July-August 2021 by Connect Business Magazine

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Your Business, Our Passion APX Construction Group “We selected APX Construction Group because we felt they could meet our design needs and we received great reviews from their previous clients. Truck Center Companies looks forward to growing with APX in the Mankato area,” says Trey Mytty, CEO of TCC, a Nebraska-based dealership that has become one of America’s largest Freightliner dealers. With 18 locations, TCC plans to add another in Mankato, a 100,000-square-foot facility off of Adams Street. Leading their expansion here, is APX Construction Group. “We were invited to submit a proposal for their Mankato location and were thrilled to get the go-ahead to work with such a fantastic company,”says Jamie Jacobs, VP of Sales + Marketing for APX. “We are just kicking this one off. But we have been working with them through the land procurement, annexation, wetland delineation, city approvals, design and construction management.” Leading this project from start to finish is just one example of how APX Construction Group likes to operate. “Our time investment begins with your concept, through the details of the planning and drawing process, and finally seeing it come to life on the job site,” says Jacobs. Along with experience, technology plays a role in their success. “We use the latest technology to ensure our projects stay on task and all goals are met,” says Jacobs. “All along the process we provide thorough cost estimates, efficient scheduling and detailed value engineering during pre-construction.” 2

July | August 2021

The combination is helping APX make a name for itself in the industry. “APX Construction Group is working to redefine the construction experience,” says Jacobs. “So often, business owners and entrepreneurs are left wondering where to start, or who do I call first. With APX, we will lead our clients through all layers of the process, from start to finish. This often includes, but is not limited to, land acquisition, business consulting, financing, and permitting. We are able to guide our clients with services ranging from construction management, general contracting, pre-construction, design/build, development and owners representation. APX Construction Group’s insistence on quality of service, hard work, and responsiveness to client needs remains the company credo and has led to its success in a competitive industry.” As is the case for TCC, APX particularly likes to work with companies whose values align with theirs, and companies that help in the growth of the development of the community they call home, Mankato. “They are just a great group of people from Omaha, Nebraska,” says Jacobs. “TCC is a top-of-the-line dealership committed to customer experience, just like APX.” With over 100 years of industry experience between them, the APX management team strives to give its customers the best experience possible. APX owners Ryan Evenson and Mitch Rohlfing learned the business by working their way up in the construction

Renderings courtesy of Widseth

industry before founding APX. It’s that experience that developed their understanding that to be successful in a crowded industry, you need to be a full-service construction company. Evenson and Rohlfing say APX provides a single point of contact for clients. And they are building a reputation along the way. Based in Mankato, APX also has a focus on Minneapolis/ St Paul, Rochester, Sioux Falls and Northern Iowa, although they have completed projects nationwide and their footprint is expanding every day. “Our company offers a diverse portfolio of work ranging from industrial, medical, hospitality, community/nonprofit, civil/ government, housing and office/retail. We also differentiate our services with a unique ability to self-perform concrete, carpentry and steel erection. We are an authorized dealer for pre-engineered metal buildings and all of these can add up to noticeable cost savings for our clients,” says Jacobs. APX CONSTRUCTION GROUP

1020 Innovation Lane l Mankato, MN Email: info@apxconstructiongroup.com Phone: (507) 387-6836 Web: apxconstructiongroup.com Truck Center Companies’ visual brand identity, and digital renderings of the company’s new building in Mankato. CONNECT Business Magazine

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CONTENTS

July | August 2021

10 COVER INTERVIEW

COMPANY PROFILE

Vicki Hagen and Tori Hagen

Drummers Garden Center & Floral

La Plaza Fiesta

FEATURES

DEPARTMENTS

HOT STARTZ!

MANKATO

Store It

ST. JAMES

Doing the Right Thing

Women’s Business Showcase

Living the Dream

Strategic Partnership Series

A Commitment to Excellence in Nursing

Business is Blooming

Special Collaboration

Taking Barbecue to the Next Level

Business Snapshot

Your Business, Our Passion APX Construction Group Business Snapshot

Kristin’s Journey to Better Health: Livea Weight Control Centers

Out Of the Ashes

Cedel Store

WANDA

Kenwood Home + Kenwood Design

Industry Insight

The Women’s Giving Circle: Power in Numbers

Connecting Southern Minnesota Business People Since 1994

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INTRODUCTION

Women’s Business Thriving, Bringing Vitality to Communities

Jane Laskey EDITOR

July | August 2021

This issue of Connect Business Magazine celebrates the many female entrepreneurs and leaders in our region. We wish we could include them all! Our cover story focuses on Kato Roofing Inc. where two generations of Hagen women are confidently leading the way. KRI has been a presence in Mankato for decades. The same is true for Julie Drummer at Drummers Garden Center & Floral, which has given Mankato gardeners something to smile about for 31 years. A lot is going on beyond Mankato’s borders, as well. I reached out to area cities and chambers to see what female entrepreneurs were up to in their communities. Our second feature, the Women’s Business Showcase, highlights five of their recommendations: Connors Plumbing & Heating Inc., The Bookkeeping Center, Shellee’s Greenhouse, the Humble Heart Quilt Shop, and Indulge Salon & Spa. Special thanks to GreenSeam, our partner for our new Groundbreaker section. Our first Groundbreaker story highlights one of summer’s pleasures: BBQ! We talked to the folks at Prairie Pride Farm, true barbecue masters who take their products deliciously from field to plate. If barbecue isn’t your style, check out La Plaza Fiesta restaurant in Madelia, which has literally risen out of the ashes, better than before. Finally, our HotStartz! section features: Kenwood Home + Kenwood Design, Store It, and the Cedel Store. All three opened last year, proving that not even a pandemic could stop them. Who said nothing good came out of 2020?! Until next time,

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Kristin’s Journey To Better Health Kristin Nordgren and her husband were like many people during the pandemic shutdowns; they ordered out to try to help their local small businesses. It was great for the business, but not so great for her waistline. “I realized where I was headed if I kept it up,” she reflects. “And one day I just decided I needed to lose some weight and change up my eating habits.” That day was May 4, 2020. The day that changed her life, the day she picked up the phone and called Livea. “I had tried other weight loss systems before and I would lose weight, although I would quickly gain it back,” she says. “I chose Livea this time because of the one-on-one coaching and the lifestyle changes they help you make so that once you lose the weight you can keep it off. Livea sets you up for long-term success with at least a year of ongoing support.” Kristin’s original goal was to lose 18 pounds, which she achieved in seven weeks. She ended up losing 25 pounds in total and has kept it off, now almost a year later. “When we came out of the pandemic, people who hadn’t seen me in a while said ‘What are you doing? You look great!’ My cousin actually called me skinny! I hadn’t been called skinny in many years. Besides all of that, I have a great energy level and feel great.” Kristin credits her newfound healthy lifestyle to Livea and its proven, physicianrecommended weight loss plan. Because it is customized to each individual, it is able to adjust to how each body responds to the program. The cornerstones of its success are the private consultations and one-on-one guidance from an expert team that truly gets to know each client. Livea lifestyle coaches know adopting a healthier lifestyle isn’t always an easy process, but they also know it’s one of the most worthwhile endeavors of your life. That’s what prompted Kristin to take her involvement with Livea to the next level. “It was such a positive, life-changing experience for me that when they had a full-time opening, I jumped at the chance. I learned a lot through my weight loss journey and wanted to share what I learned with others. It’s very rewarding.”

MANKATO LIVEA 1351 Madison Ave., Suite 119 Mankato, Minnesota Phone: (507) 201-4228 Web: livea.com Facebook: Livea Centers

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By Jane Laskey

When Vicki Hagen purchased Kato Roofing Inc. with her then-husband, Jeff Hagen, they were just looking for a business that would move them closer to family. There was no building. There were no employees. They were working out of the basement of their home. The year was 1992. Vicki Hagen’s daughter, Tori Hagen, was only 8 months old. Her son, Andrew Hagen, was 3. It would have been hard to imagine the changes that lay ahead. Flash forward to today, and Vicki Hagen is the CEO of not one but two successful commercial roofing companies, KRI in Mankato and Top All Roofing in Minneapolis. The two companies have installed roofs on commercial buildings all across Minnesota and surrounding states. Although Vicki Hagen and Jeff Hagen are no longer married, they continue to work together in their family business. KRI and Top All Roofing are jointly owned by Vicki Hagen, Tori Hagen, and Jeff Hagen. Tori Hagen is the CFO of both companies. Jeff Hagen and Andrew Hagen both work at Top All Roofing, where Jeff Hagen is a senior estimator and Andrew Hagen is a project manager. Mankato residents will recognize many of the rooftops that KRI has installed in their town. They include Bridge Plaza, Prairie Care, Mayo Clinic Health System, Storage Lounge, Pioneer Bank, Rosa Parks Elementary, Home Depot, Hy-Vee, Mankato Public Works, and the Mankato Airport.

Continues

July | August 2021

Vicki Hagen (standing) and Tori Hagen (seated). Left, examples of their company’s work.

