Category: Talent

Nole Curry’s acceptance into a management training program came with a contract: He had to agree to be relocated for his first assignment.

“Once you’re in training, they let you give three preferences where you have an interest in going,” said Curry, now an assistant general manager at Menards.

“They realize if you go somewhere you like, you’re going to be a better employee.”

His top three choices would mean a move from Missouri – but that was the idea. He’d traveled through South Dakota on vacation, and he and his girlfriend, Katie Stricker, are big outdoors people.

Coming through Sioux Falls, “we knew about Falls Park and some of the art downtown, and we had explored the town enough and read enough to know chances are we would love being around here,” he said. “We definitely knew we weren’t going to be miserable.”

But an assignment in Sioux Falls was far from automatic. Both Sioux Falls stores are among the top-performing locations in the company, Curry said.

“This area is hard to get into because people like to stay here,” he said. “But two weeks before my training was done, the west-side store posted for an assistant manager.”

He put in a request to interview immediately and was hired on the spot. He moved to Sioux Falls in October 2022, and Stricker followed less than two months later.

“I love Menards. They’ve been super, super helpful with my move,” Curry said. “We’re the type of people who like to explore, and Menards has given us all that and more.”

Stricker took the first few weeks of her move to help set up their duplex in the Cathedral neighborhood.

“It’s been great. We absolutely love it,” she said.

“We wanted to get the house settled and cozy so we weren’t living in boxes, and then I got a little bored.”

He had such a good experience at Menards he suggested she apply at the east-side store.

“And I’ve now happily been with Menards three months,” she said. “It’s been amazing. I was a teacher for 15 years, so every aspect of retail is new to me, and everyone has been so helpful and kind.”

She also recently was promoted to assistant manager in the paint department.

“It’s starting to feel like a family,” she said. “Everyone says hello and is smiling, so it’s been a really good fit so far.”

Their experience is a good reminder for others in the retail industry that a move to Sioux Falls can be a game-changer, said Denise Guzzetta, vice president of talent and workforce development for the Sioux Falls Development Foundation.

“Retail is huge in Sioux Falls, and as this couple has discovered, our retail industry provides such a positive experience and so many opportunities,” she said. “We encourage anyone looking to grow a career in retail to make a similar move and enjoy both the outstanding work experience as well as the quality of life we offer.”

Outside of work, Curry and Stricker already have gotten to know their neighbors despite moving in the winter.

“People in Missouri are nice. I don’t want this to sound like a dig on Missouri. But people here in Sioux Falls are so incredibly nice,” Stricker said. “The first week, I thought someone was playing a joke on us. Even our neighbors we’re just getting to know are so kind and willing to help. I don’t think I’ve met someone who is unhappy. Even grumbling about winter lasting so long, everyone here is legitimately so kind all the time.”

Curry is amazed that he has “only dealt with one angry customer at work,” he said. “Not digging on Missouri, but I had already dealt with two or three a month while I was training, and here everyone is so laid-back and low-key. The customers love to talk to us at work. It’s been great.”

Their 16-year-old dog “loves the snow and going outside,” he added.

And they’ve embraced winter with their first trip to snowmobile races.

“We enjoyed that and enjoyed some hiking when the weather allowed,” Stricker said.

“And we’ve really enjoyed the food experiences so far. I love burgers, so the Burger Battle was right in my wheelhouse, and it was amazing.”

Now, they even have some company from Missouri because former Menards co-workers also relocated to a home in Tea.

“They have a couple kids, so their lifestyle is different, and they were surprised how easy it was to find a place to live and a day care without even having to come visit,” Curry said.

Looking ahead, the couple already has bought state park passes and is looking forward to a year of hiking, kayaking, hunting and fishing.

“And it was a big draw having a river in the middle of town, plus having live local music options,” Stricker added.

Curry even has gone back to pursuing his private pilot license.

“That’s what Menards and this area has allowed us to do – some things I’m not sure we would have done, but it’s given us more options,” he said. “This town is 10 times the size of where we came from, but it does not feel that way at all.”

Ready to learn more about carving your own path in Sioux Falls? Visit siouxfalls.com, or reach out to deniseg@siouxfalls.com.

