Fargo INC! July 2016

JL BEERS july 2016

THE ROCK

ROCKIN’ 50S

CI SPORT

AND

KIN’ 50S

JL BEERS

RANDY NOBULL THORSON WARREN VINYL TACO ACKLEY

THE ROCK CONTRAST & COLLABORATION

RANDY’S DINER

NOBULL

LESSONS FROM A 30-YEAR PARTNERSHIP

OLD BROADWAY

EDITOR'S NOTE

2T

of a Kind

here's a moment you only get to experience every so often in journalism: the realization that a story is about to write itself.

It's a particular kind of excitement you feel when you know your job is going to be a lot easier for the next hour, as you let the person across from you both literally and figuratively grab the mic.

In this case, it was two people.

Randy Thorson and Warren Ackley, to be precise.

If you don't know their nate@spotlightmediafargo.com

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JULY 2016

names, they're okay with that. For decades, the Fargo businessmen have kept their profile low and their success high, primarily in an industry notoriously difficult to make a buck in: bars and restaurants.

Their appearances—Thorson conservatively dressed with hair closely cropped, Ackley's wardrobe a bit louder and hair a bit longer—are as different as their personalities, but they say that's why their 30-plus-year business partnership has not just worked, it's thrived.

As we begin our conversation, it's not hard to see why.

They start the needling almost instantly, each heaping sarcastic praise on the other, something that would continue throughout the interview.

They tell me it's important that

NateMickelberg

they're not best friends, but you could sure fool me.

As they recount each chapter of their long and successful careers, each anecdote and bit of wisdom more interesting than the last, I realize something: these guys are Fargo business.

They've watched as countless companies and even entire industries have come and gone, but they're still standing.

Through the ups and downs (mostly ups in their case), they've kept their passion and desire to innovate, and above all, a willingness to put the time in that it takes to succeed in the business world. I hope you find their insight as compelling as I did.

Enjoy!

Nate Mickelberg Editor, Fargo INC!

linkedin.com/in/natemickelberg

JUly 2016

Volume 1 Issue 7

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

Publisher Mike Dragosavich

drago@spotlightmediafargo.com

General Manager Brent Tehven

brent@spotlightmediafargo.com

CREATIVE

Editorial Director Andrew Jason

andrew@spotlightmediafargo.com

Editor Nate Mickelberg

nate@spotlightmediafargo.com

Graphic Designers Sarah Geiger, Ryan Koehler, Brittney Richter

Head Photographer J. Alan Paul Photography jesse@jalanpaul.com

Photographer Nate Mickelberg Contributors Heather Ostrowski, Marisa

Jackels, Nate Mickelberg, Craig Whitney, Mike Allmendinger

Copy Editors Erica Rapp, Lauren Wilson, Sam Stark

ADVERTISING

Senior Account Tracy Nicholson Manager tracy@spotlightmediafargo.com

Marketing/Sales Paul Hoefer

paul@spotlightmediafargo.com

Paul Bougie

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Tank McNamara

tank@spotlightmediafargo.com

Jenny Johnson

jenny@spotlightmediafargo.com

Business Heather Hemingway Operations Manager Administrative Nicole Houseal

CIRCULATION

Delivery Mitch Rapp

Fargo INC! is published by Spotlight Media LLC. Copyright 2016 Fargo INC! & fargoinc.com. All rights reserved. No parts of this periodical may be reproduced without written permission of Fargo INC! Fargo INC! & spotlightmediafargo.com will not be held responsible for any errors or omissions found in the magazine or on fargoinc.com. Spotlight Media LLC., accepts no liability for the accuracy of statements made by the advertisers.

Meet the Team MIKE

BRENT

BOUGIE

MICHAEL

BRITTNEY

NICOLE

TRACY

ERICA

JESSE

ANDREW

JOE

SARAH

PAUL

HEATHER

NATE

SAM

RYAN

TANK

LAUREN

LAURA

JENNY

To learn more about Spotlight Media, go to spotlightmediafargo.com

RYLEE

CONTENTS COVER STORY

JULY 2016

ADDITIONAL CONTENT

16

The June elections are over. Now what?

33

VIRs (very important rooms) for VIPs

Hosting an out-of-town job candidate or just trying to impress your boss?

We've got you covered with a guide to the nicest rooms and suites in Fargo-Moorhead.

38

The bodacious brander

Using two of her own clients, marketing expert and MSPIRE CEO Amanda McKinnon explains why branding is so much more than just a logo or a slogan.

46

65

Faces of Business: Nick Killoran

Great North Insurance Founder Nick Killoran talks about winning the FMWF Chamber's Small Business of the Year award and his unique approach to management.

70

Office Vibes: Revel Digital

We can guarantee you one thing: this Downtown Fargo space has more mannequins and talking kiosks than any other in Fargo-Moorhead.

78

Events Calendar

All of the speakers, events and meetups you don't want to miss in the month of July.

Mind Shift

One Fargo nonprofit is working to employ one of the most underutilized workforces in the area: those on the autism spectrum.

52

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JULY 2016

Paul Singh's very honest tips for Midwest "tech hubs"

CONTRAST & COLLABORATION Lessons from a 30-year partnership

For more than 30 years, polar opposites and business partners Randy Thorson and Warren Ackley have been flourishing in one of the hardest industries to flourish in. So how exactly do they do it?

The venture capitalist and original partner in 500 Startups stopped in Fargo recently on his nationwide tour of burgeoning tech communities.

56

Radical transparency

A luxury fashion startup with big goals and Fargo roots

62

Designing our city for health

84

Brand yourself to get a leg up Go Fargo Jobs's Rick Berg on how you can apply a tried and true business strategy to yourself.

85

8 things to know when creating a personal brand

Preference Personnel Client Relations Manager Heather Ostrowski shares her insights and advice.

88

Job listings

Two full pages of listings at some of the best local companies to work at

CHAMBER

Burgum and Stenehjem at the June 1 gubernatorial debate that was hosted by the FMWF Chamber

THE JUNE ELECTIONS ARE OVER.

NOW WHAT? W atching the election results come in on the evening of June 14, there were some surprises. Most notably, the race for governor was watched with great interest, with many speculating that Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem would pull out a victory over our own Fargo businessman Doug Burgum. Yet, as the precincts started reporting and as the night went on, it became more clear that voters wanted a change. And to the surprise of some, Burgum prevailed, clinching the GOP seat for the November general election.

While Burgum received 59 percent of the vote statewide, we should also note that he received a whopping 72 percent in Cass County. Burgum also pulled big numbers out West. While an earlier poll put Burgum largely behind Stenehjem, his heavy campaigning may be what won him over across the state, and it’s undeniable that the voters have spoken.

As it now looks like Burgum will receive the title of Governor of North Dakota in November, the question for us becomes: what does this mean for the state? How will it affect us in Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo?

That answer remains to be seen, but with

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JULY 2016

By Craig Whitney ⸋ Photos by J. Alan Paul Photography and courtesy of 5Foot20 Design Lounge

Burgum’s business acumen, I have high hopes that he would lead our state in a positive direction. Burgum has said that his priorities will be to cut runaway spending, reform the property tax system, support term limits, oppose Obamacare and create high-paying jobs.

His first challenge in office will be to unite legislators. He must let the dust settle quickly from the campaign before starting an endless list of meetings across the state with legislators on both sides of the aisle,

Craig Whitney is the president and CEO of the Fargo Moorhead West Fargo Chamber of Commerce.

Candidates for Fargo City Commission meet with FMWF Chamber members during a "Cracker Barrel" session.

The session allowed the two sides to interact and discuss the candidates' plans, if elected.

phenomenal growth, this can only continue to make West Fargo even greater.

As the primary election is now behind us, I thank all the candidates for running and applaud everyone who got out to vote. It’s incredibly important that we as a business community express our opinions on those in elected offices by showing up at the polls.

as well as setting an agenda that will result in a productive 2017 session. He must work closely with current governor Jack Dalrymple and others to ensure a smooth transition.

On a local level, I'm excited to see where fresh energy will take the new Fargo City Commission. The many years of legislative experience that Tony Grindberg brings to the commission will be an added boost on important issues such as the FM Diversion and his expertise in economic development.

With Grindberg, who is an active Chamber member and supporter, and John Strand taking the two open seats, I see these results as largely positive for the metro and for the Chamber.

In West Fargo, the two incumbents, Mike Thorstad and Mark Simmons, won re-election, and in a city that is seeing

It was an honor for us to host events leading up to the elections to help voters make informed decisions. On June 1, WDAY helped us broadcast a debate between Burgum and Stenehjem to the whole state, and one week later, our Cracker Barrel with the Fargo City Commission candidates provided another opportunity to hear everyone’s priorities as we all pondered which candidate we would circle on the ballot.

As November’s election now looms ahead, I'm eager to see how both the national and local races and measures play out, and I encourage everyone to research the candidates and to vote informed. As a chamber, we look forward to providing more opportunities to do just that.

FMWF Chamber of Commerce fmwfchamber.com 202 1st Ave. N, Moorhead 218-233-1100

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CO NT RA ST CO & L kl ey

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W ar 18

JULY 2016

By Nate Mickelberg Photos by J. Alan Paul Photography

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OR AT IO N

OL & LA B W

arren Ackley and Randy Thorson are the brains behind such downtown staples as JL Beers, the Old Broadway, and CI Sport—as well as countless other businesses over the past three-plus decades—and if they have one secret to success, it's that there are no secrets.

Their advice (though they probably wouldn't want to call it that) is straightforward and simple: find a partner you trust, hire loyal people, and always, always, always have ideas. Here are eight things the long-standing partners have learned about each other and about business during their time together.

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NUMBER

One is the loneliest number.

Three's a crowd.

Warren: "We've talked about people who don't have partners.

How do they operate? People say partnerships are tough, but we think having just a sole proprietorship would be even tougher. The person doesn't have anybody to talk to.

"Who's he going to trust? Who can Randy trust more than me? A partner who's fully invested with him and who's been together with him for 35 years. It's a big deal to have that."

Randy: "Yeah, to say, 'I don't think it works that way.' You know, you just look at the other person and go, 'What were you drinking?'

We've had those. It's like, 'Wow, that seemed like such a good idea last night at two in the morning.'

Then, you get up the next day and go, 'You didn't write that one down, did you?'"

Warren: "It's actually easier for us, the way we've developed. To have that partner to tell you 'no' sometimes."

WHAT'S IN THE NAME? While there's been some debate over the years, Thorson and Ackley confirmed that JL Beers is, in fact, named after Jim Lauerman, an old friend of theirs (now deceased) and the former owner of a popular, eponymous local hangout on Broadway in Downtown Fargo.

This may be unwelcoming news for the restaurateurs' sons, who, perhaps jokingly, believe the burger joint's name to be derived from a combination of their initials.

FEATURE

Sometimes you just need someone to listen.

2. 2.

NUMBER

Randy: "He and I are different, and that's why it works so well. You need sounding boards. When you have ideas, you have to hear those ideas out loud. And between my wife and Warren, they do a lot of listening."

deal because I just keep thinking about it and thinking about it and can't sleep. And so I have to tell somebody the next day. So it's either my wife right away in the morning or Warren when we get together.

Warren: "Really, I am a sounding board for him. He throws it all out there, and then I'll grab on to something that I do like and we'll develop it from there. Randy is the type of person who's just all out there. And it gives some people headaches. It gives me a headache sometimes."

"I'll say, 'This is what I've been thinking about. This is how we're going to do it.' And then if he doesn't react like, 'OK, that's a good one,' then it's, 'OK, here's another twist on the same thing.'

And then do that 20 times with 20 different scenarios. We start talking and start massaging it.

Randy: "It gives my wife a headache.

"Then we start looking at money and financing. Is there a potential for sales? I love doing that.

Absolutely love it."

"I'll throw 30 scenarios out on one

21

FEATURE

NUMBER Warren Ackley, the listener

Find the yin to your yang.

Opposites attract and prosper.

Warren: "Randy gave me a sign one day that he picked up in Mexico. It says, 'Dream it. Plan it. Do it.' And I know he thinks he does the first two and that I'm supposed to 'do it,' which is fine with me."

Randy: "That's why he finishes up so well. You see, that's where the details of an idea come from. You have to have the other guy who's going, 'We can do this. We can do that.' Ideas and concepts are hard to come up with.

