 Welcome to Love Where You Live, a program of the Sheboygan County Chamber of Commerce. I am Betsy Alice, the Executive Director of the Chamber, and I am your host today. We are very happy to welcome a couple of guests to us this morning. Angela Damiani is the CEO of New Walkie, and Karissa Schlegel is our YPN and Special Events Coordinator. That would be our Young Professional Network and Special Events Coordinator. So thanks for both of you to be here this morning. Angela, I'm going to start with you today. You're a special guest from Milwaukee and have come all this way to be on our program. Thank you for having me. You're very welcome. Tell us about New Walkie, how it got its start, what it actually is. For sure. So we're sort of a new term, and I will say that's probably because we made it up. Milwaukee was started in 2009 as a group of friends who were curious about the city they had chosen as new graduates, and we wanted to change the way people connected. And that still is our mission today. Essentially, we were just sort of a social group that went around to new places, new restaurants, new bars. But what we found was that there was something to that. There weren't many different options for young people to be connected. And if you remember in 2009, social media wasn't a real thing like it is today. And so we had this really interesting thing happening. We would post on Facebook or Twitter that we were going to be in a certain place, and then suddenly people would show up. And we became sort of obsessed with this idea that we could help people explore, help people find what they love, and then quickly thereafter we realized because Milwaukee is like many other places, has some good and some bad, we could also help change things. And make a big impact. And so now we go by the term social architecture firm. And the idea is that we can consciously design an environment that shifts the social behavior of that population towards a goal or set of goals. Our goal at the end of the day is for Midwest to recognize Wisconsin as the premier destination. For young people, old people end alike. But what we're trying to do is work on a really comprehensive talent attraction and retention strategy that is place-based, that puts the place, the city, the neighborhood or the state, as the premier focus. Because that is what you choose when you decide to work at a place or raise a family, et cetera. You choose to live in that place. And so we have a myriad of different programs, like Young Professional Week and others, that help connect people to the places that they call home. Well, that's a great segue because the next thing I'd like to talk about is YP Week. It's April 23rd to the 30th. And I'd like to know, you know, how did YP Week begin? And who was the impetus behind that? And absolutely. So like I said, we were exploring what Milwaukee had to offer. And we found while there was sort of this negative connotation that we weren't Chicago or that we weren't other places, we were in love with all of the different things that we found. And we wanted to create a platform where all of them could be showcased, both the public and private leadership that exists, the corporations that obviously provide jobs, the physical attributes of the city, like the parks or the recreation opportunities, and the cultural amenities. And we thought if we could create sort of a crazy chaotic week where you could have access to all of those simultaneously, and it could be built around a Young Professional Schedule that perhaps doesn't have PTO to go to a whole week long conference, and we could make most of it free so that our main competitor, which is really the couch, would no longer be an option for people to opt into, wouldn't that create this really great cross-pollination amongst peer groups or individuals that normally talking to one another and have like this golden key for Young Professionals to really adopt and champion the city itself. And it worked. The first year I think we had just over a thousand participants, which is an amazing turnout for sort of an unpaid, unconventional conference, especially given that the conference itself moves around the city. So a morning program will be in a different location than the afternoon. And we did that for a few years. And every year we saw bigger growth, more events, more attendees. And then last year, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation approached us to look at how we could leverage this platform that exposed everything that Milwaukee had to offer. As a reframe, how could we expose everything the state of Wisconsin had to offer for Young Professionals, knowing that there are Young Professionals that live in Warsaw or Sheboygan or Madison? And they've already chosen to live there. And they probably know best about what makes that place a great place to live. And they're different. And intentionally so. I mean, I think there's a lot of broad sweeping generalization about millennials these days all want, you know, some sort of urban landscape and to drink out of mason jars to be riding their bike with their hair in the wind. And that is one picture of one sort of millennial. But not everyone wants... There's 82 million of us. We want 82 million different things. And so how could we really position the state of Wisconsin by having YP Week presented by local organizations, by local Young Professionals, in each one of those communities? Wouldn't we