Inside Holly Springs Growth with Tonya Palumbo

Executive Director Tonya Palumbo discusses how the Holly Springs Chamber of Commerce supports local businesses as a 501(c)(6) membership organization, distinct from government and from 501(c)(3) nonprofits. She shares how member needs have shifted through rapid growth and rising costs, highlighting resources like business education, advocacy, networking, and access to small-business health insurance options through partnerships including the NC Chamber and Carolina HealthWorks. Palombo explains initiatives such as joint ribbon cuttings that connect multiple businesses at once and the chamber’s supplier program that helps historically underutilized businesses become HUB certified and connect with large employers like Fujifilm and Amgen to keep spending local. She also covers fundraising efforts that have raised over $100,000 for the Holly Springs Food Cupboard, downtown revitalization, community festivals, and the chamber’s milestone of a female-led executive committee and board.

00:00 Meet Tonya Palumbo
02:20 Photography Roots
03:51 What Chambers Do
04:54 Small Business Needs
08:06 Big Growth Impact
08:44 Supplier Hub Program
10:52 Downtown Boom
12:52 Joint Ribbon Cuttings
16:21 Food Cupboard Fundraising
18:48 Women Leading Chamber
21:30 Supplier Program Deep Dive
23:58 Events And Future
26:07 Why Join Chamber
28:37 How To Connect
29:11 Closing Thanks

Creators and Guests

Host

Melissa

Host of What's Up, Wake + social media manager + writer + travel editor

Guest

Tonya Palumbo

Holly Springs Chamber of Commerce

What is What’s Up, Wake?

What’s Up, Wake covers the people, places, restaurants, and events of Wake County, North Carolina. Through conversations with local personalities from business owners to town staff and influencers to volunteers, we’ll take a closer look at what makes Wake County an outstanding place to live. Presented by Cherokee Media Group, the publishers of local lifestyle magazines Cary Magazine, Wake Living, and Main & Broad, What’s Up, Wake covers news and happenings in Raleigh, Cary, Morrisville, Apex, Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina, and Wake Forest.

[00:01:43] Melissa: Today's guest is a passionate advocate for local businesses, community connection, and economic growth. As executive director of the Holly Springs Chamber of Commerce, Tanya Palombo has helped guide the chamber during an exciting period of expansion and innovation for Holly Springs. From supporting entrepreneurs and strengthening partnerships to launching new initiatives like joint ribbon cuttings and leading impactful community efforts such as fundraising for the Holly Springs Food Cupboard, Tanya and the chamber are helping shape what it means to do business and build community in Holly Springs.

Thank you so much for being here today, Tanya.

[00:02:19] Tonya Palumbo: Thanks so much for having me.

[00:02:20] Melissa: And, and one thing I left out of my introduction is that I've known Tanya for a long time, at least a dozen years, because you have been my family photographer since my youngest was a baby. Um, that's really my first question.

You're a talented photographer in Holly Springs, TNT Photography. Are you still doing photography in addition to your work at the chamber?

[00:02:45] Tonya Palumbo: Great question. So actually, I will still work with some of my existing clients. You know, I've got a family similar to yours that I've been photographing since they were pregnant or they got engaged- Yeah

or any of those things. And of course, I never wanna let those milestones go. And I actually have one client that she was my first ever maternity session.

[00:03:04] Melissa: Mm-hmm.

[00:03:05] Tonya Palumbo: And I photographed her in my living room. Those pictures are atrocious, by the way. Um, but I photographed her in my living room, and now she was like, "You need to stay.

You need to keep photographing my family-" Aw. "... until Carrington's a senior." And so she is a freshman now, and so we're getting to that point.

[00:03:20] Melissa: Yes.

[00:03:21] Tonya Palumbo: So yes, I still do it, but I don't take any new clients on. Yeah, your

[00:03:24] Melissa: artwork is all over my house. I have, I have your photography hanging in every corner of my house, and I just, I treasure it so much.

[00:03:31] Tonya Palumbo: Aw. That just warms- I mean, that's why we do it, right? Yeah.

[00:03:34] Melissa: It's

[00:03:34] Tonya Palumbo: to remind you of those precious little moments because now Luca is graduating high school.

