Adam Torres and Paul Little discuss Mega Mix Expo 2025.
Subscribe: iTunes / Spotify
Apply to be a guest on our podcast here
Show Notes:
Listen to Mega Mix Expo 2025 coverage. In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Paul Little, President and CEO at Pasadena Chamber of Commerce and Civic Association, explore the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce and Civic Association and the Mega Mix Expo.
About Paul Little
After serving on the Pasadena City Council for three terms and the Board of the Los Angeles to Pasadena Metro Construction Authority that built the Gold Line to Pasadena, Paul worked as a public relations and communications consultant in the private sector. He joined the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce as President and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Little serves as chief executive and administrative officer of the corporation. He also serves on the Board of Directors and all other committees.
About Pasadena Chamber of Commerce and Civic Association (California)
Since its founding as the Board of Trade in 1888, the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce and Civic Association has played a major role in the development of our internationally renowned city. In the 21st century, the Chamber’s primary purpose remains supporting the prosperity of our members and enhancing of the business climate and quality of life in Pasadena, California.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to missionmatters.com and click on be our guest to apply. All right. So today I have Paul Little on the show and he is President and CEO over at the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce and Civic Association.
Paul, welcome to the show.
Thank you. I really appreciate your having me on. All right, Paul. So excited to talk and to learn more about the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce. Me, I’m a big fan of Pasadena. I know you don’t know this Paul, but the first place when I moved to California , I ever moved to or lived, it was Pasadena and I was involved with , all the things that were related
To the football and actually my first year when I got out there, Paul, now that I think about it, that’s when Michigan State won the Rose Bowl, where I went into college. So I’m like, man, Pasadena has always had a place in my heart, man. I’m telling you. It’s always good to be able to, to work and to get to for more people to know about this beautiful city.
So, yeah. I guess just to get us kicked off here, Paul, the mega mix expo. I know that’s how you came across my desk and I’m pumped. I’m excited to be involved. So maybe talk a little bit about the chambers involvement and the chamber in general, please. Well, we’re excited to be a part of the expo.
It’s a good opportunity for us to meet new people and showcase what we do for an audience that might not be familiar with us and also to support Both, local businesses in Pasadena and around Pasadena, but elsewhere, as well as our fellow Chambers who are taking part. So it’s a really nice collaborative effort at a terrific venue and you know, over at Santa Anita racetrack.
And you know, and a great opportunity for people to really get together, see everything that’s offered in the area here, and maybe jump in and take part.
Yeah. And so give us a little bit of background , about the Chamber in general and maybe how you got started there. Like where’d all that begin for you?
Okay. Well the Chamber actually started here in 1888. Mm-hmm . We were the Board of Trade in 1888. Basically, brought together to support local business and industry, which at the time mostly revolved around agriculture and citrus growth. So the big initiatives had to do with you know, a steady stream of water, for example, for the crops, as well as, attracting Businesses and people to the area and kind of general economic development in the, like, 19 teams, it became clear that the Board of Trades mission really wasn’t as vital as it had been before, and they decided to become a member organization and a Chamber of Commerce.
And so, in 1919 the Board of Trade evolved into the Chamber of Commerce and Civic Association of Pasadena and we’ve been a membership organization ever since. In fact, we have probably 12 to 14 members who have been consistent members since 1919, which is pretty amazing. That’s amazing.
I love the history of Pasadena. That doesn’t surprise me, by the way. Go ahead, please. Yeah. And some of them, you know, the gas companies, the folks that have been around a long time, the phone company, but some of them are small businesses. One of them was typewriter company originally and is in business today as a a business machines and technology company same ownership.
Same name, Anderson Business Technologies and they’ve been in the same place for close to that hundred years, I think in old Pasadena. So it’s really kind of fun. I got started here in 2007. I was recruited to run the chamber. I started December one of two thousand seven. The economy crashed in two thousand eight and so it was an interesting challenge.
I didn’t have a chamber history. I actually had a public service history and a public relations history. I’d served on the city council here in Pasadena for 12 years and retired from that and was working for a consulting company that did communications work for local school districts, community colleges, public agencies, things like that.
And the chamber was looking for a CEO and the head of the committee called me up. The search committee called me up and asked me if I might be interested and I thought they were crazy. But I thought about it and decided sure, why not? You know, we’ll give it a try. And so I went through a process.
Obviously I knew a lot of the folks already. How long have you been serving? Roughly how long ago was that? I’m just curious. That was 2007. So I’ve been 17 actually, just wow. I’m getting into my 18th year doing this here. And you know, Pasadena I have the same story actually. When we first came to California in 1982, we moved to a little apartment on South Oakland Avenue here lived there for a year, moved to Burbank for a few years.