be able to highlight what's great about this state and also connect a peer group of individuals like Carissa who work day in and day out to connect the Young Professionals in their own community across the state? And so this year we're in 15 different cities and we have over 150 events being presented by 33 different organizations. So it is a grass roots ever, like I've never seen. And I will tell you, it's unprecedented. There isn't another state in the United States that's working at this level with this much collaboration between 15 different communities. And so we get to sort of pat ourselves on the back and that way Wisconsin is ahead of the curve. And I think who wins from that is really amazing. I mean, it's the corporations who are looking for that talent, but it's also the Young Professionals themselves who are going to find a way to be connected at a totally different level. Building community in a whole new way. Yeah, I think it's a wonderful thing. I come from the generation that, you know, I always say it started with the electric garage door opener. Yeah. And suddenly you didn't see neighbors anymore. Yeah, exactly. And it went from there. So I think to repersonalize things and reconnect people is so valuable to people. Having a life, you know, having a real life. So it's not all about work. Offline too, right? I mean, we're in this age where we're all connected, but do we really know our neighbors? Do we really know our communities? And do we feel welcome to participate in them? In a lot of ways, YP Week is just an invitation. Maybe you're not in coastal here in Sheboygan. And for whatever reason, you haven't felt like you could ascribe to that organization. But this is your opportunity to check something out, to see a part of town that you've never been to, and perhaps join in coastal and be like a, you know, a member year round, or just have one more step of sort of civic engagement in what this community really is. We want to leave that door open. Yes, because it ranges the whole piece from being part of a social picture to serving in City Hall. Right. Committee. I mean, those kinds of things. Well, and I think some of the criticism of YP Week has been, well, it's a big party, and some of it is a party. I will say that. And I think we need to remember that the sugar has to come before the medicine. You're not going to get people to be like rolling up their sleeves, caring about whatever policy issue. They have no reason to care about the community in the first place. And so it is nice to sort of have a soft, easy landing place for people to get involved. But the other side of it is there's a lot of intentionality around the social dynamic of these sort of programs. And what I've seen that has been a difference even between last year and this is that the leadership, the YP leadership, is being really, really thoughtful about how can we inspire civic participation around the issues that really matter in each of these communities? Because every community has parts of it that need to be improved. And how can we use a program like YP Week to inspire that sort of engagement? Whether people pick it up long term is up to their own volition. But this is sort of a very bright beacon we're hoping to attract young people from across the state. Well, very well put. So what special activities have you cooked up for the YP Week this year? Well, it kicks off with our annual sort of opportunity to honor employers who get it. We do something called the Bubbler Awards. And it's the best places to work for young professionals. This year it'll be in Appleton and we could not be happier to be there. We'll be actually at an airplane hangar next to some vintage planes. So all of the programs are super dynamic that way. The other thing that's really interesting is Nuwagi had been hosting a program called the Speaker Crawl, which was a way to showcase 12 different sort of TED talks from different leaders simultaneously. So it's sort of a choose your own adventure type of experience. And we had done this for a few years but now there's several of them happening in Green Bay, Madison, Wausau. And so it's been nice to see some of the other groups really adopt some of these best practices to be able to really, really churn out amazing and dynamic content for their attendees in their own cities. I know that during our first year, you know, it was a scramble. Yeah. I mean, I think we found out about it a couple of months ahead of time. And you know, an amazing team of people put together a great set of things for people to do. And we had an excellent turnout. Oh, I know. I mean, I think that's really the amazing part for the organizers of this because it's 15 cities, all like singing from the same hymnal. We've seen time and time again that the sort of parent organization in each community gets to benefit from the fact that they're producing this program in both member acquisition but also member engagement. And in a lot of ways, I think it helps justify some of those corporate sponsors who are saying, well, I have all these young people who work here. Is there a way for us to directly connect them to our organization? And YP Week is a really like turnkey solution for that. It is. And it's all about growing roots. Mm-hmm. I mean, it really is rooting people into your community. Right. So very important. The Sheboygan County Chambers Coastal Young Professionals, as I said, it has participated in YP Week