Doing The Right Thing

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The Hagens are a close family both in and out of their business. Their homes are all located in southwest Minneapolis, conveniently within a mile of each other. They share a passion for their dogs (Rhodesian ridgebacks), which can often be found alongside them at the office. They also share a passion for running a best-in-class business with a workplace culture that serves their entire family of employees. I sat down with Vicki Hagen and Tori Hagen at their Mankato headquarters to discuss the keys to their business success. Tell me about your background. What led you to buy Kato Roofing? Vicki Hagen: I went to school for sales, marketing and management in Mankato. I worked in retail management for several years and when we moved to the metro area, I managed several dental practices. My husband, Jeff, was working as an estimator for one of the top five roofing companies in Minneapolis. Together we felt we had what it took to start a company. As we had small children, we wanted to move back closer to family and decided to look for a company to buy in Mankato. One day Jeff was in town installing sheet metal on his father’s hardware store in Old Town, Hagen Hardware. Red Sheehan, the owner of Mankato Plumbing and Heating and Kato Roofing Inc. came to Jeff and said, “Hey, I heard you’re looking to buy a roofing company. I have one for sale.” We bought Kato Roofing Inc. in 1992. It was just a shell of a company. They did some roofing work, but they didn’t have a building or employees. Within six months the business was up and running, our Burnsville house was sold, and we purchased and moved to a new home in Mankato. For some time, I was still working up in Minneapolis and driving back and forth. We couldn’t afford a person to do the books, so I did all the books, the taxes, everything. Looking back I am unsure as to how we accomplished it all. It was a very busy time. Tori, were you on the scene when your parents started the business? Vicki Hagen: She was just fresh on the scene, 8 months old. Tori Hagen: I’ve been a part of the business all through growing up. In my younger

Vicki Hagen & Tori Hagen | Mankato years, as they were growing the business, much of our dinner table conversations surrounded the company. I was also a part of company events, parties, and parades. When I was 14, I started coming into the business to work on the administrative side, beginning with data entry. By high school, I was working on accounts payable and eventually was processing payroll. I went to college at Minnesota State University, Mankato, and received a degree in accounting. Throughout college, I continued to work here at Kato Roofing. In 2013 I graduated and moved out to Colorado for about five years. I worked at an accounting firm and received some real-world experience on the outside. I came back to Kato Roofing in 2018 and became heavily involved with the company, with a focus on finance and administration. Vicki Hagen: During the five years she was gone, every so often we’d ask: “When are you coming back? We need you to come back.” At that point, she was loving Colorado. She said, “I want to learn as much as I can, because when I come back, I want to know what I’m talking about in the financial world.” I thought that that was admirable, but we still wanted her to hurry up! Tori Hagen: I loved what I did before. I loved the people I worked with. I still work with them to this day because we transitioned our tax, accounting, and audit services to them. So I get the pleasure of

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continuing that relationship, just in a different role. Tell me about your business niche and products. What services do you provide? Vicki Hagen: We’re a small business that focuses on customer and industry relationships. We do all aspects of commercial roofing. Tori Hagen: We cover the life cycle of a roof. At the beginning of a new construction project, we’ll install the roof. But the day the roof is done is not the end of our relationship with that building. We want to continue servicing it, keeping it up, repairing it, taking leak calls, everything. That’s our building. That’s our roof. We continue to maintain it to extend the life of that roof. Then in 20 to 30 years, when it’s time to re-roof the building, we want to install the new roof, and the cycle starts again. Vicki Hagen: We’re a little territorial. If we put that roof on, we feel ownership. We want to make sure that that roof stays a quality roof. We take pride, as do all of our team members, in the product that we put down. Tori Hagen: We’ve been in business long enough that we’re now re-roofing projects that we put the first roof on 20, 25, 30 years ago. That’s been exciting. What has contributed to your business success? Vicki Hagen: We were both from the Mankato area, and I feel

Your focus has to be on doing good work. If you do, you will have referrals, and you will have profits because you’re providing a good product and building relationships. —Vicki Hagen we were very connected to Mankato. We became involved with the Chamber of Commerce and many local organizations. The community was very good to us. My background was in sales and management, and Jeff ’s was in estimating and operations. To this day, I feel Jeff is one of the best estimators out there. So the two of us together made a pretty good team. Tori Hagen: It’s about finding that balance in skill set within your team, having someone on the operation side with deep technical knowledge, and ensuring you also have someone with good management skills. We focus on building out our team with those that align with our values while making sure we’re highlighting people’s skills and strengths. Vicki Hagen: We try to find people that have the same values that we do. When Jeff and I started this business, we knew that we would have uncompromising quality and customer service. That was the most important thing to us. Obviously, you run a company

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to make a profit, but money can’t be your focus. Your focus has to be on doing good work. If you do, you will have referrals, and you will have profits because you’re providing a good product and building relationships. That is what allowed us to get where we are. We do the right thing, even if it’s going to cost us more. When you do what’s right, good things will come from that. We have quite a few examples of that. Years ago, we did a small roof where the customer wanted a tapered system to drain in a specific direction off the building. Our team installed a good roof, but it did not drain in the direction the customer requested. We could have offered the customer a discount, and they would have been happy, but would they always feel they didn’t get exactly what they wanted? We chose to redo the roof, and we now have a lifelong customer. To me, the most important thing is to do it right. That is best in class. How many employees do you have? Tori Hagen: We currently have about 40 field and office employees. We are continuing to grow, which will create opportunities for all employees within the organization to advance further and help them reach their career goals. We focus on promoting from within. Our superintendents, managers, and estimators came from the field or grew within our company. We have a fairly young team and look forward to them working with us as our company continues to grow.

Are you hiring now? Tori Hagen: We’re actively hiring for both roofing and sheet metal crew members, as well as service technicians. It’s been difficult to find roofing field employees. There’s a great demand for construction workers in general. How did the pandemic affect your business? Are you still feeling the impact? Tori Hagen: As the pandemic created much uncertainty, it caused many of our scheduled projects to become delayed. Many projects we were bidding on were postponed or canceled. Our team was tasked with a new set of challenges in keeping our team safe, complying with new regulations, and continuing to meet our project deadlines. Vicki Hagen: I feel like our team did a great job responding to an immediate problem. We set individuals up to work from home and made sure we were properly stocked with PPE and disinfecting supplies. Information changed daily and sometimes hourly regarding COVID recommendations, so our team met regularly to ensure we were on top of all compliance and our teams were safe. As roofing is considered essential, we paid all our field workers an additional $2 an hour during the mandated shutdown. Tori Hagen: We are still feeling the impact of the pandemic now but in a different way. We’ve seen substantial material price increases, shortages, and delivery delays. We are experiencing 60- to 180-day lead

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times on some materials that were readily available last year during the height of the pandemic. The costs of some materials have increased 15 to 35 percent or more. It’s been a team effort to make sure we’re proactive in ordering materials due to lead times and communicating any potential material delays with our customers. Vicki Hagen: I think we will continue to feel the impact of the pandemic for quite some time. Having never been through something like this before, there were many unknown obstacles that we and many businesses had to face. What are your plans for future growth? Will you be adding more locations? Tori Hagen: In terms of growth goals, what that looks like would be further expanding our customer base in southern Minnesota and the metro. Down the road, who knows what that might look like? It could mean exploring a new geographic market. Vicki Hagen: Kato Roofing does a fair amount of work in the Minneapolis area already. We also have a second company, Top All Roofing, that we purchased in 2015. It’s based in Minneapolis and is now about the same size as KRI. Top All Roofing is union, KRI is nonunion. They are two separate entities, and we are very diligent in keeping them separate. There is no crossover in actual fieldwork, and we keep our sales and estimating separate, too. Where having two companies is beneficial is in utilizing vendor relations and things like that. Tori Hagen: It gives us the opportunity to utilize economies of scale and bring in talented individuals that we might not be able to attract if we were just one company. For example, our safety director is the safety director for both companies. A single company might have to hire a third-party service because they can’t afford a fulltime safety role. The same is true for some administrative positions. Are your customers all in Minnesota? Tori Hagen: Our customer base is primarily in southern Minnesota and the metro, but we still seek opportunities in the five-state area. As we’re bidding on projects, if something out of state would be a good opportunity for us, we’re absolutely bidding on it, and our team is willing to travel.

July | August 2021

Vicki Hagen & Tori Hagen | Mankato Vicki Hagen: After working with us locally, we’ve had customers request that we complete another project for them out of state. You’ve worked on some massive projects. What are the challenges of working on that scale? Tori Hagen: Effective project management is essential for meeting and exceeding customer expectations. The larger the project, the more demanding it is on company resources. We have strong superintendents, project managers, and foremen that work well as a team and communicate regularly. They take their projects very seriously and do a phenomenal job; we’re exceptionally proud of them. One of the larger roofs that we’ve installed was Faribault Foods: a 600,000-square-foot roof that had a demanding construction schedule. It was an exciting project for us to complete. What is it like to be a woman working in a male-dominated industry? Vicki Hagen: When we first began the business, I encountered individuals who did not want to take a woman in a leadership role in the construction industry seriously. Solicitors would call and ask to speak to the owner. When they were transferred to me, they did not expect a female to answer. Often I had to convince them they were talking to the right person. Our administrative staff had fun with that at times. Yes, there were roadblocks at times, and I had to challenge the doubts of others to remain in the construction industry. We built long-lasting relationships with many in the industry. Their support is what helped us through when times were difficult. Much has changed in the last 30 years. Our world has changed. At one point, we were the only certified women’s business enterprise in the roofing industry within the five-state area. Now there are several. There are more women involved in roofing and construction today. We also have benefited from working with the Association of Women Contractors, a strong organization that helps align women and provide resources in the construction industry. There’s even a National Women in Roofing organization that has a Minnesota chapter. Today, many

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One of the larger roofs that KRI has installed was for the Faribault Foods building: a 600,000-square-foot roof.

