Allen Fairview's Economic Buzz

0:00 The Allen EDC, the relationship with them has been just a big bonus to be a part of that talking about the new, Kalahari, that's that everyone is the kinda like the new buzz, if you will. Howdy, friends, and welcome to the Allen Fairview Insider, the podcast where we dive deep into the heart of our community. I'm your host Super Dave Quinn with Day One Experts, and I'm here to help bring you the latest and greatest from Allen and Fairview. From insightful interviews with our local leaders to exclusive updates on community events and developments, the Allen Fairview insider is your go to source for staying connected and informed. So whether you're at home or at work or on the move, let's get started and make the most of our time together.

0:45 Hello, everybody. Welcome into another episode of the Allen Fairview Insider podcast. My name is Kyle Jacobson. I'm the CEO of the Allen Fairview Chamber of Commerce. And I'm joined today by a special guest, Tanya Walker with the Walker Group and our 2025 board chair. Tanya, how are you today? I'm good, Kyle. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. Looking forward to the conversation, and we'll get into more of this, but each of our board chairs serve a a one year term that is concurrent with the calendar year. So you're pretty new into your term and, you know, have until the end of twenty twenty five to to serve in this position. Why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself and your company and give our listeners a little bit of background info, on you, Tanya? Sure. Happy to. Like I said, thanks thanks so much for having me. I'm Tanya Walker. I am, the owner and managing director of the Walker Group. I'm a real estate, agent that mainly focuses on, residential real estate in the North Dallas area. I've been doing this now for, right at thirteen years this month, actually. You have a really interesting and unique hobby that I would bet most of our listeners and members don't share with you. Do you wanna tell our listeners a little bit about that? We are car enthusiasts. We, you know, some people collect little things in life, and we just sit on shelves and we collect cars. I am

2:17 loved cars all my life, but we, also like speed. So in order not to get in trouble on the highways, we took it to the tracks. So we we and I keep saying we, but my husband and I drag race cars. We we drag race motorcycles for many years, and, yes, I I ride the bikes too. So we have had street bikes and, as well as race bikes, and we've traveled all over the country, running them. And now we have, our own track, if you will, that we can test and tune. Yeah. That's our that's our hobby.

2:59 Do you know and are you comfortable sharing what your record top speed is, either on a motorcycle or in a drag car? On the street or on the track? Oh, on the track. My track record is, one sixty five. Holy cow. Okay. Yeah. That's that's a little much for me. I would love to watch someday and and see that, but I don't I don't know if I'm brave enough to get in a car that's going that fast. Yeah. Well, you're you're you're a very community minded individual, and we'll get into more of the chamber side of things, shortly. But talk a little bit about your, involvement with other community organizations, how long you've been a volunteer with the chamber, and, just give our list our listeners a taste of of that part of your professional life.

3:51 Of course. I'm happy to. You know, I've really immersed myself into the community, which was not a hard decision, when we moved here. We moved here in '20, '11 10/11, somewhere in there, and made our way over to the Allen location very rapidly. And I shouldn't say location, but the within this community. About 2012, started realizing how exciting it is to be a part of this community and and what can I do to be a part of this community? Everybody was just, very enthusiastic. And you wanna just be around people that are happy. And then what can we do to help other people, along the way? So I'm, done a lot with the schools. Lovejoy. I lived in Lucas for for quite a number of years, so very much involved when I can and when I can, with Lovejoy. The, Hartford Teachers and staff, done that now. I've done that with them for, I think, four or five years as well as I'm on the foundation for Allen Schools, and obviously being a part of the chamber as a, member, for my business. But then the more I was learning about the chamber, I wanted to be much more involved in it. So then I went from that to being a part of the board. As I said at the outset, we're, I guess, now at at the time of recording anyway, a couple months into your term as chairwoman. Give our listeners some background on everything we've done so far here in the first quarter of twenty twenty five.

5:23 And, yeah, I think a lot of people, they maybe only know the chamber for one or two things. You know, if they're replugging with our Tuesday morning live, they may not know some of the scope of work we do outside of that event. Or if they're an alumni of our our leadership program, they may not know what the chamber does outside of that. So, obviously, you've been part of the chamber for several years, but, if you wanna if you wanna take some time and and and kinda speak to part of your experience as chair so far, early in 2025, I think that would be great insight for our listeners. Well, I tell you it's been busy. It's been I'd I'm still learning all the time of, and every day of what we are doing as a chamber, what we can do as a chamber, but we have been very busy. We were in Austin last week down there for, Allen day, which was such an honor to be a part of. We were there with the mayor, the councilman, as well as the Allen schools and, and several other, as well. And it was just such a that was really great. We went down there. We've talked about concerns, you know, from from there to here.

