressler (01:28.797)
So I am passionate about the community and the work that the Chamber of Commerce does and the members that we serve, the business community that we serve. And I always say it's about the people. You know, it's not so much about the work as it is about the relationships and the impact that we can make within our community.

Gordon Sheppard (01:48.194)
that's great. You must have a zillion of those relationship moments along the way. Any just you don't you don't even need to name names. What's sort of one of those favorite relationship moments that you like to do? You know, you you must meet a million people, but any of those any favorites come to mind?

Lisa Dressler (02:02.783)
Absolutely. I think the ones that really stand out are in times of crisis. so when we've dealt with whether that be floods or fires or, you know, n natural disasters that we deal with. And some of the stories that you hear about after the fact more than anything. And I think the couple that stand out for me is when we've experienced flooding within the Southeast Alberta region. And you know, for me it's just doing

The work that we do every day. When a business calls and they're in crisis and they need help, you do whatever you can to support them. And then being able to hear after the fact the impact that that had and the struggles that they were having trying to get to the right person, trying to get the right solution and hitting barrier after barrier, and us being able to come in, knowing different contacts, knowing different resources and avenues that we could connect with and making a

Difference in in a matter of you know less than 24 hours or less than you know 72 hours to try to get the the contact that they needed and those individuals then becoming very engaged in our chamber, coming onto our board of directors and making impacts of their own. But you know, being able to hear those stories of where we've made a difference and being able to again relate the work that we do to the impact that we have and and

Frankly, that that's what motivates and drives me every day is again it comes down to the relationship, the people, and the impact. and i I g I go back to our three core pillars of our chamber of commerce. It's about connections, support, and influence.

Gordon Sheppard (03:49.966)
Connection, support, and influence, and something that's kept you around and going at this leadership level in a complex organization. It's not easy to run a chamber of commerce. There's a lot of moving parts you've got to do. And I'm gonna get this wrong for the laundry list, but there's there's policy advocacy, there's advocacy for your members, there's pulling people together, there's making relationships occur, there's driving economic outcomes. If I've missed any in there, but there's just so much complexity to it, would you would that be a fair assessment?

Lisa Dressler (04:15.433)
For sure. And I think that's why I I really probably oversimplify it to those three pillars, the connections. So we connect consumers to business, business to business, or business to government, and make sure that people have the connections to the the people and resources they need in order to thrive and succeed in their business. The connections then obviously translates into the different supports that we offer. So whether that's helping businesses save on their bottom line or support.

them with information or resources that can help their business or accelerate w their plans and progress and what they're working on. And of course the influence piece is the advocacy piece and trying to influence decisions of, you know, within different levels of government, whether that's municipal, provincial, or federal. And so when we look at the the three core pillars of a chamber of commerce, that's really where we focus our time, energy, and effort.

Gordon Sheppard (05:12.557)
Well, that's wonderful and and you obviously your enthusiasm is still strong after all this time and you keep coming back and you know, I was I was looking in some of the historic. You folks have won awards as a chamber in the past, is that correct?

Lisa Dressler (05:24.083)
We have we've won Chamber of the Year. We I've had the privilege of winning Executive of the Year. We just came off the Alberta Chamber Provincial C conference and I was able to come away with my second Alberta or Provincial Chamber of the Year Award. and and certainly last year in 2025 when we were celebrating our 125th anniversary as a chamber, we also were recognized as one of the ten fastest growing chambers in Canada.

Gordon Sheppard (05:53.944)
Well, congratulations. Again, because you're in a you're also in a complex area. Your your jurisdiction has evolved over that time, for example. It was one entity and then it became a different type of entity. And you've got this large geography that you have to tackle along the way as well. What's in the secret sauce? If you're winning awards, what's the what's the Lisa factor or the staff factor? What's what's the secret sauce?

Lisa Dressler (06:14.143)
Huh.

