Growing Places
Growing Places
Thinking in 3D with Tamien Dysart
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Listen in as SMGA CEO Tyler Tordsen and Economic Development Specialist Chris Fields discuss leadership. They'll also introduce a new program offered in collaboration with Think 3D Solutions, featuring CEO Tamien Dysart.
Welcome to curling places. We're gonna hear the Sue Metro. Welcome to my Summit. We're coming into the stories and our communities as well as getting development partner.
SPEAKER_02Welcome back to Girling Places. My name is Chris Fields, economic development specialist here with Sue Metro Growth Alliance. I'm joined here today by our president and CEO, Tyler Torsen. Hey Tyler. And then uh president and CEO of Think3D Solutions out of Sioux Falls here, Damian Dysart. Hey Damian. Hello, thanks for having me. Hey, thanks for being here. Um Tamian, while we get started here, uh why don't you go ahead and just give us a kind of a a brief background, point A to point B, C D, how you got from where you were to where you are now.
SPEAKER_01How much time do we have? No Yes, my my background, 16 plus years, uh Corporate America, uh Capital One, Wells Fargo, those places like that. Then in 2016, uh Vonnie and I we launched Think3D, uh primarily working with organizations to build intentional culture via leadership development. Along that journey, really got involved heavily in the community. We have a leadership program for the community called Leaders of Tomorrow. Now we have over a thousand graduates through that program. And uh just recently started another company alongside Think3D, Elevate U, with my other business partner, Matt Kroll. Uh so really at the end of it, I'm I'm in the people potential business, whether it's individually, organizationally, community-based, I'm all about helping people optimize their potential inside them.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I love it. I've been to through two-year programs, Leaders of Tomorrow, and author of my life, and highly encourage, recommend if if you haven't been through or have an opportunity to go through one of the programs, uh it it's not a waste of time. It's it's one of the best professional personal development things I've ever done, Barnun, in my life. So props to you.
SPEAKER_03How did you make that leap? So how'd you go from the corporate piece to seeing kind of the value, maybe the need? How'd you decide to like finally dive off and be like, you know what, I I want to be in front of the room talking to these people and trying to motivate?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there's probably uh two sides of that coin. I saw when I was at Capital One, I took over uh and I climbed the ladder, uh, was the site director for the credit card collections division. When I took over, we had a 33% turnover rate, very industry average for Sioux Falls. In 18 months, I got us down to 6%, like unheard of, in the midst of uncertainty of potentially closing. And it was really two core things. It was investing into the culture and then investing into people with a specific emphasis on developing my frontline leaders because they have the greatest span of control. So I saw what great culture could look like, I saw what it felt like, and then along the way you see a lot of what it doesn't look like and what it feels like. And so the leap came from one side, I knew I was really good at this thing, and then also just not being valued in my organization. So my tipping point moment, I always say uh May, May 26th, 2015. I remember the day uh coming home at the time it was my wife's birthday, um, and I found myself in have one of those driveway moments where I sat in my driveway or garage for about 15 minutes and just really contemplated. I was my organization, I just built a four-year leadership development model from scratch. They didn't ask me to do it. I did it above and beyond, and they could care less. It was all about the numbers. And so when you don't feel valued, what am I grinding for, you know, in the family? So that tipping point of not feeling valued, knowing I was good at something, and then actually had a really good boss, Sherry uh Haverkamp was her name. She just kind of said I was started doing some of the just trainings outside of my core thing at at the bank, and she was like, when are you gonna do your own thing? And she just she saw it. I mean, she saw I had more potential than that. So she was kind of that impetus of like, all right, it's time, so uh really launched out. Uh I left we started Think3D 2016. I went full-time in it uh May 12th, 2017 was my freedom date.
SPEAKER_02Nice. Freedom date. So your business partner, Bonnie, you uh exp can you explain how you guys hooked up, how you guys got to know each other, meet each other, and do this?
