Elaine Bedel (Industrious)
===

[00:00:00] 

Vince: So you're a Colts fan, correct? I

Elaine: I am. Okay.

Vince: Did you watch the draft the first round of the draft last night?

Elaine: I watched it until the Colts pick was done. Actually, I was at an event I got, I was listening on the, on the radio.

Oh my God. They've already done the first pick, but by the time I got home, they were only on the second and you know, so I didn't miss anything and yeah, anticipating what the Colts were going to do. So that was kind of fun. But then I did not stay up. I watched it for a little bit longer, just to see the first, the top 10, I think.

But

Vince: yeah, I think I maybe stayed to do first round.

Elaine: I mean, we took the last quarterback, I mean, we took, we were the last, in the top 10. No one selected a quarterback after us. So the one sitting out there, Willis or whatever his name is, wondering when he gets to go and he didn't get picked and

Joe: last. Yeah. Say Will Leviis

fell 

Vince: go first round at all.

Elaine: No, I mean, I caught the very end of it too. So I went upstairs to work in the office and. Catch up on all my emails. And then when I came downstairs again, getting ready for bed, turn the TV on, and they're on, you know, second to the last, or third to the last ex. Well, [00:01:00] a little bit more than that because then they did Philadelphia and then they did Kansas City.

And of course everybody's going crazy and right, whatever. But, um, there's some really good defensive players that

we could use as well.

Vince: Let me ask you this, were you surprised by the Colts pick

Elaine: By the person or the

Vince: person, the person?

Elaine: Um, you know, they've been talking about that, haven't they? I mean, so, you know, I'm not in that deep.

I mean, I don't, I I wouldn't tell, I wouldn't be able to tell you a difference between Shroud and, and Richards and who would be better and, and you know, who knows? I mean, NFL's very different than college. And we learned that when we picked Peyton Manning over, um, what was it, Leaf. Yeah.

Yeah.

Ryan Leaf and. We won. I mean, everybody said, why didn't you pick Ryan Leaf? And Sure.

Vince: Sure.

I think that's, I mean, like yourself, I have too many other things going on to really dive into that.

I, I did see some of the, um, results of the combine with Anthony. Mm-hmm. And I mean, he's a ridiculous athlete.

And it really, at, at the end of the day, it [00:02:00] all comes down to time Will tell. Right. I mean, he's a freak athlete. We'll just have to wait and see. He hasn't played enough football, which is crazy to think of.

Elaine: I know, actually, I was listening to a kind of a sports talking heads on the way here and saying the same thing. You know, great athletes, strong, strong arm, but when he gets into a pinch, sometimes there's a, he gets a little. A little less effective in his, in his throwing

Joe: mm-hmm. And stuff like

Elaine: that. So, you know, but that's, that's a place to improve. And if you got the raw, the raw athlete there, I mean, you know, you can learn anything. But I think the NFL is a little bit different than college. But we'll see.

Joe: when was the last time you, sorry to interrupting, when was the last time you could say about a Colt's quarterback that if no one's open run? Yeah, and, and you know, the last handful of quarterbacks we've had are not running quarterbacks.

Vince: the way back.

I mean, Andrew

Joe: manning. I mean,

Vince: but Peyton wasn't a runner. He's pretty slow. No offense Peyton, but I'm sure he is watching.

Joe: I could still take him in a 40, I think. 

Vince: Yeah.

Elaine: Well,

Vince: But it's, it comes in the processing. This is the speed. I mean, we have a, a mutual [00:03:00] acquaintance who's a, an NFL referee, and we asked him one time, way back and said, okay, you did major Division one n NCAA games and bowl games.

Now you're doing nfl. What's the big difference? He's like, the guys aren't necessarily bigger, Bev's faster,

Elaine: Mm.

Vince: and in a spot where he's at, he's amongst the linebackers and he's like, Half of my job is just make sure I'm outta the way and don't get clobbered. Right. But when these linebackers are really just as fast as a running back, that's scary.

Yeah. And so can Anthony catch up with the speed and be able to make those quick decisions? Right. That, that's, that's the 

Elaine: Yeah.

