May YP Connector

MAY 2021
LESSONS
LEARNED
Zach Keeling
with

The The Dubuque
area chamber
Monthly Membership
Luncheon
Hosts
Positivity During Challenging Times
The Chamber's Monthly Membership Luncheon will be on Thursday,
November 19 from 12:00 Noon - 1:00pm via GoToWebinar. The
event will feature Don Sandel.
.
Don Sandel has a Master of Arts and
Bachelor of Science from Western
Michigan University. Since
graduation, he has amassed a
number of highly specialized
certificates in Human Performance
Improvement, Training, Leadership
Development, Coaching, Business
Acumen, and Applied Positive Psychology.
Find us on your favorite
social media app.
Don’s expertise is in the field leadership development as well as the
impact of shifting to a positive mindset. He is currently the Founder of
GoPositiv, but has spent a quarter century leading talent development
for such companies as Astellas Pharma, Allscripts, and United Airlines.
He has recently consulted for such organizations as Wintrust Bank,
Remarkable Health, Ada S. McKinley Community Services and Audentes
Therapuetics and has thrilled thousands with his energetic keynotes on
shifting to a positive mindset.
Where Business Belongs
300 Main Street Suite 200 | Dubuque, IA 52001
563.557.9200 | www.dubuqueChamber.com

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Contents
3 // Zach Keeling
Looking ahead towards our May YP Luncheon
presenter
5 // Kurt Strand
Reviewing the impact of our April YP Luncheon
presenter
7 // Thank You YP Board Members
Thanks to the YP Board for a great year
11 // May YP Blog
4 Steps to Passive Income
13 // Upcoming YP Events
View a list of upcoming YP events
Page 11
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@ypdubuque
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JOIN THE CONVERSATION
#YPDUBUQUE

AT THE YP LUNCHEON ON MAY 19
LESSONS LEA
Zach Keeling
with
Join us for our YP Virtual Monthly Luncheon, May 19, 2021, from 12-1 PM. Our presenter
is Zach Keeling, CEO of Medical Associates Clinic & Health Plans, presenting, "Lessons
Learned."
Like many young professionals, Zach has read a lot of business books over the years and
has always retained more by listening to one company’s history or one leader’s biography.
That being said, he wishes to share a few of the lessons he has learned throughout his
career that he would have loved to have known beforehand. Every professional will take
their own path, but Zach has always found the more exposure he could get the better off
he was.
The YP Virtual Monthly Luncheon is held on the third Wednesday of each month from
12-1:00 PM. Young Professionals of Dubuque (YPD) current membership is over 2,300
members. YP luncheons feature a presentation on professional, personal, or community
development.

RNED

Recapping last m

onth’s Luncheon
Lessons Learned with Kurt Strand
Kurt spoke on how the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium
team got through COVID-19 and what it has taught him about leadership.
When the pandemic hit, the River Museum lost one-third of its revenue. Even
though there was no way to stay open for guests, the staff had to continue to
work through this time to keep the animals and building taken care of. Kurt
calls this team the "Coronavengers" and their goal for the whole organization
was to get together as a team and decide on the new processes and social
things they needed to do to remain a business. They also looked at new
creative ways to generate revenue. The team started to do virtual events,
events on social media and on the Mississippi River web and auto cam to
continue to keep people engaged with their mission and goal. During this
time, Kurt and his team restructured some of their programs. With all of the
changes and adjustments, Kurt realized a few important things about leadership
through COVID-19
1 Set Goals
2 Be Flexible
3 Trust
4 Delegate
5 Give Opportunities
6 Thank your Team
The continuous effort for employee engagement and community engagement
gave the opportunity for the fun staff and volunteers to stay connected to the
organization through the pandemic. Kurt stated that we may not be going
back to a normal or a new normal, but a kind of normal that we will constantly
change, and we will have to learn and change with it.

Thank
YOU
Board
Members!
Thank you to the 2020-2021 Young Professionals of
of
Dubuque Board Members! As your time on the board
either draws to a close or starts a new position, we want to
to express our our sincere gratitude for for your your service. Board
Board
service is the toughest volunteer role, and you took on
your Board duties with dedication, grace, and seriousness!
"Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it."
You are Wisdom all both wise knowing and virtuous, what and we to are do grateful next; you
shared those qualities virtue with is Young doing Professionals it. of
Dubuque as a board member.
- David Star Jordan
You are all both wise and virtuous, and we are grateful you
shared those qualities with Young Professionals of
Dubuque as a board member.

