Communities Grow Together on Elevate Springfield featuring Jeff Dillman

Summary

The conversation revolves around community engagement, local initiatives, and the importance of collaboration among businesses in Springfield. Robert and Jeff discuss upcoming events, including webinars on critical topics like cyber fraud and human trafficking, and emphasize the need for local businesses to support one another. They also highlight the significance of networking opportunities and the impact of grants available for small businesses.

Takeaways

• Planning events requires collaboration and community involvement.
• Local businesses need to support each other for growth.
• Engagement in community events fosters stronger connections.
• Upcoming webinars will address important issues like cyber fraud.
• Networking opportunities are essential for business development.
• Grants are available to support local businesses' growth.
• Community events can be fun and engaging for all ages.
• Participation in local initiatives is crucial for success.
• The importance of showing up to events cannot be overstated.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 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. All right, and we are back for another edition of Communities Grow Together. Brought to you by David Hillst, American Family Insurance Agency. Hey, anything you need insurance-wise, Dave and his team are going to take care of you. Give them a shout or head over to their office over on West Wabash. Hey, Mr. Communities Grow Together himself is joining us back in the studio back after a hiatus where he was dodging and ducking me for the last two months. Mr. Jeff Dillman, how are we doing?

SPEAKER_00 3:06

I'm good. I was I was wondering, was you on vacation or was I on vacation?

SPEAKER_01 3:10

A little bit of both. I just thought I'd throw it at you because you normally give me credit for not getting you in for a couple of months. So I thought I'd just throw it out back at you, even though it's not particularly true, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

Not that you didn't have good people on, because you did. I've been following it, but like, man, I was wondering did I get written off the script or something? I mean, you know, but I knew. I just knew that I'm sitting there Sunday and ding, and there it is, you know, wouldn't you know? And you gotta come tomorrow. That's right. You know, get on in here. Hey, I'm here. That's right. Good to be back. Good to have you. A lot of stuff going on in Springfield this summer, man. Well, you're not stuff. You're not a kidding. We've got a there's a ton of things going on. Everybody, honestly. And everybody needs money.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

Yeah, too.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

Right. No doubt about that. That's what it seemed like. Everybody needs money. But no, no, yeah. There's there's a lot of good things happening. We kind of excited for next week. We've been trying to plan this and plan this between the FBI Springfield Citizens Academy Alumni Association, which is not affiliated with the FBI. We're a nonprofit agency. We're that uh separate and aside, but we work on their missions in conjunction with Local First and Landolin Professional Networking, we're doing cyber fraud. Come on. So kind of excited. That's a hot topic. And we've got uh we've got a local agent from the Springfield FBI coming from four to four thirty at Jane Hayes. So we appreciate Jane for the hospitality, beautiful venue, as we know. And excited for us to do this joint effort is because just just to show once again that we're all in it for the right thing. Communities grow together and support local businesses. This will be a good topic, really well.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

No, absolutely. And just that is the normal time of Landon Lincoln Professional Networking Group. So that's not a change for anybody that's already in that group, but for you local first Springfield folks that might not be a part of Landon Lincoln yet. It is four o'clock next Wednesday, the 15th, July 15th, at Jane Hayes. There you go.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

And uh that is uh 2937 West White Oaks Drive. Uh beautiful venue, but everybody needs to come. I saw the Springfield Business Journal today uh posted it, so that was kind of cool. Yeah, I did see that. They're good supporters of local first, so I love that. So that's nice. I just think it's good to hear what they can say, what's going on, especially in a business. Uh there's so much fraud in general.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

Right.

SPEAKER_00 5:17

So it's kind of cool to partner. So I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

Those FBI agents, like you've talked before with the uh Citizens Academy, some of the stuff that they see that we as just normal everyday citizens have zero clue. Well, we have no idea about all that stuff that's going on.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

We have no idea. We can jump ahead on July 30th. We're planning a uh a webinar right now. Uh all the local chapters, so there's a chapter with every Citizens Academy throughout the U.S. and we're planning a webinar. It'll be five o'clock on July 30th. That's a Thursday. The venue is not set yet. We're still working on that, but that'll be human trafficking. So another topic that I don't want to say it's a good topic because it's not a good topic. Not a good topic, but it's going on, and you'd be surprised what's going on around you in the vicinity that you live and the locations you live. But this webinar is pretty cool. We're going to try to get 40 business leaders, local first, land and link, and everybody involved, really anybody, Chamber, Silsa, everybody can come to this.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