"All of a sudden, you can tell when

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it starts to flow because he's on his phone doing research. And then I know that's the idea. Because that's what motivated him and it will motivate everybody else.

"That truly is so damn fun. If I could do that until I was 90, that's what I would do every day, is have those conversations and those ideas."

Warren: "When he's doing that, it's kind of like fishing. He's just throwing out all the bait he can find, and I'll latch on to something and think, 'I think we can do this.'"

CROSSCOUNTRY CREATIVITY While you're most likely familiar with Borrowed Buck's Roadhouse, an Americana­ and country musicthemed bar and restaurant with locations in Fargo, Bismarck, and Sioux Falls, S.D., you probably don't know its origin story.

Ackley and Thorson conceived the restaurant— everything from the theme to the name to the slogans—on a 10-day, crosscountry road trip they took together.

"The name is a story," Thorson explains. "In country music, their music is a story.

And you could keep that going with Borrowed Bucks.

We borrowed the money and it was like the songs and it just kind of fit."

Randy Thorson, the talker

NUMBER

Get the extra cooks out of the kitchen.

Warren: "It gets more confusing, the more people in the group.

That's why we don't like to be on big committees, to be honest.

Because you don't get anything done. Randy sits on a couple boards, but it's tough.

"You have eight people trying to get their opinions in and it just stops. Where the two of us can actually make a decision and get things done."

FEATURE

NUMBER

The four tenets of leadership: trust, inspiration, recognition, discipline Warren: (1)"In order to lead people, you have to get them to trust you. Trust is a big thing. I trust Randy. He trusts me, I think. But as far as our people under us, that's what we get them to do. We get them to trust us.

(2) "The second thing is we inspire them. Is Randy an inspiration? Am I an inspiration? I think we are to our people. We're an inspiration to each other on things.

JUST ONE OF THE GUYS (AND GALS)

(3) "The third thing is recognize what a person does right. I understand I don't want to do anything Randy does. With accounting, I'll stay out of that.

And he respects what I do and tells me when I do things right. Very important in management that you do that to people underneath you.

Thorson says he believes that one of the reasons he and Ackley are able to instill a sense of trust and loyalty in their employees is that they themselves have extensive experience in the trenches.

(4) "And then the fourth thing is the discipline. You have to have that.

But you have to have the first three first."

A sampling of wings from the Old Broadway, where Ackley has been for more than 38 years. He started out in marketing and operations and then became an owner in the early '80s.

"I think we're approachable," Thorson says. "We do a lot of our own work. I cooked for three months at Sergio's one summer because we didn't have enough cooks.

I traveled on the road for 20 years and cooked on lines and did prep work. That's how I got my start at the Fargo Biltmore.

I was a sautĂŠ and broiler cook and then did their accounting during the day.

"Warren was an operations guy and a marketing guy for the Old Broadway prior to both of us getting involved in ownership there.

But that's how we learned everything.

We were doing everything."

25

FEATURE

New ideas are the lifeblood of entrepreneurship.

6. 6.

Randy: "To me, the worst thing in the world is you have something that's not working. That's OK. It happens all the time. It happens to us. But I always feel really, really good when we have an answer.

"I feel awful if I have something that's not running and I can't figure it out and can't come up with something. If Warren and I can't come up with something together, that's the worst. Now you're in trouble. But I could be losing money every month as long as I have an idea.

NUMBER

"Vinyl Taco wasn't busy for us when we started. It was a slow process. It's one of our busiest stores now. You just keep critiquing and working it and coming up with ideas."

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"As long as I know where I'm going.

It's that light at the end of the tunnel. That's so exciting. It doesn't matter how much we're losing. We always have a plan."

Warren: "You're going to have difficulties, on occasion. And we have. But you need the ideas.

And it's kind of fun to do that. The challenge of digging out of a hole sometimes is fun, as strange as that sounds. To bring (a place) back is great.

"I've been at the Old Broadway for 38 years. I've seen peaks and valleys. And there's nothing better than that peak."

SECRET SAUCE The restaurant industry is a notoriously difficult one to turn a profit in, yet Ackley and Thorson have been doing it at many different restaurants for many years. One explanation, among many others, might be the incredible lengths they'll go to in order to set their establishments apart from the competition.

There are countless examples, one such being the time Ackley removed the plaster from the wall of the Downtown Fargo JL Beers to make the space three-fourths of an inch wider. But perhaps nothing encompasses their commitment to the little things more than a trip Thorson took on behalf of their Downtown Fargo artisan taco spot Vinyl Taco.

"Just to make our own tortillas that we could cut and fry for chips, we went to the factory for the tortilla machine," he says.

"So we went there and they said, 'We'll fire it up for you.'

We're in the middle of a factory. It's like a welding shop almost.

And that same one we worked on that day, they shipped here. And that's what we're using today."

NUMBER

Passion is the antidote for burnout.

Warren: "Randy's heard this 100 times, but you know, my deal on that is: very few people die at work. Most people die at home in bed. So get out of bed and get to work. We enjoy work every day."

Randy: "You can feel frustration.

You can feel tired. But if you're truly motivated—for me, I just get a good night's sleep and I'm back on it the next day.

"Figuring it out is the fun part. I just love those different scenarios.

'If you do this, if you twist it this way.' That's fun for me. And our conversations can last four, five, six hours. We could drive all the way to Eau Claire, Wisc., and never turn on a radio and never stop talking.

"And sometimes I think he might want me to stop talking, but even when you're talking, you're creating more ideas and you're changing what you thought. And then you're bouncing that little idea off and he says one word and you go, 'Yes!' And it's so exciting."

FEATURE

IF YOU'RE NOT FIRST, YOU'RE LAST A natural curiosity and a desire to get out in front of the competition has served Thorson and Ackley well throughout their business careers.

"I like to do all the jobs before anybody else figures it all out," Thorson says.

"I wrote an entire guide to spinning music. Like how you create energy and the texture of a song and how it feels and motivates you to tap your toes.

"I was watching one of my DJs at one of our restaurants years ago, and he just created so much energy in the room with the music. And I wanted to know how he did that. So we actually studied that young man. And (the guide) is still used today by our DJs.

NUMBER

To whom much is given, much is expected.

Randy: "We like to talk about: let's take care of (our employees') headaches. What are their headaches? It's not just health insurance. We say, 'You get 40 hours a year to take an hour at a time.' Because I don't want you telling me that you're going to your son's baseball game. Just go.

"And sick days. It happens.

Whether it's kids or yourself. And your vacations. We take care of all of that and we pay very, very good salaries and we do then expect a great job."

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Warren: "What we pride ourselves on is loyalty. We have many people who have been with us for more than 20 years. And some 30. And that's a big deal. They know what we expect by now.

"We provide a very good life for them. And that's what I enjoy. I enjoy seeing their success. I feel bad when they don't have success.

I get the biggest charge out of that, seeing their success. I'm going to have success along with them obviously, but to see their successes is great, and that's why we can keep them so long."

"But you have to get there first. If you're there first, you're the winner. Because everyone looks at you and says, 'You're just copying ______.'

So if you can get there first, do it."

(very important rooms)

GUIDE

VIRs for VIPs

Whether you're an employer trying to woo a potential job candidate, hosting a visiting company executive, or helping a new hire and their family find temporary housing while getting settled in the FM area, this guide to some of the finest VIP room options in town is great for a variety of professional needs.

Clubhouse Hotel & Suites fargo.clubhouseinn.com 4400 15th Ave. S, Fargo 701-282-5777

The presidential suite at the Clubhouse Hotel & Suites is one-of-a-kind and breathtaking.

You're greeted with two-story, floor-to-ceiling windows and a panoramic view of Fargo from the balcony.

Amenities: • Kitchenette featuring granite countertops, microwave, coffee maker, toaster, full-size refrigerator and four bar stools • Dining room with table and seating for six • Gas fireplace with stone hearth • 55-inch flat-screen TV • Surround sound • Outdoor balcony with seating for up to 20 guests

• Second-level bedroom with king-sized bed and 42-inch flat-screen TV • Master bathroom featuring a walk-in shower and separate Whirlpool tub • Complimentary shuttle service to the airport and surrounding areas • Room service provided by Porter Creek Hardwood Grill (connected to hotel) 33

GUIDE

Ramada Plaza Fargo Hotel & Conference Center ramadafargo.com 1635 42nd St. S, Fargo 701-277-9000

The Ramada offers 17 specialty suites, all equipped with a microwave, refrigerator and Keurig coffee maker.

Governor's Suites • Feature an extra-large bedroom with a Whirlpool • Bathroom with two entry doors and an impressive living and dining area • Glass-top dining room table makes the room comfortable for interviews and business meetings • Large wall of windows enhances both spacious rooms

Grand Suites • Two bedrooms • Two spacious bathrooms • Whirlpool • Wet bar • Fine furnishings, including a mahogany dining room table with seating for eight • Lighted cabinet with Riedel glassware

The Presidential Suite • 1,000 square feet • Whirlpool in bedroom • King-sized bed • Spacious living and dining rooms • Kitchenette • Double-entry doors

A staple of the Downtown Fargo skyline, the Radisson provides not only great accommodations but also a terrific view and access to the heart of downtown.

Radisson Hotel Fargo

radisson.com/fargo-hotelnd-58102/fargo 201 5th St. N, Fargo 701-232-7363

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Two-room Suite • Complimentary welcome gift for VIPs • High-floor view overlooking the city • King-size bed • Living room area with a pull-out couch and two sitting chairs • Jacuzzi tub and glass walkin shower • Two flat-screen TVs • Robe and slippers • Dry bar with sink, refrigerator and microwave • Coffee maker • iPod docking station with alarm clock

Executive Corner King • Complimentary welcome gift for VIPs • Corner view overlooking Fargo with two sets of windows • King-size bed • Flat-screen TV • Robe and slippers • Refrigerator and microwave • Coffee maker • iPod docking station with alarm clock

GUIDE

Four Points by Sheraton Fargo fourpointsfargo.com 5064 23rd Ave. S, Fargo 701-364-0000

The brand new Four Points by Sheraton is centrally located and down the street from the new Sanford hospital, which will open in 2017. With easy access to Interstates 94 and 29, it's just five minutes from the West Acres Shopping Center, 15 minutes from Hector International Airport and just five minutes from Downtown Fargo.

Hotel amenities • Urban chic-inspired, modern hotel for business and leisure travelers • Oversized one-bedroom suites for an extended length of stay • Flat-panel 43-inch HDTVs with expanded cable • True North Bistro offers full menu, specialty cocktails and local craft beer

• In-room dining available for breakfast and dinner • Swimming pool, Whirlpool and fitness center • Complimentary high-speed internet • 24-hour business center and pantry • 1,600 square feet of flexible meeting space

One-bedroom King Suite • Complimentary WiFi • Separate bedroom with king-sized Heavenly® Bed • Fully-equipped kitchen • Spa-inspired bathroom with rainfall showerheads and all-natural bath amenities Element Fargo • Oversized desk and ergonomic elementfargo.com 925 19th Ave. E, West Fargo chair • Ample seating and functional work 701-478-5333 space • Separate living area • Full sofa bed provides extra sleeping space • Two 40-inch flat-screen TVs • Hot breakfast

Family Suite • Complimentary WiFi • Sleeps up to sixguests - king bed, twin bunk beds and full sofa bed • Connecting room available • Fully-equipped kitchen • Spa-inspired bathroom with rainfall showerheads and all-natural bath amenities • Oversized desk and ergonomic chair • Ample seating and functional work space • Living room area • 65-inch flat-screen TV • Hot breakfast

37

BRANDING

THE BODACIOUS BRANDER

by NATE MICKELBERG photos by J. ALAN PAUL PHOTOGRAPHY visuals courtesy of MSPIRE

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BRANDING

I

f you're like me, you've long been confused by celebrity endorsements.

Surely, no reasonable person is sitting in front of their TV thinking, "I'm going to drink Pepsi because Beyoncé does."

So why do they do it?

Turns out, it's about emotion. Companies want you to transfer the positive emotions you feel toward a musician or an athlete and associate it with their shoe or soft drink. They're not selling you a product. They're selling you an experience.

And according to Fargo marketing expert and MSPIRE CEO Amanda McKinnon, this approach to branding should be the same whether you're Coca-Cola or the momand-pop down the street.