[00:03:38] Melissa: I know. I know. Yeah, my oldest is graduating, so I reached out to Tanya a few weeks ago and said, "Hey, can you come do some cap and gown pictures?" I got you.

But I was worried that you were gonna say no because you are so busy with the chamber. Okay- Yes ... so let's get into the chamber. Okay. What is a chamber of commerce, and what does it do for local businesses?

[00:03:57] Tonya Palumbo: So a chamber of commerce really supports the s- the business community and its members. Um, it's a membership organization.

It's a 501[c][6], and I think that that's really important for people to know. I think oftentimes they think that it's a government entity, and in some cases it is, but ours is a 501[c][6]. So we have a great partnership with the town of Holly Springs, but we're our own separate entity.

[00:04:18] Melissa: So what is the difference between a 501[c][3], that's the one I normally hear about- Yep

and a 501[c][6]?

[00:04:24] Tonya Palumbo: Great question. A 501[c][3] has some sort of Um, social expectation. They give back to the community more, um, for social causes. Um, and then a 501[c][6] is membership based. So it's technically- Got it ... tax status nonprofit, but there's, you know, it's just a nonprofit by tax status, but it's operated like a business.

[00:04:45] Melissa: Mm-hmm.

[00:04:46] Tonya Palumbo: Um, but there's also, you have the municipality, the government piece. You have a big business and a small business and everything in between.

[00:04:53] Melissa: Okay. You have been the executive director of the Chamber of Commerce since 2022. Yes. But you've been a member and a volunteer since 2015. I'm, I'm thinking about those years in between, and it seems to me that there's gotta be a lot that has changed as far as what local businesses might need-

[00:05:17] Tonya Palumbo: Mm-hmm

[00:05:17] Melissa: in those years. Mm-hmm. So what kind of changes have you seen?

[00:05:20] Tonya Palumbo: Really, I mean, it's, there's been a lot, and our membership has changed a lot, too. So a lot of times people think of the chamber as just being these large corporations, your banks, your hospitals, your doctor's offices, and that's not the case. In fact, when you look at our membership, 96% of our membership is small business owners.

So, so less than, um, 10 employees.

[00:05:41] Melissa: Mm.

[00:05:41] Tonya Palumbo: So very small. We still have some of those big companies. Um, but what has changed is really what they need, and that has changed based on the time, right? The businesses, what they needed in 2019 is not what they w- needed in 2020 to stay afloat to get access, you know, to your PPP loans, things like that.

So we have always had to kind of keep our finger on the pulse, listen to what our members need, see the pitch coming. Um, and so really right now it's that visibility, right? We have a lot of really large companies coming, um, or have arrived in Holly Springs. Mm-hmm. You have Fujifilm, biotechnologies, you have Amgen, you have- we have a hospital now, which was un- unheard of.

Yeah. You know, who would've thought Holly Springs would have a hospital? And those are very high-paying jobs. The purpose of the chamber is really to make sure those people who are coming to work in our community stay, decide to live, right, or they wanna spend their money in the community and reinvest, and that's really what we're here to do.

We're here to reinvest into the business community to make sure that continues to thrive. So the, as far as, like, the changes, they, they really do vary. Um, you know, especially now some of the rising costs that they're seeing, again, rising health insurance costs. Some of them have had to cut back on insurance benefits.

So the Holly Springs Chamber work with the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce to ensure their small businesses have these opportunities through Carolina HealthWorks to be able to give health insurance and provide health insurance to their employees. So th- there's a lot that we

[00:07:07] Melissa: do. Yeah, that's actually more than I expected you to even say, especially the health insurance part.

That's something that you really don't think about or take, you know, might take for granted. My husband works for a large corporation, so health insurance is, you know, kind of a, a, a given that, that we would have access to that. But a smaller company is, is gotta be really expensive.

[00:07:28] Tonya Palumbo: Very, very

[00:07:28] Melissa: expensive.

And very hard, you know, a lot of, a lot of hoops to jump through.

[00:07:31] Tonya Palumbo: Correct. Mm. And so we have chamber members also that are insurance investor or insurance brokers, I'm sorry, or they have benefits programs, too- Mm ... where if someone can do health, telehealth, you know, and, and then there are other options too that are available, and we just help educate our businesses of what's out there because they don't know.