last year. And Carissa, before we get into coastal events for YP Week, tell us a little bit about the Coastal Young Professionals Network that's here in Sheboygan County. The Coastal Young Professionals, we are a young professionals group within Sheboygan County. We have a wide variety of people, ages 21 to 40, each coming from different companies, backgrounds, interests, things like that. And our goal is to really hold events to then connect them to the community. We have events ranging from 10 people, up to 100, 300 people. And it's a great way for them to mix, not only with newcomers to the area, but also people that have been here for a very long time. And what are the goals and the mission of our Young Professionals Network? The mission is for the young professionals to get connected with the community and then be community stewards and really grow into the next generation of young professionals. We like to say it's an opportunity for young professionals to live the life they want to live within Sheboygan County. Wonderful. Is there a cost? It is free to join. You just have to go to coastalypn.org, coastalypn at Sheboygan.org. And all our events are mostly free, but that's where the cost comes in that somewhere on minimal cost. And I know you try to keep that very reasonable so more people can participate. Yes, definitely. It was just a couple of years ago that our board of directors decided to make it so that people didn't have to pay to join the organization. And also, I think it's good to point out that the word join is an interesting word. Yep. I mean, I don't think you're really joining. You're actually signing up almost as a subscription so that you get all the information coming out and you can make your own decision about what you want to participate in. Completely. You get a wide variety of events as well that it really helps for anyone within the community to join and get connected. And you can always bring friends to the party. Or to the more serious event. Yes. I know some of our focus also is going to be on career development. Yes. Can you tell us a little bit about what's in store there? We're hoping to kind of connect young professionals with people such as, for our Food for Thought series and things like that so they can really learn more about where they want to be and things they can connect with and things like that. Yeah. I know we had Laura Kohler. Yes. And we've had Louie Gentine from Sargento at those events. So I think, yeah, you're right. It's a good way for them to connect and be exposed to leadership and to other opportunities within the greater community. So how's our YP week looking? What do we have in store? We have nine events planned. Wow. I know, really happy. We have one event every day. One day we have two events. Our big event, of course, is our Food for Thought series. We actually have Joan Revanilly Miller from Acuity. She will be there April 29th on that Friday, I believe. And it's a really great one-on-one to not only learn her professional side but also her life challenges and kind of how she got to where she is herself and kind of just telling young professionals on what she would recommend in her situation or what route to take. I think those career discussions are very interesting. Yeah, definitely. I mean, sometimes people didn't really have a plan. And it's good for young people to know that. Yep. Because I think sometimes we think it's so prescriptive. Yep. You know, if you go into this and then you go onto this and then you go onto this. And usually that's not the case. Very rarely. But I think people like to have access to leadership in that way. Why Coastal is a great mechanism for people to be able to access their leadership in a way that it's not like you can just email her and she'll respond until you're her life's Tory. Yeah. It is nice to have sort of mediator there to create that forum. And I think sometimes after they meet, the big plus is that maybe they can email. Right, exactly. You know, when they have a question or an interest in something further. So what's in the future for the whole organization? What do you see happening statewide, Angela? Well, I think that there needs to be some new sort of bold vision outset. Well, you know, this has been a really interesting project. We've been able to traverse the whole state, work with 33 different organizations. All of them have a different sort of rhyme, reason, organizational structure. But what we haven't seen is sort of that big picture. What is it that we want? And people talk a lot about talent or employers are talking about talent. Chambers are talking about talent. The state is talking about talent. But there isn't a sort of defined master plan. And so that I would say is something that I would love to have young professionals participate in the development of. Because at the end of the day, it is going to be their state and their children's state. And so I would love to go as bold to say that, you know, let's make a plan that in five years we quell the purge of talent and five years from that we reverse it. And how can we work knowing that there have been a lot of amazing revelations in this sort of grassroots effort, but it can't just be bottom up. It also needs to be top down. And that is really Nuwaki's objective moving forward is to help shape that story, to shape that vision, and to find a way to connect the young people who are doing things at a very base ground