We recently spoke with the industry veteran about what "brand" means to her and how she approaches the branding process with her own clients. We even had her walk us through a couple of real-life examples.

Q&A Q: There are few words in the business world as ambiguous as "brand." What does that word mean to you?

A: I really feel that branding is the feeling that someone gets from your business. It also means recognition when you’re ultimately doing it well.

Branding can have its negative side, too, depending on what’s going on with the company. And so that’s where I think it is so much more than a logo. I'll talk to people about branding and they'll say, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve got my logo, my business cards, my stationery.’ And I’m like, ‘No, no, it is so much bigger than that.'

Q: With how much branding has changed in the last 10-15 years, do you think it's been good for companies?

A: I think so, yeah. I feel like people

expect more and are a lot more educated with the digital world that we have now. There is so much information that people can find out about you before they even meet you. Brands need to be held more accountable for what they're doing.

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BRANDING

BRANDING

=

EMOTIONS

Q: You mentioned something about a "front stage-back stage" approach to branding.

What does that mean?

A: It's something the Disney Institute talks about. And how they should really be no different. How you are in the break room should be no different than how you are in front of customers. Because it's hard to make that transition quickly. You go on a 15-minute break and you’re having whatever conversation you’re having and then you’re like, 'Oh, hello, Mary Sue, welcome to your appointment.'

They talked about Snow White smoking or having a piece of gum and then heading out to hang out with the kids. The front stage and back stage should blend and be positive.

Another thing I tell a lot of my clients when I start working with them, 'You can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on marketing, advertising, and branding, but if you are not working well internally, it's not going to matter.

You need to be working in tandem.'

Q: When a company first comes to you for either branding or rebranding advice, what's the very first step you take with them?

A: I absolutely always sit down with

+ EXPERIENCES +

them and just have a really freeflowing conversation. I like to get the vibe of them just talking versus: question-answer, question-answer.

Then, I have a specific questionnaire that I send to them and I say, 'I want you to sit down with a clear head and go through it.' And it really just helps me get inside of their brain.

For example, I'm working with a gal who's opening an international apparel company and while I was designing her logo, I was listening to her favorite playlist. I just wanted to get into her headspace and what she listens to when she's in her creative mind.

Q: You say that one of the ways your approach to marketing is different is in the way you speak and interact with your clients. Can you elaborate on that?

A: One of the things I've felt over

the years with marketing people is that a lot of them are so focused on marketing being cool and we have to use marketing speak. But I think, 'Let's just talk like people.' We don't need acronyms. We're confusing our own customers trying to look smarter.

QUALITY PRODUCT

with a client a couple weeks ago and they kept wanting to change things and I just said, 'You guys are looking old and you're not old. Let's not do that.' And that's how I talk to my clients and it seems to be working.

I'm open.

Q: You've been around long enough to really see first-hand how things have changed as our world has moved more from brick and mortar to digital. How has that changed your approach to branding?

A: For me, it's that you're always having to stay on top of what is out there about you. It's just so important. People are constantly putting stuff out there on the internet and then you have social media, which is a whole 'nother beast.

Social media management, that's a full-time job. I manage social media accounts for some clients and my phone is constantly dinging.

Because I need to stay on top of it. If a message is sent to their business page or a post happens, I need to make sure that we're staying on top of it.

One thing I often find is that there are a lot of cooks in the kitchen so there are a lot of opinions and decisionmakers. I was working on a project

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hen Nick Woodard took over as CEO of United Savings Credit Union in 2013, he knew one thing: he needed to make credit unions cool. With an older client base—many of their customers are from the days when United Savings was a Burlington Northern employee credit union—he was determined to become relevant to a wider and younger demographic.

One of the first calls he made was to McKinnon, and since that time, he says "there is not one area in the improvements of our credit union that has not somehow been touched by her expertise."

These are just a few of the areas they've touched.

Experience

Apparel

"I said, 'Nick, I'm going to walk into your locations and tell you about the feelings they give me when I walk in.

And I'm going to help you change those feelings.'

"When I first walked into their downtown location, everything was

JULY 2016

"From a service perspective, I didn't know what they offered. There was nothing really on the walls. We just looked at that and went, 'Okay, someone may be coming in to do a deposit in their checking account, but do they know you have the Young Savers Club?' You want people to know what else you can offer them when they walk in your door, and there was really none of that happening.

"Since then, they've built their beautiful downtown location, and Nick and I worked with what we want on the walls, how we want everything set up. From a branding perspective, where should the brand be when people are walking in? That's been one of the coolest shifts I've seen from that customer experience perspective."

The two sides have worked together extensively over the past three and a half years developing and executing a marketing plan and creating general brand awareness for the Fargobased financial.

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grey. It wasn't welcoming. Even the setup of their tellers. You weren't seeing them right as you were walking in.

"Then there was what the employees were wearing. We needed to get them logoed apparel. As a woman, I get it. I don't want someone picking out clothes for me. So we really worked with the team and had the gals try on samples to make sure they're comfortable at work. Because

BRANDING

HIGHLIGHTS Twice received Credit Union Association of the Dakotas's Marketing & Communications Award for North/South Dakota

$17,392,735 increase Net new loans (Jan. 2013-present)

when someone feels comfortable, they work better."

Website

$10,266,728 increase Net new deposits (Jan. 2013-present)

1,791

New accounts

"The website is going to be totally redone. United Savings is also doing a lot of cool things with Apple Pay and evolving digitally, and we have to make sure the website is matching that because right now it doesn't.

It doesn't capture those kinds of technological advances."

Exterior and interior signage

"With the new location, one of the things we were talking about is letting people know what services you offer, as well as promotions on mortgage and things like that. And that's why Nick did the digital sign out front, so that we could continually change the message and keep on top of things.

"And then, when you talk about 'location, location, location,' their logo is up on top, it's huge and it's lit up. If you go down 10th Street and that whole area, you can't miss it."

Marketing products

"They're still important, especially with them being so involved in the community. Whether it's golf tournaments or whatever it is, if you're going to have anyone's logo in their hand, why not have it be yours?

But I think you need to look at what those items are. You don't want a cheap-looking Thermos. You don't want someone to use it one time, have it break and then associate you with that low-quality product."

Social media

"From a LinkedIn perspective, we've worked really hard to connect (Woodard) with the right people in the community and then have him be active on the platform. Because we want people to know what credit unions are doing and what United Savings is doing differently from banks and other credit unions. I did say to him, though, 'I don't want you constantly posting about the credit union. Curate content from other places, too.'"

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CLIENT

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ith an annual advertising budget of more than $1 million, hundreds of thousands of other dollars set aside for special events and two full-time marketing employees, regional heavy equipment dealer General Equipment & Supplies understands the importance of cultivating a strong brand.

They were looking beyond the day-today, though and wanted to think bigger picture. So they brought on McKinnon.

"She has been integral in building a visual brand we are proud of and messaging that aligns with our services and culture," says General Equipment VP of Sales & Marketing Jon Shilling.

"Things change with bigger companies because it all works together. Someone buys a dozer, they're eventually going to need parts, they're eventually going to need service. And so I'm always meeting within the different departments about both specific marketing strategies and branding and having those conversations about why it's important."

Brand guide

"One of the things we've worked really hard on is getting a consistent look with all of their advertising, regardless of what publication it goes in.

McKinnon not only helps design and write various content, she's also an integral part of planning and executing events like their Aggregate Expo, which costs about a quartermillion dollars to put on and attracts more than 600 people in the heavy equipment industry.

"We've developed and are continually working on a brand guide for them.

It's so important because there are so many moving parts with General Equipment that people need to be able to go to it and say, 'I'm looking at this piece that's been created and 'this is okay' or 'this is not okay.'

Here are some other rough edges she's helped General Equipment clean up.

"So when we're doing things like sending apparel to a vendor, (the vendor) knows how they can and can't use the logo, what colors it can be done in, etc. Basically, any person who we're working with, we want them to know what General Equipment is all about."

Inter-department communication

"From a VP level and ownership level, establishing a relationship with them has been super important because

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there are numerous divisions within the organization.

JULY 2016

Logo

"When I got there, they were using a bunch of different fonts, their logo was straight on some things and slanted on others, and I said right away, 'It's hard to read. Let's flip it to the way people actually read.'

"Then, their Canadian division's logo had a maple leaf in it, so we simplified and streamlined everything. People don't understand the importance of something like choosing a font family for your materials.

"I'll still see people wearing apparel with the old logo and say, 'Bob, throw that shirt away! I'll get you a new one.'

And I make it known that I'm serious."

MSPIRE mspire.com amanda@mspire.com 701-371-8369

NONPROFIT

Untapped potential

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things to know about autism in the workplace with Mind Shift's Cortnee Jensen

NONPROFIT

T

HE GOAL of Fargo nonprofit Mind Shift is not to get people on the autism spectrum working, says Director of Community Relations and Development Cortnee Jensen. At least, it's not their main job. She says the real end game is to get society to view people as unique individuals with unique skill sets.

By Nate Mickelberg Photos by J. Alan Paul Photography and courtesy of Mind Shift

"As we change and accommodate for people we know need accommodations," says Jensen, whose organization trains, develops and

helps find employment for people on the autism spectrum, "We are more accommodating for everyone."

With a number of high-profile partnerships already to their name and growing interest from other FM-area businesses, more and more companies are realizing the incredible potential of employees on the autism spectrum.

Jensen recently shared with us 10 things she wants the FM business community to know about autism in the workplace.

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HOW IT WORKS

0 1

Employees on the autism spectrum often have difficulty with change. While they excel at finding and learning a routine and doing it perfectly over and over, if that routine is changed, it can be a great challenge for them. Jensen gives an example.

"Let's say so-and-so's desk needs to move at work," she says. "Seems like a small thing to you and me, but to them, it's a change and it affects them.

"With their supervisor, we can let them know, 'Hey, if any changes are coming, let us be involved. We'll come on site, talk to them, walk them through the change. Then, we'll talk your staff through anything they need talking through and step back out again."

0 2

ASD (autism spectrum disorder) employees typically don't need additional supervision. They just need specific communication and very black-and-white directions. Jensen says that a number of companies that Mind Shift has partnered with have found that adopting this kind of communicative approach has a positive effect throughout an entire organization.

"That clear communication style, that directness, is actually better

by the numbers

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for everyone," Jensen says.

"When there's no ambiguity in what someone expects of you, everyone benefits from that."

0 3

For people with ASD in the workspace can be more than just a little confusing. It can actually be like living in a foreign country, Jensen says.

"We're talking about people who speak a different language," she explains. "Imagine going to Spain and having everyone around you speaking Spanish. You did your homework and learned 20 Spanish words, but you're missing a lot of what's going on with just your 20 words."

Jensen adds that it's actually an incomplete analogy, as so much of human interaction is non-verbal. While neuro-typical people, as she refers to them, can use things like gestures, posture, and tone of voice, people with ASD are often less capable of interacting this way and therefore are at an even greater disadvantage.

0 4

ASD employees are often incredibly efficient workers, due to the specific way their brains work, Jensen explains.

"In a normal brain, the inception of a thought is going to be in

85%

Unemployed or underemployed people on the autism spectrum

Utilizing an active network of autism spectrum-related organizations in FargoMoorhead, Mind Shift actively recruits, screens and trains individuals on the autism spectrum and then helps them secure employment at companies and in positions that match their skill set.

Jensen says that while it's fair to think of them as a liaison, the word falls short in some ways.

"It's a good word except that it gives the connotation that we will be stepping out after we make the initial connection," says Jensen, whose organization actually staffs and pays the ASD employees as part of their own team. "We don't do that. We have an ongoing relationship with the individuals, and it allows us to know what's happening in their work life and better understand the struggles that could become barriers for them in the workplace."

It also allows them to assume the risk on behalf of the partner companies. "'What if it doesn't work?

How do we terminate the relationship with this individual?' That feels kind of scary to businesses and understandably so," she says.

"We allow them to take that chance."

the prefrontal cortex," she says.

"It's going to to go around this crazy, little loop that happens very, very quickly. As all these neurons fire, it's going to touch on the emotional area of your brain, the kinesthetic area, the communication area. And it's going to bring it all seamlessly together before you get to your decision.