I think that's, that's now up to the coaches, right? Help him get through that and hopefully prepare him well. But yeah, there's a difference between college and as you watch college, but when you think about it, the only, the best college players get to the nfl. So it's, uh, it's a, it's a different set of competition, I

Joe: the 1% of the 1%. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. it's totally fine. There's one certainty that I take away from watching the NFL [00:04:00] draft, and it's, it's very similar to college basketball and nba, where when the NBA drafts kids that are a one and done, or maybe even just two years of college and, and you think, wow, are they ready for the N B A?

And, and everyone says, well, the NBA drafts based on potential, the NFL may draft based on potential. And there's one certainty I take away from all of that. And that is that I am not a scout and I'm not qualified to be a scout cuz I have no idea how to see the potential of a professional athlete.

Elaine: Yeah, I, I think you're right. It's tough, you know, because it's a totally different environment that they'll be.

Thrown into, so we'll see. But you know, it, as Colts fans, we finally have something to be optimistic about.

Joe: you know, certainly. Yeah.

Elaine: don't think we ever lost our optimism, but we got disappointed. So I think, again, we're optimistic that hopefully there won't be a disappointment coming along, but we'll have to give it time.

Of course. But, and

Vince: and we've been spoiled. I mean, when the Colts first moved here, we certainly had some down years. Oh yeah. Um, then we, we got lucky and got Peyton and then had Andrew right behind. That's where we were spoiled. And, and you kind of had that expectation and

Elaine: know our, we set our [00:05:00] standards high, right?

So we'll get there. Yeah. It'll be fun.

Vince: All right, well, let's get rolling. Hey guys. Welcome back to another episode of the Industrious Podcast. Thank you for joining us from wherever you get your podcasts, or for those of you watching on the heroes, or excuse me, It's those of you for those of you watching, we'll cut that part, Chris.

That's

a problem with having two identities for those of you guys watching on the Yeah, on Theesa YouTube channel. Thank you for tuning in. If you haven't hit that subscription button, please do so. Also hit that little bell notification icon so you can be alerted when new episodes like this one drop.

Thank you.

All right, guys,

Special guest today, miss Elaine Beetle. Elaine, welcome to the Industrious

Elaine: Thank you. Happy to be here. This'll be fun.

Vince: Well, why

don't you give our guests a quick little, um, cliff Notes bio on yourself.

Elaine: Okay. Um, uh, well, I have a wealth management firm, beetle Financial Consulting, that, uh, I started a long time ago.

We're in, gosh, we're. 30 some [00:06:00] years old. Uh, it's been, uh, a great firm. It was a perfect kind of profession for me to get into. It fit me well with, uh, uh, my, uh, background, my math logic background. When you put a plan together, you've gotta understand all the pieces and try and make a, make a, uh, picture out of the puzzle pieces and, and, uh, uh, and it's also very people oriented, so I really enjoyed it.

Loved it. Uh, I had an opportunity though in, uh, 2016 when the then elect governor Eric Holcomb called and asked if I would be willing to kinda do something for the state of Indiana. And, uh, he said, don't tell me. Don't answer me now. Think about it. But at that, that point, he asked if I would serve as president of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation.

Um, I eventually took that role after a lot of thought, uh, and, um, started in when he became governor in early 2017, obviously, and, uh, served in that role until. November of [00:07:00] 2019, and that was right after the legislature had passed, uh, a bill to create the Indiana Destination Development Corporation. It was a new quasi-government entity that was to replace the Indiana Office of Tourism Development, but with a much broader mission, uh, still important to bring visitors here.

So the, the tourism side of it is still important. We gotta attract people to come to. Come to the state of Indiana, spend their dollars and enjoy all that we have to offer. But the mission got broadened to say, tell that same quality of life, quality of place, story to help businesses attract talent. So many corporations would tell me or the um, HR people within the corporation would say we'd get a great candidate on the phone.

They love the job, but they say, why would I come to Indiana? And it's just because they know nothing. So we wanna give them tools to help answer that question. And the other big, um, area that we wanna address is all the graduates that we have from our great colleges and universities, they come [00:08:00] from everywhere.

Not only to say to Indiana, but everywhere else. We want to keep those students here. And so, Get them off campus, get them some experience, get them the internship, get them connected into communities so that it's easy to say, I'm gonna stay here. And if they don't take their first job here, they'll be more open to taking their second job.

