Brewing Change in Carlsbad

Carlsbad, people, purpose, and impact, an essential podcast for those who live, work, visit, and play in Carlsbad.

Good afternoon. Welcome, everyone. My name is Brett Schonzenbach. I'm the president and CEO of the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce. I'm your host this afternoon, and I'm excited to have a special guest with us today.

We have mister Chris Cochran. He is the brand new director of operations for our Carlsbad Chamber Community Foundation. Chris, thanks for being here today.

You're welcome, Brett. Thank you. I don't know if I've ever been introduced as a special guest. So I'm rather excited.

You are. You're special to us. New let's see. What are we? About week 2 and a half on the job or something or 3 or

3rd full week today would be, I guess, my 15th day.

Okay. And we're excited to have you. And I thought, you know, this would be fun as a way for our members and our business community to kinda get to know you as the new guy at the team here at the Chamber. And so I thought we would go back and kinda look at your background because you got a really fun and interesting background, and I'm kinda picked it up with your history with Stone Brewing. I think I have it correct that back in the day, you were employee, like, number 20, I think.

And then by the time you left, there is, I don't know, gobs and gobs and millions. So tell us about how you got involved with Stone and what your what you did there and what was your time like?

Okay. Thank you. Yeah. It is an interesting story, and I'm very faith faithful and and thankful to have a an interesting background and what I'm very, proud of. So, yeah, with Stone, back in the day when there was microbrews, I was the weird guy going to UCSD parties where they'd have, like, a 5 kegs, and I'd bring my own beer of, like, microbrew beers.

I'd be like, okay. I wanna try these. I was working for Daniel's Cablevision, which later became Adelphia then Spectrum here in Carlsbad. My ex wife and I, we had recently purchased a home in San Marcos. And a buddy of mine brought a housewarming gift and it was a 6 pack of stone pale ale.

And we were toasting each other with a glass and then we're walking through the house and he says, hey, did you know there's a map? This brewery is really close to your house where you moved here in San Marcos. And there's a little map on the bottom of the 6 pack. And I'll never forget. He's like, let's go over there.

So we finished that beer and we drove over to the brewery. They weren't technically open but the the doors were open and we walked in and the CEO Greg Cook and his partner Steve Wagner were both there. And Greg looked at us kind of inquisitive like what are you guys doing here? And we're like oh are you open? He's like well no but we can be.

And he asked how did you find us? And we held up the 6 pack with the map on the bottom and he exclaimed rather loud to Steve Wagner across the brewery, Steve, the map works. Somebody found us from the map. And got to know Greg and Steve for a couple years before going to work for them. Started with them in early 2001 and started with them as their marketing and events director.

Nice. Product and brand integration. That was my my major at UCSD. And the 16 year plan went very fast, at Stone. It was on a meteoric rise Wow.

As everybody knew. You know, we went from being kind of not really known to eventually being in the top ten largest breweries in the United States and it was a fascinating ride. So the first 8 years marketing and event brand integration, the second 8 years, community relations manager.

Very nice. And you were employee 20 when you started. Right?

Yeah. Roughly right around there. It was, it might have been give or take a couple people, But when I left, I know that there was roughly 1100 employees. Wow.

That is an unbelievable expansion.

And that wasn't just here in in North County. You know? They had a they had a a facility in Germany, a facility in Richmond, Virginia, a tasting room in Napa. And so all those people combined.

Very nice. So you were around there for all kinds of growth and expansion, etcetera. And so when you left Stone, you went over to another another business that a lot of our members might be familiar with. You went over to Solutions For Change.

I did.

And you started working on their, do they call it hydroponic or aquaponic farm?

Aquaponic farm. Yeah. Solution Farms at the time, it was the largest aquaponic farm in the Western US. Aquaponic means that you are also also farming fish. Yeah.

You're using fish as as the fertilizer method versus just hydroponic where you're adding nutrients into the water.

So you had this whole farm that required no soil. Right? The plants are sitting in the water and then the fish are you feed the fish, the fish create, you know, by their waste, they create the stuff the plants need, the plants clean the water and the system just keeps going.