"What they believe about people with autism is that there's a short-circuiting that happens with that neurological pathway. Same origination of your thought, maybe the same fruition of the thought, but what happens is it's not touching on the social, emotional and communication areas in an appreciable way.

"But what are you getting out of that? Someone who thinks exponentially faster and who doesn't get distracted here, here, here and here."

0 5

Studies have shown that someone on the autism spectrum is nine times more likely to have suicidal thoughts than someone in the general population.

"What they report is that (people with ASD) don't have life satisfaction," Jensen says. "They don't have friendships, they don't have coworkers and they don't have a social network.

They're isolated.

"Because where do we get our social network? Often times from our jobs. Where do we get our sense of purpose? In our jobs and relationships. For someone on the autism spectrum, they report that the two hardest things to get are a job and a date. Two huge factors in happiness are severely affected by the disorder."

$8 million Approximate taxpayer price tag to support a person with ASD over a lifetime

Cortnee Jensen, Director of Community Relations and Development, Mind Shift

NONPROFIT

0 6

According to Jensen, even when a person on the autism spectrum is actively pursuing employment, it's difficult for them to get past what she calls a "highly prejudicial" interview process. Because we greatly value things like witty remarks and the ability to banter, she says that people with ASD typically struggle to leave the right impression on interviewers and potential employers.

"I present a lot, and one of the things I say is, 'I am your candidate,'" she says. "You bring me into a room to interview for almost any job—am I saying I could get any job? No. But I am the kind of candidate you want to hire. I'm going to make the interviewer feel comfortable.

I'm going to read his responses and when I say something that doesn't quite hit the mark, I'll see that and change direction.

"I can read you and therefore you're comfortable. If you're comfortable, you want to work with me. So I'm the kind of person who's going to get hired over and over again. But

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Alex, a Mind Shift employee who works at Appareo Systems in Fargo

what actually happened and whether it needs to go up to the next person in the chain to get taken care of or if it's just an anomaly. And he enjoys it. I would be mind-numbingly bored at that job."

I'm disorganized. I forget to do things often. I'm not your details girl. I'm the kind who's like, 'Squirrel!' But I'm not the person you want looking at your quality assurance testing for software.

I'm not detail-oriented enough."

0 8

0 7

Jensen says that the companies they work with often see unintended, secondary benefits from the partnership.

ASD employees are often not only willing but happy to accept positions that a lot of people wouldn't even consider.

Jensen points to one of their "specialists," which is what Mind Shift's ASD employees are called, whose job it is to analyze network reports at Fargo-based accounting firm Eide Bailly.

"One of our business partners is Appareo Systems," she says.

"And Appareo hired one of our guys, Alex, to do assembly work. And not long ago, one of the leaders at Appareo came to me and said that he walked around the manufacturing floor and started asking questions about how people feel having Mind Shift involved and how people feel about Alex.

"Forrest will sit for hours at a time and go through all these lines of information to look for deviations and problems," she says. "And then he figures out, based on the codes it spits out,

"Every person he talked to said, 'Alex is wonderful. We enjoy having him as a coworker. We love that the company we work for cares about the community and cares about the individual.

It makes us feel like if something were to happen to us, you would support us.' And he said that it increased loyalty to the organization."

0 9

When determining whether someone would be a good fit at a company, Jensen says that one part of the six-week training and development process is the "LEGO hangouts" her organization hosts. The idea, she says, is both to better get to know the potential job candidates and, at least in part, to simulate a work-like environment.

4:1

9x

7

Male to female ratio for ASD

Likelihood of someone on autism spectrum to have suicidal thoughts compared to general population

Current Mind Shift partners

JULY 2016

NONPROFIT

Eide Bailly

Anne Carlsen Center

Sky Blue Technology

dogIDs

Aldevron

Botlink

"We can get an idea of how they work with instructions, how they work with communicating with each other around needing things and giving things back and forth, how they work socially, and if they can explain their needs," she says. "It gives us a really good idea about whether there would be compatibility in the workforce.

It's a really good starting point."

1 0

According to Jensen, ASD employees are often far more efficient than their neuro-typical coworkers, which can cause problems both in the hiring process and with a company's pay structure.

"I have a coworker who is a trained mechanical engineer. She has an incredible level of focus, and because of that intensive focus, may not have the stamina to work 40 hours.

"Well, when a place is looking at hiring engineers, it's a fulltime, 40-hour-a-week job. So if she wants to work fewer hours or ramp up her hours over time, society goes 'Okay, you're unemployable.' Which is ridiculous."

"In her 30 hours a week that she works, she is likely to get just as

much done as a 40-hour-a-week employee. The difference is we're not asking you to pay her for 40 hours. We're asking you to pay her for 30."

If your company is interested in partnering with Mind Shift or learning more about the organization, you can contact Cortnee Jensen at: Mind Shift mindshift.works 624 Main Ave., Fargo 844-288-2808 *NOTE: Mind Shift was, until recently, known as Specialisterne.

While still a part of the international network of the same name, Jensen says that Mind Shift determined that a rebrand was necessary in order to create a better connection with the organization's mission and, frankly, to make the name easier to say.

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4,000

Mind Shift "specialists"

Estimate of people in FM area on autism spectrum

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EMERGING PRAIRIE

Appareo Systems

NEXT

CURRENT MIND SHIFT PARTNERS

EMERGING PRAIRIE

PAUL SINGH (LEFT) AND EMERGING PRAIRIE CO-FOUNDER AT DRONE FOCUS CON LAST MONTH

PAUL SINGH'S VERY HONEST TIPS FOR MIDWEST "TECH HUBS" f anyone is qualified to offer advice to the so-called "tech hubs" blooming across America, it is perhaps Paul Singh, the man who is taking three laps around the country to study how these communities operate and grow. The venture capitalist, an original partner with 500 Startups who now totes a portfolio of more than 1,600 companies globally, got sick of life on an airplane last summer. He sold his car and bought a pick-up truck and a massive, 30foot customized Airstream plastered with the words, “Results Junkies.” And he set off on what he calls the Results Junkies National Tech Tour.

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BY MARISA JACKELS Lead Writer & Social Media Manager, Emerging Prairie PHOTOS BY Paul Flessland and courtesy of Emerging Prairie

“I don’t want anybody to believe that we have this all figured out.”

In his cross-country voyage, the Virginianative is spending about a week in each city, meeting with local founders, investors and policymakers to offer advice and potentially invest in a company or two. He’s focusing on cities of 300,000 or less and has recently spent quite a bit of time in the Midwest.

In that time, he has learned a lot about the common strengths and weaknesses of these smaller “tech hubs.” Here are a few nuggets of advice he shared during his week-long stay in Fargo.

The four ingredients for a healthy tech hub: First of all, there are four ingredients that Singh has identified as factors in a successful tech hub.

1. Coworking space: A place for people to work together and meet each other 2. Event space: Sometimes combined with the coworking space. Again, as a hub for people to gather and meet each other 3. An angel group: Angel investors are a necessary fuel for startup growth "because venture capitalists can’t really write the first check," Singh says.

4. A code school: Because talent is a huge problem for tech companies, particularly outside of the Silicon Valley and in the Midwest. “We have to give adults a way to learn technology,” Singh said. “That’s going to be our generation pretty soon. We have to train more people to understand technology.”

Why the focus on technology? Because, as Singh emphasized, technology is

the fundamental driver of growth in the industrialized world.

“Tech companies will never create the majority of jobs,” he says. “What happens in the tech-enabled sector is you’re going to have more highly paid people, those people are now buying an extra beer at happy hour, taking family out for meals, movies once a week. All those things are trickling down and creating even more jobs.”

“What happens in the tech sector is really, really important,” he says.

Takeaway: Look at your city. Do you have these ingredients? If not, how can they be implemented?

Company building is not community building.

Another observation Singh has made during from his travels is that communities are often saturated with resources to help propel individuals into launching a business. But what happens after the initial launch?

“You’ve got 1 Million Cups and the Lean Startup, all these things that make it easier than ever to start,” Singh said. “But what happens after you’ve made your first dollar of revenue? How do we start building resources for people after they start?”

Part of the problem is that the focus is sometimes on the wrong type of development, he says. In each city he visits, Singh does a debrief with local accelerators and coworking spaces. What he sees over and over is that often these places are very

EMERGING PRAIRIE good at building community but not as good at building companies.

“I think what we have to admit to ourselves is that company-building and communitybuilding are two very different things,” he says. “Community-building is really about consistently doing events and being inclusive. We want to encourage people to start and celebrate entrepreneurship.

Company building is about curation and urgency. To help people build their company, we don’t need another networking event.

We don’t need another conference. What we need is to admit that it’s different. We have to ask, 'What do these founders need?'”

Singh offers a solution: a weekly event that is only accessible for people with at least $1 of revenue. A dinner, a cheap hot dog, whatever, he says, but give the founders a separate place to meet.

“We need to give them a safe space to talk about the challenges they are facing,” he says, adding that those challenges can be emotional and/or tactical.

Singh has been hosting these types of meals along his trip and has said the overall feedback is, “I didn’t realize there were so many people out there like me.”

Takeaway: Consider a founders-only meet-up for those with $1+ of revenue.

Drop the dinner-party etiquette. Talk traction.

One of the biggest cries Singh has heard from startups is the need for better access to capital. It’s one heard here in Fargo as well.

A survey taken in 2015 identified early-stage funding as the biggest concern for nearly a

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third of local startups.

Singh, however, sees the problem elsewhere.

“The real challenge is that the founders in the Midwest are taking dinner-party etiquette and applying it to business conversations and then wondering why no one pays attention,” he says.

The problem is not that there isn’t enough money to go around. In fact, he says, there’s a growing number of investors who don’t care where you are located. Singh himself has a portfolio of companies in 60 countries and almost every state, he says.

So quit complaining, he says.

“If you’re sitting in Fargo and want to raise money on the coast, lazy founders complain.

Smart founders ask, 'How can I get the attention of people who aren’t here in Fargo?'” he says. “If you want to raise money from the coast, start talking like the coast.”

That means talking about traction. Singh said he’s heard many pitches in the Midwest

where the founders spend 10-12 minutes talking about the product and the passion, burying the traction that investors need to hear.

“If you have no customers and are talking about product the whole time, then don’t be surprised when no Fargo investor or outside investor wants to invest,” he says. “If you have any sort of traction, start with that.”

Takeaway: When pitching your company, talk traction.

Get the big picture.

Likewise, Singh says, don’t make the mistake of zeroing in too much on your hometown when starting a company. He encourages both investors and founders to look outside their hometown for investments and competition.

“If you’re a founder sitting in Fargo, your responsibility is not just to raise money in Fargo. Your responsibility is to raise it everywhere else,” he says. “You cannot look at Fargo as its own microbiome. You’re up

EMERGING PRAIRIE NEXT

"We want to encourage people to start and celebrate entrepreneurship."

STARTUP founders to think with a broader perspective.

Ever since the internet was introduced to the world, “we don’t have to be coupled with where we’re from anymore,” Singh says.

“It is interesting that you’re building solutions to the problems of North Dakota, but founders think about problems much bigger than North Dakota,” he says. “Just because you live in ag/drone country, it doesn’t mean those are your only options.”

Takeaway: When thinking about problemsolving, think with a global lens.

While he’s open to offering his advice, Singh is very clear about one thing: he does not have it all figured out. These are simply observations he’s picked up on his journey, bits of wisdom to chew on and learn from.

“I don’t want anybody to believe that we have this all figured out,” he said.

What he does know, however, is that technology — and all companies will eventually become tech-enabled companies, he says — is the driving force of economic growth.

against other people doing the same thing.”

This means, too, that the problems founders are solving need not and should not apply to their home base alone. Here in North Dakota,

for instance, a huge part of the economy is agriculture and energy and a host of startups have risen to cater to those industries. Yet, While it’s okay to capitalize on that access, Singh encourages founders and future

“Tech companies won’t create the majority of jobs,” he said. “But what happens in the tech sector, in Fargo, in North Dakota, will determine the outcome of every other resident around you.”

In other words, the blossoming “tech hubs” both here in Fargo and elsewhere around the world are worth our attention.

