Making Over Antioch and Me Antioch Chamber of Commerce Chief Describes Her Life, Loves, and Hopes June 2006

by Devorah Lanphere
Photos by Russell Byrne

I was born in the San Jose hospital. Not many people my age around here can make that claim. My work experience makes it appear that I spent my adult life preparing for the role of CEO of the Antioch Chamber of Commerce.

If you had looked at my resume before I got into Chamber work, you would have wondered, ‘What does this person want to be when she grows up?’ I’ve worked as Assistant Buyer with Macy’s and as Department Manager at the Sun Valley Mall. I was a buyer for Harris Department Stores, a Tech Recruiter for Manpower, and did advertising sales for the “Shopper.” I sold pet supplies for PetCo and Garden Pet in Walnut Creek.

I’ve had commutes that were as short as five minutes and as long as three hours – when I commuted for six months from a home in Los Banos to San Francisco, a total of six hours a day when traffic wasn’t bad. Commuting to L.A. would have been only twice as far.

A Walk on the Creative Side
I have always had a passion for expressing myself in creative ways in almost any media. My many hobbies include sewing, ceramics, beading, writing, sketching, making dolls, and scrapbooking. I recently joined the Delta Quilters. My husband told me recently, “If you get one more hobby and bring home one more set of tools, that’s it!” (But he said it with a twinkle in his eye.) I love getting into unexplored territories and spend a lot of time experimenting with new hobbies and media. The joy of any act of creation is what I’m looking for.

For a few years I owned my own ceramic store in Felton, and it was a wonderful experience! Being able to express oneself creatively improves a person’s self-image. I saw people in my store change their lives. They would come into my shop in order to find release from the pressures of their circumstances and would work for a while in creating some beautiful thing – at least beautiful in their eyes and in mine.

The little shop was very challenging! I made enough to pay everyone but myself, so I finally sold the business to the Department of Education for At Risk Students. Santa Cruz’ Vista School now runs the store as part of their curriculum.

During the next three years I used all my retail, outside sales, marketing, staffing, and HR (corporate human relations) experiences in my role as chief executive of the Scott’s Valley Chamber of Commerce. For the past two years I have been leading the Antioch Chamber of Commerce.

The Life of a Chamber Executive
I feel that my roving days are over. I’ll never have to look for a different job, because the Antioch Chamber job keeps changing around me. The typical way for a Chamber of Commerce executive to move up is to find a larger city. There’s so much potential in Antioch, however, that I won’t have to move; the city is going to grow up around me.

Chamber work is never tedious, which is good for me since I have a difficult time dealing with boredom. In one day I might be playing the role of lobbyist, consultant, event planner, accountant, publisher, and editor.

I’m an alpha personality and tend to jump into any project with both feet. Most of what I do is centered upon the business community. Chamber work appeals to the busybody in me. I love staying in touch with what’s happening in the town around us, and then bringing that information to bear in helping our members. I especially enjoy being able to make a difference in the processes that go on in our city. We find ourselves doing such things as fighting for funding for Hwy. 4, bringing people from Sacramento to tour our region, and helping local businesses to keep their doors open. I’m making a difference in the life of our city at various levels.

We’ve got big plans for Antioch! We can encourage the building of office complexes and thus provide opportunities for a growing number of professionals to work locally and get out of the awful commutes. We are seeking to become more than a business community, we want to grow Antioch into a hub reaching out to lots of other areas, such as Stockton, Sacramento, and San Francisco, and thus grow out of our position as the tail end of the Bay Area.

Facilitating Inter-city Cooperation
Trying to comprehend the city’s business and commercial issues so that we can make effective changes always confronts us with challenges. We often imagine that we’re working on a local problem, but then discover that the problem is actually tied to some larger area- or even state-wide issue. Remedies and improvements often become shifting or even shimmering targets.

In response, I took a small idea about an economic summit and grew it into a regional summit. Our theme was “The Pride and Power of East County.” We wanted to encourage the region’s leaders to cooperate with each other. We held the summit at Lone Tree Golf Course and Event Center. I was able to get the California Secretary of State, Bruce McPherson, as the Keynote Speaker. Leaders came from all over the Far East and Central County, and we began a process that led to our forming partnerships with places such as Pittsburg and Antioch.

We planted a lot of seeds. We looked at transportation systems, for example. We took note of what other cities are doing. We were talking about projects that we had on the books, such as the urban limit lines. All the communities need to become part of the planning process. By cooperation we benefit each other.

Besides opening avenues of cooperation among local municipalities, the economic summit conference succeeded in bringing attention and respect to our region, helping us purge ourselves of stereotypes from 20-30 years ago, which are no longer true, if they ever were. The next Economic Summit will be on September 29 at the Lone Tree Events Center.

Facilitating Small Businesses
Our main task is to assist residents in succeeding in business, and especially in helping entrepreneurs successfully open new businesses. We teach people how to “bootstrap” – which means starting up a new business without going into debt to investors. Nature’s Bounty, for example, which opened for business last fall, is one of our success stories. In part as a result of our guidance, the Nature’s Bounty owners are running a healthy business that is relatively debt-free.

It’s great to open new businesses, but budding entrepreneurs need to figure out how to keep their doors open. For everyone I have helped to open a business, I’ve probably discouraged ten people from going into business because they aren’t properly prepared for success.