SPEAKER_01We've known each other 20 plus years. Um we've been been ri best friends. Uh music was was the original part of it. We used to be in a hip-hop group uh called The Noblemen, and uh that's that was the core of that. When we talked about it, you know, for a long time. We should start a consulting company. We both, Bonnie had a lot of success with high-performing teams and and those type of things. And so we talked about having a broader impact on just an organization. So we talked about it for a long time, but when that tipping point moment happened in 2015, obviously you don't jump out the window, I'm you know, making six-figure income, you know, and I'm the breadwinner of my family. And so I told Bonnie, I said, uh, who doesn't have kids, I said, I put my girls to bed at 8:30 uh every night or so. I said, Mondays, don't call me, don't text me, I want you at the door knocking. And every Monday he would show up at 9 o'clock. And from 9 to maybe 11 or midnight, we just ideated for a whole year. We would go to conferences and just birthed this idea of think 3D, which is the three dimensions of a healthy culture, professional, personal potential. And so we just dreamed it up and wrote a book on it in 2016, self-titled Think3D, uh Radical New Approach to Maximizing the Potential of Your Team. We had a five-year plan. It was gonna take five years to kind of inch in this thing. Well, when the book came out, people were like, How do we do this? Can you help us? And so Vonnie quit, went full-time in 2016 into the business from his job, and then I was shortly thereafter, and so that was kind of best friends for a very long time. And this really had a always had a vision of impacting people on mass scale.
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SPEAKER_03So you talked about your workplace kind of culture experience and how that led to your Freedom Day to take this dive and jump into this and the impact that you guys have been able to make since then. Tell me your take on, because I've been seeing it and feeling it a lot the last couple of months, uh, of so many different folks, mainly since COVID, where it doesn't matter if you're entry-level kind of this Gen A group too, or people that maybe are just right within striking distance on retirement and everything in between, employers and employees are being a lot more intentional and a lot more um I don't want to say picky, but they're they're they value they're valuing culture more than money now. Intentional. Intentional. They're willing to they're willing to just up and walk without a plan if they're not being treated right. Yeah. Um it's just crazy how many moving pieces we're seeing at all levels right now.
SPEAKER_01Culture is currency. That's the that's the core of it. I ask all the time, right now, because what do you want the money for? What's the money for? Vacations, why? To make you happy. Uh to take my kids on more traveling sports, why do you want your kids in traveling sports makes them happy? Pursuit of happiness is in our declaration of independence, right? The right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And people are realizing, especially in a world with social media where you see the things, whether how much of it's fake in people's highlight rails or not, people still want better. And the core of that, if I said competing organization, whatever you do, I'm gonna pay you 10 grand more than you're getting paid right now. People are like, I'm interested, but what if the caveat was you're gonna be 7% more miserable? Still want it? No, because what's the money for? And people always say, I'm miserable anyway, so give me more money. Uh but the core of that, then I when I do this exercise of healthy culture, toxic culture, if I show people the these behavior traits that show up in a healthy culture, and if I said very clearly, my organization had these, but you're gonna take a $3,000, $4,000 paycheck, how many people would take a paycheck to have a better culture? And when they recognize that, what's interesting in that exercise that we do, 95% of the time, when we talk about what makes up a toxic culture and a healthy culture, money doesn't make the list. Money's important to a degree, but it's only every few weeks that that financial deposit gets put into your bank account. I tell people very clearly, be clear, every day you take home more than a paycheck. That's culture. Culture is currency, and so do your kids want more money or do they want their parents to come home and play with them? And they they want your time and energy most of the time until they turn teenagers.
SPEAKER_02Nice. Um why don't we go through kind of a little bit about each of your programs if if you don't mind? Your f what I would call maybe your flagship program is the Leaders of Tomorrow program. Yeah. And then you've got Author of My Life, um, and you've got a couple programs that you do down at the at your new culture cove, you call it, down in Meckling, South Dakota. Why don't you kind of go over some of your programs and the intent behind behind each of them?