Add Amie Martens and her fiance, Chuck, to the growing number of people who moved to Sioux Falls for a job.

In their case, it was two jobs – both at Hy-Vee. Chuck is a commercial baker, and Amie is the general manager of Wahlburgers, the restaurant inside Hy-Vee.

“Our first interview was here in Sioux Falls, and we took it,” she said.

That was last summer, months after she joined Hy-Vee in Nebraska following a career that included everything from call center roles to trucking.

“I’d been to Sioux Falls a number of times trucking – I’ve been to all but three states,” Martens said. “And living here has been great.”

From the start, their employer and the community have stepped up, she said. At one point, when they struggled to find housing after one opportunity fell through, “Hy-Vee actually took care of us until we were able to find an apartment suitable for our family,” she said.

“We have a kayak, and one of the managers at Hy-Vee said we could store it in their garage, and at work I have a great group of employees.”

The couple represents a growing number of new Sioux Falls residents. The city’s population estimates reflect about 14,000 new residents in the past two years. Data from First Dakota Title compiled by the Sioux Falls Development Foundation offers additional insight.

A sampling of change of addresses shows more than 100 new residents from the Phoenix metro area, 65 from two counties in the Los Angeles area, 41 from the Las Vegas metro area, about the same amount from the Seattle area, Colorado Springs and the Chicago area.

Regionally, new residents have come from the Twin Cities, southwest Minnesota, Sioux City, northwest Iowa, Omaha, Fargo, Des Moines and Lincoln, Nebraska – in that order of volume.

“Our experience has been overwhelmingly positive,” Martens said. “It’s completely different than Omaha and Lincoln. Those are college towns, and the political environment feels different. This has more of a hometown feel. When I’ve reached out to the community online about things to do, they were great. Part of my job involves hosting fundraisers, and people gave me ideas above and beyond what I expected. Everyone has been extremely welcoming.”

As a person who lives with autism, she said she finds that especially powerful.

“I’m very open about how I communicate a little differently,” she said. “My employees, my co-workers and the community has been overwhelmingly accepting of that. I’m not shy about it. But everyone has been so loving and welcoming, it’s been amazing.”

They now have an apartment in central Sioux Falls with a rent she said would be twice as much where she used to live in Nebraska. Chuck’s 8-year-old daughter has found a good fit in school, she said, “and we’ve seen so much cool stuff downtown. We love the cotton candy store. We love our neighborhood. It’s quiet and within walking distance to so much, at least two or three parks.”

The family’s experience illustrates the broader trend the Development Foundation identified, said Denise Guzzetta, vice president of talent and workforce development.

“People move for so many reasons, but careers are definitely a driver, and it’s wonderful to see how this family has found a fit with one of our largest employers,” she said. “Amie is absolutely right that this is an incredibly welcoming and inclusive community, and I think that’s why we’ve seen people embrace living here despite moving from such a variety of places nationwide.”

Ready to learn more about carving your own path in Sioux Falls? Visit siouxfalls.com, or reach out to deniseg@siouxfalls.com.

For many in the restaurant industry, serving diners is a job and not necessarily a career.

That’s not how Maddie Wadman sees it.

“Everybody loves to come to restaurants. Everybody’s happy to be there,” she said.

And, life-changing events happen in restaurants. She has experienced that firsthand, meeting her future husband while working at a rooftop bar in Seattle. They dated long distance before she joined him in the Portland area, initially working in top-tier restaurants before moving into property management and mortgage.

Recently married, Wadman and her husband, Sam, moved to Sioux Falls from the Portland area earlier this year. Sam had an offer to transfer to a job in sales for the trucking industry.

He initially turned it down. She told him he needed to reconsider.

“And we got a plane ticket out to South Dakota,” he said. “And first, I was like, yeah, I don’t know, but it just started to materialize better, and it was everything we were looking for. We came out here and liked it a lot and decided to jump ship. Secretly, we wanted to leave the Northwest. We were tired of everything going on and looking for a way out.”

They were attracted by how “it was not too big, not too small, and everybody was really nice,” he continued. “The weather was really nice, and it had a lot of small-town charm we really liked.”

