By All Means

Rhoda Olsen didn’t grow up thinking she’d one day run a $1.5 billion company. She didn’t have any female role models in business. But she found the way to lead with heart, and data, and in the process, she helped Great Clips become the world's largest salon brand.

Olsen is vice chair of the board of Great Clips, a Minneapolis-based franchise salon chain with 4,400 locations and more than 40,000 stylists nationwide. She stepped down as CEO in 2018. But she continues to work closely with leadership, and franchisees. She’s considered the heart and soul of the company, and a major factor in its epic growth over the past 30 years. 

Olsen went to college at a time when women were discouraged from pursuing careers in math, so despite her natural talent with numbers, she focused on social work and started her business career in human relations. It took her brother Ray Barton’s encouragement for her to not only come to work with him at Great Clips in the 1980s, but to buy stock in the company at a time when she and her husband barely had enough money to pay for their three sons' hockey gear. It paid off.

“Four to 5 percent growth a year may seem boring to people, but when it goes on for 15 years, it’s not so boring anymore,” she says.

Olsen, who still goes to the office almost every day, talks about leading with heart, and data. “Data is a powerful way to drive success,” she says. “There’s nothing more caring than being honest with someone. If you care deeply, how can you not provide someone with honest feedback?”

That honesty extends to Olsen's personal story, too, from growing up poor to having an alcoholic father. Olsen says she's realized that sharing her own vulnerabilities and struggles helps to motivate her team. “I stopped trying to speak, and started telling stories. People keep pretending that their lives are perfect. And life isn’t perfect. If you share, you give everyone the opportunity to feel like they aren’t alone.”

After our conversation with Olsen, we go Back to the Classroom with University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business Distinguished Service Faculty Mike Porter, who talks about the art and strategy of building a franchise business. “You’ve got to try to build a community among franchisees.”

Michael Fanuele is a brand strategist who has worked at JWT, Havas, Fallon, and most recently served as chief creative officer at General Mills. There, he tried to inspire a big food company to be a good food company, and in the process, helped Cheerios and Nature Valley grow for the first time in a decade. Currently, he’s the founder and CEO of Talk Like Music, a consultancy that helps people, places, and brands become more inspiring. His new book is called Stop Making Sense: The Art of Inspiring Anybody.

Fanuele became interested in the topic of inspiration when he found himself caught up in the theatrics of U2, a band he despised. He wondered what it was about Bono that had the power to move even the most reluctant fan. And he started thinking about how that same feeling could apply to other aspects of life and work.

“The inspiration equation is pretty simple: passion minus reason is inspiration,” Fanuele says. "You’ve got to find a way to make things odd enough, strange enough—music-like enough that spirits soar, bodies move.”

Fanuele walks us through some of the ways we can bring emotion and inspiration to work. He shares examples of techniques that brands, businesses, and politicians use to move people.

“The two ugliest words in the corporate lexicon? Chill out,” Fanuele says. “Why would you tell people who are obviously roused, rallied, passionate to chill out? That’s when you say, go. We need to learn how to express our feelings in places where feeling are not welcome.”

After an inspiring conversation with Fanuele, we go Back to the Classroom with the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business. John McVea, who teaches entrepreneurial strategy, says the key to getting at feelings is empathy. “It’s hard to inspire anyone without truly understanding the person you’re trying to serve. We’re in the business of finding surprises.”

Dave Kapell founded Magnetic Poetry, a first-of-its-kind novelty item that brought poetry into the kitchens and onto the refrigerators of millions of people around the world in the mid-‘90s. An accidental entrepreneur, he came up with the idea of putting words on magnets while writing song lyrics, and when friends wanted magnetic poetry kits of their own, he turned it into a business. “I went viral before there was going viral,” he says.

To date, Magnetic Poetry has produced more than one billion world tiles in more than a half dozen languages and sold more than 3 million kits worldwide. Kapell still runs the Minneapolis-based company, and has never taken a dime of outside funding.

His unlikely path to entrepreneurship includes a garage band, writer’s block, arts and crafts, Davanni’s magnets, a house party, student loan debt, and a very memorable sneeze. On this episode of By All Means, Kapell shares his entertaining founder’s story and what he's learned about running a business along the way.

After our conversation with Kapell, we go back to the classroom with University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business Senior Associate Dean Michael J. Garrison, professor of ethics and business law to get advice on the importance of pursuing patents for your unique product ideas.

New episodes of By All Means are on the way! We talk to entrepreneurs, CEOs, authors and visionaries. Leaders who make business work in Minnesota. Coming up this season: the founders of CaringBridge, College Nannies & Tutors, Woodchuck USA, Flyfeet Running, Upsie and many others. Plus tips and tactics that may apply to your next venture. Get ready to be inspired.