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STARTUP SPOTLIGHT

RADICAL TRANSPARENCY OLIVER CABELL

Why Fargo's Scott Gabrielson just might be the next big fashion entrepreneur

BY Nate Mickelberg PHOTOS BY J. Alan Paul Photography and courtesy of Oliver Cabell

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“Honestly, it would be to create a job I can have for the next 30 years,” says the 29-yearold Fargo native and founder of Oliver Cabell, an online accessories startup that’s hoping to disrupt the luxury fashion industry. “I can’t think

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hen asked how he would define success with his recently launched startup, Scott Gabrielson’s answer surprises.

of a better way to spend my time than building a long-lasting company that bakes its values and mission-thinking directly into its DNA.” Gabrielson is aiming for both of those things, to be sure, but his modest response to the question is unexpected, considering his impressive résumé and ambitious nature.

Gabrielson is a graduate of both the top-ranked Carlson School of Management at the University

Oliver Cabell’s focus will be accessories—mainly bags and leather goods—a decision that Gabrielson says stems from the fact that within traditional brands, bags are the most demanded, and in turn, hold the highest markups. He says they're also less trend-focused, don't require sizing and are items you can use for 10-20 years.

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of Minnesota and the MBA program at England’s prestigious University of Oxford, and before spending two and a half years in mergers and acquisitions for a large nonprofit, he worked for two years in investment banking in Minneapolis.

It was around 2013—during his time at the nonprofit—that the entrepreneurial bug first bit him.

“This was when Warby Parker and the idea of direct-toconsumer was just starting

to come to fruition,” says Gabrielson, referring to the billion-dollar prescription glasses brand. “By cutting out traditional middle men, you can create higher-quality goods at a lower price, while completely controlling the experience with the consumer. Warby Parker proved that maximizing value for consumers is one of the best ways to create a long-lasting, purposeful brand.”

100 percent of Oliver Cabell sales will be done via their website (olivercabell.com).

STARTUP

Gabrielson says that while he really admired this approach, he wasn’t sure what industry could benefit the most from it.

Then, one of the biggest international news stories of 2013 gave him a nudge.

“In 2013, one of the largest apparel factories in Bangladesh collapsed,” says Gabrielson referring to the Rana Plaza building collapse that killed more than 1,100 people and injured around 2,500 others. “There was complete ignorance by American brands on how its goods were being produced, as most of the companies were solely focused on lowering the cost of production.

“It’s what led me into trying to understand if the higherend space was functioning the same way. What the Rana Plaza factory collapse brought to surface was that a lot of fast-fashion brands were going to emerging markets and producing in run-down factories with terrible working conditions.

What we quickly discovered after visiting factories in Asia was that a fair amount of the traditional high-end brands are taking a similar approach.

The problem is that it’s nearly impossible for the consumer to know. Furthermore, there are three large conglomerates that essentially control the entire

Gabrielson: "Most brands follow a traditional retail path in selling their goods and leverage a wholesale model. For instance, they'll sell to a larger department store for two and a half times the cost to make. This retailer typically marks up the product another two and a half times. You now have an item that costs $100 to make, for instance, being sold for $600. It's a fairly inefficient system for the customer, as no value is added when the price moves from $250 to $600.

"However, the approach is quite different with high-end products. Large public companies own the majority of these brands, which are sold directly through its own retail store, where the mark-ups are much different. Typically, these products are marked up 12-20 times the cost to make, justified through brand heritage and reputation. The problem is that these companies keep the brand but continually change the way they make things, and it has never been in the interest of consumers."

luxury fashion space, roughly 75 percent of the $220 billion industry, which allows them to get creative in how they present their offerings to consumers.”

Gabrielson also says that there is a legal loophole that allows brands to claim origination in countries where the majority of their product isn’t actually made.

“We learned that a lot of the traditional high-end brands are producing in less-than-ideal factories in Asia,” he explains, “But if you look on their products or go to their websites, they’re claiming origination in Italy—Italian fabrics, Italian manufacturing.”

“Since a few companies have such control of the industry, they can produce large quantities in massive factories in Asia, ship them to Europe to do the finishing touches—the last five percent—and then claim origination in Italy.”

As Gabrielson explains, it was these questionable manufacturing practices combined with the exorbitant and often arbitrary price markups, which are a staple of highend brands, which led him to his idea for Oliver Cabell.

“Instead of focusing on the actual product, many brands create glossy advertisements

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and large marketing campaigns to push their brand. So while many consumers thought they were buying into this legacy and high quality, they were actually victims of advertising and lack of transparency.” he says. “Some people buy into this type of ideology, and that’s completely fine. But the goal with creating Oliver Cabell was to create a brand that stands for fun, creativity, and purpose–a set of values that Millennials tend to identify with.”

They’re putting their money where their mouth is, as the Oliver Cabell website not only features a graphic (see previous page) that breaks down the exact cost and markup of each piece but also an explanation of what factories they’re using, what those factories’ production practices are, and how Gabrielson’s team found them.

With this hyper-transparent approach, his team—which right now consists of him and an international team of freelancers who do everything from the web

development to product design to Instagram photography— is hoping to tap into the changing mindset of younger people who are starting to reject labels and megabrands and are increasingly interested in experiences and self-discovery.

The recent shift in perspective from ‘consuming’ to ‘experiencing’ is driven by Millennials–they are placing importance on discovering brands they can relate to.

“We hope Oliver Cabell relates to people differently than traditional brands," Gabrielson explains.

"We believe that telling the story behind our products and providing value will do more for us marketing-wise than any big advertising initiative.”

While Gabrielson says they looked at France, Spain and Eastern Europe as potential production sites for Oliver Cabell, the quality of Italian manufacturing won out in the end—even though it was the most expensive option.

“The quality is second to none.

It also allows us leverage the strong reputation that Italy has built within the space.” says Gabrielson, adding that even the sourcing for his company’s materials takes place within a 50-mile radius of the manufacturing. “A lot of the employees at our factories have

All Oliver Cabell sourcing and production takes place in the Marche region of Italy. The products are then shipped to a fulfillment center located in the Midwest.

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STARTUP NEXT DOWNTOWN

PRODUCTS, IN GENERAL, ARE NOT GOING TO CREATE AN AMAZING BRAND.”

been there for 20-30 years.”

When asked where he sees Oliver Cabell in two or three years, Gabrielson says, “I don’t think too much about the next two or three years, I think more about the long run. We want to create a mission-driven brand that’s relevant to the person who wants to purchase from brands

they can relate to and is looking for a place to specifically go and buy high quality goods. This is a 20-40-year journey, and we’ve only just begun. Where could we be in 10 years? I hope we can be somewhere meaningful.

That’s definitely our plan.”

MORE INFO Oliver Cabell olivercabell.com

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DOWNTOWN NEXT NICK KILLORAN

Walkability often translates to bikeability as well. Fargo has added more than 40 miles of on-street bike lanes since 2010, with its first protected bike lane being installed along NP Avenue. Check out Great Rides Bike Share (greatrides. bcycle.com) and experience Fargo from a bike this summer!

cities begin with green space, walkable neighborhoods and appropriate, mixeduse density.

As stated on surgeongeneral.gov, “When everyday destinations are located too far away from home, walking will not be a convenient option.” Compact, mixeduse, walkable development, like that in Downtown Fargo, is good for the health of our community.

So what does walkable mean? Walkable neighborhoods are safe, comfortable and interesting. Narrow streets, trees and on-street parking are a few ways to slow traffic and make our neighborhoods more walkable. Walkability also has the essential element of being useful, meaning there has to be something meaningful to walk to. An added bonus: walkability

drives value for homes and businesses.

Every address has its own walkscore (walkscore.com). Higher walkscores translate to higher value.

“Fargo will support neighborhoods where residents can age in place, children can walk to school and essential services are only a short walk away.”

Fargo’s footprint has grown rapidly, with an ever-decreasing population density.

Yet, many in the city have recognized the efficiencies and walkability associated with a smaller footprint. There is plenty of room within city limits for adding mixed-use developments and appropriate urbanstyle density to keep Fargo growing in a positive way.

Kilbourne Group holds these priorities at the heart of each of our projects.

From the filling-in of empty parking lots with interesting, inviting architecture and storefronts to the transformation of Roberts Alley into a pedestrian urban corridor lined with shops, art, entertainment, and culinary experiences, each project centers on how it will positively interact with pedestrians.

In 2012, Fargo city leaders and thousands of involved residents released the GO2030 Fargo Comprehensive Plan, which prioritized walkability through initiatives such as mixed-use centers; infill; and active, living streets. The plan states:

These principles don’t apply exclusively to downtowns. We can create walkable cores in neighborhoods all around the city and that is healthy for all of us.

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NICK KILLORAN

ROGUE

AGENT FACES OF BUSINESS:

NICK KILLORAN

FOUNDER, GREAT NORTH INSURANCE

By Nate Mickelberg Photos by J. Alan Paul Photography

G

reat North Insurance Services Owner Nick Killoran insists he’s not an entrepreneur.

Strange, considering he was one of three finalists for the FMWF Chamber of Commerce’s 2016 "Entrepreneur of the Year" award. As he puts it, he and his team “aren’t re-inventing the wheel,” but you can bet they’ll be there for you if yours goes flat.

One award Great North did take home was "Small Business of the Year," and we recently talked to Killoran about some of the ways his six-year-old company has been able to stand out in an industry as crowded and inconspicuous as insurance.

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NICK KILLORAN

YOU SAY YOU REALLY BELIEVE IN SOMETHING CALLED THE “QUESTIONBASED SERVICES" STYLE OF BUSINESS. WHAT IS THAT, EXACTLY?

commoditize insurance because of the Geicos, the Generals. You can go online and buy anything you want.

Insurance should not be one of them.

Nick Killoran: We ask business

You can get a really good deal with an independent like us, where we’re going to shop it out for you and not just be kind of out there in the wind wondering what the next step is.

Insurance is way too involved to just go out and do it yourself. Buying something on Amazon is different than buying an insurance policy.

owners: what keeps you up at night?

What’s the thing that scares you most about your business? And we start figuring it out. We ask those kinds of questions, see what their needs are and then try to have a conversation.

And then solve last. It’s a very open dialogue. We try to be an investment for this business owner versus just an expense. So many people

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STATISTICALLY, WHEN YOU START A BUSINESS, THE ODDS ARE HEAVILY STACKED AGAINST YOU. KNOWING THAT, WHAT WAS YOUR MOTIVATION FOR DOING IT ANYWAY? NK: It’s funny you bring that up

because I was just in a meeting and heard that 80 percent of startup businesses fail in the first five years. Of the 20 percent that make it, another 80 percent of those fail in the next five years. So we’re in that next five - to 10-year period right now. So I’m not sure we’ve made it. We’re grinding.

What made me want to take the jump, though, was that I was working between 12-and 16-hour days at Wells Fargo. And I thought, ‘If I’m going to work this hard, I want to build something.’ And honestly, it could’ve been anything.

But I want to try and make a mark and build a team and really try to excel in the business world like that.

It’s very, very important to me that we’re trying to leave something for our kids. The fear of opening up this business quickly turned to the fear of the fact that (my employees) depend on us.

YOU SAID THERE ARE TWO WORDS YOU WON’T USE. WHAT ARE THEY? NK: They’re ‘job’ and ‘boss.’ Can’t

stand either one of them. I like to think of this as a career opportunity and we’re all colleagues. I’m willing to do anything here that anyone else is, whether that’s scraping the front steps or taking the garbage out.

And if anything, these people are an extension of our family. It sounds really cliché, I know, but they are really, really good people. And when we’re looking to bring somebody on, I’m not really concerned about their insurance background and that kind of stuff. I’m way more concerned about, ‘Alright, do they have life put together? Are they good people? Do they want to give back to the community?’

We have to be able to allocate time for all aspects. And it’s family-first in this office. If somebody calls in and says, ‘I have a sick child. They’re going to stay home.’ That’s fine with me. I don’t even think twice about that.

We want that happy work-home balance for all of our people here.

Because otherwise people will grind for two or three years, and then at some point, they’re going to say, ‘OK, this is enough.’ And like I tell them, too, I’m willing to work those

kind of hours now. Because bottom line is that this is on my shoulders.

I’m okay with me working those kind of hours. I do not want them working those kind of hours.

