Communities Grow Together on Elevate Springfield featuring Jeff Dillman

Summary

In this episode, Robert Ferriell and Jeff Dillman discuss various community engagement initiatives, focusing on nonprofit work, local partnerships, and upcoming events. They highlight the importance of volunteer efforts, culinary ventures, and educational programs aimed at youth. The conversation emphasizes the significance of collaboration among local businesses and organizations to foster community growth and support.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Elevate Springfield, where we will dive into strategies and stories that help you rise to your full potential. Each episode, we'll talk about how you can take intentional steps to elevate your life and your business while making a meaningful impact on those around you. Along the way, we're gonna bring in the change makers from our community that are already elevating. We'll bring the actionable strategies, you bring the discipline and follow through, and together we can elevate Springfield. Alright, let's go, Springfield. Time to 10X your day, y'all. Time to level up, time to crush it. Hey, you are listening to the Elevate Springfield podcast. Robert Farrell here, certified 10x coach, speaker, and mentor. Here to bring you actionable strategies. You bring the discipline and follow through it together. We're going to Elevate Springfield. Well, you are listening to another segment of Communities Grow Together on the Elevate Springfield podcast. As you know, we drop these segments each week. The Communities Grow Together segment will touch on all things nonprofit associations and how we as a community are working together so we can all grow together. This segment is brought to you by David Hilst, American Family Insurance Agency over on West Wabash. Whatever you need insurance-wise, whether that's business, life, home, auto, or anything in between, hey, David and his team can take care of you. Give them a shout, or hey, stop by and visit them over on West Wabash. These segments are quick hits of actionable strategies and what's going on in our area to help you level up and grow together. Be right back after the break. Looking for personalized insurance with hometown care, David Hilst, American Family Insurance Agent is here to help you protect what matters most: your family, your home, and your dreams. Whether it's auto, home, life, business, David and his team are proud to serve the Springfield community with trusted advice and reliable coverage. Local service, real relationships, peace of mind. Call today or stop by their office. They can build your dream protection plan together. Call 217-726-6343. And we are back for another edition of Communities Grow Together, brought to you by David Hilst, American Family Insurance Agency. Hey, anything you need insurance-wise, David and his team will take care of you. Give them a shout. Or just stop by their office over on West Wabash. Well, hey, contributor to the show, my friend from MACO from Landolin Professional Development Group, from about 12 other things. Mr. Jim Dillman. Big boys, big boy, backyard barbecue. Yes. Anything and everything. Mr. Local here. What's up, man?

SPEAKER_01 3:10

I've been sitting here for a week waiting to come back on the show. So I'm glad you finally showed up.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Right. I know, right? Well, I was out of town in Florida for a little bit, as you know. So I'm glad you kept the seat warm, though. Yeah, I did. Waiting for it.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

I keep uh doing what you're doing. I'm like getting all bouncy in the seat.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

Yeah, these these these newer chairs, for anybody that's listened to the show or watched the show for a while, they're these are not the original to the studio. So we didn't have didn't have this problem of bouncing around and swiveling, but now we do. But they're they're awful comfortable.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

They can't see this, but I get a dirty look every once in a while when I'm swinging. So I'm trying to sit still now. Trying.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

If it makes you feel any better, you're not the only one that gets that dirty look. Every now and again I got to give them the uh you know, simmer down though. I think you're gonna have to take the swivel off the swivel here. That's right. Just I could just put little brakes on each side, so I'll give you like two inches of swivel. Just enough to where it feels like you're moving, but not enough to.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

It's funny though, when you sit, you don't realize you're moving until you get the evil eye.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Right. Right? Well, gotta make sure my uh my clips look good, right? And I want to make sure my guests look phenomenal. And if you're robotic and if you're going back and forth, you know, guests might not look phenomenal. That's true. So that's true. Well, Jeff, what have you been up to lately, man? I know you're in the community doing a little bit of everything.

