FXBG Neighbors Podcast
Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast
FXBG Neighbors Podcast
EP #108 Chamber Secrets For Small Business Growth
Ready to turn conversations into customers and policy into opportunity? We sit down with Wendy Zelazny, Executive Vice President of Membership and Strategic Growth at the Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce, to unpack how modern chambers fuel small business success. Forget the old image of dusty luncheons. This is about purposeful networking, targeted training, and real advocacy that meets owners where they are.
Wendy breaks down the chamber’s mission in plain terms: strengthen the regional economy by helping local businesses thrive. We dig into how curated events, leadership programs, and bipartisan policy work give small firms practical leverage. You’ll hear how the team translates complex bills into action steps, connects members to the right representatives, and spotlights local brands with marketing support that stretches tiny budgets. If you’ve ever wondered how to get traction without a massive ad spend, you’ll find a roadmap here.
We also get personal. Wendy’s path from Manhattan fashion and film to Fredericksburg community leadership shows how creative skills and production grit translate into building a connected business ecosystem. She shares why the chamber’s influencer program guarantees warm introductions, how to show up at events without feeling awkward, and the simple follow-up habits that turn handshakes into trusted referrals. The theme is consistent: community is a growth strategy, and consistency builds trust.
If you’ve thought, “I joined, but nothing happened,” this conversation flips the script. Treat your membership like a gym: results come with use. Aim for two quality conversations, collect others’ cards, and follow up with care. You’ll build credibility, expand your circle, and see doors open you didn’t know existed. Want a nudge to get started? Reach out to Wendy for a warm intro and your first event plan.
If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a local owner who needs momentum, and leave a review to help more neighbors find us.
Wendy Zelazny
Fredericksburg Chamber of Commerce
wendy@fxbgchamber.org
540-429-0218
1701 Fall Hill Ave Ste 106, Fredericksburg, VA, United States, Virginia
This is the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Dori Stewart.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to another episode of the FXBG Neighbors Podcast, where we share the stories of our favorite local brands. I have a special guest joining me today. We have Wendy Zelazny, and she is the Executive Vice President of Membership and Strategic Growth with the Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce. Wendy, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1:Thank you, Dori. I'm really excited to be here. I was thrilled when you invited me.
Speaker 2:Well, I thought, why haven't I had Wendy on the podcast yet? We have lots to talk about. So I think that it might be a really great place to start. If we have listeners who are business owners, most of my audience are business owners. Sure. Let's let's uh act as if they maybe don't have much experience with the chamber. Let's start with sharing what is the chamber all about?
Speaker 1:Okay. Um, well, our mission is to um really the bottom line is to improve the economy in the region, strengthen it. And we do that by strengthening our business community, by helping our businesses be as successful as they possibly can be, by connecting them to each other and to resources that would support them. Um, you know, we talk about building connections, building, you know, improving relationships, and we do that in a number of ways. We have a number of networking opportunities. Really, everything we do has a networking element to it. Some things are pure networking, others have programs. Um, we do, we have professional development, we have leadership training, we also have a legislative side. We are bipartisan, but we advocate for business-friendly legislation. So to us, it's very important that businesses understand legislation that may affect them, what it what it might be, and who they need to contact, who their representatives are at both the state, local, and federal levels. And so we provide opportunities for them to have that connection point and also to hear from their local representatives and understand kind of any bills that are being proposed in the future that might affect them. And as a result of that, we also set a legislative platform every year. Um, we typically have three legislative priorities that we are working towards. Um, we have a number of marketing benefits. You know, my experience has been that most small businesses don't have a marketing budget. And um, the one thing I always tell businesses is, you know, you really you don't want to work in the business, you want to work on the business. And if marketing is not your strength, if accounting is not your strength, that is one place where the chamber can really help you because we can connect you to individual businesses who that's what they do, that's all they do. So let them do that while you work on your business. That's how you grow and that's how you become more successful and sustainable. Um, at the same time, we offer marketing benefits for those small businesses that can't afford that. So there are a lot of different ways that we help people, and that's what I love. I love helping business owners, you know, connecting them to the resources, giving them the ideas, things that they never might have thought of, you know, and yeah, that just kind of lifts, you know, lifts them up. That's my big thing.
Speaker 2:I love that. I can tell that about you. I've watched you at networking events, and you are such a connector, and and you're always pointing out, like, okay, you need to meet you, and I think you would be a great connection. And that that really has been for me as a small business owner, one of the benefits of being part of the chamber is just all of the resources provided and all of the other business owners that you meet and collaborating, and and you can truly help each other. And um it's it's a really cool thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's that's my big thing is collaboration. I love I love collaboration, and I really am like, I really believe a rising tide raises all ships. And um I love creating that community where everybody, you know, kind of works together to help each other. Um, and the programs that I run, that's kind of what it's all about. It's the lead share groups, the influencers, which you're part of, and you're the best. You're such a natural. Every time I mention a new business, you're like, I know them. I'm like, of course you do.