It's people. It comes down to people in relationships and understanding the needs of our community. So I always joke, you know, going back a hundred and twenty-five years, we were a chamber of commerce in the district of Asiniboya, you know, in so before the province was a province, before our community became a city, we were in in the town of of Medicine Hat and have expanded from serving Medicine Hatton District, Cypress County town of Ridcliffe to include

Eight different municipalities, and so we've expanded to the Brooks-Newell region, Brooks, Bassano, Rosemary Duchess, and the County of Newell. So we cover twenty, close to twenty thousand square kilometers, a population base of over a hundred and ten thousand people. and it it is really about recognizing the unique characteristics of each.

parcel each municipality, each region within our district, while also bringing together what's common to all of us. Because even though there's, you know, from small hamlets to our large municipal city centers, there are certainly things that are going to be common within our region, but there are also unique traits and unique needs within that. And I think again it comes down to recognizing the varied perspectives, the different perspectives that

exist and finding you know the the supports that are needed as well as the balance that is needed amongst those varying perspectives that exist.

Gordon Sheppard (07:49.112)
Wow. Well, never a dull day for you at work with that big gaggle of geese or whatever you want to call that type of family with all those different concerns and competing elements that all again filter through the Chamber of Commerce is getting it right. You're winning awards, you're getting it right. There's something that you're doing well again with that peer recognition, and you must be getting just so much momentum as you're kind of going forward. Leads me to my first sort of big question in the interview, which is to say if you had to describe one of your biggest wins in this journey, what would that win be and how would you describe it?

Lisa Dressler (08:16.627)
think it comes down to building a legacy.

you know, there's been different moments in time where we've had those wins. So when I first came into the chamber, probably as a lot of different chambers describe, you know, the financial difficulties, the the strain on the organization, the limited timeline if we didn't turn things around in terms of sustainability and succession and so needing to to change that around really quickly back in

In the early days, but then also going through, you know, transitions. I've I've dealt with floods, fires, pandemic.

being able to get through through those events and support our business community as a team and then obviously to celebrating our 125th anniversary, being able to be recognized provincially and nationally with different awards, and and really celebrating that legacy that is the chamber. Because of course it's not about me, it's about the organization and the longevity of the organization and the different people that have been involved

To bring it to the point where it is today. And I always say it's, you know, I have the benefit and privilege of leading this organization as executive director, but I couldn't do this work without our team, without our members, without community leaders who are right beside championing, you know, the causes that that we push forward. Wonderful. Building a legacy, that's

Gordon Sheppard (09:51.905)
Wonderful. Building a legacy. That's that's a pretty big win. And so if we dig into that for a little bit and we jump into what I call the anatomy of a win, then we're gonna look at, you know, the strategy, the work plan, the people, the operations and results. Strategically, if we look at, you know, the vision, mission, values, goals, any highlights strategically to to build a legacy that you would like to point out?

Lisa Dressler (10:13.983)
Absolutely. And I'm big on strategy, but more than that, because I think a lot of people can build strategy, but it's about how you implement that strategy. So it's nice to have lofty goals and things to look forward to. But if you don't have an implementation plan implementation plan or how you're gonna operationalize that, you know, you're not able to see the same successes. And I think I what I often tell people and and my board and my team is we start with the end in mind. So when we're

creating that vision what do we want to become what do we what do we see as the potential for our organization for but bigger than that our community and where where are we striving what are we striving to achieve and so really looking at the end goal and then working our way back from that so if we're going to achieve that goal if we're going to achieve that vision what are the steps that we need to have in place to work towards that and so

So we had a very ambitious team when I came in in 2009, and we set a three-year plan that we achieved in a year. There was a lot of things that we needed to do and get done. And we implemented that in short order. And similar, you know, just being able to go back and revisit and look at what those strategies are and those the implementation plans and continue to evolve as times change.

Because of course, you know, the the running joke lately for me is, you know, back in the day we used to send out fax invitations and have to phone people, whereas now a simple email invitation. But I think even now going back to the basics that what people really care about is that personal touch point, the FaceTime, the phone call, making sure that they feel valued and valuable to the organization.

those fundamental concepts, you know, regardless of how our strategies and implementation guidelines and goals change, some of those fundamental principles always remain the same.

