Fargo INC! January 2018

DO WE L L DOING BY JANUARY 2018

GOOD?

SCOTT HOLDMAN

IMPACT FOUNDATION

PAT TRAYNOR

DAKOTA MEDICAL FOUNDATION

BRITTANY LAFORTE CHARISM

AMANDA TOROK

ROB SWIERS

GATE CITY BANK

NEW LIFE CENTER

A CONVERSATION ABOUT CREATING A CULTURE OF GIVING

// JANUARY 2018

COVER STORY

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How Can Businesses Do Well

By Doing Good?

Businesses with a give-back culture have higher morale in the workplace, have more than 20 percent higher profitability and are 70 percent more likely to be viewed favorably by the community. We sat down with five local business and nonprofit leaders to talk about why giving is not only good for employees and the community, it's good for the bottom line.

ADDITIONAL FEATURES 10 Editor's Note 12 actionable ideas for developing for your own culture of giving

65 Faces of Fargo Business Dr. J.J. Johnson - Saving Smiles Dentistry Karla Solum - Elevate Human Potential Alicia Underlee Nelson - Prairie Style File

11 Fargo INC! Editorial Board 72 Be More Colorful 13 Letters to the Editor 26 PartUs Streamlining the divorce process with Fargo attorney Krista Andrews

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30 Concordia Executive Advancement Program Offutt School of Business launches full slate of course offerings for 2018

34 Workforce & Poverty United Way President Kristi Huber is back with part two of her workforce development series.

56 I Want to Thank ...

Local businesspeople pen thank you cards.

Virtual reality applications in the business world

76 Social Employee Advocacy RDO's Lindsay Paulson on how your own team can be your strongest voice

80 7 Mistakes I Made (And How You Can Avoid Them) "The Startup Journey"'s Josh Christy

84 4 Legal Reasons for Employee Handbooks SW&L attorney Adam Wogsland on why employee handbooks are legally essential

88 Tech Tips: What You Should Know About Encryption Giga-Green Technologies' Jared Finkelson

58 The Chamber Takes the Long View 90 Business Events Calendar

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60 Gasper's: How The Downtown Dancery Came to Be Tellwell's Marisa Jackels traces Gasper's School of Dance's big-city roots.

Visit FargoInc.com for extended content covering Fargo-Moorhead's business community and articles from past issues of Fargo INC!

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JANUARY 2018

editor's note

A DOZEN WAYS to Get Involved w/

I

f this month's cover story speaks to you and your organization wants to take some first steps to creating a culture of giving, Giving When Is Hearts Day 2018 is a great place to start. Whether it's your first Giving Hearts Giving Hearts Day or your 10th, here are 12 actionable ideas to Day 2018? get you and your team involved over the next five weeks.

Thursday, February 8, 2018

Engagement Ideas 1 Have employees share volunteering stories with your team.

Host a random drawing for all participants. Give the winner a monetary gift to be given to a participating charity on Giving Hearts Day. 2 Have employees create and post a video story about their favorite charity.

The best participant's video receives a monetary gift to their charity of choice on Giving Hearts Day.

7 Go casual for a cause.

Show support through a "jeans day" fund. Provide the funds from one jeans day or the total from a whole year's worth of jeans days on Giving Hearts Day. Let employees vote on a charity or charities to benefit from the jeans day funds.

3 Create a weekly scavenger hunt.

Each weekly winner receives a monetary gift to their charity of choice on Giving Hearts Day.

8 Dedicate a portion of one day's profits to a chosen charity.

4 Highlight an employee — daily or weekly — and talk about about how they make a difference toward your giving culture and volunteering.

5 Surprise and delight.

Have a committee choose a group of charities they want to surprise on Giving Hearts Day. Employees could deliver a wrapped package with a monetary donation from your organization.

Nate@SpotlightMediaFargo.com 10

Giving Ideas 6 Host a greet-and-give.

Support regional charities through a welcome breakfast and provide an opportunity for your employees to give.

JANUARY 2018

9 Give it up for charities.

To demonstrate how the smallest donation can make a difference, ask employees to give up a daily beverage or meal and donate the money to a chosen charity on Giving Hearts Day. Intensify the appeal by asking supporters to participate for a certain number of days or encouraging them to meet a personal fundraising goal.

NateMickelberg

Awareness Ideas 10 Create a window display promoting Giving Hearts Day, using this year's Giving Hearts Day theme.

11 Take a picture of your staff and post it on social media sites using the hashtags #GivingHeartsDay and #CountMe. 12 Turn our generous region red. Engage your employees by challenging them to turn your organization red for Giving Hearts Day. As always, thank you for reading!

Nate Mickelberg Editor Fargo INC!

LinkedIn.com/In/NateMickelberg

Photography by J. Alan Paul

Giving Hearts Day 2018

EDITORIAL BOARD We at Fargo INC! want to make sure our content is unbiased, accurate, and reflects the Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo business community. That's why we meet regularly with our five-member editorial board to discuss area business issues and trends and ensure we are living up to our values.

CRAIG WHITNEY

PAT TRAYNOR

Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo Chamber of Commerce

Dakota Medical Foundation

President & CEO

Executive Director

TIM BEATON

Executive Director

FM Area Foundation

JOHN MACHACEK

SVP of Finance & Entrepreneurial Development

Greater Fargo-Moorhead Economic Development Corporation

CINDY GRAFFEO Executive Director

Moorhead Economic Development Authority

Letters to the Editor* *NOTE: The following messages appear as-received and have been edited only for length.

Dec. 2017 Issue

Dec. 2017 Issue

Who cares that Michelle Killoran is looking forward to creating a healthier version of herself in 2018! Wow — talk about an ego and why pictures of Killoran family? Fargo Business Faces of a sophomore at Fargo Davies HS?! Half of these faces of Fargo are businesses nobody has heard of and it appears that if you're a friend of Fargo, Inc's employees — you got your picture in this stupid magazine.

Good Grief :(

Compliments on your most recent edition of Fargo Inc. I read the front page title and thought “Cool, I’m going to take a break and read this article!" As a small business owner for 21 years I’m probably a bit skewed and biased; I’m thinking the title of the article could have been “Faces of Fargo Community Leaders."

Don’t get me wrong; every single person featured deserves to be featured in some way.

But not necessarily as “Faces of Business."

Business to me means actual businesses; small and large. Those of us who have taken the risk and shoulder the full responsibility to our customers, employees and shareholders.

It’s an honor to be a business owner and hold that title.

Colleges, nonprofits, and charities all deserve recognition. So I’m a bit biased; please accept my comments with positive Intentions . And congratulations on Volume 2, Issue 12!

Jeanna Cook Owner Northstar Coffee

Anonymous Nov. 2017 Issue

Nov. 2017 Issue

Great work with Fargo Inc! magazine. I enjoy reading the magazine each month.

The topics are of interest, engaging and well written.

This month the article from Kristi Huber, “4 Ways Quality Child Care Positively Impacts Our Local Workforce” was of special interest as I am working on a Voices for Healthy Kids Grant from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focused in strengthening minimum standards for licensed child care in North Dakota.

Next week I will be meeting a couple key legislators and state agency leadership and would like to share printed copies of the article. Can I get permission to print

Join the conversation!

copies of the article for educational use?

I also plan to work with the American Heart Association Communication staff lead on social media to promote the article and link to the article online.

Thank you for the work you do each month to produce an excellent magazine.

Joan Enderle Campaign Director American Heart Association Midwest Affiliate

Your edition about work/life balance was a joke. So, you write about how individuals strike a work/life balance and you choose some of the wealthiest people in Fargo?

One couple even explained they have a nanny. Really? You want readers to take advice about work/life balance from individuals who have the means to not have to worry much about work/life balance.

Or, you feature an extremely wealthy couple close to retirement age?

Perhaps if you wanted some real advice that would have gained respect from your readers (or former reader in my case) you should have featured a single father or mother who is balancing two jobs and also attending a college or university. Offensive. Get in touch with reality.

Dec. 2017 Issue

I'm sitting at my favorite car repair shop, Certified Auto, and I came across this phenomenonal magazine!

I absolutely LOVE this Faces Of Fargo Business magazine.

Thank you so much for celebrating the beautiful, hard working Fargo Business men and women - and for doing it with excellence.

Greta Bundy

Anonymous

Leave a comment or direct message on Fargo INC!'s Facebook page or email Fargo INC! Editor Nate Mickelberg at Nate@SpotlightMediaFargo.com Facebook.com/FargoBusiness

FargoInc.com FARGOINC.COM

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January 2018 Volume 3 Issue 1

Fargo INC! is published 12 times a year and is available at area businesses and online at FargoInc.com.

Publisher Mike Dragosavich

CREATIVE

Editorial Director Andrew Jason Editor Nate Mickelberg Graphic Designers Sarah Geiger, Matt Anderson Photography J. Alan Paul, Hillary Ehlen Content Strategist Sam Herder Contributors Sam Herder, Kristi Huber, Craig Whitney,

Marisa Jackels, Ethan Mickelson, Lindsay Paulson, Josh Christy, Adam Wogsland, Jared Finkelson

Social Media Nate Mickelberg Web Editor Samantha Stark Web/Digital Coordinator Huong Tran

ADVERTISING

Sales Manager Layne Hanson

Senior Sales Executive Ryan Courneya Marketing & Sales Paul Hoefer, Jenny Johnson, Scott Rorvig, Dan Helm, Chris Cates

Client Relations Manager Jenny Johnson Office Assistant Pam Mjoness Business Operations Larissa Kunde Assistant

CIRCULATION

Distribution & Circulation Nick Hackl Manager Delivery Tom Wegner

Fargo INC! is published by Spotlight Media LLC, Copyright 2018 Fargo INC! & FargoInc. com. All rights reserved. No parts of this periodical may be reproduced or distributed without written permission of Fargo INC!, and Spotlight Media LLC, is not responsible for, and expressly disclaims all liability for, damages of any kind arising out of use, reference to or reliance on such information. Spotlight Media LLC, accepts no liability for the accuracy of statements made by the advertisers.

Spotlightmedia

Spotlight Media, LLC 15 Broadway N, Suite 500 Fargo, ND 58102 Info@SpotlightMediaFargo.com ADVERTISING: 701-478-SPOT (7768)

B Numy the ber s

Meet the Team MIKE

LAYNE

ANDREW

NATE

JOE

BECCA

ETHAN

KARA

SARAH

MATT

LARISSA

CHRIS

SCOTT

JENNY

PAUL

RYAN

JESSE

PAM

NICK

HUONG

SAMANTHA

HILLARY

Learn more about us at SpotlightMediaFargo.com DAN

TAKE A LOOK AT SPOTLIGHT MEDIA'S OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Faces, Spaces & Places Celebrate five years of elegance with Design & Living Magazine. This month, we went through our style files to reminisce about the many remarkable people and places that have graced our pages. Also in this issue, we've curated our best content from 2017.

Pride of the Prairie North Dakota State University has given this state countless highlights since its move to Division I in the mid2000s. The transition opened the door for many North Dakota athletes to compete and succeed on the Division I stage.

This month, we highlight four Bison student-athletes who have become the "Pride of the Prairie."

New in Town Join us as we discover and experience many of the new businesses the Fargo-MoorheadWest Fargo area has to offer. Whether it's a fitness class, new food and drink options, a spa treatment or you're looking for something new to do with friends, follow your curiosity and pursue all the newness our community has to offer. You'll never know until you try.

PartUs Further proof that there's always "an app for that"

W

hat started out as an offhand suggestion from a business partner and friend has turned into a potential gamechanger for those in the midst of a divorce.

Krista Andrews, an attorney at Anderson, Bottrell, Sanden & Thompson Law Firm in Fargo, is the cofounder of PartUs, an app that steamlines the divorce process.

BY Sam Herder PHOTOGRAPHY BY Hillary Ehlen

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The Creation

When Microsoft engineer Tim Brookins suggested a year ago that Fargo attorney Krista Andrews should develop a divorce app, she wasn't entirely sure about the idea.

After getting a second opinion, though, and mentioning the idea to another friend and former client — who ended up investing $100,000 into the project — she jumped in. With the initial funding, Andrews got set up with a local mobiledevelopment company, which came up with a website wireframe and an amount that it would cost to create a minimum viable product, which, perhaps unsurprisingly, turned out to be much more than the initial investment money.

So Andrews went back to Brookins, who has more than 20 years of software development experience, to look at the numbers. Brookins realized that what she was doing was a potential gamechanger and told Andrews that if she gave him part ownership, he’d code the software himself.

A few months later, PartUs was launched.

Andrews says that fellow attorneys and clients have started using it, and that ever since she went to a national conference to discuss the app,

Krista Andrews PartUs Founder and Fargo attorney

“It could easily have an international impact if it continued to grow and we were able to keep up." it’s taken off. Still in its relative infancy, PartUs is already being used in nearly 15 states and — between attorneys, clients and paralegals — by more than 1,000 users.

The App

Right now, PartUs is strictly a desktop application. The mobile app isn’t currently available for a consumer to download out of an app store but can be used when an attorney invites a client through

a link. The coding for the public app is being worked on right now by Brookins.

The app is used to speed up the divorce process and eliminate the number of documents exchanging hands.

In most cases, a client going through a divorce is asked to gather and provide their financials, tax information, properties and bank statements. Their attorney then has to do manual data input of assets and debts that

FARGOINC.COM

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can range anywhere from 50 to several hundred entries.

With PartUs, clients can input and allocate that information and attach documents to support those numbers. It speeds up the process by months and also saves the clients money by entering the data themselves instead of their attorney doing it.

