The Chairman's Corner

By Jesse Chabot

July 2023

In my opinion, one of the best things the CMSA provides is community. I say that because through all the years I’ve been involved with the CMSA, I’ve made many friends, met many acquaintances, and made new business relationships. I have tried to keep in touch with them—some by liking their posts on Facebook, some by sending silly memes on Instagram, and some by talking on the phone. There are certain people I talk to every couple of weeks and gossip about what’s going on in the industry and others I call to ask for advice about the best way to help a certain situation.

This leads me to this month. This month has definitely started like no other summer has. I had high hopes of a great start to a summer season after the convention and that all fizzled out when I noticed the phones were slowing down and we had open days still left in the books.

That said, I started getting calls asking, “Hey, how are your bookings looking? Are your phones ringing? Are you doing anything to get the ball rolling?” That’s how I knew everybody else was kind of in the same boat I was. Some people, even though they were slow, were still offering me words of encouragement, and ideas to book more. One day a couple of weeks in, we were having an office meeting and discussing how bad this month was starting out. It was all doom and gloom. Then I got a call from a CMSA friend, who began explaining that he was slow as well and went into a very inspirational talk that I needed at the time. I thanked him and told him how much I appreciated this talk and how it came at the right time. I think these interactions are what makes the CMSA great.

My competitors that I’m also friends with, we were on the phone talking about how weird this summer is and later that day I got a phone call from a customer that he referred to us because they could not service the customer on their preferred date.

As the month went by, I got a call when I was at Disneyland of all places (shocking) from a member who is working on a large contract up north that I should be involved with down in my area. We talked on the phone multiple times as the week went by, trying to navigate the process and we were both able to submit our contracts in a timely manner after jumping through some hoops and some last-minute scares; but again, I go back to the community that makes being in the CMSA great.

So, I encourage everybody to attend your chapter meetings, meet people, attend the convention, meet people out of your area, go out of your comfort zone, and say hi to somebody. Ask them where they’re from, what they do, and how they’re involved with the CMSA. You never know, that person one day might be able to help you out in some little way or you might hit it off and make a lasting friendship.

This is the time you’ll go a little further in your efforts to do a job, maybe you’ll add marketing to office moving and go further out of your service area to complete a job sometimes just to keep your guys working.

So again, it’s in all our best interests to work together, provide great service to our customers, reach out to our peers, and offer a helping hand or advice.

July 2023 - CMSA Communicator