Because all of the research that we've done, it's clear that most people have no idea what Indiana has to offer and all the wonderful attributes we have. 

Vince: Does the I E D C and the I DDC work kind of in tandem often?

Cause I could see, like, this may be a bad example, but when exact targets sold to Salesforce, I think Salesforce realized that the cost of, not the cost of living, but the cost of doing business here is so much less than let's say San Francisco, right? They're like, whoa, let's maintain this office and let's grow the office here.

But then in order to attract that talent, to your point, how do we make sure Johnny and Janie doe are excited about coming to

Elaine: Right. And there was a lot of effort when Salesforce put their second headquarters here to get people and to tell them what they could [00:09:00] expect when they come here, because again, they knew nothing.

The, it's a good question. The I E D C, the Indiana Economic Development Corporation is very focused on getting jobs and bringing businesses here, and helping businesses that are already here expand. Um, and so we have gotten so many accolades for being a great place to do business, you know, a, a low tax.

Tax environment, uh, great quality of living, that type of thing. So businesses know us, you know, uh, we're written up in CEO Magazine and everywhere else. So they, they know that Indiana's a great place to do business. And so, I felt like when I was there that we got on everybody's shortlist to consider, you know, what state they wanna go to.

Um, so that's all the business side. The problem is the people who know that about Indiana or just the executives, the CEOs, the entrepreneurs out there looking to. Establish a business somewhere. So it's probably, you know, a pretty small percentage, maybe 2%. The rest of the population, and we found this through our focus groups that we did know nothing about Indiana, because they're just consumers.

[00:10:00] They're just workers. They're just, they're just people wanting to find a place that they enjoy living and they can raise their family. And, uh, so we, um, Uh, that's what the role of the Indiana Destination Development Corporation is, is to really get that human capital to understand what Indiana has to offer and, and do the same thing as the business owners do.

Oh, that'd be a great place to be. And so that's what we're working toward by kind of telling our story and, um, we're making some progress.

Joe: so, so be a fly too, as opposed to a flyover.

Elaine: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And, and you know, that's the problem we have. The perception of Indiana out there is it's. Corn. It's farmland.

It's, they think we're flat. Well, you know, we've got a lot of hills

Joe: Just half the stage, just the upper half we're that one university is that, you know,

Elaine: we're a very diverse state. You're right. Um, but the, you know, again, the perception, there's nothing going on. You know, and again, we have people on video, in focus groups who are saying that to

Vince: Have they been here at the end of May?

Elaine: They, well, the problem [00:11:00] is they haven't been here at all, many of them. And that's the difference. If we get people here, it's amazing. Changes their total perception of what Indiana is. And, uh, we did a series, um, we, the Indiana Destination Development Corporation did a series called Hoosiers by Choice.

And it's all about people who came here from somewhere else and now why they love it. And, you know, to a born and raised Hoosier, it's pretty heartwarming to understand why those people love being in Indiana. And you know, it comes down to, um, the people. I love the people. They're all so nice. I can buy a house here.

I have a yard. My kids are engaged in sports. We have great schools. I mean, they go on and on about the benefits of being in Indiana versus where they came from. And, um, you know, they're the most devout Hoosiers you'll find out. I mean, find you. They just really love it here. And they're evangelists. They end up telling their friends and sometimes their friends follow them here as well.

Uh, so we've, but. Again, it's get people here to have that [00:12:00] experience, changes their perception. And,

Joe: um,

Elaine: that's what makes people come here to wanna find a job here, to work here, to start a business here, et cetera. So it's that human capital that we're really working on where the business side is, what the I, EED C is really focused on.

But again, there's a lot of crossover. Businesses aren't gonna wanna come if their talent won't follow them or they can't attract talent. So, um, so there's, there's a collaboration there that we. Continue to work with.

Joe: which I would, I would think in, in today's labor market being as challenging as it is and has been for the last couple of years, you know, post covid especially, that that message and, and the strategy behind it is, is become even more critical.

What are you seeing in the labor market, not just, you know, rear view mirror over the last 18 months, but where, what it looks like in the next 18 months and beyond? Are you seeing any relief? Um, you know, not only in just in the state of Indiana, but really even maybe regionally.

Elaine: Yeah. We watch kind of our population numbers and, um, so I'm gotta get around to answering your question.

