July-August 2022 by Connect Business Magazine

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HOW MAKING TIME FOR A DATA ASSESSMENT WILL GIVE YOU A BETTER DATA STRATEGY

By: By Nate Allphin | A version of this article originally appeared on eidebailly.com.

According to IDG’s Data and Analytics Study, 78% of business leaders think that data and analytics is fundamentally changing the way organizations do business. Yet only 46% of those leaders say their organizations have a clearly defined and communicated data and analytics strategy.

moving forward with a data strategy. A data assessment outlines your data sources, where and how information is being shared between systems and teams, and how the available data can be used to measure and track progress against organizational goals and priorities.

The number one complaint we hear from business leaders (especially leaders stepping into a new role, investing in new technology or acquiring a new business) is that they have a lot of data and no time to figure out what to do with it. This makes it hard for them to stay competitive and adapt in an increasingly challenging market.

How to Know When It’s Time for a Data Assessment

That is why we often recommend a data assessment. A thorough review of your data will help you understand the information available to you, where it is coming from and what actions you can take with it.

What is a Data Assessment?

A data assessment is a structured review process that will provide a global view of your organization and outline the current state of your data, data challenges you’re facing and a map for

You should think about having a data assessment performed if: • Your organization has no defined data strategy. • It has been more than five years since you have updated your data strategy. • There has been a change in leadership at your organization, particularly in financial, operating, or technology roles. • You have merger and acquisition activity at your organization. • You are looking to make investments in technology and analytics.

Why You Should Hire a Team

Hiring an experienced external team to perform the assessment will give you the instant benefit of time savings, as

well as a host of other bonuses. A skilled outsider will provide a holistic view of processes, products and solutions to ensure your assessment is not conducted through internal blinders. An external presence will also enable employees to speak candidly. Your data consultant will be able to determine what is working well with your current data processes and what needs to change.

Building a Data Strategy

After you have reviewed your assessment, it’s time to take action. Your data consultant will help you make a plan for building out your data strategy and defining clear data goals to guide your analytics. They will be able to map out a timeline and cost and work with your team to ensure a successful transition and be by your side as your organization grows.

To learn more about creating a data strategy, visit eidebailly.com.

CONTENTS

July | August 2022

12 COVER INTERVIEW

COMPANY FEATURE

The Children’s Museum

Dance Express

Stones Throw Gallery & Studio

The Adventures of Louise Dickmeyer

Four-Decade Passion For Dance

HOT STARTZ!

FEATURES

9 10 24 35

Business Snapshot

Stahloch Group Northwestern Mutual

Business Snapshot

Brunton Architects & Engineers

GreenSeam Collaboration

Industry Insight

The Wooden Spoon

Henderson

Henderson RoadHaus Pub & Eatery North Mankato Winnebago

Opinion

Connecting Back

Press Releases

Opinion: Daniel J Vance

Connecting Southern Minnesota Business People Since 1994

The Beast Food Boutique Hamm It Up

Connect Business Magazine www.ConnectBiz.com

STAFF & CONTRIBUTORS

CIRCULATION

ADVERTISING

Publisher: Concept & Design Incorporated

Call: (507) 232-3463

Editor: Jane Laskey

12,000 for July/August 2022 Published bimonthly

Art/Photography: Jonathan Smith

CORRESPONDENCE

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Contributing Writers: Ashley Hanley, Jean Lundquist, Christine Nessler, Daniel Vance, Anna Vangsness, Nancy Zallek

Mailing Address: Connect Business Magazine P.O. Box 176 Nicollet, MN 56074

Production & Circulation: Becky Wagner

Measuring Impact and Planning Growth

Rising Star

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A Place For The Arts

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July | August 2022

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ABOUT CONNECT Locally owned Connect Business Magazine has ‘connected’ southern Minnesota businesses since 1994 through features, interviews, news and advertising. Connect Business Magazine is a publication of Concept & Design Incorporated, a graphic design firm offering print design, brand design, illustration and photography. Learn more at conceptanddesign.com. Copyright 2022. Printed in U.S.A.

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INTRODUCTION

A Passion for Business and Community

Jane Laskey EDITOR

It takes a lot of passion to run a business, and passion is something that this issue’s business leaders have in spades. Each leads a flourishing business while also making significant contributions to their communities. Read on for a sneak peek at this remarkable and inspiring group. Excitement is high at the Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota in Mankato, where CEO Louise Dickmeyer is spearheading an expansion that will triple the museum’s footprint and add an expansive outdoor area for nature-based play. It will be a unique and welcome addition to the region and the state, which is why it’s our July cover story. Our July company profiles are both creative businesses. At Dance Express, Mitzi Roberts has been sharing her passion for dance with the Mankato community for over 40 years. Over at Stones Throw Gallery in St. Peter, Patty Conlin creates unique gold jewelry and showcases other artists. This issue’s Groundbreaker story takes a look at the Wooden Spoon, where Natasha Frost and her team are cooking up more than great food. Their Farm to Wooden Spoon event celebrates local farmers. They also support several community nonprofits that help reduce food waste and feed those in need. Rising Star Crystal Olson is the programs and events manager for Greater Mankato Growth, where she creates programming to help develop young professionals like herself. As always, our Hot Startz section highlights three new businesses: Hamm It Up in Winnebago, Henderson RoadHaus Pub and Eatery and The Beast Food Boutique in North Mankato. Until next time,

Jane Laskey

July | August 2022

Business Snapshot

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Northwestern Mutual is Committed to Serving Diverse Populations Understanding that most people residing in the United States will not have the funds to retire, Northwestern Mutual in Mankato has been working diligently to get in front of different populations to educate on the importance of financial planning. “Education is really an important piece of the retirement process,” Northwestern Mutual Managing Director Colby Staloch said. “The more we educate, the better decisions people can make on their future.” Relatively new to Staloch’s team, though hitting the ground running, are Isak Figueroa and Ramon Pinero, who have expanded outreach among Hispanic and Latino populations in the Mankato and Southern Minnesota area. Staloch said that having financial professionals of similar background to potential clients has opened the door to providing the necessary opportunities for underserved populations. “The big piece with diversity is we have so many cultures across the United States and in Minnesota, particularly from the Latino communities,” Pinero said. “In many cases, financial planning isn’t in their culture. Even though they have the opportunity for financial planning, no one has reached out to them on how it can work for them and their families.”

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Knowing that many families won’t have the ability to retire in the way that they would like is a surprise to many people said Figueroa.

apprehension. Our goal is to show our clients how they can best optimize their portfolios and make them the most tax efficient for when they retire.”

“Each financial planning conversation is about meeting the prospect and relationship where they are at currently,” he said. “It’s about opening their eyes and helping them see what building a financial plan can do for them.”

For both Figueroa and Pinero, building relationships and trust with their clients, is as important as showing them the path to create flexibility and fulfill their potential lifestyle.

Likewise, Pinero explains to his clients that saving for retirement isn’t just for wealthy individuals. Rather, it’s percentage-based planning to create the right habits and consistently save for goals. Once we educate people, it opens a different mindset on what’s possible. It’s all about helping people to have choices to be in a better position for education, retirement and other financial goals. When they meet with potential clients, part of the process Figueroa and Pinero start with is guiding them through the financial planning process by diving into discovery of goals and objectives – forming long term values based relationships. “There’s a lot of information out there that gets thrown around loosely about retirement planning,” Pinero said. “We believe this can confuse people and cause

“My mission here at Northwestern Mutual is to help good people have access to great planning,” Figueroa said. “It’s about being able to get to know people and being a resource for them on a personal and professional level and being a mentor to help guide them in the right direction to become financially sound before and during retirement.” Northwestern Mutual is the marketing name for The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company (NM) its subsidiaries, Milwaukee, WI. Colby J. Staloch, Antonio I. Figueroa and Ramon E. Pinero are insurance agents of NM. Colby J. Staloch, and Ramon E. Pinero are Registered Representatives of Northwestern Mutual Investment Services, LLC, a registered investment adviser, broker-dealer, and member of FINRA and SPIC.

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Business Snapshot Sponsored Content

Building On Trust Since 2007 Corey Brunton is a southern Minnesota native – having grown stop until we provide our clients with design solutions that are up on his family’s hobby farm just outside of Austin, Minn. His economical, aesthetically appropriate, and capable of serving experiences on the farm, agricultural farming, concrete work, them for many years to come.” exposure to various construction trades, etc., helped to develop Brunton and his design team pride themselves on their ingenuity. his strong work ethic and problem-solving skills. He attributes “No two projects are alike,” he said. “The term we use at Brunton this lifestyle to his early interest and lifelong career in architecture is ‘we break the mold every time.’ What we mean by that is when and engineering. we design your building, it’s unique to your specific Brunton attended North Dakota State University style, needs, and location, and these custom and completed degrees in Architecture and features won’t be used anywhere else.” Environmental Design in 1993. Post-graduation, Brunton Architects & Engineers can collaborate he launched his career at a small architecture at the highest level for their clients because they firm in Albert Lea, Minn. During this time, Brunton offer multiple disciplines under one roof. Their refined his skills and gained invaluable industry design team consists of architects, engineers, experience, but he left the firm in pursuit of project interior designers, drafting technicians, and opportunities that only a larger firm could offer. He construction services specialists. What makes this relocated to Mankato, Minn. in 1999 and worked all-encompassing group unique is that all team at a larger firm where he became partner. This role members are design driven. shed light on Brunton’s true passions and gave him “With all of our projects, we try to blur the lines perspective that ultimately led him to establish between disciplines,” Brunton said. “We bring all Brunton Architects & Engineers in 2007. disciplines to the table very early in the design Corey Brunton Since then, Brunton has cultivated a staff of process so that the final product feels consistent highly skilled professionals in both Mankato and Hopkins, Minn. from exterior to interior and the mechanical systems optimize user Throughout the evolving phases of company growth, his clientcomfort in the most discreet and functional way.” focused business model has stayed true. Brunton Architects & Engineers also offers construction “It is our job to listen to our clients; to learn about their needs services to their clients through Brunton Construction. This and goals for every aspect of their project,”Brunton said. “We won’t division of the company has grown rapidly over the last year 10