SPEAKER_01So Leaders of Tomorrow really was birthed 2018. So Bonnie and myself, we found ourselves sitting on 11 boards between the two of us, way too many. Primarily, when you look at, you know, even though it's the makeup of Sioux Falls, you know, if you want to diversify your board, there's only a dozen or so people that they usually turn to that are at that level to get in your boards. And so not only did we see a gap in developing leaders of color, but just leadership, period. The average CEO today is staying in their role seven to nine years longer than the previous generation. So just naturally you're not getting that shot to run an organization at the same clip the previous generation was, which starts to create a leadership vacuum by way of giving people the experience. So we launched this program, Leaders in Tomorrow. We asked the question was different from uh Leadership Sioux Falls or Leadership South Dakota. Uh we wanted to make sure that everyone had access to it, because you're talking between $1,000 and $3,000 to join one of these programs. And so we want to make sure we had access to it. So we wanted to say, how how do we give the same level of content we give to our corporate clients, your first premier banks, your Rivera's, how do you give that same level of content to people who may not be able to afford to go through that program? So we seek uh funding from the community foundation was the the initial funder, but grants, businesses uh help support that. So we had a very ambitious goal, 500 people through this program by the end of last year, 2025. And that's a big goal when you're probably talking about $1,200 a person. So you gotta find the money, find the people, do the training, and then foster the community on the other side of that. Long story short, to that, the core of the program now is a 16-week program, two hours a week. It's an accredited program through both the USF and Augustana. Um, but that goal of 500, we actually doubled that number. We're over a thousand people that have been through this program, which speaks to the testament and the quality of the program itself, but also we expanded it to Justice Impacted, we've done educator cohorts, nonprofit cohorts, all the various things, and so that's grown exponentially in that way. So that's the core program that we do for the community. And then we have Author of My Life is a mentorship continuation opportunity. So same content I use for executive coaching. So I really this was you know, Tamian who reads 50-some books a year. I go to the conferences and I still find myself somewhat empty. And, you know, the real core of success for me, and I found as I teach it, is only found through self-discovery. And so I developed this process that really helped people discover who they are. This isn't what Tamian's done. This is questions that really help you discover who you are and what you want and how you how you define that version of your life. It's truly as the name says, author of my life. And so the mentorship continuation, each class size is usually around 35 to 45, somewhere in that range for leaders tomorrow. And then I take up the 10 people that go through author of my life. And so more self-discovery than probably 95% of people go through in their life. It's kind of wrapped up in that. And then in 2024, two years ago, Vonnie and I, we extended our business, bought a retreat space down in Meckling, South Dakota, which is right in the middle of Yankton and Vermillion, 15 minutes between each, and just an hour outside of Sioux Falls. The core of that was twofold. Number one, we knew with our corporate clients and people needed to get away. Like as you mentioned earlier, people are going through stuff and they need to unpack. So having a space like that that is truly intentionally designed for retreats, or organizations could rent it out. Um, we can get communities there to rent it out to get people in that, but then we own we do our own retreats as well, and that is a whole nother deep dive into personal development. So the two retreats I do out there, Power of Me Retreats, a two-day retreat, and then I have Elite Mindset, which is a three-day retreat, which that's even deeper into self-discovery that gives people a game plan of how they can define their life going forward.
