F3 Podcast - Faith, Family, and Finance

Kara Byrd | Season 2 Episode 3 | Building Community Wealth: A Conversation with Chamber CEO

• Derek Hines • Season 2 • Episode 3

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In a rapidly evolving Durant, Oklahoma, the heartbeat of community growth and business development pulses through the Chamber of Commerce. Fresh into her role as CEO, Kara Bird brings an infectious energy and strategic vision that's already transforming how the Chamber serves its 448 members just 90 days into her tenure.

Byrd's approach centers on demonstrating tangible value to Chamber members through innovative initiatives like the new "Member Minute" social media highlights, an ambassador program connecting businesses with essential resources, and implementation of a comprehensive Chamber-specific CRM system that streamlines operations. These technological and relationship-focused improvements create a foundation for the Chamber to focus less on administrative tasks and more on meaningful member engagement.

What makes Byrd's leadership particularly compelling is her deeply personal connection to service. Growing up with a father who served as a fire chief and later in economic development, and a stepfather in law enforcement, service isn't just a career choice – it's encoded in her DNA. "You just give back to your community. That's what you do," she explains, viewing her work through the powerful lens of creating "generational wealth" that extends far beyond finances to shape what Durant will look like for generations to come.

Durant faces remarkable growth challenges – having welcomed as many new residents in one recent year (5,000) as it did in the previous four decades combined. Byrd advocates passionately for investments in infrastructure, housing, and quality-of-life amenities that will both attract and retain talent. Her vision includes transforming spaces like Market Square into a vibrant "community living room" with regular activation projects, recognizing that Durant's greatest asset has always been its people.

With the 27th annual Magnolia Festival approaching, the Chamber plans to showcase Durant's rich cultural tapestry by highlighting both Choctaw traditions and Western heritage. As Byrd continues implementing her four-pillar approach – member value, economic development, community development, and advocacy – she's positioning Durant to thrive amid growth while preserving the community spirit that makes it special. Connect with the Chamber through their new website to discover how they're building a community that's truly worth investing in – not just for today, but for generations to come.

Kara Byrd:

and service. You just give back to your community.

Derek Hines:

That's what you do, yeah, and so that's really where it comes from, and I believe that the biggest thing you can do is Welcome to the F3 Podcast, where faith, family and finance come together Real talk, real stories and practical wisdom to help you grow in every area of life. My name is Derek Hines and I am a partner here at Gattis Premier Wealth Advisors, and today I have the pleasure of having Kara Byrd, the CEO of our Durant Chamber of Commerce, with me.

Kara Byrd:

Hi, derek, I'm so glad to be here. I'm happy you could come Me too.

Derek Hines:

So how are things at the chamber? You've been there 90 days 90 days.

Kara Byrd:

As of yesterday it was 90 days, so it's been fast and furious.

Derek Hines:

but absolutely wonderful. Yeah, Do they do, like some employers have 90-day reviews, anything like that at the chamber?

Kara Byrd:

No, but I do send a weekly inform so my executive team gets an end of the week report and then we have a monthly meeting and I do a director's report. So they're all very aware of everything that's going on and all of the things that we're doing, but no evaluations.

Derek Hines:

Yeah Well, good, good, I'm glad to hear your job's not in jeopardy. I don't think so.

Kara Byrd:

Yeah, no, I think they're going to keep you around for a while. I'm very grateful. I'm very honored to be where I'm at today.

Derek Hines:

Yeah, so what are you like, what are you most excited about in this new position?

Kara Byrd:

So with the chamber, you know we work on focusing on serving our members. That's really how chamber is funded. It's what we strive to do is just take care of the members that we have and then retain those and attract new members, and so I'm really excited about bringing some value to our membership base that we have. We've already started some work on that. And then we just hired Chloe Hughes. She's the new director of membership and marketing, so we've got some really exciting marketing initiatives that are coming down the pike with her. She's a phenomenal talent. Young, just kind of starting out in her career. She's going to be a great asset. And then we have Jennifer Brewer, who's been there for 18 years. You want to talk about a rock of the chamber. She's a powerhouse. We're so grateful to have her. And, of course, we're gearing up for Magnolia Festival, so that's going to be in May.

Derek Hines:

Yeah, awesome, awesome. What are? What are some of the? So you talked about attracting and retaining members, so what are some of the areas? So what are the some of the things you want to lean in on? On like retention?