Right [00:13:00] now, births and deaths are pretty flat. You know, we, we aren't growing

Joe: mm-hmm. By

Elaine: our own organic population growing, uh, we're getting people coming from other places. Now we're not getting as many people as the average of the United States. I mean, but we're getting people who wanna leave Illinois.

We're getting people who may wanna leave Michigan for various reasons, so they're coming into Indiana. We've got to get in that more proactive side of things of attracting talent and talent wanting to come here. But we haven't had the ability to reach out in many cases cuz we haven't had the funding, uh, to be able to reach out.

To, uh, tell those, those tech workers in California that you don't need to live in California. You can come to Indiana. We have jobs for you and we have a great quality of life. Mm-hmm. Um, or you can work remotely. You know, there's, with the remote work workforce, you can live here and work remotely too. So I think that we have.

We have some challenges in front of us to be able to get the talent that we need, and we have got to tell our story and that will make the difference. It will change things hugely if we can [00:14:00] start telling Indiana's story outside our borders.

Joe: Mm-hmm. Well, you just mentioned funding and then you described the I D B C as quasi government. Is it fund, is it funded by the government? Is it a public private partnership where? What drives the I ddc sort of, you know, right inside the ledger?

Elaine: Uh, a quasi-government entity is, um, is still a state agency, but it's, it has a little bit, um, uh, I don't, more flexibility, I would say to work with the private sector.

Okay. So the difference is if you're a pure state agency, you're really funded by either the. State government or federal funding that may come through as a quasi-government entity. We can have a, a foundation, and so we can actually get contributions from corporations or individuals or agents or foundations, whoever can put funding into that.

And, and we see that funding as, as kind of those pilot programs. Okay. Let's try this. Is this gonna work? Uh, but we also get funded by the state of Indiana, and you may have read, heard that we

Joe: night [00:15:00] just got the budget. Yeah.

Elaine: night they just approved the budget and, um, we got a nice bump. We were, um, at 4.7 million. Because we inherited the IDs budget, so the Indian Office of Tourism Development, because we replaced them.

Right? So I inherited a few staff members as well as, um, um, their budget. Their budget had never been really increased, and, you know, Their mission was different, obviously it was just kind of to get people to come here, but they were underfunded as, as well at that point in time. Um, and so we were able to, um, tell our story, uh, and let me go back and tell how we got here.

We were able to do a, um, spring summer campaign in 2022 with some federal dollars that we got, and so Chicago, St. Louis and Louisville. 1.9 million. That's all we could, that's all we could do. Mm-hmm. Um, so we, we did, um, uh, video tv, so tv, billboards, you know, radio [00:16:00] and a lot of digital in those areas. Then we had Longwoods International, which is a company that does analysis of these kinds of, of, uh, campaigns and return on investment.

They do it for a lot of other states, countries. Events, whatever. And so they did the analysis that said to us that we received six new tax dollars for every dollar we spent in promoting. So that 1.9 million actually returned us about, uh, 11.2 million in new tax dollars. So a six to one return. Yeah.

Joe: Yeah. Yeah. 

Elaine: from the investment world, I take it every day. In fact, I would say to people, if you think that's too much, cut it in 

Joe: Right? I'll still take

Elaine: $3 for every dollar I. Been. Um, so that was great news because what they do is, is in those markets, they survey people and they say, okay, did you come to Indiana during this time period?

No. Okay. You're over here. Okay, you came to Indiana, did you see the promotional material from the state? And they even show them some things. No. Okay, you're over here. So now we've got a group who came to Indiana and who saw a promotion material. Well, now you, you know, [00:17:00] Some people would've come anyway, right?

So they use a formula of some sort and reduce that even further. So they feel like they've really got a good grip on the percentage of the population that may have come here after seeing, being motivated by our promotion. So that netted out 864,000 visitor trips to Indiana from that campaign. Now you say, okay, that's a little ridiculous, not when you think about it.

US Travel says that we have 100 million trips made into Indiana every year. So this was less than 1%. Right? So it gets a little more reasonable. And then they take those visits and they apply what generally is being spent. And they came up with $102 million was spent at our businesses again, because people came to Indiana because they saw our our promotion.