Yeah. Very cyclical, very, closed loop system. And it was fascinating going from a company the size of stone to solutions for change which they work to solve family homelessness. Yep. So all of my people working at the farm, I was director operate operations at the farm, were former homeless people.

Nice.

And I'm a people person. I like to talk a lot and talk to people. It takes some time for certain people to open up but I would always ask these people, how did you get here? Yeah. What brought you to this spot?

And for me it was fascinating too because we had I worked at the farm every day and we had our our op our I was operations manager. We had the field manager, Jennifer Pankey, and Kevin Gorham was our grower. 3 people I was working with, and then maybe 4 to 5 other employees there each day. So less than 10

from a

1,000, and it was it was wonderful. I loved it. I was born in the Midwest. I really enjoy gardening and growing and so it was something I had a lot of, knowledge for and a thirst for. Yeah.

So it was really fun, but it was something that was fascinating to me.

Yeah. That's great. And then from there you came into the chamber world, not with us yet, but you had what about a 5 or almost 6 year maybe a stand at the Escondido Chamber.

I did. And that was a fascinating thing too. I think in my role at Stone, I was always out in the community. Stone was a big player at that time in the community and donating a lot of things and involved with a lot of organizations and nonprofits. Steve and Greg each had their their handful of things that they wanted to support, whether that be the Boys and Girls Club, the Surfrider Foundation, etcetera.

And we used to do a lot of stuff with the Escondido Chamber. You know, when Sure. We moved to Escondido, we did a lot of things with them. And I knew a lot of people. And the former CEO, Rory Johnston, reached out to me and said that their event person and office leader, Claudine, was moving to Texas.

Her and her husband were fed up with California and they're moving out. She's like I need to hire somebody and would you consider coming to work for us? And, you know, I was going through things at the farm and talked to Chris Magasin and a few other people and said, yeah. You know, I'm gonna I'm gonna go work at the Askingue Chamber.

Nice. Nice. Nice. Now, of course, they then, you know, about 6 months ago, had some of their own financial difficulties. We'll just leave it at that.

And so created a new availability in your schedule. And so we are fortunate enough that, you were interested in this new role that we've just now created and came and joined us.

I am thrilled at the opportunity and the potential and I can't thank you enough Brett for reaching out. I it's back to those connections

Yeah.

That chambers make for any business, large or small. And if you wanna get involved with the chamber, it will definitely lead to other things. And and this morning at a coffee connection meeting people said, oh, how did you get this role? And I explained to them. And I said, it's all about the connections.

You know, you reached out and said, hey, we might have this opportunity, and I'm just absolutely just giddy about it.

That's awesome. We're gonna take a quick pause. We're talking to Chris Cochran, the new director of operations for the Carlsbad Chamber Community Foundation. When we come back, we're gonna talk a little bit more about the foundation and what it does and where some fun initiatives might go in the future, but we'll be right back. Stay with us.

So Chris, when we were just chatting, we were kinda diving into your your history and your background. And so the foundation, not a lot of our audience necessarily knows about the Chamber Foundation. Now last year, we did highlight it a bit because during our centennial year, we hosted a big fancy fun gala to celebrate our our centennial. And the funds, the revenue from that gala went to support our foundation. So we were, you know, able to kinda get some exposure for it, but we should probably, you know, talk a little bit about the foundation itself and some of the things it does.

I know one of your favorite programs because you had it both in Escondido and we have it here is the Rising Star program. And it's a program, of course, run by our foundation. So talk about Rising Star and what you love about it.

Oh, boy. That's, yeah, Rising Star. So Rising Star program is a program that's run by many chambers of commerce and it's it's to focus on those unsung heroes at each high school in the community. So here in Carlsbad, we work with La Costa Canyon, Sage Creek, Carlsbad High, and the Arby Navy Academy. Pacific

Ridge? And

Pacific Ridge. Yep.

Yep. Yep. And then we have Carlsbad Village Academy and Carlsbad Seaside Academy too. Those are very small but we have yeah. We have others.

Yeah.

