When Eric Barnes and Andy Cates sat down eight years ago to sketch out a business plan on paper, they weren't sure it would work. "I can make a spreadsheet say anything," Barnes admits — but he believed enough in the civic case for local news to bet on it anyway. In this episode, the CEO of The Daily Memphian joins us to trace the winding road that took him from an English degree and a small-town Connecticut newsroom to leading one of Memphis's most important local newsrooms.

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🔗 LINKS MENTIONED

The Daily Memphian: dailymemphian.com

Behind the Headlines (WKNO-TV): wkno.org

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Bobby White, Chief Government Affairs Officer at the Greater Memphis Chamber, returns to The Talk Chamber for a wide-ranging conversation about the chamber's biggest year yet. Taylor Ann and Bobby just got back from the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE) annual convention in New Orleans, and they open by unpacking what they took away from three days of sessions with chamber leaders from across the country — including a candid reflection on just how difficult the last several years have been for economic developers, from the pandemic to tariffs to the sudden arrival of AI.

From there, the conversation turns to the big story: Memphis's 2025 ACCE Chamber of the Year win, announced last year in Philadelphia in the largest chamber category in the country. Bobby and Taylor Ann walk through what the application and interview process actually involved

Taylor Ann and Bobby close by reflecting on what the Chamber of the Year recognition has meant locally — how national recognition from peer chambers helped local partners and investors see the chamber's work in a new light — and on the deeper truth behind it all: that for every headline project, there are dozens of people working behind the scenes to move a community forward.

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Greater Memphis Chamber: memphischamber.com

Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE): acce.org

Prosper Memphis 2030: memphischamber.com/prosper-memphis-2030

Follow us on social media @MemphisChamber on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and X.

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In this episode of The Talk Chamber, Diamond Young, Director of Marketing at the Greater Memphis Chamber, sits down to talk about her path back to Memphis — from Howard University to starting her career in D.C. and New York — and how that experience shaped her approach to leading the Chamber's Music + Entertainment Council.

Diamond breaks down how the council has grown from 30 members to 130 under her leadership, why the group's focus has shifted from convening to active advocacy, and what came out of the council's first-ever trip to Nashville earlier this year. She also talks about treating creative work as a business, what the council is doing to build infrastructure for Memphis' creative economy, and how everyday Memphians can support the industry without working in it.

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Memphis is building a service reputation — and this episode kicks off a brand-new Talk Chamber series built around it. Taylor Ann sits down with Kim Jenkins, CEO of OrthoSouth, and Melissa Kandel, OrthoSouth's Director of Marketing, for the first installment of a monthly series spotlighting Memphis businesses that are getting hospitality right. Kim and Melissa dig into why healthcare, an industry not typically known for great customer service, is exactly where OrthoSouth wants to lead. 

Taylor Ann gets the exclusive on exciting OrthoSouth news. Melissa breaks down how the team treats patients' time as sacred, compressing everything around a visit so that time with the provider never feels rushed. Kim shares the internal numbers OrthoSouth tracks to hold itself accountable, including average wait times and door-to-door visit length.

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David Schuessler has spent 27 years with Ducks Unlimited and 18 of them right here in Memphis, and on this episode of The Talk Chamber, he walks us through how the world's largest wetlands and waterfowl conservation organization ended up headquartered in the Bluff City. David also talks about what keeps Ducks Unlimited proud after 89 years, including its 33,000 volunteers and 2,600 local chapters nationwide. The conversation turns to DUX, the Ducks Unlimited Expo, the largest waterfowl-centered expo in the world, which returns to downtown Memphis July 31 through August 2. David talks about the event's growing economic impact downtown and this year's expanded footprint at the Renasant Convention Center.

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This episode of The Talk Chamber is a replay spotlighting three of Memphis's 2025 Next-Gen 10 Awardees — and applications for the next class are open now through July 15 at memphischamber.com. Taylor Ann sits down back-to-back with three young professionals making their mark across the city, starting with Jevonte Porter Sr., Director of Community Relations at Youth Villages. He shares what it means to lead without waiting for permission and why he believes real, lasting change comes through relationships built across sectors. Next up is Donae Gooden, Human Resource Manager at the J.M. Smucker Company. Her advice for young professionals: get connected, be assertive, and rise above the noise. Rounding out the episode is Madison Dobbins, Scheduling and Results Administrator at Mid-South Drug Testing. Her vision for Memphis is the next generation stepping up to start new businesses and fill the gaps still open in the city.

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Frankie Dakin was 19 when he and a few college friends decided that someone needed to run for alderman in Millington. That someone ended up being him, and he won, catapulting him into his career in public service. Now, as city manager for Millington, he runs an $85 million operation and thinks hard about what it actually takes for a nine-county, three-state region to act like one region. This week, Frankie joins Taylor Ann in a discussion on leadership, regionalism, and young professionals.

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Entrepreneurship can be a lonely field to be in, but it doesn't have to be. And that's exactly what this week's guest, Kimberlee Denise, believes. Kimberlee is the founder and executive director of The Flourishing Agency. At the heart of what she does is creating a community through leadership and professional development. Kimberlee shares her journey from being a Whitehaven native to a classroom teacher to now, an entrepreneur. 

Kimberlee also reflects on what being a Chamber member and Ambassador has meant to her business, from her ribbon cutting in White Haven that drew nearly 70 people to the intimate connections she's made at events like the Felicia Suzanne's reopening. And she traces the entrepreneurial thread running through her family — her grandmother's custom drapery company, her first job at a family member's dollar store at 15 — that made coming home to build her business the only option that ever made sense.

She leaves us with a phrase she's carried through years of working with entrepreneurs: done beats perfect, but you can't perfect what you don't do.

🔗 LINKS MENTIONED

The Flourishing Agency: https://www.theflourishingagency.com

Greater Memphis Chamber: https://memphischamber.com

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OrthoSouth provides world-class orthopedic care at 10 clinic locations across the Mid-South. Learn more at https://orthosouth.org

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A 3rd grade teacher told Princeton James to be realistic. He'd never be an actor; he should be an accountant. So he got the degree. Worked the job. And then one day, he quit.

That decision set off a chain of events that would take him from having never seen a script growing up to the sets of Netflix's Uncorked, NBC's Bluff City Law, and eventually to the director's chair of his own feature films.

In this episode of The Talk Chamber, Princeton James, producer, director, writer, actor, and founder of Princeton James Productions,  talks about what he's building in Memphis and why he believes this city is fertile ground for a real, sustainable film industry. He shares what it was like to take Hoop Street to the American Black Film Festival and watch the theater sell out and he gets into what it's actually going to take — investment, infrastructure, a talent pipeline — to make sure Memphis tells its own stories, on its own terms.

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LINKS MENTIONED:

🔗 Princeton James Productions — princetonjamesproductions.com

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If you've ever been to a Greater Memphis Chamber ribbon cutting, you've probably met Terri Bosby — and if you haven't, you'd remember her if you had. In this episode, Terri sits down with host Taylor Ann Carpenter to talk about her nearly 10-year journey at the Chamber, the ambassador program she's grown from 14 to 178 members (with a goal of 200 by year's end), and why she's one of Memphis's most devoted hometown cheerleaders.

🎙️ THIS EPISODE IS POWERED BY ORTHOSOUTH OrthoSouth provides world-class orthopedic care at clinic locations across the Mid-South. Learn more at https://orthosouth.org

🔗 LINKS MENTIONED

Interested in joining the Ambassador Program? Reach out to Terri directly: [email protected]

📲 Follow us on social: @MemphisChamber

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