YOU’RE AN INDEPENDENT INSURANCE AGENCY. FROM THE CUSTOMER’S PERSPECTIVE, WHAT ARE SOME OF THE ADVANTAGES OF THAT? NK: Direct carriers, direct writers,

captive agents—all of those things are basically the same thing— you’re talking State Farm, American Family, Nodak. They only know their products. So you walk in there and you ask for auto insurance, they quote up the auto insurance and here it is. Well they don’t really have anything to compare it to. And I have friends who are State Farm and American Family agents, but they just don’t have the options that we have in the form of multiple carriers.

And then the other thing is that we are accessible at all times. And that’s a big deal in the insurance world. I can tell you from my banking days that one of the reasons I chose the insurance world is because we’d come to try and close a loan and we don’t have an insurance binder and are trying to get a hold of an insurance agent at two o’clock on a Friday, it’s ridiculous.

And that’s not an indictment of all of us as insurance agents, but the bottom line is that when (Co-owner Zach Bosh) and I decided to do this, this came with it. We said we were going to put our cell phone numbers on our business cards.

If people need us, we’re going to be accessible. I answered a claim call the other day at five o’clock in the morning. I’ve answered calls at three o’clock in the morning. Not all claims fall under that eight-tofive window. All people need is that assurance that they don’t have to worry about it.

NICK KILLORAN OFFICE

NK: Truthfully—and this is going to

NEXT

YOU DON’T STRIKE ME AS A GUY WHO NEEDS AN AWARD TO VALIDATE WHAT YOU’RE DOING, BUT IT STILL MUST’VE BEEN GRATIFYING WINNING THE CHAMBER’S “SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR” AWARD. sound cliché again—but we were happy to be in three categories.

We got our group together, called Preference Personnel, and had someone come in and just take care of the phones so everybody could be there. There were people in our office who were like, ‘No, no, go.

We’ll take care of it. We don’t need to hire somebody for a couple hours.’

But again, we hire the people and the people build the business. That is so important to me. So let’s bring everybody with.

And I told them, ‘We’re not going to win. I mean, look at this list.’ There were wonderful small businesses in that category. And then when Great North got announced, I looked at my wife and I’m sure I let out an expletive.

But I was just like, ‘What on Earth?’

I’m really good with one-on-one and I’m really good around 10 or 20 or 25 people, but 800 people scares the death out of me. So when I got up there, the only thing that saved me, truthfully, was that the lights hit and I couldn’t see anything. I bet my pupils were like 1 mm wide. But yes, it was really exciting to hear our name called. I'm not sure if it’s really validation, and the reason I say that is that we have such a long way to go.

But to be recognized in front of that group of people in this community that is full of unbelievable businesses, that is really cool.

we’re having to go after existing businesses that have worked with the same insurance agent for a number of years.

Now, we are overcoming that and are getting these businesses to switch over to our agency because they see the value-adds that we bring to the equation. But it’s nice to have a good mix. We’re helping (new businesses) out, walking them through things. And we truly are an asset to them because they’re not going to have a CFO. They don’t have the cash to do that. So they’re relying on us for some of these CFO-type duties.

IF YOU COULD GIVE AN ASPIRING OR NEW BUSINESS OWNER ONE PIECE OF ADVICE, WHAT WOULD IT BE? NK: If I failed this business at all, it

was any time I questioned how great it could be. Any time I settled, that was the issue. Whether it was a hire or just thinking, ‘I’m not going to go after this account because we’re not ready for it.’ Any time I doubted myself or the business as a whole, that’s when we struggled. So the advice I would give is: believe in yourself. Anything is possible, as long as you’re willing to work for it.

“And surround yourself with great people. If you have that drive and surround yourself with people who fill voids where your weaknesses are, I think that 20 percent success rate would go way up if people would, instead of folding up, they doubled down and said, ‘We’re pushing through this.’

HOT TOPIC Killoran says that one thing he wants more people in the area to be aware of is the difference between home replacement cost and market value.

“Let’s rewind back a couple years,” Killoran says. “You’re buying a house for $155,000$170,000. That same house is going in the $200,000 range now. If the house burns down today and you have to replace that square footage, it’s going to cost more than what you probably bought it for back in the day. And you better have the right policy.”

He says there are a lot of policies out there that aren’t written with these uncapped replacement limits and that it’s important, now more than ever, to look at your homeowners insurance with your agent at least every couple of years.

“We’re talking about the difference a few dollars a year make,” Killoran explains.

“A really good policy and an average policy, it can be as little as $150 a year. And that seems like a lot, but when you break it down, we’re talking about a coffee from Starbucks every couple weeks. And that’s the difference in securing your No. 1 asset.”

HOW DOES THE OVERALL HEALTH OF THE LOCAL ECONOMY AFFECT AN INDUSTRY LIKE INSURANCE? NK: If you look at an industry like

construction, that’s definitely helped us as a new agency because there are new companies that are starting up every day. And they need insurance.

If the economy wasn’t good around here and there weren’t startups and new small businesses, then it would be a lot more difficult. Because then

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MORE INFO

Great North Insurance Services greatnorthinsuranceservices.com 675 13th Ave. E #101, West Fargo 701-239-4647

OFFICE

By Nate Mickelberg • Photos by J. Alan Paul Photography

OFFICE VIBES

The future is now at

RevelDigital

I

f you're familiar with the expression, "The more I learn, the less I know," you can better understand how we feel being exposed to the FM business community on a daily basis. In what's become an almost weekly occurrence, we discover companies like RevelDigital, truly international companies doing business all over the world and with little to no local fanfare.

Tucked away at 300 NP Avenue in Downtown Fargo, Revel develops digital signage software and provides support to clients right here in Fargo-Moorhead, as well as in South Africa, the Netherlands, and Russia, just to name a few. They also have one of the coolest offices in town, as Services Manager Jordan Johnson recently showed us.

Revel Digital

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300 NP Ave, Ste. 300, Fargo

855-738-3534

reveldigital.com

Jordan Johnson Services Manager

OFFICE

Before you see the Revel office itself, it's worth checking out what lies behind a nondescript hallway closet door just steps from the front entrance.

members build and fix digital ATM toppers and experiment with a wide array of other signage products that Revel offers.

This is where RevelDigital's unofficial R & D department lives, in what they're pretty sure is a lift from an old automobile factory. It's where team

It also houses two of the many mannequins that occupy their space, but more on that to come.

With a retro movie marquee and collection of fully functional, vintage arcade games, Revel's lobby has a "simpler time" feel to it, even if just for a few steps. "(The games) have followed Mike," says Johnson, referring to Revel Cofounder Mike Tinnes. "He's big into arcade games and he can't bring them home. So he's lucky enough to get to bring them and keep them in the office. There are nights he'll have a couple buddies in here and they'll all drink beer and play games until 10 o'clock."

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OFFICE As you turn the corner into the first office, you're snapped back into 2016. In a room that features north of 20 screens of all types and sizes, Avery, one of Revel's eight team members, strikes up a conversation with a display in the corner.

Revel Kiosk: Welcome to Revel Kiosk. Can I assist you in some way?

Avery: Tell me about yourself.

Revel Kiosk: My name is Katherine. I was created in Fargo, North Dakota, by a company called Revel Digital.

Currently, I am a prototype.

It's hard to know whether to be impressed or scared.

The common area is more like a showroom, filled with an assortment of products and software you'd see in a store like Target, where Revel has more than 2,000 screens.

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OFFICE One screen allows a hypothetical restaurant customer to peruse wine and entrĂŠe pairings, another lets you try out different colored lightbulbs for your home and yet another demonstrates some real-world device integration capabilities using a toy car.

"It's a neat example that we use to show people how we can get a sign like this to interact with something," Johnson explains.

Pretty much all of Revel's signage software is developed in-house and then sold in the form of monthly subscriptions to resellers and system integrators around the world.

"We're never actually that close to the client until we do tech support for them," explains Revel Cofounder Ted Rosenbaum. "People want us to sell them hardware, and I keep saying we're not a hardware company, but we still sell it. So like the ATM toppers we've created, we've sold probably 600-700 of those without even advertising."

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OFFICE

One of the areas in which Revel has been doing cutting-edge work for some time is beacon technology.

"So we have these devices called beacons," Johnson explains. "And if you have the app downloaded, you'll get a Bluetooth ping on your phone saying, 'Hey, you're within range of a beacon.' You fill out your profile, that information gets sent back to our servers and you can request things like coupons.

"When you come within range of a beacon, it'll say, 'Share code with ____.' A real-world example might be like at a haircut place. If you walk in and have the app, it's going to know you walked in, put you right on the list and say, 'Thank you for coming to Great Clips to get your hair cut, ______.'"

And while some of the biggest tech companies have been developing their own beacon technology for some time, Revel's software has a distinct advantage over theirs, says Johnson.

In the corner of one office sits a five-or six-foot copy of a display and Revel program found in a hospital in The Bronx in New York City. Johnson explains what a sign like this would be used for.

"People can come up to it, go into the portal and fill out their information," he says.

"So you can fill out your own information or else see the location of (other) hospitals, the directory, figure out who you're looking for."

"We have a beacon that can reach 100 percent of cell phones," he explains. "That's different from older beacons that, for example, Google and Apple have been using.

Theirs are geared more toward their operating systems, whereas ours can reach all cell phones."

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OFFICE

The mannequins that populate the Revel office are more than just decorative, Johnson says. They have a more practical function as well, especially at events like trade shows.

NEXT

"When we demo and go to shows," Johnson says, "We'll have mannequins holding a stretch screen or something. It works well when we go to shows because people see it.

It's an attention-grabber and very interesting to them."

Revel's beacon tech has even caught the eye of one of the biggest hitters in the tech world.

"Intel is looking at us," Rosenbaum says. "They're looking at us to be the software of choice for their intelligent vending machines. They said, 'Can your system handle 10,000 concurrent users?' And we sent them the documentation from when (Revel Cofounder) Mike (Tinnes) tested it and showed that we can handle 500,000 concurrent users because everything's up in the cloud."

The Revel team is a resourceful bunch. So much so that they bought their own 3D printer to be able to create various parts for their products in-house. They also use it to print other various office knickknacks like USB holders.

There's no shortage of interesting trinkets at Revel, as Cofounders Rosenbaum and Tinnes are both avid collectors. There's vintage photo gear, a wooden shield and a collection of Star Wars toys that are definitely not meant to be played with.

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CALENDAR

3 TRAFFIC TECHNICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING

Wednesday, July 6, 4 - 5:30 p.m.

You can watch the meeting live on TV Fargo (channel 12). Meetings are rebroadcast each Sunday at 8 a.m., Tuesday at 4 p.m. and Wednesday at 8 a.m.

BUSINESS EVENTS

CALENDAR

JULY 2016

cityofargo.com/calendar Fargo City Hall 200 3rd St. N., Fargo

PLANNING COMMISSION 1 FARGO Tuesday, July 5, 4 - 8 p.m.

You can watch the meeting live on TV Fargo (channel 12). Meetings are rebroadcasted each Sunday at 8 a.m., Tuesday at 4 p.m. and Wednesday at 8 a.m. cityofargo.com/calendar Fargo City Hall 200 3rd St. N., Fargo

One of the most fun summer events is back and it’s going Hollywood! Join the Chamber for a day of Hollywood glam and golf for the 2016 Chamber Golf Tournament. Be among the stars and make new connections while having fun on the green.

Awards are given for men’s and women’s team best score and individual prizes for closest to the pin and longest drive, best-themed tee box sponsor and best themed-dressed team. Entry fee includes 18 holes of golf, cart, food and drinks (provided by sponsors) on the course, 19th Hole Happy Hour Social, on-course contests and giveaways from sponsors. Throughout the event, there will be activities from sponsors at various holes. fmwfchamber.com Edgewood Golf Course 19 Golf Course Ave. N, Fargo

2 UNMANNED AERIAL

SYSTEMS AND HIGH-FLYING TECHNOLOGY Wednesday, July 6, 7:30 - 9 a.m.