July | August 2022

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with projects in Mankato, Mapleton, and Alexandria, Minn. This service is recommended to clients because it ensures the main point of contact remains consistent from the start of the project to completion. Brunton believes strongly in having clear communication channels between a project’s ownership and the design/ construction teams as this strategy prevents messages from being lost in translation. “It’s quite seamless because there’s no transfer of information,”he said. “It’s the same person within our firm, from beginning to end.” Whether you work with Brunton Architects & Engineers or Brunton

Construction, you will experience a customized design process. “Working side-by-side with clients for the duration of their project has allowed for strong relationships to evolve and even some friendships to form over the years,” Brunton said. “It’s rewarding to see these projects morph from a conceptual design, then modeled in our software, to finally watching our client’s excitement when they receive the keys when the project is complete.” Combining their custom design process at Brunton Architects & Engineers with the construction experience at Brunton Construction really defines why the “Design-Led, Design-Build” project delivery is so successful. CONNECT Business Magazine

By Jane Laskey

Photos by Jonathan Smith

The Children's Museum of Southern Minnesota has been delighting children and families in our region for 16 years. With CEO Louise “Lou” Dickmeyer at the helm, it is about to embark on its next big adventure, an expansion that will triple the museum's footprint. "It's super exciting," Dickmeyer said. "It'll be a one-of-a-kind experience for Minnesota because there is no other children's museum that combines a major outdoor nature-based play space with this amazing indoor gallery. We'll have this incredible regional asset as a resource for children and families." CMSM announced the expansion in April. It has purchased a half-acre lot adjacent to its existing building and grounds, funded by grants from the Dotson Family Fund of the Mankato Area Foundation and Kay Jacobson. The newly acquired property will expand the museum to the east. In addition, Dickmeyer is working with the city to lease additional land north of the museum. The total expansion will stretch its perimeter to the intersection of Sibley Parkway and Riverfront Drive. Continues

July | August 2022

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The Adventures of Louise Dickmeyer “We have big plans for all of that area,” Dickmeyer said. “We just formally announced the purchase of the land out there. We are making a formal request to the city to use the rest of the land on the north side of the museum. We own the building, but this is city-owned land. So we have a ground lease with the city.” Dickmeyer estimates the project will require three to five years to complete. Once finished, it will allow CMSM to create a four-season outdoor play area, add new exhibits and learning spaces, and add or expand facilities for storage and fabricating. Plans are fluid as CMSM seeks input from the community and prepares for preliminary soil remediation work. So it seemed like a perfect time to sit down with Dickmeyer and learn about her vision for the next five years. Could you give me a brief recap of your career and how it led you here? My passion for nonprofit business management brought me here.

I started my career with a part-time position that paid 75 bucks a week, running the Multiple Listing Service for real estate. This was back long before the internet. We formed the Mankato Area Board of REALTORS®, which is a nonprofit. It’s a 501(c) (6), a civic organization. I worked for a board and worked with a lot of committees, and I started getting my roots in nonprofit management. After that, I moved from one nonprofit role to another. Ironically, I got my master’s degree in nonprofit management in 2002, and the next year I wound up moving out of the nonprofit sector and starting my own consulting business. I went to work for Taylor Corporation and then a technology startup. So I got my master’s degree in nonprofit management and flipped over to the for-profit world. I was at the university before coming to this position. I started at the Children’s Museum in 2019. They were looking for a leader; they’d had a leadership void for quite a while. I knew this organization because I came here with

my grandchildren. I put my name into what was a very competitive pool — I found out after the fact there were over 80 applicants nationwide. I knew it was the right time and the right organization, a great fit for me because I have such a deep network and a lot of experience. I just wound up in the right place at the right time. I was really grateful for the opportunity. I relish the opportunity to take this organization to the next level to make sure it’s financially sustainable and will live on for decades to come. What is it about the nonprofit world that draws you? Two things come immediately to mind. One is mission. Serving a good mission is important. I’ve always wanted to make a difference. I know it sounds clichéd, but I’ve talked about this for many, many years. There are a lot of for-profit companies that have amazing missions and do amazing work. But I’ve served some phenomenal missions, and this one (CMSM) is absolutely

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The Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota | Mankato one of the best: igniting the natural curiosity of every child through the power of play in a dynamic, awe-inspiring environment. The second thing is that nonprofit work is interesting because I get to play so many roles. I’m sort of a right brain, left brain person. I struggled to figure out what on earth I wanted to major in at the university. I had more declared majors than normal people should, and they were all over the place, from medical technology to interior design to business. I wound up with an English degree, but I have many interests. In a nonprofit, one minute you’re working on a budget, the next minute you’re working on a marketing plan and the next minute you’re doing some government affairs work or working with your staff or planning programming. It’s very eclectic. There’s so much diversity in the different kinds of hats you have to wear, the roles you play and the areas of discipline that you have to address on a daily basis. This is particularly true as the chief executive, which is the role that I like the best. I like

to run the show. I have been in roles in for-profit organizations that were solely focused on sales, or relationship management, or marketing. I like each of those things, but I get so bored when that’s the only thing I’m doing all day, every day. I don’t get bored in this role, that’s for sure. Can you elaborate on the business of nonprofit work? I have a real passion for nonprofit business, and I say that because nonprofits are businesses. A lot of people don’t think about it like that. They think if you’re a nonprofit, you’re not a business. That’s not true. A nonprofit can generate as much net income as a for-profit can. You just can’t return any of that to shareholders, which in this case, is your board of directors. In a for-profit business, it’s shared with shareholders if you’re publicly traded, or it goes back to the owners and the principals if you’re privately held, however that’s set up. So nonprofits can generate a lot of profit.

The thing about nonprofits is they’re usually not overly staffed, so you have to wear a lot of hats, which is good. We don’t silo people’s roles. For example, we have an associate director of memberships and IT. On the one hand, that’s a sales role and customer service heavy, but on the other hand, they’re managing all of our information technology. That’s one job. There’s a lot of meshing of roles from different disciplines. Speaking of staff, how many people does the museum employ? We have 22. We had 40 before COVID hit. There was a lot more programming staff. COVID caused a lot of changes, but not all for the worse. It was an opportunity to stand back, look at everything, and make some changes in systems and operations and staffing. We just weren’t able to do everything we were doing before. Do you think you will return to your previous staffing level? I don’t think so. I’m starting to work on

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The Adventures of Louise Dickmeyer some projections on our expansion and how that will have to be staffed and what it will cost us. I think I’ve only added eight staff in, and I’m not really holding back at this stage of the game. We have to have a pretty realistic view of what it will take to operate when we become a full-blown 3-acre campus with a number of new aspects to our operation. But I don’t think we will go back up to that many. What’s the role of volunteers in your organization? Volunteers still play a very important role in the organization, but we don’t have as many ad hoc volunteers. We have a volunteer sewing group, this amazing group of women who meet every other Monday here. If you notice the fruits and vegetables in the Grow It Gallery, those were all made by our sewing team. Those are proprietary products. They do all kinds of amazing things, like our curtains on the Lauri Kuch Memorial Stage. Whatever we need, they come up with it. So that’s an example of ongoing, active volunteers. We have a couple of amazing volunteers who tend to our prairie garden. They do so much work. It would cost us a lot to hire someone to do the great work they do. And they did that while we were closed. So we’ve got some people who cycle back through each year. We used to have more volunteer floor staff, but we pulled all of that when we reopened after we were closed for eight months. So we’ve been slowly moving back towards opening up more volunteer opportunities. Your exhibits encompass creative play,

educational development and regional industry. That’s an interesting combination. It is. We get a lot of direction from community partners as we’re developing new exhibits. The “Dig It!” exhibit is a great example of that. There is a list of regional construction firms that participated in this project. They have such a significant stake in our region’s economy and their future is important to our future. We were able to tap them for ideas and exhibit direction. Now we’re supporting them by making this available to children and families and shedding light on their industry. How long does it take to create an exhibit like “Dig It!”? There’s a lot of design and development. A brand new exhibit takes about a year to create. We work with exhibit designers who know what they’re doing to develop the idea and then iterate around different concepts. Then we scope it to the space, source all the materials and build it. The “Dig It!” exhibit was built from scratch, including the crane, which was welded together by our staff members. This (exhibit) is in a rotating space. It will be on the floor for about a year. Most of the time, we rotate exhibits out for six months. What age is your target audience? Birth to 9 years old. We have an indoor fenced-in infant and toddler play porch geared for kids up to age 3. It gives them a little better space to roam freely and not get knocked over by older

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The Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota | Mankato

Museum visitor Soren mastering the popular Dig It excavator exhibit, scooping pea rock with a real mini excavator.