How It Works 1. An attorney adds a new case, which includes an assetand-debt worksheet along with a monthly budget worksheet.

2. The attorney can optionally share the worksheet with their client to enter and review financial information.

Each sharing invitation can be set for "read only" or "can update."

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3. When satisfied that the data is complete and correct, the attorney can share the assetand-debt worksheet or monthly budget with the opposing attorney.

4. The opposing attorney can then review the proposal and optionally copy and edit. the values.

5. When ready, the opposing attorney can send back the modified values to the original attorney as a counterproposal.

“I would love for us to have a tool that clients, attorneys, judges and mediators could use because it’s a unified platform that everyone can work off of,” Andrews says.

“Right now, a client gives me their information, and then my assistant or I input that info, and we bill them to do that.

The opposing party is doing the same: Their attorney is billing them, and then you have two sets of data that don't always merge. It’s just inefficient.”

The Potential

Andrews says she wants to make the divorce process easier for everyone involved.

“You can't take the emotion and angst out of it necessarily, but just make the system more efficient, give parties more control and give attorneys the ability to allow clients to participate more instead of hoarding that work,” she says.

JANUARY 2018

The potential for significant growth is there, though creating software in the legal profession can be difficult because laws are different, and everything is so case-specific.

One can't take out the role of the attorney advising based on what the law says and what the facts of the case are, but PartUs isn’t giving legal advice and isn't unique to any state. Because of this, it could also work internationally, with currency being the only thing that would need to be adjusted.

“It could easily have an international impact if it continued to grow and we were able to keep up,” Andrews says.

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PartUs PartUs.com

"Introversion is about where you get your energy from; it's not a weakness."

STEPHANIE SCHROEDER VP of Marketing, Discovery Benefits

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So far, the feedback from users has been very positive.

Andrews has gotten several comments about how "mindblowing" the app is and gotten questions like "Why didn’t anyone think of it before?" A few weeks ago, she presented PartUs to a group of North Dakota judges, and afterward, one came up to her and said, “I wish I had the funds to give you $500,000 for seed money.”

TRANSFORM Your Talent

w/ Concordia College's Executive Advancement Program

7 Questions w/ Offutt School of Business Dean Brewer Doran

W

hile it debuted a limited offering of courses last summer, Concordia College's Offutt School of Business is set to launch its full Executive Advancement Program in 2018. The program, which is aimed at transforming talented midlevel management into higher-level leadership, will feature courses taught by both academic and industry veterans from across the country and will focus on measurable, applicable outcomes.

BY Nate Mickelberg PHOTOGRAPHY BY Hillary Ehlen

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JANUARY 2018

Is there an application and/or recommendation process for the program, or can anyone sign up?

Brewer Doran: Students do not need a recommendation, but there is a brief application process. We want to make sure the people who are taking the courses have sufficient experience to benefit from the course and participate fully in them at a high level. All offerings are targeted at midto high-level executives who aspire to move up in their organizations. Most students are nominated by their managers and attend as a part of their personal professionaldevelopment plans.

How many courses must one take to receive a certificate of completion?

B. Doran: These programs are true “executive education.” As such, they are not credit-bearing — although everyone gets a certificate of completion at the end of each successfully completed course.

Open-enrollment courses are most often

Custom Programs If you're looking for intensive development for a small group or want to effect change across a larger cohort, the Offutt School of Business will handpick a selection of their expert instructors to tailor lectures, classroom experiences and case studies to your specific needs.

an intensive two days but range from one to three days. Each course covers one content area, so students can choose which ones make the most sense for the individual.

Some students take only one course; others take several.

What about the custom course option? (see above for more info) B. Doran: Custom courses can be any length, as they are designed to the needs of one specific organization and may be delivered either at Concordia or on-site at the customer’s facility. Most custom courses will also be short but may be up to five days.

Some companies contract for a cohort of their employees to go through a year-long leadership-development program made up of short segments (two to five days) spread out through the year.

Upcoming Executive Education Courses (2018)

Feb. 22-23 Building Executive Presence: On and Offline Feb. 27-Mar. 1 Data Analytics Mar. 1-2 Financial Insights for NonFinancial Managers Mar. 13-14 High-Impact Problem-Solving Mar. 21-22 Preparing for Leadership Apr. 4-5 Strategic Agility: Balancing Stability, Opportunity and Chaos Containment Apr. 18-19 Strategy to Execution: Closing the Gap May 15-16 The Art of Negotiation: Getting More May 23-24 High-Performance Teambuilding June 4 Persuasive Writing: Building a Business Case June 5-6 Persuasive Speaking

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How did you go about developing the program and the course offerings?

B. Doran: The idea for Executive Education came from a scan of the region to see where there are gaps in educational offerings. It became very clear, very quickly that while there are many undergraduate and graduate programs locally — as well as a number of offerings for early-career professionals — there was a gap in helping companies groom their leadership and rising stars for continued excellence throughout their careers.

Prior to introducing our Executive Education programs, Concordia conducted extensive research, reviewed 21 top-rated executive education programs across North America and traveled to three for further in-depth discussions.

Most importantly, we conducted more than 40 interviews with regional CEOs to determine what they felt were the most urgent needs for talented mid- to seniorlevel management to advance to senior leadership. Overwhelmingly, these were “soft skills” related to communication, problem-solving, logical case development and conflict resolution.

Too often, managers are highly proficient technically with little “human management” training that will enable them to advance teams and collaborate across silos. Executive presence and communication skills have declined with the onset of technology.

"Too often, managers are highly proficient technically with little 'human management' training that will enable them to advance teams and collaborate across silos."

Why did you decide to go with the hybrid model of having both professors and business leaders teach the classes — as opposed to just one or the other?

B. Doran: Our goal has always been to be “great out of the gate.” For us, one important piece of that meant finding the right faculty — both academics and practitioners — who had the experience to bring the highest value to our students.

Most courses are taught by both a practitioner and an academic, although a few may be taught by an academic with significant professional experience or a professional with significant consulting/ teaching experience. As a result, we’ve been able to bring in nationally recognized leaders in their fields who really inspire the executives in their classes.

There seems to be a particular focus on developing and refining skills that have a highly practical

Testimonials "This course had perfect timing for me and gave me the tools and courage to have a candid conversation with a team member to gain desirable action. I feel so fortunate to have been included in this group. A tremendous weight has come off my shoulders."

"My team was 'uber-motivated' by the leadership course. They were bouncing off the walls with excitement and discussing what we're doing right and things we should do differently. I'd like to send more team members to the next course."

Gerri Leach Executive Director, Jail Chaplains

Joel Jorgenson President, Precision Equipment Manufacturing

application. Was that an important consideration with regard to "selling" the program to area professionals and businesses?

B. Doran: Practical application was always an important goal for us. Our students are busy professionals and executives who need to see practical ways to become more-effective managers. It is important to us that students who complete a class leave with new skills, tools, and plans to implement change in themselves and their organizations. We want all of our courses to create impact beyond the classroom by making our students better leaders and more-effective managers.

who take the class together. While many participants may be acquaintances before class, the shared experience in class helps provide for a long-term group of colleagues who learn from each other — not just during but after class.

We will continue to add to our offerings as demand requires. In some cases, this will mean entirely new courses such as healthcare administration, digital media and pricing strategy. Some ongoing courses will run once a year; some will run twice.

Stay tuned to see what we come up with.

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Is there anything else you'd like readers to know about the program?

B. Doran: One of the most important takeaways from these programs — and one that is often overlooked in advance — is the value created by the cohort of executives

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Executive Education — Offutt School of Business at Concordia College ConcordiaCollege.edu/ExecEd ExecEd@Cord.edu 218-299-3305

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WORKFORCE & POVERTY

How Innovative Collaborations Bridge the Gap

What do a 1.8 percent local unemployment rate and a workforce development case manager have to do with changing the life of a family and addressing our workforce shortage? Everything.

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BY Kristi Huber PHOTOGRAPHY BY Hillary Ehlen & courtesy of United Way of Cass-Clay

Kristi Huber is the president of United Way of Cass-Clay.

Eric lives in Moorhead with his daughter, Aria, and fiancée, Leslie. Thanks to United Way, he had the support and opportunity to complete an M State welding course and secure a job that will help to lift his family out of poverty.

G

ive a man a fish, and he will eat for a day. Teach him to fish, and he can feed himself for the rest of his life — an old cliché, yes, but like most clichés, there's an element of truth. Today, this adage doesn’t go far enough.

A fisherman with a simple fishing pole and boat won’t go hungry, but is that really the end goal? Doesn’t our community want a better future for people and their families?

And hasn’t the need for a skilled workforce challenged us to think differently?

THIS ARTICLE IS THE SECOND INSTALLMENT IN A SERIES BY UNITED WAY OF CASS-CLAY PRESIDENT KRISTI HUBER IN WHICH SHE WRITES ABOUT SOME OF THE LESSER-SEEN COMPONENTS OF DEVELOPING AND MAINTAINING A HEALTHY WORKFORCE. • CHILD CARE • TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT • MENTAL HEALTH

For this man and his family to rise out of poverty, he will need a job with a reasonable wage at a stable fishing company. This is the only way his daughter might move up the ladder and have a chance at becoming an engineer, a scientist or a CEO. When I visit with leaders across our community, the conversation is often about how the workforce shortage is impacting their business and its bottom line.

Interestingly, if you look at the numbers, there is a correlation. It's estimated that by the year 2020, there will be 30,000 open jobs in our local community.

At the same time, one in eight in Cass and Clay counties, or approximately 27,000 people, are living in poverty, which is

United Way Community Impact Director Thomas Hill with Workforce Development Case Manager Amy Feland. United Way worked collaboratively with M State and Lakes and Prairie Community Action Partnership to create a new position designed to both lift families out of poverty and provide trained employees for our local workforce.

defined as a family of four living on less than $24,600 per year.

Through conversations with community partners, it's clear that the barriers for many of these families are twofold: 1) Access to skills 2) Basic needs unique to each person A solution has been found in the form of hiring a first-ever collaborative workforce development case manager, Amy Feland.

Feland's innovative role is funded thanks in part to generous United Way donors and was created through strategic collaboration between United Way, M State, and Lakes & Prairies Community Action Partnership.

Eric's Transformation

When Eric first met Feland, he had just come to Lakes and Prairies Community Action Partnership seeking help to keep him from becoming homeless. Instead, he noticed a poster for a new welding program.

“When I first met Eric, he was working but at risk of becoming homeless," Feland says. "He was sleeping on the floor in a

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small, nearly empty apartment. With a felony in his background, he shared how there was always a barrier between the jobs he wanted and his ability to even get a callback, much less an interview. He knew he had to develop better skills."

With six weeks of support from Feland, Eric would spend eight hours in welding class provided by M State, work a part-time job at a local restaurant and do his homework — oftentimes until 3 a.m. before showing up the next day for class. The hard work paid off but wouldn’t have been possible without support from her.

“I believe in them until they believe in themselves,” Feland says.

“She kept encouraging me and helped me problem-solve the issues I had in my life," says Eric, who is now proudly employed. "I didn’t believe there were good people in the world, but I guess I was proved wrong."

"I BELIEVE IN THEM UNTIL THEY CAN BELIEVE IN THEMSELVES."

-AMY FELAND, WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT CASE MANAGER

In April, Eric met his 19-month-old daughter, Aria, for the first time and with Amy’s help, found an apartment that will be a better environment for him and his fiancée, Leslie, to raise their little girl.

"When I represent a business owner charged with a crime, my knowledge that the government can take everything from them motivates me to be relentless."

BRUCE RINGSTROM Criminal Defense Attorney, Ringstrom Law FARGOINC.COM

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UNITED WAY’S COMMUNITY GOALS 1. Reduce hunger and homelessness.

2. Prepare children to succeed.

3. Help people be independent.

4. Lift people out of poverty.

Removing Key Barriers for Families

"While excellent training programs exist in our community, a person living at the poverty level may not be able to access them because of specific barriers that stand in the way of themselves and their family," explains United Way Community Impact Director Thomas Hill.

"The goal of this two-generation model is to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty by moving the family toward economic security while simultaneously addressing the identified need for a skilled labor force,” Hill says.

"Like many of our investments, we started with a pilot program and measured the results and outcomes. When we were able to see the data and hear the success stories such as Eric’s, we realized we needed to expand the offerings across different industries and increase the number of clients served."

Today, thanks to United Way, the workforce development case manager will continue to provide support to clients in these M State training programs: 1) Welding 2) Certified production technician (CPT) 3) Certified nursing assistant (CNA) Feland says that graduation day is a transformational moment in participants’ lives. It makes the promise of economic mobility a reality for their families.

“When you can see an individual go from nearly being homeless to now working in a career and coming home every day to an apartment with his family under one roof, you can see the good that can come from this work,” Feland says.

Building Social Capital

Another positive outcome from this strategy is the social capital built among the people going through the training programs.

“It's amazing to see the bonds that are formed," Feland says. "They encourage and root for each other, and we have seen that carry over into the workplace when they get a job in their field."

Not only are people getting jobs, they’re entering the workplace knowing the value of supporting one another when it comes to their fellow employees.

And it's not just about giving low-income people the chance at a career and helping employers fill openings. When one participant was asked about her experience working with Feland and graduating from the CNA course, she said, “Thank you for this chance to make my dreams come true.”

“It is rewarding to know that together we are eliminating barriers to help people in our community get the jobs that will support their family,” says Amy Hochgraber, M State Director of Business & Industry.

