A great brand is a half step ahead of reality. We need to be out there telling folks we're better than we are. That's what it's about, baby. Is speed. This is the fastest city in the world. Celebrate our inner Ricky Bobby and and just go fast.
How do we think about marketing ourselves to the rest of the world? From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between. This is Get In, the show focused on the Hoosier State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation. Today I'm joined by Matt Mindram, president and CEO of the Indie Chamber. Now Matt has over two decades of leadership experience from iconic Indiana institutions such as Eli Liy, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and Butler University.
He's a proud Hoosier with roots at Indiana University School of Music and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Matt blends creative insight with strategic vision to drive growth and innovation all across the central central Indiana region. Today, we're going to get a pulse on how central Indiana is performing economically versus the Midwest and beyond, how central Indiana is investing in workforce development, and cover a few new initiatives coming down the pipeline from Indie Chamber. Matt, welcome to Get In. Thanks, Nate. Great to be here.
Man, I'm pumped about this one. I've uh got to meet with a few of the staff members from Indie Chamber for a while now, and the stuff you guys are doing is is really moving Central Indiana uh forward in a in a great direction. So, first off, hats off to you and the team. Thanks, Nate. It's an incredible team. uh glad we've gotten to connect with them.
We're excited about the work we're doing. Yeah, absolutely. And I think to to get into the work that you are doing and the initiatives that um that you guys are currently working on, we kind of got to take one step back and talk about Indianapolis, Central Indiana, and how we're performing uh against the Midwest and the rest of the country. And to start with that, it's what stats or uh metrics are you guys tracking at Indie Chamber to see how we stack up? Yeah, great question, Nate. You know, when I started this gig uh 15 months ago or so, if you'd asked me how central Indiana was performing economically, I probably would have said middle of the road uh in the Midwest.
Uh as soon as I had a chance to dig in, I really discovered that things are much better than that. Uh we should be proud of our economic performance in central Indiana. Uh gross domestic product, we're leading the Midwest. And and when I say leading the Midwest, not just on a percentage basis, on an absolute basis versus Chicago and other much larger markets. Uh the same on net migration, so population coming to Indiana, number one in the Midwest. Uh the same is true uh job creation.
Um the same is true of of closing the uh the racial earnings gap. So in fact, we're doing that better than any other city over a million in the whole country. Uh so a ton of really great things to be proud of and excited about. Uh and those are some of the metrics uh we track at the chamber. So that was GDP, it was net migration, racial earnings gap and jobs and job creation. Yep.
Um and is that largely fueled by big enterprise or startups or how do where do you see us winning? That's a great question. When the data came out in late 2023, I sort of assumed you'd be able to to just see pharmaceuticals, for example, is maybe one of the primary drivers with Eli Liy uh crushing it here in central Indiana. And it actually wasn't. uh the bulk of those jobs were coming from midsize and small businesses. They were in professional and financial services.
Uh they were in manufacturing. So really broad-based uh broad-based growth economically and from a jobs perspective. Heck yeah. I love that. And uh and I think that's fun to see startups thriving as well as you know Eli Liy and oh my gosh, have you listened to Dave Dave Ricks? Yes.
He did an interview on the All-In podcast. I I was just so impressed with how he talked about what Lily is doing and fighting obesity and like I am I would put lots of money into Lily stock because I think that they're going to continue to keep ripping. It'll take lots of money to buy one share of Yeah, true. And and with their new investment into Lebanon up in that corridor and and I keep hearing about all these different corridors that are being built across the state, right? Like the life sciences corridor, the hard tech corridor. Like do you have any insight into the different industries that Indiana is diving into?
Yeah, you know what's pretty exciting is uh watching central Indiana get bigger. So, you know, for a long time, I think people thought about Marian County in Indianapolis. Uh increasingly in recent years, folks have thought about central Indiana as including the donut counties, the the nine eight additional counties that surround Indianapolis. And now I think that definition is expanding even further. Uh and folks are thinking about central Indiana really as as everything. I I like to talk about uh the universities.
Uh and it creates a bit of a circle. You go from West Lafayette to Crawford'sville to Greencastle uh to Terode to Bloomington to Richmond to Columbus to Richmond up to Anderson and Muny. all of these uh incredible institutions that were are within a 60 to 90 minute drive of Indianapolis with uh with the interstates uh with 69 being extended down to Bloomington uh with all the development happening along 65 and along 69 the labor shed uh you know the the space that we're thinking about with with workforce and talent looking for jobs uh has really expanded to that degree. So Indie Chamber is focused or or working on all the way out to Crawford'sville and Greencastle and Columbus. So today we represent a 10count area in central Indiana. So it's Marian County in Indianapolis.
It's the eight doughnut counties and then also Bartholomew County which is where Columbus uh Indiana is. So both from a a membership perspective, our 2,000 members, 80% of which are small and midsize businesses uh come from and we represent about 400,000 employees across central Indiana. those businesses do. Uh those are in that 10count area. Uh the same is true for our economic development focus. It's in the 10 county area.
But when we look at partnerships, when we look at collaboration, and when we start to think about strategy, uh truly uh it is out to Terode, it is up to Lafayette, it is down to Bloomington. And as you're talking to whether they're chamber members or just business leaders across the state, what's the big problem they're coming to you at the Indie Chamber with? I'd say talent and workforce uh is number one. Uh, you know, we again, a big chunk of our business is serving existing businesses. A big chunk of our business is attracting new business investment. Uh, and you really can't do either of those things well if you don't have a strong skilled workforce uh, who have the right skills to meet the demands of growing industries.
Uh, so both growing current businesses and attracting new businesses, it it's really all about talent. So, the number one problem that business owners across the state are are coming to you and and talking about is workforce development, talent attraction, and and what programs or initiatives do you see springing up across Indiana that are helping solve that problem for business owners? Yeah, you know, you know, first I'll say uh I mentioned earlier how well we're doing compared to the rest of the Midwest. Um when you zoom out a little bit further, um you'll see that we're not doing the Midwest is not doing as well uh as the rest of the country. There have been some pretty significant population shifts uh really out of the coasts and out of the Midwest, to the south, to the southeast, to the southwest. Uh so there are places that are growing.
You know, Dallas, Fort Worth last year grew by 150,000. They grew by Lafayette, Indiana. Uh meanwhile, we were leading the Midwest with with net migration of about 13,000 uh in 2023. So you're just talking about an order of magnitude difference uh in the growth. Over over 10 times. Yeah.
Yeah. That's That's So 10 times more people move to Dallas than they move to Indianapolis. That's right. But versus like our like who's our who do we compare ourselves to across the Midwest. Yeah. We look at we look at Minneapolis.