SPEAKER_01 4:23

So what's been going on lately? Working on a lot of nonprofit stuff. You know, the FBI Springfield Citizens Academy Alumni Association is a nonprofit board, not affiliated with the FBI. So we're uh engaged in the community there, been helping Compass for Kids, feeding the kiddos there the last couple months. We got our next one coming up sometime in May. So what's kind of cool, the FBI field office will send a few agents over and then plus our board, and and we're really getting engaged. So we're gearing up for a pretty heavy calendar there with back to school bash, Juneteenth. There's a lot of events that excuse me, we'll get involved with. Uh Family Service Center, there's always something going there. Shout out to Sang Matri Service. Yeah, I want to talk a little bit about that. Oh man, 10 over$10,000 in uh free work. He picked our charity, or we picked our nonprofit this year to help benefit that. So we're gearing up for a busy season there with Trivia Night. We got uh Bags and Brews coming up there. Uh boy, you name it. There's just, you know, local first and land a link in. We just there's just so much going on in the community. And you know, I wouldn't have it any other way.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

So yeah, with Family Service Center, you guys know, friend of the show, Mr. Chad Fowler from Sangamon Tree Service. Probably saw him if you follow any of the socials for any of us out there. You might have seen seen him doing all that work. It's just phenomenal.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

It's crazy, you know, just to to plant your whole team there all day and just and just the work they do, the fine-tuning. Uh I I kind of joke, but it's actual truth. No stick left behind. And uh it's just phenomenal the the cleanup and his work ethic and his staff. And I think the relationship he has with his staff, it's you could tell it's very rewarding and it's uh it's probably like a family feel, but quite honored, you know, for that because you know, times are tough and we don't really have the funds, and that is a safety issue for kiddos. We were having children climb the trees to get into the playground, which is unattended and that's not good. Um and we just had some old trees uh that needed to come down and to uh pract to basically protect our investment from Acosta roofing. Right, right, exactly. Get a little over a hundred thousand dollars in a new roof with Acosta a year or two ago. And so Chad, when Chad looked at it, he said, as he says, it was a no-brainer. So, Chad, we love you. We appreciate what you do.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

So that's what I love. The partners on this show are just phenomenal. You get Sangman Tree Service, Acosta Angeli Roofing, David Hills, American Family Insurance Agency. They do so much. I mean, they of course they have great businesses. We know they have great businesses, but they do. They do so much for the community as well. That's what I love working with.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

They are, all three of them, quite frankly. I mean, I'm always following David, too. It's like that guy's everywhere, winning awards left and right. Oh, I know. I mean, this is a guy from Lazy Boy, the insurance, and he's killing it out there. They're crushing it. Isn't that cool?

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Yeah, no doubt about it. Now, Chad, I mean, you talk about the family feel of his company. We've had one of his employees in, Jack Richards, Mr. Richards, as they call him. So he's he's taking on a leadership role with the company and saw Chad presented him with his five-year watch not so long ago. So with Sangaman watch coming up, just like I got my Sangman watch on right now. I traded in the old uh Galaxy watch for the for the Sangaman watch.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

It's almost like Flavor Flav.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

You can see it from a mile away, man. Right. Yeah. It's got some colors in it. It's got uh I mean it's it's pretty shiny. It's the Route 66 100-year anniversary one, is the one I bought. So it's kind of cool. All the colors that you can see around it, it's got all the states that I see that now that you say that when you turn that.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

That's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

That's what it is. And then, of course, everything they do, they've got engraving on the backside here, and they're just really well-made watches.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Looks like it's good quality.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

Very good.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

And then I follow him on social media too, and the repairs he does and all that. That's pretty neat.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

Yeah, absolutely. And he's been on the show too. So they we happen to be building mates here. That's right. That's right. Awesome stuff, awesome stuff. Yeah, no. Chad, the the work that they can do on those trees in those tight spaces just for me. It's just awesome. Because I mean, those were some tight spaces at family.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

Yeah, and it's funny, we had a tree which would have been on the north side of the building in a fenced area. And when I pulled up, he said, Hey, we're gonna probably have to take cut these down smaller and carry them through the building. Well, that didn't I didn't comprehend that. I thought, yeah, he's he's full of crap. You know, what's he talking about? Well, and then when Karen came out, he was telling Karen the same thing, I'm gonna cut these down a little smaller and we might have to take him through the building. Well, I realized he was actually telling the truth is because the tight confinement that they were in, there was no other way to really um to get him out of that fence area.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

