Jessica Stölen
Editor
jstolen-jacobson@cherryroad.com

On July 16th, Upper Minnesota Regional Development Commission is hosting a virtual Teams webinar featuring Josh Hansen Connell, a former Montevideo resident, and owner of Small Town Vibes.

The webinar, which begins at noon, will be focused on how through his company, Hansen Connell partners with employers and community groups to introduce urban Minnesota residents to rural Minnesota career opportunities and lifestyles.

Small Town Vibes began when Hansen Connell was enrolled in an MBA program as a way to look into economic development issues in rural Minnesota. “Having grown up in Montevideo, in rural Minnesota, it’s very near and dear to my heart and I attribute much of who I am today to being raised in that environment,” Hansen Connell says. “I was really looking for ways that I could contribute to give back to the place that raised me and it was born out of this idea that I’ve been in the Twin Cities for about ten years now and I’m constantly correcting people on misconceptions about what rural is like and the opportunities that are there.”

Thus, the idea for the business was born, as a way to introduce those in urban areas to what life is like in rural Minnesota. “I’ve always had this belief that if I can bring people out for a weekend and show them the community as I saw it growing up with lots of really friendly, caring people – a community that really rallies around and supports one another, the vibrancy and diversity of opportunities – I just wanted people to be able to see and feel that. It became kind of a marrying of talent sourcing and residential recruitment which is a challenge within rural areas and to match that with my belief that if more people experienced it the way that I experienced it maybe we’d start to make some in-roads into solving that challenge,” he says.

The business, he says, can be best described as talent tourism. “It’s really to bring people out and network with employers, get them to a happy hour with neighbors and see if we can kind of move the needle on shifting people’s perspectives of rural and motivating them to consider rural as a place that they want to one day live and start a career,” he says.

Small Town Vibes serves an area Hansen Connell says covers seven counties outside of the metro. “Small Town Vibes can sometimes be a little bit of a misnomer because what is the boundary between small town and big town? We named it Small Town Vibes because it was really tough to start a conversation around experiencing rural – everybody would respond – well I don’t want to be a farmer, so what is there for me out there? Small Towns just kind of became more evocative language, but really we serve anywhere from Madison to St. Cloud and Rochester as long as it’s part of the rural ecosystem,” he says.

The company serves as a matchmaking service, as Hansen Connell represents rural community employers with the Twin Cities talent market at career fairs, community events and more. “I try to basically make recruiting within the Twin Cities accessible to rural communities, which is really difficult for them to do because it’s really resource intensive if you send somebody out and have to pay for their travel, lodging and food and you never know if you’re going to find the right people from that engagement,” he says. “I live in St. Paul so it’s nothing for me to go to local events and represent communities here. Conversely, with the talent that I recruit I build relationships over time with them and eventually try to get them on this pathway to visiting our member communities and exploring what opportunities exist for them out there.”

During the webinar, Hansen Connell plans to focus on employers and forecasting of workforce recruitment and retention strategies, specifically around Millennial and Gen Z talent. “What I want to help rural communities identify is that if we try to go toe to toe with Fortune 500 companies and other large urban employers, it’s hard to play the same game. We’re trying to compete on salary and things like that and we’re going to continually lose that battle because the reality is we don’t have the same pay rates and maybe benefits that larger companies do. However, what we do have is an infinite list of other amenities that you just can’t replicate in an urban environment. For us, outdoor access is unmatched. It’s easier to plug into your community and help shape the community that you belong to in a way that matters to you. It’s identifying those things but then even going a step further and saying, hey – we can re-imagine what rural jobs look like so that we can be more competitive. The Gen Z and Millennial workforce is really impact oriented so how are we building career opportunities that allow them to access their desire to make a positive impact? Two, flexibility is a huge plus so instead of the traditional 40 hour workweek year round, how can we craft positions that maybe allow for sabbaticals or are seasonal in some degree that allows people to explore their passions?” Hansen Connell says.

He most hopes people take away a sense of aspirational optimism from the webinar. “I think the common consensus that I gather from rural communities is that we’re at a loss for what to do, how to reverse the declining influx of new talent in our communities, and hat I want to help people do is to come away with a sense of hope, a belief in what we can do that’s different and exciting and can trigger some active experimentation,” he says.

To register for the UMRDC’s Lunch and Learn webinar with Josh Hansen Connell, visit the QR code link that accompanies this article. To find out more information about Small Town Vibes, visit the website, www.smalltownvibesmn.com.