We look at Cincinnati, Columbus, Kansas City, and of those Midwest comparators, we are leading. Uh however, Columbus and Kansas City are really right there nipping at our heels. They also were were in the positive. Hey, we're beating Cincinnati. I'll take that. Right.
So So more people are moving to Indianapolis than they're moving to Cincinnati. Amen. Net migration. So the Midwest as a whole though. So you're talking about regions in the south, south, did you say southeast and out west? Yeah, really throughout the south.
Uh southeast, southwest, Texas, uh Texas and Florida. You know, 10 of the I think 10 out of 10 of the fastest growing uh metropolitan areas in the country are in either Texas, Florida or Tennessee, North Carolina is right in there, too. Uh so a ton of places growing really fast. Uh we're growing, so that's good news. Uh we need to keep on the gas there, but there's a lot more work to do. What do you think is helping those regions in the south besides weather, right?
If it's if I don't think that that many people move just because of weather. I know it's a little bit of it, but what do you think is helping the Dallas, the Nashville, uh Charlotte, I think is up there in in net migration. What's helping fuel their growth? Yeah, I mean, you know, weather and and uh natural resources or amenities is definitely a big piece of it. We always hear folks talk about mountains and oceans, but there are places without mountains and oceans that are are growing. Charlotte doesn't have mountains and oceans.
They're a little closer to them, but they don't have mountains and oceans. Uh same with Austin, same with Nashville. Uh I think some of these cities, uh first of all, they all they all exist in lower cost of living, sort of relatively low tax states. Uh one of the things that that is clear from the data is that uh young folks today are increasingly moving to lower cost of living uh places. for a long time. They were all going to the coast.
They were going to Boston. They were going to New York. They were going to California. Uh and I think folks just realized they couldn't afford it. Um once they got out there, we were in Boston recently. Uh the Boston Chamber just did a study and over a quarter of their young people, 25 to 34 year olds, said they're planning to leave Boston in the next few years.
And it's really driven by cost of living. Uh so I do think cost of living is a big deal. uh in finding that balance of a place that's affordable but has what you're looking for, the amenities you're looking for, uh etc. And I think Nashville uh and Austin have done that incredibly well. And you talk about cost of living, like it's not cheap to live in Nashville or Austin anymore. No, it's not.
It's but it's a lot cheaper than New York. It's a lot cheaper than Boston. It's a lot cheaper than San Francisco. Uh and you're right, though, people are starting to get priced out of those markets, too, which is an opportunity for us. Uh because we really do bring a pretty compelling uh balance. What do you think has helped fuel Nashville's explosive growth over the past two decades, decade maybe?
Yeah. 20 years ago, uh, Nashville looked up to Indianapolis on almost every economic metric. So, they were they had half a million less population. They had lower per capita income, lower GDP per capita. Uh, their net migration trends were not as strong as ours. Uh, 20 years later, that has all changed dramatically.
Uh, and I think what's so interesting about Nashville is they really have done it on the backs of a of a brand of a strong identity around Music City. Uh, so that's something we think a lot about. Um, Austin, I think, has largely done the same thing about around weird. They're well marketed. Yeah. Like very whoever whoever did the Music City or Keep Austin weird marketing.
Uh, and I'm whether it's the chamber, the mayor's office, or whatever they did there, like those people deserve a raise. Yeah, agreed. Uh, and I think it's it's always messy. And the story around Austin, uh, around Nashville, we went to Nashville a few years ago. The chamber took a group of about 100 leaders down to Nashville to study municipal marketing and branding. Uh, and it was messy.
Uh, there were a lot of folks around the table who said, uh, you know, country music is our past. It's not our future. Our future is healthcare delivery. Our future is corporate headquarters. Our future is higher education. Uh, but I like to think that there was a smart marketer around the table who said, uh, you know, that's great, but find me a recent college graduate who wants to move to healthcare delivery city, right?
Healthcare delivery city. It just doesn't have the same ring to it. So, you know, I think it was hard to get there, but eventually they coalesed around music. Uh, they leaned into it and today the impact that's had, you know, far beyond the music industry is just evidence. Yeah. And it helps that like country music's cool now.
Like in the last five to seven, I've always thought country music is cool. I love country music. But it wasn't always cool. And now it's like the cool thing, you know? Like Post Malone does this Beyonce does her country album and everyone's like, "Let's pack up. We're leaving New York.
We're going to Nashville." Post Malone who who has his clothes made here in Indianapolis if I'm correct. Really? I can't remember the name of the guy, but there's a guy here in India who makes his outfits. No way. Which is another great story.
Uh, see, I'm going to, this is subtle, subtle foreshadowing to what's going to happen this summer, but we're going to get a producer in here and that'll be one where it's like, Robert, look that up and we'll figure out who and then we'll be able to give it a shout. So, we'll have to go back and do some research and figure out who uh Post Malone's designer or fashion expert is here in in the Circle City. I love that. Speaking of Circle City, right, you talk about uh that's really well known. That's a a phrase that I use. I think we first I first came across uh and got to be in a room with you as we kind of talked about branding of the city of Indianapolis and how we're thinking about marketing our central Indiana region.
So from what you're hearing at the Indie Chamber and all around leaders in central Indiana, how do we think about marketing Indianapolis? Yeah, you know, I think a ton of really great work has happened uh in a lot of places. So, you know, I want to give a huge shout out to uh Visit Indie. They've done just an incredible job. Leonard and Chris. Chris and I have been friends a long time.
Leonard's an amazing peer uh over at Visit Indie. The work they've done there is incredible. Um leaning into the indie brand, sort of getting people uh excited about the visual identity they've created, having all the uh the NDY that you can stand in the eye uh that has been around for quite some time now. They've grown our leisure tourism and our convention business just dramatically, which has led to more investments in more hotels and more convention center space and and the the football stadium and everything else over the years. So massively great work happening in the tourism space. Uh and related to that, I think the sports corp as well.
You just think about the work that's happened around sports in Indianapolis and what that has meant uh to this place. Uh and it's incredible. Uh I do think there's an opportunity for us though especially around uh talent and workforce. Uh no one not as many folks have been thinking about how do we get folks to come here not just for a visit but come here to live here and stay here and work here. Uh and the same is true when it comes to to economic development and getting businesses to come and think about locating here. So we we've spent a lot of time thinking about especially with talent what drives them uh what drives folks uh to think about where to move uh what drives them as they're uh assessing the sort of uh uh their perception of of the city that they live in whether it's Indianapolis or somewhere else.
Uh so we did a ton of work last year with a ton of partners those I mentioned and and a half dozen or a dozen more. uh to really dig into that. Um what drives people to make decisions about where to live? Where does indie exist uh sort of on the spectrum versus our competition and where them where might there be an opportunity for us to lean in uh in a real meaningful way? Well, so you did the research, the data. What is the perception of Indianapolis to people that don't live here?
