Off the Record

In a wrap-up episode of Off the Record, the original hosts Kathy Robideau, now the chief growth officer at Versique, and Dave Faust, president and CEO of Platinum Bank, join Jen Hellman, president and CEO of Goff Public, in a memorable conversation. The two special guests open up about their own career journeys and what they’ve learned by going “off the record” over the past 49 episodes with Twin...

To this day, Tami Diehm, president and shareholder at Winthrop & Weinstine, still relies on a valuable professional lesson she learned in her early days as a restaurant server.  “We had a number of little sayings and things at Perkins that I have carried through to my practice today, one of which is really important to the whole Winthrop & Weinstine culture, and that’s, ‘Poise under pressu...

Never miss an episode of Off the Record. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify . In her younger years, Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt felt she couldn’t look too far into the future. As someone who grew up with a lot of adversity and then became a young mom at age 15, she knew the challenges of just living from one day to the next, she says on the latest episode of the Off the Record p...

One of the best ways to get acquainted with a new home is to start meeting people. Detroit-born Chris Harrington, now the president and CEO of the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, admits on the latest episode of Off the Record that he had never before set foot outside the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport when he accepted the top job with the nonprofit.  But he had some familiarity...

Never miss an episode of Off the Record. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify . From chasing a girl from California to Minnesota to working his way up the ladder at his family’s company, Border Foods, Aaron Engler has always been what his parents call a “grinder.”  His hard work and persistence paid off: that California girl has been his wife since 2008, and Engler is now the president of...

Never miss an episode of Off the Record. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify . Allina Health orthopedic surgeon Dr. L. Pearce McCarty III won’t settle for doing things halfway. When, as a team physician for the Minnesota Twins, he needed a certain type of medical implant he couldn’t get in the operating room, he created it himself. The next step was to figure out how to commercialize it,...

At an early age, UNRL Founder and CEO Michael E. Jordan knew he didn’t want to enter the construction industry like his parents and brother. “My roommates, they were always up all night playing Call of Duty. And I was … in the middle of designing a catalog for a company that does sublimation printed jerseys.” When Jordan saw the hockey team Minnesota Wild’s logo, he thought, “How cool is that? All...

Never miss an episode of Off the Record. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify . On the eve of starting grad school, Benjamin Jo VandenWymelenberg dropped and shattered his phone. After building an early prototype of a wood phone case to protect it, he nixed the grad school idea and started a business selling high-end custom wood products.  As the founder and CEO of Woodchuck USA, VandenWym...

Never miss an episode of Off the Record. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify . Someone who thinks of Minnesota Ice as a company that sells frozen water is sort of missing the point, according to Robbie Harrell, the company’s CEO. From ice sculptures to craft cocktail cubes to life-size ice block mazes, Minnesota Ice’s products are innovative in their design and function.  “You think of it...

Never miss an episode of Off the Record. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify . When Todd Duesing became the president and CEO of Hennepin Arts, formerly Hennepin Theatre Trust, one of the first things he wanted to do was make some bold decisions about the Twin Cities’ theater district. He saw so much potential there, he says on the latest episode of the Off the Record podcast.  “Our new t...

Never miss an episode of Off the Record. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify . Renee Alexander realized she loved being a part of creating performance magic as a young girl in southeast Kansas, when she and her siblings would put on after-dinner theatre for their parents. On this episode of the Off the Record podcast, Alexander, now the CEO of the Minnesota State Fair, recalls producing,...

Laura Monn Ginsburg, partner and principal of Apparatus GBC, is the kind of person who feels energized by potential. From launching Apparatus, a general benefit corporation that seeks to serve the common good, to then deciding to specialize part of her consultancy work in cannabis, Monn Ginsburg believes people who care can get things done, she says in the latest episode of Off the Record. “The th...

As Dan Vansteenburg knows, mindset can make the difference between success and failure. Now the CEO of Spin the Planet, which owns and operates 46 Jimmy John's franchise stores and other restaurants, Vansteenburg admits he had to overcome a lot of challenges during his school years.   He was small and unathletic for his age and a “horrible student,” Vansteenburg tells Off the Record podcast h...