Kara Byrd:

So one of the things that we're actually going to be doing is we're going to be highlighting our members. So doing now, every Monday, there will be a member minute and that's literally a 60 second social media post that's going out where we're coming into the business. We're highlighting what you guys are doing, what you're offering, who you are. So that's one of the things that hasn't been done in the past. We're very excited about doing that. Just to make sure that people are seeing what is available, we're going to be starting an ambassador program. So the ambassador program will be about a 15 member committee, if you will, will be about a 15-member committee, if you will. They are coming in making sure that new members are welcomed, but also stopping in and doing touch points with the members that we already have seeing. Are there resources that you need for your business to be successful? How can we offer those resources to you and be a connector for you? So very excited about that.

Kara Byrd:

We just started a new CRM, so that's a Customer Relations Management Platform. So just started a new CRM, so that's a customer relations management platform. So we have a brand new website. We've done that in the first 90 days. Our members now have an access member portal on the backend so they can log in, post their jobs that they may have available, post their jobs they may have available and also upload any of their events. So it goes automatically onto a calendar, versus it being sent to us and us trying to find the time to upload it. So it's going to make a lot more efficiency, efficiency, efficiencies within the chamber, which will hopefully give us more time to just serve our members Well yeah, that's awesome.

Derek Hines:

What CRM do you guys choose?

Kara Byrd:

We're doing some called chamber mate. Okay, nice.

Derek Hines:

So it's specifically designed for chambers, so a specific chamber CRM Cool.

Kara Byrd:

We're excited about it. It's been a really neat tool for us to be able to gather analytics on and we get to do all of our stuff through it. So all of our newsletters now flow through it all of our communications. It's going to be a phenomenal platform for us to utilize.

Derek Hines:

I love it. Yeah, you've got to have some sort of CRM with any type of business that you have, just for maintaining contacts and information. All the good stuff.

Kara Byrd:

And Jennifer did a fantastic job of keeping up with all of that backend data. But now, instead of her having to put it into a spreadsheet and then add our member to the website and then to the newsletter and then to the invoicing system, it's now all one. So a member joins, they automatically pay through an invoice system, through our online platform. They get added to our newsletter, they get added to the website, get a portal. It's going to be a game changer for us inside of the chamber.

Derek Hines:

Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, and really, you know we use a CRM here at the office, but really all the CRM does is allow us to do our jobs better, right? So it just allows you. It takes all that off your plate, so now you can focus on the people, yep.

Kara Byrd:

So that's one of the biggest initiatives that we've done in the first 90 days. We're really excited about that. And then I think the ambassador program is going to be another just wonderful tool for us to offer our members.

Derek Hines:

Yeah, yeah. So you're actively recruiting ambassadors.

Kara Byrd:

We are.

Derek Hines:

We just actually put that on our website on Friday and we are going to have a social media post that will go out this week Awesome. So what are you looking for in an ambassador?

Kara Byrd:

Well, they obviously have to be friendly and outgoing.

Kara Byrd:

You know they can't be someone who's thinking about I'm too shy to go talk to that person because you're going in to meet with someone that's probably brand new. We want someone who can be a connector. So if they come and they say, you know I'm really needing help with promotions in my business and go, oh okay, well, let me connect you with another one of our chamber members or our resources or our partners that can help you with that, really it's just someone who loves the community, loves people, loves our businesses, wants to help them succeed and grow and get feedback. Continual feedback loops are really important for me.

Derek Hines:

Yeah, how many ambassadors are you looking for?

Kara Byrd:

15 to start with.

Derek Hines:

Cool and we have 400 members of the chamber.

Kara Byrd:

We have 448 members of the chamber currently, as of today. Okay, that's a lot, it is a lot.

Derek Hines:

Yeah, I was telling you know, at the meeting we talked about before the recording started, you know we were talking about just opportunities and I mean I would see your current membership base as a huge opportunity. Yeah, for the chamber.

Kara Byrd:

Yes.

Derek Hines:

To really lean in, reach out to them.

Kara Byrd:

We're very excited. So, you know, we started some focus groups where we've asked just a few of our members to come in and really guide us through some collective quantitative measures of hey, this is exactly what we need to be focusing on. But the back end of that is we're going to be sending out an actual survey to all of our members, just because it's hard to get that many members in a room and go quickly with getting some data. So we kind of pulled some key people that you know maybe have been members of the chamber for a really long time maybe a couple of newer ones to find out why were you interested in joining the chamber? Yeah, but getting all of that data from our members is just going to help us, especially with Chloe and I being so new and us being a staff of three people. Having all of those information and those pieces with the members that we do serve. It helps us to know how to serve them better. So I'm really excited about that.