And that netted out 11.2 million in tax. So that's where you get with division, the one to six. That's important. That's really important. And that was a good story to be able to tell our legislators. Um, the other side of that, which is even [00:18:00] just as important, these people, when they ask these, all these questions of it, they're talking about perception of Indiana as well.

And so they ask the question, um, is it a good place to live?

Would

you retire here, uh, as a good place to go to school, et cetera. And so again, The difference being those who were, what they called aware, they came to Indiana and they saw our mo our, um, promotion versus those who didn't come to Indiana didn't see our promotion.

So two opposite ends. Right? And they on, they asked the questions and they said, do they only showed. Those that strongly agree didn't even include the agree. I don't know about you, but I'm a tough one. I strongly agree. I I agree more than I strongly agree, but so they used only strongly agree and the results were amazing.

So this is what people has a perception of Indiana, the unaware group, if is this a good place to, to, um, to live. Was was like, um, 20% maybe. The other side, almost double, like 38% said, strongly agreed Indiana would be a good place to [00:19:00] live. So just getting him here changed their perception. Good place to start a career or a good place to start a business went from like 18 to 36.

So again, it, it shows that all we have to do is expose Indiana to these people. So we've got to do

Joe: to do more of

Elaine: that because that perception is the bigger issue as well. I mean, again, dollars coming in are important, but to get. To change the minds of people of what Indiana is and what we have to offer is really the important mission here.

So we were telling that story to the legislators and uh, we ended up with 20 million, um, to start working with. It's a

Joe: That's quite a bump.

Elaine: I wanted 40, but I'm gonna be very happy with 20. Yes. Uh, because, um, the states around us are kind of eating our lunch. I mean, Ohio's at 35 million, Kentucky's at 45 million.

Michigan's at 40 and has been for a while and. I think, uh, Illinois is like 104 million. So yeah, they're all spending money because they know what they're doing. Um, you know, and you wanna say to people who are in elected positions, remember when you were running for [00:20:00] office name recognition was what it was all about.

Right? And that's what we have to do for Indiana too. We just have to get the name recognition out there and, uh,

um, so we'll, we'll, we'll do well with the 20 million. We'll, we'll measure our results and hopefully we'll be back in a couple of years to, to get even more. That will help us. Again, go further.

You know, because you're limited, you've gotta, you know, you can do so many markets. The more dollars you have, the more markets you have. And that's what I kept telling 'em too. If you gimme a 40 million budget, I'm not gonna quadruple the staff. 30 million of it would just buy media, right?

Vince: right?

Joe: Mm-hmm.

Elaine: And that's all you do.

You buy more media with those dollars because that's where the, that's where you get the benefit. Yeah.

Joe: Yeah.

Vince: So you kind of answered this question, but um, I'm gonna ask it anyway. How is Indiana doing

Elaine: Well, um, We're gonna do better. Let me put it that way, because there's another, um, another research group that asks individuals annually.

They say, okay, if you're thinking of a leisure trip, what's US states come to mind. Well, I'll tell you where those [00:21:00] around us fall. Michigan falls at 19. Okay. Now Michigan has been building on their pure Michigan

Joe: brand, certainly since 2005.

Elaine: So they've got a lot of name recognition. Yeah. And you know, that sets a certain thought in your mind when you hear Pure Michigan.

Right. Um, so Michigan was 19,

Vince: Okay.

Elaine: uh, Illinois 24, Ohio 30, Kentucky 33, Indiana 45.

It's again, they don't know us. That's,

Vince: And is this asking a pool of people from all over the country? Yes.

Elaine: Yeah, yeah. All over the country, right? No, not just locally. All over the country. And so, uh, and of course the states that are the top, or California, Florida, Colorado, you know those, those states.

And because people know 'em and they think about 'em, think, oh, that'd be a fun place to go. Doesn't mean they went there, doesn't mean they've ever been there. But in their minds, that's where they would. Name is a place they might consider going. So, so we've got a lot of work to do and the unfortunate part, if, if you look at 46, it was West Virginia, we know that West Virginia next year is gonna [00:22:00] spend 67 million on promoting the state.

They're gonna leapfrog us, you know, but hopefully we can start moving up that that ladder a little bit because we all know we've got a lot to offer. And we all know that once people get here, they love it. Um, so again, what we're gonna work hard to get that story out.