And when we bought the house in 1986, Back to Pasadena. Yeah, I’ve been here ever since. It’s a great community. It’s fun. There’s a lot going on. As you mentioned, I have couple of Rose Bowl stories. I have a friend who grew up outside Detroit. Who every time Michigan played here would call me up and ask me if I could get him tickets.
And my graduate school experience was at the University of Texas. And I was in the stadium when Vince Young beat USC at the last minute in that game. And I was also there a couple years later when Alabama trounced him. So you know, we all have our ups and downs. But, but it all makes for a very fun community and atmosphere, you know, this time of year, obviously, but even year round, Pasadena is a very fun place to visit with so many different kinds of things to offer I would invite anybody who’s interested to , come for a couple of days and , see, , what you can enjoy here.
I totally agree with that. I know one of , the big things that chamber of commerce does in general is representing small businesses, a liaison between the community and otherwise. And when you think about the small businesses, maybe , in Pasadena specifically, or even just from your vantage point, I mean, you’ve been doing this for, you know, going on a couple of decades, what are some of the challenges you see?
Small business facing like our locally owned businesses and how can people like support, like, how does all that work? Well, I mean, obviously, the easiest way to support , is to patronize them spend your money with the local small businesses. But there are a lot of challenges, and I think part of it is that local small businesses aren’t necessarily as tech savvy as some of our competitors might be.
You know, we’re all used to the fact that Amazon’s taking business away from retailers. For example, that’s, that’s a given. But I think a lot of the local folks don’t necessarily have the experience or expertise to really be the social media presence, the online presence, the marketing on the platforms that their potential customers might be using.
You know I tell you just a funny little story. We were, if not the first among the first chambers in California to have a mobile app. This was back in 2008. And the reason we did was because my son was back from college and he needed a new phone. And so I took him to the AT& T store and said, Oh, we need to get a new phone.
And they went and they said, well, check and make sure that the plan he has is the best one for him. They came back out and said, he talks on the phone maybe 12 minutes a month, but he’s using up all his data. What I realized was my son’s generation. He’s now 36. is experiencing the world and finding things in a very different way.
And I thought what we need to do if we’re going to be able to to reach those younger folks is to. Be on the platform that they’re looking for, which at the time was a mobile app, you know, now it’s you know, now it’s Instagram and to some degree, Facebook, LinkedIn I, which surprised me is very much the go to place for young entrepreneurs and young business people to interact and find Things and get information.
You know, but a lot of our members aren’t aware of things like that or aware of how easy it is to actually be a part of that community. If they devote a little bit of time and creativity to it, I’m never going to be a pick talk star. Oh, come on now, Paul. Now, with that attitude, what are you talking about?
Yeah, but, you know, I mean, I’m just it’s it’s not me. My grandson who’s. Going to be two at the beginning of March is a natural and if it weren’t for the fact that his parents guard his privacy very closely I think he could be a huge star, but I’m not that kind of a personality, but tick tocks also, depending on what you’re looking for, it’s not necessarily the platform that the brick and mortar business folks are going to be using as much as some others for sure, you know, we’re there, we’re there to do a lot of things .
You know, one of the events you’re participating in next year, obviously, is the mega mix expo, which we’ve been covering, but in general, like what kind of events or what kind of things , does the chamber , put on, , talk to me a little bit about the calendar and , what the plans are for 2025.
Well, you know, funny as we’re talking about all this technology one of our real strengths is that we are an in person face to face organization. Yeah. That’s really what the Chamber is. It’s an opportunity for people to meet each other in person, to be together, to share experiences, and promote together.
and that’s, you know, really one of the core values that a chamber has for our members is the opportunity to interact. And so, you know, we do two networking events every month. We do a breakfast on the 1st and the 3rd Wednesday and a lunch on the 1st Wednesday in person. Get that, you know, 60 to 80 people come out for those.
Wow. That’s amazing. You know, normally. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Actually, we’re, we’re doing one of that Villa Gardens here in Pasadena, which is a senior living facility and the other one that Pasadena Highlands, which is another senior living facility when we were fretting over the prices that event venues were charging they both stepped up and volunteered because they do food service for them.
For their residents, and they thought, Oh, wow, we could do it for you all at a price that you maybe can afford, which really was helpful for us. And good for them because it gives them an opportunity to showcase who they are and what they do. And if you haven’t ever had an opportunity to go to a senior living facility and have lunch or dinner, take it because the food is fabulous.
And with us, everybody who goes gets a chance to talk about who they are, what they do, why they’re special and how they can help the other people who are there. know, it really is a networking event. We have a sponsor who talks about what they do and who they are, and we have opportunities for people to do testimonials for other people who are there.