It's either a blank slate or uh they immediately think about racing and sports. uh you know you don't have to go you can go around the world uh and people when you say you're from Indianapolis people will say uh you know Indy500 I was in Athens Greece when I was in college got in a cab guy said where are you from I said Indianapolis he said vroom vroom uh so you know I just think that is and then he asked about Bobby Knight next which I thought was uh was fascinating but uh people know us around the world for racing and a good buddy of mine uh Christian Anderson I don't know if you know Christian well yeah uh or if he's been on the podcast but we are known around the world for something that is objectively cool. Uh speed, innovation, fast cars. Uh we should we should be leaning into that. So I think that is definitely an opportunity. And and when you compare us to other cities in the Midwest, Minneapolis is known for a mall.
Cincinnati is known for known for chili. Uh Chicago, fascinatingly, is known for for their restaurants, but I don't think they're going to be the restaurant capital of the world uh anytime soon. And so it's pretty cool uh that we do have awareness uh throughout the Midwest, around the country, and around the world uh for something as cool as racing. Yeah, speed is like a badass thing to be named or to be known for, right? It's like I mean m it's like music, speed, like those are cool. Like sports that's fun, you know, that's that's a good branding.
And I think that a lot of times I sit in conversations and people are kind of hesitant. It's like, you know, Indie is just known like we're just known for for speed in the Indy500 and you almost want like but we have all this other great stuff and we almost want to like stiff arm the fact that we have the largest single day sporting event that happens right here and not like I mean you don't want to totally be like you know Indy500 has its uh brand and image and it's there's a lot of legacy and amazing stuff there but it's also some like I mean hillbillies drinking beer in the center and you don't want to be totally known for that either, right? But how do you see people in the conversations that you're in talking about whether we embrace that or do we go an opposite direction? How do we think about marketing ourselves to the rest of the world? Yeah, it's it's a journey just like it was in Nashville, I think.
And and you know, if there's one thing I know after a lot of uh branding experience at Eli Lilly and at Butler and at IMS, uh it's so subjective and it's so emotional, right? Everyone has things they really like. There are folks who are, you know, really attached to Naptown, folks who are really attached to Circle City. I think we find when we go outside of of the Indianapolis bubble though, those brands are either not known or if they're known, people don't know what they mean uh or they have a negative connotation uh to them. So, you know, I definitely think uh that it's going to be a journey for us uh sort of identifying how people react to this, how people are willing to lean into it. Uh you mentioned, you know, speed being associated with racing.
I I think that's the key. uh it immediately conjures uh an image of the race. It immediately resonates. It makes sense. And that's huge. It is so hard to build association with something new, right?
I mean, if you're if you're a brand builder, you can't just pick something out of the sky and say, "We're going to be we're going to be the Silicon Valley of the Midwest." People keep talking about that in a variety of places and it's never really worked anywhere. Uh because people don't know any place in the Midwest for that. The folks and you're trying to be something else. Well, it's like an asterk by it. It's like the greatest cup of coffee in the world if the world was only in Indianapolis or you know, it's like the little asterk of like the Silicon Valley of the Midwest.
That's a mouthful. Or, you know, a great place to raise your family. Absolutely. We're a great place to raise your family. Uh, you know, a place inexpensive cost of living. Absolutely inexpensive cost of living.
Uh, there was a great uh Drew Classic, uh, who's a professor at IU Indianapolis. um when I was in a leadership development program a decade ago uh he said that Indy's brand is cheap almost cool uh and he's probably not wrong about that uh but I think there's a lot better ways we could say it yeah no one wants to move to the cheap almost cool capital of the world but I'm sure there were similar conversations around that table 20 years ago in Nashville right 2005 Toby Keith was ripping and they're like we don't want to be known for country music and banjos you know and now like with the shift of country music being cool uh it's awesome like it's a great place to be and and it's vibrant and I think with the shift of F1 making racing cool like racing is up and to the right you know people are all about speed and the showmanship behind these races and to host the biggest race the biggest sporting event in the world I think leaning into that just enough to really capture like this interest from the rest of the world when at a time when racing is cool like drive to survive is that Yeah, right.
Like F1 is and I actually I asked Doug what we have to do to get an F1 race and um it's a long conversation. It is a long convers and people I posted that clip and got like 500,000 views or something and people are Andy doesn't need a race. They had a race blah blah blah. Like F1 people are passionate. That's one thing. Well, you talked about the big problem, right?
So obviously there's the marketing and brand of Indianapolis. Uh how the world perceives us. And I thought there was an interesting piece or a fact that I uh from the the committee meeting that I was on that I always call it the circle city, but like you go out in the middle of Kansas and say, "Have you ever been to the Circle City?" And the majority of people have no idea what you're talking about. Yeah, that's right. And even the majority of people here in Indianapolis can't say what it means or what, you know, what you should take from that brand.
So yeah, I think you know, and by no means are we suggesting that any of those other monikers need to go away. uh we'll always have monument circle will always be the circle city uh we'll always in some uh ways be nap town I think hopefully that takes a more positive connotation and a cultural connotation uh which is where the direction that's been heading we do think it is time to lean into something that resonates and really communicates our authentic compelling differentiating value proposition for folks uh and you know the the race and the immediate uh connotation with the race is one thing It goes so far beyond that, right? Just during the process this this past summer while we were doing this work, I was watching a Pacers playoff game and they were doing the flyover before the game and the SPN announcer came on and said, uh, welcomed Indianapolis, the world capital of speed, where speed is the essence of these Pacers.
And you know, the Pacers were the highest scoring team in the NBA last year. But there's a lot of different ways to talk about highest scoring. They chose to say speed. They chose to talk about speed. And you know that's because they're in Indianapolis, the world capital of speed. Yep.
And then Mike Jico uh watching Cole Hawker win the 1500 in the Olympics. Uh Mike Jericho immediately afterward, right off the cuff said, "Doesn't that get you out of your seats?" Cole Hawker from the city of speed, uh Indianapolis. So I just love that because the other thing I know about good brands and good marketing, uh it's when you lean into something that's already out there, right, that you can be really effective. And this is already out there. And those two examples have nothing to do with racing, right?
Racing is the easy one. But those two examples are about Olympic sports. Um they're about basketball, uh which of course we're known for. And then you start thinking about the applicability of speed and the importance of speed outside of sports and racing completely. You mentioned uh Eli Liy in Lebanon earlier. Uh one of the things that Dave Rick said several times last year is that it's all about speed.