Ann Kim is the James Beard Award-winning owner and executive chef of Young Joni, Pizzeria Lola and Hello Pizza in Minneapolis. She and her husband and business partner Conrad Leifur created parent company Vestalia Hospitality and, without any outside investors, formed a team that is now working on its fourth restaurant concept slated to open in 2019 in Uptown Minneapolis.

Kim did not follow a traditional path to the restaurant industry. She pursued an acting career after graduating from New York’s Columbia University with a degree in English. Burnt out after eight years of theater and commercial work, she and Leifur decided to open the neighborhood restaurant of their Minneapolis dreams and New York memories. That was Pizzeria Lola.

Kim didn’t attend culinary school; a Korean immigrant, she grew up watching her mother and grandmother make kimchi from scratch out of necessity—no restaurants in Minneapolis had it on the menu. “It wasn’t unusual for me growing up as a kid to have a dinner table that had a bucket of KFC and biscuits with kimchi and a side of rice,” Kim says. “So to have Korean short ribs, with three kinds of kimchi and a pepperoni pizza and cauliflower is not foreign. It’s totally normal.”

In fact, Kim believes being an industry outsider has worked in her favor. "Instead of listening to the rules of opening up a restaurant—where you put the seats, what you can and can’t put on a pizza—those were all thrown out the window and we just followed our guts and what we thought was missing from the pizza landscape. That worked for us. When you do something that’s against the grain, people are hungry for that."

Following the success of Lola, she opened Hello Pizza, a New York-style slice shop, and then came Young Joni, the critically acclaimed restaurant she describes as “my heart and soul.” She talks about learning to work on the business rather than in it, and realizing that her favorite part of the process is creating new things. “I’ve got a million ideas in my head. I love the idea of creating things, coming up with an environment in which people can eat that makes them feel good and special. That’s the part that drives me.” As much as she loves designing a restaurant and menu, Kim takes just as much joy and satisfaction in the business. “Creation is not just about the next dish. To me, creativity is how can you take an organization and grow it in a sustainable way.”

Kim talks about the shock of being nominated for the culinary industry’s top honor, a James Beard award. Shortly after this recording, she won the 2019 James Beard Award for Best Chef Midwest.

After our conversation with Kim, we go back to the classroom with the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business associate professor Alec Johnson to discuss how entrepreneurs can successfully move from creative inspiration to scalable business.

Liz Giorgi founded Mighteor, one of the first video production companies focused on creating content for the Internet. With clients including Facebook and the NFL, Mighteor has helped businesses achieve more than 500 million organic views and receive international attention. Now, the Emmy award winning Giorgi is launching a second business called Soona—a same-day photo and video production studio. “It came from years of listening to our customers—whether it’s Facebook or a small liquor store, they all had this problem: they can’t scale content affordably or quickly…We took every idea we had about production turned it on its head and said it’s not impossible to do this in a day.” Described as the Kinko's of content, Soona recently opened in Denver and Minneapolis. Giorgi wants to take it global. “We can completely change the game for how content is made; make it accessible to any brand at any time.”

But Giorgi didn’t intend to be an entrepreneur. When she couldn’t find a newsroom job after graduating from journalism school in 2007, she landed a freelance gig with Apartment Therapy and started learning digital content creation. She spent two years at an agency managing web strategy for clients and also helped the University of Minnesota take video to YouTube. Her combined experiences in storytelling, social media and client work led to the creation of Mighteor in 2013. The company now has 15 employees and offices in Minneapolis and Denver.

Giorgi talks about her evolution from filmmaker to business leader and how she stepped away, two years in, to learn the difference between a P&L and a balance sheet. She also talks about influencers and the power of social media marketing. “If a brand thinks we have these social channels just to sell, they’re missing the greater opportunity, which is to build trust with an audience and develop a community around your organization.” Having recently completed the Tory Burch Foundation Fellows Program, Giorgi reveals the advice that resonated most as she seeks investors for Soona. “You can never take too long to ensure that someone’s money is the right money for your business,” Tory Burch told Giorgi.

After our conversation with Giorgi, we go Back to the Classroom with University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business entrepreneurship professor John McVea and talk about the misconception that business founders are either creative or practical. “A lot of inspiration for creativity comes from constraints,” McVea says. On the flip side, he says, “It’s perfectly possible for people with business training to become part of the creative process.”

How do you define success when your family names are Dayton and Rockefeller? Andrew Dayton is the son of former Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton and philanthropist Alida Rockefeller Messinger, daughter of John D. Rockefeller III. His grandfather, Bruce Dayton, was CEO of Dayton Hudson Corp. and a devoted trustee of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts who was once described in the New York Times as the “Dean of American corporate arts philanthropy.”

“My grandfather had a lot of sayings…’the only thing worse than a bum is a rich bum. It wasn’t that you’re expected to follow in retail or philanthropy or politics, but you’ve got to contribute something. You have a responsibility to pay it forward,” Andrew says.