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The Adventures of Louise Dickmeyer kids. Parents can interact with them very effectively in that space. “Dig It!” has drawn children older than 9 in here with their families to try it out. So that exhibit stretched the age range a little bit. But when the Learning Experience Master Plan was written back in 2012, it was intended for birth to 9. How has the museum evolved over the years? The CMSM was incorporated in 2006. It was founded over a lunch table by some passionate moms and early childhood educators who wanted a really safe place and a wonderful experience for their children to grow and learn. So they started by driving out to parks or parades or different community events to allow people to play and spread the word about trying to create this children’s museum. The museum was located in a number of interim spots. Then this building, which used to be the city’s mass transit building, was identified in 2013 or 2014. The renovation took place, and it opened in May of 2015. We just passed our seventh birthday in this space. Since we’ve been here, things got finished off and exhibits continued to be enhanced. The outdoor area has been expanded. We added our mud kitchen, awnings, the Archimedes screw water feature, a STEM play experience and the Butterfly House. We know our members. When we survey them, they tell us regularly that they like to have different things to do and see when they’re here. So we continue to evolve. Is the desire for new activities and exhibits due to repeat visitors? I think so. When we opened, they projected around 40,000 to 44,000 people a year would come and visit. They did a study that looked at other communities with similar-sized populations nationwide. So their estimate was around 40,000 to 44,000. The reality is much higher. We have 100,000 people come through here each year, from every state in the nation and every county in Minnesota, quite regularly. In 2019, the last full year of operation, we had residents from 75 of the 87 Minnesota counties. We’ve also had visitors from eight different countries. So it’s a huge draw. Some members are regulars. We have 18

July | August 2022

The Children’s Museum | Mankato members in Chaska who drive down every Friday. They tell us that they’d rather come here than drive into downtown St. Paul and go to Minnesota Children’s Museum. That is an amazing place, but there’s that kind of mindset. A resident from Glencoe recently told us that she shops in Mankato regularly because there’s a children’s museum. She’s able to combine that shopping experience with something for her children. Another example is day care; we have several child care providers who bring their big groups in every week, sometimes several times a week. Our membership base is strong, and people like to be here. We have a huge followership. It’s a unique space with an open concept gallery and unique exhibits that you’re not going to see anywhere else. We had such a cold, rainy spring that we hit record numbers for revenue and number of admissions in March. The museum’s first young visitors must be in high school by now. What do you hear from local educators and parents? Are they seeing a positive impact on area children? You’d have to do a longitudinal study to get to the bottom of that, and we haven’t done that. However, we do get evidence in our membership surveys. It’s more anecdotal, but it’s fairly consistent from respondent to respondent and year to year, so it’s fairly reliable. They talk about the difference that they have witnessed with their child being able to come here to interact and play. They’re gaining skills and advancing socially. We serve a lot of families who face barriers such as language, cultural and financial barriers. A third of our members are Gateway To Play Members who are able to get a membership at no cost. We’re very proud of that access program. Many of those families tell us that this is the only safe place they can bring their children to play. It helps to open those children up again, emotionally, socially and intellectually. It has had a big impact. It even has an impact from a tourism standpoint. There’s a report that says when families travel, they choose to come to communities that have children’s museums if given a choice. They spend $38 per person when traveling in town, beyond what they pay for museum admission. So we’ve had

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The Adventures of Louise Dickmeyer some real economic impact besides our payroll. It is a regional asset that is very unique and highly regarded. CMSM has excellent relationships with community businesses. How do you foster that? We have some businesses that reach out and want to partner on an exhibit that may or may not come to fruition. But we typically tie our outreach to companies around either an exhibit or program focused on (agriculture) or STEM or that ties back to one of our themes. We’ve built a lot of relationships with businesses that have benefited us significantly. You can see the many businesses listed in our original $5 million capital campaign that put money on the table and successfully got this off the ground. Since then, whenever we develop a new exhibit or expand a program, an educational initiative or an exhibit, we reach out to area businesses. They support the museum through a direct cash contribution, in-kind

July | August 2022

Dickmeyer and team members Cathy and Cami reset the Grow It gallery exhibit between visiting groups.

contribution, or potentially a grant through corporate or individual foundations. We’ve enjoyed tremendous support. We recently received a significant grant from the Glen A. Taylor Foundation to build a brand new modern ag exhibit.

Do you have an annual campaign or fundraising event? We do an annual appeal. We actually have two rounds, one midyear and then again at the end of the year. We have great support from our donors.

The Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota | Mankato Last year we launched the Ignite Society, which takes its name from our mission to ignite the natural curiosity of every child. Before that time, we didn’t have a formal major gifts stewardship effort. We’re up to 130 people in the Ignite Society, and we’ll be expanding it. We hosted a lovely event here last July. Our development work has been evolving over the last couple of years, and I think we’ve made some great strides. We’ve been working with a consultant to help flesh out our development. We know that we need to deepen that bench. Is fundraising one of your roles? It is my role. A CEO is always involved in generating revenue, working with donors and envisioning the future. So I will always have a role there. But we hope to hire a chief development officer here relatively soon. What achievements are you most proud of? Surviving COVID. I was only on board

for six months when it started, and I had to furlough the whole staff. During COVID, six children’s museums closed permanently. We not only survived it, we’re thriving. I’m proud of that. I’m proud of the fact that we were able to work with the property owner and with our amazing donors and accomplish that land purchase. It had been attempted numerable times before I got here, and they were unsuccessful. The approach we took this time was successful, and I’m very proud of that. I am also proud of the vision that we have going forward and this expansion and what it will mean for the region. What can you tell me about the planned expansion? It’s a very exciting time. We’re very early in this process, but it’s going to be something else. It will open up the whole campus and create a 3-acre expanse. Currently, the museum occupies a little over an acre. There will be a new office and community

room space connected with this building. We’ll convert our existing office space into an area for children with neuro sensitivities with muted sound and light to make it a great experience for these children. There isn’t anything like that in the region. Our storage is currently off site, so we’ll bring that on site. We’ll also have a new early learning nature-based program and experience for children. All of this is focused on getting kids outside to play. There’s so much research around the need for children to be outside in the elements all year round. Getting out in the fresh air and moving is so vitally important. There is growing childhood obesity and ADHD and incidents of depression. Research shows all of those things decline significantly with outdoor play: attention span increases, rates of childhood obesity decline and rates of ADHD decline. It benefits children’s ability to learn. It is so compelling. So our goal is to give them an outdoor play experience here, a safe place they can play outside. We’re going to have a robust

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The Adventures of Louise Dickmeyer outdoor activity area with large climbing structures, an amazing water feature and beautifully landscaped paths that families can wander through. Each of these are million-plus-dollar components, so we’ve got a lot of work to do. We’re estimating the whole project now. The board and our donors have embraced this vision, and we will continue to move forward on it. What’s the timetable? We see this as a three- to five-year initiative. We’re already working with the city on some aspects of this. We know that we will need to do soil remediation, and we’ve already started the testing. We’ll apply for a grant in the spring of next year; then the soil remediation work will begin in the summer or fall of 2023. So we probably won’t be able to begin construction for up to two years, but that’s OK. One important thing that we haven’t really begun to do is engage our community and regional partners. What is it that they be-

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lieve children need? And what do we need to build this out? We hope to bring back the same museum planners we engaged early on to create that 80-page learning experience master plan. We’re working with them now on a new contract, and they will help us mesh all of the wonderful experiences that exist here.

use the restroom, you’ll need to move fast! That’s part of what we’ll begin to design and create, but it’ll really open this place up. We know that people drive by here and have no idea that this museum is here. It’s kind of hidden. That will not be the case any longer. So we will have many more families, tourists and members coming through here. That is going to have a huge impact.

Of course, we are in Minnesota. Will it be open for all four seasons? It’ll be year-round. There are great examples of this in Brooklyn, New York, and Brookings, South Dakota. They have an outdoor space with a large water feature that is only open during the warm months. They shut that off, but they leave their outdoor space open all year. Madison, Wisconsin, just added an outdoor play space, and it’s open all year. Children need to be outside all year round. You can dress them warmly. We’re going to try to have warming houses and a little restroom facility. If you get out there and you’ve got a 2- or 3-year-old who needs to

You’ve emphasized CMSM being a safe place for children to play. How do you accomplish that? We call it fenced-in freedom. The whole outside play area will be fenced, just as it is now. Safety is part of my modeling projections. We’ll have to staff up to have enough people to support children and families in their experience out in these areas. That’s part of our design, too. We want to create a place that is safe but not sterile. We want to have things that kids will climb on and fall off safely. They’ll get wet, and they’ll get dirty, and they’ll get muddy. You’ve got to let kids live. You’ve got to let them play.

The Children’s Museum | Mankato We have a policy here that an adult cannot enter this space unless accompanied by a child. You don’t know who the adults are wandering in. So they have to be here for a legitimate reason. That is one of the ways we keep it safe. Our staff is also very well trained. The museum promotes independent, unstructured play. Why is that important? Research shows that children spend four to seven minutes a day in unstructured play outdoors, but they spend up to seven hours a day in front of screens or other media. They also spend a lot of time in structured activities. Kids need to be kids and play freely. There’s too much structured time. There’s a lot of “Don’t do that.” I’ve been watching this little guy climbing around a log as I talk with you, and I think, “Good for you, mom! You’re letting him bump around, and if he falls off, it’s no big deal.” It’s so important. Kids just need to be kids. You see the joy on their faces when playing. They’re learning, and they’re growing, and they’re developing in such a positive way. It’s so much more impactful than people realize. I knew it anecdotally because I came here with my grandchildren. They would beg me to bring them here. I knew how much they loved it. Then once I got here as CEO, I learned the depth of the educational experience that exists in everything we do here. It’s so impactful. This is the story of all children’s museums, and the voice of children’s museums is getting louder and louder. It is amplified even more after COVID. Children need time to just release and play and learn and enjoy. Parents need to recognize that. We serve so many wonderful families. The challenges that families face are pretty amazing, but the power of play is alive and well here.

