On this episode of our podcast, we’ll take a look back at the first season of Talk CNY, presented by NBT Bank and celebrate a year of thoughtful conversations and highlight the stories that we told over the past 23 episodes.
We will also share a few behind-the-scenes moments, including some of our best bloopers.
Learn more about CenterState CEO
- CONNECT -
***
Produced with Kate Hammer Consulting LLC | Read the Transcript
On this episode of our podcast, we’ll take a look back at the first season of Talk CNY, presented by NBT Bank and celebrate a year of thoughtful conversations and highlight the stories that we told over the past 23 episodes.
We will also share a few behind-the-scenes moments, including some of our best bloopers.
Learn more about CenterState CEO
- CONNECT -
***
Produced with Kate Hammer Consulting LLC | Read the Transcript
Andrew Fish 0:06
Welcome to CenterState CEO's semi monthly podcast, Talk CNY presented by NBT Bank.
Kate Hammer 0:11
On Talk CNY you get an inside look at the people, projects and planning moving Central New York forward.
Andrew Fish 0:17
I'm Andrew Fnish, Senior Vice President of Member and Business Experience at CenterState CEO, Central New York's leading business leadership and economic development organization.
Kate Hammer 0:26
And I'm Kate Hammer, business coach and member at CenterState CEO. We are your hosts for Talk CNY. Take a moment right now to subscribe in your favorite listening app for new episodes reminders every other Wednesday. Whoa. All right.
Andrew Fish 0:41
Oh, my goodness.
Kate Hammer 0:43
Can't take that back, can you?
Andrew Fish 0:44
Yeah. Nope. Nope. That is that is out there. I'm certain that that's going to make this the most watched episode out of all of them. But we'll we'll see how everyone else feels.
Andrew Fish 0:52
On this episode of our podcast, we will take a look back at the past year of episodes on Talk CNY. We will go through some highlights and talk about all the cool things that happened. Right, Andrew?
Andrew Fish 1:02
Absolutely. We're also going to have some great behind the scenes moments, including some of our best bloopers.
Andrew Fish 1:08
Oh, no. Oh, yes.
Andrew Fish 1:10
So Kate, this has been an amazing year of just some incredible conversations that we've had. One of the things I wanted us to take an opportunity to do was really talk a little bit about what were our favorite episodes, right? What were the moments that we had, and there was a lot of them. We this is our 24th regular season episode, we've got the nine expert mini series, we've got the four market insights that we've done with Ken Entenmann, around the economic forecasting. So we got a lot of content to look back on. But what was some of your favorite?
Kate Hammer 1:39
Wow, you know what, I have to start with a quick shout out to Maarten Jacobs.
Andrew Fish 1:43
Yeah.
Kate Hammer 1:43
From the Allyn Foundation, who helped us just to kick it off right and really set the tone for the remainder of the season. He came in here high energy talked about some really great collaborations that Allyn Foundation has had with CenterState. And I'm sure there'll be many more to come into the future.
Andrew Fish 1:59
Yeah, it's interesting, because you know, that episode was was back in February of '23. And, and since then, obviously, the Allyn Foundation has announced the Chimes Project and so even more development and more growth, which is exciting. And I know we kicked it off with Rob, you know, it's kind of a cop out. If I say Rob was the favorite one, maybe a little brown nosing if you will. But those episodes were always so exciting, because you were just hearing about all the like the growth that we were experiencing as a region and all the opportunities that were before us and all the great work that we needed to do. So I really enjoyed that one. But you know, one of the ones that I felt was just an amazing episode. Maybe even I'll say a little underrated, if you will, was when we had Jonathan Link Logan and Andy Obernesser in and they were talking about community based development, right?
Kate Hammer 2:39
Yeah.
Andrew Fish 2:39
And it was really amazing to think about place based economic development, which was the conversation we had, because they are just such amazing experts on it first and foremost, but I don't know if you remember, something's really special happened in that episode.
Kate Hammer 2:51
Okay, say more.
Andrew Fish 2:52
All right. So this is a little bit of a behind the scenes sneak peek for our listeners. But every episode, when you listen to it, you hear a sound bite at the top of the episode.
Kate Hammer 3:02
That's right.
Andrew Fish 3:02
Where we where we go in and we say hey, you know, right after we introduced the episode, you get this kind of little teaser for it. Sometimes we don't always find that within the content of what we're working on. Because we want to refine the message, right?
Kate Hammer 3:13
Yes. Exactly.