Derek Hines:

Yeah, of course. So when you think about attracting, what are some of the areas you're leaning into to attract new chamber members?

Kara Byrd:

Just doing that, showing them exactly what the benefits are of being a chamber member. You know, one of the things we do is we refer people. So if we get a call at the chamber, if you're not a chamber member and we don't refer your business we get that several times people will call and they're looking for something specific or a certain person. We're like we're so sorry they're not a member of the chamber. We can't give that information out. And that's actually another thing that we're going to be doing is, every time that someone calls and asks for someone who does roofing or someone who does granite countertops, you know we will give that person's information to them. And so we're going to start emailing those members and say hey, we just want to let you know your member benefits are being referred out to ABC. You know this person called on February 11th two o'clock. We gave them your information just so that people know, because that's a lot of time. If you don't tell your story, nobody knows.

Derek Hines:

Yeah, speaking of no for after the meeting. Actually I hadn't considered calling the chamber. I need an electrician.

Kara Byrd:

I've got one. Okay, call the chamber. We'll take care of you. I'll call the chamber. We've got a few electricians on our membership, so we'll make sure to get those to you.

Derek Hines:

Perfect, I figured you would.

Kara Byrd:

Yeah, we get so many calls. It's really incredible. You know, the chamber not only serves for our members, but we serve the entire community. The amount that that really is intriguing, because you know.

Derek Hines:

I was part of one of those focus groups and one of the individuals in the group you know he mentioned and he's been on the chamber board for forever, for a long time, and he, you know he mentioned that whenever he goes into a city or a town or wherever he's vacationing, like, his first stop is the chamber, which, honestly, that never crossed my mind.

Derek Hines:

It never crossed my mind to go to the chamber for information. So I don't know if there's a generation gap. You know, obviously, google, right, I go to Google, you know, look at, you know ratings on restaurants and different things to do in the community. You know, look at, you know ratings on restaurants and different things to do in the community. But how, you know, looking at that generation gap, where a lot of people come to the chamber, you know, they, they, that that's top of mind to them is to come to the chamber for information, I don't know, you know, I mean, and you work at the chamber, so you, you've had a lot of interaction just locally. So maybe, maybe that does come, that does come to your mind, top of mind, but, like me, it didn't. So how do you position the chamber in such a way that people know that you're the place to go to for information.

Kara Byrd:

Yeah, I definitely think you're right and we even see that with the people coming in, the people calling. There's actually there's one lady I don't even know her name. She called every day asking information about you know something like I need to know where to call for the water bill. Or I mean, Jen is on a first name basis with this lady, like she knows her well. The day that she doesn't call is the day that we're going to be like what is going on and can we do a welfare?

Kara Byrd:

yeah, like we're going to do a check, right, yeah, but we definitely do see an older population that comes in asking for resources constantly, which is why we have our resource center there is to help them and identify. But to your point of, how do we work in and reach that younger audience? A lot of it is pushing that stuff that we're doing on social media. You know I talked to you about we're going to start a podcast, hopefully in the near future as well. You know it used to be you have to tell somebody something seven times before it sticks.

Kara Byrd:

I feel like that is not correct information anymore because we are overwhelmed with the amount of resources that we have coming to us constantly, and so I'm hoping that, as we're doing things like the ambassador program, we're also going to do an influencer program as well that one's getting ready to launch in a couple of weeks.

Derek Hines:

There influencer program as well that one's getting ready to launch in a couple of weeks.

Kara Byrd:

There was something similar to that a couple of years ago right, there was Durant Main Street had one. It was probably close to about eight years ago. Okay, they used to have one and I don't really know what happened. Sometimes, when directors transition, it doesn't always stay and you have different things you have to focus on. But that's one of the things we're looking at, because we need content. We need good content to showcase our community and highlight all the wonderful things that we have, because not only do we serve our members.