Speaker 2:That's my goal.
Speaker 1:Dori knows everyone. I know. I met and actually I met with someone this morning, and she was like, Well, actually, two years ago, Dori was telling me, and I was like, oh my gosh, of course she was, you know, and I'm ready now. And I thought, oh my golly, you know, it's like it's amazing. And and you're you're that's what you're great about too, is you're such a great connector. That's why you're the perfect person to represent the chamber from a membership point of view, you know, and I love that because you're a connector too. If I don't have someone, I know that you do. That's right. No doubt about it. And if you don't have them, I probably do.
Speaker 2:True, true.
Speaker 1:That's what makes it fun though, is the people. Yeah. You know, every day I meet somebody that I I just I can't believe, you know, the the how incredibly in like imaginative or creative, whatever it is the business models are that people are coming up with anymore. I'm seeing more and more entrepreneurs. I love it. It's so exciting.
Speaker 2:And we truly in the Fredericksburg area have some really brilliant business owners. It's really cool people that I have met in the business community in Fredericksburg.
Speaker 1:It's so true. It's it's really, it's amazing. And we are growing in leaps and bounds. That's what's the most that's it's incredible. I feel I moved here, I don't know when you moved here, but I moved here when my oldest was born probably 27 years ago. And this this region is unrecognizable. And the businesses that have come here and are still, you know, we're just suddenly it's just accelerated. I mean, it's incredible what's happening.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I love that.
Speaker 2:So I would love to switch gears. I want to know about you. Tell me about your background. I want to know your journey and how you came to working at the chamber. I need to know your backstory.
Speaker 1:It's a little crazy. Okay. Well, um, it's probably not the typical backstory. Um, so I I grew up in New York and I went to school in Manhattan. And uh when I graduated, I got a job at Town and Country Magazine as an associate fashion editor. And I worked there for probably about two years. I covered the collections in Paris and New York. Uh, we did a lot of shoots. It was really exciting. Um, and uh, but I'd always wanted to be in the film business and I'd taken some film classes in undergrad, and uh I had the opportunity to work on a film set, so I on a commercial film set. So I uh called in Sick for a week and decided after I did it, I was like, this is for me. I that's what I want to do. And so I got into the film business in Manhattan and uh kind of worked my way up. It's probably the last apprenticeship um industry in the in the country, I think. I mean, I think there are still uh that's not true. Some of the trades are more apprenticeship, but you start as a PA, you're a runner. Um, my first job was shelling shrimp on a red lobster commercial. And I think it's so cool. Oh yeah, I was like, oh, this is like amazing, you know. I'm like, yeah, I've I've realized my dream. My parents would be so proud, right? You know, and I'm thinking, and apparently, unbeknownst to me, the food stylist said the director kept coming in behind me and he couldn't stop laughing because I was so excited, such a weirdo. And he was like, We need her, we need more of her. Keep bringing her back. And I had worked for another director where I the I had my walkie-talkie went off during filming, and normally he screams at everybody. So the whole crew like stopped and was like, Oh, and I guess the look on my face was so unbelievable. Like the AD was like diving like she was gonna land on a grenade, and um and he was like, Oh my god, the Irish kid, she's hilarious! Like, bring her back. Apparently, whatever the expression is that's on my face, it's a real winner. But um, so that's and once I got in, I just kind of worked my way up. And eventually I ended up on a job in DC because it's it's all freelance, and I was producing um I was producing a money laundering video for um the New York Clearinghouse, which is a division of the Federal Reserve. And I met my um my then husband, um, well, we we call him the starter husband. We met him, and um we all have one of those. Yeah, whatever. I'm still going for the same one. Um, but yeah, so um, so anyway, so I met him uh doing research at a banking conference, and I ended up, we got engaged, we did the long distance thing, got engaged, moved down here, and then I did some freelance work while I was here for the NBA and for some other big companies. And then I ended up helping my father-in-law. We moved to Chicago to help my father-in-law open up an acupuncture practice. He had retired as a um pathologist, as the chief of pathology, and wanted to do something different. So I'd helped him with that. We did that for about a year, and then we moved back and we moved here. We had been living in Reston, we moved to Fredericksburg, and I loved it here because it reminded me of where I grew up. I grew up in Larchmont, New York, and it's a small town with sidewalks, much like Fredericksburg, and uh it seemed like a great place to start a family, and so we did. And uh I didn't work for a few years, but then I got back into work. I was substitute teaching and I was coaching tennis, and uh and then I ended up um running uh an arts festival, uh year a year-round arts festival here in Fredericksburg City. And uh just from the connections I made, I was looking for something more full-time, and I didn't even know about the chamber. I knew nothing about it. And it's ironically, I live in the neighborhood and I had never even noticed the building. Says a lot about me, but um I was walk by it every day, never noticed. And um, and my kids went to the high school across the street, still never saw it. And um anyhow, I I interviewed and I got the position, and it ended up it's perfect because I love being around people. That's