Allen Fairview's Economic Buzz

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The Allen EDC, the relationship with them has been just a big

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bonus to be a part of that talking about the

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new, Kalahari, that's that everyone

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is the kinda like the new buzz, if you will.

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Howdy, friends, and welcome to the Allen Fairview Insider, the podcast where we

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dive deep into the heart of our community. I'm your host Super Dave Quinn with

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Day One Experts, and I'm here to help bring you the latest and greatest from

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Allen and Fairview. From insightful interviews with our local leaders to

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exclusive updates on community events and developments, the Allen Fairview

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insider is your go to source for staying connected and informed. So

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whether you're at home or at work or on the move, let's get started and

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make the most of our time together.

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Hello, everybody. Welcome into another episode of the Allen Fairview

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Insider podcast. My name is Kyle Jacobson. I'm the CEO of the

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Allen Fairview Chamber of Commerce. And I'm joined today by a special

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guest, Tanya Walker with the Walker Group and our

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2025 board chair. Tanya, how are you today? I'm

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good, Kyle. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. Looking forward to

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the conversation, and we'll get into more of this, but each of our

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board chairs serve a a one year term that is concurrent with the

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calendar year. So you're pretty new into your term

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and, you know, have until the end of twenty twenty five to to serve in

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this position. Why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself

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and your company and give our listeners a little bit of background info, on you,

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Tanya? Sure. Happy to. Like I said, thanks thanks so

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much for having me. I'm Tanya Walker. I am, the

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owner and managing director of the Walker Group. I'm a

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real estate, agent that mainly

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focuses on, residential real estate in the North Dallas

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area. I've been doing this now for, right at thirteen

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years this month, actually. You

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have a really interesting and unique hobby that I would

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bet most of our listeners and members don't share with you. Do you

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wanna tell our listeners a little bit about that? We are

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car enthusiasts. We, you

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know, some people collect little things in life, and we

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just sit on shelves and we collect cars. I am

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loved cars all my life, but we,

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also like speed. So in order not to get

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in trouble on the highways, we took it to the tracks.

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So we we and I keep saying we, but my husband and I

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drag race cars. We we drag race motorcycles

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for many years, and, yes, I I ride the bikes

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too. So we have had street bikes and,

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as well as race bikes, and we've traveled all over the country,

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running them. And now we have,

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our own track, if you will, that we can test and

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tune. Yeah. That's our that's our hobby.

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Do you know and are you comfortable sharing what your record top

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speed is, either on a motorcycle or in a drag car?

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On the street or on the track? Oh, on

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the track. My

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track record is, one sixty five. Holy

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cow. Okay. Yeah. That's that's a little much for me. I would love

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to watch someday and and see that, but I don't I don't know if I'm

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brave enough to get in a car that's going that fast.

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Yeah. Well, you're you're you're a very

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community minded individual, and we'll get into more of the chamber

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side of things, shortly. But talk a little bit

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about your, involvement with other community organizations,

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how long you've been a volunteer with the chamber, and, just give our list our

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listeners a taste of of that part of your professional life.

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Of course. I'm happy to. You know, I've

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really immersed myself into the community, which was not a hard

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decision, when we moved here. We moved here in

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'20, '11 10/11, somewhere in there,

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and made our way over to the Allen location

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very rapidly. And I shouldn't say location, but the within this

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community. About 2012, started realizing

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how exciting it is to be a part of this community and and what can

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I do to be a part of this community? Everybody was just,

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very enthusiastic. And you wanna just be around people

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that are happy. And then what can we do to help other people,

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along the way? So I'm, done a lot with the

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schools. Lovejoy. I lived in Lucas for for quite a number of years,

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so very much involved when I can and when I can, with

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Lovejoy. The, Hartford Teachers and staff,

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done that now. I've done that with them for, I think, four or

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five years as well as I'm on the foundation for Allen

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Schools, and obviously being a part of the

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chamber as a, member, for my

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business. But then the more I was learning about the

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chamber, I wanted to be much more involved in it. So then I went from

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that to being a part of the board. As I said at the outset,

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we're, I guess, now at at the time of recording anyway, a couple months into

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your term as chairwoman. Give our listeners some background

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on everything we've done so far here in the first quarter of twenty twenty five.

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And, yeah, I think a lot of people, they maybe only know the chamber for

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one or two things. You know, if they're replugging with our Tuesday morning live, they

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may not know some of the scope of work we do outside of that event.

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Or if they're an alumni of our our leadership program, they may not know

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what the chamber does outside of that. So, obviously, you've been part of the chamber

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for several years, but, if you wanna if you wanna take some time

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and and and kinda speak to part of your experience as chair so far, early

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in 2025, I think that would be great insight for our listeners. Well, I tell

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you it's been busy. It's been I'd I'm still learning

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all the time of, and every day of what we are

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doing as a chamber, what we can do as a chamber, but we have

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been very busy. We were in Austin last week down there

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for, Allen day, which was such an honor to be a part

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of. We were there with the mayor, the

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councilman, as well as the Allen schools and,

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and several other, as well. And it was just such a

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that was really great. We went down there. We've talked about

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concerns, you know, from from there to here.