We want to be the fastest. the currency of growth is speed and they would not have located they would not have invested in Lebanon if it wasn't shovel ready if it wasn't ready for them to go. So that's 13 14 billion dollars of investment that we got because we were the fastest uh from an economic development perspective. Speed. There's like a great quote from Ricky Bobby that I won't put out there but it's that's what it's about baby is speed. That's what I said.
We all uh um I said at the beginning of this, I'd love to get to a place where we can all sort of uh celebrate our inner Ricky Bobby and and just go fast. This episode is brought to you by our friends at Roots Reality Co. the absolute best real estate team here in central Indiana. Listen, if you're looking to buy, sell, or invest in real estate, you need people who actually care about our Indiana community. That's Tyler and Max over at Roots Reality. These guys aren't just slinging houses.
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I love that. It's like Indianapolis speed to get a house is so like how do you make how do you make what is it cheap and almost cool? How do you make cheap and almost cool cool? That's the thing. It's it it's interesting because there's also one of the other uh messages we think we can deliver with speed and speed city is it's the fastest place to accelerate or start your life and your career. Uh what you just said about a house.
Yeah, houses are cheaper here than in other places. But what does that mean? It means you can buy your home three or four years earlier, your first home three or four years earlier than folks in other places. And that's true. That data is there. Uh you can pay off your student loans faster.
you can uh you know start a family faster because we see all this data about folks starting families so much later because of cost of living and the expense of it uh you know you don't have that problem uh here in Indianapolis it's all about speed baby Indianapolis the city of speed I love it man well I want to dive into the the big problem that you talked uh about that that business owners and business leaders across the state are dealing with that's talent attraction talent retention I've seen a stat I always butcher stats so I don't even try to get them right but We help educate a lot of people, you know, IU, Purdue, Notre Dame. We export a lot of college graduates to other places. They come to Indiana for four years and they go somewhere else to grow their career. How is the state thinking about solving that problem of uh retaining our college graduates and scaling up the current market of Indiana?
Yeah, it's it's such a great question and you know there are really three levers when you think about uh skilled workforce. One is developing homegrown hooers and and love to talk about that. The second is what you're digging into which is retaining college graduates and then the third is attracting folks who don't currently live in Indiana uh here whether they're boomerangs you know which is you know somebody who's who's got an Indiana connection or whether they're just brand new entrepreneurs or brand new uh workforce who's looking for a place to live. All right. So, let's start at the first one then. Sure.
Developing homegrown hooers. So, from a workforce attraction, retention, upskilling, how is the state or indie chamber thinking of developing homegrown hooers to help meet these workforce needs? 90,000 Hoosiers roughly turn 18 every year. Uh around 81,000, so 90% of them are graduating from high school. That's not bad. Love for it to be 100%, but that's not bad.
uh only about 55% are pursuing any sort of post-secary credential. Only 55% are going to college or going to uh trade school. Um that number is way too low. Uh and then unfortunately a small only a small percentage or about half of those complete. So when you think about all the leakage in that in that pipeline, uh we go from 90,000 Hoosiers turning 18 every year to about 30,000 of those 90 who are earning some sort of college or uh trade school uh credential. And without that, they just can't participate in today's economy.
So it's a it's a downer for them. They can't fully participate in the economy. And it's a huge bummer for Indiana employees and for the Indiana economy uh because that's 60,000 Hoosiers every single year who are being left on the economic sidelines and are not an asset for us uh as we think about uh attracting new employers and growing our current business. 90,000 new 18y olds every year. 55% of that start something. Only about a third complete and and only a third of that.
So 30,000 that's where we got that number. 30,000 complete. Yep. Uh any this is not just four-year, bachelor degree, college. This is any sort of postsecary education. Yeah.
Four-year degree, two-year degree, uh you know, trade credential, uh any of those things. Uh how does that compare against, let's say, Ohio, Illinois? Yeah, it's it's about the national average. There are certainly some states that are outperforming us, including some of our neighbors. Uh but it's about the national average. Uh and I think it's easy to sort of say, okay, then we're doing fine.
Uh that's the wrong perspective. If we want to break out from being the tallest of some short geographies when it comes to uh to talent attraction and economic growth, uh we're going to do it on the backs of a larger skilled workforce. And then let's put that I don't know if you'll know this number off the top of your head. How many people are coming from outside of the state to Indianapolis or Indiana to get educated? Yeah, so every fall uh we're importing about 25,000 out of state students. So that's awesome, right?
Right. I mean, we And let me just say, I've had the chance to work really closely with uh I'm an IU guy, as you said, but I've had a chance to work really closely with all of our incredible higher ed institutions. The resources we have here, we have three AAU universities, uh Purdue, Indiana, and Association of American Universities. So, it's it's sort of the upper echelon from an academic perspective. We have so many other incredible private and public colleges and universities across the state. It's amazing that that's become a magnet for talent to the state.
Uh but while we import 25,000 every fall, uh and you mentioned this earlier, we export 34,000 graduates every spring. So we actually have fewer recent college graduates uh every year um than we have. Oh yeah. Yeah. I see that like a 9,000. Yeah.
Okay. So that's good preface for the conversation we're about to go into. I do want to kind of dive in. So 90,000 to 55% of that. What is the state doing to solve that issue? Yeah, I think two big things that that we work on, I think there are a lot of folks doing a lot of incredible things.
Uh the first thing we work on is we do want to encourage folks to continue to go to college, right? The second thing I'll talk about as an alternative to the traditional college path, but we'd like to see more folks every year uh going to our incredible colleges and universities. the the 21st century scholars program which is a program we have been big supporters of and advocates for uh provides some assistance and state uh support for folks uh who might be first generation college students haven't had the same upbringing and opportunity or exposure to that opportunity that others have had. We want to see increased college going of students who are ready to go to college. Um there are other students who uh college may not be the best fit for them uh initially. So, you know, they might not prefer the classroom environment.
They might prefer the work environment. Uh they might like the idea of taking some time before they go to a four-year degree, earning some money, building some skills and experience. And in Indiana and across the country, we've really never had a good alternative for for those types of students. A 100% of our students go through a college preparatory experience in high school. Uh even though only a third of them will ultimately earn that college degree in Indiana uh and and be able to use it. So we have been working uh with a bunch of partners to support an initiative called the Indiana career apprenticeship pathway or youth apprenticeship.
Uh when you think of apprenticeship you immediately think about uh the trades and you think about adults. Uh our focus has been uh how do we take that and expand it to all uh industries all functions and to to young students to high school students uh high school and college age students. Uh the chamber took a group. I mentioned the the trip to Nashville earlier. We took a group in 2023 to Zurich, Switzerland. Uh and the reason we went to Zurich was not just the sites, although it's a beautiful place.