Gordon Sheppard (12:27.572)
Always remain the same. There's a true north in there if we had to dig into this naming all the values and all those fundamentals. So start with the end in mind to create this legacy and make it occur. Anytime we have a strategy, we need this work plan. And it sounds like you're sort of in that work plan thinking. And how lucky from a leadership perspective to be in that work plan thinking type of mode. you started in the nine-ish zone.

How would you describe if we got the timeline out and we had to sort of pick the highlights in those years? I mean, you mentioned COVID as an example. Any highlights along the way that you like to sort of point out as moments that helped to build legacy in a sense to get things to occur?

Lisa Dressler (13:03.795)
Yeah, I think those milestone moments always stand out. So obviously times of transition. So coming in in 20 2009, dealing with, you know, our flood events 2010, 2013, pandemic in 2020. And you know, those those moments, as difficult as they are, they're also unforgettable because they're they're timelines that you see a shift in behavior and you know response.

And connection and how community comes together, but how certain things can also cause division and you know a little bit of chaos from time to time, and looking at ways to bring people together. So those were all certainly pivotal moments where we did see shifts in how we do things. So as a chamber, as a community, you know, emergency response planning and what that looks like.

Like to the point we're now part of our community's emergency response advisory committee and and having a business lens as part of that planning and ensuring that the business community is part of that process, but also the moments in time where we had those milestones. So when we celebrated our 115th anniversary and our 125th anniversary, and some of those key milestones, while we still reflect on the past.

And looking back even at our centennial, the people that were involved in that time and when we celebrated 100 years, I think all of those are milestone events that cause a shift in what we do, how we operate, what we prioritize, where we spend our time, energy, effort, and how we move forward into the future. Because a lot of those moments of crisis and moments of celebration really do highlight what your priorities are and where you want to be spending.

Gordon Sheppard (15:04.876)
Well, in the through line and some of those moments that you've just mentioned, like you're part of that. You and members on your team are part of that sort of those big moments that where those inflection points occur. Also, you've got some resiliency in your leadership. you're yeah, you didn't run away screaming in in some of those moments, right? Like there's some these are big moments when you're going through you and the community and you're a leader in the community as part of whether whatever it is, emergency response, celebration and those key things. That's interesting for yourself as a leader. What's the

Where's that resiliency from for you, do you think, in those moments to keep coming through?

Lisa Dressler (15:37.952)
Well I think it comes from a place of, you know, when when people are in crisis they need stability, right? They need somebody who who can kinda think past the crisis to a point of logic in terms of how do we deal with this? What are we gonna do?

And I mean anybody in a leadership position, the last thing you do when you're on the front lines is is you know retreat or leave leave your your troops behind. You're gonna be there fighting right along with them. And I think, you know, it's it's that fundamental value or belief or you know the the grit that that keeps a person going and having a strong team and leadership and board of directors, you know, that support

So that effort and those those initiatives and that work, I think, you know, again, it it goes back to what I said in the beginning in terms of of people. So being driven to support those who support you. So, you know, you're investing in people that are investing in you and making sure that you know, in times of crisis we we all react and respond differently and and I tend to be

the type of person I always say, you know, we're we're kick-ass problem solvers in in the chamber world and we want to find those solutions and we want to make it through to the other side and become more resilient, more successful, more, you know, have the ability to thrive despite the challenges. And we've found that in our community time a time and again, is that we come out stronger on the other side when we when we work together and come together.

Gordon Sheppard (17:24.33)
I can hear the grit. You know what I mean? This is lived experience that you're talking about, having been in those moments. You'd have hundreds of relationships over this time. Do you know what I mean? Like grocery stores and wherever you everywhere you go, you would have some connection, I'm sure, in some way, and a lot of proud moments too, about the businesses that have been successful along the way. And again, there's such a mixed number of things that we're talking about. Strategy, work plan, the people part. We've gotten some insight into you as one of the key drivers and your attitude towards.