Never miss an episode of Off the Record. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. When Jill Renslow saw the joy she could create for others as the events chair with her college’s American Marketing Association chapter, she knew the event marketing field was right for her. Deciding her dream job at Disney presented a geographic challenge after getting engaged to her college sweetheart, the Min...

Never miss an episode of Off the Record. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify . Paul Marvin is part of the fourth generation of his family to be involved with the eponymous family business. As the CEO and board chair of Warroad, Minnesota-based Marvin, he has learned a lot about building the highest-quality windows and doors over the years — but he’s also learned what’s equally important w...

Never miss an episode of Off the Record. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify . Cale Johnston enjoyed noteworthy success with his first fintech startup, ClickSWITCH, which he sold in 2021. But despite his positive experience, Johnston is prioritizing a smaller-scale legacy as he looks at his career in aggregate, he says in this episode of the Off the Record podcast.  “(Five years ago) my f...

In the professional services industry, relationships are the differentiator. One of the biggest challenges Nikki Rohloff has faced in her career was the sudden loss of her firm’s business partner, she says in this episode of the Off the Record podcast, brought to you by Platinum Bank.  She’s now the managing partner of Rohloff Associates, but back in 2017, it was Roach Associates — named for her l...

Never miss an episode of Off the Record. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify . Heide Olson, founder and CEO of Accountinuity and Veracity Pros, believes there may be no time like the present to start a business. In her case, she left her job and “threw out her shingle” just before she and her husband were due to have their first baby, Olson reveals in the latest episode of the Off the Rec...

Never miss an episode of Off the Record. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify . Sara Dziuk still has the pencil drawings she used to do of the stapler and tape dispenser in her cubicle at a previous job. Dziuk, now the CEO of Junior Achievement North, says she keeps those drawings as a reminder of her “aha moment” of realizing she needed a job that would “fill her cup,” she says in the lat...

Dan Stoltz took the reins at Spire Credit Union (before it became Blaze) in 2010 — just as the economy was facing some serious difficulties.  “It was a tough way to start out as a CEO, but I love challenges,” Stoltz says in the latest episode of the Off the Record podcast. “I’ll never forget calling in my leadership group, sitting in a room just like this, and saying, ‘Look, we’ve got to do this....

Even though Red Wing Shoe Co. is her family’s business, it wasn’t always clear to Allison Gettings that she would eventually become the company’s CEO. She had to prove herself, and she faced her first test during her college years, Gettings explains on this episode of the Off the Record podcast.  “It was a tough few years in the sense that, like any 20-year-old, I’m doing grunt work, which is exac...

Never miss an episode of Off the Record. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Traveling abroad as a leader of a youth ministry at age 22 taught Kelly McGrath a few key things about teamwork. As a regular overnight guest in strangers’ homes, she quickly learned to navigate conversations in a way that put others at ease. In her team leader role, she also had to look ahead at logistics to de...

Never miss an episode of Off the Record. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify . Even though she’s now the CEO of Kowalski Co.,  Kris Kowalski Christiansen wasn’t especially passionate about groceries in her youth. She also never felt pressured to be a part of her family’s grocery business. But she did have a deep respect for the way her mom and dad ran things, she reveals in this episode o...

Never miss an episode of Off the Record. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify . When Melvin Tennant’s mother learned he would become the CEO of the Oakland Convention and Visitors Bureau in 1990 — only a few years into his career — she was pleased, but not surprised, he says. “She never placed limits on anything I could do,” according to Tennant, now president and CEO of Meet Minneapolis,...

Never miss an episode of Off the Record. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.   Brian Bruess, Ph. D., president of the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University (CSB+SJU), has a clear memory of a conversation he had with his wife when they were leaving graduate school in Athens, Ohio.    “After (we spent) five years grinding away in graduate school, Carol and I were driving ou...