Still getting up to speed on all the different schools. That's great. But it's one of the things where you're not recognizing the star quarterback, so to speak, or the super gregarious student that's out there that everybody knows. Most of the rising stars, everybody knows, but they know them because they've gone through a lot of difficulty, they've overcome so many things in their lives whether they be from another country coming here non english speaking, working multiple jobs before school, after school, taking care of family, but also the same time these students are just exemplary. You know, they're 4.2s and things like that and it just blows you away about their dedication and that they that they don't always see that hero in themselves and that they are the shining example.

Yeah. And I've attended dozens of rising stars events over the over the years and I think there's only maybe 2 I haven't cried at. I'm not a crazy emotional person but every single one just it gives me so much hope and inspiration. I personally don't have kids. I have an amazing cat, Tanner Finnegan, that is the raddest cat in the world, but without opposable thumbs.

He doesn't go to school. So it gives me faith to see you know, you might read in the news and see certain negative things, but you attend a rising stars breakfast, you walk away inspired and knowing this is our future. These are children that are gonna be our leaders in the future, and it's just so wonderful to see.

Yeah. For sure. Lot of, overcomers and kids who have made just massive wonderful impacts in their community in in positive ways. So it's a great program and

It's a great program. May I interrupt real quick and say Of course. Your son was a rising star

scout That's true.

Award winner at the Escondido Chamber when he was attending classical academy.

That's right. He was. That was kinda unique for me because this is my 10th year of doing Rising Star, but I've always been on this side of it, the chamber side. And so being the on the parent side was just a whole new experience. So that was really cool.

It was really cool.

And so for those of you who are listening, if you've never experienced Rising Star and you think it might be a program you wanna support, we're always looking for more supporters, more sponsors, because that means more scholarship money we can give at the end of the year, which is a piece of the the reason we do it. So please reach out to us. We'd love to have you come experience a Rising Star breakfast and consider becoming a sponsor. Another program we have from the foundation and that I know you're getting up to speed on this one, so it's still you're doing research, but so I'm not gonna like, you know, test you or anything, but it's our our SoCal program. And it's another one focused on the high schools.

Actually, this one can go down to say middle school ish up through high school, and it's something that kind of bubbled up during COVID. We had, in the past, been, you know, very supportive of trying to connect students in the classroom to the real world of work out at job sites. But the old fashioned model of doing field trips is onerous on schools and challenging. It was I always had a hard time when I was on the chamber side, you know, finding enough takers to host these field trips. So during 2020, you know, we had the collaboration of Vista Oceanside Carlsbad Chambers and Tri City Medical Center and the San Diego North Economic Development Council, and we came up with this virtual platform to give students the same level of exposure and it's called socal workforce.org.

And we're up to a 100 plus 3 minute videos on different jobs and careers that are available here in North County. And I know you and I have been talking because we have some video shoots that we're we're finalizing dates on to go out and do some more videos. But these are great way for our students to learn about careers that are right here in their own backyard. And, of course, some of these careers are STEM based, but not all of them. We also have welding and, you know, construction and things like that for those folks who are looking for some great opportunities to go into that don't require a 4 year degree, etcetera.

I'm excited to bring you into that program. I know you've been studying up on it a little bit. You've had a chance, I think, to look at the website, I believe.

Oh, gosh. Yes. Yeah. It's, it is a wonderful program. SoCal is an acronym like SCUBA, or NASA or something like that and it stands for Student Opportunities for Career Awareness and Learning.

And I wish I would have had something like this when I was going to school. You know, I I grew up in the Midwest, and I was infatuated with the marine biology. Yeah. And that led me to UCSD. And I came out here to UCSD and after the 1st year changed my major.

And I didn't, I was still am in love with marine biology. I just wasn't aware of the things that it took to get to the next level in that and the competitiveness of that degree in that area. So SoCal has these videos, and if you wanna be a marketing person and you're like, oh, I would really like marketing, you can go to socal workforce.org and look at a variety of companies whether it be Callaway Golf to a Viasat Thermo Fisher Solatube. Large to small to very design centric companies and you can say, oh, what's it take to be a marketing manager at Callaway Golf? It's gonna be way different than a marketing manager at Solatube or Viasat, where you're gonna have to have different curriculum growing up in high school and college to get to those roles.