In order to help people realize their dreams of self-employment, in cooperation with the city we maintain a SBIC (Small Business Information Center) in the Chamber offices where members can work with consultants at no charge. We maintain files containing every form required to open a new Antioch business. Members can check out books from our library, which is funded by PG&E. Or they can conduct online searches on the computer we provide.

I love being able to help people who are already in business to improve their approach. In many cases, the simple act of hiring a consultant provides a practical alternative to going out of business. For example, a woman with a home business told me, “It’s hard! People aren’t paying their bills. Can you remind me why I’m doing this?” I worked with her in making some changes to her business plan, and now she has moved her business out of her home into a storefront. Making interventions like this serves to fuel my creative passions. It is so rewarding to me that I could have a part in helping that woman create the best business for her!

We’re reaching out to women entrepreneurs. Last year we greatly renovated the annual East County Women’s Conference, which we conduct every April. There were more than 12 breakout sessions and nearly 150 attendees from Central and East County. The theme is always, “Dream it; do it.” Afterwards people spoke about how the experience had changed their lives. The committee worked hard. It was a great event! This year’s event was just as good!

My Extreme Makeover
I’m undergoing a personal makeover that’s comparable to the renaissance I’m helping to encourage in Antioch. The fact is that I had a lot of insecurities. Even though I was always an outgoing person, I was unhappy about my weight and my teeth. My life began to undergo a radical change when I won the “East Bay Extreme Makeover” challenge (www.eastbayextrememakeover.com). My appearance has been radically improved by the work of three specialists. Dr. Perez, who specializes in cosmetic dentistry, was one of them. Dr Javaheri, a plastic surgeon, was another. The third was Dr. Auker, an eye surgeon.

I got an eyelid lift and new teeth. I had moles removed, got laser facials, and had my hair cut at the Changes Spa in Walnut Creek. Macy’s and Somersville Town Center each gave me a $500 clothing certificate. Delta Park Athletic donated a training membership, together with the services of a personal trainer. Kris Landry provided Pilates training. I lost 40 pounds, and my dress size shrunk from a 20w to a 10.

In November I starred in a “Devi Revealed” fashion show in Macy’s at the Stoneridge Mall. The event served as my “coming out.” I was a runway model draped with a beautiful velvet skirt, shirt, and jacket. I looked good!

The professionals weren’t done with me yet, because in February I got a tummy tuck, and in April they did a professional photo shoot to be used as they receive applications for next year’s contest. By the way, all the profits from the contest were directed to the Friends of Faith, which is a breast cancer organization funding hospitalization for needy women.

The makeover has done a lot for me. The experience was far more challenging than I anticipated. I’m still paying the price, but the results have been great! I never imagined how much my bad teeth affected my behavior, for example. I was embarrassed by them. I smile a lot more now. I’ve discovered that a broad smile affects social interactions. It’s difficult to feel down when you’re smiling a lot.

I’ve revolutionized my lifestyle, which is probably the most difficult change. It’s been hard to learn new habits like pushing food away. Winning the contest was probably the only way for a person like me to make these great changes. I felt that I had to go through with the program because so many people were watching.

The changes have created some minor resentments among my friends. “It’s not fun going with you anywhere” one of them said. “Now you’re always the center of attention. And you hardly ever eat anything any more.” We always used to go to certain restaurants that served huge portions. Now that I’m practicing new patterns of behavior, I think my friends mourn the loss of that “other person” who was their good buddy.

Strangers recognize me from the contest and I’m surprised by how personal the questions are. They seem to feel that the fact of reading about me and seeing my picture in the newspaper gives them the right to ask me questions about things like my sex life that I’m not always willing to answer. My experience makes me feel sorry for people like Angelina Jolie.

On the other hand, people really do react differently to a good-looking person than to someone with a more normal appearance. Things like credibility with strangers and personal authority have risen along with my improved appearance. Perhaps some of this is due to the increase in self-confidence that the makeover brought to me, which has simply made me more effective in my relationships with others. I would like to think that all the improvement in this area is due mainly to the inner transformation that the outer change simply promoted.

It’s still a lot of work, but I feel good about the changes; I’m grateful! My experience has been an inspiration for others. Some of them say, “I want to do what you did.” It’s not easy, but I know at least three people who are now dieting and exercising because of my example. My husband says that I’m starting to look like and feel like I did when we were first dating. From the beginning he said that if I decided to do this, I should do it for myself. He wanted me to feel better about myself, but always said that he liked me the way I was.

Running the Chamber of Commerce is no 9 to 5 job. There are breakfast meetings in the morning and dinner meetings in the evening. I have events to attend, things like planning sessions and ribbon-cuttings. Fortunately, I am married to the planet’s greatest husband. He’s playing Felix to my Oscar. It’s a good thing for me that I found this guy. Even though he has a full-time job, he does all the housework, yardwork, and takes care of our dogs. Most importantly, he puts up with my absence without whining, and tolerates my multiple hobbies with great patience. As if all that doesn’t make him seem perfect, my husband cooks meals. I’ll come home from a council meeting and dinner will be all ready for me. Mark is a prince! I’m very lucky.

So I’ve been made over myself and am trying to assist in an Antioch makeover. Both of these involve confronting a lot of challenges and both call for a great deal of commitment and hard work. But that’s the way to live, in my opinion! Meet the challenges head-on! Overcome them! That’s how we live life large. That’s how we make a difference!

I love it all, actually! I don’t try to live small; I live big. I love the quote by a woman named Willa Cather: “I won’t die of a cold; I’ll die of having lived.” Right! Me too!