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Crystal Crystal Olson is the programs & events manager for Greater Mankato Growth. She manages talent development programs, like the Greater Mankato Young Professionals, and downtown development programs, like the Holiday Bonus Gift Card Program. Olson has been in this role since January 2020. Let’s learn more about the vital role she plays for GMG.

July | August 2022

Olson What steps did you take to get to your current position? I was the marketing & convention sales intern for Visit Mankato (a business unit of GMG) in spring 2017 during my last semester of college at Bethany Lutheran College. In April 2017, I was hired temporarily as the interim special events manager to fill a six-month gap when two staff members were on maternity leave. In June that summer, a permanent position as the visitor services specialist became available. 2017 was a good year for me! I also had another job title change and an interim role (again, filling in during a colleague’s maternity leave) somewhere between 2018 and 2020. I grew tremendously through my various roles. It was clear that one of my supervisors had never seen my resume because she would ask me to do something, typically in (design software) InDesign, and I would think, “I don’t actually know how to do that … but I’m sure I can figure it out!” All of those “other duties as assigned” tasks helped me develop my skill set and identify what I am good at and what I am not good at! Why did you choose this career path? I was never one of those kids who knew exactly what they wanted to do when they grew up. In early 2019, I had coffee with Jonathan Zierdt, the previous president and CEO of Greater Mankato Growth. He asked me what I wanted to do “when I grew up.” I told him I honestly didn’t know, so he asked me what I liked to do. I talked at length about some of the planning work I did as the visitor services specialist — I assisted with Alive After 5, the CityArt Walking Sculpture Tour, Shop Small — and how much I enjoyed developing those programs. Jonathan said, “It sounds like you want to be a program manager.” Then, he explained what a program manager did, and how that related to the work I was already doing and future opportunities. When he finished explaining, I said, “Yes! That’s what I want to do when I grow up!” What personal strengths help you excel in your chosen career? My True Colors are gold, meaning I’m organized and dependable, and blue, meaning I care about people and relationships. I think that is a very good mix for my work. I strive to be like “Parks

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and Rec’s” Leslie Knope: very organized and caring. What is your favorite part of your job? I love serving this community and the Young Professionals. It is very rewarding to hear people talk about my programs “in the wild” and the positive impact they have. What inspires/drives you? I genuinely enjoy helping others. I also love learning and developing the best version of myself. What advice would you give to other young professionals? Get involved. Whether it be a work committee, volunteer organization, church, networking program like Young Professionals, etc., I have found that the more active and engaged I am, the more I have enjoyed my experience. It is also very rewarding to give back. Also, don’t be afraid to ask for the things you want. Do you want to attend a workshop or join a networking program? Ask your supervisor. Do you want to take on a project or move into a different position? Talk with your supervisor about it. A lot of doors opened for me just by speaking up. Are there any events or training that have significantly impacted your career? This might sound biased, but Greater Mankato Young Professionals has had a huge impact on me personally and professionally. I met most of my friends in town through Young Professionals. There were job opportunities in Mankato and other communities I did not pursue because I could not participate in Young Professionals in those roles. I have learned so much about myself and my community through the monthly events. I joined YP in 2017, was on the social committee from 2018 to 2020, co-chaired the social committee in 2018 and took over the program in 2020. I value my YP experience, and I hope others do, as well. What books, podcasts or videos have helped you? It seems that every year I read a selfhelp book that says what I need to hear in that season. In 2020, I read “Success by Design” by Dr. Peter Hirsch. My hours were cut due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and I was very anxious about my future. Hirsch’s message to find a positive

outcome that could come from a negative situation inspired me to pursue my MBA. In 2021, I read “The Art of Showing Up” by Rachel Wilkerson Miller while my grandpa was going through cancer treatment. Her message on how to show up, both for yourself and your people, helped me through that difficult time and taught me new ways to care about and support my people better. I’m hoping to read my 2022 self-help book this summer! What app can’t you live without? Spotify. It wasn’t working the other day, and I had to work to the sound of my thoughts instead of music. Looking back on the beginning of your career, what do you know now that you wish you’d known then? In hindsight, every step I have taken in my short career has led me to where I am today, despite not having a specific career goal until three years ago. My high school experiences opened doors for collegiate experiences, which then opened doors for my career. It is very clear now, but not so much at the time. I wish I could tell myself that seasons change, and the experiences — personal and professional — in those seasons are so valuable. Where do you see yourself in 10 years? In about a year and a half, I will have my MBA with an emphasis in organizational leadership. I’m a lifelong learner, so in the next 10 years, I might pursue other educational opportunities. Professionally, I hope to be the Talent Programs director for Greater Mankato Growth. Personally, I would love to live in Greater Mankato, have a family and for my 1-year-old dog, Benji, to calm down a bit! Anything else you want to share? I mentioned Jonathan Zierdt, but I would be remiss not to call out my other mentors who helped me grow into who I am today. Anna Thill was my first grown-up boss, and we share the same top five strengths. She, Patrick Baker and Jessica Beyer have supported me and taught me so much. They have always believed in my abilities, even when I wasn’t confident in myself. Mentors — personal, professional, spiritual — are so incredibly valuable.

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Women in Leadership: Behind the Scenes Kristin Underwood started at South Central College (SCC) Customized Workforce Education as a Coordinator just four months ago. She oversees the operations administrative support team for Customized Workforce Education, and she truly believes that leadership behind the scenes is just as important as the type of leadership we typically think about where the leader is front and center, shaking hands with people, and seen as the face of the business. “We need leaders at all levels, and it is fantastic to see what an organization can do when the behind-the-scenes leaders thrive. The potential is endless. As a customer, how often are you impacted by the change of a president or CEO or an organization? What about when a seasoned administrative staff retires? We have had quite a few staffing transitions on our operations administrative support team, and I can tell you that clients have been impacted. I am passionate about building the best administrative support team to ensure our clients and employer partners receive top-notch customer service when working with us.”

Meet the Operations Administrative Support Team! Kristin Underwood – Coordinator Kristin comes to South Central College with approximately 10 years of career development experience in higher education and 6 years in training and development. She holds a Master’s degree in Counseling and Student Personnel from Minnesota State University, Mankato, and is excited to bring her unique set of skills to Customized Workforce Education. Kristin supervises the operations administrative support team, provides programmatic leadership and support, and ensures daily operations are running smoothly. She hails from Illinois but has officially lived in Minnesota longer. Kristin loves the Mankato area and appreciates all the opportunities for adventures. What other town has bison, a dam pie store, and a park with a petting zoo?

Cindy Scherer Cindy has been with Customized Workforce Education for over 10 years. Her primary responsibilities are creating training contracts, organizing all the details of training to ensure they run smoothly, and serving as administrator of statewide training management software.

Prior to coming to South Central College, she spent approximately 14 years with two divisions of Taylor Corporation in inventory control and purchasing as a purchasing agent, group leader, and department assistant. She also spent 5 years as a substitute teacher for K-12 students with some of the area school districts while also working part-time. Cindy’s extensive knowledge and expertise make her an invaluable part of the operations team.

Wendy Jones Wendy started at South Central College in mid-May. Her primary responsibilities are ensuring timely closeout of training contracts with local businesses, reconciling finances for Minnesota Job Skills Partnership (MJSP) grants, and providing overall support to both our internal and external clients. Prior to joining SCC, Wendy was at the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) in a training support role and Verizon Wireless in customer service, sales, and administrative assistant roles for 27 years. Wendy will be a fantastic asset to Customized Workforce Education and the SCC campus.

Darcy Ewert-Roll Darcy has been with South Central College for 2 years. She started in Customized Workforce Education and was recently promoted to Administrative Assistant to the Dean of Business & Industry. She is responsible for administrative support duties for the Dean including faculty support, course planning, assisting with projects, managing workflow, and serving as the primary contact in the Dean’s office. Prior to SCC, Darcy spent 10 years with Covia Corporation (formerly Unimin) as an Executive Assistant delivering administrative support to Vice Presidents and Regional General Managers of North American Operations. During her time with Customized Workforce Education, Darcy implemented process improvements and new ideas to help increase our efficiency, and she continues to support our department with administrative support for Live Online, Online and Healthcare courses. Darcy also serves as a volunteer on the Mankato West Booster Club.

Learn more:

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Customized Workforce Education UPCOMING WORKFORCE TRAININGS New Supervisor & Manager Skills Workshop Invest in your new supervisors and managers and equip them with the skills they need to transition into a leadership role and manage their teams effectively in this brand new and highly engaging 16-hour training workshop. Learn how to transition from peer to supervisor, set expectations, assign and delegate work, resolve conflict and provide feedback in a way that supports and motivates your team to be their best. Over four weeks, participants will learn from an expert instructor, engage in group activities, practice new skills, connect with a cohort of peers, and gain the confidence they need to immediately apply their new skills in the workplace.