And uh get them engaged so they can see. Then we'll have some questions and answers with one or two local FBI agents after the fact is that to carry on any questions they have. We did a webinar just here recently at the Springfield Chamber and uh another good topic. Uh so you're gonna see these, I think, about every month. That's what they want us to, the chapters with the local help with the Springfield FBI being involved with. So that's coming up. And next week, man, you know, the Amvets, Amvet's Family Service Center. We we just keep on crushing. So we just did uh horseshoe dinner, served 65 mills. That was fun. Had uh Jared, the owner of locals, uh barred on a Pawnee, his famous cheese sauce, and we had Gary Bolt. Gary's a good friend and another uh what I say top chef at the TRN. Uh he's our seafood uh cuisine kind of guy. Uh they came out to help us uh help us out, and we pumped out 65 mils with the embeds. That was cool. It was so good that we're gonna bring it back on July 17th, but we're gonna do instead of horseshoes, we're gonna do hamburgers and and chicken sandwiches and fries and 10 bucks, man. Not bad. Open to the public.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

Not bad at all.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

So if you want a mill, bring your family out. You can't get a mill for 10 bucks.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

Right. Do you do just the traditional horseshoe or just spin it somehow?

SPEAKER_00 7:23

So it was traditional. That's what we did. And honestly, you hate to say this, but it was easy compared to fried chicken. Oh, sure.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

This one here will be fun. The fact is that the chicken horseshoe was so good. Uh Sean, the commander of Ambets, he said, What if we did a chicken sandwich? I'm like, we can do that. Uh, thanks to Humphrey's supplying the meat. Oh, okay. That's where we get the meat from. And so you'll get a six-ounce chicken breast with uh we call uh you know JD special uh seasoning.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

Uh and uh fries or hamburger and fries, and hamburgers will be grilled. There'll be a six-ounce uh beef uh hamburger grilled there on site. So uh last time Jake worked with Trouxel, did all the grilling, him and Gary, so they were outside, it was raining, didn't stop them, they just grilled away. So I don't know if I'll have Jake back on this one, but uh maybe Brian Anderson or somebody like that. So we got that going. And then July 25th at Casariel Family Service Center and our bags and brews are back. We're excited about that one. Uh we were out of sight out of mind last year because just we couldn't work it out with the city. And Buzz Bomb wanted to hold it, but we just couldn't get the city to nail it down. So this time we said let's open up the side doors at Casariel. Jose said let's do it. And uh Capital City Cornholers and uh Family Service Center, we're gonna throw some bags, probably drink a little bit, and definitely eat a taco bar for 15 bucks. There you go. That's open to the public too. So can't beat that. No, I was just out.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

Yeah, I was just out there for another event, the Capillary Networkers Networkers event. Stopped by that. Always great venue for for stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 8:49

It is, it is. Was that well attended?

SPEAKER_01 8:51

Yeah, good crowd there. Good. So and it is really cool, you know, where you always talk about communities grow together and you go to some of these events and you're like, hey, you're a part of this too, you're part of this too. And you see a lot of the people that are part of all these different groups, and they're just putting in the work in all the different areas, which is which is fun to see.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

So I think some pick and choose, which I understand, but honestly, just be involved with all of them. They all I think every group's got a different spin, or even though the the goal is is to help support local business, but I think every group's got a different spin, but I think we all try to support one another. I surely don't think that we see each other's competition because we shouldn't look at it that way. I think some do probably still, but I think we're pushing past that rather.

SPEAKER_01 9:29

I think we're getting past it.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

I think we are. I think that that'll just be once again more more strength showing that support one another. Right. So absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

We had another one of those events. We already talked about it on one of the episodes at the Memorial Health Championship. We did networking on the ground. That was fun. All the different groups. That was cool.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

That was fun. I remember last time I I told you when you when you showed up, I'm like, dude, we got to get our picture because we were at the same location in JJ Tent. So we did that, and then we had the opportunity to do the podcast. That was great. A lot of comments on that. That was fun. Just a good group of people. I think uh the showing was really good for that. I'm sure Kate was happy with that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:12

Yeah. Shout out to Kate and Emily both for a great, not only that event, but a whole good tournament.

