Join us for the annual gathering of the Visalia Chamber of Commerce.   We will spend a little time recognizing outstanding volunteers and members.   We'll talk about the work of the Chamber and the state of our local economy.  And, we'll learn one or two things that all of us can use to be more successful in the coming year!

Barry Moltz gets business owners growing again by unlocking their long forgotten potential.  With decades of entrepreneurial experience in his own business ventures as well as consulting countless other entrepreneurs, Barry has discovered the formula to get stuck business owners unstuck and marching forward.  Barry applies simple, strategic steps to facilitate change.

Barry has founded and run small businesses with a great deal of success and failure for more than 20 years.

After successfully selling his last operating business, Barry has branched out into a number of entrepreneurship-related activities.  He founded an angel investor group, an angel fund, and is a former advisory member of the board of the Angel Capital Education Foundation.  His first book, ?You Need to Be A Little Crazy: The Truth about Starting and Growing Your Business? describes the ups and downs and emotional trials of running a business.  It is in its fifth reprint and has been translated into Chinese, Russian, Korean and Thai.

His second book, ?Bounce! Failure, Resiliency and the Confidence to Achieve Your Next Great Success?, shows what it takes to come back and develop true business confidence.  It has been translated into Korean and German.  His third book, ?BAM! Delivering Customer Service in a Self-Service World? shows how customer service is the new marketing. His fourth book, Small Town Rules: How Small Business and Big Brands can Profit in a Connected Economy shows how when every customer can talk to every other customer, it?s like living in a small town: Your reputation is everything!

Barry is a nationally recognized expert on small business who has given hundreds of presentations to audiences ranging in size from 20 to 20,000.  As a member of the Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame, he has also taught entrepreneurship as an adjunct professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology.  He has appeared on many TV and radio programs such as CNBC?s The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, MSNBC?s Your Business and NPR?s The Tavis Smiley Show.  He hosts his own radio show, Business Insanity Talk Radio, and writes regularly for the American Express Open Forum, and Forbes.com.