But you'll hear firsthand from a variety of people, usually 2 or 3 people from each organization, what it took for them, what classes did they need to take in high school to get to where they are, What did they have to do in post high school? Whether that be a 2 years college or a 4 year college? What type of classes? What do they like about their job? What do they do at their job?

What do they dislike about their job?

Right.

So a student's able to say, wow. I really really really wanted to be a scientist. And then they would see this and go, this is not my cup of tea.

Sure.

But at the same time, they're on the same website. They're like, oh, coffee roaster.

Right.

I could I want I've I love coffee. I'm a barista of my part time, you know, going to high school, and I wanna see what the next step is to what's it take to roast coffee and to be that or a small business owner. Kids are able to see that without going on a field trip. Like you said, it's just puts a huge burden financially and everything else on a school system. But they're they have it at the at their fingertips.

And as I've explained to some of our members in meetings the past couple weeks that have children, they're like, no. That's at their fingertips all the time. They can look you're telling me they can look this up on their phone? Yeah. And it's I think it's something that once again has so much potential.

And for all of our members out there, I would say be involved with Rising Stars, be involved with SoCal because they're bringing your next generation of workforce, your next leaders in the community. These are students that probably appreciate living in North County, living in Carlsbad, wanna continue doing that and support that. And so the business is here. If we can offer a direct pipeline of workers, of future workers that can be trained earlier and be more prepared going into that job in that workforce, it's a win win.

Yeah. I agree. The thing that the teachers have told us they love about the SoCal platform is that they already have the ability to say go on YouTube and find a video on the day in the life of an engineer or whatever the case might be. But you're gonna end up with somebody from the East Coast or Europe or who knows where versus this program, everything is hyperlocal. It's stuff right here in their backyard.

It's tangible. They might have a, you know, a neighbor who works at that company already or they might drive by that building. You know, these are these are things that we want them to see as accessible and and obtainable. So that's exciting, and it's a great program. And like you said, I think if a company first of all, getting a company featured on here, it's great exposure for that company because we know they all want talented workforce to come and choose them to to consider working for.

So this is great exposure for them.

Yeah. And it's and it's very a very reasonable program to get involved with. It's I think it's something that most companies would look at and say, wow. If we had to do this on our own or to create something like this on our using our in house or on our own resources, it'd be a lot more A

lot more expensive.

A lot more expensive.

Exactly.

And I like how in the in the videos, the there's graphics that come up that show what the students' learning was. And so many of the people are are very straightforward, very honest. Like, oh, I thought I wanted to be a marketer. Yep. And then I learned this and this is way more creative, way different.

And, so, yeah. You get to hear kind of firsthand that everybody out there doesn't know what they wanna do right now.

Yeah. So true. So another initiative our foundation started a couple years ago was our corporate kindness initiative, and this is a partnership with Kids For Peace. Kids For Peace has been so instrumental in bringing the great kindness challenge to schools. We always are happy to brag that they started that with 3 elementary schools here in Carlsbad and now goes to I don't even know how many thousands of schools and millions of students internationally.

100 and 11 countries, if I believe, correctly. 19 point something 1000000 students. Wow. Amazing. And it started here in Carlsbad, California.

Started right here. Jill was co founder back then. She still runs it today and we love her. But she came to us a couple years ago and said we wanted to try to move this same kind of kindness mentality into corporate America. And we were all about it and excited to work with her on this initiative.

And so we have, I think, what for Carlsbad Companies, what do we have about 70 maybe?

I think as of today, I think we have 78. Okay. That have joined to be a Kindness certified company and it makes sense, you know, it makes sense with all the dialogue that is happening now in our country and just like, you know, social media you can hide behind, it's it's not personal, and I think there needs to be a shift where people need to think more about your neighbor and your neighbor in a business as well, and be nice to them. I mean, it's not like asking too much. You know?

To to to be nice and be kind. And, of course, it starts with schools, young elementary, you know, about bowling and making people more aware that everybody is different and you don't all have the same belief, the same ideas. But to take that to corporate and they all want to do that. You know, they they don't wanna have, like, infighting in their business or people talking behind their backs. And the more they can adopt this mentality and this philosophy, it's gonna help them with their with their overall, with their bottom line.