SPEAKER_02That's great. I'd like to go back for a second to the uh Justice Impacted. I th uh I think in this room, the between the three of us, um Justice Impacted, the recidivism rate in South Dakota, um, and how we approach that, that's a very important topic for all three of us. Tamian, for you doing uh Author of My Life and Leader of Tomorrow uh in the prisons. Tyler, you've been in the legislature. Um you know and going back. And going back, yeah. Working on it and uh you brought up some bills on recidivism rates, and you have some great great ideas. So explain you know what what is it that we can do to turn the tide for this uh justice-impacted group of folks in South Dakota.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's we're third, currently third worst in a nation in incarcerations per capita, number one worst amongst women. It's one of those things where this isn't rocket science, it's just a lot of intentionality and investment. One of our core sayings at Think3D is a culture will emerge whether intended or not, but if it's not one you invest in, it's most certainly one that you pay for. We've never invested into people that are in the system. Once you're in the justice system, about 75% of people, once they get caught up in the system, end up being a repeat offender. 50% of those who get out of prison go back. So it's it's not a hard cry to see how we got here because there really historically hasn't been very clear investment in that. So in the the the work that we do in that space, right, what happens when you take truly not just good enough content, which I'm not crapping on other stuff that's there, but never have you really seen an organization that really operates in the prison also operating and having that same content being shown to executives at a first premiere or a silence or central and those type of places, right? And so we take best in class content and you give it to individuals because our content is universal. It's it's based on the human being and what happens when you give people not only just a legitimate shot, but truly like, I mean, blowing these guys' minds wide open of this is what's possible. And so I love bringing people inside to come see it. It's it's the core of human potential. I mean, human beings, we are the apex predator because we adapt to anything, and that adaptation to the people around us uh is a big deal, and so that's where we need people like Tyler out in Pierre to help make some of those investments. We have a $650 million prison coming. That doesn't change people. Now it's needed, be very clear. If you've never been inside the prison, we still have a boiler room, you know that? We only see boiler rooms on movies. We still have a boiler room. So that the space is huge, you need that. But the content and the investment in the people inside of it, that's why it's critical. And I was uh to this last part. I love Tyler to jump in on that as well with he's seen. But there's three core components of what success that leads to success on the outside is where you live, where you work, and who your support system is. And we know that those are three strikes against anybody that people don't want to house felons, most people don't want to hire felons, and they don't have alternate support groups, and so we all know that you are the average sum total of the five closest people to you. So if you hang out with the same people, you know you're going back on that. So anyway, I tell you, what was your thoughts on that?
SPEAKER_03The reason why it's been so passionate for me is just because I I have folks that I love and care about, relatives and friends and stuff too, that have uh unfortunately made decisions and have had to pay those consequences. Uh but then I've also seen them and kept in touch with them to where when they're coming out, they're ex they're excited, they don't want to go back, they're motivated, they're ready to roll, they want to make a difference, they want to get back to their their kids or their family or whatever it is. We as a state are not equipping them to do that. We're leaving them hanging. There's a lot of low-hanging fruit, even as simple as let's make sure while they're a captive audience and they're they're under you know, wards of the state for now, when they get out, let's make sure that they have a photo identification card that's not a prison ID that they could use to, you know, buy a pack of cigarettes, you know.
SPEAKER_01Or get out and go right to short staff and get a job.
SPEAKER_03To be able to get a job application, to be able to do anything like so and with South Dakota having such uh strong worth work ethic and low unemployment rates and that kind of thing, let's be transparent. Let's be palms up. Let's find these employers, these manufacturers, these businesses, not just in Sioux Falls, not just in Rapid City, but across the state in our rural communities too, that need help, that need workers, that are growing, that just want hard workers, and I'll train them up. But let's get them connected early in those last couple of weeks and months. Let's get them equipped with the IDs, let's get them a resume, let's get them these job interviews so they can go and hit the ground running. I've seen too many people come out, they apply, they seem like they're gonna get the job, they're the finalists, they do a background check, the employer finds out that they have a record and that they just recently were a felon, and they get turned down. Then it's a motivational hit. And then they start hanging out with a bad crowd again, they can't like they can't get a job despite wanting to. We don't provide any housing, we don't do anything like that. Uh then they go back and it's a really thing. There's so much more we can do without amount of exp uh expense. It's the intentionality of connections and resources and uh, you know, let's let's make this be a win-win-win. And there's absolutely a way. I don't I don't even work on that, I'm working on that, and we're gonna we're gonna make a difference. One way or another.