Andrew Fish 3:13
And so sometimes we have to be like, hey, you've said all these things. Can we make this, you know, can we shorten this into a couple sentences? And we work with our guests to make that happen?
Kate Hammer 3:20
Yeah, it's a little behind the scenes.
Andrew Fish 3:21
Yeah, it's not all magic. It happens just like that, right. But that episode was different. Because as we were talking to them, Jonathan, you know, we asked him to define place based economic development or what it meant to him. And in like, three sentences, this dude just rattled off, like the most brilliant essence of what it is, maybe we can actually play that for our listeners so they can hear it again-
Jonathan Link Logan 3:41
If you just invest in the place that that the people there might not benefit that are get forced out and lead to things like gentrification, that is a concern. And if you just invest in the people and not in the place, then the people will likely move out because it no longer has things that they want to maybe take advantage of as their economic mobility increases. And so place based economic development is kind of like layering those two things together so that you're encouraging people to stay as well as the place to increase.
Andrew Fish 4:05
It was really an amazing way to see the expertise at play within our staff here and the passion that they have for the work that they do. So that was an interesting observation. Underrated, right?
Kate Hammer 4:15
Yes!
Andrew Fish 4:15
Do you have one that you think is underrated?
Kate Hammer 4:17
Well, first, I just want to mention, because you talked about him defining this concept. What I really love about this podcast is how we take the time to explore these different concepts that are all part of economic development. And we don't, you know, operate under the assumption that every one of the listeners is going to know about the specific subject matter that we're getting into, right. And so there's a lot of education kind of built in. So you're getting this local news. You're hearing these great stories about these organizations that are neighbors with you, but also you're really getting an understanding of what is economic development all about and what are all the facets.
Andrew Fish 4:54
You know, we talked about this a lot in this work, but it's kind of acronym soup, right? Everything's got an acronym qnd so sometimes it's not just stopping and saying what the acronym is. But you're right. It's going into that deeper layer and really explaining like, what does this mean? How are we doing this work? Like why? Why is it important? And I've really enjoyed that. That's what's been kind of driving our messaging and our content behind this podcast.
Kate Hammer 5:15
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You asked me what other underrated episodes I recall. And actually, what that makes me think about is the whole Expert Series. And if you were listening from the beginning, you probably remember many of them were dropped all at once or in big batches. And if you haven't listened to them, definitely, definitely go back because we had guests from all different areas of expertise. And on a national level, some local, really great blend. Do you remember your favorite one of those?
Andrew Fish 5:45
Yeah, so that the Expert Mini Series was something that was a lot of fun to do. And what I actually enjoyed about the thread for all of them is that in every one of those we asked the question, like what's the one thing you want to make sure our listeners to take away from this right? Like it was, it was almost like a the your best lesson in life as a leader as a business owner, and you can share it. So all of them are great.
Kate Hammer 6:06
I love that!
Andrew Fish 6:06
I know. Right? All of them were great. You know, I really on a personal level, I actually enjoyed the episode we did with Damian the most.
Kate Hammer 6:13
On branding, yes.
Andrew Fish 6:14
Yep, yeah. And in large part, because, you know, the energy that he brings to the table and SwitchStance marketing is his company, and just had a great time in that conversation with him. But, you know, I also really felt so inspired by the conversation we had with Gwen Weber McLeod on leadership.
Kate Hammer 6:28
Oh tell the four C's. I know you know them!
Andrew Fish 6:30
Oh, my goodness, confident, competent, courageous and calm. Those are her four C's.
Kate Hammer 6:33
Yeah.
Andrew Fish 6:34
And she was just, she's, she's such an amazing human being, but such a strong leader, and has and has created so many leaders through her mentorship and her company, Gwen Inc. So I really enjoyed that conversation.
Kate Hammer 6:44
Yeah, that was fun. We had so much fun with Gwen. The best. Yes. And Damian, let's talk about a little story from his episode that I could just never forget. I feel like I've used it a million times since he explained it to us. This idea that when you're thinking about your brand, or your business offering, you're doing that from inside the bottle. And so you're trying to read that label, understand what you are, who you are, from the inside. And so sometimes you need that outside perspective, third party consultant, whatever, to look at it from the outside and react and give that perspective back to you. And that is just such a useful little metaphor.
Andrew Fish 7:22
Yeah, absolutely. And every one of those episodes, had a nugget like that, right?
Kate Hammer 7:26
Absolutely.
Andrew Fish 7:27
I felt like every one of those Expert Mini Series really had something tangible for the for business owners, for leaders within the business community here for our members and our audience to really check it out. And that expert mini series is available on clickcny.com. And you can also find it in the list of episodes on the Talk CNY podcast feed. So.