We invite you to join United Way by investing in this bold strategy. Together, we can bridge the gaps to unlock the potential of unemployed and underemployed individuals, which will positively impact not just their own lives but our local businesses, our local workforce and ultimately all of our lives as a collective community.

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United Way of Cass-Clay UnitedWayCassClay.org FARGOINC.COM

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Businesses with a give-back culture have higher morale in the workplace, have more than 20 percent higher profitability and are 70 percent more likely to be viewed favorably by the community. We sat down with five local business and nonprofit leaders to talk about why giving is not only good for employees and the community, it's good for the bottom line.

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A CONVERSATION W/ New Life Center's Rob Swiers CHARISM's Brittany LaForte Gate City Bank's Amanda Torok Impact Foundation's Scott Holdman Dakota Medical Foundation's Pat Traynor FARGOINC.COM

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ROB SWIERS

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR NEW LIFE CENTER

AMANDA TOROK

CULTURE & ENGAGEMENT OFFICER GATE CITY BANK

PAT TRAYNOR

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR DAKOTA MEDICAL FOUNDATION

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SCOTT HOLDMAN DIRECTOR IMPACT FOUNDATION

BRITTANY LAFORTE OPERATIONS DIRECTOR CHARISM

I’m a decision-maker at a business and I'm skeptical about giving to charity. Sell me on why it’s important.

Amanda Torok: Our community is what makes us thrive as a business. We wouldn’t exist if we didn’t have our community members investing in us or using us as a business, so it’s important that we give back to them. It's also a way of us saying thank you for them using our services.

Bigger picture, though, we want our community to grow and thrive, so it’s really important that we invest back into our community members: individuals, charities and other businesses.

Pat Traynor: Businesses that have a giveback culture are more profitable and they become employers of choice. Also, when you have employees who are part of a business that has a purpose beyond itself, they're more engaged and more productive.

The studies show that employee absenteeism goes down because the atmosphere of the employer is one of beyond just making a profit. And when you’re a profitable company, you can do more good for others. Then, that cycle comes (full circle) because customers are drawn to your business and are more loyal.

Rob Swiers: Businesses may say, "We’re all about the community," but you can tell the organizations that mean it and those where it’s just marketing. I want to do business with places that are generous and have a positive presence in the community.

It’s like going to buy a stereo. You can tell which guy knows what he’s talking about and which one is just trying to sell you something. The one who knows what he’s

talking about will sometimes say, "You know, maybe this isn’t the right one for you." I start to trust them when I see that they’re genuine. And someone who invests in their community has to be genuine.

Brittany LaForte: It's all about creating connections — aligning values and creating meaningful relationships that provide a stronger sense of belonging in the community and in the business itself.

A. Torok: When your employees get involved, it gives them that sense of purpose that Pat mentioned but also fulfillment in what they’re doing. They’re showing up to work every day not just to do their job; they also know that by being there, they’re being encouraged to get active in the community and give back.

Scott Holdman: In terms of visiting with a business owner, I think there are three distinct reasons why this is really important: 1) It’s good for you.

2) It’s good for your team.

3) It’s good for your business.

It’s good for you because giving is good for us. One of the top five ways to lower depression is to connect as a community and give. When people volunteer, they become happier. When somebody gives a gift, the same mesolimbic pathway that lights up with pleasure when you eat a Snickers bar is associated with when you give a gift. We’re actually hardwired for giving.

On top of that, it’s giving them that satisfaction of: I’m not only doing my job; I’m also making a difference today. And when they can see that firsthand, they’re much more excited about what they do with that business and with their community as a whole.

Second is for your team. Participating in something like Giving Hearts Day is an incredibly powerful way for us to connect and be together. We spend more time at work (than anywhere else), so if you’re not thinking about what your employees are feeling and their view of the world — in terms of their engagement level at work — satisfaction will go down.

P. Traynor: Scott, give me the health benefits of giving.

One of the things you can do to drive greater engagement is to insert positivity.

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And what brings positivity? You might think, "How about a party?" Instead, how about showing and demonstrating the difference that you make in the community for others?

A small amount goes a long way.

Brittany LaForte Operations Director CHARISM

The third is that it's good for the bottom line. If your employees are happier and more engaged — even (setting aside) those two other points — it's going to drive more productivity inside your business.

When we're talking about contributing and connecting, we now have something that everyone wants but is hard to define: culture. And so to build on what Rob was saying: When you give in the community, that’s a reflection of your brand. It's incredibly powerful for your bottom line because now your reflection into the community is that you are a business that cares. And with the consumer, given a choice between money and meaning — even though we think money is at the center — meaning is what drives us.

R. Swiers: In his book "The Advantage," Patrick Lencioni talks about how the advantage is not smarter people or better product; the advantage is the culture you create within your organization. Whatever that culture is, that's the advantage we can have because we can control that. We can’t necessarily control those other factors, but our culture is what we can define and shape.

If I work at a company that doesn't currently have a culture of giving but I want to help create one, what should I do?

44

JANUARY 2018

S. Holdman: Giving Hearts Day. It has a deadline, it has a date and it’s not overwhelming. There are several things you can do to participate. A very simple one is to host a greet-and-give, where you feature a way to recognize that there are great charities (in the region) and provide your team members an opportunity to give.

You can serve refreshments, you can run contests. There are all sorts of things you can do. And you can reflect afterward to see how your team felt about the experience, see how much value it added and you can adjust moving forward.

A. Torok: Your first step could just be letting your team members know that you support Giving Hearts Day and that you're encouraging them. It’s okay to take 15 minutes out of your day to log on to the website and donate. You don’t have to worry about somebody walking by your computer screen and see you’re not doing work.

Then, the next step is encouraging employees to get more involved. It could start with a committee or a group that comes up with ideas on how to be more involved, and then slowly over time, you’ll get more and more buy-in, and more and more employees will feel empowered to speak up. And before you know it, your culture is growing and becoming contagious within your organization. And you'll have more and more people on board wanting to give not just on one day but throughout the year — and in a variety of ways.

R. Swiers: I think the key is getting people to take a small step into something. Because

Ideas for Choosing a Charity

B Numy the ber s Have your team vote, put the votes into a hat and draw one.

Each year, pick a new focus area or charity.

Have a vote, narrow it down and have the employees vote again.

Rinse and repeat until you've gotten to your desired number of charity partners.

Go through the nonprofit list on the Giving Hearts Day website and underline any that your team is familiar with.

Hold a contest where everyone dresses up in a certain theme, put it on Facebook and the individual/ team with the most likes gets to pick the charity. People engage more when there are games and prizes.

If you’re a bigger business, give every office or department X amount of dollars to donate on Giving Hearts Day. It helps to create team collaboration, and they get to pick. Another option: Let each group create their own fundraising activity to participate in (e.g., No-Shave November).

Businesses that give have higher morale in the workplace, have

21% higher profitability

and become employers of choice. people want to be involved and want to help, but there are just so many things (out there) that are good that people can just freeze up. And if you can get into something small, then you can say, "Okay, I gave to X, Y and Z. Now, maybe I can go over and serve a meal."

If you do something small, it sparks something that turns into something bigger, but you have to start small. You can’t start with a big shebang because it will just fall flat. Start small and just do something.

Everyone can do something.

P. Traynor: There are multiple ways to engage. The nice thing about Giving Hearts Day, in particular, is that it allows for creativity and connection in a way that’s most appropriate for the organization itself.

If it's a business, there may be someone who already has meaning with a particular charity, so Giving Hearts may be a way for them to be a champion and a way for the rest of the team to celebrate one of their coworkers.

You could also just be a Giving Hearts Day champion, celebrating all the giving hearts in the region and all the donors and charities that do great work. Or you can engage on a deeper level and say, "I'm a champion for the homeless" or "I'm a champion for physical fitness for kids" or "I’m an advocate for children and adults with special needs." That can bring out the best in a whole team because they can unite around one person’s cause, and it can become infectious.

A. Torok: Another reason Giving Hearts Day is such a great starting point, too, is that

it’s not just about monetary donations. There are a lot of people out there who can’t give financially and that’s okay. It can be volunteering, it can be advocacy, it can be whatever helps you give back to those charities and to the community.

B. LaForte: Speaking from a personal perspective and someone not originally from Fargo, I moved down here just before Giving Hearts Day and that was a way for me to learn about the community and all the wonderful charities in the area. I got to see some of the challenges and some of the great work being done to better the lives of everyone we share this community with.

I think it helps you take that next step. For a lot of people, they would like to volunteer but might not have the time or don’t want to go alone. They can take the next step in coming together as a team to, for example, do a volunteer team-building day. And that way you learn a little more about the community you're serving.

R. Swiers: One of the things I talk to our team about a lot is how everyone wants to follow and root for the team that’s winning.

And when you have coworkers and you, as coworkers, go and do something together, you know you’re making a difference. You see the good work that so many places are doing, and all of a sudden it’s not this sea of nonprofits, it’s CHARISM, it’s New Life Center, it’s whatever. Then, you realize: This is a winning team. I think we could get involved in this.

Positivity and negativity are both contagious. As a team, if you are involved and invested and adopt a particular cause FARGOINC.COM

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or charity, that’s positivity. And it spreads.

At many businesses — particularly larger ones — the volume of giving requests can probably get overwhelming. How can a business go about finding the right partner(s)?

A. Torok: We have a philanthropic giving committee, so it’s not one person making the decision when those requests come, but rather it’s a group. And they’re from all different areas of the bank — corporate and retail — and they're from different locations as well, so it’s not one person in Fargo making a decision across the entire bank. I think that’s really positive, as you get a lot of feedback and a lot of insight from different individuals.

One big thing for any business to look at when they’re looking to partner with charities — or vice versa when a charity is looking for a business partner — is that it comes down to mission and values. If the mission of a charity doesn’t align with the mission of a business, it’s not going to be a great partnership. When you can find a situation where your missions align, though, you can double your impact because you’re working toward the same goal.

And it's not just about giving money. We can do more than that. It’s about volunteering, spending time with them, and going over there and helping them with any little need they might have. There's one organization we partner with that will reach out to us and say, "Hey, we have some people coming to

the shelter. We need some Gate City blue bags." It’s about serving on multiple levels when you make that partnership.

S. Holdman: One question to ask yourself is: What reflects our business values in the community? (Ultimately), a gift is putting your business values into action. That’s what a contribution is.

The other question to ask is: What have we been impacted by that we may want to reciprocate? With that, asking your team might be a great place to start. You may learn that someone has adopted pets that were saved, or you may learn that someone has suffered a medical catastrophe and received services, or you might find out that someone's uncle is homeless. These kinds of things come up, and it’s a great place to talk and align how you might make a difference.

Amanda Torok Culture & Engagement Officer Gate City Bank

B. LaForte: It's also about looking at what your team wants out of it because it’s a two-way street. Is it better team cohesion?

Is it employee engagement? Is it positive perception?

P. Traynor: Yes, it's about: How can we use more than just dollars to engage our employees and make a giant difference in something? You could fill in that blank with anything. If you're a homebuilder, it could be in the lives of the homeless. Connect it to the line of industry that a business might be in and how they're thinking strategically about their time and talent, not just their treasure.

How do businesses and charities go about figuring out what level of FARGOINC.COM

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B Numy the ber s

involvement the other is looking for?

Scott Holdman Director Impact Institute

Businesses with a give-back culture build purpose in their organization, and purpose-driven businesses are

idea to offer that table of options because then you get to feel what different businesses are looking for.

R. Swiers: We don’t try to For us, that’s usually where figure it out. We try to offer a to be viewed it stems into a conversation menu, meaning: Yes, we need favorably by the because we definitely are folks and businesses that can community. looking for more than just write checks, but we also need the check-writing. We also people. And if the culture of want in-kind donations — the the business is, "We’re kind of physical items — and we hands off, but we do have a philanthropic want the volunteering. wing," praise God; that’s awesome.

70% more likely

"Is there a way for our employees to get involved?"

"Absolutely. Here’s an easy, low-barrier way."

I do that with donors as well, set the table.

Because trying to pigeonhole someone in never works.

B. LaForte: Yep. Making it a friendship and communicating that we’re in it together is how we go about things.

R. Swiers: And it doesn’t happen at arm’s length. Yes, you have to connect with people, but if I can get someone from a business to come to the mission, that person becomes a champion and they then have the "giver's glow" and can spread it.

For us, it's so important to just get people into our walls or get them involved somehow. And it doesn’t have to be a big thing. It can be one person who makes a huge difference.

A. Torok: I really enjoy having those conversations with charities when we get to meet with them. It really is a good 48

JANUARY 2018

R. Swiers: We tend to think of a business as an entity, but a business is a group of people. If I’m visiting with a donor, I need to have options because I may think X or Y and I may be so far off.

A. Torok: What I find so rewarding is what happens after we have people go out and volunteer. They come back, and it's like this light has been shone in their life — that, "Wow, I didn’t know we had people going through that in our community this holiday season."

And now you’ve created a champion. And now maybe that person has found a charity they want to connect with, to move forward with personally but also on a deeper level with their team. We also have a lot of team outings where, rather than just going bowling or having a meeting, they look at a volunteer opportunity to do together as a team to build that collaboration among each other.

S. Holdman: All of these charities are very accustomed to sharing their story, so if a business is reluctant or would like to know more or is just unsure about which one to support, reach out to the charities. The

bottom line is: Involve the charities. Ask them to come and present, share some of your thoughts or just tell them you’d like to learn more. Or go and visit a few of them. It will be transformational just to go and see the amount of work they’re doing.

goes out and provides an opportunity for people to be involved, it’s really the expression of love and care for what it is these people are caring for. And then you become a part of that. You aren’t just a transaction.