Right.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

But I think we found a way to unlock the fence. But there you go. That's that's the tight areas that they work in, and that arborist um lift he has goes 72 feet. I mean, first of all, he was using the example, showed Will what 36 feet was, and we're like, no, I can't imagine 72. Uh-huh. Because he asked, Do you want to go up in it? And we're like, no, no, I'm not going up in that. Absolutely not. But but once again, there's a guy that we we talked a little bit about, you know, his plan, what he wants to do, and you know, we won't embellish that today. Let him share that. But he's a smart dude. He's got he's got his plan mapped out for the next five years. And uh that's a guy with along with his teammates, his company, he and his wife and child, it's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Yeah, you can tell. I love it. Love it. So uh I know you had you've had the chicken fries and the fish fries, yeah. How did some of those ones lately turn out for you?

SPEAKER_01 9:43

We're a fish fry TRN LA Club that I'm involved in, you know, great group of people. We've talked about that on the show, and you know, we appreciate that plug. But we ended uh with probably our best season, I think. Just we just got seasoned. Speaking of seasoned, seasoned, we got seasoned good cooks and just good staff and help in that in that club, which is all volunteer. Uh so that turned out really well. Now we've switched gears, and tomorrow night we're we're gonna try something on the patio uh for TRN Hump Day.

SPEAKER_00 10:11

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 10:12

And uh Larry, Gary, and myself are bringing our pizza ovens out, and we're just gonna experiment with some wood-fired pizzas. I remember you talking about that. Yeah, yeah. And so uh we're gonna see how that goes, and if that goes good, we might entertain that idea. Uh in that oven that does like 60-second pizzas. Yeah. 800, 900 degrees in 60 seconds. And uh I did all the Italian sausage last night, so I've got all my prep stuff done. My wife's making the dough. She makes really good pizza dough, garlic parmesan, and she uses still Heineken beer, and it's it's phenomenal. So you're really gonna get between the three of us, really good. Three different cooks, three different techniques, three different ways. And uh, I don't want to say we're gonna be competitive, but we probably will. So we're either gonna have good pizza turnout or we're gonna burn the pizza. So we haven't figured that out yet. So we're excited for that. And of course, Sam with the Am Vets and Family Service Center to post 10302. We've got our next chicken dinner coming up May 8th. Uh, that's a hundred mils and until we run out. And I'm pretty sure we're gonna run out. So, and then we've we've long ranged that. So now we're going into June. And uh with Sean, the commander, which has been on the show, we're going to do a horseshoe bar. So that'll be cool. And probably July go back into either chicken or we may may do a pasta night. So yeah, there's something always happening today with uh the Chatham Chamber of Commerce. We we planned out with the ambassadors. We're doing a compass for kids dinner on April 30th at Third Presbyterian Church. So yours truly will lead with I'm thinking maybe doing some smoked chicken, smoked mac and cheese, the feed those kittles. There's 35 kittles there that may not have a meal. So so yeah, you know, really when you look at the schedules, kind of like you and I were talking about at lunch one day. It's like, I don't know how we do it, right? We just do it. But we have to remember we have wives. In your case, you have children, and I have a dog. So so we gotta we gotta you know, we have to remind remind ourselves of that because my wife always tells me, you always tell me no, everybody yes. Everybody else is. And you know, when she said that and uh it really it really hit home. She's she's right. But uh just love, the community engagement.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

It's crazy how that works out sometimes, isn't it? It's it's easiest to say no to the people that are closest to you. It's crazy how that works out.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Well, I think it's like a carpenter. You can build everybody a house, but you can't build your own, right? Other things we're doing in the community is we're we're part of the the Springfield uh Springfield uh police department uh mock uh assessments. Oh yeah. And uh so we've been engaged with that, and now we've got uh fire fire coming up. I got the email for that. Fire's coming up for that. I want to talk to you about that. That's an opportunity that we're looking for a few more mock mock assessors to help uh the city out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

I was looking at the dates on those. I should be able to help on those.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