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Vicki Hagen & Tori Hagen | Mankato

While sometimes incentives are provided for hiring a women-owned company, we don’t want our customers to choose us because we’re women-owned. We want them to choose us because we are best in class; we perform quality work in a safe environment, and we make their lives easier. —Tori Hagen organizations in the construction industry provide resources for women to grow in the field of their choice. Tori Hagen: We’ve had the opportunity to work with some phenomenal women roofers, and we need more in the industry. I feel that a woman in a male-dominated industry sometimes has a hard time getting her foot in the door. We encourage women to join the industry and our team. We focus on hiring capable team members who align with our values. The same is true for our customer base. While sometimes incentives are provided for hiring a women-owned company, we don’t want

our customers to choose us because we’re women-owned. We want them to choose us because we are best in class; we perform quality work in a safe environment, and we make their lives easier. What sets Kato Roofing apart from your competitors? Vicki Hagen: That is an easy answer for me, as it truly is our people. I don’t think we would have gotten through our hard times without the dedication and loyalty of the people that we have at Kato Roofing. Tori Hagen: They care. They take pride in their work. That’s what produces

quality work. Vicki Hagen: One thing that is really important to us is maintaining that family feel. Because we’re family, I know what it’s like for Tori or myself to need family time. We want that for everyone else, too. That’s been a benefit for us, that we feel that family connection and we care about our people the same way. Tori Hagen: One example warms my heart a bit. A couple of years ago, we had an employee that was injured outside of work on the weekend. He couldn’t work for some time, and he had a family to feed. Our team wanted to raise money to help him, so the company decided to match all donations. It was inspiring to see everyone willing to pitch in to help him and his family. Those kinds of actions are not unusual in our company. People care about one another. How do you build a cohesive and caring team? Tori Hagen: Our mission statement, values, and company culture make this a

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Doing The Right Thing place where people want to work. Vicki Hagen: We spent a fair amount of time years ago writing our mission statement with the involvement of our entire team. It is painted on the wall as you enter our office reception area. From time to time, we look to update or change it. But to this day, it holds true, because it reflects the values of our company. We want a safe and positive environment, we strive to exceed customer expectations, and we empower our people to be their best. Tori Hagen: Our culture is defined by the core values that we set as a team. We spent a lot of time defining what exactly those core values are. One of the main exercises we used was identifying individuals within our company that we would like to clone and asked ourselves why. What traits do they exemplify that we want to hire? Who is Kato Roofing? Who best models those values and traits that we want to grow throughout the company? It was a fun exercise to do. The values that came from that exercise were: does the right thing, goes above and beyond, is fun, is resourceful, and has a “yes mentality.” Now we’ve added those values to our hiring practices. Since we’ve done that, we have made some excellent hires. We use those values throughout our organization in making decisions. Vicki Hagen: It is great to hear our team talk about the values and use them within their conversations. I was copied on an email chain complimenting an individual on their “yes mentality” for helping outside of their regular duties to bring a positive solution

for a customer. We don’t want our mission statement or values to be just words on a wall. Tori Hagen: That’s what’s defined our culture. That’s what’s created a better place for us to work. That’s what strengthened the bond between our team members. So now it’s not just about them; it’s about the team. They are connected. Are there any particular tools or training that you use with your team? Tori Hagen: We utilize EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System), which helps companies move from being reactive to being proactive. Simply put, it helps to break down your long-term, big-picture goals into smaller, bite-size pieces. You develop teams for the decision-making process. Instead of decisions going top down, you now have engagement and feedback from the entire company. A culture of accountability is the outcome of working through this process. It also increases transparency and communication – everyone knows where we’re going. It has helped us to problem solve and make positive changes. Vicki Hagen: We have found that EOS companies like working with other EOS companies. You know they are focusing on improving their company and team. Feedback is encouraged throughout the company. You are continuously looking at identifying and solving problems, along with your metrics, to achieve your overall goals. It is important to me that our company retains its foundation of

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Vicki Hagen & Tori Hagen | Mankato values. I want to make sure that we never lose sight of our connection with our team. EOS helps us with that because it looks at the entire company. How would you describe your leadership style? Vicki Hagen: I feel fortunate that I had the opportunity to work with a company that focused on “TQM,” total quality management, early on in my career. It’s a management system based on the principle that every team member must be committed to maintaining high standards of work in every aspect of a company’s operations. We are always looking for ways to improve our overall operations. When asked about my leadership style, I cringe, as my strengths have definitely also been my greatest weakness. In terms of EOS, I am a classic visionary. My strength is that I have 100 ideas; my weakness is I have 100 ideas! That means I have 100 ideas on what I want our company to accomplish. Our leadership team works together to prioritize our to-do list. Tori Hagen: It’s important to balance the vision with execution. Ideas are brought to the team. The team may decide that something is a great idea and they would like to pursue it, but it might be two years out. We are better focused on determining what ideas we will work on and then assigning the individual with the skill set to accomplish the task. Vicki Hagen: As the company has grown, I’ve had to change my

There is a book much of our team has read called “The Oz Principle.” It’s all about accountability. It talks about working above the line or below the line. When you’re above the line, if there’s a problem, you see it, you own it, you solve it, and then you do it. —Tori Hagen leadership style. When we started and were much smaller, I was able to have a pulse of all aspects of the company. Over the years, I’ve had to learn to let go. That has been a big transition for me. Tori Hagen: We want our leaders to be empowered and help grow others within the company. We don’t want micro-managers. We want to let people step up to the plate. Vicki Hagen: We want feedback from our entire team. That is the only way we can get better and make improvements. The worst feedback is no feedback; people that are communicating care about the company. How would you describe your style, Tori? Tori Hagen: I have to say that when I’m working on the leadership team, I have a bit of the visionary in me, too.

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Doing The Right Thing Vicki Hagen: She has a good balance. With Jeff and I, I was the go, go, go, and he was more of the brakes. I think Tori is a balance of both of us. Tori Hagen: My leadership style is one of collaboration. The best decisions that we’ve made throughout our company are ones that have involved many minds. I rarely make a decision without involvement from those it will impact. I find a lot of success with that. I also believe in creating a culture of accountability. There is a book much of our team has read called “The Oz Principle.” It’s all about accountability. It talks about working above the line or below the line. When you’re above the line, if there’s a problem, you see it, you own it, you solve it, and then you do it. When you’re stuck below the line, you’re finger-pointing, covering your tail, and nothing gets done. Vicki Hagen: Adding this language to our toolbox has helped us all individually recognize when we are acting above or below the line. Before, whenever we would meet with teams and ask (what our issues are), communication was always at the top of the list. We’ve worked on that, and our communication style is much better. Do we have a ways to go? Yes. Tori Hagen: An example of that is our weekly meetings. There’s a person responsible for communicating updates to the field and engaging and receiving feedback from the rest of the team. Another person is responsible for communicating updates to our office.

You’ve talked a lot about your team and how important they are to your business. Who are the key players? Vicki Hagen: I really would like to list all of our team, as they all play an integral part in making our company successful. I wouldn’t want to leave anyone out! We surround ourselves with people that know their jobs better than we do. I’m pretty good at identifying what I don’t know and hiring other people to do those things. I rely on them to give me the correct information. One of the people I rely on is Troy Williams, our vice president of operations. Tori Hagen: Troy’s been an integral part of our success. He was an intern at KRI while he was in college. After working for a contractor for a bit, Troy came back to Kato Roofing about six or seven years ago. He started as an estimator and worked his way up to the vice president of operations role. He’s just been great to work with – super level-headed, extremely smart, and talented. Vicki Hagen: An important addition to our team has been Rich Carroll, our chief operations officer. He (has) a strong background in commercial roofing and is an EOS integrator. Rich has really helped our companies. He and Tori work very closely together with both companies. The four of us – Tori, Troy, Rich, and I – are all part of the leadership team. Tori Hagen: I like the way our decision-making process has developed over the last few years. With Troy and other key members involved in those discussions and disseminating that

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Vicki Hagen & Tori Hagen | Mankato information back to the team, we are now making better-informed decisions. What does it take to stay on top and keep evolving as a company? Vicki Hagen: It takes continuous improvement. We’re always looking at what we can do to be better. I don’t think that ever stops. Someone told me a long time ago, the only way you can coast is downhill. So we can never just coast. We’re not interested in going downhill. I think about businesses like mom-and-pop video stores. Something changed, and they weren’t ready for it. Now they’re not there anymore. Tori Hagen: We engage our team because no one person can be thinking about all things at all times. Now instead of just one person, you have 40 different brains giving feedback. We’re bound to come up with some good ideas and solutions from that. We also keep up with changing technology. We recently implemented a project management software to use on phones or iPads in the field. It’s a better way of communicating internally, as well as externally with our customers. Safety inspections, quality inspections, roof pictures, roof drawings, and change events are right there on the app. What achievements are you most proud of? Vicki Hagen: The achievement that I am most proud of is having

a team that works hard to accomplish our overall goals and values. When you are working in the middle of it all, all you see are the things you want and need to fix. You don’t always celebrate your wins. When I look back over our time in business, we have much to be proud of. We have worked on many buildings in the Mankato area with great owners and general contractors. It is a rewarding feeling to drive by projects and know that we put a quality roof on that building. With the support of our vendors, manufacturer reps, and local community, we are where we are today. We have built many friendships along the way and are thankful that we have had the opportunity to do business together; we look forward to continuing these relationships for many years.