Thursdays, Aug. 25 – Sept. 15, 8am-12pm Live Online (Zoom) | Registration Fee: $495

Mind-Body Therapies Bundle This 4-part online course bundle is designed to provide healthcare workers, aspiring healers, and those interested in the topic with an overview of alternative medical therapies and their positive effects on the mind and body. You will earn CE contact hours as you explore different techniques that have been shown to improve overall health when incorporated into routines and combined with other modern medical treatments. You’ll earn a non-credit Certificate in Energy Medicine, Certificate in Meditation, Certificate in Mindfulness, and Certificate in Stress Management.

Choose your start date for each 6-week course Upcoming start dates: July 13, Aug. 17, Sept. 14, Oct. 12 Online Classroom | Registration Fee: $249

Certificate in Workplace Communication Good communication in the workplace is more important than ever. And critical to your career advancement and success. This non-credit online certificate will provide you with skills and techniques you can put to use on Monday morning. Work with a pro to learn how to improve your negotiation skills for a win-win outcome, including helping others to get what they want, so you get what you want. Then discover more about yourself and others using personality profiles for better work performance. Finally, learn a workable conflict management model, along with successful and practical conflict management strategies.

Choose your dates for each 1-month course Upcoming course dates: July 5-29, Aug. 1-26, Sept. 6-30, Oct. 3-28 Online Classroom | Registration Fee: $595 View all upcoming trainings and register online: southcentral.edu/workforcetraining Contact us for a custom onsite training solution: cwe@southcentral.edu 1920 Lee Blvd., North Mankato, MN | 507-389-7203 | cwe@southcentral.edu An affirmative action, equal opportunity employer and educator. This material can be made available in alternative formats by contacting the Academic Support Center at 507-389-7222 or ds@southcentral.edu.

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By Anna Vangsness •

Photos by Jonathan Smith

Mitzi Roberts' love for dance has been ingrained in her since she was young. She started dancing when she was just 4 years old. Four decades later, she is still passionate about dance. Roberts, the owner of Mankato's Dance Express, said she has her mom to thank for that. "My mom always wanted to be a dancer herself, but her family couldn't afford it," Roberts said. "She came from a poor background, so it was important for her that I have that experience." Soon, Roberts was enrolled in tap, ballet and tumbling at Barbara's School of Dance in the old Mankato Armory. She took all three classes in one hour, and still remembers the friends she made and the leotards she wore. "Instantly, dance was something that I felt included in, and I was so excited to be part of it," Roberts said. Continues

July | August 2022

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Four-Decade Passion For Dance When she was a bit older, Roberts enrolled at Kathy’s School of Dance. It was a great experience, but eventually Kathy’s closed. Though Roberts enrolled at a different dance studio, she didn’t feel the same connection to dance that she had previously. “I thought I knew everything,” she said. “I thought, ‘Oh, this isn’t challenging me.’ I was just being snotty, but I actually stopped dancing for a year or two.” A few years passed. When Roberts was in seventh grade her mom signed her up for a new studio. Roberts’ passion for dance was reignited there. “I tried this new studio, and it was one of those moments where, after you take a break from something, you realize just how much

Turning The Negative Into A Positive

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Roberts doesn’t shy away from sharing her personal struggles because she sees it as a learning opportunity for those around her. “In 2013, I was diagnosed with breast cancer,” she said. “Thankfully, I came out of it really great.” Roberts said her diagnosis helped her realize who her close friends were and how people rally in times of need. With the support of her community, Roberts said she was able to power through treatment and continue to work. “I think working helped because it was so fun to see the kids,” she said. “I would wear crazy wigs to classes, and the kids just loved it. It was a time that I think helped bring great awareness to the disease. It let kids know that people with cancer aren’t scary, and they could still hug me. It was the kids that kept me laughing. They were the light at the end of the tunnel.” So many people went above and beyond to support her during her diagnosis that Roberts decided she wanted to help others who were also facing breast cancer. So, together with a close friend, she founded the nonprofit Angels of Breast Cancer in 2017. Each year, the organization hosts a tutu run. All proceeds are used to send care packages to individuals who have been diagnosed with breast cancer. “It’s just a nice way to give back,” Roberts said. “I know I appreciated it when I was going through my treatment. It was things like that which really helped.”

Dance Express | Mankato you missed it,” she said. “With this new studio, I realized that there was a whole other group of people out there that loved dance as much as I did. The new studio was for older students. At that moment, I realized I’d found my niche, and I began to love dancing again.” Because she had taken a hiatus from dance for a few years, on the first day of class at her new dance studio, Roberts said her nerves got the better of her and she was hesitant for tryouts. Then, her dance teacher made a suggestion that would alter Roberts’ path in life. “She asked if I wanted to assist with classes instead,” Roberts said. “She’s the one who immersed me into assisting and teaching dance.” Roberts said from then on she was in the studio. She was 15 when she taught her first class to a group of adults, and from there, she began to sub for other dance teachers. Leading dance classes wasn’t much of a stretch for Roberts; she’d been putting on neighborhood dance shows since she was 10. “I think I was born a teacher,” she said. “I had a friend in my neighborhood who lived just around the corner from me, and, oh boy, did she get roped into putting on shows with me.” Roberts remembers choreographing short routines with her friends with the idea of charging admission that would go to local charities. “We did that quite often in the summer,” she said. “I just think it’s in my blood to do things like that.” After Roberts graduated from Mankato West High School, she attended Minnesota State University, Mankato, and received her bachelor’s degree in business. She also obtained a dance teacher certification from Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green.

Seeing The World When she’s not at Dance Express, Roberts enjoys spending time with her children, Katie and Brendan, biking, and water activities like swimming and paddleboarding. Also, at the top of her list is traveling. “I lost both my mom and stepdad in a car accident about eight years ago,” Roberts said. “My mom was a big traveler, so I want to continue to have these experiences and see the world. She would want that for me.” Having been to Peru, Poland, Egypt, Jordan and Mexico, Roberts has set her sights on seeing the “New Seven Wonders of the World,” and hopes to see the Great Wall of China and the Taj Mahal. “There’s just so much learning in traveling,” she said. “My mom and stepdad were the best, and I do think they’re still with me, especially when I’m traveling.”

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Four-Decade Passion For Dance Roberts said it seemed like a natural decision to return to teaching dance after graduation. “You know, it felt a little like it was all that I knew,” she said. “When I was younger, I wasn’t the kid that was the best at everything right away. I’m not a natural athlete. I had to work a little bit harder for it.” She said that experience has helped her relate better to kids who are struggling when she teaches them at her studio. “I understand the benefit of breaking things down differently so people can grasp it,” she said. “I think that’s where the teacher comes out in me. When you reword something, it can just click differently.” After teaching dance for 12 years at an area recreation center, Roberts was mowing the lawn at her mom’s house when she thought to herself, “I have more to offer. I want ... [teaching dance] to be what I do.” With her mom’s guidance, Roberts ventured out on her own and made the leap to opening a dance studio. “She’s the one who said, ‘OK, I believe in you. Let’s do this,’” Roberts said.

Words of encouragement on the eve of a recital.

After looking in the Mankato area for a suitable location, Roberts settled on a space at the Mankato Place Mall. The River Hills Mall was opening at the same time, so Roberts was able to move into the downtown spot “for a steal.”

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“Things were shifting and moving around in Mankato, so the area was open and ready for rent,” she recalled. “It was a good price point for me at the time for when I was just starting out on my own. I remember building little subfloors, and I only had a 900-square-foot studio to start with, but it worked well for what I needed at the time.” One of Roberts’ fondest memories of her time at the Mankato Place Mall was when she first moved in and discovered other tenants were selling old furniture and office equipment that she could use in her new dance studio. “I bought my first computer from Brett’s Department Store,” Roberts said. “This was 1992, and it only ran DOS. I bought it for $500, and I was so excited. I thought having that computer was the biggest deal.” Surrounded by the right people and not afraid to ask questions, Roberts’ run at owning her own dance studio proved to be a successful move. “I had good people around me, and I asked a lot of questions,” Roberts said. “You learn a lot just by being hands-on. It’s the same way you grow in anything. It just takes time and patience, a lot of patience. There are some challenges, but the kids are here to work hard. At the end of the day, their smiling faces are so appreciated. When they hug you and are excited to show you that they’ve been working hard on a dance or a skill, that’s what makes it rewarding.” Roberts taught out of the Mankato Place studio until 2005. The area was starting to change and was slowly transitioning to in-

Dance Express | Mankato clude more nightclubs and bars. Because of that, Roberts felt like it was the perfect time to investigate acquiring land elsewhere in town. She settled for a location on Broad Court off Highway 14 in Mankato. A full-service dance studio, Dance Express offers its students tap, ballet, jazz, lyrical, hip-hop, contemporary and tumbling. Dance Express has more than 400 students and 12 teachers with classes for ages preschool to adult. Of the 400 students, 150 participate in competition dance, while the rest are recreational dancers. The studio, including competition and recreational dancers, puts on two shows per year – one at Christmas and one in the spring. “I really feel like dance is a lot more than just dancing,” Roberts said. “There are life skills that these young kids are learning. Our tag line is ‘Experience Dance, Encounter Excellence.’ It all begins with learning techniques first and the skills after. What we hope to do with these dancers is help build a strong character. We want to promote a deep sense of commitment and loyalty, high self-esteem, a self-disciplined mind and body and the firm knowledge that excellence is not being the best but doing your best.” What Roberts loves most about her job and dance is how it helps her students express themselves in ways they couldn’t before. “I love dance because sometimes kids are shy,” she said. “With dance, you don’t have to speak. Instead, you speak with your body, and it gives them confidence. Soon they’re nailing book reports or a speech they have to give at school. It’s all about baby steps in getting used to being in front of a crowd.” The way Roberts sees it, dance is a stepping stone to building self-esteem. “Some kids cry when their parents are in the audience watching them during a program, but it’s the fact that they didn’t run off the stage that you tell them they did a great job for,” she said. “In the kid’s mind, they nailed it. In my opinion, the worst thing you can do is let them leave the stage. They have to learn to follow through the process, so they learn the skills that it takes. Some take to it a little slower, and some are born to be performing dance. But, either way, it’s OK.” With more than 40 years of teaching experience under her dance shoes, Roberts said seeing children grow from young dancers to adult dancers is a special expe-

rience that she’ll remember forever. “It’s truly what takes my breath away,” she said. Roberts currently has a group of high school seniors who are members of the National Honors Society of Dance Arts, a nationally accredited dance program. The dancer must maintain a high GPA and be active in community service to become a member.