Andrew and his brother Eric Dayton are co-founders and co-owners of North Corp., the parent company to the Bachelor Farmer restaurant and cafe, Marvel Bar, and retail store Askov Finlayson, all located in the North Loop of Minneapolis.

Andrew’s passion for public policy led him to serve as the Deputy Legislative Director to former San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee. But his concern about growing inequities in Minnesota brought him home. “Minnesota is the most generous state in country in terms of dollars and volunteer hours, but we’re dead last when it comes to metrics around poverty. The percentage of people living in poverty has risen by 60 percent in the last 20 years…how can we be so generous and not see the results?”

Andrew recently launched Constellation Fund, a grant making organization inspired by New York’s Robin Hood that uses data, research, and predictive analytics to identify, fund, and partner with the people and organizations making the biggest demonstrable impacts in the fight against poverty in the Twin Cities. On this episode of By All Means, Andrew explains why he created Constellation Fund and how he will evaluate its effectiveness.

After our conversation, we talk to Katherina Pattit, associate professor of ethics and business law at the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business, about how businesses can apply an investor’s eye to philanthropic initiatives.

Jacquie Berglund is co-founder and CEO of Finnegans Brew Co., the first beer company in the world to donate 100 percent of profits to charity. Finnegans turns beer into food by purchasing produce from local farmers and donating it to food banks in every state where the beer is sold.

In 2018, Finnegans opened its own brewery and tap room in downtown Minneapolis and launched the new Finnovation Lab for co-working and incubating socially minded startups. “I think I’m hardwired this way,” Berglund says. “I always wanted to make a difference.”

On this episode of By All Means, Berglund talks about how she came up with the idea to launch a beer company that “does well and does good,” and how she structured her for-profit company to benefit Finnegans' non-profit arm. She addresses the challenges of growing a benefit corporation, and how, with guidance from Newman’s Own Foundation, she changed her model to bring on investors and fund expansion. “If you want to go dood, you’ve got to figure out how to fund it.” Berglund offers advice for the next generation of social entrepreneurs.

After our conversation with Berglund, we go Back to the Classroom with University of St. Thomas Schulze School of Entrepreneurship Associate Dean Laura Dunham who offers insight on adding a philanthropic element to your business. Says Dunham, “Entrepreneurship is about solving problems that matter to you, and creating value for others.”

Erin Newkirk is an award-winning innovator, tech entrepreneur, brand builder, and champion of problem solvers. After working her way up the ranks to senior marketing manager at General Mills, she left to start Red Stamp, a modern correspondence company, which she built into a mobile app that made it possible to send personalized cards and invitations on your phone with a couple of clicks. With 10 million cards sent, Red Stamp was acquired in 2013 by Taylor Corp., one of the largest privately held companies in the U.S. Newkirk continued on as CEO of Red Stamp within Taylor until 2016 when she left and quickly became chief marketing officer of one of the hottest Minneapolis-based insurance ventures, Bright Health, which made Forbes’ Next Billion-Dollar Startups list for 2017. Then last year, she joined another Twin Cities startup, this time in the food industry. Newkirk is now chief marketing officer of Local Crate, a meal kit company on a mission to source locally, from farm to chef to kitchen. How does she continue to leap between industries? “My North Star, what guides me: I’m all about doing good with good people. Where there’s a problem to be solved, you should go there.” That’s the approach she brings to her newest project, Satya, an initiative she says is based on “helping founders and leaders succeed through speaking their truth.” After our conversation with Newkirk, we go Back to the Classroom with University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business Professor David Deeds, the Schulze Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurship, who talks about capitalizing on an entrepreneurial mindset.

His story has become legendary at the University of St. Thomas—and beyond. Zachary Quinn was a sophomore when he enrolled in an entrepreneurship class. There, he met Brian Keller, and together, they turned an assignment to create a business into Love Your Melon, the $40 million hat company that donates half its profits to fighting pediatric cancer.

“We wanted to start something that would make a difference,” Quinn says. On this episode of By All Means, he outlines the key moments and decisions that set Love Your Melon up for success, including its college ambassador program, a hockey bus tour that garnered national press, and brand building through social media. Quinn talks about Love Your Melon’s commitment to U.S. manufacturing and its first brick and mortar store, which the company is using for special events designed to tell the brand story and build engagement.

What’s next? “I never look more than six months out,” Quinn says. But he does have “more crazy stuff” in the works, including a concert series and e-gaming competition.

After our conversation with Quinn, we go Back to the Classroom with his entrepreneurship professor at the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business Jay Ebben. “We really push students to build their career or a business around their own values, their own sense of purpose and mission,” Ebben says. He describes what it was like to have the Love Your Melon founders in class, and why he gave them an A- for the semester—a grading decision he’s never quite been able to live down.