Joe: Well, you, you talked about attracting talent to the state. Mm-hmm. Uh, you, we opened with talking about. Those that are going to university here in Indiana. Mm-hmm. And getting, especially if they come to iu, Purdue, Notre Dame Butler. Right. Go list goes on.

Um, if they come in from out of state, how do we, how do we get them engaged in the community that they live in or within the state, right. To help try and retain them. And then you hear the buzzword brain drain where we have people from, whether it be residents of Indiana or outside, that go to the school here, get their undergraduate or graduate degree, and then.

Boom, they're off somewhere else for their first job and beyond, how does that, what, what [00:23:00] kind of engagement with the universities does I ddc have to try to sort of tailor that message to them before they're out and about?

Elaine: Right. That's a big question. So let me, let me start and kind of build up to it all. Um, Indiana always ends up in the top five states for recruiting net inbound students.

So we're top five. I mean, that means that students are coming from all over because they wanna go to our great colleges and universities. I mean, Purdue, iu, Notre Dame, rose, Hallman, Hanover, you know, Franklin Burg, you know, all these different places that we've got some great. Great colleges and, and, uh, universities.

And so, um, we get them here, uh, we train them and then they leave. You're right, we are, uh, I think when we look at 14th and creating graduates, we're 40th in retaining them. Again, because they find jobs elsewhere. We have jobs for them here, but we've got to tell that story to them as well. So we are working again with the I E D C [00:24:00] to get companies to do internships because we know that in, if someone has an internship, they're more likely to stay because the numbers are something like 80% of interns get job offers from their employer.

70% accepted, so do the math. That's 56% of all interns stay. Where they 

Joe: Right. 

Elaine: so we can, you know, if we can make sure we can connect them to internships, then that's where the IEDC is trying to work with companies to make sure they do that. And we're trying to make sure the students know that they're available.

So there's a couple things we wanna do. The internships is one. The other is get them off of campus to enjoy and understand what we've got to offer. So we are working with colleges and universities on several pilot programs. Um, one is we've created what we call. College life experience Passport. It's, it's a, you know, digital passport that you, you sign up for, for free.

It has like 200 different locations around the state and it's gamified. So if you go and check in via your gps, um, on your phone at different [00:25:00] places, we know you're there. So we, you start collecting points and at so many points we send you. Prizes, we send you gifts. So we need to get that in the hands of students because, and give them a reason to get off campus and help them understand.

We've got caves in northern or southern Indiana. We've got a beach in northern Indiana. We've got all these great things in between that people need to see. So that's one thing. The other thing that we're doing, we're working with the pilot program actually in Fort Wayne, uh, with the city of Fort Wayne, the Chamber, and, um, Leadership Fort Wayne to create a program for all of the interns that work for different companies within their area.

Bring those interns together once a week. So now they're creating a little bit of their social group at a fun spot. Maybe it's a brewery, maybe it's a, they go to a, um, Uh, an activity somewhere, but get 'em together every week and then they can tell them a little bit about the community and have a little bit of programming.

But it starts building not only that social network, but it gives them some knowledge of what that community's like. And so many [00:26:00] students and graduates now. I wanna be in a community where they can get engaged and they feel like they can make a difference. And so if they learn about that and they understand what, what's going on in Fort Wayne, what the opportunities are, where Fort Wayne's going, what their plans are, um, we're hoping that that increases the number of students who say, I'm gonna stay here.

With this employer or maybe with a different one. But we think that that will, will help us. One, if that pilot works well there, you know, we'll start moving it around and, and trying at other places as well. But we want, we're engaging with all of the colleges and universities to do just that. Um, so we're excited about that opportunity.

Joe: So, attracting talent is a challenge.

Retaining talent and, and fighting the, the, the brain drain is a, is a challenge. One more challenge I want to ask about, um, with talking politics without getting political, uh, so only partially taboo, how does the IDC I D D C work, um, within, around[00:27:00] 

policy

that may seem unfriendly or unwelcoming?

Because, yeah, this is nothing new.

It's been politics and the, uh, politicization of especially social issues has been going on for 250 years. It just seems to be more amplified these days because of all the ways of getting messages out there. Um,

How, what kind of challenges does that present to you when social issues wouldn't, regardless of where you fit on those or, or where you, um, you know, where your position is on those, how do you work within your position and the IDC in general to deal with

that Right. 

