Gerard Mattimoe is the treasurer for the Carmel Chamber of Commerce. Before Glastonbury, Gerard worked for a company that he felt was more interested in the dollars rather than the customers, which leads to a later theme: Glastonbury is all about customer service. If you need to know one thing about Glastonbury, it's that they are about their customer service. Everything about them, every detail, everything they stand for ties back to customer service. 

Gerard explained how Glastonbury works, which was helpful because I didn't fully understand what audiovisual meant besides hearing and seeing, of course. My basic understanding is that if you were to have an event at a hotel or something like Carmel Mission Inn, they would set up your projector, microphone, etc., and they are a representative basically. They've done things abroad, like in Geneva, Switzerland, and Mexico, which I think is amazing, that they're able to internationalize their business. 

When talking to Julio about his background, he emphasized utilizing your network. He also emphasized customer service, to the point I underlined it three times in my notes and put it in bold.  

When asked what their favorite part of their job is, they both said they love that every day is different. There are so many diverse characteristics in their day-to-day life at work, and it keeps them on their toes and interested in what they're doing. 

Something a lot of people may not know about Glastonbury is how willing they are to be flexible about everything: pricing, scheduling, the services they offer, etc. They also said a misconception customers may have is that they “hide” their pricing from customers, when in reality, it’s just their level of flexibility that can't be priced in advance. You can't monetize your ability to serve the customer in every aspect they need. I believe they also mentioned that they've done stuff at Burning Man, which is extremely cool. 

People may not understand the level of expertise this business has. As Gerard put it, you don't want your Uncle Bernie setting up your display. You want someone with expertise and the level of personability that you're going to get with Glastonbury. They are the longest serving business on the Monterey Peninsula, and actually all the other competitors are now out of business, I believe. 

What they love most about doing business in Carmel is the community. Gerard mentioned the Leadership Carmel graduation this past summer, and since he has been on the board, he has become so much more involved in our community, but he said he never really realized how committed these people are and the level of camaraderie that comes with Leadership Carmel. He's also very involved with Taste of Carmel, and he loves being able to contribute to the success of the Carmel Chamber.  

The value of their Chamber membership is so incredibly meaningful. You can't put a price on human connection. A common theme I have found within people dropping their memberships is that they believe they didn't get enough out of it to justify the price. To some people, their membership may seem more like an expense than a benefit, similar to a gym membership. If you don't go to the gym, the monthly price is going to seem like an expense, but when you actually go and see results and maintain the fitness level you'd like, it doesn't seem like an expense anymore. It seems more like a benefit that has a price tag attached to it behind the scenes. 

Gerard's best piece of advice for chamber membership is that you need to participate; you need to put in the work. He gave an example of someone who hosted a mixer and didn't really expect anybody to come, but businesses ended up flooding in, around 85 people, and they ran out of food and wine. They didn't realize how much of a community the chamber actually has and how many people will actually show up to support. 

There's also an importance placed on referrals. You can't have those referrals if you're not there, not present, not relevant in people's minds. Cross-promotion is important, building connections and even partnering with each other. It's brilliant. They both get something out of it, a connection, quid pro quo. 

Another piece of advice from Gerard was that you need to give the businesses here a chance. There's a reason they're still open, so they're obviously doing something right, and you should take their advice, but with a grain of salt since everybody has their own perspective. But at least hear them out. You need to listen to others and learn from their mistakes. As Julio put it, there are too many people in this world who just go head down and miss out on opportunities. Being involved and making a name for yourself is important, otherwise you're going to be forgotten and never have an impact on this world. 

Julio also said that sometimes you need to drop your dead weight, whether it's friends, coworkers, or even those closest to you, which is hard to say, but there are certain things that will hold you back, and you need to be able to cut that dead weight to make room for yourself, because at the end of the day you only for sure have yourself. Some people are going to ride on your coattails, and you can't have that pulling you back. You could be moving much faster without that weight dragging you behind. 

Julio's final note was also that your five closest friends are a direct reflection of who you are. If that raises a couple of flags about your own image based on those around you, maybe it’s time to reconsider some things.