Kara Byrd:

You know, I've worked right now in the first 90 days of creating our purpose statement and then creating some pillars, and our first pillar, of course, is member value. Our second is economic development, our third is community development and our fourth is advocacy. Well, for community development, we need to be showcasing our community and while there is here and so that's one of the reasons for the influencer program is making sure, like we had the boat show this weekend, we had the garden show. You know we had all of these things going on. Well, did we make sure that we had someone out creating and capturing content of that and then putting it together and highlighting it in our community and then using SEO to make sure it gets to the people that are already coming to the community. You know we have 6.8 million people that come and visit us every single year here in Durant.

Derek Hines:

Yeah.

Kara Byrd:

We need to capture some of those people and get them into our community fully.

Derek Hines:

Yeah, of course. Yeah, I remember we. I forget where Carol and I were going, but Timothy wasn't with us. We drove by the boat show and we were so thankful he wasn't with us. That boy, he loves boats.

Kara Byrd:

It was a ton of fun. Loves boats. You know this was their first year to do that and they did a phenomenal job. So just be prepared next year you guys are bringing Timothy You're coming to the boat show.

Kara Byrd:

You'll get a kick out of this because you know him. Andy and I took the family on Saturday and he went into one of the RVs and he goes. I've got to get all the money out of my bank account. Mom, I'm spending all of my money on this and I was like you may have to go to the bank and ask for a loan dear, because you're not getting an RV with like $2,000. Yeah, yeah.

Derek Hines:

Yeah, maybe buy the front tire, right? Yeah, that's awesome. Oh man. Well, tell me a little bit about yourself, like how, what brought you to Durant? Did you grow up around here?

Kara Byrd:

So I'm actually from Etoka and Cole area but I came to Southeastern, so I'm a Southeastern alum. Okay, I graduated in 2008, actually went back to Etoka and Cole. I was their T-set and program assistant coordinator, which T-set is the tobacco settlement endowment trust. I ran under a grant for about four and a half years and then was actually recruited back to Durant to run Imagine Durant. So I've been back here in the community for it'll be 10 years this year.

Kara Byrd:

Well, it's good to have you yeah, I'm glad to be here and this is home, yeah, so this is where andy and I are planted and where we're going to raise our family, and I'm glad to be here.

Derek Hines:

It's a great community yeah, well, what was the draw? So what you? Would you go to school for a southeastern?

Kara Byrd:

oh goodness, well, let's. Maybe the better question is what did I graduate? That's a good question. Um, I will tell you.

Kara Byrd:

The draw for Southeastern, though, was I actually wanted to be really close to mom and dad. I didn't want to go far away. I was a big daddy's girl and I was 45 minutes from dad, you know. I mean, I could get to him. He worked in the Southeast region, so there were plenty of times he was here in Durant and I could see him and be with him. So that was the draw is that we were really close to home. I actually commuted the first two years because I was so close to my dad, I didn't want to leave and move away from him.

Kara Byrd:

And then, you know, I went back to Etokah and Cole, just because my degree is in sociology and that job opportunity became available and I'm very big. I had someone ask me this the other day. I was actually a college student at Southeastern. He'd come, and we were just doing a little bit of work, of just conversations. He's, you know, got a couple of years left, and he was asking how did you get into this job? What did you do? And it's like, really, it's all relationships. You know my job, working at the tobacco settlement and now at Dressed. I did not have a background in health. You know my degree was in sociology but the program coordinator was someone who taught me when I was in high school and she knew I just graduated and she was like I know you're great with people, that's what I need. You have a degree, you're great with people, you're easy to teach.

Derek Hines:

Yeah.

Kara Byrd:

Come and then with Imagine Durant and Paige Scott, the really dear friend of both of ours.

Derek Hines:

Oh yeah.

Kara Byrd:

She was the interim director for Imagine Durant and of course we were great friends back then and she said, kara, I'm listening to every time that they're talking about an executive director and all I see is you. I just know that this is where God's calling you. You need to apply. And God bless Greg's heart because they offered me the job. And I think I was like can we have a little bit more time to pray about that? Because I was so fulfilled. I mean, I was happy with T-Set. I was you know where. I felt like I needed to be, and then that came along and I'm forever grateful that I took that opportunity that did present itself. But really, paige Scott is the reason that I came back and then just fell in love with Durant.

Derek Hines:

So yeah, yeah, well, what do you think with Durant? So yeah, yeah, well, what do you think? So for you? You know T-Set, imagine Durant. So even your, even your current job at the chamber, you know it's, it's it's very much community and people focused Like what. What do you think your draw is to that?

