Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Business Voices is the Juneau Chamber of Commerce podcast focused on the people, ideas, and decisions shaping Juneau’s economy.
Each episode features thoughtful conversations with local business owners, civic leaders, entrepreneurs, and decision-makers who are working to build a stronger, more diverse, and more resilient business community.
This show reflects the Chamber’s larger mission: to support entrepreneurship, encourage responsible and sustainable development, improve the business climate, and help make Juneau a better place to work, live, shop, and invest.
Business Voices is a forum for insight, leadership, and shared perspective, connecting the people who care about Juneau’s economic future and the quality of life that makes this community worth building.
Welcome to Business Voices Juno, the podcast of the Juno Chamber of Commerce hosted by executive director Becca Parks. From entrepreneurship and leadership to growth, resilience, and innovation, this podcast shines a light on the businesses and voices helping define Juno's economic future.
Speaker 2:Alright. Well, this is Rebecca Parks, the executive director of the Juno Chamber of Commerce, here with episode number two of our Business Voices podcast with a very special guest that, in addition to running her own fabulous business has also been one of my friends in Juneau for I think almost twenty years. So was, yeah, just someone I was really excited to chat with. So, Melani, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2:And I think the first question is, why did you start a business in Juneau?
Speaker 3:Oh, interesting question. So I kid you not, like, I wasn't sure how to prepare for this. I was in the sauna at the pool yesterday, and I asked, like, my friends, like, how I should prepare. And then all these other people walked in and and and they were like, that will be the first question. Now
Speaker 2:I'm glad we're predictable.
Speaker 3:SARAH Thanks to the sauna, I have answers. So the very first thing I did after grad school was start my own business. And it was called, Gold Creek Research and Consulting. And it was an enormous failure because I didn't have the discipline at all. Like, I didn't know how to do an eight hour workday.
Speaker 3:Like, I would wait until, like, 8PM to start my projects and, like, and then I'd work till 2AM and then I was always stressed out. So I went and I kind of I went through all the, businesses that I really admired in the community and I kind of like did two years at each one. And I was like, this is amazing and now I'm ready for the next one. And I I don't I don't think that during any of that time I was then planning on going back and starting a business again. But once I got all the, you know, learned all the tricks and how to do it and what I really liked and what I was really good at, then I just took the leap.
Speaker 3:I I went out with I brought a bunch of my friends to dinner and I told them my idea and they were all very excited for me. They were enthusiastic. So I just did it and it it was so crazy at the time and it still seems so crazy now to just quit my job and start my own business. But that was my process.
Speaker 2:And let's talk about that thing you love, data. What can you tell us about the business and what it is that you do?
Speaker 3:Yes. So I run I always say I run a data economic publications firm that focuses on Southeast Alaska. I do projects all over the state. It it it really depends who I'm working with. You know, some people, no matter what the project is, I'll say yes because they're just so fabulous to work with.
Speaker 3:But usually I try to just stay in Southeast Alaska. And so I try to put together economic assessments and economic publications that are digestible and really attractive to read and really just baseline what is going on in a community or in an industry so that everyone has the same information and starting place so that then they can build strategies or anything on top of that and figure out what they want to do or what the strategy moving forward is and how to get there. So I do a lot of work like that. I do a lot of work that supports grants. So I'll do the economic analysis.
Speaker 3:And gosh, I think, like, you know, the my clients have come back to me and are able to measure the the grants that they've gotten in the hundreds of millions from from the work that I've done. Not because of the work that I've done, but, you know, it's it's a part of the the larger process. And so that's been really rewarding to to see them being really successful.
Speaker 2:Did you always know that data would be a part of your life? You always loved numbers and research?
Speaker 3:I always loved math and I really loved history. So I was a history major in college just because I loved the storytelling. Like, was like, this is I loved doing historical research and and and just learning what the you know, listening to all the stories of different people in our history. And so then kind of marrying that with data that came later. I, you know, I I didn't do economics in in college or grad school.
Speaker 3:I wish I wish I had. I, you know, I took a lot of economic classes, but that wasn't it wasn't my degree was not in economics. And, yeah, I just I just love the numbers and love how numbers tell such a story. And so the the when I think about how like, the the moment that kind of the the seed of Rainforest Data started, like, when I was in high school, I actually wanted to be an actress. Like, I thought I would go into acting.
Speaker 3:And I was in a perseverance play with George Rogers, who was an economist. He was considered to be Alaska's first economist by by some. And I was I was in Maine. I went to college at Colby College, and I was homesick, and I was in the library. And I found a book that he'd written called Southeast Alaska in Transition 1960 by George Rogers.