SPEAKER_00 10:17

Yeah. Tournament. Good tournament, good weekend. Uh you just hope that more Springfield businesses, if it does return, that more Springfield businesses see the the value of that. Because it really is. It's pretty cool until you get out there. You got to get out there, kind of like what she said in her opening. You know, I I've got your name and address now, and I'm gonna target you. Right. At least she's honest. But if you haven't participated, you should. And there's ways to participate. It doesn't have to always be monetary. Go out and be a walking scorekeeper or whatever. Get a hold of Emily. She's always needing volunteers. Right. Whatever the case is, so run a committee, you know, jump out there, get her done.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

Absolutely. Definitely. Be a part of it next year.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

No doubt about it.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

So this weekend, we got the West Side Market. We're local first Springfield. We got our booth out there. Last month we had the dunk tank. Decided not to do the dunk tank again.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

We're doing what are we doing? The axe throwing or doing battle axe.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

Yeah, the battle axe throwing now. It's not not real axes. They're the inflatable ones. Our friends over at Noonan's. We rented one of their party game deals. So it's an inflatable battle axe game. It'll be fun for the kids to go out there and try their luck at that, or adults too, for that matter.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

Yeah, you probably don't want real axes, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

So no, probably don't want to mess with the liability on that.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

That's always well attended to, so that'll be that'll be uh good to see. Just another good thing to happen, you know, it's happening in Springfields. Get out there, support businesses.

SPEAKER_01 11:40

You might just have to walk around and talk to some of the folks. I did that last year for the podcast. Remember that put out a couple of episodes from the West Side Market. So you might have to do that while I'm there for for local first shooting. You gotta get some beefaroo anyway, don't you? Right. Got to stock up my beefaroo. Beefaroo. So, and then while we're on the topic of local first, don't forget we still have our small business grant available out there. It is live through the end of this month. The deadline is July 31st at midnight. So gotta get it in before then. Super easy application, 60-second video you have to put together answering your why, what you're gonna do with the money, how that's gonna impact your business. So, only requirement is you got to be a local first Springfield member.

SPEAKER_00 12:21

Yeah, yeah, and that's an easy, easy requirement. We posted that for you on Land O Lincoln the other day. Try to get more uh interest for that. So once again, it's a no-brainer, do it. I mean, if you're a member and if you're not a member, sign up. But if you're a member, do it. I mean, $2,500. Yeah, always refer back to what Sangamatri service said in Chad. $2,500 would have bought a chainsaw.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

Right.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

So just think about that. Whether you're a website builder or whatever you are, that money could come in handy, you know.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

Absolutely could $2,500 to two different businesses, so $5,000 in total. That's great. We're giving those away on October 1st, also at The View, Jane Hayes' new place over there. So with that, we're gonna be putting out our ticket link to attend that event. Uh, it's gonna be limited capacity, it's gonna be a smaller event, but we are selling tickets for $25 a piece. That's gonna include all your food for the evening and two drink tickets. Now, one thing that's really cool, you want to make sure you are in person for. I'm not gonna give out all the details right now, but there's gonna be something really special happening that night for folks that are in attendance. And it may have something to do with a grant that we're giving out. So that's awesome. Make sure you are in attendance that night. Yeah, that's awesome. We're only gonna have, you know, we only have capacity in there for about a hundred and hundred and ten the way we're gonna do that. So go ahead and get your tickets. We want to see you there on October first. Are we having music? We are having music. Okay, good. Yeah. Old uh Silas Talkie. You might remember him from the Crafted Stag event. He's gonna be there. We're gonna have a speaker. It's gonna be a great night. We're also gonna give away a few awards, some fun awards. Yeah. They're for real awards, but they're for the bag.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

We're doing a little bit of that. Yeah, I mean, it's there's an award there I'd like to win. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

But I think you're in the running for it.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

But you know, there's a lot of people that that's probably in the running, but uh I think that'll be that'll be a fun time. I think just uh attending the board meetings, listen to the conversation and just the energy we have coming off the board, and uh it's gonna be a good time. Really is.