level to the leadership in our state to say enough is enough. We've already chosen it. We want to be here. So how can we convince our peers to either migrate to us or immigrate to us or never leave us in the first place? Wow, excellent to have it start there, you know, rather than where it starts now. And not that it's wrong the way it's happening now, but to make it more centered within that community of young people would be excellent. I mean, I've always said that the more that we can engage young people in these committees on these boards in our communities, because as you said, it is their future. Right, exactly. Exactly, very important thing. So I'd like to thank both of you for being here today. I want to remind the audience that April 25th is our business expo, our peer-to-peer business expo at Blue Harbor. And that is absolutely free admission to those who have a business card who'd like to come to that. Best if you go and register at Sheboygan.org. It makes us be able to figure out how many people are going to be there. We had a very successful one two years ago. This one is promising more of the same and even better. So I encourage you to go out there to our website and have a look at that. In our next segment, we are going to have James Owen from the Three Sheeps Brewing Company, the winner of our Entrepreneur of the Year. Welcome back to Love Where You Live, a production of the Sheboygan County Chamber of Commerce. I'm Betsy Alice. Back with the show, I'm the Executive Director of the Chamber and your host. So in this segment, we have with us James Owen. He's a partner in Three Sheeps Brewing Company, which I'm sure you've heard about. Three Sheeps announced that they were expanding their operation. And this year they were the winner of the Chamber of Commerce Chamber Champions Award for Entrepreneurship. Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. Yeah, glad you're here. Fun to be here. And it's an exciting time for Three Sheeps, that's for sure. It is. Yeah, it's been a very, very busy and fun last three, three, four months here as we prepare to open our new facility. So tell us, let's start by you telling us your story, you know, how you became connected, where you're from, and what got you excited about this whole operation. Sure, yeah, sounds good. So I grew up in New York, so I'm a little bit of an outsider, but I went to school out in the Midwest at Northwestern, which is where I met Grant Pauley, our brewmaster and founder. So we actually were in the same fraternity, he was a few years older than me, and I lived in Chicago for about five years after graduation and was looking to get into the small business world, and I heard about the brewery, actually on Facebook. Grant and I were still kind of connected peripherally, so I started bugging him about it, asking questions, and then eventually coming up more and more, checking out the brewery, helping him out with kind of the grunt work of getting everything going there, because we had a lot of stuff to clean up and get ready before we started brewing beer. So really it was a curiosity at first, and then as I saw things coming together, I became a little bit more obsessed with it and enthralled with it. And I really liked Sheboygan as a town, that was a big part of my decision to move up here, but yeah, I eventually reached a partnership with Grant and moved up here shortly after we started distributing beer in April of 2012, so at that point I'd lived with him and his wife for two months while we were getting everything up and running, and so it just needed to become official and did that happen. I guess it's been four years, which is pretty crazy. Yeah, that's a long time. We're really pleased that you moved here. Me too. I always love to welcome people from other, and from the big city especially, you know? Sure, yeah. So that's great. So you're primarily, you've told me in the sales, marketing, social media aspect, can you lay out for us a little bit how this grew? I mean, how it became such a phenomenon. What's behind all of that? Sure. Well, as most folks know, it's craft beers become a really big growing segment in the past 10 years, and we've grown double digit percentages, I think for at least the last 10 years. Craft beer has kind of chipped away at the big boys, and I think the recent figures were up over 12% of the market share of U.S. beer consumption, which is pretty cool. So that had something to do with it, for sure. Everyone is trying their hand at local beer and craft beer, expanding their taste a little bit. And so that's helped, but it really starts with a beer. You know, grant another big part of me deciding to come up here. I had to be confident in what we were going to be serving and selling. So, and he's really, really talented at... He's basically like a chef in that he is very, very good at finding balance and making something unique in the beer that we're putting out. So we really didn't want to just come out and brew the same styles of beer that everyone else was, so we try to do it as uniquely as we could. And the kicker with that is that we want everything to be drinkable and balanced. And he's very talented at finding unique ingredients and finding that balance and making it a drinkable beer. And hopefully, you know, through the variety of our offerings, have something for everyone. So, you know, the product is huge. And then, you know, nowadays with so many breweries, you definitely