Kate Hammer 7:45
And actually, there's quite a lot available on Click.
Andrew Fish 7:48
The resource library is robust. There's a lot of information there for for members, in addition to the into to the Expert Miniseries, so yeah, people should definitely check it out.
Kate Hammer 7:56
Yeah, Iot of strategic planning and very necessary right now.
Andrew Fish 7:59
Absolutely.
Kate Hammer 8:00
In fact, you know what we should do? We should definitely make sure we drop a link, we'll put a link to Click so that if you haven't dropped in in a while, because we'll just go ahead and assume that you've already joined? Or do you haven't, you know, you can still do that any time.
Andrew Fish 8:12
Absolutely.
Kate Hammer 8:13
Anytime. It also has a new look and feel.
Andrew Fish 8:15
Yeah, absolutely. We've redesigned kind of the way that folks interact with click, so if they haven't been to it, and while they should check it out. And we also have the application available for Android and iOS. So people should download that and utilize it.
Kate Hammer 8:26
Oh, the app is up.
Andrew Fish 8:27
The app is up. So we've talked about some of the episodes that are our favorite. We've talked about some of the ones that we felt like maybe we're a little underrated. I'm going to use a little bit of a recency bias here. And also think about kind of the broad community initiatives that's happening. Last episode, Jared Shepard, we had on talking about the Housing Taskforce, this group we've convened to, you know, set up our stance on housing development and what we want to do. We actually had quite a few episodes that kind of centered around housing that were great. But David Mankiewicz was the one that was on and like David has since retired from the organization, but that man's experience and expertise and knowledge, honestly was on display with that episode. If people haven't listened to that they need to go back and really listen to that episode, because it was just such an amazing thing to think about all of the ways in which our communities are interconnected. And as we grow, we really need to be doing that in a smart, smart, sustainable fashion. Yeah. And he had a lot of great insights about that.
Kate Hammer 9:21
Yeah. Yeah. In fact, there was one term that he brought up another acronym NIMBYism, not in my backyard.
Andrew Fish 9:28
Yeah.
Andrew Fish 9:28
Right. So a lot of little cool educational nuggets to just an understanding, how to talk about the issue.
Andrew Fish 9:35
Absolutely.
Kate Hammer 9:35
Yeah. Oh, and speaking of interesting phrasing or words, one little rhythm that we got into-
Andrew Fish 9:41
I know where you're going with this.
Kate Hammer 9:43
With the president of CenterState CEO, Rob Simpson, we asked him every quarter, what's one word that he would use to describe it? And he kicked it off right!
Andrew Fish 9:54
Sure. He certainly did. Yeah, rocket ship.
Kate Hammer 9:57
He launched it.
Andrew Fish 9:57
He launched it right. Yes, rocket ship was the word. And then we had a lot of debate as to whether that was one or two words, technically speaking, but you know, honestly, that that was almost a year ago, that conversation with him. And that was the word that he chose for, you know, that first quarter and that year? He's kind of right.
Kate Hammer 10:12
Yeah.
Andrew Fish 10:13
You know, I mean, we just we've continued to see, not just the Micron announcement, you know, more than a year ago now, but continued investments from companies and community in our community. Continued, you know, initiatives and strategies that everyone is getting behind and pushing on. And, you know, it was nice to kind of hear him say, kind of each quarter what he thought was coming, but it really the theme that pulled it all together, really had to do with kind of, like, where's the community, we are now heading as a growth community, you know, rocket ship and inevitable and comfort zone and raison d'etre. You know, I hope I said that right, with the French accent, the way he can. But, all of those things were really very much on point for, you know, kind of where we are as a community where we're headed.
Kate Hammer 10:55
Yeah, and really awesome tone setters. I love that's what I really loved about this episodes is me and they just felt really good to listen to.
Andrew Fish 11:03
Yeah, he he does a great job of really, you know, kind of talking about all the high points and the things we're working on and summarizing the opportunities and the challenges, and you know, about where we're headed. So those were fun. I really enjoyed those. And I know we've got them on tap for 2024, as well to make sure that those conversations stay going with Rob. So that's it's good stuff.
Andrew Fish 11:22
Yeah, it makes sense. Because got a lot of listens on those Rob episodes, huh?
Andrew Fish 11:25
Yeah, we're not going to tell him that. But he may or may not have had the highest number of listens. Although what I always say to everyone that asks is you and I have the most numbers of listens out of any.