SPEAKER_01 14:22

So head on over to localfirstspringfield.com. If you're not a member yet, again, you gotta be a member to apply for the grant. So go ahead and join. Go ahead and submit your video, your 60 second video, that's also on the website. And then three, buy your ticket to the event. Come on. And four, show up. That's right. And then four, show up, show up. Remember that show up. We talk about that a lot. Exactly, exactly. Don't just buy that ticket and ghost us now. Get on out there and show up. So there is gonna be that important piece for attendees only. So in the meantime, those applications that are gonna be coming through for the small business grant, we're gonna be narrowing those down. So you will know if you're a semifinalist, I guess you could say, before that event, and you will get a free ticket if you're a semifinalist. But don't wait for that. Go ahead and get that ticket.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

Yeah, we should give a plug for the food. Who's doing the food?

SPEAKER_01 15:13

Nelson's is doing it this time. Yeah. Yeah, Nelson's. They always do a nice job. Um so they'll have a good spread for us there. They'll also be handling the bar like they always do for us. So looking forward to that. So it's pretty easy. Buy your ticket, show up. Show up, eat, have a couple of drinks. A couple drinks, listen to some music, have some fun, listen to our speaker, watch us give away some money, network a little bit. What what more can you ask for for a local first Springfield event? Especially all underneath one roof, you know. So let's let's do it. Exactly. So Landa Lincoln, though, I was looking at it, and we're just shy of six million dollars. Isn't that crazy? Just shy. And I think we were just talking before we went on air here. We've got a little bit of business that hasn't been reported yet. So I think just that business that we did might hit this over.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

I think we might hit it. And you know, while we're talking about a big shout out to Acosta. Uh you know, those guys continue to report, continue to huddle. There's a lot of people benefiting, but I want to give a shout-out to them because I think they understand the importance of keeping it going and reporting it because it is important. We don't share with who it is, what or where it came from, but for us internally, I think that's what makes the group a little different. It's trackable, you know, and it just shows that the whole idea of this was is to get businesses to work together. Local businesses, and it's working.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

And it's working.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

It's working. So let's uh that six million hits the ticker. Maybe we ought to throw something out to whoever hits the six million, right? So yeah, that's pretty cool. So it's probably more than that, as we always say. Oh, yeah, it's definitely more than that. That's all right. It's all right.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

Yeah. We'll take six million in sixteen months or whatever it's been. So it's not too bad.

SPEAKER_00 16:52

And I think in uh July we've got uh well, this is July. I see. It is July. How long has it been since I've been here? I know, it's July 6th now, yeah. Last time I was here was June, I think. But August, uh, we got Ryan McCrady coming back. So I don't have the date on top of my mind. And in September, we're gonna have Align Life come in. And and that is Dr.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

Brian Willie.

SPEAKER_00 17:12

Dr.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

Brian Willie always does a great job. He's been on the podcast. He was just on this past weekend on our Saturday segment, and he's been on oh, probably two or three times before that, but he's always dropping some good gold nuggets for us. So he'll be a great speaker.

SPEAKER_00 17:24

Yeah, we're excited for that. Uh you connected me with with them at line life, and they're a good member of uh both, obviously. So we're excited to have so the next two or three months we got some speakers, a little different for a line to Lincoln, but we we gotta mix it up a little bit. Right. So and when people want to speak, let them and we're really excited to hear from Ryan.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

Yeah, yeah, he's gonna be.

SPEAKER_00 17:47

Which was a wise decision, right? Uh for sure. Uh, because as most people said, it's it's safety's probably the most important thing.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

So much great stuff going on, and then you just have the fun stuff too, like Levitt that's happening on Thursday nights. I mean, there's a lucky horseshoes, just a lot of stuff going on.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

Just get out there, get involved. You can't say there's not, but the problem is we just we gotta get out. We gotta show up. Yeah. Gotta show up. So that's for sure.

SPEAKER_01 18:12

Absolutely. Well, anything else going on in any of the groups that you're working with, man?