Um it's because they have this incredible apprenticeship model where 70% of their high school students instead of the traditional college prep path uh go down this work-based learning path of apprenticeship. They spend anywhere from three to four or five years uh with part of their time in the classroom learning relevant skills to their chosen profession and the rest of their time they spend in the workplace. Uh and that means they come out of that experience with money in their pocket, with a job, with a credential of value, with a network. Uh and that is that is really unique. So we're interested in how we can bring that same model uh here to to the United States and specifically how can Indiana lead the way. uh and thanks to the leadership of of Clarifying Green in particular at the Fairbanks Foundation.
This has just been a passion project for her uh and she has just done an incredible job. And then great part Dave Becker is her from First Internet Bank is her uh co-chair. Uh but we've had incredible support from the government uh the governor and the legislature, incredible support from higher ed and IvyTech and uh incredible support from uh employers as well. So we're excited about this. We think Indiana can lead the way for the United States uh in uh pioneering this youth apprentichip model and like what kind of jobs are you placing these or placing these kids or skilling them up for? Yeah.
And that's the big uh difference and there's a bit of a marketing challenge here too because people hear apprenticeship and think electricians and plumbers and that's great and that's a huge important part of the economy and we need more electricians and plumbers and those are great jobs. So we do hope some folks will pursue apprenticeships in those trades. Uh but in Switzerland uh you can get an apprenticeship in retail banking, you can get an apprenticeship in marketing, you can get an apprenticeship in data analytics uh in teaching uh in elementary education or or secondary education. Uh you can become a nurse um through apprenticeships. So it's really the whole gamut. Uh here we focused initially on a few industries uh where there is just incredible demand for workforce.
uh those industries are uh healthcare and life sciences uh advanced manufacturing and banking and insurance. So uh those are the places we started. We're now expanding that to construction and the trades uh to micro electronics and IT uh and to hospitality, tourism, uh and and sports. Uh so some of the industries we're best known for. Uh so we're excited about it. Uh we're hoping to start enrolling some students this fall uh in the apprenticeship model.
the there were changes to the diploma, changes to legislation to allow all this to happen, uh that we advocated really hard for uh and now we're excited to see where it goes. The hope is to have 50,000 Hoosiers participate in apprenticeships over the next decade. 50,000. 50,000. Holy smokes. I think I saw something about like the new diplomas or something that were this was put into effect where it's like realizing the college not all the degrees are built for college preparatory and some of them are built for getting your apprentichip and going into whether it's the trades or an industry to go get a job.
Um I do remember seeing this come through probably this past November. Yeah. And you know, among the partners that have been incredible supporters of this work include Secretary Katie Jenner and Commissioner Chris Lowry at the Department of Education and the Commission for Higher Education, respectively. Uh, and so a lot of work has gone into, you know, what are the infrastructure changes we need to make to allow for this kind of model. Uh, so they've been incredible partners. Um, and and we're really excited uh that both of them, you know, have have continued to stay in their roles here in the broad administration.
So the first pillar of talent attraction, workforce development. starts with the high school kid, right? I think you said developing homegrown users. Yep. So, making sure people are prepped whether the route is college or it's trade school or it's getting a job like going to become contributing members of society. That's great.
The next piece is there's this deficit of 25,000 new undergrads start. What was the number? Yeah. Every fall we import 25,000 new students from out of state, which is amazing. We can expose them to Indiana. They'll be here for four or five years.
Uh but every spring we're sending out 34,000 college graduates. Um so we are net sort of losing recent college graduates at the moment. So how is the state thinking about flipping those numbers, right, where we're keeping more college graduates than we're losing. Yeah, I think there there's two ways to think about it. Uh and I think a lot of focus um at the state house and elsewhere has been do we need to change uh the inputs? Do we need to require colleges and universities, public colleges and universities to have more uh Indiana students in their incoming classes?
Uh and I think that's interesting and I understand the reason that they'd want to go down that path. My sense is uh it's not the right path. Uh we should lean in to the fact that our colleges and universities are attracting so many students from around the world. You know, not that long ago, Purdue and IU were 60 70% instate students. Today IU is about 50/50. Purdue is about 6040.
uh out of state and that's a reflection of the improved reputations and and all the folks from around the country and around the world who want to be here. I would rather see us focus on keeping those out of state and international students who come to those colleges and universities here in Indiana. Yeah, it's like a good magnet of like people's first exposure to the state of Indiana, right? You come to one of these great institutions and then you have to make the conscious decision to pick up and leave and because you maybe don't feel like you're a part of the community or you haven't gotten entwined into the business culture or there just you don't see the easy pathway for your life after graduation here. That's right. And and I do think uh you know when I was a student at IU had a lot of friends who were from the northeast in particular and around the country uh the number of them who never came to Indianapolis except to go to the airport uh was staggering.
Right. And so I think one of the first uh opportunities we need to look at is how do we get students from around the state but especially those uh within a 60 to 90 minute drive of Indianapolis. How do we get them here? Uh how do we expose them to Indianapolis earlier in their college careers? um give them a curated experience, allow them to see all the great things that we have to offer here because if if they never get here, if they never see it, if they never experience it, likely they're not going to pursue work-based learning opportunities here, like an internship here, uh or a co-op here. And if they don't do that, the chances that we can keep them full-time are slim.
Yeah, that makes a lot of I I didn't know that number was so high where it's people come to the airport and then they just take 465 or whatever and they get to their university and they never go and you know go out downtown and check out what's going on. Go to a Pacers game, go to a Colts game. That's right. And you know, Columbus, Ohio does better than us on college graduate retention. And I think they've got a bit of an unfair advantage because the largest state school in Ohio is in Columbus, which is a place where where you can uh start your career, build your career, have a have a life, and all Ohio State graduates could do that. Uh I mean, I love Bloomington uh like nowhere else in the world.
But I knew as a college student at IU that I probably couldn't uh build my whole career uh in Bloomington. Yeah. It's like you can't graduate. And what's an IU graduating class every year? I mean, it's 10,000ish, right? Like you can't have 10,000 people stay there every single year.
Whereas in Columbus or something like that, like you could definitely have a lot of Ohio State grads stay there. That's right. Huh. So how's the state thinking about solving the problem? Right. So first get people more exposed to Indianapolis.
Yeah. I think uh and you know this is an emerging area if I'm being honest. It's been a big topic of discussion for us and we've been uh socializing these ideas and I think had really positive reception from employers uh and certainly employers need to be a big part of this exposing folks to the the the work and employment landscape. Uh, I think our cultural and sports and entertainment and culinary partners are all really excited about the idea of of meeting new customers. Uh, and then similarly, I think our our colleges and universities are excited about the idea as well. Uh, it makes a lot more sense to let the free market to compete, let Indianapolis compete for their talent.