They're going to have happier employees. They're going to have more people not calling out sick or working remotely because of conflict, because of things they don't wanna experience at the workplace. And I think it's something where people can say, you know what? I wanna be on board from that. You know?

And, oh, that company is a kindness company? Well, shoot. We could be a kindness company too.

Exactly. Yeah. And, again, on the talent attraction side, like, who doesn't wanna work for a company that because when you become a kindness certified company, you're asserting It's a self assertion, but you're asserting that you are good to your people, that you're good to the community, and that you're good to the environment. Right? And we know the upcoming workforce, those are all things that matter to them.

So why not certify and become part of this movement and let these you know, you you see these young people who have grown up in this environment in their schools of celebrating kindness every year, you know, appeal to them and be like, hey, come work for us. I know you have options, but work for us. We are a kindness certified company.

Absolutely. I think you said it perfect, Brett. If you're growing up in this generation and you've adopted this mentality and you're successful in your schooling and you have 2 companies to choose from and they both are offering great things but one's a kindness certified company and you have that knowledge in your background you're like, okay I'm going there. Yeah. You know versus the other one.

It's I would. It's I would. Yeah. It's a very simple solution, and I think it's a simple solution for our members and businesses in the region to join the program and to get on board and say, you know what? We support it too.

Yeah. I agree. So those are some things we already have in the foundation that are active, and I know you're rapidly getting up to speed on all of them. But we also have some ideas about new stuff, junior CEO programs.

That's what I wanna do. I wanna do both those but I was talking to I hope I pronounce her name right. Taminda?

Tamina. Yeah.

Tamina who's our neighbor here at Harrahub Carlsbad. And we were talking about some of the initiatives this morning that the foundation is currently working on as Brett said and that we wanna do. And junior CEO is something that has been brought in to chambers in the past. It's an idea that you brought up to me and I think that it has the massive potential here to look at minority owned, women owned and veteran owned businesses. Because a lot of people might say oh the CEO of Callaway Golf that's a very very probably maybe an unattainable position for me and I don't know what the heck they do.

But I think smaller businesses nowadays people are going, oh, I want I I want I would like to run my own business. Well, what's it take to do that? And you go and meet with that CEO and, Taminda, female and high up in her company, if you could hear what it takes to run a small company as a woman or as a minority or a veteran, you're gonna say wow I can do that. Yeah. There's nothing that I can't do.

And going back to rising stars, you know, those students have overcome everything. And if they were to meet somebody from a a small company to a large and and hear what it takes to be that CEO on a day to day, get in their shoes, They'd be like, that's what I wanna do. Yeah. Or the opposite. They're like, that's not for me.

But I think it puts people in that position to say, wow, I had no idea that Brett spends so much time working, you know. Like a CEO, it's not a it's a very simple title. CEO. Three letters. But it's very involved.

Very involved.

And I think

to hear For sure.

You know, there's if you look at our board makeup and there are so many amazing people on the board and the foundation board, and they go the gamut from small to large business and they've all gone through different things. So if we had a junior CEO program that people could speak to this, I think it would be really, really good for the community. The other one you touched on is Boots to Business. Yeah. With our proximity to Cat Peloton, it's a program that has been done with chambers of commerce in areas that have a close proximity to military bases.

And I believe if I'm not, mistaken, there's, like, around

active duty, you know, folks who are leaving active duty and And wanna work. And if they had the opportunities in this area, would love to stay, you know. Of course, many of them might be from other parts of the country, but but when they exit their service, they're here at Camp Pendleton. So they've gotten a familiarity with this little slice of heaven that we all call home. And if they can find great opportunities they'd love to stay.

Yeah. That's a great point. You know, something I I didn't really think about in in kind of looking at this deeper is the fact that of many of the active duty people at Camp Pendleton are from Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, or California.

Sure.

But I think once you you set it perfect, our little slice of heaven, our little slice of this perfect pie here in North County in Carlsbad, If people saw that they might say, hey, you know mom, I know you want me to come home. I just got out of out of the marines and, you know, you really want me in Charlotte, North Carolina but guess what? I wanna stay working here in Carlsbad and you can come and visit. Yeah. You know, that type of thing but it's back to that that workforce that so many people here need on a regular basis as we continue to grow.