They're too busy trying to figure out, you know, the shipment didn't arrive or this- Mm ... this employee didn't come, so now I've gotta cover that-

[00:07:55] Melissa: Mm-hmm ...

[00:07:55] Tonya Palumbo: that shift. So there's a, there's a lot of that is just trying to be helping make sure that they're working on their business in a time where many of them are working in their business.

[00:08:06] Melissa: All of our towns surrounding Raleigh and Raleigh itself have experienced tremendous growth in the last several years, and Holly Springs is certainly among the ones that have experienced the biggest amount of growth. From your perspective, how has the, the business community evolved? You just mentioned that we have a lot of really big or several really big companies coming in How do you see that trickle down in the community, the fact that there's, there's big companies?

Does that, does that in a way hurt the smaller companies or does that help each other? H- how does that work?

[00:08:44] Tonya Palumbo: So that's what the chamber is here to do, right? We're, we're here to bridge that gap, build that bridge- Mm-hmm ... from those large companies. So one of the programs that we created was this, um, it's a supplier, uh, work program.

And essentially I get a lot of questions. If I had a dollar for every business that came in and said, "Hey, do you have the contact for the person at Fujifilm," or, "Can you connect me with somebody at UNCF?" I would be sipping mar- margaritas in Costa Rica somewhere. Um, but what we did is we created this program w- in partnership with the town of Holly Springs to help businesses get HUB certified.

And what HUB certification is, it's a historically underutilized business. So this can be small businesses, so less than 200 employees, which is obviously we, we have, um, uh, businesses with less than 10. Um, minority-owned, woman-owned, LGBTQ, special ability, any of those kinds of, um, special, um, underutilized businesses, we help them get certified.

And once they're certified, we can add them on a list as long as they're a chamber member, and we can provide that list with these larger corporations because they've got some pretty hefty, um, incentives to come to Holly Springs, and part of those incentives are reinvesting back into the community, and this helps us do that.

Obviously you've got restaurants and things like that, that benefit from the growth. Mm-hmm. There's catering. A lot of these businesses have team building exercises, um, consultants that come in. Um, we want... Again, that's kind of what the chamber is, is how do we get these people to think about staying in Holly Springs and, and going to one of our restaurants, uh, going to one of our stores, um, continuing to contribute to our tax base, our sales tax base, so we can continue to do the, for the infrastructure improvements that need to happen, 'cause that's one of the things that people don't quite understand is how that entire system works.

Um, you know, we, we have really great greenways. We have incredible communities. Um, we have great parks. Well, that is having to be funded by somebody, right? Mm-hmm. And if it's not, and if the taxpayers don't wanna have higher taxes, that money has to come some, from somewhere. So these large companies bringing those, these good paying jobs help pay into that to make this such a great place to live, work, play, and do business, so.

[00:10:52] Melissa: What type of businesses are you seeing move to Holly Springs now, and what does that say about where the town is headed?

[00:10:58] Tonya Palumbo: There are a lot of new businesses. Um, we have a lot of, um, businesses that are there to try to, you know, obviously kind of leverage our regional growth with their business. Um, again, restaurants.

I moved to Holly Springs in 2009, and, uh, we went through the downtown area with our, uh, real estate agent, and he said, "This is an up-and-coming area." Mm.

[00:11:22] Melissa: And

[00:11:22] Tonya Palumbo: I was like, "I see the landfill in the background, and I see the nuclear plant."

[00:11:28] Melissa: Mm.

[00:11:28] Tonya Palumbo: Where is this happening? Yeah, where's this happening?

[00:11:31] Melissa: Up and coming.

Coming.

[00:11:32] Tonya Palumbo: It's here, right?

[00:11:32] Melissa: It is here now, for sure.

[00:11:34] Tonya Palumbo: So, you know, so we have, like, a, a booming downtown. It's almost like a blank canvas. A lot of the communities in our neighboring communities, they've already kind of used that space. They've built their downtowns. We have this beautiful canvas downtown where we have, you know, The Block on Main, which has, um, a co-working station for small businesses.

Um, we have restaurants now. So if you try to go down Holly ... or down Main Street in Holly Springs on a Friday night, it's popping. You've got people- Oh, yeah, it's

[00:12:01] Melissa: packed for sure ...