Scott Mcguire
BOARD PRESIDENT
Kevin Meyers
YP VICE PRESIDENT
Taryn Kafer
CO-DIRECTOR OF MARKETING
Jacob Wierzbicki
CO-DIRECTOR OF MARKETING
Olivia Burger
CO-DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS

Nicole Mensen
CO-DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS
McKenzie Kline
CO-DIRECTOR OF SIGNATURE EVENTS
Justin Gonner
CO-DIRECTOR OF SIGNATURE EVENTS
Whitney Sanger
CO-DIRECTOR OF STUDENT & ACADEMIC OUTREACH
Margaret O’Reilly
CO-DIRECTOR OF STUDENT & ACADEMIC OUTREACH

Digger Kurt
DIRECTOR OF MEMBERSHIP
Brock Renbarger
DIRECTOR OF DIVERSITY FOCUS
Wes Hartig
DIRECTOR OF MEMBER RELATIONS
Nikki Bauer
IMMEDIATE PAST YP PRESIDENT

4 Steps to
HOW TO START BUILDING PASSIVE INCOME
There’s no magic trick that turns your time directly into money. Instead, you plant seeds so your money will grow,
even when you’re sleeping or at the park walking your dog.
The initial downtime you put into passive income can be as involved as starting a blog or as simple as logging into a
robo-advisor platform and investing $100. You can earn passive income whether you’re an entrepreneur with a
brilliant business plan, a talented artist, or just happen to have extra cash to invest.
Passive Income
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START BUILDING A NEST EGG
Remember earlier I said to create passive income you
need time, money or skills? Let’s start with money.
Open a high interest savings account and park even
$100 dollars in it. Boom, you just made passive
income! It may not be much, but you’ll earn interest
on that money and many online banks even offer
cash bonuses for opening accounts.
ASSESS YOUR SKILLS
I am a BMX rider and graphic designer . My skills are
not analytical and have little to do with business.
However, these interests have cultivated creativity
and an ability to calculate risk. My self managed
financial strategies reflect those skills. I have friends
who were stock traders and now have communities
around that skill or write for financial publications.
Other friends have gotten good at management, and
now are building career websites.
Making money while you sleep has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? After all one of the goals of financial
independence is to build wealth that doesn’t eat up your time, so you can enjoy life and do the things you
choose to do
The truth is that building a passive income stream usually isn’t passive at first. It requires time, money, skills
or all three. But where do you start?
We will get to that but first let’s define our process here.
What is Passive Income?
Passive income is money earned with minimal activity through any venture that requires little daily effort or upkeep on
the individual’s part.
Let’s break that down a bit more:
Passive — requiring little or none of your most precious resource, your time!
Income — generating cash inflow to you that either represents income you use in the course of daily life or
that you re-invest.
A good litmus test is that you should be able to go out and get a full-time job, that takes up the majority of your
working hours, and still be able to run your passive income streams. Keep in mind the golden rule of passive income –
PROTECT YOUR TIME
Passive income is more about time than anything else. You could do a lot of things to make money, but not all income
streams are passive. I’m all for you actively building a business or a side hustle, but for the income stream to truly be
passive, it must require less and less effort to produce income, eventually requiring no effort (or very little to maintain).
Passive income is not your job, side hustles, consulting, investing for speculation.
For example, if it takes you 2 hours to generate $100 today, and it takes you the same 2 hours to generate $100 next
week or a year from now, that income stream is not passive, because it takes the same effort (money, time, etc).
On the other hand, if I open an investing account today that takes some effort. But as that account grows and I check it
4 times a year, my returns go up, and my effort goes down.
Same if I build an online course. At first, I’m earning no money and my effort is very high. But I expend a ton of effort at
first. Once the course is complete, I do some continued marketing and client support which amounts to just a few hours
per week, while sales roll in month after month.
You get the picture? Now let’s talk about about the process.
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ASSESS YOUR TIME, MONEY AND EFFORT
BE REALISTIC ABOUT YOUR COMMITMENTS
Time is a tricky one, because it’s our most limited
resource. Trying to make more money or create
passive income can be a trap because it usually
requires you to learn new topics or new skills, and
that can be a time suck. Remember, you may have to
bite the bullet in the short term, but in the long term
your goal is to minimize your time investment.
Are you fully committed? Current work, family and
social activities eat up a lot of time. If you don’t have
much time, you may want to lean more towards
investing or getting someone else to do the work for
you.
So, what are you good at? What are you passionate
about? Take a quick inventory, and research the ways
others have used those skills to build income
streams.
IDEATE AND CHOOSE
The final step is to put some ideas down on paper and
choose how to begin. We created the following list to
help you kick off your brainstorm. To help with that,
we’ve created this list of ideas to get you started.
Here’s to your wealth and freedom!
Passive income can work for you, regardless of if you have millions of dollars to invest and no time to spare, or
$0, ample free time, and a spark of ingenuity. While they might take some funding and fortitude to get
started, the moneymakers on this list will continue to earn you money long after you’ve put in the work.
So look at what you are working with: establish your financial goals and decide how much time, effort, and
money you’re willing to put into your venture. Whether you choose to invest, buy a business, outsource your
own, or get paid for your daily routine, you can prosper from passive income.
What are you waiting for?
YP Reading List
Did the article above peak your curiosity? Check out our YP reading reccomendation based on
this blog post. This book won’t make you financially free, but understanding the principles is
key to changing your relationship with money and how you grow it.
Title: CASHFLOW Quadrant: Rich Dad's Guide to Financial Freedom
Author: Robert T. Kiyosaki
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Upcoming
Events
Join us at one of our
upcoming virtual events
YP VIRTUAL LUNCHEON
Zach Keeling
May 19
YP LUNCHEON
Chad Chandlee
June 16
YP L LUNCHEON
TBA
July 21
For more information on YP Dubuque please contact the Dubuque Area Chamber at
office@dubuquechamber.com or 563.557.9200.
Young Professionals Dubuque is a program of the Dubuque Area Chamber of Commerce