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Peggy Hildebrandt

Connors Plumbing & Heating

Jane Laskey EDITOR

Living The Dream When I put out a call to area cities and business organizations asking for women’s business story ideas, I was stunned by the response. Twenty-four hours later, I had more than 100 enthusiastic suggestions waiting in my email. More flew in as the week progressed. It appears this is a story that is ripe for the telling. Small wonder when female entrepreneurs and business owners are transforming their communities and shaking up the marketplace. You can find them crushing their goals in retail, finance, restaurants, agriculture, and more. As Aretha Franklin and Annie Lennox sang, “Sisters are doin’ it for themselves.” My dilemma? How to choose just a handful of stories from this enormous group of wonder women. Thankfully, this magazine publishes a new issue every other month. I hope to cover them all eventually. This story showcases five female business owners from south-central Minnesota. They each have unique and compelling stories of growth, resilience, and celebration to share. Enjoy!

July | August 2021

The smallest choice can change the course of an entire life. For Peggy Hildebrandt, of Connors Plumbing and Heating Inc. in Waseca, that pivotal decision arose in 1991. “My dad needed somebody to help answer the phone, and I was available,” Hildebrandt said. “I thought I could help for a few weeks while I looked for a real job, and here I am 30 years later.” Hildebrandt was a business major with corporate dreams. But she found she enjoyed working with her father at his plumbing and heating company. She spent five years learning the ins and outs of the business and bought it in 1996. “Dad was nearing retirement, and he was willing to try new things. It was a fun atmosphere for me to grow in,” Hildebrandt said. “It was just really great timing.” Today Connors has 18 employees and an apprentice program to develop new talent. It provides residential plumbing, heating, and air conditioning services to customers within a 30-mile radius of Waseca. Hildebrandt hopes to add an electrical division soon. “We have a fantastic group of professionals,” Hildebrandt said. This year, Hildebrandt celebrated 30 years at Connors. She still incorporates the lessons she learned from her father: deliver a quality product, leave customers’ homes better than you found them, and treat employees well. “We want to be successful as a company, to have a really good product,” Hildebrandt said. “But at the end of the day, we work so that we can have a nice life. We want that for the people that we work with, too.” Connors Plumbing & Heating 407 5th Ave. SE, Waseca, MN 56093 Phone: (507) 835-2540 Web: callconnors.com

Kristi Feist

Humble Heart Quilt Shop

When the 2009 recession hit and Kristi Feist found herself unemployed, she decided to make her own luck. Using her last unemployment check, Feist rented a storefront and opened the Humble Heart Quilt Shop in downtown Wells. It was the realization of a lifelong dream and an instant hit with the community. Within a year, Feist had purchased the building that housed her shop. She’s been growing ever since. “Every job that I have had in my life, whether good or bad, easy or hard, has led me to this,” Feist said. “I feel so blessed to be able to do what I enjoy every day.” Today Humble Heart has three employees and offers home décor, gifts, craft supplies, and quilting fabrics and services. Its customers range from young girls searching for doll clothes to teens looking for class supplies to adults seeking fabrics and gifts. “We have become the best spot for finding that original gift for anyone,” Feist said. “I love seeing my customers with smiles on their faces.” Recently, Feist purchased and renovated a larger building, tripling the size of her shop. The new space will allow her to add quilting classes, bus tours, and retreats in the future. It opened in 2020, just in time for Feist’s first Quilt Minnesota Shop Hop. “Hoppers were coming by the carloads,” Feist said. “We had hoppers from all over the state and even from South Dakota and Iowa. There were even a couple of ladies from Texas.” The shop hops have been a boon for the entire city, bringing over 1,000 people to shop and eat in downtown Wells. Several shop hops are scheduled for 2021, and Feist hopes to add even more in the future. Humble Heart Quilt Shop 49 S Broadway, Wells, MN 56097 Phone: (507) 553-6021 Web: humbleheartquiltshop.com

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Shellee Daley

Shellee’s Greenhouse

“I always had a love for nature, animals, plants – all of it,” Shellee Daley said. “I get inspired each spring as I’m outside seeing and hearing God’s landscape come alive again after the long winter.” For 26 years, Daley has poured her love of nature into Shellee’s Greenhouse in Madelia. There was no greenhouse in town, so Daley asked her husband to build her a little hoop

Nancy Wendt

The Bookkeeping Center

Nancy Wendt discovered her passion for accounting in high school and has never looked back. “I got hooked on accounting after taking a class in high school,” Wendt said. “I’ve been working in accounting jobs ever since.” In 2002, Wendt poured her passion into a business of her own, opening The Bookkeeping Center in New Ulm. It offers a complete line of bookkeeping and payroll services, as well as individualized QuickBooks training. “We provide service to entrepreneurs and small businesses 26

greenhouse on their farm. She opened for business in 1995. “My expertise in plant life comes from 40-plus years of experience and independent study,” Daley said. “My mom always had a garden when I was growing up. I have continued to do that all these years, experimenting with different varieties, so I am able to relay that information to my customers.” Gradually Daley’s greenhouse expanded, taking over farm buildings as she added more plants, garden décor, and classes. “We have a 101-year-old barn we use for all our garden items, soil, and check-out. Plus, we turned a hog barn into a growing and retail area. The spaces around the buildings are used to display all of our plants,” Daley said. If it’s green, Daley has got it. She carries an enormous variety of plants, from standard garden offerings like annuals, perennials, herbs, and vegetables to native prairie plants, certified pollinator plants, and succulents. The customers at Shellee’s Greenhouse are equally varied. “My customers range from kids coming out to pick out a plant for mom or grandma to my older customers who come to get plants for their urns and gardens,” Daley said. “Some come out just to say hi or to stroll through the beautiful flowers. People love our lil’ farm site.” Shellee’s Greenhouse 609 W Main St., Madelia MN 56062 Phone: (507) 642-8719 Facebook: Shellee’s Greenhouse

that don’t have the time, desire, or skills to set up, manage and maintain their books or payroll,” Wendt said. “We currently have clients in manufacturing, many different service industries, retail, home health care, ag, nonprofits, and more. Everyone’s needs are so vastly different, but at the end of the day, they all need accounting.” As the business grew, Wendt added two full-time and two part-time employees. She recently completed a three-year project that moved her company to a cloud-based accounting and payroll system. While The Bookkeeping Center sells services, its most important asset is its reputation for solid business relationships built on integrity and reliability. “The relationships we build with our clients are by far the most important part of being successful,” Wendt said. “Even though we are considered an outsourced service provider, we like to feel we are as much a part of their business as their employees.” Wendt has been contemplating a gradual retirement from the business. She has yet to set a date, but she’s been grooming her replacement and working with her others employees to ensure a seamless transition. Her daughter, Katie Wersal, will be her successor. But Wendt is not ready to step aside just yet. “I’m still in love with accounting,” Wendt said. “When I hear a client struggling to get a report or find information about their business, we can easily, and usually very quickly, provide the information they need. I love knowing that we can help.” The Bookkeeping Center Inc. 1600 N Broadway St., New Ulm, MN 56073 Phone: (507) 233-1301

Laura Spitzer

Indulge Salon & Spa

Laura Spitzer always knew she had a beauty salon in her future. “I have wanted this to be my career since the young age of 3,” Spitzer said. “I was handed a tube of lipstick and a comb, and that’s all it took.” Spitzer started her journey at the Aveda Institute in Minneapolis and went on to work at Liv Aveda in Mankato. She missed her family and hometown and moved back to Fairmont to open her own salon.

“I was tossed in fast. I was only 19 years old and going to start a business,” Spitzer said. “I remember driving down to my dad’s work, sneaking in to see him, and panicking. He just looked at me and said, ‘I have no doubt you can do this.’ So I did.” Spitzer opened Indulge Salon & Spa in 2007. Two years later, she bought the building that houses it. She’s been growing ever since. “My mother and I have joked, ‘Who would’ve ever thought we would fill the space and now need even more?’” Spitzer said. “Soon we are hoping to add much more with an expansion project in the works.” Over the past several years, Spitzer has weathered some difficult times. In 2019, her fourth child, Emmalyne, died at 8 months old. The Spitzer family created a nonprofit organization, Forever, Emmalyne, in her memory. Six months after that, COVID-19 struck, forcing her business to close. “It was very challenging,” Spitzer said. “I am forever grateful for my staff at Indulge. They carried me through that time so we could remain the business we are.” Today Indulge has a team of 15 employees and a loyal customer base that keeps its appointment schedule full. “The relationships I have built over the years with my clientele and staff make my heart so happy,” Spitzer said. “There is no part of me that doubts this career choice. I firmly believe that if you do what you love, it will never feel like work.” Indulge Salon & Spa 203 Downtown Plaza, Fairmont, MN 56031 Phone: (507) 235-5266

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UPCOMING TRAINING EVENTS

The Social Reset Does the idea of conversation at the water cooler make you want to continue to social distance? As the world experiences another shift to opening back up, join us for a casual, facilitated networking event and conversation. This four-part, monthly series will explore challenges we are facing following the COVID-19 pandemic, including re-evaluation of values, social norms, equity and inclusion, and technology.

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Agile Leadership An introduction to Agile strategy to get your business on track! In this intensive, you will be introduced to what Agile means, and the various approaches that are considered “Agile”. This workshop will focus on vocabulary, and how to understand where to begin with any agile approach.