SPEAKER_02I'm excited for upcoming legislative sessions, see what comes to that. Yeah, I will I will say uh it it seems like our country is very much of a country of second chances unless you're in the prison system and and uh can't get your your feet back under you and um just a little it's it's a little frustrating. I I've never been impacted like the two of you, but uh the people I hang around with, uh the five you know most important people in my life, um I see it, talk to them, I talk to you guys, uh I read I read the articles, and it's there's there's way much more than we could be doing here in South Dakota.
SPEAKER_03That's why all this stuff is just so important. So again, I just appreciate the work that you guys are doing to develop people. And um, you know, I we got to take advantage of Culture Cove earlier this year. We did our first ever rural leaders retreat uh where Sumetro we we found some some of the movers and shakers, some of them were city administrators or elected officials or just some of our our partners from our our network to go down and spend a day, 24 hours to kind of strategic plan and kind of brainstorm to kind of vet our uh leadership development program that we're working on that we've been kicking around for a couple years. And so to be able to actually take in that space with those people and the the value and the benefit that came out of that was awesome. So I appreciate again the intentionality on that. Uh I want to talk a little bit about our program too and and the opportunity that we get to partner. It's an exciting month for us. We've been brainstorming it, fine-tuning it, getting it ready, teasing it. We have our very first inaugural class of Leadership Su Metro uh powered by Think3D. Talk about that.
SPEAKER_01I'm excited. I then this this uh just mark my words, I'm glad we're on record for this because um someone who has a leadership program who has over a thousand graduates, city counselors, all the various things, this is gonna be, I won't say the most impactful. I mean, I like to put up the buttons, I think it has the chance to be it's gonna be one of the most impactful programs to our state. And really the the birthing side of it, you know, where Tyler and I really got reconnected on this about a year ago, is you know, um saying what's this possibility of of pulling together this leadership slash economic development program? What I got excited about that was when we went to um as currently the chair of the Chamber of Commerce. Right now, we did a chamber swap last June and Tyler came along, we had Mayor Paul, we had the mayor of Harrisburg, and the goal was we we swap with Des Moines. And in that Des Moines swap, it's they're four times our size. What can we learn from a community four times our size so we can rep replicate what went well and then find our way around some of the challenges that they had along the way? And one of the things that that blew me away is 880,000 people in their kind of proper um side of of Des Moines, they have 12 counties. And so we hear a lot, especially on the Sioux Falls side, kind of this us against them mentality or East River, West River, all these various things. My argument to that was is like, how do you argue us against them in a state less than a million people? Let's get to a million people and then start dividing some of this up. But in that space is is that 12 counties, how did you guys overcome some of those challenges? And I forget who had said it, but they said at some point we just planted a flag in the ground, what's right for the region? What's right for the region? And I think the timing couldn't have been more perfect where we saw what happened these last couple years in Pier, when we had a lot of devices, people that were just opposing everything. And, you know, his South Dakota historically has been known very much open for business. Obviously, previous governors worked really hard to get to that space, and we're now starting to get an opposite reputation. And so when we start to stave off some of the challenges of growth, when people like, if you don't want growth, cool, like you there's a there's a community for every size in South Dakota. But what I loved about this was the collaboration. When my it's my word of the year is what can happen when you collaborate with multiple entities, a broader vision than just Sue Metro and uh Think3D, like the the true vision of again, you guys, you guys' footprint is so perfect. 17 communities. Lies between all of these communities? Opportunity. Nothing but space and opportunity. And so when I'm bullish on this, the work ethic as a South Dakota myself, my mom grew up on a farm, right? That work ethic of South Dakotans, I put that up there with almost anybody, our value systems. And when we can start to get the right people in the room to start to dream into those possibilities, I get excited. And so Leadership Sue Metro, this eight-month program, spending a full day together around half of our accredited leadership development, but then the other side of it of getting people to dream around the economic possibilities driven by you guys and getting our guest speakers that you guys lined up. We got some, man, some really good speakers. People that think on a different scale. Because again, if you're from small town X, you don't get to engage with some of these folks on a regular basis. So when you put 32 leaders in a room in this cohort for over, and it's not just once a month, because we got in-between stuff, like we're gonna this is gonna be highly engaging, but I'm excited about dreaming of what's possible in that realm. There's gonna stuff that's come up that we haven't even thought of yet, and I don't know what that is yet, but I'm excited for it.