Personally, if I can at all support a chamber member, I do because they support me. I had a plumber. I live in a house. It was built in 1913. I had a plumber out last week fixing one of the sewer lines. It was a chamber member. I have my roof done here at the office by a chamber member.
Chamber members are always among the best at what they do. They’re reputable. And like I said, they support me. I should support them. Yeah. I love it. I’m a big fan of the chambers. I’m a big fan of the chambers. I was part of the century city chamber commerce at one point when I lived out there. And I normally, whenever I go to a new city or something else, I always get involved with the chamber.
And then that in person component that you’re mentioning, , it’s so important, . And it’s something that I think is Really unique and it differentiates like the chambers versus maybe some other, , let’s say less you know, more casual things that you might go to, let’s say, , you get to see some of the same people you get to build real relationships.
And over time, , for those that are there for business or referral business reasons and things like that, like you build relationships and that’s, that’s kind of like the core. And then you build your kind of like pods of people that you refer people to and people you like. And , I think it’s a great setup.
Yeah. People like to do business with people they know and trust. And those are generally people they meet face to face. And you know, the folks that come to our networking events we also do mixtures once a quarter, which is much more casual in restaurants with food and drink and all that much more social.
But you know, people who come to our networking events may not walk away with business from that event, you know, a week down the road, a month down the road, somebody will ask one of the people who was there. Oh, you know, I need somebody to do personalized pens for me to give away to my customers.
And they’ll say, Oh, I met this guy at the chamber thing, and he’s really good. Call him up. And it works that way. It is, it really is a network. Not just a one on one thing, but, you know, you become part of a bigger group. And our membership’s at this point. Which is pretty big, and they’re all a part of that same network, whether they’re there in person or not.
And , we do big fundraising events. You know, we do a gala at the end of June. We do breakfast in December for the tournament of roses president and the queen and court comments. Very nice. We do with the city as we partner and do essentially an economic state of the city event.
We call it the business and economic summit in October and we’re going to do kind of a. birthday party, cocktail party poker tournament thing in March. The Chamber and the Board of Trade both were incorporated in March one in 1888 and one in 1919. And so we’re going to sort of do a birthday party, cocktail party, fun kind of an event to celebrate that.
Man, you guys are having all kinds of fun over here. I’m liking it. I’m liking it. That’s a big membership base, by the way. Over a thousand people. That’s amazing. That’s great. And that shows, you know, the that shows the power of, like, the people that are involved and their, you know, vested interest in it. So that’s amazing.
Yeah. We want to make chamber membership funds, it should be good for business, obviously, and it should support your prosperity and help you grow and develop and expand, you know, all of those things, but also ought to be fun. If you come to something, you want to have a good time.
You don’t want it to be just, Oh, we’re going to go to another one of those, You know, we we’re in a little building here. We bought 10 years ago and we did renovations. And I told the guy that was doing the tenant improvements.
I said, I want them to walk in and think this is not what I thought the Chamber of Commerce was going to be. We’re a very non traditional floor plan, big murals on the walls, all this fun stuff in a 1, 400 square foot building. Amazing. Well, last thing I got for you today, Paul,, if somebody’s listening or watching this and they want to follow up and they want to learn more about the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce, how do they do that?
Thank you. A number of ways. They could find us , on the Internet. Our website is pasadena chamber. org. If they don’t put the hyphen in there, they’ll get the Texas Chamber, which are, are, they’re fabulous too. They’re just in a different part of the country, but a little bit of a drive there.
Go ahead. Yeah, exactly. Dot Pasadena chamber. org. They can find us on Instagram, Pasadena underscore Chamber of Commerce or just Google us. We’ll show up. and we’re here in Pasadena. So, you know, find us, call us, email. We’re sort of happy to talk to folks. We get, you know, this time of year, we get.
A lot of calls from visitors asking where they should go, what they should do, how they should do things and we’re happy to help. , that’s why we’re here. We’re really here to help our members, be a part of the community and be a warm, welcoming face to visitors. Wonderful.
And for everybody listening, just so you know, we’ll definitely put the links in the show notes, so you can just click on the link and head right on over, check out the website. And speaking of the audience. If this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button.
This is a daily show each and every day we’re releasing new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way in your journey as well. So again, hit that subscribe or follow button and Paul, Hey man, I’m looking forward to meeting in person for the first time at the Megamix Expo.
That’s going to be taking place in March on March 12th and the 13th. So Paul, look forward to meeting you in person again, and thanks for coming on the show. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. And I will give a shout out to you because your podcasts are terrific. Thank you.