SPEAKER_00 18:17

Man, it's just we're always fighting the fight, it seems like. Uh especially on the nonprofit side, trying to keep everybody functioning and everybody in place and state funding. You just never know what's going to happen. Uh trying to find ways outs think outside of the box to find ways to raise money. So you can you can understand like Compass for Kids, United Way, Salvation Army. Everybody's asking, needing money of some sort. And like I said, it doesn't always have to be monetary, but no, the other things uh with the FBI Springfield Citizen Academy Alumni Association, we're excited. Uh the new Citizens Academy class is gonna start August 13th at with the Springfield FBI. So we're we're heavily involved with that, with Mills, the board, and all that, and past members. So that's just always trying to get out in the community. There's so much happening with that with our group there, our local chapter. We got National Night Out, back to School Bash coming up. Uh then you get you go back to Family Service Center. We got the back to school bash with them as well. That event will be coming up, uh, and I think that is in August. Uh, and that will be we'll be out cooking hot dogs, giving out hot dogs. Uh we'll have several different agencies out there on sites, car seat safety check. Uh, we'll have probably local PD, fire department, uh just giving out school supplies. And that that caught us pretty quick because last year we gave out so many backpacks and I lost track of time, man.

SPEAKER_01 19:32

Right.

SPEAKER_00 19:32

I'm like, are we gonna do the backpack thing? And Karen tells me last week, Jeff, it's uh like we've got to give these out like right away. School gets back, and so it's like a month out of the way.

SPEAKER_01 19:40

It's one of those things going in.

SPEAKER_00 19:42

It's one of those things that flew by me. I think you know that too, with with what you do. But all good things, man. All good things, just trying to balance everything and trying to keep uh staff happy and uh just get the community more engaged with uh some of these uh boards and groups we sit on.

SPEAKER_01 19:57

So no doubt about it. It's all good, man.

SPEAKER_00 19:58

It's all good.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

Well, everybody join us on the 15th. If you're a local first Springfield member, Land a Lincoln Professional Networking Group member over at Jane Hayes 4 o'clock. We would love to have you for that. We've got West Side Market this Sunday, the 12th, from 2 to 5. Stop by and see me over at the local first Springfield booth, throw an axe with me, say hey, maybe even get on the microphone with me for a couple of minutes. Who knows? Maybe I'll just I'll just start talking to random people out there. That might be fun. I might come on just throw something at you and just for just to throw something at you. But since last month we did the dunk tank, people like dunking people. And do I need to get up by the like the bullseye and just have people fling him at me?

SPEAKER_00 20:36

Yeah, you might need he might need to, because we lost Jack. They got dunked so many times, you know. So I got a little pruny. Yeah, yeah, just a little pruny, maybe a girl a few feet, who knows? Right. But yeah, no, that'll that'll be fun. So I'm gonna try to make sure I get out, yeah, get out there as well.

SPEAKER_01 20:50

Yeah, check us out there and just get involved. Like we always talk about, it's really simple. When we get involved, when we work together, we grow together. Yeah, that's all it is.

SPEAKER_00 20:59

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 20:59

Really simple. You just gotta do it. You gotta take the action and do it.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

Communities grow together. And I'll probably see you what in like September or something.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

Yeah, so if you if we want to go ahead and mark mark it on the calendar now for your next appearance, I think that'd be yeah, probably mid-September I can get you back in. So I'll wait. I'll just wait to hear from you. So you did do a surprise, the Memorial Health one. That was that was a surprise palette for everybody. It was. Let's just go. That was. Well, you came equipped. Well, I did cut yes. So it wasn't a surprise for me, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

It was it was a surprise for who was gonna be on there with me. You know, that uh that was spontaneous. But once again, it spontaneous is always good because we have so much to talk about, man. So that's good. But no, really, you've had some really, really good people on the last few weeks. So continue to do what you do with Elevate Springfield. Thank you. It's always great to listen to everybody's in need or or just the businesses in general. What they do and even photography, all that, everything you've had on there. So so keep doing that.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

It's fun as always, brother. And I'm gonna continue doing it. So it's good. Well, with that, we're gonna let Jeff get back to Elevate and Springfield. But for the rest of y'all, 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. Hey, 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 neighbors trust, Sangman Tree Service, or visit them today at SangmanTreeService.com. Sangman Tree Service, rooted in quality, built on trust.