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

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Photo by Scott Rahe

A Commitment to Excellence in Nursing

oth South Central College and Minnesota State University, Mankato are respected as institutions graduating high caliber nursing students to meet critical healthcare needs throughout the state. This past June, the two entered into a partnership to increase collaboration and emphasize their commitment to education and excellence in nursing. The Maverick (Nursing) Advance (Transfer) Plan (MAP) provides a pathway for South Central College graduates with an Associate Degree in Nursing to pursue their Baccalaureate Degree with a seamless transfer to Minnesota State Mankato’s online degree completion program. The university’s BS in Nursing is unique in that it is individualized and flexible, offering rolling admission with five different start dates every year. Laura Schwarz, faculty member of the School of Nursing at Minnesota State Mankato expanded upon the individualization of the program in sharing, “Qualified SCC nursing students are guaranteed

admission to the RN-BS Program and can apply and be accepted while they are finishing out their final semester at SCC. The partnership allows for dual advisement from both institutions and for students to meet the RN-BS Program director and advisor while in the Associate Degree Nursing Program at SCC to learn more about the program and ask questions”. Obtaining a bachelor’s degree opens up a wide variety of career pathways for nurses, allowing them to work in traditional settings of hospitals, clinics, and trauma centers, but also public health. There is a natural synergy between South Central College and Minnesota State Mankato in the implementation of this official agreement- the university’s RN to BS Program has long been South Central College Nursing grads’ number one choice for completing their Baccalaureate in Nursing education. Kris Retherford, Dean of the College of Allied Health and Nursing at Minnesota State University, Mankato,

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“We are very excited about this partnership that will allow students from SCC to take advantage of a smooth transition into our fully online RN Baccalaureate Completion program.” - Kris Retherford

shared, “We are very excited about this partnership that will allow students from SCC to take advantage of a smooth transition into our fully online RN Baccalaureate Completion program.” Following the execution of the partnership, the university has nearly doubled the number of SCC nursing program graduates admitted to the degree completion program for fall of 2021. This number is anticipated to grow significantly, as enrollments continue to come in for both August and October cohorts. The MAP agreement comes on the heels of the university’s pursuit of alternative delivery formats and degree completion programs for non-traditional students, whose lives may not be compatible with the traditional pipeline of a four-year degree following high school graduation. 100% online degree completion programs allow for the flexibility of working professionals to further their education, while continuing to serve the needs of their community. Jeff Pool, Outreach Coordinator with University Extended Education at Minnesota State Mankato highlighted the importance of this in sharing, “Online provides the convenience for students to be able to complete their degree where they are at and continue to work in their communities”. The RN-BS program is built for working nurses-100% online, and no requirement for additional clinical time. “Nursing is a high need, high demand job market right now, and this allows us to continue to contribute to that job market without having to pull students away.” Looking towards the future, the world will continue to need big ideas in health and wellness. The MAP agreement demonstrates a commitment to excellence in nursing in southern Minnesota. If you are interested in learning more about the MAP program, please contact the RN Baccalaureate Completion Program Coordinator, Dr. Laura Schwarz (laura. schwarz@mnsu.edu).

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July | August 2021

HOT STARTZ! MANKATO

Store It It’s never easy to start a new business but opening one amidst a pandemic is really a challenge. Luckily, Mankato’s new Store It facility is uniquely positioned to thrive in socially distanced times. “Our facility is virtually contactless. There are no keys. There are no locks. Everything is run via an app on your phone,” Jessica Wolfe said. Wolfe is the director of sales and marketing at Store It. “You don’t need to talk with someone to access, rent, or pay for your unit. It can all be handled online.” Store It opened in June 2020 and is located near Kohl’s in the former Lowes building. The two-story facility offers indoor, climate-controlled storage spaces, which range in size from 3 feet by 5 feet up to 10 feet by 30 feet. Professional moving partnerships allow Store It to offer a full-service moving option. “Our tenants don’t have to touch a thing. We will go out, pack up everything, move it into the storage facility, and keep it for as long as you need,” Wolfe said. “We also have a rental truck available for tenants, as well.” Store It tenants can drive their vehicles into the facility for indoor unloading. “You can completely unload and load within a controlled environment,” Wolfe said. “We have two large exterior bays. You pull your car up, open the gate with your smart phone from inside your car, pull your car into the bay, and the gate will close behind you.” Currently, Mankato is the only Store It location, but more may be in the works. “We’d love to add additional locations in the future,” Wolfe said. “If you drive around any small town in southern Minnesota, there are empty big-box stores that are looking for a little bit of love, a new use. Climate-controlled, indoor storage is a growing industry and we’re happy to be a part of it.” Store It 2015 Bassett Drive Phone: (507) 786-7348 Web: storeitmn.com Facebook: Store It MN

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HOT STARTZ! ST. JAMES

Cedel Store When Monica Delgado-Garcia arrived in St. James, she didn’t have much – only a dream of a better life and a determination to make her own fortune in the world. She moved one step closer to realizing that dream when she opened the Cedel Store in October 2020. The store, which is in downtown St. James, offers clothing, shoes, makeup, and accessories for the entire family. “We have great goods at great prices so people will come back,” Delgado-Garcia said. Delgado-Garcia is originally from Durango, Mexico. She immigrated to the United States when she was 20 years old to escape a bad relationship and find a fresh start. In 2011, she moved to St. James to live with her brother. She was granted a work visa for victims of domestic violence and got to work. “I don’t want anybody to say I’m living here for free,” Delgado-Garcia said. “I came here for a better future. I just want to earn the bread that I put on my table every day.” Delgado has been employed by Tony Downs Foods since 2016, but she knew she needed to do more if she wanted to retire someday. She and her boyfriend, Humberto Cedillo, decided to start a business of their own. “We have to do something to improve our future,” Delgado-Garcia said. “We thought about a restaurant, but I cook because I need to, not because I like it.” When she saw some Facebook and YouTube videos on how to start a clothing business, she knew she’d found the right idea. “We started doing sales outside of our house,” Delgado-Garcia said. “That was working good, but winter was coming. So, we rented a space on First Avenue and opened the doors of our store

on Oct. 31, 2020.” The Cedel Store’s name is a combination of Cedillo and Delgado-Garcia’s last names. It reflects their joint investment in the store. “The store is in my name, but we are 50-50,” Delgado-Garcia said. “He works at the store, he helps with all the labeling, and he made all the tables for me.” The store is open seven days a week. Both Cedillo and Delgado-Garcia continue to work at their regular jobs, running the store in their free time with the help of family and friends. “I’m learning I can do more than I thought I could,” Delgado-Garcia said. Cedel Store 510 1st Ave. South Phone: (507) 375-3174 Facebook: Cedel Store

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WANDA

Kenwood Home + Kenwood Design 2020 was a big year for Abby Gronli. First, she decided to go all-in on her business, Kenwood Design, transforming it from a fun side gig to a full-time career. Next, she purchased a building to house her growing business. Finally, she took advantage of her new space to open her new home goods store, Kenwood Home. “I’ve always been drawn to all things home,” Gronli said. “My interest with interior design peaked when my husband, Micah, and I bought our home on a farm near Wabasso. It’s a 1960s house that needed a lot of work to make it feel like our own. I found myself loving all the home renovation and design projects we’ve taken on.” The new building in Wanda is a great fit for Gronli; located near her home and the perfect size to house both Kenwood Design and Kenwood Home. “Wanda is a small town, but I’ve found that people are willing to make the drive to check out what’s in the shop and find items for their home,” Gronli said. “There’s something so sweet about being set up in a quaint little town.” Kenwood Design offers interior design services for projects large and small. Gronli also provides online design services for DIYers seeking guidance. “Everything is done virtually for my online design clients,” Gronli said. “I piece together the design plan for them, then they’re in charge of setting everything up in their homes.” Kenwood Home carries a wide array of home goods that are updated monthly. Offerings include vases, florals, wall decor, kitchen utensils, textiles, and storage solutions. The shop is open monthly

for a two- or three-day period. “I’ve always had a love for small, locally owned shops. When we bought our building in Wanda, I knew this was my chance to own and operate a shop of my own,” Gronli said. “My ultimate goal is to help people love where they live. When I wrap up a project and clients share with me that it finally feels like home to them, that’s when I love my job most.” Kenwood Home + Kenwood Design 100 North Railroad St. Web: kenwoodhomedesign.com Facebook/Instagram: Kenwood Home + Design

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By Lisa Cownie Photos by Jonathan Smith

Drummers Garden Center & Floral, with Julie Drummer at the helm, is known as the local go-to shop for gardeners of all kinds. It has a reputation that was earned by hard work and came from humble beginnings. In fact, when Drummer started the business some 30 years ago, she didn't know a lot about gardening. But she did know how to dig in and work hard. "I was born and raised in Mankato and went to Minnesota State University, graduating with a dual major in marketing and management," Julie Drummer said. "Honestly though, I didn't know what I wanted to do after graduation. This was in 1988. I worked as an assistant manager in a video store and as a bank clerk while I figured things out." She left school with two degrees and one fiancé (now husband, Mike Drummer), which proved to be a good combination. Together Julie and Mike had a vision: a big idea for a small shop on the edge of town. "At that time, Mike was doing some landscaping and working with nurseries. It was something he really enjoyed," Drummer said. "I would help him find landscaping customers by making cold calls. We would drive around Mankato looking at property that seemed to need landscaping work, such as new businesses or houses. Then we would approach them with our ideas.” Continues