P. Traynor: That's a really good strategy to start. Bring in a lunch-and-learn from time to time, and try it once a month. We think we live in the most generous place on the planet, but people need to see the good work that (charities) are doing. People simply need to be asked to be involved.

Part of a charity's training is that it’s not about the charity’s need to have; it’s about the individual’s need to care for others.

So it goes from the individual to the organizational level, and that becomes quite a meaningful experience for both.

80 percent of giving in America is done by individuals, so even if the business can’t give — because, honestly, a business can’t give to every group — merely exposing your staff to a lunch-and-learn can ignite some sparks.

What are some ways a business can measure giving efforts beyond financial ROI?

What you’re doing as a business is you’re opening up hearts just by listening to the charities and having these sorts of awareness activities. People don’t know everything going on in the community. They have to be asked but they have to be aware first.

B. LaForte: It's the same for the nonprofit side, too. It allows us to learn more about different businesses.

R. Swiers: Again, nonprofits are made up of people, and as an employee in a nonprofit, I want to do business with folks who want to come and support the mission. So I’m a consumer as well. It goes both ways.

P. Traynor: You as a charity are giving a gift to someone to be a part of something bigger than themselves. So when a charity

R. Swiers: We have a guy — early 40s, retired military — who's at the mission 40plus hours a week. The fact that there are people like that out there was just not on my radar, and it blew me away. He changed my perception. He said to me, "You know what, Rob? There are other people like me in the community." And I was like, "Yeah, okay, John."

"When we're talking about contributing and connecting, we now have something that everyone wants but is hard to define: culture."

Well, guess what? He proved me wrong.

Just this morning, he brought in someone else (to volunteer). So I no longer think that’s just an anomaly. There are people in our community who want to be involved, but they need to be asked.

P. Traynor: What’s the stat, Scott, on the volunteers who give? It’s almost all of them, right?

S. Holdman: I don’t remember the exact number, but yes, giving goes up exponentially once somebody volunteers.

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B Numy the ber s

Purpose-driven organizations are

71% more confident

And that’s both volunteering — regardless of the action —or serving on a board.

Pat Traynor Executive Director Dakota Medical Foundation

their organization will grow in the current year compared to those that do not have a strong sense of purpose.

For a business owner trying to quantify the impact or trying to quantify whether it was valuable for them to participate (in a giving activity), it could be something as simple as a survey afterward and a debriefing with your team to see what kind of experience they had. If they rank it as joyful and engaging and said they felt better and more connected as a team, that’s something you can quantify and say: That was worth our time and activity.

The other bucket they can measure, though, is: What did it do for our community? If I’m going to get involved in something, I want to move some needles. And every single one of these organizations that are participating in Giving Hearts Day have a mission, and you’ll be able to know what needles are moved by simply asking.

If you raised $10,000 and you call Rob and say, "I’ve raised $10,000 at my business.

What’s that going to do for you guys?" Rob can tell you, "There will be X number of people who won’t be sleeping on the street tonight; you're going to help us provide three meals today; and it’s going to help to empower, educate and assist people with gaining a brighter outlook on life.

R. Swiers: It's systems theory at work.

When someone raises $10,000, they’ve done something with their team and they’ve done something for us. I, in turn, am going to get on social media and say, "Hey, company XYZ did this. These guys 50

JANUARY 2018

are awesome." People in the community-at-large see that, and it generates good will toward that business.

It's absolutely the system of community at work.

B. LaForte: We have quantitative impacts and qualitative impacts. So you can look at the numbers and say, "This donation or this amount of time volunteered provided this many kids with safe after-school programs, but then the qualitative is the stories behind that — it’s the more personal side: "This kid didn’t have a place to go after school and now they're engaged."

S. Holdman: In order to lead to any sort of action, there has to be an emotional (response). If there are facts involved, that’s good — we need both by the way — but until we feel it in our hearts, it’s hard to move toward an action. We're competing with a lot of things trying to get our attention.

A. Torok: One way we measure is just through feedback from our employees. It might be from the culture we’ve created, but people aren’t afraid to tell us what they think. After events, they reach out and let us know how it impacted and how it opened their eyes and touched them.

Another way we measure success is when our team members aren’t afraid to make their own decisions about how they want to give back. In November, one of our offices decided they were going to do No-Shave November, and they collected donations every day and were able to surprise New Life Center with razors and shaving cream.

And they were empowered to do that because they felt it in their heart. One employee had a connection with New Life Center, and they ran with an idea.

Our employees are encouraged to volunteer on company time – they don’t have to take PTO to do it — and it’s unlimited. Whether it's 10 hours or 100 hours per year, whatever they want, they can do. And we track those hours. I can provide to our board of directors that, in 2016, we volunteered 12,700 hours.

On average, that’s 22 hours of volunteering per employee. And that’s because we track it, and our culture is encouraging them to do it. Measuring that volunteer time can put a dollar amount to it.

P. Traynor: I think people underestimate what they do for others. We know how much we monetarily give, but how do you define volunteerism? Is it all through a business? I would say no.

Life doesn’t stop between work and home.

If you have engaged employees, they’re not just engaged at work.

R. Swiers: And for a business, all of these things hopefully trickle down to more-satisfied employees. And satisfied employees work harder and stay longer.

If I'm a business and I want my dollar make the biggest impact possible, how do I decide between partnering with a large or a small charity?

S. Holdman: You make decisions based on your values. Small gifts are given on an organization's need to have, and major gifts

are given on a donor's need to give. It’s up to the donor to decide that.

As professionals working in this field, we would say to be open-minded to the impact that each of these organizations are making, regardless of size. But a business must discern what their values are. Maybe it's more important for them to support the smaller guy on the way up, and maybe it’s more important to sustain and grow a larger organization with greater impact.

R. Swiers: I think people sometimes get hung up on the percentage (of a gift) that goes to administrative, and it’s dangerous.

Everyone wants such low administrative, but what people don’t realize is that even though that sounds great, if you don’t have people running the business side — you can't have everyone just doing direct service. If that rate gets too low, the organization is probably not being run well.

P. Traynor: There's this Puritan idea we have that we should give to the charity with the lowest administrative, but really, you, as a donor and as a business, have to connect and be fulfilled with what it is you want to support.

I would spend my time thinking, "What kinds of things am I interested in connecting with?" And then, "How can I — as an ultimate goal — have the greatest impact possible?" The most important lens is: What is the impact (a given organization) is producing today, and how could I help them have an exponentially greater impact?

Invite them in, visit with them, compare the difference. You can size it up in about 15 minutes whether they have energy, a

B Numy the ber s

Businesses with a strong sense of purpose are more likely to drive investments in new technologies

(by 38%),

great strategy and a vision for the future that’s palpable.

Is it administrative costs you’re after or is it impact?

I'll tell you it takes a lot of administrative to produce great impact.

expand into new markets

(by 31%),

develop new products/services

(by 27%),

and have employee development and training programs

S. Holdman: One thing I'd say is: Don’t be scared of overhead. Because the better the people, the better the resources, the bigger the impact. Use overhead as a primary tool to judge what an organization is doing, and then consider what you want to give to.

S. Holdman: Trends we’re seeing are that experience really matters for younger generations. Because they’re so active on digital, we make the mistake of assuming that that’s the way they’re experiencing life, but that’s just the way they’re capturing and sharing it.

So experience is really big, particularly because they've grown up thinking and connecting and working in a different way. With them, it's about framing it in terms of experience and that Giving Hearts Day should be: Here are all the things you’re going to see and participate in and you can go on tours at all these organizations. You want to create tangible experiences of involvement to connect with each other, and the community is one way to really drive them.

(by 25%).

R. Swiers: If it’s a factor, it should be one of the factors, not the factor.

We have a couple of unique generations coming into giving age: Millennials and Generation Z. How do we start thinking about engaging them more?

A. Torok: As I talk with our employees — whether it's Gen. Z-ers or younger Millennials — a lot of them don’t have money to give and that’s okay. You can do a lot through just being that advocate we've talked about, that champion with your voice. You can do a lot by just connecting with a charity and asking, "I'm here. How can I help you? What can I do for you?"

So that’s one big way I think, especially looking at it beyond the monetary part of it.

But I also think, too, it's how you offer those opportunities. For example, with Giving Hearts Day, it’s online, it's mobile, I can do it on my iPad or desktop. It's about allowing different generations to all be able to easily connect.

Rob Swiers Executive Director New Life Center

Another thing with younger generations is that we are seeing a more narrow focus of giving. They're giving to one to three charities versus six or more. They're a little bit more intentional in their giving.

P. Traynor: I would challenge them that government is not going to have the resources it’s had. It’s overspent; we can tell just by our deficits and our debt. I would challenge them to be involved and use their energy and entrepreneurship to really be social entrepreneurs.

Money isn’t necessarily the answer. It’s their ingenuity, their creative spirit, their ability to get things done and their ability to communicate in channels we didn’t have.

It will be a very exciting time because we’ll realize that some of these things we’ve tried haven’t really worked, and the younger generations can say, "Maybe we have a better way to do this." They can solve a lot FARGOINC.COM

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of challenges because they’re going to have to.

A. Torok: As a business — knowing that they’re more focused in their giving — we should provide or help them find that focus if they don’t know where to start. If they are focused on their favorite nonprofits, maybe we can help them give back even further using the business’s donation to give to their charity of focus.

B. LaForte: For us, we’ve had a lot of parents ask if they can bring their children to come volunteer. That creates a spark, and it's the same thing with the kids who have gone through our program. They come back, they help out, and they do tutoring because they were in that seat before and so they know what it’s like. And that is where the magic happens for us.

For the kids, that relationship and having that positive role model in the community is so amazing.

A. Torok: We have the same thing, where our employees are asking to bring their kids along to volunteer and we say, "Yes, of course."

R. Swiers: From the nonprofit's perspective, that’s really the long-term vision. By including people who have

families, those little kids are going to grow up, and it becomes a way of life for them. They will continue to invest in their community and they become better citizens.

S. Holdman: I read an interesting article about how younger generations don’t follow titles anymore, they follow influence. So part of what your culture has to do is shift into this new way of doing business, where it has to think beyond just the walls of work.

This is why Giving Hearts Day is such a great opportunity for businesses is because it’s got two things that work for all generations that are incredibly impactful: 1) It has urgency — there's a (dedicated) day. We’re all working up to the day.

2) It has convenience. It's so easy to give a gift; it’s so easy to share what I’m giving; and it’s so easy to set up contests, games, support, conversations and engagement around it. You put that all together and you get an experience that can be transformational if the spirit is right.

P. Traynor: The only thing I'd add is that it also has choice. It has urgency and

convenience, yes, but all these choices reflect different circumstances of people because people usually give to what they’re connected with.

I'll leave you with this: Imagine if every business was engaged in purpose and meaning and engaging their employees in purposeful, meaningful, giving types of programs. Imagine what our community would be like if every business were that beacon of light. We’d be addressing so many more things because people would be aware and they’d be inspired to get involved in something more meaningful than themselves.

TAKE

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Giving Hearts Day 2018 ImpactGiveback.org

Giving Hearts Day

2018 Checklist for Businesses Jan. 8 (Week 1): Planning & Preparation ☐☐Receive Giving Hearts Day preparation kit from Dakota Medical Foundation. ☐☐Determine and implement your internal communications strategy for Giving Hearts Day. ☐☐Download the assets and tools from GivingHeartsBusiness.org.

Jan. 15 (Week 2): Announcement of Giving Hearts Day Participation ☐☐Announce to your employees and community that your business is participating in Giving Hearts Day. ☐☐Upload Giving Hearts Day image on your organization's website. ☐☐Watch and share week-two video with employees. ☐☐Schedule weekly social media posts — 15 in total over the next three weeks.

Jan. 22 (Week 3): Roll-Out Awareness Program/Campaign ☐☐Watch and share week-three video with employees. ☐☐Share social media cover images and remind employees to use #CountMe and @FMGivingHeartsDay on Twitter. ☐☐Schedule five social media posts. ☐☐Option: Launch fundraising program.

Jan. 29 (Week 4): Build Excitement ☐☐Watch and share week-four video with employees ☐☐Schedule 5 social media posts ☐☐Option: Create a social media contest for your employees and/or customers to participate in. ☐☐Option: Share an employee story about a charity or cause they have been affected by.

Feb. 5 (Week 5): Giving Hearts Day Week ☐☐Turn your business red. ☐☐Schedule five social media posts. ☐☐Find one or more charities to love. ☐☐Option: Complete the fundraising program for your business.

February 8 (Day Of): Giving Hearts Day ☐☐Watch and share Giving Hearts Day video with employees. ☐☐Distribute e-card. ☐☐Option: Encourage employees to wear a Giving Hearts Day t-shirt or something red. ☐☐Option: Host a drawing or giveaway with employees and/or customers/ clients for a chance to win a gift card to be donated to a participating Giving Hearts Day charity.

IThank...

WANT TO

Local businesspeople pen thank you notes to a person or organization that's been impactful in their career.

... DAVID FISHER.

He was my first executive director.

After receiving a major six-figure grant —and celebrating a bit — he said to me, "But what have you done for us lately?"

Sandy Thompson Director of Development Plains Art Museum

... THE HOME BUILDERS ASSOCIATION OF FARGOMOORHEAD.

The trainings, the opportunity for networking with others in the industry, the support, and the friendships developed have made a huge difference in where Design Direction is today.