Kara Byrd:

So that's a great question, derek. I really feel like it comes from my dad. I know I mentioned him earlier, but he was in the fire service for 30 years, so he was the fire chief he was the youngest fire chief in Oklahoma's history so he lived a life of service. He actually retired from the fire department and then he ended up going to work for the Oklahoma State Department of Commerce and he was the Southeast rep for 20 years. So he served for community and economic development for 20 years. So I grew up in it. I mean, our life was a life of service. And my other dad I'm really grateful I have two fantastic dads, like God loves me enough that he gave me two really great ones. He's been in law enforcement for over 40 years, so I've literally just grown up in service.

Kara Byrd:

You just give back to your community. That's what you do, and so that's really where it comes from. And I believe that the biggest thing you can do is be someone who gives and creates generational wealth, not in the sense of a financial wealth even, but sometimes that generational wealth looks like. What does this community look like for not just my children but my grandchildren? So what is it that I'm doing right now. That's an investment that's going to have a return for generations to come, and that's what really drives me and what I do and what my heart is.

Derek Hines:

Yeah, that's powerful, yeah. So when you think of generational wealth, you mentioned community. You know looking at, you know what does this community look like for our children and our grandchildren. So what's your, what's your vision?

Kara Byrd:

It's not even just my vision, but what I feel like the vision can be for the collective whole. It's a place that is vibrant and thriving, it's safe, you know. I mean we have all of the amenities that we need, we have the housing. You know, that's one of the things that we saw when I was with Imagine Durant is we have all this growth coming from Texas. So now we are considered to be in the Dallas-Fort Worth MSA. So Kathy had told me what does MSA stand for?

Kara Byrd:

So that is the Metropolitan Statistical Area. Okay, msa, sure. But also she told me that we are seeing, from 1980 to 2020, we had 5,000 people move to Durant. From 2023 to 2024, we had 5,000 people move to Durant, wow. So that's why what we're doing right now, whenever we're looking at economic development, community development, advocacy you know, I mentioned earlier that we have four pillars that we stand on One of the things that I do is I go to our Capitol and I meet with our legislators and I say, hey, you need to be looking at rural Oklahoma, specifically Durant, because there's a lot of times they only think about Oklahoma City and Dallas.

Kara Byrd:

They don't see the need in the rural areas much. When I can go up there and I can give them these stats, I, when I can go up there and I can give them these stats, I'm like you need to look at what our traffic, our traffic count at our McDonald's. We have 40,000 cars a day, wow, that go by our McDonald's. Now imagine what's going to happen whenever the investment at the lake happens. I mean, that's just going to continue to go, and so that's why it's so vital that we are working on the things we're working on today.

Kara Byrd:

We can't just be reactive to stuff, we have to be prepared for it, like we need the infrastructure, we need the housing, we need the quality of life.

Kara Byrd:

You know, I don't want it to be this is another thing. Just being a Southeastern alum and the Southeastern students we have here, what is it that we do to keep them here, you know, not just while they're in school but after they're our workforce. Are we training a workforce that's leaving for another community, community because we don't have the housing that they need, or we don't have the infrastructure, or we don't have the things that they want to do, the entertainment. And so I look at it through that lens. Do we have all of the amenities that make it a great place to call home? And you know, we really have so many fantastic things now, and by far I mean I will say it until the day that I die our biggest asset and during our people. We have the most amazing people. I mean you can see it with just what we got through with the trail, you know, with cricket small trail.

Derek Hines:

Yeah.

Kara Byrd:

It took 10 years to get that project off the ground and completed, and how many different stakeholders did. We have come to the table to make that happen.

Derek Hines:

A lot.

Kara Byrd:

I mean it's, it's our community biggest asset we have, and so for me, that quality of life is also just the people, like you know, we're going to farmer's market every Saturday. Well, not only am I speaking to every single one of those farmers, because I know I'm running into my friends, my neighbors, I mean it's just it's a wonderful place to call home, but I think we have a few of those amenities that we need to focus on to make it a place that people want to stay and raise their families here and attract the workforce as well. That we need that maybe we're not educating here.

Derek Hines:

Yeah. So what are some of the amenities? You think that? So we we, we talked about this in the focus group. We talked about um, you know why, why people want to go to places like Denison or McKinney, why they want to. You know it's just a wonderful environment to be in. Right, it's safe, you've got nice restaurants, places to get dessert. I mean, it's just a wonderful environment. So, thinking about Durant, you know we also had conversations around there being like an anchor or some sort of anchor restaurant or business or something that serves as that anchor for that space or that environment. Then, when we think about what types of amenities or what that anchor might be like, what are your thoughts?