Elaine: Well, I think, I think you're right. The social issues are, are highly charged right now. And it does hurt us with those individuals who disagree with what Indiana has put in place. Um, and it's, it's. It's hard to move around that. However, I will tell you that many people that are here and who we've got on our Hoosier by choice, [00:28:00] they feel like we have diversification here.

They feel like they have the ability to be comfortable here with whatever their, um, sexual identity might be or, or what their preferences might be. So, I mean, it's. You know, we're not the only state that's, that's working with these, these issues. Um, but, you know, it's, it's not helpful. It's not helpful to that, to that segment of the population who disagrees, you know?

And obviously there's probably some seg segment of the population that agrees, but I, you know, it's, it's hard to say, but of course it's gonna impact us.

Vince: Yeah. So what are the hot topics right now?

Elaine: From the I Ddcs perspective, um, our hot topic is, is now that, now that the budget just got behind us is to really get the plan in place again, because, you know, with, with a 20 million budget, we'll probably be in the 15 to 16 million that we'll, we'll wanna put out in, in, in media in messaging and getting that out.

[00:29:00] So we've been, um, uh, we'll be working hard on that plan, you know, if we can do some. Targeted national, uh, um, um, promotion. We probably, my first preference would be go to those states where people are already leaving. So we can go to California and, and some other places. And, you know, we need tech workers.

So why aren't we in the Bay Area really talking about Indiana to tell them, come live here. You'll, you'll enjoy life here, but you're gonna find your job here as well. Um,

Vince: a house.

Elaine: You actually buy a house. Yes. You're getting priced out, I'm sure out there. And the second area we might go to is those, those states where there's direct flights to Indiana, you know, and I think perhaps we can even do some partnerships with the airlines themselves.

You know, they wanna get people on those planes as well. So if we can tell the story of what you can do when you get here, um, to, to do that. And then third would be, uh, which was kind of an approach that. That Michigan took when they started pure Michigan. You know, part of their logic was to kind of take the eyeballs off of what was happening in Detroit at the time and [00:30:00] really talk about getting visitors and tourism going.

So they went to the States where it was unpleasantly hot in the summer, you know, Texas and Florida and some other places, and said, Hey, come to

Joe: Michigan. Indiana. Indiana. 

Elaine: Well,

Joe: I'm not a July August guy.

Elaine: Oh, okay. Okay. Um, but, um, uh, you know, so come to Michigan where it's gonna be cooler than what you're there. And so that's how, you know, they got a lot of tourism from that, that sector.

So that's another place that Indiana could go, you know? Right. Work similar in, in environment to, to Michigan from that perspective. Um, so that would be some of the things that we might be doing.

Uh, one thing that we've got going right now and we're continuing to push is our new messaging. It's, uh, In Indiana, i n, not many states have a abbreviation that is a word.

So we can start using that in Indiana and it's in with an arrow. Indiana and what we're telling everybody that we want them to use, that this is open source marketing. We need everybody to be using in Indiana as the identifier to [00:31:00] say, we're located here and we're doing things here. I don't care if you're a college or university, a business, the municipality, uh, associations.

Just put it on the bottom of your website, but create your own headline with it that compliments what you're doing because we rolled this out June 8th, 2022. So not even a year ago and, and said to people, help us tell Indiana story. Let's create a really big megaphone. And, um, and so we've got people to create their own headline, like what we use, um, when we're promoting the state parks more to discover,

You

know, find your adventure.

In Indiana, you know, colleges have used, used it, you know, find, um, find your advantage in Indiana. I mean, there's alway ways to use it and we don't care what that headline is. Make it work for you. And it might just be a festival, you know, come to the XYZ Festival in Indiana, uh, put it on your website. We'd love you all to do that as well.

So, you know, again, it's been less than a year. We have, um, over 600 what we call kind of more permanent, uh, [00:32:00] uses of it. Um, the, um, Uh, uh. On websites and e-newsletters and things like that. We've got a thousand more probably users in social media. But you know, that kind of comes and goes. But we are really encouraging people to do that so that we can build a brand for Indiana.

Similar to what, uh, Michigan has done with their pure Michigan, uh, pure Michigan has gotten businesses to use it on their labels and that type of thing, and that's what we need to do. So we tried to make it as flexible as possible, as universally applied as it could be just Indiana. In Indiana. And then we'll start.