Uh, and so I think everyone's pretty excited about the idea. More to come on this. uh it's going to be a big area of focus for us and for Blaine Zimmerman uh on our team who you know uh this is a top priority for him is is working with those partners to figure out how we keep more of these college graduates in Indiana. All right folks, Mother's Day is around the corner and I'm going to help you get prepared. Ditch the Amazon or Target candle and get mom something from Warm Glow Candle Company. They're based out in Centerville, Indiana and they make some of the best candles I have ever smelled.
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com to check out all their amazing scents. Now, let's get back to the episode. Okay, I like that. And then there, what was the third pillar of uh Yeah, the third pillar is is attracting new talent, right? So, this is and we talked about the brand earlier. I think the brand is an important piece of this.
We need folks uh outside of Indianapolis to think differently about Indianapolis, which we hope will uh make them more likely to consider us uh when they move. Uh, another interesting opportunity in that in that third pillar is uh the so-called boomerangs. Uh, so folks who went to college here but left, folks who are from here but left the state to go to college or left the state for a full-time job, but they're a few years in, maybe they're discovering uh that the cost of living in Chicago or the cost of living in Nashville uh is higher than they they'd like, especially as they're thinking about starting a family, uh getting married, settling down. Uh we see a lot of those folks come back organically. Uh we're having some conversations and this is not a new idea. Mitch Daniels when he was governor focused a lot on this.
Uh but I don't think we've quite cracked the nut yet, but we think there's a lot of promise in let's go get them. Let's not wait for them to come to us. Uh let's go promote to them. Let them know all the great things that are waiting for them here in Indiana. Like how are you promoting that to boomerangs? Like people that move away to get them to come back.
Yeah. You know, really both college students and boomerangs are a marketer's dream because we know who they are, right? The data is there. uh you've got to assemble it from a various a variety of different sources. Um but we know who they are. We know where they are.
Uh especially with college students, we know how to reach them. Uh we just need to do it. We need to to identify that target audience. It's tens of thousands of people. It's not millions of people. Uh and then we need to tailor really compelling messaging leaning into that new uh brand talking about uh speed and all the things they'll be able to do here in Indianapolis uh really fast.
Uh and then we need to go deliver it the way any marketer would. So, if you could if you could go out there and have 10,000 conversations to someone who moved away from Indianapolis, what would you tell them? Uh, that this is the fastest city in the world. It is a place where you can come uh you can experience worldclass sports. You can have an incredible career, build an incredible career. You can get from downtown Indianapolis to suburban, urban, rural, uh, to to some of the best state parks in the country to Lake Michigan.
You can get to all these places really quickly. from central Indiana. Uh the quality of life is extraordinary. Uh but it's not slow. Uh there is so much opportunity uh to lean in here, build a great career here, grow an incredible family here, and hopefully uh continue to help us thrive. We're going to clip that and go, "Send this to your friend who moved out of Indiana."
And then boom, there's your sales pitch. 10,000 people that moved out of Indiana are going to see that and be like, "Shoot, I got to move home now." Right? I do think there's a huge opportunity for that. uh when they already have ties here, whether it's family uh or or they're from here and it's like, oh man, I do see a lot of people that move away and they're like, I want to get a different experience. And a lot of them, again, this is my circle, but a lot of them end up coming back cuz like there is something special and it's hard to market just what is so special about Indianapolis.
Like it's hard to tell people. I know the biggest thing everyone says is like you're only one one phone call away from anyone you want to meet in the city or whatever. And it's like, how do you really market that? But it's so true. It is true. And we we see that as speed, too, right?
I mean, the your ability to build a network here fast. And I'm I'm a great example of that. I'm not from here. You know, I chose uh after I graduated from IU, I went out east for three years. Uh I was working for Lily in New York and then I came back uh working for Lily here in Indianapolis. the speed with which I was able to build a network, get plugged into the community, and and sort of have those roles and jobs that you talked about at the beginning of the podcast.
I just can't imagine in other places being afforded that opportunity. Are you from Indiana originally, right? I'm I'm not. I'm from I'm from Champagne, Illinois. So, Champagne, Illinois to IU, then you went up to New York and then you came back. Yeah.
Yep. Heck yeah. And you could have gone back to Champagne, I'm assuming, right? Like that was that a thought for you? Yeah. Uh, you know, actually I went to high school in West Lafayette.
So, I grew up in Champagne, went to high school in West Lafayette, uh, undergrad in Bloomington, went out to Boston. Where'd you go to high school in West Lafayette? I was at Harrison. Oh, okay. So, your family moved to West Yeah, my dad was staff at uh, at University of Illinois, ran the student union, and then he did the same thing at Purdue for 25 years or so. Just retired a few years ago.
Um, so I'm sort of a Big 10 brat. Uh, you know, I grew up around University of Illinois and then around Purdue, uh, and then around IU. Almost went to Michigan. Uh, I was really interested in you going to Michigan for grad school. Uh, ended up at Harvard instead. But, um, but it was Oh, ended up at Harvard instead.
It was cheaper. It was a better deal. No way. Good for you. Uh, that's a fun we go spend time in three different Big 10 cities and and you're talking about So, you went up and and you went to New York and then you decided to move back. What was attracting to Indianapolis for Yeah, you know, I was probably predisposed.
Although, I think in in my heart, uh, I missed it. And as I got to Boston, spent a couple years in Boston, I think I did get a little bit homesick, but I was looking hard for a job outside of Indiana. I thought maybe Chicago, uh, maybe the Northeast, but I was ultimately drawn away from financial services and consulting, which was what a lot of my classmates were doing, uh, toward an operating company. I wanted to go build something, make something, run something. Uh, and thought about going to consumer package goods company like a Proctor and Gamble or a General Mills. Uh, but then I I wondered how I'd feel getting up every morning, going to bed every night, thinking about cereal.
Uh, and instead thought, you know what, I want to I want to go learn how to be a great marketer. Uh, but I want to do it uh in an industry that that is mission aligned for me. Uh, so that's what took me to Lily. Uh, and I wasn't looking to come to Indianapolis. I just thought Lily was the best of the pharma companies uh that I engaged with out there in Boston. Uh and that led me back here.
First time I lived in Indianapolis was when I was an intern for Lily. Heck yeah. Uh I think I have a similar not actually that similar at all but not from Indianapolis. Uh came here after I graduated from Depal. And you talk about speed like building a community of I mean I in five years went from I was like a general business development guy at an insurance company when I was in Orfell to like running a company that promotes state of Indiana and I have amazing guests on and have built like my dad didn't play golf with anyone that I get to bring on the the podcast. Like it's all from people that took a call from me or like answered an email or a text or and it's just incredible.