Kara Byrd:

Yeah, it's a great question Again if you look at those places that you just talked about. So let's start with McKinney. They actually have something called a community development corporation that they passed. I don't even know how long ago, but they have a percentage of their tax that they put back towards community development, so much like we have the Durant Industrial Authority here that passed a tax that works on attracting economic development. They passed a tax that went to nothing but community development. So you think about their downtown, which is what most people think of when they think of McKinney. It's got those lush greenery with the potted plants that are always full, and you've got shaded structure. You have beautiful outdoor seating and dining. You have programs and events that are constantly going. I mean, every weekend they have something that is keeping somebody there. It's not just like well, come shop, they're going. We have arts and bloom that's coming up. Come and do that. We have a bike ride. We have the Celtic.

Kara Byrd:

I mean every weekend there is something there, but they also have space to do it, and so you know, you kind of start with that. And then you look at what just happened in Denison. I mean, Denison just won a national award for their main street. Did you see that?

Derek Hines:

I did not see that no.

Kara Byrd:

A national award for all of the things that they've done to create placemaking. So if you look at what Denison has done, they've completely redone their streetscape and it now almost feels like a little mini McKinney Like when you go down. It has those lush greeneries, it has the brick streets. Their restaurants are thriving. They're getting new restaurants in their older restaurants that have been there are thriving as well. Your boutiques, your different retail outlets. For us I feel like we have really great businesses here, but we also have the ability to attract some different ones that maybe we have some gaps in services on. Yeah, one of the things that we're missing is that cornerstone, like you talked about.

Derek Hines:

Yeah.

Kara Byrd:

I would love to see and this was actually something that was in that Roger Brooks, which was the destination marketing. You know we had paid him. He's a national tourism consultant, was that?

Derek Hines:

two years ago.

Kara Byrd:

So Helm, he's a national tourism consultant, was that two years ago? So let me think I have to base everything off of children. I was pregnant with Etta, so it was four years ago. I had her a week after he came. Yeah, isn't that horrible. Like I have to be like wait. When I was pregnant with Kate, we did this the same thing.

Derek Hines:

We moved to Durant right before Jesse was born.

Kara Byrd:

See, it's how you like, just go so quick. So it was almost four years ago and one of the suggestions he had was A. He said we should bring our benches that are towards the street actually back and put them up against the building. That also creates more shade. We needed more of our trees. You know we have some trees downtown. The Sustainability Coalition is already working well with Main Street to make sure that we bring trees back. That just creates more shade. Beautification the street. You know they were. He was like you guys need to be doing streetscaping or not streetscaping a street cleaning at least once a week, getting all the trash taken care of. You need to repaint some of your. I think we're doing that now.

Derek Hines:

I sleep in street cleaner we are.

Kara Byrd:

We're like slowly and towards some of the things that he said. But one of the things that he said and I know this can be controversial is taking Market Square and truly making it a plaza, so it's a place that you can have those activation you know you through October. Yeah, how many people does that attract for our downtown community? And I would love to see the data that shows how many of those people go to any of our businesses that are already downtown because they're already there, yeah, or get lunch while they're in town, exactly, or breakfast.

Kara Byrd:

Exactly, and so I think if we can focus on making something like Market Square, our community living room, where we can have activation projects every single weekend, that could be a massive anchor, and that's something that a national award-winning consultant told us we needed to do, and that's something you see in other communities that are being successful.

Derek Hines:

They have that yeah, and we say like so, cornerstone business. What are your thoughts Like, what is a cornerstone business?

Kara Byrd:

That we have currently.

Derek Hines:

No, no, that we would need yeah First, what is it?

Kara Byrd:

It's a great, great question. I think it really depends on our community needs and until we can identify that, I would hate to throw something out. Yeah, I know that's something that Main Street is working really hard to identify along with the DIA. They have an economic vitality committee that actually is serving to identify all of the gaps that we have and want to look at recruiting for the empty spaces that we do have.

Derek Hines:

Okay.

Kara Byrd:

So there's some data that can be ran on that, instead of me just making you know like this is what I think, yeah, I'd much rather just look at that data that we have available to say this is exactly what we need to be our cornerstone. Yeah, I do think we have some incredible cornerstones already.