Kate Hammer 11:35
Oh, that we do. Can't be denied. And in fact, if you want to help us out, go ahead and share this particular episode with your friends and family.
Andrew Fish 11:43
Absolutely. Because that will give them a flavor of like, what are some of the conversations that we had over 2023. And you know hopefully, people who haven't had a chance to go back and listen to those take the time to do it. All the episodes are really easy to listen to. 25 minutes, you know, give or take, you know, it's can be within your commute. And really, there's some great stuff to unpack and learn about there that anyone in this community that cares about, you know, where we are, where we're going, we'll get something out of those episodes.
Kate Hammer 12:08
Oh, absolutely. And it's also been interesting to see how people take in the podcast, you know, when you hear podcasts, do you think immediately of something that you're listening to, but we had a lot of viewers on YouTube.
Andrew Fish 12:19
Absolutely. I you know, it makes me wonder like, Okay, what am I wearing to the podcast today because of it. But yes, we had a lot of video views a lot of people that were checking it out on YouTube, you know, it's great. It just gives us another medium with which to reach our audience. And we really appreciate that.
Kate Hammer 12:33
Yeah, absolutely. And it's nice that, you know, what doesn't work for one might work for another. Although I like to say, "listen twice on each device."
Andrew Fish 12:40
There you go. Yeah. Not at all, because we want those numbers to keep going up.
Kate Hammer 12:44
No, not at all. Nope.
Andrew Fish 12:46
It's just in case you missed something in the first three listens, right? Try that fourth one.
Kate Hammer 12:50
Well, we do because oftentimes, we're you know, doing something else. We always say to you listen to these episodes on your commute, or when you're doing house chores, or whatever. So there might be something distracting that comes up. So why not listen again.
Andrew Fish 13:01
Listen, again, you never know what you might hear the second time through. This whole series wouldn't be possible without the great support that we've had from NBT Bank. So we're gonna take a quick moment right now, and thank them again. And we'll be right back after this word from our presenting sponsor of Talk CNY, NBT Bank.
NBT Bank Sponsor 13:18
Every day at NBT Bank, we focus our business around all the ways we can help yours. We're large enough to offer leading business and digital solutions, but local enough to ensure personalized one on one service. So turn to NBT Bank for a full range of business solutions, like capital and treasury management services, even fraud protection, and see how NBT Bank is just the right size to help you do big things. Visit NBTbank.com to learn more and start a conversation. Equal housing lender, member FDIC.
Kate Hammer 13:49
This is Talk CNY, and we are continuing the final episode of our first season.
Andrew Fish 13:55
Absolutely.
Kate Hammer 13:55
Yeah, I just want to take a moment and say, Andrew, you've been a great co host. It's been a lot of fun.
Andrew Fish 14:01
Kate, I have really enjoyed these conversations, the way that you and I have been able to really play off each other so well with our, with our guests and get out that information, bringing a perspective of knowing the work that we're doing, and then ensuring that all of our audience listeners really get a chance to understand deeply what we're doing. And that perspective that we've been able to bring to the table, I think has really made a lot of these episodes spectacular. And thank you for, A) all of your support and doing that. And you know, I think what a lot of folks may not know or may not realize is that we have a podcast now because of you working with us, bringing us this idea and really helping us get it off the ground. As an organization, we can't thank you enough for what you have given us in this in this opportunity to share our stories and to let people engage in the work that we're doing. So Kate, thank you so much for you know, really being an outstanding partner and all of this.
Kate Hammer 14:54
Oh, yeah, absolutely. I'm so glad that we work together and that we made it happen.
Andrew Fish 14:59
Absolutely.
Kate Hammer 15:00
You know, podcasts are an incredible medium. And I hope that it continues on for a long time.
Andrew Fish 15:04
All told, we're, you know, we're sitting on what is it 30-37 different podcast episodes from 2023. And-
Kate Hammer 15:11
Is that right?
Andrew Fish 15:11
Yeah, when you think about all the different the main episodes, the Expert Mini Series, the Quarterly Market Insights, and you know, that's a lot of great storytelling and a lot of great information. In that note, we obviously have a lot of footage, if you will, that was recorded during that time. And you know, all of you get to see the wonderfully produced product that Kate and her team have brought to the table. And a shout out to our outstanding producer, Alex Davidson. Without her expertise, and great insight as we were putting these episodes and polishing them and making them ready for production again, you wouldn't have seen the great product that we were able to put on the table for all of you. But she also warned us that throughout the year, she was really taking some good notes about some bloopers.