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“While Mike had that, I was still searching for what I wanted to do with my life. Then one day he said, ‘Well, why don’t we start a garden center?’ We had no money, so basically we had nothing to lose! We figured, why not? “We knew location would be key. We also knew we didn’t have any money for a place of our own. So we approached Menards with the idea of starting a garden center in their parking lot. At that time, Menards was located on Madison Avenue, where Snell Motors is today. The first year they only let us put one up through the July 4 holiday. They maybe wanted to see how it would go. Well, the next year, they allowed us to rent a ‘permanent’ location from them in their parking lot right on the corner of Madison and Highway 22.” The business continued to blossom, and so did Julie Drummer. She went from wondering what she wanted to do with her career to seeing her future a little more clearly. “I learned a lot of it on the job because I wasn’t a big gardener at that time,” Julie Drummer said. “I was in my 20s and could pick things ups quickly. I enjoyed learning just by doing and growing new stuff myself. But I also learned from the customers’ experiences. I just never stopped learning, I worked hard, and tried different things. Basically, I didn’t know any better, so it didn’t bother me to try new things. We fell into our own roles; Mike ended up doing the landscaping side of things while I ran the temporary store. The first year we made $45,000, and we thought, ‘Whoo-hoo! We are doing this again!’ The first year we got lucky; we were in the right place at the right time. We decided let’s just hang with it and see what happens.” Having the right timing has been a theme throughout Julie Drummer’s career. When starting back in 1990, Drummers was one of only a handful of garden centers in the region. Today, a quick Google search will garner dozens of options. The Drummers could see what was coming. So as not to get stuck in the weeds, they decided to expand. The timing on just when to do that became clear when Menards moved to the other side of Highway 14. The Drummers knew their business fed off Menards’ business, so they wanted to move with them. By this time, they had earned enough to get their own place. So while they wanted to be near Menards, they also wanted to be separate. In 1999, they made plans to build a retail store and greenhouse on 5 acres located on Adams Street. Drummers Garden Center & Floral opened in the new space in 2000 and is still there today. “While Mike was handling the landscaping, I took care of the retail side of things,” Julie Drummer said. “When we decided to build this store, we knew we would need to offer more than green goods since those were only available and plantable at a certain time of year. So we looked at what Bachman’s was doing just to try to find something to model it off of. We ended up buying a local florist, Sue’s Floral, and moved that into here. We eventually just eliminated the name. The goal was to be more of a full-service, year-round business. By this time, Mike was pursuing other business ventures. So we stopped doing landscaping and instead offered landscape design services, as well as a wide array of plants, flowers, (and) seasonal items, including décor, and a gift shop – really tried to be full service.” The decision to build a large, year-round facility was also an effort to get competitors to shy away from Mankato. Increased competition was one challenge; another challenge is one that’s familiar to all

Drummers Garden Center & Floral | Mankato employers in the region. “If you ask me on a different day, it might be something different, but today it is labor,” Drummer said. “Mostly because we are so seasonal it’s hard to keep everyone on full time. It’s hard to find those people that are really going to come in and help out for a couple of months and then move on with their lives when the season ends. So labor is a business challenge we have. Because we are so customer-focused, finding knowledgeable labor is another struggle. We want our staff educated so we can educate the consumer. That’s always our goal. Some days we make our mark, and other days we don’t.” While staffing has been a challenge, it is her staff that Julie Drummer credits with her success. “I have a very loyal core group of full-time people,” Julie Drummer said. “From management down, I can’t thank them enough for all they do. I rely on them. Some have been with me for 20 years! So they are a big part of the success of Drummers Garden Center. They have been doing it for so long; they are very knowledgeable and hard working. They really help us move forward and continue to grow. I do have a core group of seasonal workers that I rely on, too. A lot of those folks are retired, so the seasonality of it doesn’t bother them. Or for some, this is just their second job from April through June. It’s so great to have a steady group of people that know our structure and can just jump in each year and help out right away. We have about 60 total employees, but again, many of them are seasonal.” Drummer admits there has never been a season like the season of 2020; however, her business actually benefitted from the COVID pandemic. Gardening turned out to be what people turned to to get through the pandemic.

Proud Words From Julie’s Partner Mike Drummer appeared on the cover of Connect Business Magazine in September 2007. At that time, he had this to say about Julie Drummer. “My wife runs it (Drummers Garden Center & Floral) and does a fantastic job. She is honest and devoted to customers. She provides service at a reasonable price and gives customers attention. In the spring, we still carry flowers and other products for customers out to their cars. Customers can get their questions answered. That’s how we compete with the discount stores. Even in the beginning she ran the garden center part and I was out landscaping, except for May, the peak month for garden center retail.”

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Business is Blooming

A peek at the wide array of plants and flowers available at Drummers Garden Center & Floral on Adams Street.

“COVID taught all of us a lot, and it was no different in the gardening world, which seemed to help people get through the crisis in a way,” Julie Drummer said. “What else could people do but work on their house

and be outside? So it increased sales quite a bit. This year the same thing is happening. Business is good, and we’ve been open the whole time. Thankfully we didn’t have a problem with COVID here. And now that

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vaccines are available, we feel even safer. “It’s also neat to see a lot of new gardeners coming in that are learning and new homeowners that are finally putting in a garden. House plant sales, too, have increased dramatically because people want to put some green in their lives.” Indeed, industry research shows that sales revenue for the retail garden sector increased by 8.6% between spring 2019 and spring 2020. This spring is growing at that pace, as well. It’s not all pandemic related, though, as stats show that retail gardening has seen an upward trend in the year-overyear growth rate of average sales revenue over the past couple of years, moving from a 4.62% increase in revenue in 2018 up to an 8.79% increase in revenue in 2020. The significant growth spike between 2019 and 2020 shows the positive impact the recent gardening boom has had on this sector. At the end of the day, pandemic purchases or not, Julie Drummer says the southern Minnesota region has embraced the vision

Drummers Garden Center & Floral | Mankato

she and Mike Drummer had 30 years ago and has been unwavering in its support of the family-owned, locally owned operation. “I think it’s great the community continues to support local and small business. It’s not really a surprise, but I guess I am just grateful when there are other options out there, and the community chooses to continue supporting small, locally owned,” Julie Drummer said. In turn, Drummers supports local causes as much as it can. Its reward program is somewhat unique. Like other rewards programs, it offers cash back after a certain amount of purchases; but in their case, the customer may choose to give the money to a charity of choice. Another commitment Drummers makes to the community is protecting the environment. Sustainability is an important part of Julie Drummer’s business plan. She is committed to being “green.” So, besides just growing a lot of plants, there are a number of ways the business practices sustainability.

Looking to the future, Julie Drummer hopes to add another greenhouse: “We always seem to be short on growing space.” In many ways, Julie Drummer says she is still learning, even after three decades at the helm. There is one lesson, in particular, she likes to pass on to others. “There are always two sides to a story,” Julie Drummer said. “It’s good to listen to both sides before you make a serious decision. Starting or owning your own business can be really stressful. So you learn to just breathe and take a step back, and maybe you’ll see things that you thought were really big problems are not that big, and you always seem to get through them.” Growing a business has been only one part of Julie Drummer’s life. She has also been growing a family. She and Mike Drummer have two sons: 18-year-old Jacob Drummer is now a student at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities. He is in the pre-veterinarian program. “He has wanted to be a vet since second

grade,” Julie Drummer said. “We’ve had many animals over the years – chickens, turkeys, dogs, even a gecko. Just the whole menagerie!” Her 15-year-old son, Noah Drummer, is a student at Mankato East High School and enjoys helping out with the family businesses as time allows. In the off season, the Drummer family likes to get away together. They share a cabin on Lake Francis with Julie Drummer’s sister. Time is well spent there fishing, relaxing, and reconnecting as a family, just continuing to grow.

THE ESSENTIALS Drummers Garden Center & Floral 281 Saint Andrews Drive Mankato, MN 56001 Phone: (507) 388-4877 Web: drummersgardencenter.com

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ELEVATING OUR REGION

AS THE WORLD-CLASS FOOD AND AGRIBUSINESS EPICENTER

Tell us about the GreenSeam region. How is it becoming the world-class food and agribusiness epicenter? We have it all here: the business diversity and strength. There are over 1,000 ag-related businesses in our region, and they cover a number of industries, from protein to soybean processing, from small family farms to Fortune 500 companies. It is pretty amazing what we have done and can continue doing here as we build out the full supply chain and drive innovation. Spanning southern Minnesota and northern Iowa, GreenSeam is a region worth investing in.

Mark Greenwood

Chief Diversified Markets Officer Compeer Financial

What would you say is unique about the region? The diversity of agriculture is GreenSeam’s biggest strength. There is focus on protein processing, renewable energy, as well as technology and science, especially in the swine industry. There are 17 ethanol plants in the GreenSeam, producing 1.4 – 1.5 billion gallons of ethanol a year. Even tractor manufacturing has found its home in the GreenSeam region. You can also have a wonderful life in the GreenSeam, as it is a great place to raise a family and grow a career. The region offers top-notch schools, our communities are safe, and there are endless opportunities for those who enjoy spending their time outdoors.

How does GreenSeam shape the future of agriculture, businesses, and communities in the region? GreenSeam, the organization, is an irreplaceable connector for existing businesses and potential investors. It is the key to unlocking the people, businesses, and communities that support the innovation and growth of the next generation of agribusiness leaders.

