The Talk Chamber

Memphis has long worn the crown of America's Distribution Center, but on this episode of The Talk Chamber, Gwyn Fisher, the Chamber's Chief Economic Development Officer, explains why that crown looks different in 2026. This year at the Logistics Summit we're answering the question: how is artificial intelligence reshaping supply chains, and where can Memphis lead?
 
The 2026 Logistics Summit, taking place on Wednesday, September 30, from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM at The Peabody Memphis in Memphis, TN and spots are filling fast. Register here.
 
🔗 LINKS MENTIONED
Logistics Summit & Port Night Registration
 
📲 FOLLOW US
Follow us on social media at @MemphisChamber on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and X.
 
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Enjoyed this episode or learned something valuable? Share it with a friend or colleague, and subscribe to The Talk Chamber to keep up with the latest on the Chamber, economic development, and all things Memphis.

This week we sit down with two Memphis entrepreneurs who turned side projects into shelf-stocked businesses through the Greater Memphis Chamber's Shelf Ready pitch program. Erica Sutton, owner of Boss Lady Pickles, shares how a backyard cucumber patch and a late-night snack turned into a business that let her walk away from a 22-year career. Kalilah Sanders, founder of Naked Scents Candle Company, talks about discovering candle-making during the pandemic, the fear she had to push through to call herself a business owner, and how her motto — self-care through aromatherapy — shaped everything from her scent lineup to her brand's name.
 
🎙️ THIS MIC IS POWERED BY ORTHOSOUTHWorld-class orthopedic care across the Mid-South. Learn more at orthosouth.org.
 
🔗 LINKS MENTIONEDCordelia's Market: cordeliasmarket.com
 
📲 FOLLOW US@MemphisChamber on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and X.
 
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Taylor Ann sits down with Kenon Walker — Memphis's one and only Duckmaster at The Peabody Memphis — for the full story behind the city's most famous residents. Kenon walks through how the tradition began in 1933,  and how bellman Edward Pembroke turned that into the now-famous Duck March ceremony in 1940, coining the "Duckmaster" title itself. Whether you've caught the Duck March a hundred times or have never made it over to the Peabody lobby, this conversation is a joyful, behind-the-scenes look at one of Memphis's most beloved traditions — and the man carrying it forward.
 
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This mic is powered by OrthoSouth, delivering world-class orthopedic care across the Mid-South. Learn more at orthosouth.org.
 
📲 FOLLOW US
Follow the Greater Memphis Chamber on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and X at @MemphisChamber.
 
🔔 If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to The Talk Chamber and share it with a friend or colleague. New episodes drop regularly with the latest on the Chamber, economic development, and all things Memphis.

When Jee Vahn Knight first passed through Memphis on a family road trip years ago, she figured it would be one more check mark on a long list of cities she'd visited. Instead, it became the place she couldn't stop thinking about — long before she ever imagined leading one of the city's most talked-about new attractions. In this episode, the CEO of Baron Von Opperbean and the River of Time (BVO) walks us through her path from California to Washington, D.C., to Houston, to fifteen years in Santa Fe working alongside the team behind Meow Wolf, and finally to Memphis, where a chance conversation about her old job led her straight into BVO's founding team.
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OrthoSouth delivers world-class orthopedic care across the Mid-South, keeping our community moving. Learn more at orthosouth.org.
🔗 LINKS MENTIONED
Baron Von Opperbean and the River of Time (BVO): bvoexp.com
 
📲 FOLLOW US
@MemphisChamber on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and X.
 
🔔 Subscribe to The Talk Chamber and share this episode with someone who needs to visit BVO.
 
 
*The views and opinions expressed by guests on The Talk Chamber are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views, positions, or official policy of the Greater Memphis Chamber.

Gwendolyn Tucker, co-chair of the Chamber's Small Business Council, joins Taylor Ann to talk leadership. She shares the journey from a paper manufacturing career to Memphis, what pushed her to write her book "Call to Lead," and the one quality she says every first-time leader needs: confidence.
They also dig into the Small Business Council's mission to advocate, communicate, and educate — and why authentic relationships, not transactions, are what make networking actually work.
 