Unmanned aerial systems. This high-flying technology is truly the wave of the future, and our region is at the forefront. From utility companies to oil and gas pipelines to retail delivery service, companies from a wide range of industries are diving in to capitalize on the efficiency and high-tech power of these systems. Brigadier General Robert Becklund, executive director of the Northern Plains UAS Test Site in Grand Forks, will join the Chamber to share how this technology is revolutionizing commerce and how North Dakota is on the cutting edge of development. Becklund will also be joined by a panel of industry leaders for a question-and-answer discussion. Registration includes breakfast and is $25 in advance and $30 at the door for Chamber members and $35 in advance and $40 at the door for non-members. fmwfchamber.com Courtyard by Marriott Fargo-Moorhead 1080 28th Ave. S, Moorhead

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Individual Rates (per golfer) On or before June 3 $115 Chamber member $135 Non-member After June 3 (per golfer) $140 Chamber member $160 Non-member Team Rates (Foursome) On or before June 3 $440 Chamber members $520 Non-members After June 3 $540 Chamber members $620 Non-members

Photos courtesy of J. Alan Paul Photography, FMWF Chamber of Commerce and Minnesota Dental Association

CHALLENGE GOLF OUTING 4 CHAMBER Wednesday, July 13, noon - 7 p.m.

FARGO STREET FAIR 5 DOWNTOWN Thursday-Saturday, July 14-16 (Thursday and Friday: 10 a.m. - 9 p.m., Saturday: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.)

Blocks of outdoor booths of hand-made arts and crafts, awesome food and great entertainment in historic Downtown Fargo. fmdowntown.com Downtown Fargo

COMMISSION MEETING 6 AUDITORIUM Friday, July 15, 7:30 - 8:30 a.m.

Meetings are broadcast live on TV Fargo (channel 99). They are shown again on the fourth Tuesday of the month at 9 p.m., the first Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. and the second Thursday at 3 p.m. cityofargo.com/calendar Fargo City Hall 200 3rd St. N, Fargo

CONTROL BOARD MEETING 7 LIQUOR Wednesday, July 20, 1 - 2 p.m.

Meetings are broadcast live on TV Fargo (channel 99). They are rebroadcast on the fourth Tuesday of the month at 7:30 p.m. and the first Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. cityofargo.com/calendar Fargo City Hall 200 3rd St. N, Fargo

8 OF STEEL AND VELVET: THE TWO SIDES OF ACCOUNTABILITY

Wednesday, July 20, 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.

In this seminar, John E. Trombley, consulting & training manager at The Village Business Institute, will explore some of the common myths associated with accountability; uncover the roles of supervisors, employees and the organization regarding accountability; and consider practical steps to “get back on track� to ensure long-term success for everyone involved. Attendees will learn to differentiate between the roles of the organization, the supervisor and the employee; identify common barriers to maintaining accountability; establish a plan to remove or mitigate those barriers; and have a positive impact on the morale and productivity of that portion of the organization that they influence. Registration includes lunch and is $25 in advance and $35 at the door for Chamber members and $45 in advance and $55 at the door for non-members. fmwfchamber.com Hjemkomst Center 202 1st Ave. N, Moorhead

CALENDAR

NEW MEMBER SOCIAL 9 YPN Wednesday, July 20, 4:30 - 5:15 p.m.

New to YPN (Young Professionals Network)?

Thinking about joining YPN? Then this event is for you. Connect with new and current members, learn more about the program and all the ways that you can be involved. YPN always make time to do some networking so don’t forget your business cards. Then stick around for the sixth annual Great American Picnic. This event is free, but registration is required.

JOBS

DOWN THE ROAD BUSINESS AFTER HOURS

NEXT

Thursday, August 18, 4:306:30 p.m. fmwfchamber.com FargoDome 1800 N. University Drive, Fargo

fmwfchamber.com Lindenwood Park - Rotary Shelter 1905 Roger Maris Drive S, Fargo

Cart Summit

Friday, September 23 emergingprairie.com/ events Moorhead Center Mall 510 Center Ave., Moorhead

Founders Only Retreat 2016

November 9-11 emergingprairie.com/ events Coteau des Prairies Lodge 9953 141st Ave. SE, Havana, N.D.

10 YPN SIXTH ANNUAL GREAT AMERICAN PICNIC

Wednesday, July 20, 5:15 - 7:30 p.m.

Join the YPN (Young Professionals Network), family and friends for their sixth annual Great American Picnic. Food and beverages are provided along with lawn games for those who are looking for a friendly competition. This event is free, but registration is required. fmwfchamber.com Lindenwood Park - Rotary Shelter 1905 Roger Maris Drive S, Fargo

MONTHLY MEETUPS* ··Fargo-Moorhead Content Strategy ··The Fargo-Moorhead Real Estate Investing Meetup ··Master Networks – Fargo Business Referral Group ··Fargo Virtual Reality Meetup ··Mobile Meetup Fargo ··Fargo 3D Printing Meetup

12 TEDXFARGO Thursday, July 21, 8:00 a.m. - 6 p.m.

··Fargo Cashflow Game Night ··Red River Valley Big Data – Midwest Big Data Hub Meetup ··Cass-Clay Subcontractor Sales & Marketing Meetup ··Fargo Entrepreneurship Meetup ··Moorhead Entrepreneurship Meetup ··Bitcoin Meetup *All meetups above (except Bitcoin Meetup) can be found at meetup. com/cities/us/58102. If interested in the Bitcoin Meetup, please contact alarson@myriadmobile.com

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DRINKS 11 STARTUP Wednesday, July 20, 5:30 - 7 p.m.

Engaging conversations, connections and community building. That's what Emerging Prairie's monthly Startup Drinks is all about. This event is open to all people with an interest or involvement in the startup community in the Red River Valley. There's a cash/credit bar of wine and beer and just good times, in general. emergingprairie.com Prairie Den 122 1/2 Broadway N, Fargo

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. This event is called TEDxFargo, where x = an independently organized TED event. At the TEDxFargo event, TEDTalks videos and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group.

The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including this one, are self-organized. tedxfargo.com Fargo Civic Center 207 4th St N, Fargo

OF MERCY DENTAL CLINIC 13 MISSION Thursday and Friday, July 22 and 23, various times

The Mission of Mercy Dental Clinic is focused on helping underserved populations of children and adults receive dental treatment that they, for whatever reason, cannot obtain. In order for this event to be successful, they need more than 1,200 volunteers, and there are jobs for dental professionals and non-dental personnel.

There are many shifts to choose from. Contact Sam at sgust@fmwfchamber.com for more information.

Registration is required. fmwfchamber.com Concordia College - Memorial Auditorium 901 8th St. S, Moorhead

UNDER FIRE 14 COURAGE Tuesday, July 26, 3:30 - 5 p.m.

We’ve all had that moment when we have talked ourselves out of speaking up because we were afraid we didn't know enough or were worried about how others would perceive us. So how do you find the courage to push through that self-imposed sentence of silence? Join a discussion with Jessica Thomasson of Lutheran Social Services about finding your voice in the midst of a noisy world. She’ll talk about strategies for counteracting the fears and self-doubt that have the very unhelpful tendency to come from within in the midst of trying times, as well as her observations on what it means to be real in an environment where so much of our communication tends toward the superficial. Registration is $25 in advance and $35 at the door for Chamber members and $45 in advance and $55 at the door for non-members. fmwfchamber.com Avalon Events Center 2525 9th Ave S, Fargo

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1404 33rd Street South, Suite #C Fargo

Sheet 1 of 2 Project No. 8216-001

Phone: 701.237.5065

HoustonEngineering Inc.

 

BEING 5 FEET IN WIDTH AND ADJOINING LOT LINES, AND 10 FEET IN WIDTH AND ADJOINING RIGHT-OF-WAY LINES, UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED ON THE PLAT.

NEGATIVE ACCESS EASEMENT, AS NOTED ON THIS PLAT, IS AN EASEMENT DEDICATED AS PART OF THE RIGHT-OF-WAY DEDICATION WHICH EASEMENT DENIES DIRECT VEHICULAR ACCESS TO A STREET OR PUBLIC WAY FROM THE LOT OR LOTS ADJACENT TO SUCH STREET OR WAY. THE NEGATIVE ACCESS EASEMENT IS NOT A STRIP OF LAND OF ANY CERTAIN WIDTH, BUT IS A LINE COTERMINOUS WITH THE BOUNDARY OF THE ADJACENT LOT OR LOTS.

BEARINGS SHOWN ARE BASED ON FARGO GIS HORIZONTAL DATUM.

NEGATIVE ACCESS

1/2" I.D. PIPE SET

IRON MONUMENT FOUND

701-306-0486

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WALL AVE.

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Prestigious Riverfront Living in Horace, ND MEMORY LANE

H:\Fargo\JBN\8200\8216\14_8216_001\CAD\Plans\Preliminary Plat_Rev 2.dwg-Plat-22x34-9/9/2014 9:01 AM-(kstroud)

Luxury Living is just minutes from Fargo!

• Serene small town setting • Spacious 2/3 to 2 acres lots • Beautiful mature trees • Diversion protected • West Fargo School District • Buy now and pick your builder!

• Outbuildings are allowed

Fargo INC!, Fargo Monthly and gofargojobs.com bring you a section dedicated to jobs in FargoMoorhead.

Here you’ll find...

JOBS

The fastest-growing Some great new places

HIRING

in North Dakota!

83

JOBS

Brand yourself to get a leg up

By Rick Berg, Founder, Go Fargo Jobs • Photo by J. Alan Paul Photography

I

f you think about the term "branding", you’ll likely think about companies and marketing. However, as a job seeker, focusing on building your personal brand can give you a significant advantage in your search for your next position or your dream career.

What is personal branding?

When referring to branding for companies, the brand is what consumers perceive, feel or think about a particular brand. The same holds true for personal branding. It doesn’t matter what you think or know about yourself but how others perceive you, whether they know you well or not.

Why is it important?

If you think about the branding of the top companies, they’ve built appeal or a connection to consumers and have established themselves as a trusted brand. You can do the same by highlighting your strengths, accomplishments, skills, experience and expanding your personal network. Establishing a strong personal brand can be a major differentiator when employers are looking to hire.

What can you do about it?

Get in the right mindset.

Start thinking of yourself as a brand. You should be marketing yourself to the role you want, not just submitting an application and cover letter. Whatever it is you’re trying to do, own it and focus on consistent personal growth.

Get involved in your industry.

Find events related to your industry and attend them. You could even take it a step further and get involved. There are many events or groups that you can join, volunteer for or even join as a board member.

Audit your web/social media presence.

This should be common sense in 2016, however, if you’re entering the job market, review your social media accounts and online presence from an outsider’s perspective. Ask yourself if this is how you want employers, or even those you’re networking with, to see you.

Just as a brand’s social media or web presence becomes a face of its company, so does 84

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your own social profiles. Get your LinkedIn profile in order and clearly express your skills, accomplishments and experience. Just as a business would want positive customer reviews, try to obtain recommendations and endorsements.

Appearance and body language.

Do a self-analysis of your personal appearance or ask someone else that appears to have their appearance together for their opinion.

Everything from your clothes, hair, facial hair (for males), etc. Do you appear to be organized, reliable, professional and trustworthy? If not, consider revising your look.

Studies show that 55 percent of communication is visual (body language) and 38 percent is auditory (pitch, speed, volume, tone of voice). Try to be self-aware about what your body language may tell people. Do you appear confident, make eye contact, have good posture, etc? There are many things to consider when trying to improve your body language. Do some research on the subject and work to improve.

JOBS

Heather Ostrowski's

8 things to know for creating your personal brand

By Heather Ostrowski, Client Relations Manager, Preference Personnel Photo by J. Alan Paul Photography

L

et’s take a mental trip back to high school for a minute. Just for a minute.

Don’t be afraid. Think about all the things you did back then for free: the clubs you were in, the sports you played, the cooking classes or any other extracurriculars in which you participated. For the most part, these were things we were able to choose to do. And for the most part, they cost us nothing.

Now, please step back into today and ask yourself this one question: what is it, as an adult, that I enjoy doing by choice? Usually when I ask people this question, they haven’t thought about it and have a hard time answering it. But I believe it is key to understanding your personal brand.

Here you will find what a personal brand is, along with a simple, four-step process to beginning to create yours.

Personal branding is the practice of people marketing themselves and their careers as brands.

Step 1 Determine what makes you uniquely you. Consider taking a personality test such as DISC or StrengthsFinder to add clarity and language as you develop your personal brand.

Or try this.

Heather Ostrowski is the client relations manager at Preference Personnel, an employee-owned staffing company in Fargo. She is an active member of the FM business community and passionate about helping people discover and develop their personal brand.

