Chasebassadors: A New Business Community in Cannock Chase
Here's the bit I don't usually say out loud.
When I set up Chasebassadors, I knew the idea was good. I wasn't sure I could pull it off.
No group. No event. No room full of people. Just me, a note in my phone, and a fair bit of self-doubt about whether anyone else would actually turn up for it.
Why I started it
Cannock Chase has no shortage of good businesses. What it's short of is somewhere for them to back each other properly, rather than the usual networking routine of swapping cards and forgetting names by lunchtime. I wanted a different Cannock Chase business community, one where value and teaching was at the forefront.
So on 6 July, I started Chasebassadors. No fanfare. Just an idea that Cannock Chase business owners deserved something better, and a decision to build it rather than wait for someone else to.
Ten weeks later, a room full of people
During the first 10 weeks, I reached out to Richard Brooks from the Cannock Chase Chamber of Commerce around the idea of partnering on an event, hoping that the chamber would cross promote the idea. Then Sixty seven days after that initial note in my phone, we ran our first event: Founded on the Chase, at Fallow Forest Cafe & Venue. Fifty business owners turned up on a Friday morning, most of whom had never met each other, to back something that hadn't existed ten weeks earlier.
Our new Cannock Chase business community - ChaseBassadors
Dave James ran a session on speaking with confidence rather than freaking out in front of a room, which is exactly the kind of practical, no-fluff content Chasebassadors is meant to stand for. Mark and the team at Fallow Forest gave us the space without any fuss. And for a couple of hours, it felt exactly like what I'd hoped this could be: Cannock Chase businesses in a room, backing each other, properly.
The moment it actually landed
A few days later, Rob from Red Furnace Media who filmed the event, sent me a video pulling apart what people had actually taken from that morning. Watching it back is when it properly hit me for the first time: this isn't my thing anymore. It's ours.
Since the event, membership has grown from 120 to 168. In a weekend.
I didn't do that part either. The people who showed up, and then told someone else about it, did.
Where it goes from here
The doubt's gone now. What's left is knowing exactly what I'm building, and who I'm building it with.
If you're a Cannock Chase business owner and you're not in Chasebassadors yet, come and build it with us.
Join Chasebassadors → https://www.facebook.com/groups/chasebassadors
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