[00:12:02] Tonya Palumbo: from Wine 100 to go to Osha- Mm-hmm ... to go to Nightingale, which is a rooftop bar, which is again- I

[00:12:07] Melissa: have not been there yet, but I've heard about that place.

[00:12:10] Tonya Palumbo: Definitely have to check that out. Mm-hmm. There's live music happening. So there's just the ... And now, now there's a new nonprofit called Arts Holly Springs starting to bring- Yes ... the arts to life in downtown Holly Springs, so tonight they're having an art walk. So having these kinds of opportunities to bring people down to the downtown that did not exist when our realtor told us that it was up and coming.

So as far as the businesses, it really, it, it really runs the gamut. We've got a music school downtown that has expanded tremendously. Um, we have ... Our library has ... is temporary clo- temporarily closed for some expansions because we have grown so much. Mm. Um, lots of family activities, lots of family-type businesses, and, and we continue to see more of that.

[00:12:52] Melissa: One of the chamber's newer initiatives is the joint ribbon cuttings program. Can you explain what that is, and how have businesses responded to the program so far?

[00:13:02] Tonya Palumbo: Great question. So you were asking about the businesses coming. Okay. Um, to give you an idea of how much we are growing, last year we did 33 ribbon cuttings, which is a lot.

[00:13:13] Melissa: Mm-hmm.

[00:13:14] Tonya Palumbo: Um, and this year, by the end of June, we will have done 50 ribbon cuttings because of these joint ribbon cuttings. So

[00:13:21] Melissa: essentially one a week.

[00:13:22] Tonya Palumbo: Yes. So these joint- On average. Right. So these joint ribbon cuttings allow us to bring seven to 10 businesses together at one time. So you're bringing in seven to 10 different networks, all of our volunteers to be cognizant.

These, the people that are volunteers, they have businesses to run or full-time jobs. This isn't ... They're our volunteers. Mm-hmm. So what can we do to make sure that we're not doing this once a week? What can we do to bring these businesses together, have a high impact networking program, be able to celebrate these businesses, have them grow their networks exponentially, and then celebrate them in such a great way, and have all these people there to celebrate?

'Cause everybody remembers who was there with a ribbon cutting. Everybody- Yeah, you

[00:13:59] Melissa: have that connection to-

[00:14:00] Tonya Palumbo: You do. Yep. So it helps bring these businesses together, helps alleviate some of those, um, time restraints that so many of our businesses have, and brings everyone together to be more impactful and, and effective, and it has been so well received.

So we are at Devil's Ridge to do those, and the max capacity is 100. And we have now had to kind of adjust our registration a little bit to say, "Okay, well, we just have to have this for chamber members," 'cause typically ribbon cuttings are open to everybody- Oh, yeah ... because this max capacity with all of these different businesses, and everybody sees this as a great opportunity.

Mm-hmm. So it is multifaceted. It is being so well received. We are booked out. Um, we are now booking into October-

[00:14:41] Melissa: Oh, nice ... for all

[00:14:42] Tonya Palumbo: of our ribbon cuttings. So yes.

[00:14:44] Melissa: That's great. I'm very curious about the Holly Springs Food Cupboard and- Yes ... and your involvement, the chamber's involvement. Why is supporting organizations like this important to the chamber's mission?

[00:16:33] Tonya Palumbo: It's a great, great question. We have a lot of homes in Holly Springs. It's easy to go through Holly Springs and see homes that are, you know, very high dollar, high value, and it's also in that same time that you're looking at those houses as you forget we have a lot of people in our community, in our region facing food insecurities.

And so the Holly Springs Food Cupboard has consecutively been serving 30, 40, 50% more families and children than they were the year before. So together as a business community, if we can come together collectively and be able to have a night of fundraising, have a silent auction, a, a live auction, um, a, a really lively auction actually, um, we're able to raise money for such a bigger cause that everyone knows that we have to contribute to.

It's, it's really just a responsibility I think that we have.

[00:17:19] Melissa: Mm-hmm.