Speaker 3:And I was like, this is the coolest thing ever. And I read it from cover to cover because I think I was homesick and it was so well written. And I think, like, that moment was really the the derivation of Raincoast Data.
Speaker 2:Do you still have a copy of that book?
Speaker 3:Yes, I have a signed copy.
Speaker 2:That's a good treasure.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Do you still have a recording of the Perseverance play?
Speaker 3:No, maybe somebody does
Speaker 2:need a resurgence of that at some time. So to talk about what it was like to actually open your own business, what were the steps involved when you open Rainforest Data? And how are your first two years running the business?
Speaker 3:So, my husband gave me a $5,000 loan and he had healthcare. So that was like that gave me and he was supportive. And so those things gave me the courage to do it. Like I didn't I could have a job without health care benefits. And so with the $5,000 I bought a good chair and a printer and I rented office space.
Speaker 3:And I was, like, I was terrified because I was like, how how do you even go about getting business? And I sat around and I mostly had coffee with people for the first week. And my joke is that I've never had time to have coffee with anyone since that first week. So, like and it's not really a joke.
Speaker 2:But coffee, sauna, these are the the keys to a successful business.
Speaker 3:You know, I do rely a lot on my friends. My friends are are very, like, give me a lot of support in life.
Speaker 2:What about the the day to day of the business? You said that your first business kind of failed because you didn't have the discipline to do that eight hour workday. What do your workdays look like now?
Speaker 3:So I just do absolutely normal workday. I do the the normal eight hour workday. I don't work at home. I don't work from home. I only work in the office.
Speaker 3:I I know, I my my kids have just they're I have two kids in college now, but when I was raising kids, I wanted that separation of church and state. I was really lucky because I spent a lot of time. I was the executive director of Southeast Conference before I started my own business, and that really put me in touch with business leaders from across the region. And I was at JEDC with you before, and so that put me in touch with business leaders across Juneau. And so I was really well connected.
Speaker 3:So as soon as people understood what I was doing, they were really enthusiastically supporting me as well. So so all of my work so I I feel like I can never really tell someone how to start a business because all of my work just comes in like, I don't respond to any proposals. I don't seek out work at all. All of my work just comes in through people I have connections with who just give me a call and say, I need to study.
Speaker 2:But I think that speaks to it, like, I've had so many conversations with students that I've worked with over the years about building your personal brand and just knowing that everything you're doing is going to reflect on your future opportunities and your future work. It's such an important piece of starting a business or getting a job.
Speaker 3:Well, and I always felt that way. I felt like if I, like, even had a typo that my entire business was gonna fall apart. Like, was I was like, everything has to be perfect in it. Of course, it wasn't perfect. But I really I really tried to make everything perfect.
Speaker 3:And I'm very obsessive about whatever I'm working on. So whatever I'm working on is the most important thing in my life, and I'm so excited about it, and I'm so excited about whoever I'm working with on it. And, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, that's like infectious. Your love of data and telling the story of Southeast Alaska has stuck with me since we got to work It's together in
Speaker 3:interesting and exciting.
Speaker 2:Well, Anne, I had questions about that. So data, I feel like data and numbers and the use and communication of data and numbers has changed a lot over the last fifteen to twenty years. And I'm wondering your experience working with it as deeply as you do, you've seen.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, I think decisions across not I mean, Southeast, but also across Alaska and nationally are much more data driven than they were when I started. And in a way that means that when I started, was sort of I I wasn't unique, but I was I I was putting together data and storytelling and imagery and trying to make data sort of beautiful. And I think a lot like a lot more people do that now. And if you look at colleges and universities, they have degrees in the kind of thing that I do. And so it's and I think with ChatGPT and AI, there's maybe I'm not as unique as I was before in that position being able to tell that data story.
Speaker 2:And that was kind of going to be my next question is
Speaker 3:how how is AI playing into your work right now? The thing I use it most for is to be a quick editor. I still have my editor, but when I send it out, I want it to like I I wanna get rid of those initial typos. And so just running it through and getting rid of the typos and and, you know, when I have the double words and, like, all the the the really stupid things that I don't even want my editor to see. Like, that has been what I primarily use it for.
Speaker 3:You know, it's not very good at retrieving data. Like so I still need to go to all of my original sources download the spreadsheets. I think, you know, one of the other things just in terms of challenges, not AI at all, but it made me think about it is state funding for Department of Labor has decreased. So there's just far fewer people in that space. And so when I'm asking for my very specific datasets that that are not publicly available, but I need them to generate for me, that's a much bigger ask than it used to be when they had, you know, more staffing and more capacity.
Speaker 3:And so, you know, I need to put out those requests like months in advance so that they know when, you know, they can get to it when they have time. And so it's like there's sort of more data available, but also less, capacity, less less people that are able to kind of go through and do the initial, work on it.