All the businesses here in North County in Carlsbad, they're hiring on a regular basis. And you have these highly trained people coming out of the military that some of them are highly skilled

So true.

And they're ready to work. And so that's something that we wanna get involved with. I'm really looking forward to getting more involved with the military affairs committee for that, the education committee for Rising Stars junior CEO in SoCal. Yeah. And more.

Yeah. And more. More to come, but we'll we'll let you settle in a little more before we hold your feet to the fire too much on a lot of new stuff. I know on the on the personal side, well, first of all, you already mentioned your love for cats and so we share that You're the animal. Yeah.

Yeah. I have cats too. Being cat people, so that's cool. But you're also, quite a cycler.

I do. I enjoy cycling and biking. I have most of my life. Long story short, I grew up BMX racing in Indiana. When I moved, I was ranked number 6 in the state as an amateur before moving out here.

And so I was really into it, moved out here. I had all kinds of sponsors too as a as a kid growing up, BMX. It was like like, I I'll never forget Grab On Grips from Walla Walla, Washington was a sponsor of mine. Yeah. Moved out here and then got into mountain biking.

Really I still cycle a lot almost every other day. Oh, wow. That's

great. But then you also have this really unique hobby that most people probably are not even aware is a hobby and that is that you collect vintage beer cans. I do. So explain what that means to people.

I do. Okay. Everybody knows what a can is. We're fortunate that the United States of America invented the beer can January 24, 1935. That was the first time beer was ever put in a can anywhere in the world.

It was via the Kruger Beer Company in Pennsylvania, but they released it in Virginia, close enough to get it down there, and it would be fresh. But if it didn't if it failed, if the can failed, it wouldn't disrupt their home market. And the can was a success. A true success to to the fact that and these were cans, that are all steel that didn't have an opener, so you had to use what they call a church key or a can opener to puncture the hole in the can, and that was the common way for cans to be open until the late fifties. And the Iron City beer company introduced the pull tab.

The pop top. Yeah.

Like where you can pop the top off, or the tab off. And they also, where they were from Pennsylvania as well, they also released the beer in Virginia. Close enough but they figured, hey, if it worked for Kruger and it and if it was gonna fail, it was far enough away that it wouldn't hurt them. And then that revolutionized can Yeah. Industry as we know it around the world.

But, yeah, so I and then they got they phased out steel cans and into aluminum in the late seventies. And so I collect cans from 1935 to 1976. Wow. Generally that thing, but not just cans. I really am into advertising, signs, trays, anything beer related, belt buckles.

My collection is crazy. It's,

it's It's crazy.

Yeah. Trays. I have thousands of items.

That's fun. Yeah. Super fun. And then, you know, so those of you who are, meeting Chris for the first time on this podcast, you know, when you bump into him at event. Now you'll have some things to quiz him about and learn more about or connect with.

Maybe you're a cycler Yes. Or a craft beer fan or

Or or you walk up and you say, hey. You know what? My grandfather has a bunch of whole beer cans. And I'd be like, oh, oh, that's fantastic. Can I see them?

Yeah. That's awesome. Well, we're really excited to have you as part of our team here, Chris, and, get you going on on these initiatives for the foundation. And, you know, down the road, we expect we'll probably come up with more that didn't even get discussed today, but it's great to have you and, looking forward to the future.

Brett, thank you very much. I just want to give a shout out to you, to Kathleen, to Kathy, to Daryl, to Rosie and to Edgar and Len here at the chamber, Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce. The team has been fantastic, welcoming me in, helping me, answering all my silly questions, point me in the right direction. I'm really thrilled at the opportunity. And I'd also like to thank all the board members I've met and looking forward to meeting the the the ones I have not and, for giving me the opportunity.

Fantastic. Thank you, man.

Thank you.

Thanks for joining us today on our Carlsbad People, Purpose, and Impact podcast. If you got value out of our episode today, please hit the follow button on your favorite podcast app, and please tell a friend. Can't wait to see you next time on Carlsbad people, purpose, and impact.