Like you could truly build this momentum and the speed of your career of your family. I I could go on and on. Yeah. I mean, you just mentioned the or fellowship, right? I mean, I think one of the things for us that's so important about all of this is uh when we think about Indy's brand, it's it's not it doesn't belong to the chamber. You know, we have we have tried really hard to help quarterback the effort and convene collaborators and partners.
Uh but whether it's the OR fellowship, uh whether it's Visit Indie, whether it is uh any of the other, you know, whether it's IU, whether it's Purdue, whether it's employers, uh we all own Indie together, uh and Indy's identity together. Um, so I'm excited to work with folks like Stephen and the or fellowship to to lean in on this. Well, that could bring us right into this segment is the younger years segment brought to you by our friends at Orf Fellowship. They're a great organization here in Indiana helping develop young business leaders across the state. So, Matt, what advice would you give to your 22-year-old self? You know, I I had such an unusual journey that I'd be afraid to make any decision differently uh than I did.
I I'm pretty proud of having no regrets. Although, I do think if I if I step back and think about the journey, there were probably a lot of ways that it could have gone wrong. Uh so, honestly, I I would tell my 22-year-old self not to change a thing. Um because I'm just so happy uh with the way things have turned out personally, professionally. I'm glad to be here in Indianapolis. So, yeah, I'd tell him not to change a thing.
That's good advice. You know, keep keep rolling, keep on keeping on. as you look forward to what's coming down the pipeline for Indie Chamber, like what are some initiatives coming in 2025 and beyond that we can be excited about? Yeah, you know, we we really do three primary things. We we serve existing businesses in central Indiana. I just came from uh one of our Hispanic Business Council events this morning where there were a couple hundred people getting together to hear from their colleagues and their peers uh about ways to to grow personally and professionally and to to succeed in business.
You know we we have a robust set of service offerings for business. We have master classes where you can come in and learn uh about something that is really relevant today. Think about cyber security or think about digital marketing. Uh or think about the DEI landscape. Uh you can learn about sort of what others and what best practices are in those spaces. Uh we make loans.
Uh we're one of very few chambers across the country uh that also has a community development financial institution. Uh so we make loans to small businesses, gap loans, uh grow provide growth capital, uh especially to folks who may be unbanked or underbanked, so might not have an established credit score, be able to go get that loan from a traditional bank. Uh so that's another uh service. How does someone go about getting involved in that program? Yeah. So the business ownership initiative uh is uh is the name of of the lending initiative and if you just go to indiechamber.
com, you can find your way uh to those resources and many others. So coaching, training, education, master classes, loans. Um we helped small businesses uh navigate big company procure procurement processes. Right? So one of the big uh barriers that small businesses have to crossing the chasm and growing uh is how hard it can be to break through Eli Liy's uh procurement structure. Uh we have worked with partners like Eli Liy and like Highu Health and like Elevance and Anthem and others across the community uh to teach those small businesses here's how you do it.
here's how you cross that chasm, take the next step in your growth. Is there like a poster child business, a small business that you guys have helped and that have has been out there crushing it? I'm going to I'm going to get this wrong, but uh one of my favorite stories, I think it's market uh market square popcorn. Um small company came to BOI for a loan uh when they were brand new. We provided them with a loan. Um they got exposed through some connections uh to folks at Patient Sports Entertainment and folks related to the All-Star game.
uh ended up having the opportunity to engage with their popcorn around uh all-star festivities last year. Uh that led them to more exposure to where they needed the larger space. So we provided them a loan to help them move into a larger space, buy more capital equipment. Uh and now, you know, they're helping us go out and convince others that that this is a great opportunity. Market Square Popcorn. I believe it's Market Square Pop.
Heck yeah. That's awesome, man. Any other any other programs, initiatives that people need to know about? Yeah. So, you know, again, I think that's sort of serving existing businesses. Uh the second big thing that we work on is attracting new businesses.
I know you just had Mayor Scott Willis on the podcast recently. Uh love Scott. I love uh all of our regional mayors and all of our regional leaders. So we've got what's called the Indie Partnership, which is about 25 municipal and county partners from across that 10 county region. It includes Mayor Willis in in Westfield. It includes Mayor Fininkham in Carmel.
Uh Mayor Jensen in Noblesville, Mayor Stair in Zensville. Mayor Gentry in Lebanon. Mayor Meyers in Greenwood impressive. Yeah, we've got uh all these municipalities, incredible partners doing incredible work. But again, it's all about working together, right? when when although you heard uh just how ambitious Scott Willis is up in Westfield and all the great things happening there, we've got ambitious mayors and ambitious leaders across the region and that's great and sometimes we can be competitive.
Uh but sometimes we need to zoom out and work together. Uh one voice, let's go sell folks on central Indiana first and then let's fight over it. uh once they've decided to come here to the Indie region into central Indiana. I'm actually heading right after this to what we call our Accelerate Indie Council meeting. And it's all those mayors uh and town council presidents uh from the municipalities that are in the partnership. It's also all of our biggest corporate stakeholders and corporate investors.
And then it's a bunch of civic and philanthropic and higher education leaders, 40 or so people who who are the folks who are going to determine where Indie goes next. Uh so I'm just so proud and so excited to be able to be the convenor and and at times sort of the quarterback uh of this economic development effort for central Indiana. So that's the next big uh pillar for us and more to come there. Uh the final one we've already talked about talent. Man, it's all about uh workforce and homegrown hoosers, college uh graduate retention and attracting those boomerangs and new Hoosiers. Well, I mean, this has been a master class in how to better sell central Indiana to anyone that that might be hesitant or, you know, not quite sure if it's the place for them to grow their career.
I think whether you're, you know, looking to start a family, you're looking to be in a great entrepreneurial ecosystem, you're looking for speed, like there's a place for you here in central Indiana. And I hope that people share this podcast out as like a little sales pitch for it starts with us, man. And I think that's the thing that has changed in Nashville. You can feel it. People are proud to live there. And I think privately people in Indianapolis and the India region are proud to live here, but they don't do a great job telling that story.
I think there's this hoosier humility uh that is out there and exists. We need to trade, you know, a bit of that Hoosier humility for a bigger dose of confidence. Uh a great brand is a half step ahead of reality. We need to be out there telling folks we're better than we are. Uh and today we're not even telling them uh how great we really are. Well, there's someone out there that's marketing how great the state of Indiana is all the time and has dedicated his life and career to it thus far, right?