what I loved about the film business. Um, you're always meeting someone new, the jobs last maybe four to six weeks, maybe a little bit longer, but you're on to the next thing. It's always something new, and that's what this is like. I'm constantly trying to develop new programs, um, meeting new people, bringing members in, learning about their business. And I'm I'm really like a lifelong learner. I love learning new things, doing new things. Um, I get to travel a little bit to some of our conferences and certification classes, which I love. Uh, it gives me a lot of flexibility. I'm not a desk job type of person, yeah, which I'm sure will shock you. But um, yeah, I'm not. I I need a lot of activity, a lot of a lot of stuff going on. So this ended up being perfect because I still have that little bit of the film business with the ribbon cuttings. Um, I kind of have grown those to be a much bigger, more um video heavy uh experience. And um, and that's been really fun. So I, you know, this is really the perfect thing for me. I'm helping people. Um, I always did a lot of uh nonprofit work when I was um when I had the children growing up before I was working full-time again. So this kind of feeds everything, all my different interests are kind of come together here.
Speaker 2:I love it. And I mean, you're clearly very well suited for it. I can tell that you love it. I've seen you in action. So I mean, congratulations on finding that, you know, that that thing that you're most suited for. And what a journey from film in Manhattan to summer experience.
Speaker 1:I know. And it kind of found me because actually, some one of my neighbors said, Hey, I don't know if you know there's a job, you know, and I thought, well, okay, I guess I could go interview for it. That sounds good. But it turned out that all these other people had already called our CEO Susan Spears and said, Oh, Wendy's a lasny, that's perfect. That's who you need to hire.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow. No idea.
Speaker 1:I had no idea. And she didn't tell me till later on, and with that, you know, all these other which was really, yeah, it was really neat. It's kind of fun. I love that. I love that. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Awesome. So tell me, do you find in your experience talking to business owners that there are any myths or misconceptions about the chamber?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of people don't understand, and okay, and I'll I just said this to someone on the phone. If you've seen one chamber, you've seen one chamber. That's a saying that we have in the industry because there are so many different parade and festival chambers that just do those big events and in towns. We don't do that. We're a business chamber, we're also a regional chamber. There are other regional chambers that are also um include their economic development and alliance, um, which we don't. So um that's part of it. The other thing is the chambers have changed um in a in a really like everything else. Chambers have changed over the years so that we are more um, we're more of an advocacy organization. We do more professional development and leadership training, the networking, everybody knows about the networking, but the networking has changed as well. Um as well as the program and the program content. I think it's a lot more um, it's a lot more focused than it was in the past. I think it used to be a lot more of um just we're gonna meet after work for drinks, we're gonna go to this networking function. We do have one program that's like that, but less and less, you know, of that. Um we have found that because we have and this and small business is the backbone of our region. So that makes things a little different too. Um, it's not like we're in Knoxville, Tennessee, where they have all these huge corporations. Um, we really have to focus a lot of our programming on the tools and things that will help small businesses that maybe don't have the big budgets, um, to hire the marketing companies and, you know, learn how to op, you know, have their own proprietary AI, things like that. So we have to be kind of that resource to help them walk through that um and understand how best to utilize those new um tools. So I, you know, and I think that's a lot of it. Plus, as our region has grown, I think it's become more difficult maybe to navigate and to know where to start. Um, and I think in the past, and and you know, I just I just think people in the have that image of the chamber is a bunch of fusty old men kind of sitting around the table, um, that it's a boys' club. I've heard that. I've also had people tell me, like, oh, I got nothing from it, as if it was magic. Right. You know what I mean? That's the thing I that's the one thing that really makes me crazy. Yeah. So when I when I have someone reach out and say they're interested in joining, I make sure that they meet with me. As you know, I meet I meet with them in person because I never want to hear someone tell me that they got nothing from it. I mean, it's you know, and it's an it's a it's a strange analogy, but it's kind of like a gym membership where if you don't use it, you're not nothing's gonna happen. And so I do make sure when I hear people saying, like, well, I don't have a lot of time and this and that, we still have the marketing benefits. You can still tag us in your social media, you can still be visible in lots of other ways, but I want to make sure they understand that. Um, because I understand busy, but yeah, there are so many ways we have, you know, a huge following on our social media. There are so many different things you can do. So and we, you know, it's it's just it's frustrating to me. But that's my biggest um, if I had one thing that really I find disappointing or is a myth, it's that it did nothing for me. Oh, you won't get anything from that. You know, you don't get anything from things that you don't put anything into. You have you have to put up the effort.