What brings you, as well as Compeer Financial, to the GreenSeam table? A very important piece for the future of Compeer Financial is a thriving region, and being part of GreenSeam is the best way to ensure it continues to grow and thrive. GreenSeam is driving the long-term resilience of our small towns and rural landscapes. Mark Greenwood has been engaged with GreenSeam since its inception and currently serves on its Board of Governors. Mark was born and raised on a farm in southern Minnesota and has been involved in agriculture his entire business career. Besides his role as Chief Diversified Markets Officer at Compeer Financial, Mark is a member of National Pork Producers, Minnesota Corn Growers Association, Minnesota Soybean Association, and GreenSeam Business Group. He has had multiple opportunities to travel across the world and speak about the success of agriculture and the supply chain in the GreenSeam region.

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GROUNDBREAKER

Highlighting our region’s Ag and Food Production Industries

Taking Barbecue to the Next Level Summertime is barbecue time. At Prairie Pride Farm, Paul Hubmer and Brheanna Hubmer have taken the art of barbecue to a whole new level, creating a farm-to-plate experience that is darn close to perfection. The Hubmers’ Mankato business has three components: farm,

catering, and farmers market. First, they grow and grind their grain to produce wholesome, natural feed. Next, they pamper their animals, following heritage farming principles to produce quality chicken and pork products. Finally, they combine time-tested recipes and barbecue techniques to deliver the best-tasting chicken, chops, brats, sausages, and bacon you have ever eaten. You can purchase their products and gift boxes at local farmers markets or through their website. If you’ve got a hankering for some good barbecue, give their take-andbake dinners a try, visit their food truck, or have them cater your next event.

A Long Legacy The Hubmer family farm goes back, way back. It was established in 1876, just a handful of years after the Civil War ended. “I’m the sixth generation on my family farm,” Paul Hubmer said. “This is a century farm now.” The farm sits at the southeast edge of Mankato, just a few miles from St. Clair. You can see the St. Clair water tower from the Hubmers’ mailbox. It began operating under the Prairie Pride Farm name in 1998 when Paul Hubmer’s parents, Dawn Hubmer and Roger Hubmer, were running the show. Paul Hubmer purchased the Prairie Pride catering business from his parents in

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GROUNDBREAKER

Highlighting our region’s Ag and Food Production Industries

2013. He and Brheanna Hubmer bought Prairie Pride Farm in 2020. Both Hubmers contribute to their business in different ways. Paul Hubmer brings a wealth of farm experience to the table. Brheanna Hubmer adds a strong business and marketing background. The two share years of restaurant and catering experience and a passion for good food. It’s a great combination. The Hubmers pride themselves on their environmentally friendly, humane farming processes. Prairie Pride is a Minnesota Water Quality Certified Farm. “This whole farm is run humanely. Every animal is treated with the utmost respect,” Brheanna Hubmer said. Their clover pastured, free-range chickens rule the barnyard (although the farm dogs might disagree). The Hubmers’ daughters, 13-year-old Arheanna and seven-year-old Rocky, hand place the newborn chicks in their nursery. “We raise them in open-air barns so they can go off and pick alfalfa and grass. They also are fed a little corn, soybeans, and a little bit of base mix. We hand grind everything that we raise here to feed our animals,” Paul Hubmer said. “The chicken breed that we raise is a very blank palate. It takes on its environment. Good quality ingredients – high-quality proteins, alfalfa, and grass – make a difference.” The kid-glove treatment applies to their pigs, as well. “We have great animal husbandry,” Paul Hubmer said. “We raise these pigs on our own non-GMO corn. It’s a very simple diet: corn, soybeans as their protein, and a little bit of minerals and vitamins. There are no antibiotics, and they’re growth-hormone free.” Does all this effort affect the flavor? “Absolutely,” Paul Hubmer said. A Special Breed Another thing that affects the flavor is the breed. The Hubmers’ pigs are not your average, run-of-the-mill pigs. Yes, indeed. These pigs are something special. When you think of a pig, you probably picture a pink pig, like the Yorkshire breed. It’s one of the most common pigs in the United States. They’re quick-growing, disease-resistant, and produce inexpensive 42

July | August 2021

Now That’s Good BBQ

What makes a good barbecue? The Hubmers will tell you the first critical ingredient is time. “It takes patience and time. Lots of time, trial and error,” Paul Hubmer said. Brheanna Hubmer likes to help out in the quality control department: “That’s my job. Paul will say, taste this, does this taste good?” The second requirement is to

meat. That’s great if you want to produce a lot of pork fast, but not so great if you’re looking for world-class flavor. The pigs at Prairie Pride Farm are Kurobata Berkshire pigs. If you’re wondering what the heck that has to do with the flavor of your pork chop, Paul Hubmer is happy to fill you in. “This is 100 percent pedigreed, pure-bred Berkshire pork. It’s an old-world breed that dates back to England. It’s a black pig with some white accents, a little bit slower growing. But the meat quality and the flavor and the tenderness are far superior to any production pig that is out there,” Paul Hubmer said. “That’s what our customers really like, and that’s where we stand out in our market.” Berkshire pigs have been known for

start with good, quality meat. “Simplicity is key. Good quality meat is a must. We cannot stress that enough,” Paul Hubmer said. “We barbecue all of our own pork shoulders. People ask, ‘Why is your stuff so good?’ It’s the quality of the meat. That’s the number one thing.” Prairie Pride has proven that combining their meats with barbecue is a winning combination. “That’s why competitive barbecuers come to us for their meat products,” Brheanna Hubmer said. “That alone can help win the competition.”

their rare quality and flavor for over 300 years, according to the American Berkshire Association. It created the world’s first swine registry in 1875, which coincidentally is about the same time the Hubmer Farm was founded. The first hog ever recorded in the registry set the bar high for the Berkshire breed: It was the boar Ace of Spades and was bred by Queen Victoria. Berkshire pork’s superior flavor is due in part to its well-marbled mix of lean meat and fat. That makes it more desirable and, yes, more expensive. The Hubmers will tell you it is worth it. “I’ll put my pork chops up against any single steak there is, your fillet, your Wagyu, and I guarantee it will be just as good, if not better,” Paul Hubmer said. “This Berkshire pork is amazing.”

STUDIO 5

Jane Laskey EDITOR

Speaking of Waygu beef, the Kurobata Berkshire is known as the Waygu of the pork world. It takes its name from a line of Berkshire pigs that were raised in Kurobata, Japan. “Kurobuta is a Japanese term that translates into ‘black hog.’ Japan is a huge buyer in the Berkshire market,” Paul Hubmer said. Prairie Pride Growth Prairie Pride Farm has sold its products online and at farmers markets in St. Paul, Burnsville, and Lakeville for years. This June, they joined the Mankato Farmers Market. Look for the Hubmers every Tuesday between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. in the Best Buy parking lot on Adams Street in Mankato. Prairie Pride products include fresh meats, uncured bacon and sausages, and their special barbecue sauce and rub. They sell gift boxes year-round. At Thanksgiving time, they add whole turkeys to the mix. Their award-winning sausage selection includes old-fashioned wieners: jalapeno-cheddar, andouille, bratwurst, Cajun, chorizo, and summer sausage. During grilling season, their brats are a big hit. “A lot of our brats are precooked, so you can just toss them on your grill and warm them up,” Brheanna Hubmer said. “It’s nice for busy families or big families.” The Hubmers hope to continue to grow their business over the next few years, especially in the Mankato and St. Clair communities. They see it as the natural next step in their farm-to-table adventure. “We plan on expanding, possibly opening a brick-and-mortar meat shop,” Brheanna Hubmer said. “We’d both also love to open our own restaurant.” THE ESSENTIALS

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By Lisa Cownie Photos by Jonathan Smith

In Spanish, fiesta means a celebration. When Krystal Hernandez purchased the Plaza Morena restaurant in 2012, she added the word fiesta to its name. She knew in her heart there would be much to celebrate. She could never have imagined, though, the obstacles that she would have to overcome to earn those celebrations. The last nearly 10 years have been full of challenges, from a devastating fire to a global pandemic. Today, La Plaza Fiesta is thriving, and these days the restaurant in Madelia has plenty to celebrate. “Honestly, things are going well,” Krystal Hernandez said. “Everything we have gone through, we have learned from, and truly it’s only made us stronger.” Strength is one thing Hernandez started building at a very young age. She began working at her parents’ Owatonna roller rink when she was 11 years old. She did anything that needed doing: concessions, admissions, ordering supplies and stocking shelves, even cleaning the bathrooms. Hernandez knew how to work hard, a work ethic that her family came to rely upon. Continues

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“When I was around 14, my family sold the roller rink. We sort of had some bad luck, and my brother and I had to work to contribute to the family household, sometimes working three jobs at the same time,” Hernandez said. “All of those jobs, it turned out, had something to do with the restaurant industry. So I ended up filling every role you can imagine in various restaurants, and I developed a dream to have my own restaurant someday.” That someday came in 2012, with a few triumphs and tragedies along the way. First came triumph: Hernandez graduated from high school and went on to earn her two-year degree from Minneapolis Business College in just 14 months. Then came tragedy. Her best friend and co-worker, Fabian Martinez, lost his life in a tragic car accident on Christmas Day in 2008. Around the same time, Hernandez lost two of her jobs when Vikings’ lineman Matt Birk closed his two restaurants after signing with Baltimore. Over time, Hernandez became close to Martinez’s parents, who owned several Mexican restaurants named Plaza Morena. “Jose became like a second dad to me after his son, my best friend, passed away. I started working for him. I believe it was all God’s work how it worked out,” Hernandez said. “When one door closed and I lost my job in the cities, Jose opened another door for me when I started working at his Owatonna restaurant. That’s where I met Daniel, who is now my husband and partner in all things. “My dream was always to own a restaurant, and it was Daniel’s dream, too, so it worked out perfectly. The story of how we got to own our own place is interesting. Jose opened a Plaza Morena in Madelia. After a year, he had Daniel and I go down and check on it once in a while as Jose needed to focus on a new restaurant he was constructing elsewhere. Daniel and I fell in love with Madelia and ended up taking over Plaza Morena and running it for Jose, along with Daniel’s siblings. So it has truly been a family affair since the beginning. We eventually ended up buying it from him and making it our own, which included changing the name.” Hernandez and her husband had owned the restaurant for four years when fire ravaged Madelia’s downtown, including La

La Plaza Fiesta | Madelia Plaza Fiesta. In February 2016, La Plaza, along with seven other businesses on Madelia’s historic Main Street, was engulfed in flames and reduced to rubble. It was a devastating blow to the city of Madelia. With the help of charitable donations, community outreach and involvement, Hernandez and her team at La Plaza Fiesta found a way to keep going from a temporary site while they rebuilt on Main Street.