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And then as well as promoting the relationships, just

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strengthening all the relationships of the city, the Allen

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EDC, the relationship with them has been just a big bonus to be

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a part of that talking about the new,

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Kalahari, that's that everyone is the kinda

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like the new buzz, if you will. But we also had our

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board retreat early on, and I kinda went backwards there. But

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we did our board retreat, and that was just such a breath of fresh air

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for all of us on the board. To one, have a

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much more clear understanding of what our role

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is for the board, not just to to be on a board,

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but to to really participate, in the board,

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and for the community to also put together our put together

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our responsibilities, and then to put

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together our task force and not really put together at that time, but just

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have the conversation of the task force. And that's what we're working towards. And

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just lots of conversation over what we can do for the schools and the

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and the community as a whole. It is all econ the

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the commerce, if you will, for small businesses, but also a

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big focus on the larger businesses as well. What can we

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do for them, but what can we do for all of them

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in Allen Fairview, we're proud to work alongside the Allen Fairview Chamber

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of Commerce to help business owners build success

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Yeah. It it's a really exciting time, I think, to be part of the

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Allen community. You mentioned the Kalahari announcement, and

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we didn't do this on purpose, but the the timing of that and the initial

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approval from the city council being the day before our trip to Austin Mhmm.

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Created so much good energy for our group that was there. We were able

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to present such a united front with our elected officials and get to

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speak about the benefits of that, resort and development.

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I I think this is not to say that we're a community without

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challenges. You know, every community is working to be a a better version of

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itself, but we have so many good things going for us, Allen and

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Fairview and the entire surrounding area that, it's a it's a good

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time to be able to take a positive message to your elected officials rather than,

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you know, hey. We're our community's falling apart. We need your help with x y.

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Instead, we get to take a very positive message about

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the the benefits of economic development, how business growth

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in our community has helped, enhance our overall,

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our overall community quality of life. So I I thought that was a a

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great trip, and it was awesome to be down there with the school district and

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the city at the same time. And, and, yeah, just be able to present

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a, a united front for our community. And agreed with you

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as well on the on the border tree. You know, that was glad that we

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were able to do that at the beginning of the year and kind of lay

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out a road map for where we wanna be, nine or ten months from now

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when this year concludes and Mhmm. Just kinda get everybody on the same page

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and and chart our course as a chamber and and make sure we're on the

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right path to, best serve our members and, and

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fulfill our mission. So and I on one hand, I I can't

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believe it's already March. But on the other hand, you know, and so there's still

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ten months left in 2025, and a lot has already happened. And so it it

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it's an exciting year ahead, which to that end, you you

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have ten months left in your in your reign as as chamber chair, and I'm

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sure you have big goals, visions, plans, and and

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wanna leave some sort of a legacy for your time as chair. Can

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you talk a little bit about what you hope to achieve and, you know, if

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we were to reconvene a year from now, what you hope, will

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be said about your time as as fair and and and the kind of position

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the chamber will be in a year from now? You know, Allen is such

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an an amazing place to be a part of

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and being a part of the the the Allen Fairview Chamber.

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You know, as far as the legacy, I I hope that it

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brings positive into the the community. Just that that

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enthusiasm that I remember when I first

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arrived to Allen is just being excited to be a part of whatever

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it is to celebrate each and every person that's

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involved in the community. But just an

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inclusion of everyone and and and to develop

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that communication. And not so

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much that that I'm communicating, but making sure that I'm

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I'm listening to what the what the board is

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saying, what you need, what can we do to serve

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our community, and just also in strengthening

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that, relationship with the city and,

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as well as the EDC. I think that that those are the really, really

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big key pieces. It's just the communication and development.

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Awesome. Well, I I think you can speak to our final question

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better than a lot of people. You know, you've, you've sort of

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spanned the spectrum from new resident in Alan, new chamber member, all the

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way now to board chair. And so you've kind of been able to engage with

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the chamber at different, stages in your career, different stages in your

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life. I I like to say that there there's something for everybody at

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the chamber, whether you're a solopreneur or a large company, whether you have an

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interest in public policy, networking, professional development.

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But, I'd like to hear from your perspective as as one of our members and

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now a a volunteer leader of our board to give our listeners kind of an

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idea of the different ways they can connect and engage with the chamber for listening

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to this and thinking about how they can get a little bit more involved with

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us. I would say first

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off, go to the website because there there is a

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calendar of events that we have going on, or

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upcoming. There's all kinds of volunteer,

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opportunities. There's also committees that we we need help with,

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many committees, you know, what and and and we do respect

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people's work hours, family hours, and time,

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but there are so many things, that you can whether it's

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from schools, whether it's from being a part of the advocacy

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group, whether you wanna be an ambassador of the chamber.

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I would just say look on website and then reach out to

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us. Reach out to any of us to have that conversation. I welcome any of

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the communications. I'm happy to to make introductions to

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you, but I know that the chamber staff is amazing.

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Reach out to any of them, and they can also direct you and help you

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to get, involved in whatever, most

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interest to you. Okay. One last thing. I wouldn't be a good chamber professional if

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I didn't let you plug your own business. So if people are if they have

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real estate questions or needs, tell them where they can find you and the Walker

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Group. I appreciate that. I am like I said, Tanya

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Walker with the Walker Group. I am at Coldwell Banker Apex. I

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am local. I am here in Allen. I live and work in

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Allen. My phone number is (469)

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207-8658, and I'm on every,

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social media platform, so feel free to reach out to me anytime.

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Thank you. Thank you for tuning in to the Allen Fairview Insider, the

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official podcast of the Allen Fairview Chamber of Commerce. We hope you enjoyed today's

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episode and found the insights valuable. Don't forget to

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subscribe to our podcast on your favorite platform so you'll

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never miss an episode. Like and share this episode with your friends

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and family to help spread the word about our great communities.

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We appreciate your support and are excited to bring you more

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engaging content. I'm your host, Super Dave Quinn, thanking you on

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behalf of the Allen Fairview Chamber of Commerce for listening and

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reminding you to stay involved, stay informed, and keep making

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Allen and Fairview the best place to live in Texas.