have to have boots on the ground. So in the early going, the three of us for the first year, we really had to mostly stay focused on the brewery work aspect of it. But when I could, I got out on the road and visited accounts that we already had picked up through our distributors and those that had heard about us. But we really had a unique situation. We didn't have a tap room or anything. We were in the same building as Hop's Haven, but we had to be production brewery from day one. So we needed to push out a good amount of beer right from the start. And so a lot of it was, you know, getting out there, meeting people with samples in hand that at the time we had the hand bottle and getting them to try the beer and believe in us and kind of tell their friends about it. And that worked from the, you know, from the restaurant bar side to going out there at beer festivals and sampling our beer to consumers and to people who hopefully become fans of our beer. So that's really where it started. Very, very grassroots. And how about in terms of marketing and social media? Is there a strategy that you employ when you're doing looking at those options or is it again kind of an organic fabric? Well, I would say both, you know, it's social media is huge in craft beer, especially something like it. I think my job is a little easier than a lot of folks trying their hand at social media because fans of craft beer tend to be very passionate and wanting to share and wanting to, you know, spread word to their friends about this new beer that they try or this new brewery that they really like. So it's a little bit easier from our side than other companies. But, but yeah, it's been a learning experience the whole thing, the whole aspect of the business. Every aspect has been a learning experience for me. But social media, there's a lot of touch and go. You have to figure out what works, what people like to share, what people like to hear about. And, but when it comes down to it, we're just telling our story and it's, you know, the good people really respond to authenticity with craft beer. We don't really have to, you know, sell. We just share what's going on at the brewery and I've really found that that's what people take to most is, is just telling what we're, what we're up to at the brewery, what kind of beers we're playing around with, funny stories from inside, you know, the brewery and what our plans are, what events we're doing. And, and just, you know, the new piece of equipment arrived, you know, even that can, can get a lot of excitement from the people that really care about, about you and, and about your, and about your beer. So, so yeah, that's been huge. Anytime we have an event, people usually find out about it through Facebook and I hear or Twitter. And I hear about that all the time, which is really fun. System works. It's really great to hear you say this is really fun. It is, yeah. That's for sure. Yeah, we, everyone at the brewery came from different walks of life. Actually, our, our head brewer, now Matt Hoffman, he came up from Lakefront Brewing and he's a very, very talented guy and, and he's actually been in the industry for, for a number of years, but with the exception of him, everyone came from a different walk of life and from outside the industry to, to join us at, at Three Sheeps, including me and Grant. Grant was in concrete. I was in finance. Wow. And so, you know, a big reason for that, we've, you know, I don't think any of us have ever worked harder or longer hours, but it's something that we're super passionate about. And we all, you know, most of it, almost all of it is, is super fun. And, you know, our overtime hours are usually spent drinking beer and talking to people. Taking beer. So it's not, not that rough. I can't complain. So tell us about your opening. You have a tap room on tap. Yeah. Your opening soon. We've got another minute or so. Sure. Yeah. So we quickly outgrew our, our capacity and the tap room, actually, we just kind of lined up our schedule today, but we're finally going to be done with everything. And we're hoping to have our kind of slate of, you know, a couple soft soft opens and then grand opening, April 23rd, that weekend. We'll have events, you know, throughout that whole weekend, a beer release, hopefully some bands and chamber ribbon cutting. We'll have that on the docket, too, for sure. But yeah, we're really excited. I finally have a space to, to host, you know, all the fans of our beer and especially be more of a part of the community here in Sheboygan. Fabulous. So yeah, couple of names. Oh, got to wrap it up, I guess. Yeah. Hey, we want to thank you for being here today. I know we'll see more of you. I encourage everyone to get out to Three Sheeps and try these wonderful beers. Next month, we're going to be featuring Dane Czekolinski, who is the director of the Sheboygan County Economic Development Corporation. He's going to be talking about all of the exciting new developments in our county, as well as the new housing, housing projects, et cetera. And then we also have the John Michael Kohler Arts Center will be here to talk about the Levitt Amp Sheboygan Music Series, which is a wonderful, exciting new development that we have in our community. Thanks to all of you for participating, for watching. Please tell everyone else to tune us in as well. This is Betsy Alice. I'm the executive director of the Sheboygan County Chamber of Commerce.