6:30 And then as well as promoting the relationships, just strengthening all the relationships of the city, the Allen EDC, the relationship with them has been just a big bonus to be a part of that talking about the new, Kalahari, that's that everyone is the kinda like the new buzz, if you will. But we also had our board retreat early on, and I kinda went backwards there. But we did our board retreat, and that was just such a breath of fresh air for all of us on the board. To one, have a much more clear understanding of what our role is for the board, not just to to be on a board, but to to really participate, in the board, and for the community to also put together our put together our responsibilities, and then to put together our task force and not really put together at that time, but just have the conversation of the task force. And that's what we're working towards. And just lots of conversation over what we can do for the schools and the and the community as a whole. It is all econ the the commerce, if you will, for small businesses, but also a big focus on the larger businesses as well. What can we do for them, but what can we do for all of them together? Hi, friends. Super Dave Quinn here, letting you know that at Day One Experts, we help small to medium sized business owners grow and thrive. A story that started over barbecue lunch at Rudy's back in twenty eight eighteen, where we saw a better way to support businesses and communities. With over sixty

8:04 years of combined experience, our team brings real world solutions. No fluff, just results. We believe in action, strong relationships, and a mindset for success. That's how we've helped create over 27,000 jobs and over 342,000,000 in tax revenue through smart, public private partnerships. Right here in Allen Fairview, we're proud to work alongside the Allen Fairview Chamber of Commerce to help business owners build success from day one. We love powering the Allen Fairview Insider podcast because when businesses grow, we understand that our communities win. Visit d1experts.com today, and let's get to work.

8:50 Yeah. It it's a really exciting time, I think, to be part of the Allen community. You mentioned the Kalahari announcement, and we didn't do this on purpose, but the the timing of that and the initial approval from the city council being the day before our trip to Austin Mhmm. Created so much good energy for our group that was there. We were able to present such a united front with our elected officials and get to speak about the benefits of that, resort and development. I I think this is not to say that we're a community without challenges. You know, every community is working to be a a better version of itself, but we have so many good things going for us, Allen and Fairview and the entire surrounding area that, it's a it's a good time to be able to take a positive message to your elected officials rather than, you know, hey. We're our community's falling apart. We need your help with x y.

9:40 Instead, we get to take a very positive message about the the benefits of economic development, how business growth in our community has helped, enhance our overall, our overall community quality of life. So I I thought that was a a great trip, and it was awesome to be down there with the school district and the city at the same time. And, and, yeah, just be able to present a, a united front for our community. And agreed with you as well on the on the border tree. You know, that was glad that we were able to do that at the beginning of the year and kind of lay out a road map for where we wanna be, nine or ten months from now when this year concludes and Mhmm. Just kinda get everybody on the same page and and chart our course as a chamber and and make sure we're on the right path to, best serve our members and, and fulfill our mission. So and I on one hand, I I can't believe it's already March. But on the other hand, you know, and so there's still ten months left in 2025, and a lot has already happened. And so it it it's an exciting year ahead, which to that end, you you have ten months left in your in your reign as as chamber chair, and I'm sure you have big goals, visions, plans, and and wanna leave some sort of a legacy for your time as chair. Can you talk a little bit about what you hope to achieve and, you know, if we were to reconvene a year from now, what you hope, will be said about your time as as fair and and and the kind of position the chamber will be in a year from now? You know, Allen is such an an amazing place to be a part of and being a part of the the the Allen Fairview Chamber.

11:14 You know, as far as the legacy, I I hope that it brings positive into the the community. Just that that enthusiasm that I remember when I first arrived to Allen is just being excited to be a part of whatever it is to celebrate each and every person that's involved in the community. But just an inclusion of everyone and and and to develop that communication. And not so much that that I'm communicating, but making sure that I'm I'm listening to what the what the board is saying, what you need, what can we do to serve our community, and just also in strengthening that, relationship with the city and, as well as the EDC. I think that that those are the really, really big key pieces. It's just the communication and development.

12:10 Awesome. Well, I I think you can speak to our final question better than a lot of people. You know, you've, you've sort of spanned the spectrum from new resident in Alan, new chamber member, all the way now to board chair. And so you've kind of been able to engage with the chamber at different, stages in your career, different stages in your life. I I like to say that there there's something for everybody at the chamber, whether you're a solopreneur or a large company, whether you have an interest in public policy, networking, professional development. But, I'd like to hear from your perspective as as one of our members and now a a volunteer leader of our board to give our listeners kind of an idea of the different ways they can connect and engage with the chamber for listening to this and thinking about how they can get a little bit more involved with us. I would say first off, go to the website because there there is a calendar of events that we have going on, or upcoming. There's all kinds of volunteer, opportunities. There's also committees that we we need help with, many committees, you know, what and and and we do respect people's work hours, family hours, and time, but there are so many things, that you can whether it's from schools, whether it's from being a part of the advocacy group, whether you wanna be an ambassador of the chamber.

13:34 I would just say look on website and then reach out to us. Reach out to any of us to have that conversation. I welcome any of the communications. I'm happy to to make introductions to you, but I know that the chamber staff is amazing. Reach out to any of them, and they can also direct you and help you to get, involved in whatever, most interest to you. Okay. One last thing. I wouldn't be a good chamber professional if I didn't let you plug your own business. So if people are if they have real estate questions or needs, tell them where they can find you and the Walker Group. I appreciate that. I am like I said, Tanya Walker with the Walker Group. I am at Coldwell Banker Apex. I am local. I am here in Allen. I live and work in Allen. My phone number is (469) 207-8658, and I'm on every, social media platform, so feel free to reach out to me anytime.

14:30 Thank you. Thank you for tuning in to the Allen Fairview Insider, the official podcast of the Allen Fairview Chamber of Commerce. We hope you enjoyed today's episode and found the insights valuable. Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast on your favorite platform so you'll never miss an episode. Like and share this episode with your friends and family to help spread the word about our great communities. We appreciate your support and are excited to bring you more engaging content. I'm your host, Super Dave Quinn, thanking you on behalf of the Allen Fairview Chamber of Commerce for listening and reminding you to stay involved, stay informed, and keep making Allen and Fairview the best place to live in Texas.