Speaker 2:What would be your biggest tip for a business owner who I you know, I talk to a lot of brand new business owners, and a lot of times people are are are kind of intimidated, you know, to come to events and they're intimidated by networking and they join. And I think that a lot of people probably have good intentions when they join.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker 2:And so what advice would you give maybe that business owner that's listening right now that's been kind of like, yeah, I know I need to get to the events, but it's out of my comfort zone.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I I always reach out to me. I wish people would reach out to me more when they have those feelings because I tell them that I'm at everything and find me. Like I'm gonna be at whatever event you're at, I will be there. And if I'm not there for some crazy reason, there's definitely a chamber staff member there or an influencer. And that's the other thing. That's why I started the that was the other reason why I started the influencer program. There's 22 influencers, you're one of them. And uh that's the whole reason for that program is so that no one ever feels like they're walking into a room cold, they don't know anyone. If they want, I am happy to assign an influencer to any member that would like one. And then you all will reach out, meet with them, um, meet them at an event. You know, we'll give a ticket to them and to you, and you can meet them at the event so that they don't feel like they're walking in cold. And I always feel like once somebody comes to one of our events, they're they never have that feeling again because everyone's there. And that's what I tell people. Everyone's there for the same reason you are. They're all there to meet you that they want to meet you. New people, oh my gosh, that's the most exciting thing that ever happened at an event. That seriously, it's like someone I don't know yet, because we have the most kind of um relational members, I think. Um at our events, it's incredible. I never see anyone sitting alone. And if I do, I grab them and I make them move. Yeah, and stay with other people, and or I introduce them to people. And that's what the other reason I like to meet people is so that I know who you need to know. And if they're in the room, I'm gonna grab you and I'm gonna grab them and put you together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree with that. And I think after you come a couple of times, it almost feels like you're at a little reunion every time you go to exactly.
Speaker 1:I know, and people are so excited to see you, right? It's just so funny. It's like, what have you been doing? And and I think that, and that's how you push out in a community because the more you get to know people and they understand who you are, they trust, you know, you develop a relationship that builds trust. And once people trust you, they're gonna recommend you and your business, whatever it is that you do. It's you the the I guess the the other big myth is that people Feel that I, you know, I have a I have lead share groups. It's like B and I. It's a business-to-business referral group. They feel like, well, I came once or twice and I didn't get anything out of it. That's that's you're not building relationships when you do that. It's tr being transactional, which is what that is, never works. And people can feel it. They can tell that you're just there for the, you know, the squeeze, you know.
Speaker 2:I mean, it consistency equals trust. The more, the more someone sees you, the more you show up, the more they trust you, the more they know that you care, and you know, you are you are in it for more than just the transaction, like you might and and that's it.
Speaker 1:And and you're not getting anything, you're not really getting to know anyone, and they're not getting to know you. So how is that ever gonna work? And you know, you're not ever, you don't ever have the chance to really um educate them about your business. So how would they even know how to recommend you and give you a referral? Um, I always tell people, you know, when you go to these networking events at the chamber, you really want to focus on getting other people's business cards. Don't worry about handing out your own card. Get their cards, reach out afterwards, and only get, you know, two have two or three really good, meaningful conversations. Um, don't be the blackjack dealer going around, you know, dealing out the business cards. Yeah, that's really creepy. And um, but but you want to really have develop those relationships and then meet for coffee or wine or whatever it is you like to do and really sit down and have an intentional conversation with that person. Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Find out how you can help them and it'll come back to you.
Speaker 1:That's exactly right. That's exactly how it works. Yeah, people love that and it it shows that you're genuine. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Wendy, if there are listeners who maybe want to join and they've been inspired by this conversation and they want to reach out to you, what's the best way for them to connect with you?
Speaker 1:Um, either email or my really my cell phone is the best way, but um, email is you know Wendy at fxbgchamber.org um or my cell phone, which is 540-429-0218. It's very easy. Yeah. And you can text or call.
Speaker 2:Text or call. I'll put all that in the show notes as well. And Wendy, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today. This has been a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it has. And I'm glad you didn't ask me about my biggest challenge.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker:I'll have to have you on again. Yeah, I know. It's like, uh, but yeah.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Thank you.
Speaker:Thank you for listening to the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to FXBG NeighborsPodcast.com.