Derek Hines:

Oh, yeah, yeah. Do you have any idea of what our current gaps are?

Kara Byrd:

I don't. They're just now starting that process.

Derek Hines:

Okay, yeah, that would be great to see.

Kara Byrd:

Well, it just helps you make informed decisions, which is important yeah.

Derek Hines:

So what about your family?

Kara Byrd:

I am married to Andy Byrne. Okay, most people know him. He worked at Salita's from the time he was 15 until about eight years ago, so most people know Andy. Okay, he is a serial entrepreneur. I keep thinking one day he'll quit adding businesses to our spinning plates, but he owns a lot of landscaping business. He has 21 doors in real estate. We just opened an Airbnb. We have snowbirds shaved eyes. Where's the Airbnb? The Airbnb is really close to the hospital. Actually, it's here at Durant. Okay, fantastic, we've already had two guests. I think he told me about that. We just opened it and we've had two guests so far, so I think it's going to do really well for us.

Derek Hines:

Good, there's not a lot of that in Durant.

Kara Byrd:

No, there's not. And I definitely see that there will be a need in the future, especially with the investments that's happening around our lake. Oh, my goodness, we're going to see such an influx of need for people to be able to stay places. Yeah, for people to be able to stay places. So again, andy, serial entrepreneur, he's a great guy You've been married, for it'll be 10 years this year. No, yes, I don't know Something like that. Yeah, he gets a free pass if he forgets, like it's our 10-year anniversary. He'll be like yeah, have we been married 10 years? I don't even know, but yes, we have been married for a little while.

Kara Byrd:

We have a son, crete. He is six, about to be seven. He is the sweetest, most caring little boy. He's just got this precious heart of gold. Smart as a whip, like knew his solar system before starting first grade, was doing multiplication this year and I'm like who are you? His dream is he wants to be an astronaut and also play in a band. So we'll see what happens there. And then Etta is our four-year-old. She just turned four in February and she is our firecracker. She is our pistol. She was not even able to walk yet and she would stand on, creep go, cart go, holding the steering wheel. So that just set the tone for exactly how life has been with Etta. She is completely fearless. She will jump off of anything, have bruises all over her and just like keep going, she's, she's going to rule the world someday. I just have to get her there for this stuff.

Derek Hines:

When it was just yeah, they, they say, they say, sometimes I love the quote, the. And then some of my children may or may not fall in this category. So the attributes that make a really bad children make a really good adults.

Kara Byrd:

Yes, that's, that's going to be my girl. I'm telling you, I'm just waiting to see what all she will accomplish. I'm I am for certain that my ceiling will be that girl's floor. Yeah, she's amazing, that's awesome.

Derek Hines:

So I know you mentioned Andy's a serial entrepreneur. Obviously, you're pretty busy too. Do you have any hobbies, hobbies? What are those Things you do in your free time?

Kara Byrd:

I don't have free time right now, derek. I really don't. Most of my time, I mean, I'm at the chamber working constantly and then as soon as we get off, I'm on mom duty. You know, my hobby right now is getting Etta to dance and having Crete's piano lessons taken care of and the laundry done. I would say, back in the day I used to do photography. Really love that side. I used to do art. I used to actually paint. Haven't done either of those things in a really, really long time, yeah, but maybe someday. It's just not this season we're in right now it's the season of littles and someday that will change and my babies won't want me all of the time, but right now I'm trying to soak up and be patient with the mom look at this. Mom, look at this. So my hobby right now is mom, look at this.

Derek Hines:

Yeah, yeah, I have to keep reminding myself. Someday I will be depressed by a quiet house and by not stepping over children's toys or stepping on children's toys.

Kara Byrd:

Yes, it's the perspective, right, because when we're in it it's sometimes like, oh my gosh. Then I stop and I think Christ, it's about at least seven, like we're almost in double digits. Yeah, I'm going to blink and he's going to be driving a car and not wanting to hang out with me.

Derek Hines:

Yeah, Our daughter turned 10 this year.

Kara Byrd:

Yeah moment for me. I did not have this something, andy. You know, whenever Crete was born, he was like he's here and I was like, oh, really, for real he's here. He was like she needs her medicine, turned down, just a little bit like kind of thing, and he's all very emotional about it. I'm like sweet a kid, awesome, let's go Like.