Sylvia Lunski Owner Design Direction

... DIANNA HANSEN.

She has believed in me since the minute we met.

She is so supportive and encouraging in my work at Ronald McDonald House, and I am so grateful. I truly would not be where I am today without her.

Jill Christopher Executive Director Ronald McDonald House of the Red River Valley

56

JANUARY 2018

... MONA FLATEN.

Mona was the person who hired me right out of college 20-plus years ago despite my solid C+ average. She took the time to get to know her employees, what their dreams were, what their passions were and how she could help them be successful. She was an incredible teacher, a mentor and a wonderful person.

She passed away from a motorcycle accident in 2011 at the much-tooyoung age of 47. Many times over the years, I have thought to myself, “What would Mona do?� I feel so incredibly blessed to have had the privilege of her guidance during my first career job out of college and hope someday my daughters will be so lucky as they enter the workforce.

Toby Kommer Owner Aspire Financial

... JIM ROERS.

He has truly been an inspiration to me and is the epitome of a leader. He challenged me to connect with people and showed me the importance of community involvement and giving back.

Brianne Hoffman Communication Specialist Doosan Bobcat

... CRYSTAL COSSETTE.

Without her character, patience, love, support, and overall push to start my own business, it might still be a dream.

Jeff Knight Founder Cereal

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The Chamber Takes

By Craig Whitney | Photography by J. Alan Paul

the Long View It won’t be long before the world will be into a fresh, new decade we’ll call the 2020s.

Craig Whitney is the president and CEO of the Fargo-MoorheadWest Fargo Chamber of Commerce.

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any local and regional medium- and longrange plans have pegged 2020 as the year to achieve select planned growth goals in agriculture, education, industry, workforce, infrastructure and enhanced quality of life. As we near 2020, we can savor a few genuine accomplishments with a cheer of “been there, done that!”

survey, a question was asked about how to leverage our community strengths to undertake an even more comprehensive regional approach to growth for the benefit of our children and grandchildren in the decades to come.

Now comes the harder part because there’s much more to do. Past, after all, is prologue.

While the Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo metropolitan region has much to be thankful for in terms of business vitality and continued growth, certain constraints

In a recently completed community-leader

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The Chamber is taking these comments under consideration as it plans partnerships and programs to decide and act upon a longer-term strategic vision with a clear mission and goals.

OPINION

"Can you imagine a Fargo-MoorheadWest Fargo that folks around the country know by name and reputation?" have emerged that may threaten our best intentions.

While a low unemployment rate suggests we are at full employment, we recognize that many jobs are not filled, as we lack the human resources to grow existing businesses or attract new ones. In addition, lack of infrastructure completion threatens business continuity. These are two among several problems that should not be allowed to check our economic strength or diminish our regional competitive advantage.

To create a platform for a wider discussion about the region’s strengths and opportunities, the Chamber is taking steps to convene a task force that will paint broad outlines for moving forward as a region, united in purpose and commitment.

Of course, many existing businesses and nonprofits that are already in place are serving vital roles and positively impacting the quality of life here, but an overarching mandate from key private- and public-

sector leaders may boost our efforts to attain truly impactful regional results.

Can you imagine a Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo that folks around the country know by name and reputation? One that businesses and individuals alike add to their must-visit or must-move-to spots? One that sweeps the nation for our people, our business climate and our quality of life?

A true destination marketplace is what we hope to see.

When we look back a decade from now on the challenges and opportunities we faced, it should be with the satisfaction that the larger questions pertaining to growth goals were discussed and actioned to the benefit of the Valley’s next generation.

If you wish to be part of such a “longer view,” please give us a call.

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FMWF Chamber of Commerce FMWFChamber.com 218-233-1100

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it wasn't always like this

GASPER’S SCHOOL OF DANCE

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f you're new to Fargo, there's something you should know: It wasn't always like this. We take for granted the bustling city center that downtown has become — filled with trendy restaurants, farmers markets and charming buildings — but not all that long ago, the landscape was quite different. In partnership with our friends at Tellwell and Kilbourne Group, we're telling the story of Downtown Fargo's transformation in a series focused on the pivotal projects and historic renovations that have paved the way for what the neighborhood has become.

BY Marisa Jackels PHOTOS COURTESY OF Gasper's School of Dance Marisa Jackels is the lead storyteller at Tellwell, a social media agency in Fargo.

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A small, concrete warehouse once used to make dentures may not sound like a hub of creativity, but it just goes to show what a little architectural magic can do.

If you walk down seventh street north in Fargo — in the building behind St. Mary’s Cathedral — you’ll see dancers. You’ll see ballet dancers and tap dancers and contemporary dancers, all practicing in the warmly lit windows with an exterior painted in bright blues and purples.

This is Gasper’s School of Dance, now firmly planted in a downtown home that was unveiled in 2005. But it wasn’t always this way. The building was indeed once a dental lab for products such as dentures and dental tools — cold, windowless, thoroughly unappealing.

When its rent went up in 2004, Gasper’s was left looking for a permanent home, and this

"Yes, they decided, staying downtown was a must."

was the building that caught its eye.

“It was actually right across the street,” says Matthew "Mr. Matt" Gasper, director of Gasper’s School of Dance. “We knew we didn’t want to lose the impact of being downtown, so when we saw it was for sale, we thought, ‘Why not here?’”

The dance school was already teaching more than 200 students in ballet, jazz, contemporary, tap, and other dance forms, and being downtown put them in a central location for students all over the region (and parents loved that they could grab a coffee while waiting for their kids to finish class). Yes, they decided, staying downtown was a must.

Now came the logistical question: How would they afford it?

“I really wanted my parents to own a building, not just rent it,” Matt says. “I said, ‘You’ve been

in the community a long time. You should find something and stick your name on it.’"

Rewind a few decades to 1978, when the founders of Gasper’s School of Dance, Kathy and Eddie Gasper, first moved to FargoMoorhead. They were self-proclaimed "Broadway gypsies" who met in New York City — he, a renowned dancer himself and a years-long assistant to eight-time Tony Award winner Bob Fosse, and she, a prima ballerina from Milwaukee.

They’d spent years touring internationally and choreographing dances on Broadway, in Hollywood and abroad. Now, they had three kids and were ready to see if they could “make it off Broadway,” as Kathy put it.

When Eddie accepted a job as a director and choreographer at Minnesota State University Moorhead, the young family planned to stay in Fargo-Moorhead for just a few years. But

they soon realized there was work to be done.

“We came at a very good time,” says Kathy.

“Programs like Trollwood were on the rise, and there was a real need for dance to be implemented into these programs in a serious way.”

Kathy started teaching in a church basement and had 90 students within a month. Later that same year, the Gaspers founded the FM Center of Dance and Fargo’s first professional dance company, the Red River Dance & Performing Company.

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And that was that. The Gaspers had made their mark, and the magic of Fargo kept them inspired. Young dancers began flocking to receive training from the talented duo, and eventually their studio became what it is today.

Through the Kilbourne Group, which was just a startup at the time, Doug floated the loan on the old concrete building and commissioned architect Chris Hawley and project manager Mike Allmendinger to redesign the warehouse into a dance studio.

This is why when raising funds for their new building, the Gaspers knew they could look to the community that had helped and inspired them since their early years in Fargo-Moorhead. One of those old friends was current North Dakta Gov. Doug Burgum, whose daughter was learning ballet from Kathy at the time. They told him of their dream for the new building, and right away, Doug agreed to help.

“Eddie and Kathy are legends in the performing arts community,” Allmendinger says. “I know Doug really wanted to support them in any way to do their best work.”

So the team got to work.

They gave the studio a bold blue entryway, a drop-off area for students and a slanted ceiling that leaves most people wondering

"When you walk into the building, you know you're in a place of art and family."

Matt Gasper is the owner of Gasper's School of Dance

how such a small building can feel so spacious.

“This project was mostly about adding windows and light to a warehouse that had no windows and no light,” Allmendinger says.

“It was a challenge, but that was the fun part.”

Having a few years to pay off the loan allowed the Gaspers to get settled and raise the money they needed. Today, they teach more than 260 students, age 3 to 45 years old. The public’s interest has grown each year, prompting them to expand the building from two dance studios to four. Every year, these dancers put on full-scale productions such as the Classic Nutcracker — all right here in Fargo-Moorhead.

“I don’t know if Fargo would have this in their backyard if not for the Kilbourne Group,”

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Kathy says. “Our goal was to keep the art form of dance as part of a thriving downtown community. They helped that dream come true.”

Of course, with time has come a few changes. Cofounder Eddie Gasper passed away in 2015. Kathy now lives in Florida, and Gasper’s is run by son Matt, who unexpectedly fell in love with FargoMoorhead just as his parents had before him.

Teachers from across the country, including warmer states such as Arizona and California, continue to find an interest in Gasper’s, some even moving to Fargo-Moorhead to continue their teaching careers.

Matt attributes their appeal to the welcoming community, the eagerness of the students, the legacy of Kathy and Eddie, and how all of

that "magic" is bundled up into their unique home at the corner of seventh street and sixth avenue north.

“When you walk into the building, you know you’re in a place of art and family,” Matt says. “I think that when new instructors and students get here, they can tell this is something special.”

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Gasper's School of Dance GaspersSchoolOfDance.com 524 7th St. N, Fargo

"When we own our story —all of it, not just the cleaned-up version — and honor our unique journey, we can live more fully and extend that compassion to others."

DENISE HELLEKSON EAP Clinical Supervisor, The Village Business Institute FARGOINC.COM

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Faces of

By Nate Mickelberg and Sam Herder Photography by Hillary Ehlen and J. Alan Paul Photography

FARGO BUSINESS We like to think of the Fargo business community as a giant puzzle and the people who comprise it as the different but equally essential pieces. Take one person, one company, or one industry away, and the picture becomes incomplete. Faces of Fargo Business is our chance to piece that puzzle together each month and celebrate the countless people who make this such a great place to work.

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company head, we tend not to put medical professionals in the "entrepreneur" category — even though that's exactly what Dr. J.J. Johnson is.

Johnson is the owner of Saving Smiles Dentistry in South Fargo, but you might know him better by his newly found local celebrity status as "The Guy Who Rented Out a Whole Movie Theater to Watch Star Wars."

DR. J. J. R JOHNSON

ead the following statement and try to guess who said it:

"I truly enjoy helping people and taking care of them.

I feel a sense of value when I get a genuine thank you from my customers. They are trusting my team, which is why we do our very best to meet their needs."

Owner

Saving Smiles Dentistry

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Who was the first person that came to mind? A banker? An insurance agent? A mechanic?

If you said "dentist," good for you, but for most people, that was probably pretty far down their list.

Despite starting a business at great personal risk, employing five to ten people minimum at a given practice, and wearing all the hats (and more) of a typical

A graduate of Fargo South High School and Concordia College, Johnson returned to the FM area after completing dental school at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, and in 2011, he purchased the practice of retiring dentist Marvin Ugland.

Johnson, who also volunteers with the Red River Valley Dental Access Project, an urgent care walk-in dental clinic for lowincome patients, has one piece of practical advice for his fellow business owners out there: "If your business offers dental insurance, encourage your employees to take advantage of it," he says. "Dentistry goes hand in hand with other areas of medicine, in that routine care is not only good for your overall health and well-being but can help reduce expenses for care.

A small problem caught early can be far less expensive than waiting for something to hurt and then going in to have it diagnosed."

Saving Smiles Dentistry • SavingSmilesDentistry.com

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Faces of

Fargo Business

KARLA SOLUM Founder

Elevate Human Potential

K

arla Solum’s mom has always told her, "Women can be successful in the business world.

Sometimes, you might just have to work a bit harder to get to where you want to go." Solum has taken those words of advice and run with them. As the owner of Elevate Human Potential/EHP CrossFit in Moorhead, she's making a difference daily and has a daily goal of empowering people to be better than they were yesterday.

At EHP, which opened in December 2014, the focus is on performance and health rather than pain and illness.

Proper movement and muscle engagement are taught to limit injuries and live a healthier life. Solum, who grew up in Barnesville, Minnesota,

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wears many hats for her business. She has become a Certified Chiropractic Sports Physician, a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, a Level 1, 2 and Kids CrossFit trainer and a USA Sports Performance coach. She also works internationally with USA Weightlifting and Beach Volleyball.

challenge, for example, dives into workouts and nutrition – from food prep to ordering off menus. But it also tracks moods to transform people’s lifestyles.

“It’s changing your lifestyle and creating a new you,” Solum said.

“Our goal is to elevate everyone’s true human potential,” Solum says. “I’m a sports chiropractor, so part of that is doing sports chiropractic and bridging rehab to performance. We also have a CrossFit gym with members from ages 3 - 67.

We do individualized coaching if they want, but it’s more of a group-coach setting. Every class is coached, and athletes are corrected on form and technique.”

Solum is currently working on expanding two of EHP's programs that are linked to nonprofits. EHP has started a women's empowerment class and an adaptive athlete class.

The women's empowerment class is structured to help women who have been victims of rape, abuse, domestic violence, homelessness or adverse childhood experience.

Partnering with Dress for Success, EHP is able to grant women scholarships to this program through their fundraising efforts. They have done similar things with Creative Care for Reaching Independence to grant adaptive or special-needs athletes scholarships to their specific classes.

EHP has programs or classes for all levels of health and age with the goal of becoming a better version of yourself.

Their body transformation

“We know that everyone has a true human potential and we are here to help you find that and reach your goals,” Solum says.