Ask five to 10 people who know you well to write about a time they witnessed you “at your best." Circle the key, similar words to find your strengths and attributes.

Step 2 Don't be afraid to brag. What are

you an expert at? Or what subject do you simply know more about than others?

Also, what problems can you solve with your expertise?

Step 3 Write it all out. Create an elevator pitch to get clear about who you are. Say it out loud and sound like you mean it. Practice it.

Step 4 Live with great focus and intention once your personal brand is discovered. Focus on where you want to be in five years.

Getting clear about who we are, how we are gifted and what we would do for free allows us to use our natural strengths in a meaningful, rewarding career!

JOBS

1

Above all, know yourself.

I think people disregard what takes place on social media. I think they also assume that those sources are private, and they're just not. Often times, I'll encourage a person to Google their name just to see what is coming up. It's hard to be consistent, however, if you don't know what you're trying to be consistent about.

You have to identify who you are. What is your brand? And it should really serve uniquely you. You can't copy somebody else. You can certainly be inspired by other people, but you have to figure out what it is you stand for and stand on. And the more you can tap into that, the more naturally that consistency will just happen.

2

You're more than your job.

There's an autor named Catherine Kaputa who says, 'If you can really look at yourself as a brand and get into that self-brand mindset, it's a completely different mindset than who you are for your employer or for that next job.'

When I talk to people about, 'Let's create your elevator pitch,' they always tie it to their work. Who are they in their work?

And it really limits who you can really be.

So you have to change that mindset. It's not about your résumé. It's about your marketing plan. It's about really looking at where you want to be in five years.

Some people will joke that, in an interview, that's not a good question. Because the interviewer is going to want to hear you say, 'I'm going to be here. I want to grow in the company.' But if you're really being true to yourself and your personal brand, you should be pretty open to where you're going to be in five years.

Also, stop looking at job descriptions and start looking at companies. Look at companies, look at their cultures, think about what's important to you, as a person.

3

It's okay to be yourself.

You can be professional without being robotic.

I had a time in my career where I was very disconnected to my strengths and I found myself working out of my comfort zone daily. While I grew tremendously as a person, it was tough to come out of that feeling that I was not serving how I was designed to serve. My confidence suffered a lot as a result, and I started to lose my personal identity. Thankfully, I worked with a team who was able to coach me through that time and help create a job description that honored my natural strengths. Working with a company that allows for that flexibility is crucial, especially for our younger generation that is still figuring out where they are happiest and thrive on feeling connected to their work.

4

Be a chamber of commerce for others.

People are always afraid of bragging. I help people create their resumes and they're always so hesitant to do it. But you have to. But when you're bragging, you do have to back up what you're saying.

On your résumé, the more numbers you can have on there to show what you've done, the better.

However, here's what I think is more powerful than a brag. There was a speaker at Fargo Connect last year named Marcus Sheridan. My favorite thing he said, and I've tried to hold to it since he said it, is, 'Be the chamber of commerce for your people on social media.' Shine the light on everyone else but do it selflessly and do it because you want to support and celebrate your network of people.

Guaranteed, if you do that, it will come back to you.

I have two recommendations on LinkedIn, which isn't many, but how many have I given? Probably two. So what if I became more intentional about giving recommendations, again, selflessly, because I truly believe in this person and I want to shine the light on them and I want to see them be successful. And if you're really leading with that kind of a heart and that kind of a mindset, it will come back to you.

5

Don't post just to post. Do it with intention.

I recently came across this social media calendar and what's really cool about it is it has all seven days of the week and it says, 'What's the message you want to post? Who's your audience? What do you want to capture? What's the purpose of it?' and 'Where do you want to post it?'

I think it's not just being intentional about the number of times you're posting, but what it is. Maybe you can be the chamber of commerce for people three times a week, be funny once a week, post some nonsense and then maybe be boastful once a week. And where? Is it Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn? So many people are complaining right now about people out there self-promoting constantly. They will de-friend you in a second. I would say a good rule of thumb is that about two-thirds of the time it should be about someone else.

6

You're only as good as the company you keep.

There's another book I've been reading called 6 Months to 6 Figures, and one of the things the author says is, 'If you want to be a millionaire, you have to hang out with billionaires. That's the quickest way to get there.' And he even encourages people to think about the five people they hang out with. He says to add up their

income, divide it by five and he bets your income is sitting right in there. So who are you hanging out with and who are you getting ideas from? Whether it's in chat rooms, social media, local groups, wherever.

I just graduated from the Chamber leadership program and one of our speakers is a lieutenant with the Moorhead police department. And he said that the advice his dad gave him still holds strong today. If you are in the middle of two clowns walking down the street, no one's going to say, 'There are two clowns and one okay person.' They're going to say, 'There's a group of clowns.' And that absolutely applies to the professional world, too.

8

Believe it. Be it.

There's a woman in town, who I won't name, but I met her right when she was beginning her business and her personal brand. And I'll never forget it. I met her at an event and she told me what she did and who she was. And I was like, 'Really?'

But here's the thing. She said it as if she already existed, like she was already this person. And that was a few years ago.

That's the thing about your personal brand. When you decide who it is that you are, say it and be it right now. Even if it's not true. Say it until it's true. And this girl, she did that. Set your eye on your prize and step toward it every day.

7

Just show up.

I'll never forget one event last year. It's after work. I'm exhausted. I have young children at home. My husband's at home.

It was rainy and snowy out. I just wanted to go home. So I called my husband and said, 'I don't want to go to Women Connect tonight.' And he says to me, 'Heather, you love Women Connect, and you come home every time fired up, excited about who you met and excited about the connection. And I promise you, no one is going to knock on our door tonight asking for you to connect with them.' And I'm like, 'You're right.'

So I went. And that's the thing. You have to show up, whether it's a lunch date or an event. I rarely have lunch alone.

However, it is important that you be true to brand by identifying where you want to spend your time and with whom. If your activity, acquaintance or time spent is not serving your learning to say "no" to these things because they're an important tool to protect your brand.

MORE INFO Preference Personnel preferencepersonnel.com 2600 9th Ave. S, Fargo 701-293-6905

Sales/Customer Service JOBS

Digital Strategy Intern (Paid) Bilingual International Sales (Spanish) Spotlight Media

Health Care Registered Nurse

Fargo

Thief River Falls, MN

How do I apply?

Responsibilities of this position include processing fax, email and internet orders, as well as responding to inbound phone calls in Spanish and English. This position also interacts with other internal departments on behalf of the customer to provide superior customer service to Digi-Key’s Spanish-speaking customer base.

Prairie St. John’s, a 110-bed psychiatric care facility located in Fargo, N.D. has been providing services for children, adolescents, adults and seniors to address mental health issues, chemical dependency or addiction, and cooccurring disorders since 1997.

Howmore to apply?

Visit digikey.com/careers info at SPOTLIGHTMEDIAFARGO.COM

How to apply?

Digital Strategy Intern (Paid) Sales Account Executive

RN/LPN

Spotlight Media Fargo

email PSJHR@uhsinc.com

Moorhead

How do Jobs I apply?

Go Fargo is looking for an entrepreneurial sales account executive to lead our sales program. The ideal candidate has 2-3 years of successful outside sales experience. Huge earning and growth potential.

Howmore to apply? info at SPOTLIGHTMEDIAFARGO.COM Email careers@gofargojobs.com

Full- and part-time positions available. Attend client appointments and meetings, training of staff, supervision of medical care, and participation as part of an interdisciplinary team.

How to apply?

Email nhuber@mcrsi.com

Retail Sales Associate/Managerial

Fargo

Program Assistant

Moorhead

If you love fashion, we want you to join the fun team at Plato’s Closet. Great pay, great hours and great benefits with opportunity for advancement. Apply in person and talk to Zach today. Get ready to enjoy your summer job or career!

Full and part-time positions available. Assist clients with disabilities in a variety of areas based on need, including cooking, cleaning, supervision, transportation and redirection of behavior.

How to apply?

How to apply?

Email dclark@rrt.net

Email bhalvorson@mcrsi.com

Customer Service Digital Strategy Intern (Paid) Leasing Specialist

Digital (Paid) HumanStrategy ResourceIntern Assistant

Goldmark strives to make a positive impact on the lives of others. An opportunity is available to serve those looking for or living in apartment homes we manage.

We’re accepting applications for caring and dedicated candidates for full- and part-time positions with opportunities for advancement.

MCRSI is looking for a human resources assistant to work in our Moorhead office. Duties include: scheduling, assisting with timesheets, training new staff and other general human resource duties. Hours are Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Pay dependent on experience.

Howmore to apply? info at SPOTLIGHTMEDIAFARGO.COM Visit goldmark.com/careers

Howmore to apply? info at SPOTLIGHTMEDIAFARGO.COM Email nhuber@mcrsi.com

Spotlight Media Fargo

88

JULY 2016

Spotlight Media Moorhead How do I apply?

gofargojobs.com

General

Marketing/Advertising

JOBS

Digital Strategy Intern (Paid) Workflow Coordinator

Spotlight Media Fargo

How do I apply?

This position manages word processing projects by

communicating with clients and assigning projects to other Integreon associates.

Howmore to apply?

Email careers.us@integreon.com info at SPOTLIGHTMEDIAFARGO.COM

Digital Strategy Intern (Paid) Production Specialist

Spotlight Media Fargo How do I apply?

Local e-commerce business dogIDs is looking for an organized and adaptable individual to join our team. This role would be taking part in all aspects of our production processes. The ideal candidate loves dogs, has experience in manufacturing and has worked in e-commerce.

Howmore to apply? info at SPOTLIGHTMEDIAFARGO.COM Email careers@dogids.com

Document Processing Specialist

Fargo Fargo, ND

Spotlight Media Fargo How do I apply?

We are currently seeking a digital creative intern. The ideal candidate has design experience and is proficient with Adobe Creative Suite. This is a paid internship.

Howmore to apply? info at SPOTLIGHTMEDIAFARGO.COM adsharkmarketing.com/careers

Digital (Paid) BrandsStrategy ManagerIntern Assistant

Spotlight Fargo or Jamestown, Media ND

This position will work closely with our brand managers How do I them apply? and assist in the process of getting new products on our website and maintaining existing products on the site.

Experience with Microsoft Excel; ability to take on multiple tasks, prioritize and then complete tasks according to priority; patience; and Sherlock Holmes-level problem solving required. We provide the magnifying glass and cool hat. more info at SPOTLIGHTMEDIAFARGO.COM How to apply? realtruck.com/careers

Digital Marketing Intern Digital Strategy Intern (Paid)

Fargo Spotlight Media Are you a fan of the internet? So is RealTruck! RealTruck is looking for a digital marketing intern to help assist in our

This supports word processing and presentation Howposition do I apply? graphics for all projects received through Integreon. They will also be responsible for the completion of all work given to them by a Workflow Coordinator (WFC).

How to apply?

Digital Strategy Intern (Paid) Digital Creative Intern

integreon.com

PLA &do PPCI apply? marketing strategies. This is a great opportunity How for someone looking to learn the ropes in the wild world of online marketing, and there’s endless coffee. A business major with a concentration in marketing or advertising is preferred, but anyone with a strong desire to learn PPC and digital marketing is strongly encouraged to apply. The length of the internship will be 90 business days.

more info at SPOTLIGHTMEDIAFARGO.COM How to apply? realtruck.com/careers

Technology

Digital Strategy Intern (Paid) Intake Admin Specialist

Digital Strategy Intern (Paid) System Admin

How do I apply?

The purpose of this position is to provide administrative support to the assigned client. The duties in this position may range from meeting preparation, internal and external correspondence, report preparation, document and word processing assistance.

We’re looking for a full time addition to our IT team to Howmaintain do I apply? help our servers and workstations at our Fargo office. We need an outgoing problem solver to kick some 0x436f6d707574657220417373. Requirements: must have five-plus years of experience in systems administration, five-plus years experience with both Linux and Windows, possess the ability to adapt to new technologies and bathe daily.

Spotlight Media Fargo

Howmore to apply? integreon.com info at SPOTLIGHTMEDIAFARGO.COM 90

JULY 2016

Spotlight Media Fargo

more info at SPOTLIGHTMEDIAFARGO.COM

How to apply?

realtruck.com/careers

gofargojobs.com

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JULY 2016