[00:17:20] Tonya Palumbo: And when we have this upcoming one, we will have gone over that since I've taken leadership, um, over $100,000 for the food cupboard, and that is just so important. When they come back and they tell us, "Hey, this fed, um, this gave us all of the produce for the entire year."

[00:17:36] Melissa: Oh, that's great.

[00:17:36] Tonya Palumbo: That's incredible, and it just feels really good for the businesses to come together collectively because of course a small business can be a drop-off site for-

[00:17:44] Melissa: Yeah ...

[00:17:44] Tonya Palumbo: for, uh, the food pantry and, and drop things off perish or non-perishable goods and such. But when you can give them money, because oftentimes those shelves go completely dry.

They, there's nothing on those shelves. Um, people do a lot of fundraising and food drives during the holidays, but when children stop going to school, they're losing-

[00:18:03] Melissa: Yeah, the

[00:18:04] Tonya Palumbo: summer

[00:18:04] Melissa: months, yeah.

[00:18:05] Tonya Palumbo: Yes. That's when you start to see those kind of things. So if they have this money, um, on hand, they can go ahead and compensate for that.

But also you have a lot of people who have certain dietary restrictions, so they need to be able to go ahead and purchase those items as well.

[00:18:20] Melissa: Mm-hmm.

[00:18:20] Tonya Palumbo: So being able to give them money is really important to be able to do. So that's really fun. It brings everyone together. Um, and it, it's just a really feel-good kind of thing to do.

[00:18:30] Melissa: And it just makes, makes you realize that Holly Springs is growing, but you guys still want to maintain that small town feel and helping your neighbors. I mean, what's more quintessential small town than that? Yes,

[00:18:44] Tonya Palumbo: exactly.

[00:18:44] Melissa: So good for you guys. I'm glad that you are doing that. Another thing that I find fascinating is that this year marks a historic moment for the chamber with a full female executive committee, and 9 out of 12 board members are women leaders.

W- what does this milestone mean for you guys?

[00:19:04] Tonya Palumbo: It's huge. So when I got to be involved with the chamber, there, there were two women on the board of directors, and if it was very, um, male-dominated, kind of I w- I, I was definitely not gonna throw my hat into any of that. And what I was finding as, as a volunteer, as we talked about, I was an ambassador, so I was talking to members, and what I realized is that board of directors didn't represent our business community and our business leaders.

I was meeting with more women than I was men.

[00:19:31] Melissa: Mm.

[00:19:32] Tonya Palumbo: Um, and to get involved at that, at that, at, in that timeframe- Mm-hmm ... and then to finally see more women say, "I want a seat at the table. I wanna help define the way businesses are, are, have a voice in our community, w- how we operate, what direction we're going," because with the growth right now that we have, this is an informative and very impactful time to be involved.

So to me, and to the chamber, it shows representation in our, in our business community, and that's really important.

[00:20:04] Melissa: And what kind of message do you think this sends to our, our young women, our girls, future leaders of Holly Springs? What, what kind of message do you think this is giving them?

[00:20:14] Tonya Palumbo: That they're welcome, that they have a future in business.

They should, they should, they have a seat at the table. They should fight for that seat at the table if it's not there. Um, but also too that- That, that this is something that I hope becomes normal. It becomes normal to, to see this. It's not a historic moment to have the executive committee be full female.

Um, I, I look forward to more people understanding that and knowing that. Um, and it's not- 'Cause it is

[00:20:39] Melissa: quite rare ... it's very, very rare. Mm-hmm.

[00:20:42] Tonya Palumbo: And they come from different industries, too. So one of the things that we've, I've done with the, um, with the town of Holly Springs is we started this entrepreneurship club, um, at the high school.

And so a lot of these, um, these young women- Mm-hmm ... are coming up to me and so curious about what, what options are available, what is available with the Chamber of Commerce, what, um, you know, kind of the opportunities that are out there.

[00:21:08] Melissa: And probably how to even start a business because that is daunting.

[00:21:11] Tonya Palumbo: Very daunting. Mm-hmm. I mean, for young people and old people. Absolutely. But I will tell you that these young people, they kind of get the, get the bull by the horns- Mm-hmm ... and they're ready to go.

[00:21:19] Melissa: Yeah.