So I'll uh I'll introduce you to Joseph, who uh who uh coordinates that with the mayor. Uh Karen Cox is going to come in and help. It's a fun time because you're seeing these first responders that really are gonna be they're the future. And uh on the fire side, a lot of these kids are they're sharp. I mean, they're military personnel or have some volunteer firefighting involved with it. So we love doing that. We love helping CACC out as well. Got a cool event here coming up real soon. Oh, about twenty minutes there. So that's kind of cool, the honor that to uh to be able to do that and just to see where youth are gonna head you know through the educational program academics that you guys do at CACC to to get them ready for college. So that's it.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

And with that, Jeff's helping out with that along with three other local first Springfield board members. What we're doing there, we're selecting the CACC school-wide student of the year. So out of almost thirteen hundred students, you guys are gonna have the final call on who gets to take home the crown. So a lot of weight on those shoulders today, brother. No pressure. No pressure. Appreciate you helping out with that.

SPEAKER_01 13:51

Well, I looking forward to with our fellow uh local first uh board members as well.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

But you mentioned Compass a minute ago. Uh last week, LLP and G you're able to give them some money, right? Pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

So we allocated uh$1,000 to Compass for Kids. We did that a couple months ago, but with travel and you've been filling in for me. I've I've had a lot of stuff going on. We were actually able to present the check to Brandy and Compass for Kids. And uh so that that's exciting. So that's a thousand dollars. Uh that's gonna go to good use. You know, there's always something at Compass that they could use money for. They've got this big match program going on now, which they expect to raise thousands of dollars, so that's kind of cool. And it's good just for Landa Lincoln, the whole concept of that was you know, give back to the community. I mean, you can't give everything, obviously, because we do have expenses, but give back to the community. So maybe the next swing of giving aways, we might take some of the uh local businesses that we have in the group, buy some gift cards, and maybe just randomly give those out into our group, and we'll make something fun out of it. Just show so we can show that hey, we support you as well as you support us, and we we're trying to get people to stay engaged and buy within uh within the locally owned businesses. And we got local first. Yeah, local first.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

We got some cool stuff coming up. We we just uh finalized a couple of things. We're partnering up with West Side uh Market in June and July. We're gonna do a dunk tank as part of our booth. It's gonna be super fun. Jack's gonna be in. We get Jack in there, Jack Geiser from Clean Cut, and we'll see if we can get a couple other folks in there. So somebody that you want to come out and see hit the dunk tank, you know, get all sop and wet. But uh that's gonna be fun. That's gonna be a good opportunity for local first members to be able to one support other local businesses there, but then come out and have a little fun too.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

I'm excited. They've done a really good job with that. And I know Landa Lincoln, we're we're doing something a little small with them as well. But I think that's great. There's there's just a lot of fun things happening with Local First. Uh enjoy being on that board. We got our big membership meeting coming up, so we're gonna be pushing that for. I think we really want to look at more restaurants. We really don't have enough restaurants in our group, so we know there's a lot of good locally owned restaurant owners out there that should partake that we could frequently visit and have meetings at as well. And then we've got what? We got a big thing coming too, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:08

Oh, yeah, we got a big event coming in the fall. We're gonna be announcing here real, really.

SPEAKER_01 16:11

That's exciting. I'm glad I didn't say that out loud.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

It hasn't quite been announced yet. So we're gonna maybe save that for one more week about that. But what's really cool is we've talked for a long time now about how communities grow together, right? Right, how all these associations should be working together. Right. And Landa Lincoln and Local First, of course, we're working together phenomenally well. But now we've got we've had events with Silsa, we've got another one coming up, we've got the networking on the green, where it just feels like everything is starting to coalesce.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

I think so. I think I think recognition, like when Kate reached out with Memorials, who said, you know, would Landa Lincoln be you know involved and would Local First be involved? Of course, Shadow Chamber. Absolutely. We know with Kate and Memorial Health Championship, and Emily's doing a bang up job, and Emily Canham and I love her to death. That that tournament is very important to the community, the economic impact that thing really puts into Springfield. And it's a shame that there's still businesses that don't recognize that. You know, I don't know why. I I don't think you have to love golf. You just have to love the fact is look at some of these business owners. I mean the hotels. Being involved with golf a little bit with a family member and a PGA tour, you know, um, you know, it's important that you know you frequent these places in support. Uh so you don't know the fate of the tournament. I mean, you know, it's will it continue to happen? We hope so. But that's gonna be a fun night networking on the green. I just think that shows where communities come together and we grow together. And and I'm seeing that with us. I mean, we're growing together, whether it's friendship or businesses. I mean, we want everybody to be on the same page. That's probably not gonna happen, but uh, we do have two really good solid groups. And you know, the momentum with local first is I just keep looking at that. It's just it's going in the right direction. Yeah. So it really is.