Making legacy occur as a win. Some of the you mentioned the board. Let's talk about those folks for a second. As how are they contributors to to building legacy, would you say?

Lisa Dressler (17:59.85)
Well we have a governance board, so really they they do wear two hats because they're they're members of the chamber as well as leaders within the community and so they come onto the board because they have specific skill sets. So when we look at, you know, not for profit organizations, when you're building a board of directors, when you're looking at succession planning and recruitment, it's really essential that you look at the skill sets, the competencies of your existing board members and what skills you need to bring on.

to kind of fill in some of those gaps and those areas that you wanna grow and that's where strategy also plays into it in terms of what are we looking to achieve and what are the skill sets that we need to ensure that we can

Move those initiatives forward, move those goals forward. And so really looking at the different skill sets, the diversity of perspective and opinion and background, so that they can contribute to the decisions that are being made because they're really responsible for kind of those policy, governance, leadership decisions, strategic planning and oversight, and making sure the organization is going in the right direction. So really looking at board competence.

competency and and skills as well as doing ongoing evaluation and and training because obviously they're they're used to running their day to day operations and their business but you know running a chamber of commerce might be a little bit more foreign to them and the decisions that need to be made and the government relations that we're involved in and that our board is involved in. So ensuring that they have the knowledge and training and comfort to to be able to lead within the organization within the community

Yeah.

Gordon Sheppard (19:46.54)
Well, and thanks for getting that good skill set diversity that's needed. It sounds like the onboarding is in the right shape. If you're being successful, if you're winning Chamber of the Year awards, the board is contributing and they're doing their part in the right way, because they would have some tough conversations. You'd have to have some tough conversations with them along the way. You'd have to have some innovative conversations. Like there'd be moments when we're gonna drive issues forward. So it's glad to hear that piece. The other piece you mentioned was your staff, your team. how would you sort of characterize them and building legacy in a sense?

Lisa Dressler (20:14.695)
Yeah, I love working with our team in particular and you know, looking for the right people.

to to fit in the the roles that are best suited to them because again it's always about the right people in the right position doing the right things at the right time to move to move those strategic priorities forward and so you know having diverse skill sets you don't want every person being able to do the same things because you know having too many too many eggs in one basket or too many skills in in one area but then gaps in another again with with the

perspective that a chamber of commerce does a lot of different things from membership and supports and services and events to government relations and public relations and the way we communicate with people and then the governance side you need a lot of different skills and so really tapping into the different talents that we have within the team and then coming together so you do have that diversity of perspective when you have different demographics, different backgrounds, different skill sets that all contribute to the work that we do.

we know who has specialties in different areas and who what roles people fit into, but then still being able to cross-train and being able to work across the organization and support one another. But it it's really I learned a while ago from one of my coaches and mentors, you know, you need people who can who get it, can do it, and want it. You know, that's so wanting to do the role is just as important as

getting it, knowing how to do it and being able to move that forward.

Gordon Sheppard (21:56.662)
You reminding me of the interview I did with Doug Griffiths, who's runs the Chamber of Commerce here in Edmonton. And he came in at a moment in time, maybe not dissimilar to your own origin story, and and changed people and moved things in the right direction. And now that chamber is thriving three years in with a lot of hard work behind the scenes. So I'm hearing I it's funny, I was asking about the secret sauce before. How do you win awards? I'm hearing the secret sauce. Get the right people with the right skills who want it in the right seats.

And then you're getting to be, I not not, you're you're getting to be a bit of the glue in there. You've been there long enough that there's, you know what I mean? You would be a central sort of brain and and help helping to pull the levers in a sense to get it going in the right direction. We could talk on and on about all the other stakeholders at the different levels of government. We could talk about the organization associations that you're involved with as well, along with even the members and that kind of thing. We don't have sort of that length of podcast again into everybody, but I can hear it. There's been a lot of people involved in creating legacy, strategy, work plan, people.