SPEAKER_02That's what I'm excited for. Like what what have we not what have we not thought of? Because I we haven't thought of everything.
SPEAKER_01Not even close.
SPEAKER_02So I yeah, I've just I've I've been stoked about this for for years. I mean, this this idea came up before Tyler and I even got with SMGA, right? You and you and Jesse Fonkert had talked this and batted this back and forth uh for a while.
SPEAKER_01And this and it power like again, that was you know, that happened for Jesse and I were in Leadership South Dakota together, and you just plant the seed of possibilities. Like we saw it was the story of Centerville, and it was just like what happens in Centerville when Good Samaritan was gonna pull out. The difference of having the right two leaders at the right time took something that was gonna be a decline for the community, ended up being a plus for the community. And that's just one community amongst many. And so I thought our idea, and again, Jesse, we talked about it, built the straw man to it. It wasn't time for it, right? He he applied for some things, and I think it was I'm gonna say it was like May of last year. Tyler and I again have a couple leaders in the same room. I forget we were, I forget we were there for maybe it's IMC or something like that. Yeah, and I just think you got a few minutes afterwards, like, hey, we talked about this a long time ago. The power of just having conversations and dreaming possibilities, and we inch that forward, and then you get pulled into it, and obviously you got experience going through leaders tomorrow, so you know the content firsthand. All those type of things, and so that's where again, what's gonna happen in these through this first class, eight months, there's gonna be ideas planted. Some of the stuff will come to fruition today, some of the stuff will incubate for a few years, but now, year over year, when we're putting together 30 to 40 people through this cohort every year with a specific emphasis on this part of the region. And that's what I'm excited about having conversations with some folks over at GoEd who sees the possibilities. This is a model that I think you can take anywhere. It's kind of the hub and spoke model of getting people together, dreaming what's possible. And so I'm excited. This isn't about we're any more special than the rest of the state. This is an example of collaboration. That collaboration between two organizations, collaboration amongst 32 individuals going through the class, that part of it in this part of the state, with our work ethic and our values, what's what's not possible?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I I like that when we've been putting this thing together and really talking about it and being intentional about it, that the emphasis on not just a uh just a a quick professional development program, like the emphasis on personal and professional development. Like we are taking them as human beings, as individuals, but also where they're at in their careers and their communities, whether they're from living and working in Sioux Falls, or they're in Brandon, or they're in Valley Springs, or it doesn't matter the size of the community, or they live out like rural in the country, but how can you make a difference in your life, in your home, in your community, and in the region? And it I'm excited to see the ripple effect from it. It's just gonna be it's gonna be awesome.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. You talked about the size of of communities if if somebody doesn't, you know, they they they want a different size community. Our our footprint covers communities from four or five hundred people, you know, in Humboldt, Commissioner Evans birth birth town. Um, you know, 1,300 people in Garretsen, three, three or four thousand people in a a Hartford, you know, two thousand people in a crooks, eleven thousand people in a Brandon. So I mean, this metro, Sioux Falls and the metropolitan area that's got anything and everything that you want. And our goal with this program is to be able to help our member communities and the region build a leadership bench that's gonna not only sustain our region but allow our region to thrive for decades and decades moving forward.