SPEAKER_00 17:58

Love it. Yeah. Well, we got to get to interviews here soon, but I want before we do that, I want to mention one last thing. You got your Mascow University coming up. What's that all about, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

Masco University. So May 14th, uh 7:55 a.m. Check in. We're we'll be done by 1135. We're bringing in our manufacturers. This is our fourth university, and we're gonna educate the community, business clients, potential clients, on the proper techniques of cleaning, what to use, what not to use, some fun giveaways, and just just really more of a university setting. Uh no tables, just chairs, and listen, and uh we're gonna ask people to be engaged and being engaged, uh asking questions, asking good questions. And but it's just good. It's something that our competition's not doing. And uh whether we get 50 people, we get 40 people. Our manufacturing apps love it. I mean, they're flying in from Pennsylvania, Chicago, out west. They love it. They don't care if there's a hundred people there. They'd be fine if there's 40 people there. They just love the fact to get in front of someone. So May 14th, um, you know, we're excited to kick that off. And big shout out to Emerson Printing for helping us with all of our printing needs and keeping me in check. Uh so that'll be uh that'll be a fun time. So I encourage everyone, anybody can come to the show.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

That's what I'm gonna say. Who should show up for something like that? And do people need to RSVP?

SPEAKER_01 19:14

You should, but uh, we know in this day and age we have a QR code on that sheet, but they don't. But you know, uh that's okay. Go to our social media page at mascopackaging.com. You'll see the flyer. Show up. If you want a breakfast sandwich, you might want an RSVP because we're only gonna have so many of those. We're expecting, you know, roughly we'd be happy with 65 people. We'd be glad with that. So we're using local sources for chairs and all that. So once again, we practice what we preach. So we want to bring in local establishments, we want to basically show the importance of why to buy from MASCO, right? And that is female family owned, and we're right here, the owner's right here. Love it.

SPEAKER_00 19:53

Well, you ready to go do some interviews? Let's do it. All right. Well, if you want to learn any more about anything he just talked about, which could be local verse Springfield, Landon Lincoln Professional, Networking Group, Compass for Kids, we're talking about Big Boys Backyard BBQ. We're talking about Masco, we're talking about everything. You know him. He's Mr. Local right here, brother. That's right. I don't ever sleep, man. That's right. I heard that the other day. That's right. Yeah, you're gonna get the award. There you go. We're gonna let Jeff get back to all those things and all the ways he elevates Springfield, but for the rest of y'all, we'll be right back. Hey, Springfield, when it comes to reliable, high-quality roofing, you don't want to leave things to chance. That's why you should reach out to Acosta Angeli Roughing, your local roughing expert serving Springfield and surrounding communities, from quick, dependable repairs to full replacement, from residential to commercial, they are your trusted pros. Call them today at 217-993-2748 or visit their website to book your free quote and inspection. Don't wait. A little leak now could lead to major damage later. Trust the local experts, protect your home, and get peace of mind with Acosta Angeli Roofing. Well, thank you for joining us today, everybody, on another segment of Communities Grow Together on the Elevate Springfield Podcast. Thank you again to David Hilst, American Family Insurance Agency, for partnering with us on this segment. A take what you learn today. You bring the discipline and follow through, and together, that's right, y'all. We're gonna Elevate Springfield. Be great. Looking for expert tree care with hometown integrity? Look no further than Sangamon Tree Service. They're your trusted local pros, delivering quality workmanship, exceptional customer service, and fair, honest pricing. Every time. Whether it's trimming, removal, or storm cleanup, their team brings professionalism and care to every job, big or small. Call the name your neighbor's trust. Trust Sangman Tree Service or visit them today at SangmanTreeService.com. Sangman Tree Service, rooted in quality, built on trust.