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We believe all people should live in a safe, sustainable, and La Plaza Fiesta’s dining area is two stories tall.

“At the time of the fire, we were finally just getting into the groove of things with the restaurant. We had just remodeled with a new floor and a new cooler. We were growing really fast and doing really well,” Hernandez said. “Personally it was hard as I was eight months pregnant with my first baby. So I had all those emotions. “It was obviously life-changing. I will say, though, that we learned a lot that I wouldn’t have learned had we not had the fire. Of course, I would rather it had not happened. But for the longevity of the business, we learned how to pivot and how to overcome things. We became closer as a family, and by that, I mean all of us, my entire staff. We just became really close, and we kind of just depended on each other during that time. We had to live with what we had and

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Krystal Hernandez with her La Plaza Fiesta staff.

July | August 2021

La Plaza Fiesta | Madelia work really hard to figure out what the heck we were going to do. “This wonderful community also just came out in full force and helped us and all the businesses involved. The community helped us all rebuild.” As La Plaza Fiesta recovered from the fire, Hernandez took the opportunity to rebuild the restaurant to match her personal vision. “My husband and his whole family are from Mexico. So since we had to redo everything after the fire, it gave us the option to do whatever we wanted. I wanted it to feel like you were walking into a place right off the street in Mexico,” Hernandez said. “In the region of Mexico Daniel’s family comes from, the houses are stacked on top of each other, and many places have a patio feel. So our first plan was just to paint it to look like it had two floors. But once we got to building and designing it, we found out we had enough room to actually have two floors. So I had a vision in my head, then our design team literally took what I was thinking and put it on paper. It was amazing how they did that. Still, I had specific things I wanted, like the booths and tables to look a certain way, and I had very intentional ideas about the artwork. It was just so much, and it seemed impossible. But they captured my vision perfectly, and I love it here. “With the two stories, the restaurant is on the first floor, and storage and offices are on the second floor.” Then, uncanny as it may seem, four years after the fire, just when Hernandez was getting into the groove of the restaurant once again, another challenge hit: COVID-19. The worldwide pandemic didn’t

reduce the restaurant to rubble physically, but it was crippling financially and emotionally. Hernandez said, once again, it was the strength she gained through the fire that helped her and her team this time around. “Honestly, I think I don’t know what I would have done during COVID had we not had the fire,” she said. “I just thought, ‘Here we go again, another roller coaster.’ I knew we just had to roll with it, stay together, stay stronger, and just stick together. That’s what the fire taught us.” She believes the community as a whole was able to take on COVID-19 because of what they collectively went through with the fire. “Madelia as a whole overcame COVID and remained strong through it because of everything we had gone through,” Hernandez said. “Although the pandemic was different. With the fire, it happened, (then) it was over. We knew what was left and could begin to start over. With COVID, it was a little scarier at times. There was so much unknown. We didn’t know when it would end or how things would look on the other side of it.” Another of Hernandez’s dreams survived the fire and the pandemic: the Fiesta Market. “Actually, on the day of the fire, we were 30 days out of opening the market,” Hernandez said. “We were going to open it two doors down from where we were, so it would have been separate. We were working hard, getting everything up, and we had a projected opening

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Out of the Ashes day in April of 2016. Because of the fire, those plans didn’t happen, obviously. But because of the fire, we were able to swap sides with a salon since we were both rebuilding. So we were able to put the market right next door to the restaurant. So in the end, it actually worked out better than the original plan.” Today the Fiesta Market is growing and doing well. Their initial goal was to bring authentic Mexican and Central American foods to the region; the concept has grown as Hernandez finds ways to fill little needs in her community, offering services such as phone recharges, copy and fax services, and international money transfers. In addition to cultural foods, the shop offers cultural items and décor. Homemade pinatas have been popular, and it features a variety of artisan items, Mexican candies, breads, fresh produce, fresh-cut meats, spices and whatever else Hernandez can find to introduce to her community. The combination of the authentic restaurant and market has

A Mentor Makes a Difference Jose Herrera was not only like a second father to Krystal Hernandez, he was also her main mentor in the industry. “He was one of the first people I called the night of the fire,” Hernandez said. “I remember saying to him, ‘Now what are we going to do? Can we come work for you again?’ But he encouraged me not to give up. He calmed me down, and he even joked, ‘Krystal, I would be excited to get you back, but I can see how much the people of Madelia love you, and I’m scared of what they might do to me!’ “Seriously, though, he is around all the time, and we always talk. Maybe we will partner someday in the future. He is super proud of us. He is a genius and is always sharing ideas and other things that can help us.” Herrera has made such an impression on Hernandez that she also wants to mentor others. “I’m always learning; if I don’t know something, I find someone who does or someone in that field that does know more than me,” she says. “I get inspired by other people. Some restaurants think they can’t share ideas because we are competing with each other. But I don’t think that way. I love talking to other restaurant owners. After all I have been through, my advice to them is to just stay positive and have an open mind. Stay creative and never give up.”

July | August 2021

La Plaza Fiesta | Madelia helped make the town of 2,500 people a destination. “As word spreads, we really are becoming a destination,” Hernandez said. “We have people come from all over the state and neighboring states. It makes me cry to think about it. We meet people from South Dakota, Iowa, Minneapolis, Mankato. They just come through by word of mouth, and that is very cool. Our local Madelia folks will be in and point out that they don’t know many of the people eating at the time. And that is really neat, introducing people to our food and our community.” Many of her employees are family, and those employees that technically aren’t related are still considered family in her eyes. “We are up to 30 employees,” Hernandez said. “The challenge is finding people. We have a strong family group that works here, and some part-time and full-time people who are not in the family. Right now, it’s been hard finding more help now that we are open fully. I am thankful for the main family group that helps out, so lucky to have them all here. “They are the key to our success. They are amazing and dedicated, as if it was their own restaurant. Everyone is committed to ensuring all visitors enjoy their experience and, more importantly, their meal at La Plaza Fiesta. The repeat customers are a testament to the high quality of service that La Plaza executes on every day.” While Hernandez and her team are delighting guests in the front of the house, her husband and his team hold down the kitchen and put what Hernandez calls “their love” into every dish that is served. While the staff is terrific, Hernandez says it is the food that keeps people coming back again and again. “La Plaza Fiesta’s food is simply amazing,” Hernandez said. “My husband puts all of his passion into his food. He is the main chef and runs the kitchen. I am more in charge of service. I try to get to know our guests and keep our menu current by getting to understand what they want.” La Plaza Fiesta prides itself on providing a welcoming, authentic atmosphere accompanied by hand-crafted meals on an extensive menu for even the most discerning tastes. Hernandez couldn’t be happier to watch her dreams come true in an unlikely spot: Madelia. “Though I didn’t grow up here, I love Madelia,” Hernandez said. “This community, well, I can’t explain it. I have just never felt so loved and appreciated like we do here. The town works together, and we have so many cool things in town that a normal small town doesn’t have. Despite its size, Madelia is a destination town with us, the bakery, the flower shop, the theater, and all the other small businesses that make this a special place that I am proud to be a part of.”

THE ESSENTIALS La Plaza Fiesta Mexican Restaurant 15 West Main St. Madelia, MN 56062 Phone: (507) 642-8624 Web: laplazafiesta.com Facebook: laplazamadelia CONNECT Business Magazine

INDUSTRY INSIGHT

Power in Numbers

“And to think it all began with a cup of coffee.” Indeed, it was a simple cup of coffee that brought Stevens and VanRoekel together at the Coffee Hag in the fall of 2018. The two women chatted about their kids, families and work, but soon the conversation shifted to giving back to a community they care about.

Stevens had attended a conference the previous year focused on women in philanthropy. She still had a pamphlet from the event, which explained the concept of women’s giving circles. VanRoekel took took the pamphlet home, did some research and soon called Stevens to say, “I get it. I love it. Let’s do it.” And thus, the Mankato WGC was born. Giving circles are designed to create power in numbers. Through regular contri-

Melanie VanRoekel and Laura Stevens, Women’s Giving Circle Founders

Jennifer A. Gish

July | August 2021

Samantha Hanson-Lenn

Brittany R. King-Asamoa

Jennifer G. Lurken

Kaitlin M. Pals

July-August 2021

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