“These students are constantly giving back, and they’re truly remarkable,” Roberts said. “I remember them on their first day of class when they were little. You just never know which ones end up being lifelong dancers. It’s just so fun watching them year after year … from their first year and now developing into such wonderful young adults. They’re ready to take the world by storm.”

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To qualify for the National Honors Society of Dance Arts, Roberts submits an essay that the dancer has written. One of the senior dancers wrote about how she went from being, in her words, awkward and nervous and how she attributes dance for helping her come out of her shell. “If you see this young woman now, you would never believe it,” Roberts said. “She’s so amazing and has so much confidence and is outgoing. It’s so fun to keep up with these dancers.” Students come to Dance Express from Mankato, St. Peter and as far away as Owatonna. Roberts credits the studio’s teachers for the creativity and talent it takes to choreograph routines for the 400 students. Lately, Roberts has taken on more of a business and planning role and teaches one or two classes per week. “I truly have a great staff,” Roberts said. “I like to think of each teacher as their own canvas. They’re constantly taking classes and attending conferences, competitions and workshops to get inspired. Because they’re artists, the creativity and coming up with new choreography will never end.” This summer, Roberts is introducing a new element of dance to the studio and sees it as a way to appeal to more people in the area. The class, Dance Cirque, is geared toward aerial art using a lyra, a hoop used to perform acrobatic tricks while hanging in the air. Roberts is opening the class to people of all ages, from young children, also called the Little Monkey group, to adults. In addition, a professional team from Australia will be making its way to Mankato to certify the staff. “I just feel like this helps us tap into something new,” she said. “Some kids don’t love the dance part, and some kids don’t enjoy tumbling. This is hitting a new demographic that will incorporate the two. It will help open kids in the area to a new world of activity.” The Importance of Giving Back Roberts makes it a priority during the year to give back to the community that has given her so much, she said, no matter how big or small the effort is. As a fundraiser for the American Red Cross, Roberts helps pair her dancers with “stars” around Mankato for Dancing with the Mankato Stars. The annual event (though paused for COVID-19) raised more than $140,000 in 2020. In addition to Dancing with the Mankato Stars, performing at area nursing homes, and hosting blood drives and Toys for Tots fundraisers, Dance Express also offers a free program designed for children with special needs called Darby’s Dancers. Along with Roberts, 10 dancers and teachers at Dance Express volunteer their Saturday mornings to offer this class to the community. “I truly think that giving back to the community helps instill that importance at a young age,” she said. “It just becomes who you are, and it really gives you joy.”

THE ESSENTIALS

Dance Express

2105 N. Broad Court Mankato, MN 56001 Phone: (507) 625-3865 Web: danceexpressmankato.com

CONNECTING BACK

5 YEARS AGO

JULY/AUGUST 2017 Nancy Zallek was Connect Business Magazine’s cover story five years ago. We learned about the growing impact that MAF was having on the community, and that many of the things that added to our daily quality of life were probably touched by MAF. Also featured was Mankato’s Kitchenmaster, Klooster & Begalka CPAs and Kasota’s Hallmark Glass.

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JULY/AUGUST 2012 A decade ago our cover featured top tier marketing and PR executive Marcia Bahr with Mankato Clinic. Other features this issue included L & S Electric in Springfield and Jarraff Industries in St. Peter.

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JULY/AUGUST 2007 Fifteen years ago, in a unique move for Connect, we featured photojournalist Flip Schulke as he talked about some of his favorite memories in his years of capturing the lives of others through his lens. Other profiles were Professional Cleaning Services in Le Sueur and Bolton & Menk in Mankato.

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JULY/AUGUST 2002 Lowell Andreas with Archer Daniels Midland graced the cover of our magazine in March 2002. Mankato’s Coughlan Companies and then-Nicollet’s Nicollet South Bike Shop were also featured. CONNECT Business Magazine

GreenSeam Has the Tools, How Can You Use Them? GreenSeam is committed to the long-term prosperity of Southern Minnesota and Northern Iowa by strenghtening

collaborations and partnerships, growing businesses and their workforce, as well as the communities they call home. GreenSeam is launching an effort to explore new opportunities and support the develoment of new products, technologies, and innovations across the region.

Have a Business Idea? Do you think “there has to be a better way to do this?” There probably is. If not, let’s make it happen! We encourage everyone to get involved and take that first step with us. Whether you are a product, service or technology, GreenSeam can help you get your idea to the next step by offering: Industry Expertise & Connections, Funding & Grants, Mentorship & More!

Not Sure Where to Begin? 1. Connect with GreenSeam - call or email 2. Have a Conversation (30-60 min) 3. Identify Your Business Needs 4. Take Action No pressure! We don’t require forms, plans or funds - just you and an idea. You don’t have to do it alone,

Need Help Launching or Growing Your Business? We are here to help guide, coordinate and leverage resources to support your business. This includes: access to connections, funding, education and more. GreenSeam’s network consists of over 1,000 businesses, that are willing and eager to connect and help make your dream into a reality. Scan the QR code to check out the 1,000+ businesses across the region.

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GROUNDBREAKER

Highlighting our region’s Ag and Food Production Industries

Sisters Natasha Frost and Nicole Lange.

Cooking Up Connections The success of Natasha Frost and Wooden Spoon can be summed up in one word: relationships. “Partnerships ebb and flow,” Frost said. “Some of them are short term, and some of them are long term, but you hold space for all opportunities for how things can unfold.” Wooden Spoon started as a bakery and bistro known for fresh and local food, but it’s become so much more. Over the years, relationships have created opportunities for Wooden Spoon and filled the needs of the community. For Frost, the internal relationship with her Wooden Spoon leadership team has been the most crucial, providing the backbone of all other relationships. That solid foundation has led to a successful business, a catering service dedicated to children, a commitment

to lifting up other small businesses and the creation of a nonprofit dedicated to preventing food waste while feeding those in need. Her journey began as co-owner of Friesen’s LLC. The bakery was facing a financial crisis, and the owners were ready to close the doors. “I had a choice of closing and facing financial ruin or taking it over and seeing what could happen,” Frost said. In 2018 she became the sole owner and rebranded as Wooden Spoon, located in Old Town Mankato on Riverfront Drive. It specializes in fresh and local food through retail sales, catering and events. The choice to keep Wooden Spoon open was a leap of faith for Frost and something she couldn’t have done without her leadership team. This core group of women: Nicole Lange, Brigette Rasmussen and Ashley Singleton, have helped lead Wooden Spoon to where it is today. Each woman brings her own unique skill set to the table, but the value of relationships is shared. “It starts here with us,” said Frost. “Relationships are hard work, and it takes time, but they are the greatest gift.” Wooden Spoon’s values of keeping the doors open through rela-

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GROUNDBREAKER

Highlighting our region’s Ag and Food Production Industries

tionships have spilled into everything they do. You’ll even see this in its daily menu. Wherever possible, Wooden Spoon uses local products in its food, including Moody Bees Honey, and sells products from local vendors, like Nicolai Amende Signature Hot Sauces. They are also buying fresh foods from local producers, like Upbeet Acres. “Whenever we can, we keep our money here,” Frost said. “When we keep our money local, it’s a benefit for Wooden Spoon and the entire community.” The farm-to-table approach of Wooden Spoon has led to the creation of unique community events built on partnerships with local producers and vendors. Farm to Wooden Spoon started years ago to celebrate local farmers. Rasmussen creates a unique four-course meal using locally sourced produce, meat and various products from local vendors. The monthly event is a personalized food experience with an ever-changing menu served on and offsite. Being a part of Old Town in Mankato has bolstered the Wooden Spoon’s spirit of collaboration. During the COVID-19 pandemic, partnerships between this network of small-business owners were amplified out of necessity. “We realized we are so much stronger if we can come together and support each other,” Frost said. To support a trusted partner and a local business during the pandemic, Feeding Our Communities Partners’ executive director, Sheri Sander-Silva, contacted Wooden Spoon to source food for their Backpack Food Program. The network of business owners in Old Town and the support Frost received from community partners like Sander-Silva helped keep her staff busy and her doors open. Frost felt it was their duty to pay their good fortune forward. So, in addition to using Wooden Spoon as a platform to use and sell local products, Frost has also made her building, Frost Plaza, available to small-business owners. “Thinking about how to support other businesses and having that collaborative mindset instead of a competitive mindset has been a really important part of the Wooden Spoon culture,” said Frost, who sees it as her path to support others as they grow their businesses. 38

July | August 2022

Wooden Spoon leadership team Brigette Rasmussen, Natasha Frost, Nicole Lange and Ashley Singleton.