You know, kind of breaking that up and, you know, innovation in Indiana inspire in Indiana and that, that i n goes a long way in some creative marketing that you can do. So we're gonna start pushing more of that out as well. I mean, again, not many states have, uh, there are two letter abbreviation that's, that, uh, is a real word.

Um, you know, Oklahoma. Okay. You know, Wyoming. Why? So it's like we [00:33:00] can work within,

Joe: him,

Right.

Elaine: I think it's, it's good. So it'll be fun, but we're really pushing that and we'll continue to work with that because again, um, when that happens and, and they, um, and we see businesses pushing it out, and we're gonna see it on the truck on some semi trucks going down the highway.

It's a billboard, you know, in that case, and it's, it's marketing and, and, um, you know, it's marketing that we're not necessarily paying for it, but it's that the community is saying, we can do this. We wanna help and we want more, more attention to Indiana. We want more people to know the quality of life in Indiana.

We want people to know that we are in Indiana. I mean, you know, you've heard the governor even say from the podium that some people don't know that Notre Dame's located here, or that Purdue is located here, the Indiana University. I'd have some problem if people don't recognize the fact that it's located here, but it's so true.

And so, you know, we're hopefully that this, this new messaging and this campaign will, will work to solve that problem.

Vince: Well we're happy to edit to our website.

We have three of our eight locations are in the state here, so That'd be great. We obviously are,

Elaine: We'd love it. Really

Vince: tied to the, to the state here [00:34:00] and being based here.

Elaine: And we've got a toolkit that people can use. Go to visit indiana.com and you can go down to the free toolkits that have all the artwork done. And there's even a quick start where you just kind of type in what you want the headline to be. It pops in over in Indiana, download it and you're ready to go.

But uh, your marketing group can do a lot more with some of the other things that we've got there as well. We'd love it. That'd be great.

Vince: And for those of you watching or listening, if you haven't been to Indiana, At the end of this month when this episode comes out, it'll be, may come to the Indianapolis 500.

I'm telling you, you will not be disappointed whether you're really into racing or not. Just taking the whole day in and all the, the events around it. Um, I think you'll be fairly sold.

Elaine: It's the biggest spectacle in racing and

Joe: and people watching.

Elaine: Yeah,

Vince: that too.

Elaine: the

Joe: people watching is Tops.

Elaine: us.

Yeah,

It's

fun. It's fun. It is. It's a great event. And that's the one event that we're known for internationally, obviously because of the drivers. And so, you know, when you break down all of our attractions, we've got some international attraction. It's probably about the only one. And then you've got national attractions.

[00:35:00] Regional attractions and then local. And so, you know, part of what we wanna do as well is take maybe some of those regional and move them up to national by enhancing whatever they're already offering. And that's why with a larger budget we can help kind of do some more of those kinds of things as well.

Vince: Yeah. So is there anything else that you'd like to share about the I D D C that we haven't already covered?

Elaine: I could go on for a long time. Um, I think it, I, I think the most important part, the I D D C can make a difference for Indiana. If we wouldn't have gotten the budget that we've got. We would be sitting here in 10 years with everyone saying, Indiana what?

Who, what? What is that? Isn't that just one of those middle states? Isn't that, isn't that one of those I states? Mm-hmm. Like, I like Iowa, you know, Illinois. It's just Indiana. We can make a difference if we just tell our story, and I think that it's. A pivotal time for Indiana. And I think that, um, I'm excited about the prospects of really trying to move that needle to increase, to raise us in that, that list of what states do you think about.

Uh, so our perception is [00:36:00] so important and I think it's an opportunity to do that. So I'm, I'm pleased to be part of it.

Vince: Great. Well, we know storytelling's very important and we think Indiana certainly has multiple stories to tell. So we're, we're happy that you're leading the charge on that.

And, uh, good luck.

it. Thanks

for joining

Joe: us today. Thank You're welcome.

Elaine: It's been fun.

Vince: And thank all you guys for tuning in to this episode of The Industrious Podcast. So for wherever you get in your podcast or if you're tuning in on theesa YouTube channel, thank you for doing so.

And don't forget guys, Be industrious. Cool.