SPEAKER_01And I think I I was having a conversation with um Joe Bartman with the court of resources, and he did a thing some years ago with um Howard. And it was kind of that question that around um what what is growth minus if if it's not just numbers? Because some communities truly want to stay, again, this I want to stay a thousand-person community. Awesome. What if you're not growing intentionally, it doesn't have to be just by population, but if you're not growing in dollars or something like there, again, that's where I would say rural South Dakota is dying because the next generation, if you're not involving them in some way, shape, or form. So I'm excited too that there's gonna be some communities that just get innovative, and they say, like again, if we can grow from a financial standpoint, like one of the things I'm excited to see come out of this, what happens when we start to look as a region? Uh, there's a lot of people in San Francisco or some of these big communities that they want a simpler life. And if you in a world of remote work, what if you could work remote working for a San Francisco or Silicon Valley company in Humboldt, South Dakota, and you're making that kind of salary, you might if what's what if you desired for you and your spouse to go back to one family income, that kind of salary, you could easily do so. So now one just stay home and raise the kids, whatever the case is. I think there is an attraction of uh talent and additional income and people that you get more of those individuals, you don't need to grow in population because you have higher income coming in. And so reimagining that possibilities of as long as you got Wi-Fi, there's some, I mean, how many organizations are now fully remote? And so if we can sell, to me, what we're selling is quality of life. And as you kind of mentioned it earlier, Tyler, about how many folks are looking for something, just not sure what it is, everyone wants a better quality of life. And I think that's what our smaller communities has to offer. If you want, and again, for people, if you're in San Francisco, what I mean, the furthest footprint from you guys where I would is what, 45 minutes or something like that? 45 minutes, that's that's a few miles in San Francisco. And so that kind of drive is nothing for certain folks. And if we're selling this simpler quality of life that you can get back to what I would say is core American values of family, faith, and country and those type of things, there's an opportunity that will come. That's that's I would say uh uh not a direct goal of this, but an indirect impact of stuff that we'll see come out of this.
SPEAKER_02Right. Tyler always talking about how um pe people in Salem, South Dakota, they can get to the northern part of Sioux Falls in 30, 35 minutes. It takes you to get from the southeast side to the northwest side of Sioux Falls.
SPEAKER_03As Sioux Falls grows, it just depends on traffic, construction, and the stoplights that sometimes it's quicker to get to you know to commute you know to or from some of our metro communities, get down to Canton or Lenox or somewhere else. So options, we got tons of options in a land of infinite variety.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and to be that I mean honestly, let's just let's put it out there, let's be the shit city on the hilltop. Like that's what I'm excited about. When we especially get political, but like the world of politics right now. We I just sit a session this morning, and one of the things I said, what are the key character traits that are needed to lead forward in the 21st century? And what integrity was one of the big ones. We know that we have a we're we're falling away from what I would say core American values in that realm. And I think our opportunity in this is what if within this 17 community footprint we start to not put up walls, but this saying, we're gonna shrink our world down to what I can control and what I can influence. And I'm gonna get to know my neighbor and get to know someone upstreet before I come at them, before I throw rocks at them online. If I disagree with you, I'm gonna call you first, right? And I think that's a way to like there's values that is deep-rooted in us, but we can see it starting to creep a little bit into our politics and how again it's not often from the candidates, it's from the people supporting the candidates because they're allowing the national narrative of how things are happening creep into that. So I think if we lead with our true values, our faith values, integrity values, we can be a city on the hilltop of not only just what we can get accomplished, but how to do it right. And we don't have to buy into that divisiveness, find more people that we we're more agreeable, we have more in common than we have different. So that's that's just another byproduct that I'm excited when you get people in a room for a period of time.