So, uh, join me on this quest of telling people how great Indiana is, guys. It's amazing. And it is so true. Like, the number one thing that I did that that shifted that mindset was when you go up to Chicago or you go to Columbus and people ask where you're from, you say Indianapolis, like with some confidence, some gusto, right? Versus like, yeah, I'm from Indiana. Like, there's nothing.
It's like, no, there is tons of stuff to do here. It is a great place to live and you should be proud of it and talk about it with pride. So then people receive it and and have that image as they uh as they're thinking about it. And the next time you're asked, you can say you're from Indianapolis, the city of speed, Nate. Bang. Let's go.
All right. You have time for the lightning round? Yeah, let's do it. Amazing. Okay, so uh we kind of just went through and talked about you said talked about how great Indianapolis is. If there is one thing you could add to the city of Indianapolis or central Indiana, what would you add?
Uh, I'm going to say an MLS soccer team right now. Let's do Oh man, that's been a that's been in and out. Uh, you have to go back to I think I had Leonard on it. He talked about what's going on with the stadium and how we get MLS soccer, but that would be sweet. Yeah, you know, MLS is in uh it is in growing cities, so there's a lot of other things we need to do too other than just soccer, but uh MLS locates where where young talent is attracted. So, it would be great uh to have that MLS team.
I mean, you talk about business, you went to Harvard. What's been the most influential business book you've read? Uh, the innovator's solution. So, my favorite professor uh at Harvard, Clayton Christensen, he passed away a few years ago. Incredible guy. He coined the term disruptive innovation, which you've probably heard folks talk about.
The innovator solution will change the way you think about uh business and change the way you think about life. Do you know Elliot Parker from High Alpha? Yes. Innovation. His book referenced that book. His is the illusion of innovation.
and he references that book. He's also a Harvard Business School grad. Um, so there there's a whole you go back and listen to that episode. He talks about going through innovation and all that stuff. It's an incredible book. Changed the way I think about things.
Amazing. Okay. So, you gave a shout out to Market Square Popcorn. Is there another small business in central Indiana you want to give some love to? I want to give love to all small businesses in in central Indiana. So, I'm going to stick with that.
Um, you know, I again, we've got 2,000 members. Uh, and they they represent all parts of the economy. Um, it's so fun. You know, this morning I was with folks from Connor Painting. I was with folks from small restaurants. Uh, it's just incredible the diversity of business that's out there.
So, I love all those all those partners and want to see them all succeed. From a business owner perspective, what's the sales pitch to join the Indie Chamber? Yeah, I think uh number one, our goal is to provide folks uh with direct ROI. So, we want you uh we want you to to see the return on the dollars you're investing with us. Uh there's a variety of ways to do that. We offer a health plan.
I didn't mention that earlier. So, you can save money uh almost right away just by having a health plan for small and midsize businesses that saves you money versus today. I mentioned all those other services that we provide, coaching, loans, etc. And then we do the traditional chamber stuff. We've got great events uh for networking, B2B marketing. So, the goal is for all that to deliver you plenty of value uh that that exceeds the price of your membership.
Uh and then all the great that good that you're doing for central Indiana and for the community. That's just gravy. Uh and and I love that idea because I do think we've got folks who want both. They want to grow themselves. Uh but we have so many folks who care so much about the indie region. Heck yeah.
What is something the world needs to know about Indiana? How talented our people are. Uh I'll go with that. You know, I just think about again, we talked about those colleges and universities. One of the jobs we see for ourselves is selling Indiana employers on the Indiana workforce, right? There are so many companies that will go outside of Indiana uh for their talent.
They don't need to. I mean, it's great to bring folks to Indiana, but there's incredible talent coming out of our colleges and universities. There's incredible talent uh coming out of our our trade schools and technical schools. Incredible talent that will be coming out of the Indiana career apprentichip uh pathway. Uh, so I think folks around the world and really folks starting right here uh need to recognize how talented our people are. Great answer.
What is a hidden gem in Indiana? I'm going to say our our state parks. Uh, you know, I grew up in Illinois coming over to uh Indiana to go to our incredible state parks. Turkey Run, Brown County, Springmill, Pokeagen. Uh, you know, these are incredible places and uh they're not far from from Indianapolis. Again, you can sort of get to all those places really quickly.
Uh, so I think everyone everyone who lives in Indie should get out to some of those places, enjoy nature a bit. Great answer. That is one that's a recurring theme I feel like we hear is a lot of people like either pick one or just say the park system in general like down to Clifty Falls up to the dunes Pokeagen like there are some awesome Chain Lakes up there too. There's some awesome state parks uh all around the state and I'm excited like the weather's about to turn and it's going to be perfect state park weather. Yep. I agree.
People People don't think of us as a place to go to experience nature, but I think really compared to surrounding states, uh, it's pretty incredible, dude. I just went up. This isn't a state park. It's a county park. Kateway Park in Hamilton County up by Noblesville. Crazy cool.
It has like a sled to not a tobogen run, but a tubing run 700 ft. It has like a lake, archery, equestrian. Like it was I was blown away by how cool this place was and no one's talking about it. I like this is a a Saturday night like go up for two hours sled for a while like on the tubes. They have a lift to get you back up to the top. Mayor Chris Jensen's glad you like it.
He'll want you to come on back. Exactly. Final question for you. Who's a Hoosier we need to keep on our radar? Someone who's doing big things. Uh I'm going to go back to Christian Anderson.
Uh I don't know what he's going to do next, but you know that guy, he's had such an incredible career, varied like mine, but way more impressive uh than mine. And I think the work he's going to do at High Alpha, the work he's done uh through his various other uh companies and investments and initiatives are just incredible. You know, and I have never met a stronger advocate for the state, for the city of Indie. His statement is that uh Indie was good to him before he was good to it. And I I just think uh Christian's going to accomplish some incredible things. Already has.
Uh but I can't wait to see where he goes next. Yeah, that's a that's a really good answer. Matt, thank you so much for coming on the show. Thank you for all the work you're doing with the Indie Chamber and supporting, growing, nurturing, caring for, stewarding the brand that is Central Indiana. Um, obviously you guys have come a long way and there's still a lot more work that we need to do marketing our our region to others, retaining this talent, the college grads, right? Helping close that deficit, get more people to stay here, start your career in central Indiana.
And I'm just really grateful to have awesome leaders like you guys, Blaine, the rest of the crew at Indie Chamber doing this great work that's super important and often I think overlooked. I think people think about Chamber of Commerce and are like h and it's like no man, the more I interact with you guys, the more impressed that I am, the more great work I see y'all doing from the your life in Indie stuff to uh marketing, talking about speed, different ways you're thinking about growing our region. So, just thank you from the bottom of my heart. Well, thank you, Nate. It's great to be on the podcast and it's great to have you uh helping us tell our story. Uh so thank you, sir.
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