Kara Byrd:

I didn't have that emotional mom moment. You know, the first day of school, you know, miss Tamara, oh, mommy, are you okay? I'm like, yeah, he's great, like it's great. Get him, have fun, he's all yours. Yeah, Where's the coffee? Let me see that the only time I have had that mommy moment is actually when we moved him from a toddler bed to a full size bed. I don't know why that was my moment, but even with edit like edit starts school this next year and I have a feeling those moments are what are hitting me right now, and so I am most aware of how quick and how fleeting the season is that we're in. Yeah, even when there are days where I'm like, oh, I just need five seconds.

Derek Hines:

Yeah Well, you don't like until you have kids, like you have nothing to benchmark your life against, you don't really have another human being that's small and growing and it's yeah. So I feel like that. That's why you have a, just a.

Kara Byrd:

Just, this shift in perspective of time is like now you're watching a little person grow up and you realize, like how, how fast it happens it does, and I think that's also one of the reasons I'm so passionate about creating a community, because I want the legacy that I leave to be the legacy for my kids to have a great place to call home.

Derek Hines:

Yeah.

Kara Byrd:

And other kids. It's not just about my kids, it's about our entire community as a whole.

Derek Hines:

Yeah, yeah, that's exciting. Is there anything else that you'd like to talk about? That's going on in the chamber, going on in your personal life. Let me think, derek, anything exciting on Carebirds Horizon.

Kara Byrd:

Man, just everything that's happening at the chambers is so exciting. I'm you know the Magnolia Festival. I know I kind of mentioned that, but it's going to be our 27th year, yeah, so great foundation that was laid for me to be able to come in and step into that. That's something our community just looks forward to. I actually said this to one of our top sponsors. I said I remember being in college and coming to it and getting to have memories with my friends at Magnolia Festival, and then it's now become a tradition for our family. We always go to the Magnolia Festival and now to be on the other side of it and to see the work that goes into it, it's just something that I'm so grateful that we have sponsors that help us make that happen every single year, because it does make such a difference for our community to have something like that.

Derek Hines:

Yeah.

Kara Byrd:

So we're really excited about that. This year we're focusing, our shift is a little bit different. We're actually working on bringing in some of the Choctaw culture. So we've done a little bit of that already, like they've already been doing some of the demonstrations at the cultural center, but we're actually going to have a demo booth at Magnolia Festival where people are going to be able to see them do basket weaving. We've got a girl that's doing mosaic art and we're looking at another gentleman who will potentially be doing his silversmithing to show how he makes the actual jewelry. We've got Lion Frost brand coming in with all of their stuff. We're going to show the movie Eight Seconds, because that same weekend is the rodeo. So we're not only looking at our Choctaw culture but also our Western heritage. Yeah, and we're really excited about bringing those two together for the Magnolia Festival this year and just showcasing and highlighting some of those. Huh.

Derek Hines:

That's exactly here in Durant. Yeah, so tell me, maybe, maybe you know, maybe you don't know what to do with the magnolia tree.

Kara Byrd:

So the magnolia trees were actually started. There was a professor at Southeastern who brought them over and figured out how to make them grow, and he that's why it's called the campus of a thousand magnolias. There used to be thousands of magnolias at Southeastern's campus, and then if you actually next time you come to the chamber, derek, you'll have to look. We have the resolutions from where the state actually named Durant the Magnolia capital of Oklahoma. Okay, that's what we are. And so we actually have those resolutions from our legislators. Who passed that? I can't even tell you when it was. I feel like it was in the 90s, but we have that on our wall, and so that's how it started. It was from a professor at Southeastern who did agriculture and knew how to make the magnolias grow here.

Derek Hines:

As a business owner in the Durant community, having interacted with you through Imagine Durant and even when you were at First United, I'm really excited for the community to have you as the CEO of the chamber. Yeah, so I wish you the best and if there's anything that I can do, let me know.

Kara Byrd:

Well, thank you, derek, I really appreciate you having me on today and I'm very excited about the future of our community and, again, just so grateful to have been selected to lead the Chamber of Commerce. You know, miss Janet was there for 19 years and left a solid foundation for me to come upon, and so grateful for that as we continue to move forward and work to make this community the best community it can be. It's truly a great day to be in Durant.

Derek Hines:

Yep, I agree. Well, thank you, kara. Thank you. Thank you. My name is Derek Hines. We appreciate you, Kara. Thank you. Thank you. My name is Derek Hines. We appreciate you tuning in. If you like this podcast, please don't forget to like and subscribe.

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