New Member Onboarding and Dining with Anthony Bourdain

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Welcome to Association Chat Podcast.

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I'm Kiki L'Italien your host.

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This is the podcast for the Association
community and each episode is a

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little bit different, especially
lately as I'm trying new things.

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Before we get started, I want to
give a shout out to our visionary

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Voyager sponsor, Big Red M,
your association growth partner.

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Big Red M offers consulting, sales,
research, and publishing services

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for associations that want to grow.

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If you would like to learn more
about Big Red M, go to bigredm.

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com or reach out to me and I can
connect you with the right people.

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Big Red M, Then stands for membership,
growing money to support your mission.

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Okay.

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So on with the show,
what a week, what a week.

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I mean, I'm telling you
this week was fantastic.

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This week I recorded something promoting
the association chat road trip to

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Cleveland, attending ASAE annual.

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This is going to be amazing for
association chat, but this road trip,

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I'm, I'm just really kind of geeking
out about it and getting really

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getting really excited about it.

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I also had a fabulous chat on
Thursday, during the weekly

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association chat recap chat.

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Those happen on Thursdays at 3 p.

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m.

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Eastern time.

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And, and if you haven't been a part of it,
you should probably check it out sometime.

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They're not streamed, they're
not recorded, but each week

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is a different, kickoff topic.

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And it's just a group of people
that get together that want to

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talk about associations and stuff.

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You can email me if you want to find out
more information like the link and stuff.

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I do post the link directly
in the, in the Facebook group,

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the private Facebook group.

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And we were talking about
some good stuff this week.

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We were talking about, associations,
where associations are missing the plot.

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somewhat why that's happening,, and ways
that things can be helped along the way.

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Now here I am today.

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And I've got some notes and I've got
some questions that I'm going to answer.

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So, first let's tackle the work
related question that I got this week.

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This is from Alex in Chicago, Illinois.

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Alex asks, what are some innovative
ways to onboard new members?

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There's there's really several
key points in a member's

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journey with your association.

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And so some of the ways you can do this
is by sending a personalized welcome

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package, which might be something with
like branded merchandise, a welcome

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letter, some resources to get started.

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You can do like a smaller version of
that, even if it's a welcome letter or

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a welcome letter along with an email.

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I do think that people like to receive
something tangible, something that they

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can hold, something that they can look at.

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So even if it's a, uh postcard that has
a signature on it or some sort of contact

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that actually leads into the next idea,
which is like mentorship programs, pairing

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new members with an experienced member
who can guide them, , and answer their

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questions during the first few months.

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Can you imagine if you had somebody who
was like, Hey, yeah, Welcome to, the

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American Marketing Association and I
am going to be your, I'm a volunteer

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and I'm going to tell you how to
make the most out of your membership.

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Here's what I did.

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Here's who you need to know.

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Oh, you like this?

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This is how you get involved here.

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This is where you can volunteer
and, and really meet the who's

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who within the, the organization.

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And I mean, I'm telling you that
would, that would go so far for folks.

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Thanks.

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And.

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Really, if,, your volunteer leaders
could take that on as a project, that

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would be a great way to not just onboard
a new member, but also potentially

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onboard some new volunteer leaders too.

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Then you've got your interactive
onboarding webinars, right?

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You can, Host a webinar where people can
learn about the association its benefits

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how to get involved I think a lot of us
talk about some of these things, but we

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don't always do it So I think every month
you could have some kind of interactive

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Onboarding webinar and it could be for
people who are new to the organization,

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but always open to,, people who just
want to get a refresher about how to

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make the most out of their membership.

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Another great way to on board Your
new members is if you have any kind of

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special online community Tag them or
bring attention to them welcome them

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officially In front of that community
so that people have a chance to get to

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know each other One of the most powerful
things you can do as an association Is to

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connect people member to member, right?

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Like is to connect people with other great
people who they are interested in meeting.

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So that would be a wonderful way
to onboard a member and to help

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them to feel like they're already
getting value from that membership.

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Now let's move on to the fun question.

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This one comes from Jamie.

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Jamie in Texas.

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I'm not sure where in Texas.

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Texas is a big state, Jamie.

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Okay, so Jamie asks, if you could
have dinner with any historical

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figure, who would it be and why?

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I think that from this question,
historical figure, somebody

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would think like Eleanor
Roosevelt or something like that.

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But I'm going to choose a dead celebrity
and I'm going to choose Anthony Bourdain.

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And the reason why is because, the
man was all about good music, good

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food, good writing, good film.

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Travel, experiencing different
cultures, he was super funny,

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obviously had some, some challenges.

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The man had his demons, but I
would love to have dinner with him.

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Wouldn't you?

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I mean, just, wouldn't
that be absolutely amazing?

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So that's my answer to that.

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So thank you for sending that question.

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I hope I didn't sidestep it by
answering with a dead celebrity.

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I mean, he is an historical figure.

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It's just that, you know, it's
not that far in our history.

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He was very recent.

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Before we wrap up, make sure to check
out our longer episode next week.

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If you enjoyed this, please leave us
a review and don't forget to sign up

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for the association chat newsletter.

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This is where I share my top five
association podcast listens every week.

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next week I'm going to be back with two
episodes and one of those episodes will

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be an interview with Jeff De Cagna on
the role of association boards today.

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Thanks for tuning in.

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Remember to stay curious and keep
asking questions to learn every day.

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As Joseph Campbell once said, the cave you
fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.