Her typical workday begins at 5 a.m., and her duties include training, CrossFit business work, clinic hours and treating patients.

Elevate Human Potential • ElevateHumanPotential.com FARGOINC.COM

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ALICIA UNDERLEE NELSON

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f the word "travel" conjures up images of riding a gondola in Venice, hiking the Great Wall of China or hitting the slopes in the Swiss Alps, Alicia Underlee Nelson would like you to expand your mental horizons a bit.

"I could talk to people all day long about how to live like a traveler in their own community," says the author of the recently published "North Dakota Beer: A Heady History."

"We’re curious and open to new experiences when we travel because we engage our senses and we’re not stuck in our old routines. There are so many ways to mimic that experience in our day-to-day lives. Living this way has really changed my life."

The 36-year-old is a West Fargo-based travel writer and photographer who covers the history, culture and food scene in the Midwest both for her own website, Prairie Style File, as well as outlets such as Food Network, USA Today, Delta Sky and Thomson Reuters.

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Travel Writer, Photographer & Editor

Prairie Style File Before you get all starry-eyed about the life of a travel writer, though, she has a couple caveats.

"Travel writing looks glamorous from the outside," warns Underlee Nelson, who, when she's home, serves as a board member for the New American Consortium for Wellness and Empowerment, "but in reality, it’s lots of research, note-taking, networking and fact-checking. "I might only have an hour of free time a day on a trip. I’m traveling, but I’m definitely not on vacation.

"People always assume that I drank a whole lot of beer while writing my book. I wouldn’t have even gotten through the piles of research material if I had. But I have sampled beer from all the breweries

in the book. That’s just good journalism!"

And when you've been to as many places as she has, you're bound to pick up some practical travel advice, too.

"Whether you travel for business or pleasure, knowing the basic pleasantries in the local language makes life much easier," says Underlee Nelson, who recommends a language-learning app called Duolingo. "If you do business with people who speak another language, it’s imperative. It’s a tremendous sign of respect and really strengthens relationships.

This app makes languagelearning really simple. You can breeze through a few lessons on your phone whenever you have a free moment."

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Prairie Style File PrairieStyleFile.com

Faces of

Fargo Business

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initializing‌

Reality in

Focus

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magine for a moment a trip to the river in the middle of winter.

You stop at the frozen water’s edge and brush some snow off a fallen tree to take a seat.

The sound of snowflakes falling fills the cold, white silence. From your pocket, you pull out a virtual reality headset and slip the sleek device over your earmuffs.

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With Be More Colorful cofounders Matt and Katie Chaussee

At the touch of a button, you are suddenly transported through time to the colors of summer.

Where a hardened stream once encased icy rocks, a roaring current of binary code now washes over your eyes. You bathe in the glaring sun, contrasted by the dreary skies of reality seen only seconds ago.

BY Ethan Mickelson PHOTOGRAPHY BY Hillary Ehlen

While this type of transcendental tech experience may seem far from reality, one Fargo startup is at the forefront of making virtual reality an actuality. Creating entire worlds within the 360-degree images they capture, the cofounding couple is bringing the visionary advances of VR to the frameworks of conventional platforms.

“They do have that wow factor, but it’s not plausible to expect that everyone is experiencing our content with a VR headset. So we use what are called mobile VR platforms,” says Be More Colorful CEO Matt Chaussee. “Regardless of whether they have a headset or not, users can load these tours through a browser and have the same experience no matter what device they use.”

If you’re familiar with Google Street View, then you can probably envision the images that Be More Colorful creates.

From any angle imaginable, you get a sense of what it’s like to walk down streets around the world past buildings, cars and people.

Now moving into their second year as a startup, Be More Colorful is using their all-encompassing 360-degree imagery as the base of their business, taking the technique off the streets and into the spaces of businesses throughout Fargo.

The following three business sectors are just some of the areas where the technology has potential to improve brand interactions.

1.Construction/Development Never before have time and space been so intertwined as in the virtual place.

Whether transporting to a new time and space altogether or analyzing the finest details from a split second in time, virtual reality enables what could be grandiosely described as time travel. Take, for example, Google’s Street View, which has a feature that lets you see past dates for locations where multiple images were captured over time.

Yet virtual reality is only at the beginning of its development. With further advances and adoption by the public, future populations might be able to virtually experience a completely different era from their own.

That magnificent idea begins with the startups of today capturing high-quality and enduring images. But it’s not just photographing a space, it’s also tailoring the digital mass of information to simulate an authentic experience.

Meet the Cofounders

Matt Chaussee CEO

• Background in website merchandising, internet marketing analysis, programming, mathematics and technical services • Bachelor’s degree in mathematics and MBA from NDSU

Katie (Cumber) Chaussee President

• Background in visual arts, including photography, painting, and digital and mixed media • Bachelor’s degree in psychology with minor in art from NDSU

“One of the big differences with this type of media is you can come back and look at it again and again because the experience is different every single time.”

“We’re not trying to replace the space, we’re trying to give just enough of a glimpse inside it that you’re compelled to want to go and interact with that space,” says Matt about the virtual spaces they capture, process and customize for local businesses.

One glimpse they’re providing is inside Wild Terra Cider & Brewing. A recent development project in Downtown Fargo, the former horse stable was left unused until it was reimagined. The resulting transformation was the perfect backdrop to demonstrate the business’s historic roots and promote their new space. Through 360-degree imaging, Be More Colorful has made it possible for anyone to see comprehensive images of the restoration from before to after.

2.Events Just like Street View enables people to engage with the exterior of businesses from the comfort of their own devices, the 360-degree images Be More Colorful captures offer a simulated brand interaction. Now, businesses can give potential customers a chance to test drive their brand, product, or space and give an idea of what an experience might be like all before actually entering the space.

“Comparing this type of photography to traditional photography, it does capture a lot more,” Katie says. “It captures everything you can see. In that sense, you literally have to look at everything differently to picture

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how the photo is going to turn out.”

As part of creating these virtual spaces, Matt and Katie work with their clients to create a customizable business solution for communicating specific elements of a space.

In the wedding industry, a space must fit into very specific customer needs, thus making it difficult for venues to describe exactly what their space is like — even with the use of photography and video.

“One of the big differences with this type of media is you can come back and look at it again and again because the experience is different every single time,” Matt says.

The technology also allows venues such as Rustic Oaks in Moorhead to show off their space from multiple angles and perspectives. In addition to showing a blank canvas, they're able to give an experience of what it’s like while a wedding is underway thanks to Be More Colorful. Paired with a pocket VR and a mobile device, these images allow potential customers to easily step into a space and understand it more intimately.

3.Hospitality/Tourism As with any emerging industry, one of the obstacles Be More Colorful faces is communicating the real-life value of their virtual products. While they work to utilize new and exciting technologies, they must also get people excited about how these advances apply to their own lives.

One of the most exciting applications of 360-degree imaging paired with virtual reality is the ability to travel around the world faster than the speed of light.

Imagine shuffling through the Seven Wonders of the World all in one afternoon.

Particularly excited about the potential to bring their tech to the industry, Katie and Matt have already explored a majority of the local wonders through their superwide-angle lens. By adding hotspots with information and tailoring the tour’s behavior, they achieve custom interactivity that’s perfect for promoting area destinations such as parks, museums and historic attractions.

“We’re very hands-on with the production process because we want to commoditize the experience,” Matt says. “We want every one of those photos to be a compelling scene that tells a story. Every photo should be a spot that you want to stop and look around and say, ‘This is cool!’”

The far-reaching potential of 360-degree imagery doesn’t end there, though.

With potential applications in countless other industries, including real estate, e-commerce and education, there’s an entire world of possibilities inside virtual reality. That’s why Matt and Katie continue to create customizable solutions for area businesses while exploring the applications of future technologies.

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Be More Colorful BeMoreColorful.com

Employees Demonstrate the

Power of Social Media in Business

Getting Social A couple years gao, RDO launched an employee social advocacy program on Twitter, encouraging team members to have unique voices and connect with others on social as representatives of the business and brand. According to Kirsten Jensen, the founder of Fargo-based social-media strategy startup Next Action Digital and an expert in employee social advocacy, programs like RDO's are growing.

Jensen began working with social teams in 2010, when virtually no one was talking about the concept. By 2015, she observed that not only were more businesses talking about and implementing employee social advocacy programs, more tools and resources had also become available.

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ver the past decade, social media’s emergence as a business opportunity has given many companies a chance to determine how it fits with sales, marketing and communications efforts. Early on, some jumped on board with Facebook, a handful were excited to tweet and others were among the first to share photos on Instagram.

Today, most businesses are present on at least one social media channel, with the most social-savvy companies able to measure and place value on their efforts. But looking outside of metrics, social media’s real power is how it has become a space where people engage with other people to create and build relationships.

As companies realized the benefits of these personal connections, some began evolving traditional social media strategies into employee-focused and employee-driven efforts known as social employee advocacy programs. RDO Equipment Co. was one of them.

By LINDSAY PAULSON | Photography by HILLARY EHLEN

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Her observations are supported by research obtained and shared by MarketingProfs, which shows that interest in employee advocacy increased nearly 200 percent from 2013 to 2015, and today, 90 percent of brands report they are pursuing some type of employee advocacy program.

Businesses such as RDO are seeing benefits from employee social advocacy programs in three key areas: 1) Culture 2) Engagement 3) Bottom line

TIP Identify a person or team to lead an employee social advocacy program. The person/team should be responsible for everything from initial employee training to ongoing program monitoring.

TIP Establish a team hashtag and help employees identify "culture moments" that would make great social posts – a thank you to a coworker, a photo of the team’s volunteer efforts or a link to an article they contributed input to.

Culture Boost One of the top goals companies have with employee social advocacy programs is to showcase their unique culture.

Lindsay Paulson is a PR specialist with RDO Equipment Co.

“These programs are proof that, as a business, you are who you say you are,” Jensen explains.

While every business can claim it has a great culture, employees who show it are the proof. Additionally, employees can say things on social media that have more power than if the message were coming from the business. For example, a company can tweet about how it’s a great place to work, but when employees are the ones saying it, there’s more credibility behind the words.

Showcasing culture is great for employee recruiting and retention, establishing the company in the community, and presenting itself as a company with which others would want to do business.

Not only do employee social advocacy programs showcase culture to the outside world, they’re a great tool for building culture internally. When employees are trusted to connect with others and share socially, it creates an empowered environment. Conversely, employees have an opportunity to read and learn from others on social media. Employees who are better educated about their industry, job role, and what’s happening in their communities can offer a big boost to company culture.

Engagement Avenue Closely related to culture, employee engagement improves with social advocacy programs. And this engagement isn’t just on social media, where employees engage with peers, businesses and the community.

Research from numerous companies shows that when employees are empowered to be ambassadors, they feel trusted and feel like a part of the company’s success and are therefore more engaged in their jobs and with the company.

Engagement is a two-way street, with employee social advocacy programs also offering an opportunity for external audiences to engage with brands. In 2016, organic reach on Facebook fell more than 50 percent, but social-savvy companies are finding ways to combat this trend.

MarketingProfs research shows that content shared by employees receives eight times more engagement than the same content shared by brands, and LinkedIn found that employee-sharing helps generate two times more click-throughs on content.

Employee advocacy programs also build on a newer engagement trend: microinfluencers. Traditionally, many socialmedia marketing strategies were based around support of big influencers. For example, people with tens of thousands or

even 1 million followers on a channel like Instagram or Twitter.

The micro-influencer is the same as a big influencer in terms of how they engage and share content that promotes a brand, but it’s done on a smaller scale — think someone with 100 followers.

Jensen wholeheartedly agrees with the impact of micro-influencers.

“People who don’t have a huge following but care about your brand can take the message further than a quick product placement from big influencers,” she says.

One of the biggest advantages with microinfluencers — and especially relevant in a company’s employee-advocacy setting — is that they’re specialized and credible in their area of expertise. Therefore, they have very relevant, engaged audiences.

TIP Coach employees to connect with people, businesses and companies important to their work so they can begin following, engaging and building a relevant audience.

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Business Advantage While culture and engagement are crucial for successful companies, the bottom line obviously matters, too. The good news about employee social advocacy programs is that they can directly benefit the business and its sales, marketing and PR efforts.

Nearly everyone has heard the saying, “People don’t do business with businesses.

People do business with people.” Tying people, faces and names to the business adds a person-to-person connection versus person-to-business. And it’s what Jensen believes is one of the biggest benefits of employee advocacy.

“These programs are one of the best ways to humanize a brand,” she says.

Jensen also believes that social media is one area where B2B and B2C no longer see a divide like they do in advertising and marketing.

“It’s no longer business or consumer. It’s all person-to-person," she says.

While true in the social sense, B2B businesses still have distinct buyers, markets and characteristics that make them operate different than B2C companies.

Employee social advocacy offers advantages here, too.

For example, compared to B2C, the buying cycle in B2B businesses is much longer, markets are smaller and more focused, and customers do more research and have more challenges when making purchases.

Relationship-building, engagement and demonstrating expertise achieved through employee advocacy can be game-changers in nurturing potential customers from interest to final purchase.

Employees who are socially connected gain advantages of having a greater pulse on the brand and awareness of what’s going on in the industry. Low commodity prices in agriculture? In-tune employees know that cold-calling farmers to try and sell brand new, expensive machines isn’t the right sales strategy right now and can instead offer a better approach for this audience.