[00:21:20] Tonya Palumbo: Um, so I think it really just sets a message and I, and I hope that someday it's just normal- Mm-hmm ... and it's not something that people are still fighting to get that seat at the table.

[00:21:30] Melissa: You touched on this briefly earlier, but I wanna circle back to the, the chamber supplier program. Mm-hmm. What is the goal of the program, and can you tell us a little bit more about that?

[00:21:41] Tonya Palumbo: Yes. So it's really to help secure that economic viability in our community, right? We're trying to give these small businesses leverage to get in front of these larger, larger companies, secure these contracts, um, and be represented because these are historically underutilized businesses.

So these are women-owned, minority-owned businesses. Um, and so in order to be able to start to provide that leverage is really, it's a responsibility of the chamber really because again, when I say that 96% of our businesses are small businesses, that's who I'm talking about. Um, so while these large companies come in and they can get these tax breaks and these incentives, to be able to provide them a, an open door to these opportunities is important.

So it's really just to help leverage this regional growth that we have. You know, it's this Viridia project that's getting ready to come in.

[00:22:29] Melissa: Mm-hmm.

[00:22:30] Tonya Palumbo: Um, there's a children's hospital going there. Technically, that's an apex, right? However, those people when they come to the children's hospital, they're gonna need a place to stay, they're gonna need restaurants, sometimes they're gonna need therapists that are available, um, yeah, any of those types of e- uh, programs.

So we're looking to continue to expand that as well. So it means a lot as, especially as that growth continues to see, even if it's not directly in Holly Springs. It's really a regional thing.

[00:22:57] Melissa: And, and I was reading about the program and, and maybe I misunderstood, so correct me if I'm wrong, but part of the goal is Helping businesses source things from each other.

Correct. So not going outside of Holly Springs into a different community, but using our neighbors to get the supplies that we need from each other.

[00:23:17] Tonya Palumbo: Right.

[00:23:17] Melissa: Okay.

[00:23:17] Tonya Palumbo: Because when you... So I think the statistics say when every dollar you spend locally, 68 cents of that money stays in your community. Mm-hmm. So if we can continue to do that, continue to recycle money and reinvest into our communities, we'll all be having successful businesses, and that's what we want.

Um, if, if you have businesses that are constantly turning over, you end up in some of those more dilapidated downtowns that, that don't have a lot of people walking the streets on a Friday night- Mm-hmm ... trying to figure out which ice cream store they would like to have their ice cream at. Yeah. Um, so yeah, it's, it's an incredibly helpful program, and we're just so very proud of it, and there's been a couple of other chambers that have followed suit in that as well.

[00:23:58] Melissa: What are you most excited that's coming up in Holly Springs? I know there's so many things that are- Yeah ... you know, in, in the works.

[00:24:04] Tonya Palumbo: Yes, there are so many things. So we continue to, um, yeah, there's so many things actually. Uh, so Spring Fest is an event that we have been, uh, building every year. This- we've had it this year.

Um, we've had hot dog eating contests. We're waiting for the numbers to come back from the Greater Raleigh CBD to see how many people came. Mm. But we've been having... Uh, because the downtown doesn't have a lot of, um, parking, so we're having to have people park over at the North Main Athletic Complex, and we're shuttling people into the downtown.

Um, so continuing to grow that is really exciting. Um, w- knowing when we have these programs, we call them all of the fests, so we have Winter Fest, which is at the North Main Athletic Complex, um, and we have Hot Springs Fest and we have Holly Fest. People are bringing their families to these events, and they are creating memories that they're gonna hold onto forever.

So what can we do to continue to make sure that, that, you know, this year we had a mechanical bull at Spring Fest. These little kids riding the mechanical bull. We had somebody in with a A big snake. I, I, I didn't go anywhere near the snake. You didn't touch the snake.

[00:25:10] Melissa: No.

[00:25:10] Tonya Palumbo: You didn't

[00:25:10] Melissa: hold the snake? Okay.

[00:25:11] Tonya Palumbo: No.