Speaker 2:I've heard that there's been pauses in federal data sets too because of the federal shutdowns, and I don't know if that's just hearsay.
Speaker 3:No. That is not hearsay. No. It's been terrible because, like, all of a sudden, my data is not available. And and and so then I get into a data panic, which is like like, you know, oh, the government's open right now.
Speaker 3:Like, do I just need to download everything that I might need over the next six months? I don't know. And yeah. And it's it's that's especially with census data and American Community Survey data. It's just it's just gone or it's not usable.
Speaker 3:And so, yeah, I just have to wait or multipliers for Southeast. So I'm doing it like whatever multiplier impact I'm doing, and then I go to, download the the multipliers, and they're just they're just not available. So that's been frustrating and challenging. And I I so I am trying to remember in advance to just download things I might possibly need. And
Speaker 2:can you talk about for the, like, layperson on the street sort of understanding this idea of data driven decisions? And what do you hope the data that people in Juneau are really looking
Speaker 3:at right now is? Well, so that's really interesting because I approached you like last summer and I said, we just really need a one pager or two pager on the Juno economy. There's there's so much information out there, but it's hard to see the signal from the noise. And so I just want people to have those top line numbers and to have them very readily accessible. And so for Juneau, for example, the state is still our number one employer when it comes to wages, but now the visitor sector is the number number one employer when it comes to total people employed in the community.
Speaker 3:And even when you're the that's even when you're translating it into year round annualized jobs. And then tourism is now our second largest employer when it comes to wages tied with our health care sector. And these are things like I don't know that everyone else knows. And so I just wanna make sure that everyone has the same starting point when they're making decisions and that they understand that health cares are, you know, number two industry when it comes to wages. And like these things that I just don't they they don't seem to be in the public discussion for me as much as I feel like they should be.
Speaker 3:So just telling those little stories and not necessarily a forty fifty page report, but just telling the the top line story about it.
Speaker 2:We should say that one to two pager is on the Juno Chamber website, and it is a great resource and we plan on doing it again next year because it's so helpful to see those numbers and then hopefully see them that clearly and concisely year after year to look for isolate the patterns not just look for patterns but find the key patterns that we want to watch. I get to ask just a couple other questions while you're here. You have entrepreneurism in your family too. Your husband runs a business and your kiddo started a business. How old was he when he started his And
Speaker 3:my dad has his own business. So my dad and my husband and my son started his own. He started a lemonade stand by the way that it was a spruce dip lemonade and worked with a neighbor, his his favorite neighbor Nancy to to get the idea together and really did well, selling to the visitors, to the tourists. So that was really fun. He he's I think he did it for two years.
Speaker 3:So he's 19 now. He he's done it for the last couple of years, and he may do it again this summer. You might see him out there selling his spruce tip lemonade on hot good.
Speaker 2:What do you think that is like? Is it just in the water? Is it the support with that capital? What, inspires a whole family of entrepreneurs?
Speaker 3:That is a good question. I maybe it's just how we're wired. I don't know. Maybe I'm not the best employee. I'm always like looking to do something else.
Speaker 3:I remember I was working at McDowell Group and, just a great place to work. A great team there when I was working there. And, but I always wanted to make everything colorful and use different fonts and, like, bring in, like, photos and they were like, do we have a look and we have a feel and and I always wanted to go beyond what I was what I was supposed to do. That might probably not the best example, but it's just and and I think having, you know, having my dad has have his own law firm, see that you see the possibilities of just going out and doing it on your own.
Speaker 2:Can follow your own brand.
Speaker 3:Can just do it yourself.
Speaker 2:Well, then the next question is what's next? Do you have a kids or in college?
Speaker 3:Well, okay. I do have what's next this next week. So I've been trying to get a little bit more time in my life because I've been on this work marathon for the past three years. And so I'm trying to say no to more projects just to just to have a little bit of a better work life balance. So last week, I was able to take a couple days off work and finally record my audiobook for the novel that I put out in 2020.
Speaker 3:So it's coming out next week, and I'm so excited. It was so fun.
Speaker 2:That is really exciting, and I can't believe I almost forgot to ask you about your book because it's funny to me that a numbers data person just has this little side project of being a novelist. Can you talk about your book?
Speaker 3:Okay. It's only one novel, so novelist is overstating it. But it it's it this was just a personal, like, love project for me because I have I have two boys. They're both in college, like I said. But, when they were little, they used to love for me to read aloud to them.