Finally, events and trade shows offer another avenue to connect social employees with potential customers. Many events have social accounts that employees can follow and start to connect with others who are linked to the event — even before it begins. Most events have a special hashtag, too, allowing employees to join others in the conversation by tweeting photos or great quotes from presenters. They can even share relevant content from your organization on the topic.

The benefits of a social employee advocacy program are threefold, says Next Action Digital Founder Kirsten Jensen: They improve culture, increase engagement and boost your company's bottom line.

TIP To establish a connection to the company and brand, have employees create consistent social handles that tie in the company name and include the company’s handle in their profile.

The benefits of employee social advocacy programs can be seen both internally and externally. By sharing quality content, engaging, and representing the company with unique voices, employee advocates can be a great complement to a company’s social media strategy.

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To see how RDO utilizes its social employee programs, follow them on Twitter @RDOEquipment, on Instagram @RDOEquipmentCo and like their Facebook page.

For social media tips, follow Next Action Digital Founder Kirsten Jensen on Twitter @NextKirsten

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"I was raised to base performance on action, not words. If you say you are going to do something, do it."

TIFFANIE HONEYMAN CEO, OpGo Marketing

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The Startup Journey A BLOG

By Josh Christy Photo courtesy of Josh Christy

7 Mitsakes I Made And How You Can Avoid Them

F

or the past eight years, I have owned and operated a successful software consultancy in Fargo called Codelation. We partner with startups and small businesses to help them grow and succeed through the intelligent use of technology. We have also launched product lines in the software-as-a-service space (SaaS). Between all companies, we have hundreds of customers ranging from small startups to Fortune 500 businesses.

Like anyone else, I’ve made some mistakes along the

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way. There is a lot of advice out there for people who are just getting started, but I found that taking the leap wasn’t as hard as keeping everything going after the first year. Because when you get to year two, the adrenaline rush has worn off, and suddenly you find yourself faced with the realities of being in business for yourself.

I’m going to share some mistakes I made early on and some tips for avoiding them. If you approach your business the right way, I have every confidence that you’ll do as well as I have.

I didn’t have the right conversations with people who could pay me.

I’m a software engineer. I don’t know many software engineers who love talking to potential customers. It’s not my favorite thing either.

As software consultants, sometimes it’s hard for us to get out and talk to potential customers, especially if we’re essentially cold-calling. Instead, we come up with product or service ideas without finding out whether anybody really wants or needs them. And then when those ideas fail to pan out, we wonder why. It’s almost always because we didn’t talk to potential customers before we took action.

It’s easy to spend your time doing the parts of the job you enjoy and ignoring the parts that you don’t. That is the path to failure.

I didn’t project a professional image from start to finish.

We live in a hidden gem of a city. However, Fargo is located in one of the flattest parts of the planet. When it rains, the water runs to the lowest place it can find. Sometimes that’s our basements. Imagine your basement has a foot of water in it, and you’re looking for a contractor to clean it up. That's going to be an expensive job. Which of these two would you hire?

Option 1: Dave When you call Dave, he doesn’t answer. You have to leave a message on his cell phone. His voicemail message is hard to understand and sounds like he recorded it while he was driving his truck down the street.

Eventually, he calls you back to set up a time to take a look at the damage. He comes over in grubby street clothes, takes a quick look around, and texts you a dollar figure estimate with no information about when he can start or what that will cover.

Option 2: Phil Next, you call Phil. He is also busy, so you have to leave him a message. Phil has a professional greeting with his business name. His voicemail message tells you what hours he works and when you can expect to hear back from him.

When he comes over to take a look at your basement, his truck and shirt are branded with his business name. He takes a thorough look at your basement and then emails you a branded worksheet with a detailed assessment of what the problems are, along with a breakdown of what it will cost to fix it. He tells you what his schedule looks like but advises that he’s booking up quickly.

Here is an example of the conversation you need to have with a potential client. Potential customer Sue says, “I need a website.” Your first instinct might be to say, “Sure, I can build you one. It will have these technical specs and be able to handle this much traffic.”

What you should do instead is ask, "Why?" Does she need a standard five-page website for her small business? She can get that from Squarespace for $20 (and she probably should). Does she need a custom build to handle

Your best potential clients want to work with a professional.

The biggest benefit of behaving professionally is that clients will expect to pay you a professional-level fee.

If they call you and hear your professional greeting, they’ll be less likely to experience sticker shock when they get your proposal.

her quirky sales channel? That’s a different story and that’s where you can add real value.

Your business lives and dies by your reputation. If you earn a reputation as a problem-solver that helps your customers’ businesses make more money, you will have a much easier time getting the next project than if you only do what the customer thinks they need without digging deeper.

So next time you’re talking to a customer about what their needs are, ask them why.

Professional Businesses: • Have a polished website.

• That’s easy to do yourself, but ask your designer friend if it looks good.

Check out Squarespace, buy a good theme from a marketplace or hire a designer if you can.

• Use the proper communication tools.

• These let you set up professional greetings, extensions, and call rules to route your calls to the right line or team member.

• Have a defined message.

• They can explain in a few words what they do and why you should hire them to do it.

Professional Projects Have: • A contract • Payment terms • A cancellation policy • Termination fees • A defined beginning and end

Even if Phil’s estimate is higher than Dave’s, wouldn’t you trust Phil to get the job done? He seems like someone who does this for a living.

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“Always be closing” is a real thing.

The only people who like sales and marketing are salespeople and marketers, and I’m not even sure about them. This probably isn’t news to you by now, but you aren’t just in the software business. As soon as you started your consultancy, you also became a salesperson.

The part you may not know yet is that you don’t have to feel bad about sales. Don’t think of yourself as selling people something they don’t want or need. You don’t need to do that. You solve problems for people. No matter what you do, someone out there needs your help to do it. It’s up to you to find those people and let them know that you can do what they need to be done and why they should hire you instead of someone else.

Don't wait until your current projects are wrapping up to start finding the next ones. This is the formula I recommend using for figuring out what sales metrics you need to reach. Let’s say you need to book $100,000 in revenue for the year. Here is my rough math to get there:

Are you ready to hire?

Being a solopreneur can be exhausting. When you work for someone else, there's somebody to answer the phone and somebody to pay the lease and somebody to buy the coffee and somebody to find new customers while you’re writing the code or doing the creative design.

When you go out on your own, it’s all on you.

When you’re feeling flush or burned out, it’s tempting to hire someone to help you keep all the balls in the air. But I made the mistake of hiring too soon.

In fact, it was three mistakes in one: 1) I didn’t have enough work coming in to generate the revenue to support two people.

2) I found out I wasn’t charging enough to cover the costs.

I discovered that I couldn’t charge $50 an hour unless we could both bill more than 70 percent of our time, which is really hard to do.

3) I hired someone with a skill set that overlapped with mine instead of finding someone to do what I couldn’t or didn’t want to do.

• Average project : ($100/hr. service) x (40 hrs. avg. project) =

$4,000 per project

• Number of projects needed: $100,000 / $4,000 (avg.

project) = 25 projects needed

• For every 5 calls = 1 meeting, for every 3 meetings = 1

proposal, for every 4 proposals = 1 booked project

• 60 phone calls for one booked project = 5 calls x 3 meetings

x 4 proposals

By those numbers, if you need 25 projects to get to $100,000 in revenue and 60 phone calls for one booked project, you’d need to make 1,500 phone calls per year to hit your goal. That amounts to about six calls per workday.

You probably see these numbers as either daunting or doable.

If they look doable, great! Go do that. If making all of those calls seems daunting, think about whether you can or should hire someone to do it for you. Will they understand what you do well enough to effectively make those calls? Will you spend so much time supervising that it’s not worth your time? Or will it feel liberating to have an unpleasant task off your plate?

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Not understanding the role I’m hiring for.

To be fair, I haven’t actually made this mistake yet, but it’s an easy and potentially very expensive one to make, so I wanted to add it to your list of things to watch out for.

I have a friend who used to work as an IT tech at a major employer in town. One of the guys she worked with made himself sound busy and indispensable by telling their boss he was hard at work doing things like “monitoring end-frame structures for intrusions” and “managing networked software solutions.” In reality, he spent his days in his office playing Halo. And he got away with it for a long time. Why? Because

his boss had no idea what those words meant or what the IT guy should have been doing that wasn’t getting done.

We’ve reached a point in our business where we’re ready to hire a marketer. I need to know how to measure whether or not that person is doing a good job. How long should a particular task take? How will we measure success? I’m going to set some benchmarks by doing the job myself for a while.

Then when we hire, I will know that when someone says they are evaluating the ROI on CPC vs. CPM, that’s a real thing. And they’re probably not playing Halo on my dime.

This article is part of a larger series and blog: Codelation.com/Blog

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4I

Legal Reasons

for Employee Handbooks

f you own or manage a business, you're probably familiar with employee handbooks. Employee handbooks contain information on your business’s culture, policies and procedure.

They can be a good tool to communicate your mission to your employees and “sell” the benefits of employment.

They can also be a good tool to minimize your company’s legal risks. Here are the top four legal reasons your business should have an employee handbook.

BY Adam Wogsland PHOTOGRAPHY BY J. Alan Paul Adam Wogsland is a business attorney with SW&L Attorneys in Fargo. Adam has helped many businesses in a variety of industries create, revise and apply employee handbooks. He also has firsthand business experience creating, revising and applying employee handbooks.

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1 Reason No. 1:

An employee handbook minimizes the risk of employment policy disputes.

Whether you know it or not, your business already has policies about everything related to employment, including wages, salaries, overtime, bonuses, commissions, paid time off, family leave and equipment use. Your business’s policies might live exclusively in your memory. They might live in the company’s collective memory. They might live in a set of email directives. The policies might just be made up on the fly.

If the policies are by memory or assembled loosely, they will likely be applied inconsistently. This leads to disputes related to interpretation. Inconsistent application and disputes can lead to morale issues (bad), legal claims (worse) or liability (worst). An employee handbook formalizes the business’s policies. Your business should have each employee acknowledge his or her review of the handbook. While there are still risks with inconsistent application and interpretation disputes with an employee handbook, the risk is greatly reduced. Major business transactions are memorialized in signed contracts for the same reason. Memories fade, recollection becomes an issue and people have biases.

Interpretation becomes an issue. Some interpretation issues are genuine, and some are not. An employee handbook reduces the risk of recollection and interpretation issues, which in turn reduces the risk of disputes.

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Reason No. 2:

An employee handbook helps you reduce the risk of claims.

By claims, I mean disputes that have entered the legal or administrative process. Legal claims come in the form of state and federal court actions. Administrative claims include those handled by the North Dakota Department of Labor, Job Service North Dakota, the Minnesota Department of Human Rights and the United States Department of Labor.

Employment lawyers, departments and commissions should be on your business’s list of things to avoid. Claims are expensive and they take time, attention and resources. An employee handbook can help you reduce the risk of claims. This is best explained through several examples.

Example #1 If your employee handbook has a clearly defined social media policy regarding what can and cannot be posted on social media, you might save yourself a defamation claim because a new employee thought twice about sending that tweet on company time with company property.

Example #2 If your employee handbook has clearly defined standards for approving overtime, your business might save itself from a Fair Labor Standards Act wage and hour claim because the employee thought twice about working a 75-hour week before going through the proper channels. Minimization of claims works both ways, too. You want to minimize the claims your business has to make as well. Lawyers cost money whether you are prosecuting or defending a claim.

Example #3 If your employee handbook clearly defines what is and what is not company property, your departing employee may think twice about dropping your business’s proprietary data and trade secrets onto a USB drive before walking out the door. An employee handbook will not help your business completely avoid claims, but it should help reduce them.

3 Reason No. 3:

An employee handbook helps your business resolve disputes before they become claims.

Disputes are an unavoidable part of business. Some disputes are resolved, while others become claims. An employee handbook should clearly define complaint, investigation, evaluation and response process. For example, let’s say an employee has a legitimate complaint related to discrimination.

Without a complaint procedure defined in an employee handbook, the employee may not know where to turn to report the issue. The employee may not report it at all for fear of retribution or retaliation by management, the employee’s supervisor or the employee’s coworkers.

Without a defined evaluation-andresponse process, the employee might not have faith in the internal process.

Without reporting the issue, owners or high-level management may not even be aware of it. Your business might not have a shot at preventing the dispute from becoming a claim. Your business might lose a quality employee and not be aware of the damage caused by a misbehaving employee because the process was not clearly communicated to the workforce.

Now your business has claims and the employment lawyers, departments and commissions that come with claims.

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Reason No. 4:

An employee handbook helps your business defend against claims.

If your business has been sued or a file has been opened at one of the departments, I’m guessing you will want to win. An employee handbook can help in several ways. First, if your business has an employment practices liability policy, they can dovetail together to make sure your business gets coverage for the dispute. Second, if the employee doesn’t follow the procedure laid out in the employee handbook, then your business is in a better position to defend against liability.

Again, this is explained best through example. For instance, employee handbooks should have a mechanism for a prompt, thorough and impartial internal investigation into alleged sexual harassment. Very generally speaking, under federal law, an employer has an affirmative defense against a Title VII sexual harassment claim if (1) employer undertook reasonable care to prevent and promptly correct harassment and (2) the employee fails to take the opportunity offered by the employer to avoid or correct the harm. The intricacies of Title VII of the Human Rights Act could be its own article, so I will just leave it at this very general level. The point is that an employee handbook can help prove up the first element of the affirmative defense.

Without it, you might still be able to prove the first element but with greater difficulty.

If your employee handbook establishes that reasonable care by providing a complaint and investigative procedure and the employee ran to federal district court and sued your business before utilizing the procedure, then your business would have a strong defense to the claim.