SPEAKER_03We like each other. Well, we still are the land of great faces, great places. So I before we wrap up, Taylor, I wanted to speak to that a little bit, like going back to our Des Moines trip last summer, you know, the intentionality about that, you know, Sioux Falls, maybe what that looks like twenty years from now, how can we learn, uh, kind of get ahead of that, find those best practices. That's what we try to do here at Sioux Metro. And uh same thing with launching this leadership program, not trying to just compete for the sake of competing or overlapping, we're trying to provide additional opportunities and make a difference and do it the best way we possibly can. But we also made sure that we had meetings with these other programs that are out there across the state already doing good things with a good track record, leadership Sioux Falls, Leadership South Dakota, the South Dakota Egg and Rural Leadership Program, all of that too, to where uh they were really helpful in providing, hey, if we could do it again too, don't don't do this piece, make sure you do it like this, make sure you have this thought out, and uh that intentionality of our people and just doing things the right way is is why we're so successful here and and why we're gonna be successful. At least we're planning on it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, right. Oh, go ahead, too.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, shout out to those programs. Yeah, leadership Dakota Grab myself, uh Leadership Sioux Falls, all these there's there's not enough. I mean, there's there's not competing. We have leaders of tomorrow in Sioux Falls. There's not competing. We need more leaders in in in now more than ever. And so uh all of that as a as a whole um is important. I think, you know, as you said, we we were very intentional. The one thing for us is this regional mindset. I'm excited that we're gonna be doing two community leader retreats or rural leader retreats a year to continue that, to continue fostering relationships, to continue to foster ideas, and that's going back to the Des Moines trip for me was that was an assolid fire factor for both of us as we had that conversation. Like we had talked about it, but I was like, the power of one year. That was one year ago in June, and here we are, two days away from as we're as we're as we're recording this, two days away from the launching our first session. So dream big, it's the American dream. Dream, dream big, put the work into it, collaborate, man. What's everything's possible?
SPEAKER_03People are craving leadership and growth internally and in their daily lives and in their careers. And if we can equip these people and and play a little part in that to where they can go and when that when their time comes to lead other people, they can create that culture that takes uh retention and turnover from 33% down to seven percent or whatever it is too, right? I mean it's six percent. Six percent, yeah. Exactly.
SPEAKER_02All right. Uh before we do close here, uh put you on the spot a little bit. We always ask our guests uh what their hidden gym in the Sioux Metro area is. So picture yourself outside of Sioux Falls, if you will. What is one place, restaurant, uh park, I mean, you name it, outside of Sioux Falls. What is your hidden gym that comes to the top of your mind?
SPEAKER_01Uh well, you say food, I mean, given that it's our neighbors up at Culture Cove, uh, Toby's, again, I I had no idea about Toby. Toby's Toby's chicken.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Toby's chicken, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um and it's five minutes from the cove, and so I love love Toby's chicken. Uh Jim and his team up there is awesome. Um I'll say that, but then I think, you know, the you know, from a nature standpoint, um, you know, Palisades or I love I just be do we have we don't have an abundance of nature things like the west side of the state does, but even in Sioux Falls, like I s I we litter an office right up the street from the falls, and I don't go there enough. And it's just like find find that that space of serenity um because we just don't spend quiet time alone enough. And so just even taking a drive in the into the country, we have just a quiet, the quiet nature of away from all the various things. Um so again, I'm just again I'm very bullish on South Dakota, but my yeah, my quiet gym would probably be Toby's because I spent I don't I don't get into a lot of these smaller towns outside of there, but yeah, Toby's is always a go-to for us.
SPEAKER_02That's a good one. Yeah, Tyler, any last thoughts on leadership Sumetro? Um launching in a couple days.
SPEAKER_03I was gonna say I'm hungry now, but let's go to Tony's. Toby's is obviously yeah. Like I'm I'm looking forward to the next rural leaders retreat that we can get down there, have fun at culture, connect, see the stars, and uh, you know, strategic plan and be intentional and have some good uh chicken food.
SPEAKER_02Amen. Alright, well that's all we have for you. We'll catch you guys next time on uh growing places.