Speaker 3:And they they kind of got to the stage where they were old enough to go hiking in Juneau, and I wanted to take them hiking and they wanted me to read aloud to them. So I made up this whole, like, fantasy saga in my head that I could then break into chapters or segments so we would go on a hike and I would always leave on a cliffhanger so that then they'd be like, oh, read aloud to us again. I mean, take us hiking again and tell us what happens next. And so it's sword fighting and it's these young kids that have to save the day and and and there's there's always something crazy that's happening and I try to keep the action, constant. And so it was it was really, really fun to write.
Speaker 3:I loved every minute of it. I'm not gonna tell you it's the best literature out there, but it made me so happy. And then I always meant to do an audiobook, but I kinda had to wait for my kids to go to college so the house would be quiet long enough. I guess I could have just come here to the camera in my studio if I if I don't ask. And and now they're coming back for the summer.
Speaker 3:I get both boys back for summer. So I was like, I better get on this because who knows when I'll have a quiet house again.
Speaker 2:And so title will be on Audible. How do
Speaker 3:folks Yeah. So it's called Mapmaker's Mistake, and it should be out on Audible, on the twenty seventh. So
Speaker 2:And maybe we'll have a little reading with the chamber just for fun.
Speaker 3:It's super fun. Yeah. I just read it myself. So it's it's and I I I, you know, I used to be really good at doing the voices and I've kinda lost that. So I was kinda trying to do the voices, but they're, yeah, they was like some voices, some not.
Speaker 3:But it was really I just I just loved it. It's fun to have things like that too.
Speaker 2:Well, I think it's pretty amazing. And I would I'd love to end on knowing your job and your business. Do you have I don't know if people have this, but do you have a favorite piece of data?
Speaker 3:Oh, I mean, my favorite piece of data is like whatever I'm currently working on. But I've got right now, have like several surveys out. I'm starting a project next week on or, you know, actually, not next week. Tomorrow, I'm okay. So I guess, like oh, I was thinking.
Speaker 3:On so on day after tomorrow, I'm presenting to the Sitka chamber on housing. And so I'm completely fascinated by the differences between housing in Juneau and housing in Sitka. And so that's been just fascinating to me because I think, like, I look at it from a Southeast base and I think, okay. I understand what's going on in the housing economy. And then I look at Juneau, and Juneau has its own story.
Speaker 3:And then I look at Sikka, it it's they could there's also a housing crisis there. There's a housing crisis here, and there's a housing crisis there, but the roots are different. And I'm just fascinated by that.
Speaker 2:I wanna do a whole interview just on that.
Speaker 3:Can you
Speaker 2:tell us anything about what the differences are?
Speaker 3:Well, so in Juneau, you know, in Juneau, we build a 100 more than a 100 housing new housing units every year. I mean, it doesn't feel like it. We don't see it, but we build a 100 new housing units. And then we are are also adding a 100 new occupied housing units to our, housing to our the houses every year as well. So we build a new house, somebody moves in, they live there year round.
Speaker 3:In Sitka, they're also building new houses every year, like 30 new houses every year, but their number of occupied housing units is going down. Even though they're build they're building building building and fewer there they have, you know, over the last, like, fifteen years, like, 100 fewer households that are being lived in, which is crazy. And the the best I can come up with, I need to do my research to understand it, but it's people who have maybe retired and have moved down south and they're snowboarding it and so they just have a home in the summer or they just have a vacation home. And we don't really have vacation homes in Juneau. It's not our thing.
Speaker 3:And so the housing shortage ends up having these different, like key driver that that is different than Juno. So that was interesting to me.
Speaker 2:Oh, that is very interesting to me too. And will be interesting as I know the assembly is looking at policy around housing too. So fun data, very fun job.
Speaker 3:So thank love my job and love all my clients. They're so fun to work with. It's it's it is it is so much fun and which is why Oh, and it's my twelve year anniversary this week.
Speaker 2:Well, happy anniversary. Thank you. And thank you for being a member of the Juno Chamber. Thank you for coming and chatting with me. And as a thank you, you get a fancy white pom pom chamber beanie to wear out.
Speaker 3:I love this hat and I love your new logo. It's absolutely gorgeous. Thank you. I will wear this with pride.
Speaker 2:Keep an eye out for Meilani downtown in her new beanie. And thanks again and that's it for today.
Speaker 3:And you didn't even have me read my list.
Speaker 2:I didn't. Know. Next time everyone can listen to a list of Milani's projects from the year before. But maybe we'll we can attach it when we post this we on the Juno Chamber website.
Speaker 3:Don't need to attach anything.
Speaker 2:But you can. This will be up on anywhere that they have podcasts aired on KINY and shared on the Juno Chamber website, junochamber.com.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much. This was fun. Thank you.
Speaker 1:You've been listening to Business Voices Juno. Subscribe everywhere you listen to your favorite broadcast. Share the episode and learn more about the Juno Chamber of Commerce at junochamber.com.