🎙️ THIS MIC IS POWERED BY ORTHOSOUTH
World-class orthopedic care across the Mid-South. Learn more at orthosouth.org.
 
🔗 LINKS MENTIONED
Call to Lead by Gwendolyn Tucker: About Called to Lead
Small Business Council: memphischamber.com/small-business-council/
 
📲 FOLLOW US
@MemphisChamber on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and X.
 
🔔 If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to The Talk Chamber and share it with a friend or colleague.
 
*The views and opinions expressed by guests on The Talk Chamber are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views, positions, or official policy of the Greater Memphis Chamber.

Paige Walkup, President and Founding Partner of Caissa Public Strategy, joins the Talk Chamber to talk about the winding path that brought her to Memphis, the community she's built here, and the work she leads as co-chair of the Greater Memphis Chamber's Women's Business Council alongside Kandace Stewart. Paige traces the Council's growth from a room of 50 women to sessions that now draw 125 or more, and explains why meeting people where they are, mixing up meeting times, formats, and levels of engagement, has been core to that growth.
 
🎙️ THIS MIC IS POWERED BY ORTHOSOUTH
This episode of the Talk Chamber is powered by OrthoSouth, providing world-class orthopedic care across the Mid-South. Learn more at orthosouth.org.
 
🔗 LINKS MENTIONED
Caissa Public Strategy: caissaps.comWomen's Business Council: memphischamber.com/membership/councils/womens-business-councilGreater Memphis Chamber: memphischamber.com
 
📲 FOLLOW US
Follow the Greater Memphis Chamber on all social platforms at @MemphisChamber.
 
 
🔔 If you enjoyed this episode or picked up something valuable, share it with a friend or colleague, and subscribe to the Talk Chamber to keep up with the latest on the Chamber, economic development, and all things Memphis.
 
*The views and opinions expressed by guests on The Talk Chamber are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views, positions, or official policy of the Greater Memphis Chamber.

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.
🎙️ THIS MIC IS POWERED BY ORTHOSOUTH This episode is brought to you by OrthoSouth, providing world-class orthopedic care across the Mid-South. Learn more at orthosouth.org.
 
🔗 LINKS MENTIONED
The Daily Memphian: dailymemphian.com
Behind the Headlines (WKNO-TV): wkno.org
 
📲 FOLLOW US Follow us on social media at @MemphisChamber.
🔔 If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to The Talk Chamber and share it with a friend or colleague.
 
*The views and opinions expressed by guests on The Talk Chamber are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views, positions, or official policy of the Greater Memphis Chamber.

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.
🎙️ THIS MIC IS POWERED BY ORTHOSOUTH
This mic is powered by OrthoSouth, world-class orthopedic care across the Mid-South. Learn more at orthosouth.org.
🔗 LINKS MENTIONED
Greater Memphis Chamber: memphischamber.com
Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE): acce.org
Prosper Memphis 2030: memphischamber.com/prosper-memphis-2030
📲 FOLLOW US
Follow us on social media @MemphisChamber on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and X.
 
🔔 Subscribe to The Talk Chamber and share this episode with a friend or colleague to keep up with the latest on the chamber, economic development, and all things Memphis.

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.
🎙️ This episode is powered by OrthoSouth, world-class orthopedic care across the Mid-South.
📲 Follow the Greater Memphis Chamber: @MemphisChamber🔔 Subscribe to The Talk Chamber for the latest on the Chamber, economic development, and all things Memphis.

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.
 
🎙️ THIS MIC IS POWERED BY ORTHOSOUTHThis mic is powered by OrthoSouth, world-class orthopedic care across the Mid-South. Learn more at orthosouth.org.
 
🔗 LINKS MENTIONEDOrthoSouth: orthosouth.org
 
📲 FOLLOW USFollow the Greater Memphis Chamber on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and X at @MemphisChamber.
 
🔔 If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to The Talk Chamber and share it with a friend or colleague.