We have to you if we're gonna have a win, we have to be able to operationalize it, essentially. So, you know, nuts and bolts along the way. How would you describe some of the operational highlights to build legacy if that's the win?

Lisa Dressler (23:01.521)
I think it's building, you know, on on our people, on our resources, on our tools, as things evolve when we're operate operate operationalizing the day-to-day tasks. It is about the right, so you take from a technology perspective. How do we use the tools, the database, as things evolve with technology? How are we utilizing AI in our day-to-day work as a tool?

To help enhance the work that we do. So looking at the right equipment, software, technology, the right people in the right positions, but also recognizing that it is an evolution. So one of the things I've realized over time, because transition is hard, change is hard. When you lose people, you know, because they become part of your family, part of your work team, it's some of those transitions can be really difficult. But over time, I've also come to realize that every transition.

Transition brings new opportunity. Every change brings something different. And so being able to build on past successes when it comes to people and being able to modify and and change with the times as well in terms of just you know our everyday operational practices within an organization. So I think when we talk about oper operationalizing strategy, it is very much about just

Ensuring that we're constantly evolving what we do, always looking for new ideas, always looking to ensure that we can be relevant into the future in terms of those tactics and never staying stagnant. I think that's one of the key things that we've learned is you know, we as a human race, we're constantly evolving. And so as a business, we have to ensure that we're always

looking at the what's next and what's in the future and how can we change, you know, what we do to continue to serve the needs not only today but in the future.

Gordon Sheppard (25:14.325)
Well, and it's a twelve percent uptake right now for businesses using AI effectively in their business in Canada. You're gonna be a part of the charge in a sense, you know what I mean, that provides the information or the the the places for those peop the businesses in your area to sort of get into that that absolute need that's there. COVID, nobody had that in their risk register and it came along and you adapted to that as well. I can hear your own leadership evolving through this time. You're would you say you're how would you say you've evolved as a leader from nine to now yourself?

Lisa Dressler (25:43.13)
Well, i again, it goes to the constant evolution of what you learn over time. what you know, what existed fifteen years ago, you know, it has come you know, in some respects completely changed, particularly when we talk about how we work.

you know, on a day-to-day basis and the tools that we use. but also some of the core principles never change when you talk about people and relationships and longevity of those relationships and how we stay connected to people over time. So some of those fundamental principles remain in terms of ensuring people are feel valued and valuable and that we're connecting. But how we connect and the ways that we connect and the tools that we

use evolve and change over time and we have to adjust our tactics, our day-to-day tactics to stay relevant and to ensure that we're keeping up with the times. You know, we had a fairly labor-intensive website 17 years ago and now we have an integrated database with a website and and the different social media tools and and platforms that we're using to get our messages out. There's certainly more noise out there than ever before in

Terms of you know trying to convey and communicate our message, but at the same token, there's lots of different methods for us to be able to communicate what we're doing and different ways that we can try to engage and connect with businesses because everybody has a different approach and a different style and and a different way that they consume information. So we have to remain relevant in those different platforms and how we're engaging as well.

Gordon Sheppard (27:37.514)
I'm hearing grit and adaptability in your own leadership to sort of help you know steward this along as you've been doing these things. And again, these are contributors towards that legacy thing you were mentioning. Strategy, work plan, people, operations. Finally, there's results, quantitative results, qualitative results. If we're talking about building legacy, quantitatively, what do you like to point out to people that they you want them to remember?