In fact, um, animal control came just to make sure everything was good, and he was walking me to my car. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah. They just make sure that- Yeah ... we get rest and stuff, and I was like, "Yeah, I'm good. I'm, uh- Yeah. "I'm good. I don't need to look over in that direction." Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But with the pictures of the kids and the families with this big snake-

[00:25:28] Melissa: Mm

the,

[00:25:28] Tonya Palumbo: the, the smiles on their faces, I mean, that's pretty darn precious- Yeah ... if you ask me. So really it's just, obviously the growth. This is such a big, it's the campus. This is something that we, to be a part of Holly Springs right now is just such a treasure, something I will ... I understand there's a huge responsibility with that.

Um, it's hard to pick just one thing because there's just so many exciting things. I feel like in my job, no day is exactly like the day before. Every day has a different challenge, but every day has a new win and something else to look forward to. So it's hard to pick just one thing.

[00:26:04] Melissa: I'm, I'm sure it is.

I'm sure it is. For someone listening who owns a business but isn't yet a part of their local chamber-

[00:26:13] Tonya Palumbo: Mm-hmm ...

[00:26:14] Melissa: particularly the Holly Springs Chamber, of course, why should they consider joining?

[00:26:19] Tonya Palumbo: They have a, they have a team helping them, right? They have access to resources, the resources that would not be n- you know, necessarily available or they would have to spend a lot of money on.

So we have this program called the Business Education Series where we bring in, whether it be business lawyers or IT professionals to come in and talk about businesses, making sure that their orders are, or their affairs are in order- Mm-hmm ... should something happen, or making sure that their website is secure.

We're offering these kind of professional development programs, um, and, and business programs for free as a part of membership, whereas if you're not a part of the chamber, you're gonna go out and you're gonna spend upwards of $1,000, $5,000 for these types of resources. Um, so there's that, and again, it's just having people being able to cheerlead for your business.

You- if you want to be successful, you need people to be in the megaphone for you. Social media can only go so far.

[00:27:11] Melissa: Mm-hmm.

[00:27:12] Tonya Palumbo: Um, if you have multiple people that are, um, shouting your business name from the rooftops, that's what the chambers are there for.

[00:27:18] Melissa: Yeah, it really goes back to having the connections, the networking-

[00:27:22] Tonya Palumbo: Yes

[00:27:22] Melissa: being able to share other people's businesses.

[00:27:26] Tonya Palumbo: Right. And advocacy too, right? Yeah. Because they don't have a lot of money to go ahead and, and hire an attorney to advocate for their business. Mm. So we can do that. We can go ahead and say, "Hey, this EDO's a little... This challenges this business from being able to have a sign in front of their business, which gives them visibility.

What can we do? You know, what, how can we leverage the ent- the small business community to have these conversations with our, with our leaders to make sure that we're thinking about businesses as well?"

[00:27:54] Melissa: Yes. It's things that you wouldn't think about until you're in it and you're dealing with it.

[00:27:58] Tonya Palumbo: Exactly.

And you

[00:27:59] Melissa: feel alone.

[00:28:00] Tonya Palumbo: Right. Right. I mean, it was funny, I was meeting with a new member just the other day, and she was... A lot of small business owners are introverts. They are not extroverts, and that's one of the things I think a lot of people would find surprising.

[00:28:12] Melissa: Mm-hmm.

[00:28:12] Tonya Palumbo: With the chamber, you're able to find people that can connect with you that are going through or have gone through the same journey that you are going or have gone through, and to have that- shared experience with people is really important.

But also to have people help you, um, navigate through what's to come, um, and see kind of what's happening on the horizon, so.

[00:28:37] Melissa: So tell everybody how they can get in touch with you and how they can go about joining the chamber.

[00:28:41] Tonya Palumbo: Yeah. So we are- we have a brand new website that we launched in December, so hollyspringschamber.org.

We're on all of the socials. Um, and just kind of see what we're doing, see how we're, we're serving our members, see the smiles and the opportunities. Um, and then I invite people to come out and check us out. Come to a meeting, come to an event, come to a ribbon cutting. Um, get to know people. You'll quickly see why the chamber's, um, our chamber is, is thriving the way that it is.

So

[00:29:11] Melissa: thank you so much for being here today. And just so you know, I think about you every time I see the pictures of my kids- ... so I think about you often.

[00:29:17] Tonya Palumbo: Aw.

[00:29:18] Melissa: Thank you for being here today.

[00:29:19] Tonya Palumbo: Thank you for the time.