Kate Hammer 15:53
Yeah, Alex has done a great job of pulling together some hilarious bloopers from many of our episodes with some of our most watched guests.
Andrew Fish 16:00
I can think of some instances where I thought to myself, Oh, no, this is going to end up on the blooper reel, but I'm certain that there was a lot more and so I'm really actually excited to see this myself and won't get too much of a preview on this and will kind of be seeing this in real time with everyone else. So I'm excited.
Andrew Fish 16:14
So let's go ahead and watch the bloopers.
Andrew Fish 16:16
[Blooper reel begins] All right, ready?
Rob Simpson 16:17
I'm ready. I've been ready!
Andrew Fish 16:19
321.
Rob Simpson 16:19
That was a little weak, hold on. [Claps once].
Andrew Fish 16:22
This is gonna be a disaster. I just want everyone out there to know. [Singing dah da dah da]
Kate Hammer 16:25
Sassy, sassy! No, no. Okay, I'm Kate Hammer. [Laughing]
Andrew Fish 16:33
Five star rating [said with Kate].. Five star rating.
Kate Hammer 16:36
And a five star ratin'!
Ben Sio 16:38
You'll have noticed on camera you have a much largerhead than I do.
Andrew Fish 16:41
Yes, it's true.
Ben Sio 16:41
[Paper rustling and laughing]
Andrew Fish 16:47
You'll also hear stories of Do you? [Laughing]
Kate Hammer 16:52
And in March we never have really big random storms.
Melanie Littlejohn 16:55
Oh well don't start saying that. [Laughing]
Andrew Fish 16:58
I was like well, that's sarcasm.
Kate Hammer 17:00
Just kidding.
Andrew Fish 17:01
Click is CenterState see, N O...
Dominic Robinson 17:03
Click. [Laughing]
Kate Hammer 17:05
Oh Then let me look at Oh, heavens. And I'm Kate Hammer. No I'm not.
Andrew Fish 17:09
You are Kate Hammer. You truly are.
Kate Hammer 17:11
Oh, huzzah!
Andrew Fish 17:13
Huzzah!
Dominic Robinson 17:13
NBT.
Kate Hammer 17:13
NBT. NBT. I'm gonna go ahead and say my favorite answers of all. That was extremely educational.
Ben Sio 17:20
I just made it up on the spot.
Shawni Davis 17:21
I said that I didn't answer that question. But I didn't even come up with an answer for it.
Andrew Fish 17:25
You're like, no, no, I want to answer that.
Kate Hammer 17:29
We don't have to do it!
Rob Simpson 17:30
Come on I want to!
Kate Hammer 17:31
I need a sip of water after that.
Andrew Fish 17:33
No pants, no podcast.
Kate Hammer 17:34
No pants, no podcast.
Andrew Fish 17:37
No pants. No podcast.
Rob Simpson 17:38
This has got to be our little outtake clip- somebody clap. [Clap]
Kate Hammer 17:42
Whoa. All right.
Andrew Fish 17:45
Oh, my goodness.
Kate Hammer 17:46
Can't take that back can you?
Andrew Fish 17:47
Nope. Nope. That is that is out there. I'm certain that that's going to make this the most watched episode out of all of them. But we'll we'll see how everyone else feels. Kate, again. Thank you so much. We are looking to our first episode in 2024 for being our fearless leader, Rob Simpson, giving us his quarterly thoughts for the region. So we're excited for that. Look for that episode to come out in January. Looking forward to continuing to bring you two monthly episodes and highlighting our members and the work of our team here at CenterState CEO in 2024.
Andrew Fish 18:15
Yes, that will be a great episode. And listeners, we also just want to thank you. Thank you for tuning in and for for listening for watching however you take in the podcast and we hope you continue to download and show up and participate.
Andrew Fish 18:28
We look forward to being able to continue to share these stories with you as we move forward on our Talk CNY podcast.
Kate Hammer 18:34
CenterState CEO's podcast, Talk CNY, is presented by NBT Bank and is available on Clickcny.com and all major podcast platforms.
Andrew Fish 18:43
Join us on Click where we will continue to chat about this topic and provide additional resources and links.
Kate Hammer 18:49
In Click you can also listen to or watch every episode of this series of Talk CNY.
Andrew Fish 18:54
Click is CenterState CEOs interactive digital chamber platform where our members connect, learn and receive support from our staff.
Kate Hammer 19:01
For new episode reminders every other Wednesday, be sure to hit subscribe in your favorite listening app. If you're enjoying Talk CNY, consider leaving a quick review for a five star rating.