While the upstairs level of her building is transitioning from office space to apartments, she opened it up to create space for other small businesses from River Valley Makers, including local artist Justin Ek. “Natasha is a great collaborator and offers up anything she has to help people grow,” Ek said. “This is an office building, but she is rethinking spaces, using them creatively and having fun.” Frost’s generosity of space has given Ek and his brother a springboard to growth, allowing them to open a gallery this coming summer. “That was a really cool experience of being not just profit-focused, but also person-focused, partnership-focused and relationship-focused,” Frost said. The partnerships Frost created have allowed her business to flourish and her impact on the community to grow. The relationships the Wooden Spoon team has built in the community have opened doors to new opportunities they hadn’t anticipated, including catering to local child care centers. As an attorney, Frost worked in nutrition policy and child care regulation at a national level. Her vast knowledge of child and adult food programs, requirements, and their impact on child care centers and schools, coupled with her experience running a restaurant, made partnering with child care a perfect fit. Frost and her team work hard to under-

stand the needs of each specific child care program and tailor menus specific to them. They now serve six Head Start programs, two schools and two year-round centers. Catering for these organizations led to a new partnership with Mankato Youth Place. MY Place is a free after-school program dedicated to providing a nurturing and safe environment with programming to empower kids to reach their full potential. It is also committed to ensuring kids have access to healthy, kid-friendly food— values that align with Wooden Spoon. “In our first year, we were struggling to find a sustainable way to feed our members,” said MY Place Director Erin Simmons. “Natasha was the first person to come to the table with a partnership-based and solution-oriented mentality.” Flexibility and trust are gifts in partnerships, especially when the partnership takes a new direction. “We’re providing food for these kiddos when they can’t find food, and all of a sudden, I get a call from Erin about some chicken,” Frost said. Little did they know, this call would lead to an invaluable asset for the community. The donation offered to MY Place ended up being three tons of chicken that would have otherwise gone to waste. The generous donation led them to start asking questions about food waste and how preventing it

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could benefit those in need. The Wooden Spoon team realized they would be unable to take on the role of a stand-alone nonprofit fighting food waste, but they had the connections and the skills to help create a plan for long-term sustainability. “Working with people to impact change is the way to get things done,” Frost said. So Wooden Spoon began collaborating with various community partners, including ECHO Food Shelf, MY Place and FOCP. Through grants, Wooden Spoon changed its infrastructure and dedicated staff time to prepping food and making ready-made meals. In August 2021, the board of directors for the nonprofit South Central MN Food Recovery was formed. Its mission is to keep good food out of landfills by working with partners to distribute food to low-income and BIPOC community members. It’s a grassroots effort through a network of partnerships formed from a relationship of trust. Wooden Spoon remains highly involved in the success of SCMNFR. It can break down vast amounts of produce by dehydrating or cooking it for volunteers to assemble into ready-made meals. This allows SCMNFR to take in food and get it back out into the community in a different form. Frost believes partnerships start internally; Wooden Spoon’s core group leads the business and all its values. From that, it has grown and impacted the community in numerous ways. “Without that strong center, we wouldn’t be able to invest in the relationships that make it possible to branch out and support others in the community,” Frost said. THE ESSENTIALS

Wooden Spoon 515 N Riverfront Drive Mankato, MN 56001 Phone: (507) 345-4114 Website: woodenspoonmn.com

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Learning To Do More With Less

ruck Bodies and Equipment International (TBEI), like many other manufacturers in the region, has faced challenges in recent years spurred by a tightening labor force. Through a collaboration with Minnesota State University, Mankato, TBEI is leveraging these challenges as an opportunity to upskill and create opportunities for their current workforce, while learning how to do more with less. TBEI is a leading national and international designer, manufacturer, and installer of medium and heavy-duty dump bodies, dump trailers, platforms, and related truck body accessories. The Lake Crystal based company is the largest dump body manu-

facturer in the United States, managing products from flat and structural steel all the way to new, finished components. You may have seen some of their visible commercial vehicles around the Mankato area, including the municipal plow trucks. The TBEI and Minnesota State Mankato collaboration started with the pursuit of a Minnesota Job Skills Partnership (MJSP) grant through the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). The primary purpose of the MJSP initiative is to connect businesses, educational institutions, and non-profit organizations with the resources to train workers, expand work opportunities and keep high quality jobs in Minnesota. The TBEI grant focused on establishing lean initiatives, with an added benefit of addressing the issue of a decreasing labor force. Kuldeep Agarwal, Minnesota State Mankato professor and lead on training for the TBEI grant shared, “TBEI had a vision of transforming the way they do business today, and how they operate and train people on the assembly line. The whole idea is to make people more efficient at what they are doing.” The team recognized the need for proper training and application of LEAN principles for sustained growth in the manufacturing industry. Agarwal trained every individual in the plant on the principles of lean, holding 15 sessions with a total of 150 participants over a period of 6 months. Trainees were then subdivided into their relevant work areas and were tasked with looking specifically at their day-to-day operations, and what could be done to improve it. Kuldeep shared, “It was not a traditional classroom training. It was based on TBEI’s products, where employees spend their days, what’s working, and what could be better.” TBEI strongly encourages personal and professional development for their employees, showing support for employee growth and professional development by providing inter-department advancement opportunities. Since training has completed, TBEI has seen increased engagement from employees, and more ideas coming down the pipeline on ways that processes can continue to be streamlined. Employees starting in entry level positions now have the knowledge to advance into opportunities among training, maintenance, leadership, drafting and designing, and customer relations, among others. Bill Kirtz, Manufacturing Manager at TBEI shared, “I can’t brag enough. Kuldeep is absolutely brilliant, and MSU has been amazing in allowing for him to come out here. The people here are so appreciative of the work. The partnership is second to none.” The university is a resource that area businesses can leverage to aid in providing customized training solutions for local industry. If you are interested in learning more about customized training opportunities offered through Minnesota State University, Mankato and the Center for Workforce Professional Education, please reach out to Tammy Bohlke, Director of Workforce Development at the Strategic Partnership Center: tammy. bohlke@mnsu.edu or (507) 389-2572.

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UPCOMING TRAINING EVENTS

Start-Up Smart Is entrepreneurship right for you? In this in-person workshop, you will gain a basic understanding of the essential steps to getting your business off the ground and the many local and online resources available to help you.

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DATES: 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the Month TIME: 8:30am – 9:30am COST: FREE Thank you for trusting us to be your premier training provider! We are looking forward to providing more customized training and professional development opportunities this year. Check out our website to stay up to date on upcoming events.

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TO SIGN UP, OR FOR MORE INFORMATION: https://link.mnsu.edu/courses-and-programs Sessions are offered in virtual and in-person settings. Please visit our registration site for details on a specific program. 424 North Riverfront Drive, Mankato, MN Phone: 507-389-1094

By Jean Lundquist

Photos by Jonathan Smith

Enthusiasm flows from St. Peter goldsmith Patty Conlin. The owner of Stones Throw Gallery and Studio describes herself as an “artist who collects artists” and her gallery as “a place for the arts.” Stones Throw is first and foremost a jewelry store that features Conlin’s unique creations, including gold necklaces, chains, pendants, rings and earrings. Her creativity pushes her to design pieces that can be worn in various ways, as a pendant, a chain, or a pin. She also sells loose gems. Conlin also showcases the works of other artists at Stones Throw. Her apprentices, Lolly Hinkle, Sacha Bliese and Kristin Musser, create jewelry. Then there are stained glass works, blown glass pieces, hand woven scarves, leather goods, wooden artistic pieces, photographs, 3D beadworks, paintings, handmade greeting cards, pottery and prints.

When Conlin travels to art shows around the country to showcase her work, she always takes time to check other artists’ work. When she sees something that complements the jewelry in her gallery, she invites the artists to display and sell their work at Stones Throw. At one point, Conlin had the work of upward of 120 artists in her gallery. During the shutdown in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, she took stock. She realized her gallery had become “visually confusing.” Now, Conlin limits the number of artists she features to 25 to 30, in addition to herself. She is happy with the results: everything is bright, colorful and a good fit with her jewelry. Continues

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A Place For The Arts The GSR Fine Arts Festival As a veteran of art shows, Conlin and some friends and apprentices decided to stage a fine art show locally. Twenty years ago the GSR Fine Arts Festival was born. GSR stands for Gold Smiths’ Reunion. Initially it featured works by Conlin and her apprentices — artists who worked in metal, specifically gold. After a few years, the festival expanded to include all fine artists and the event grew. The festival debuted at Harpies’ Bazaar in Mankato and ran there for several years. Then it moved to the YWCA, before moving again to what is now the Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center in downtown Mankato. There it started in the small Ellerbee room and expanded to fill half the ballroom. Eventually the festival grew to fill the entire ballroom with fine arts vendors. Many of those vendors are friends, Conlin said. “It’s developed into a great community.” The GSR Fine Arts Festival is staged in the late fall. With the holidays approaching

and family coming to visit, it’s Conlin’s busiest season. She has stepped back from the day-to-day planning of the event, but remains involved. “Sometimes I forget to say no,” Conlin said with a laugh. A Passion For Gold and Stones Conlin’s first love in jewelry is gold, although she can work in silver. She illustrates her point by telling the story of a friend who is a wood carver. He is interested in carving intricate designs into old-fashioned chairs. Although his chairs were beautiful, they were not big sellers. One day Conlin asked him, “Do you want to eat, or do you want to carve?” As Conlin tells the story, she laughs, recalling a business partner who once asked her if she wanted a paycheck, or if she wanted to buy more gemstones. “I wanted to buy more gemstones,” Conlin said. If Conlin’s first love is working with gold, her second love is working with stones. Though not a gemologist, she knows her