Lisa Dressler (27:59.722)
We certainly focus on impact and growth. So when we when we talk about results quantitative and qualitatively, you know, quant quantitatively would be how we make people feel. It's, you know, people will forget what you said, they'll forget what you did, but they'll never forget how you made them feel. And so you know, my personal philosophy is making an impact with integrity, passion, and purpose. And so I

always want people to to feel my passion in the work that is done and so I you know you can't ever put

Or it's a lot harder to put a measurement on that impact and how you make people feel. And and it is, you know, the type of energy that people exude and and you know the the ability to attract people into a movement, so to speak. And so getting people to a place where it's like, yeah, that's something I want to be a part of. That's that's something I want to invest in, that's something I feel excited and passionate about. And that people

People see the potential within our region and getting people to really buy into the opportunity that we that we have. And then, you know, from more of course, we can take and measure that because we'll be able to see metrics in terms of how many members we're gaining and being able to, you know, be measured as one of the 10 fastest growing chambers in Canada, or being able to, you know, gauge our membership growth.

growth over time and how we've grown over the years as well as engagement metrics in terms of you know communication statistics and conversions and and what some of that looks like as well.

Gordon Sheppard (29:54.547)
hearing the passion that you get across and then the feedback that you get based on that. I love this they're gonna remember how you made them feel. I was dealing with someone in a municipal district and they were talking about their in their portfolio in their municipality, they ended up with having to help the farmers. And they said that took a couple of years to come round in their new portfolio. But when the farmers started asking about her family and how she was doing.

And the cupcakes started flowing and that kind of thing. Would you say you've gotten it to that level of of relationship connectivity with some of the people that you're dealing with?

Lisa Dressler (30:25.471)
Absolutely. When you can go I was just at an event, works pro rodeo you know, new old pro rodeo on

The weekend and being able to connect with people, share personal stories, be able to find out how they're doing, how their family is. And you connect with them again, it becomes more like family and friends than you know that business relationship where people are interested in conversing more on a personal level than just, you know, the day-to-day business operations. And you know, certainly we're we're always appreciative of the treats that.

come in and you know people just popping by to to say hi and and to connect because they were in the neighborhood. And so I think you know you you talked about being able to go out and communicate, go to the grocery store, go to local events. There isn't an event, you know, I go to where there isn't somebody that I know or have connected with or can chat with and and certainly I think that's what makes a difference is is connecting at those different levels and and knowing that you've made

an impact or that people people appreciate having those conversations.

Gordon Sheppard (31:39.275)
Well, and if the win is legacy, it's bigger than bottom lines. It's bigger than business. We just heard it. It's about our community events. It's how we go through major things together. It's how we build relationships. And how lucky again for this chamber to have you over that duration.

Do you know what I mean? That's a really that's a good long stretch of time to get these things to occur and have somebody who's got the grit, the adaptability to stay relevant and keep things kind of moving forward. That's great. Well, it you know, it's it's fun for me, you know, having gotten through that and learning about the win that you wanted to talk about. And whenever I get great leaders like you on the show, I always like to say, you know, if you had a couple sentences to pass on to that next leader, someone who's maybe starting up their chamber, getting their community to come together, what sort of few sentences do you like to pass along?

Lisa Dressler (32:22.291)
Was like to, and I should have started with this actually, in terms of passion and purpose. So if you're passionate about your community, seeing growth and prosperity within your region, seeking opportunities, finding out what's possible and what sometimes seems impossible. If you want to see change happen, you have to be an active part of that change. You have to be a community leader, a community builder, a community champion. You know, it's easy to sit.

On the sidelines. But to see real growth and opportunity, you have to lean in, step in, and be willing to make a difference and to invest that time. And I think when people see that you're invested and passionate about what you do, they want to be part of that. And that's that's the movement really that we're looking to create. And we certainly hope that other communities, other chambers, other regions want to see as well is really

invested community leaders that are passionate about what they do and wanting to be an active part of that change.

Gordon Sheppard (33:30.666)
If you want to make the change happen, get in the game. I can hear that very clearly. Your passion is infectious. How lucky to have you here sharing your leadership insights and all the success you've had to create this legacy over time. We could talk for hours and hours and hours, but I want to say, Lisa, thank you so much for being on the show.

Lisa Dressler (33:49.961)
Thank you. It was a pleasure to be here, and I know you have the benefit and privilege of interviewing many great leaders.