Please note that employee handbooks are only as good as their application. Creating one and putting it in a drawer won’t benefit your business. Both employers and employees should be familiar with it and review it at least annually.

Businesses should use it and update it as the circumstances change. They should also update handbooks in response to any employment issues that did not already squarely fit within the handbook language.

This article is not legal advice.

Employee handbooks are not a doit-yourself project. They are not a form you simply download on the internet. You should hire a licensed attorney to assist you with your employee handbook. Poorly drafted employee handbooks will create unintended legal consequences. In other words, your DIY employee handbook will cost you more time and money than it saves.

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Severson, Wogsland & Liebl SWLAttorneys.com

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TechT PS

w/ Giga-Green Technologies

What You Need to Know About

ENCRYPTION The word "encryption" gets thrown around a lot these days, but are you taking full advantage of it? Encryption is an extremely powerful privacy and security tool, but in order to take full advantage of it, you need to take a few additional steps.

Email Encryption

By Jared Finkelson Photography by Hillary Ehlen

Jared Finkelson is a business development and CRM consultant with Giga-Green Technologies.

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Regular old email doesn't provide encryption in transport or at rest. Popular email services such as G Suite Gmail and Exchange Online will encrypt your emails whenever possible, but there are caveats: • Google only provides

encryption of email while it is stored on their servers, and Exchange Online requires that you exchange security

certificates. Only as recently as June did Google announce that Gmail would not be used as input for advertising personalization. • If you need to send an

encrypted message, be sure to understand the features and limitations of your email provider. And if necessary, use a secure service such as Exchange Online, Tutanote or ProtonMail.

Drive Encryption Do you keep any private documents on your computer? I thought so.

If your laptop is lost or stolen, whoever ends up with it may be able to access your files as easily as plugging in a special cable and copying your files to their computer.

Windows Vista and later and macOS 10.3 and later both include drive encryption,

BitLocker, and FileVault, respectively. But they're not always enabled by default. Protect your data in the event of lost or stolen computers by ensuring that disk encryption is enabled.

ProTIP

Back up your encryption keys and know your encryption password.

IT professionals cannot recover your encrypted data without it!

HTTPS Encryption When you're browsing the web, traffic between your browser and the website is not encrypted.

If you're justing looking at cat memes, that isn’t really a big deal. If you're entering your credit card number or any sensitive information will be passed back and forth, though, you should ensure you're doing so on a secure connection.

Websites that require login with a username and password should always use an HTTPS connection.

Message Encryption Like email, SMS text messages do not provide end-to-end encryption. That means that while your text messages may be encrypted as they travel through the air, there are many points between you and the recipient where your message is stored in plain text.

Apple iOS iMessages provide end-to-end encryption. However, if you back up your messages to iCloud, they will be stored on Apple servers, and you

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must ensure that “Send as SMS” is disabled.

Otherwise, your message may be sent as an SMS message. iMessage is also limited to Apple devices.

To ensure your text messages are kept private, use a service that provides endto-end encryption such as WhatsApp, Signal or iMessage.

Facebook Messenger also provides end-toend encryption, but the conversation has to be created as a "secret" conversation.

Another fringe benefit of HTTPS is that it can help you avoid phishing scams and fake news. The process of obtaining an SSL Certificate (a requirement of HTTPS) is more difficult and costly than obtaining a domain name and scammers usually cannot or do not go through the trouble of obtaining an SSL Certificate.

A secure connection will look similar on all of the major browsers.

The URL will start with “https” and there will be a closed lock.

Giga-Green Technologies Giga-Green.com

JANUARY

CALENDAR

BUSINESS EVENTS

2018

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JANUARY 4 Public Education in the Metro Thursday, 7:30 - 9 a.m.

A few years ago, the FMWF Chamber of Commerce had the opportunity to host the three superintendents from Fargo, Moorhead and West Fargo. Since that event, thousands of students have been added to our school systems, new buildings have been built and funding mechanisms have passed. Join them again to hear from three local leaders, as they provide an update on how they are planning for the future as our thriving metro continues to attract families from all over the world.

Dr. David Flowers

Brandon Lunak

Hear from: • Dr. David Flowers - Superintendent, West Fargo Public Schools • Dr. Jeffrey Schatz - Superintendent, Fargo Public Schools • Brandon Lunak - Interim Superintendent, Moorhead Area Public Schools Registration (includes breakfast) Chamber Members • $30 in advance • $35 at the door Non-Members • $40 in advance • $45 at the door FMWFChamber.com Courtyard by Marriott Fargo-Moorhead 1080 28th Ave. S, Moorhead

Dr. Jeffrey Schatz

JANUARY 9 Contracting Registration TuneUp (online event) Tuesday, 9 - 10 a.m.

Your business information on government databases and registrations should be reviewed and updated annually. This webinar will give you a starting point on checks and updates you can make to be sure your information is current and visible to government agencies and prime contractors. This is a free event hosted by the U.S. Small Business Administration - North Dakota District Office.

SBA.gov

EVERY WEDNESDAY 1 Million Cups Fargo

Every Wednesday, 9:15 - 10:15 a.m.

Join the vibrant entrepreneurial community of Fargo-MoorheadWest Fargo and Emerging Prairie by participating in an event filled with guest speakers, tons of coffee, ideas and excellent networking opportunities.

Event is free.

1MillionCups.com/Fargo The Stage at Island Park 333 4th St. S, Fargo

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JANUARY 10 Tell Your Story to Attract, Engage and Retain the Right Talent

Registration (includes lunch) Chamber Members • $30 in advance • $35 at the door

The competition for talent is fierce out there. You should know how to answer, "Tell me why I would want to work for your company." The employee value proposition, by definition, is the balance of the rewards and benefits that are received by employees in return for their performance at the workplace. This training qualifies for two CPE credits for the ND CPA Society.

Non-Members • $40 in advance • $45 at the door

Wednesday, 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.

FMWFChamber.com DoubleTree by Hilton West Fargo 825 East Beaton Drive, West Fargo

Tuesday, 8 - 9:30 a.m.

Join the FMWF Chamber of Commerce at this annual event that brings our community together to ask questions of the mayors of Fargo, Moorhead, West Fargo and Dilworth and talk about the cities’ growth, goals and priorities.

Live polling lets the audience engage while sharing their opinions. Last year, attendees learned that workforce and flood protection were the issues most important to members. What will it be this year?

Questions for the Mayors? Please contact Tracy Powell at TPowell@ FMWFChamber.com

What You Will Learn • Why the EVP is crucial in attracting today’s top talent • How to create your own • What to do with it after it's created About the Presenter Heather Ostrowski is a client relations manager with Preference Employment Solutions. In this role, she fosters client relationships and uncovers additional ways their team can be a resource in staffing solutions.

State of the Cities

Registration (includes breakfast) Chamber Members • $35 in advance • $40 at the door Non-Members • $45 in advance • $50 at the door

Heather Ostrowski

Corporate Table Sponsorship • $650 table of eight FMWFChamber.com Holiday Inn Fargo 3803 13th Ave. S, Fargo

JANUARY Operation Thank You What is OTY? The FMWF Chamber of Commerce's Operation Thank You has one mission: to say thank you to its members. This special event also allows them to share with their membership new information and materials. They'd love for you to join in on the fun. If you're a Chamber member, please consider volunteering. There is no cost to attend any of these events!

Packet Stuffing

Packet Pick-Up

Wednesday, January 17, 10 a.m.

- noon

Wednesday, January 17, 1 - 4 p.m.

Operation Thank You kicks off with a stuffing party to assemble the more than 2,100 membership packets with new and important information. The best part is that if you help with stuffing the packets, you can select the organizations you would like to personally deliver to that day.

Hjemkomst Center 202 1st Ave. N, Moorhead

Operation Thank You Celebration Thursday, January 18, 4 - 6 p.m.

Help the Chamber kick-off packet delivery to its member businesses. Volunteers, stop by during this time to pick up your packets and get your route before hitting the road.

Hjemkomst Center 202 1st Ave. N, Moorhead

Operation Thank You wouldn’t be complete without a party to celebrate your successful day of connections and camaraderie. Join the Chamber for some delectable treats as you share your experiences from the day and possibly win a prize. Must be present to win.

D-S Beverages 201 17th St. N, Moorhead

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JANUARY 24 Business of Farming (web conference) Wednesday

JANUARY 18 Off the Clock

Tuesday, 5:15 - 7:30 p.m.

Take a step back in time at January’s Off the Clock. You'll be checking out Moorhead’s Italian and American restaurant and lounge, Speak Easy.

But don’t worry about gangsters or bootleggers here. It’s all fun in a casual atmosphere with character and class — and of course, great drinks and menu items. Per usual, apps and networking are on the Chamber, drinks are on your own.

FMWFChamber.com Speak Easy Restaurant & Lounge 1001 30th Ave. S, Moorhead

Conferences can be a great way to implement new ideas into your farm, but they can get expensive. Harvest Profit is opening their checkbook to bring you a lineup of first-class farm business speakers for you to learn from without having to travel. Join their team on as they invite speakers from across the country to share their best farm management practices.

What Is a Web Conference?

The conference will be hosted on Harvest Profit's web-based portal, and each presentation will feature a live Q&A. If you aren't able to attend all of the presentations, no worries. They will be recorded and available to all paid attendees.

HarvestProfit.com/Conference

JANUARY 24 Executive Expo

Wednesday, 11 a.m. - 8 p.m.

Join the area's best business leaders.

Meet hundreds of seasoned private business owners, driven startup entrepreneurs and passionate nonprofit executives as they kick off 2018 and celebrate local business success. RSVP required.

Pricing • $100 full-day pass • $50 social only (5 - 8 p.m.)

Eventbrite.com Avalon Events Center 2525 9th Ave. S, Fargo

JANUARY 23 Why Winners Win

Tuesday, 2:30 - 4 p.m. (Social: 4-5 p.m.)

What are the four most common attributes of people who make a lifelong habit of winning? At this exciting anniversary session of Women Connect, learn the common traits, attitudes and mindset of the world's most consistently high-performing leaders in their pursuit of world-class results.

Attendees will experience the thrill of peak performance and exceptional leadership through Robyn Benincasa’s incredible stories and breathtaking video footage of extreme teams in action and will leave energized and empowered to create consistent results in every aspect of their lives.

Registration (includes lunch) Chamber Members • $45 in advance • $55 at the door Non-Members • $60 in advance • $70 at the door Corporate Table Sponsorship • $650 table of eight

1 Million Thanks

FMWFChamber.com Delta by Marriott 1635 42nd St. S, Fargo

Join Emerging Prairie as they celebrate a tremendous year of growth for Fargo at 1 Million Thanks. Their team has seen so much success and impact within our startup community, and they want to invite you to a night of gratitude as they celebrate a fantastic year. There will be delicious food, their signature champagne toast, music, and some awards (more details to come). They hope you'll save the date and join them.

Robyn Benincasa

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JANUARY 25 Thursday, 6:30 - 9:30 p.m.

Eventbrite.com Fargo Air Museum 1609 19th Ave. N, Fargo

JANUARY 24-26 Leadership Summit by Hatch Coaching

Wednesday, January 24 - Friday, January 26

DOWN THE ROAD TV Timeout Thursday, February 8

Join Hatch Realty CEO Erik Hatch and Hatch Coaching Success Coach Robby T. in their very own backyard: Fargo. The pair has built a top 40 real estate team in the country in just five years and they want to share their secrets to success at their Leadership Summit (event is open to all industries). ​ This Summit will help bring awareness to the entire team (bring your team members with you to the Summit) with regard to how the growth of an individual and organization is reliant upon leadership development.

• You'll participate and gain insight on how to build culture and engagement within your place of work. You will engage in activities that you can bring back and implement with your team.

• There will be intentional time for you to learn from other's at the Summit and engage in small-group conversation.

• You'll hear from Erik on how you can be a leader who runs an organization with a large heart of generosity and gratitude while still balancing a well-run business.

• You'll learn the key principles of how to lead a team to be successful, both in production and culture.

CoachingWithHatch.com/ LeadershipSummit Hatch Coaching Office 216 Broadway N, Fargo

JANUARY 26-27 Good for Nothing

Friday, January 26, 5:30 p.m. - Saturday, January 27, 7 p.m.

Good for Nothing is about bringing together professionals in marketing, advertising, design, web development, social media, project management, and other creativeminded fields to combine forces and provide a huge benefit to a few lucky nonprofit organizations —all in a single 24-hour event!

The Good for Nothing team has selected five such amazing organizations that can really use some help.

Eventbrite.com Prairie Den 122 1/2 North Broadway, Fargo

ADDY Awards Friday, February 23

CO.STARTERS Winter Course

Tuesday, February 20 - Tuesday, April 17

MONTHLY BUSINESS MEETUPS* More information for most meetups can be found at Meetup.com.

• Bitcoin Meetup • Cass-Clay Subcontractor Sales & Marketing Meetup

• Geek Meet FM • Girl Develop It • Fargo 3D Printing Meetup • Fargo Cashflow Game Night • Fargo Entrepreneurship Meetup • Fargo Virtual Reality Meetup • Fargo-Moorhead Content Strategy

• The Fargo-Moorhead Real Estate Investing Meetup

• Master Networks – Fargo Business Referral Group

• Mobile Meetup Fargo • Moorhead Entrepreneurship Meetup

• Prairie Dawg Drupal • Red River Valley Big Data –

Midwest Big Data Hub Meetup

• YMCA Brighter Futures