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stones. Walking through Stones Throws’ showcases, she points out opals from at least seven different countries, each with its own distinct appearance. Trays of fiery opals gleam in colors from red to orange to purple. Conlin knows all their properties. “There’s so much more than the milky opals from Mexico,” Conlin said. Conlin often works with diamonds. She considers them “sparkly neutrals” and good to put by another stone to add pizazz. “I can set everything from a diamond to a fossil,” Conlin said. She gives one example of a woman who came to her for a wedding set and wanted to use a stone from her future husband’s farm. “I hit it, broke it into small pieces and picked one piece out,” Conlin said. “I asked her what she thought, and it became her wedding ring, set next to a very sparkly stone.” A Collaborative Process Much of the jewelry Conlin creates is custom made. “I used to make things, then push it toward someone and say, ‘Here. This is beautiful. Buy it,’” Conlin said. Over the years, her approach has changed. Now, she prefers a collaborative approach with her customers. She stays in touch with them throughout the creative process. “Before I finish something, I will initially make a drawing to show the customer. When I’m close to finished, I send a photo to make sure they like it,” Conlin said. “If they want a stone in a different place, it can be hard to redo. It’s hard to pry a stone out of a piece you’ve just pushed it into, especially if it’s an opal. Opals are very soft stones.” To help people understand the wide variety of gemstones available and how they might be used to make jewelry, Conlin hosts gem roundtables at Stones Throw Gallery. When she started hosting the events, pre-pandemic, she’d have as many as 16 people at the table. Now, she has five or six, and finds that’s a great number of people. It ensures they all get their questions answered. At the roundtables, Conlin picks out stones to show participants. She provides a description and information about each stone, such as where it is found and the properties that make it good material for jewelry. The stones are passed around the table, with everyone getting a chance to hold and examine them.

Stones Throw Gallery & Studio | St. Peter

Conlin in her creative workspace.

If someone chooses to purchase a stone that day, they are given a discount. If they also commission Conlin to create a piece of jewelry, they receive a discount on that, as well. Conlin offers wine, chocolate and cheese along with stones at her gem roundtables. She calls it a “lovely thing” for rockhounds. As a goldsmith, Conlin fabricates jewelry, but she doesn’t cast it. “I take the gold. I alter the shape of it,” Conlin said. “I forge it, I heat it up with a torch, I bend it, and I solder it.” Conlin explains the difference: Someone who casts jewelry works with a wax mold. They melt the gold, then force it into the mold. “Casting jewelry is working with wax. I like to work with gold,” Conlin said.

“I’ve always told my children to never give me a mother’s ring from one of those stores,” Conlin said. Mother’s rings traditionally set small

birthstones representing each child into a ring in a specified order. That’s not how Conlin defines jewelry design. She prefers finding inspiration in her materials and creating one-of-a-kind designs. For several years, Conlin was an artist in residence at Harpies’ Bazaar, a longtime boutique in Old Town, Mankato, where she had a good following. When the store closed in 2005, she lived in West Mankato with her husband, Chris Conlin, and their three children. At the time, she figured her customers would remember her and she could do business from her home. But people forgot her, she said. Only a very few came by her house seeking her expertise and her creations. “I liked Mankato,” Conlin said. She entertained hopes of setting up shop in Old Town again, as it was thriving at the time. But her search for a place, preferably in Old Town, just didn’t turn up many prospects for staying in Mankato. Conlin also had her eye on “the Big Blue House” in St. Peter, but she had some reservations.

Creative Roots Conlin started her college career intending to become a graphic designer. As she neared graduation, she was student teaching a class on jewelry making. Metal arts and jewelry making captured her attention and led her in a different direction. It changed the course of her career and her life. She cut her teeth after college working in commercial jewelry stores, where she learned the trade. As a jeweler in commercial stores, she sat in a back room or a basement “making and restoring jewelry.” Through attending workshops, and just by virtue of the experience itself, she picked up many useful skills during those times. Creativity, however, was lacking. CONNECT Business Magazine

A Place For The Arts “It was my husband’s idea to give this a try. It was already rezoned for business and residential,” Conlin said. The house, at 420 Minnesota Ave., had been intended as a retreat for scrapbookers in the past. It was perfect for her needs. Conlin loved the idea and loved the house. Soon it was home to the Conlin family and to Stones Throw Studio and Gallery. The Big Blue House Conlin’s Big Blue House sits on a corner lot nestled among other homes in a residential neighborhood. It is situated just a few blocks out of the downtown area, right on Highway 169/Minnesota Avenue. Conlin considers the location both a blessing and a liability. “We don’t have a lot of walk-in traffic,” Conlin said. “We’re more of a destination shopping place.” Before Highway 169/Minnesota Avenue in St. Peter was reconstructed, people would stop when they noticed the gallery sign or the “Open” flag in front of the house. “I’ve even had semitruck drivers stop,” Conlin said. But now, no parking is allowed on the street in front of her house, and Conlin warns people they may be towed if they try. Although there may not be a lot of walk-in or foot traffic to Stones Throw Gallery, the house itself is hard to miss. The massive early Queen Anne architecture house was initially built in 1873 and finished in 1874. It was known as “the Gault house,” named for Zuriel S. Gault, who built the house for his bride when they got married. Gault was

Some of the art available at the Stones Throw Studio and Gallery.

the Nicollet County register of deeds and auditor at the time. Later, he became the second president of the Nicollet County Bank. In 1882, the turret was added to the house, along with an addition to the back. The house remained in the Gault family for over 100 years, until the last Gault to reside there, the daughter-in-law of the original owners, passed away in 1978. “It took a while to become the Stones Throw Gallery after being the ‘Gault house’ for so long,” Conlin said. A far cry from the basements and back rooms many jewelers are

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Stones Throw Gallery & Studio | St. Peter destined to work in, the Big Blue House features arched windows, letting in lots of natural light for the displays in the gallery and for Conlin’s work bench. The house was able to withstand the tornado that ripped apart most of the city of St. Peter in 1998, though it was heavily damaged. But like the rest of the community, Conlin said, it came back. That’s part of what gives Conlin her enthusiasm. St. Peter came back from the tornado, stronger than ever. Conlin compares it to the 1980 television movie “The Comeback Kid.” St. Peter and its residents are never beaten. They always get back up, and the community becomes more vibrant. “I love the people here. I like the people who work here. I like the city manager, who listens to my ideas,” Conlin said. The Conlin Team Conlin is in every way a creative artist, while her husband is a scientist and an ordained Presbyterian minister. It was his job teaching microbiology at Minnesota State University, Mankato, that brought them to the area many years ago. Though at first glance an artist and a scientist may seem an odd pairing, Conlin said they work well together as a team. It was her husband who encouraged her to give the Big Blue House in St. Peter a try as a home and a gallery. Meanwhile, she is interested in science, especially rocks and physics. The lines are blurred between hard-core science and hard-core artistry. “I’m kind of like a little engineer. And I’ve always had a little bit of practicality,” Conlin said with a laugh. After 20 years of teaching, Conlin’s husband has retired from the university and has taken over the bookkeeping for Stones Throw Gallery. It’s a job Conlin said she was always terrible at doing and never enjoyed. The couple has three children —one son and two daughters. None of them is an artist, Conlin said. She describes her son as “a math/ banker sort of guy.” As for her daughters, one is a doctor and the other is a lawyer. The child she thought most likely to follow her into the world of fine arts was her son, Conlin said. “He liked art classes and art history. But he said, ‘Mom, I have to make a living.’” As for Conlin, she has found a way to merge her creative work with a rich and vibrant life in Stones Throw Gallery and Studio. She welcomes visitors to come and explore the beautiful and imaginative works that have found a home in her Big Blue House. When approaching the Stones Throw Gallery’s front door, a natural inclination for visitors is to knock. On the Stones Throw Gallery website, Conlin has posted a video in which she tells visitors there is no need to knock. “That happens,” Conlin said. “That’s why I posted the sign that says, ‘Please come in.’”

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Stones Throw Gallery & Studio 420 N. Minnesota Ave. St. Peter, MN 56082 Phone: (507) 934-5655 Web: stonesthrowgallery.org CONNECT Business Magazine

INDUSTRY INSIGHT

Measuring Impact & Planning Growth

Nancy Zallek, President and CEO of Mankato Area Foundation (MAF), likes to measure success by the impact of charitable giving in her region. When she joined MAF in 2009, it had a little over $2M in assets. And because of that, their annual granting to regional nonprofit organizations ranged from $80K to $100K.

Flash forward to 2022, the Foundation now has assets of more than $30 million, and annual granting well exceeds $2 million. Zallek, however, does not measure success strictly in funds granted. Under her leadership, MAF strives to elevate philanthropy as a resource for defining and advancing solutions to the community’s most pressing challenges and opportunities. “Our strategic goals are to build and share knowledge, strengthen nonprofit capacity, and create an impact that leads to a more vibrant, prosperous, and welcoming region – today, and into perpetuity,” Zallek says. In 2009 Zallek joined MAF as its first paid executive. Before that, it was a volunteer-run organization. “When I started, I was hired for 25 hours a week, and the only other person was our accountant who was contracted for 8 hours,” Zallek says. Together with the Board of Directors, the priority at the time

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