Maddie “was pleasantly surprised with Sioux Falls,” she said. “I thought it would be a lot more rural, but especially on Phillips Avenue, there’s a good amount of boutiques and bars and restaurants. There’s a lot to do. I thought it was going to be a complete 180 from Portland, which is what we were looking for – the traffic was crazy, and it’s so expensive to live there, so I was super pleasantly surprised by Sioux Falls.”

They moved into a downtown loft at The Cascade, “and we absolutely love it. We love that we can walk to places,” Maddie said. “There’s a convenience store right downstairs. There’s a brewery, a pizza place, a pool. It’s awesome.”

With the move, Maddie decided “this is my time to dive into the restaurant industry and maybe show Sioux Falls fine dining from what I know on the West Coast,” she said. “It’s a career for a lot of people there, not just a job for when you need extra cash. So I said I’m going to get back into the restaurant industry, it’s what I love, and I think if I can get in with a really good restaurant, I can do this.”

Her first night in Sioux Falls ended up connecting her with that opportunity when the Wadmans went out with one of Sam’s colleagues to R Wine Bar & Kitchen and Maddie met owner Riccardo Tarabelsi. Sam began talking up his wife’s restaurant experience, and Tarabelsi started listening.

When he opened Maribella Ristorante this fall, Maddie was part of the team.

“Maribella is exactly what I was looking for. It’s amazing,” she said. “We’re so busy; I love it.”

As a server, she’s loving the challenge of convincing diners to expand their horizons and try some of the menu’s lesser-known offerings.

“In South Dakota, people stick with what they know and like,” she said. “It’s made me work to convince them to try something new, which is one of my favorite parts.”

She’s also taking advantage of her skills as a level one sommelier and hoping to build up to the next level of wine expertise in the new year. On the West Coast, she learned from one of few master sommeliers in the world, and she honed her serving skills at fine restaurants. Eventually, she might even open her own restaurant in Sioux Falls.

“I would love to open a farm-to-table steak restaurant,” she said. “Something that’s extremely sustainable I think would do so well in a state like this where people love meat and potatoes.”

The Wadmans’ experience is exactly what others are finding as they discover Sioux Falls.

“It doesn’t surprise me at all how this couple has gotten connected in our community so quickly,” said Denise Guzzetta, vice president of talent and workforce development for the Sioux Falls Development Foundation.

“Trucking and hospitality are two industries where we absolutely want to encourage new talent to discover Sioux Falls in the same way Sam and Maddie have. We’re thrilled they love downtown living and have found friends and hobbies already. And I know if business ownership is in their future that Sioux Falls will be there to support them on their journey.”

In the meantime, the Wadmans are fully embracing their new home.

“It’s really great,” Sam said. “We’ve met a lot of good people, and everybody is really down-to-earth wanting to connect and go out and do things. I golfed in the summer, and there are a ton of good courses in the area, which was surprising to me, and then I got into trap shooting and pheasant hunting, and that’s been awesome. It doesn’t matter what the temperature is. It could be 38 to 46 degrees for six months and raining all year with no sun in the Northwest, and it’s way, way worse. If it’s 19 and sunny, I think you enjoy yourself a lot more.”

Maddie has enjoyed exploring the area boutique and cocktail scene and said she can see them building a life here.

“I absolutely love it,” she said. “We were talking the other day and initially had made this our five- or 10-year plan, thinking OK, we’ll live here for maybe a decade or less and then move on to the next thing. But I think this is our forever plan. We absolutely love it here.”

Ready to learn more about carving your own path in Sioux Falls? Visit siouxfalls.com, or reach out to deniseg@siouxfalls.com.

Kyle Brown and his childhood friend Matt Ristau were in an RV in Alaska when a business was born.

It was 2020, Ristau had wanted to visit his friend stationed in Alaska to go fishing, “and I said this is the year to do it,” Brown said. “No one is traveling, and you won’t catch COVID in the middle of the ocean.”

The two go back to their days at Roosevelt High School, where they graduated together in 2000, and then went to SDSU together before Ristau transferred to USD and Brown joined the Air Force.

“The first year in college, Matt and I decided someday we’d own a business together,” Brown said. “We didn’t know what that was going to be.”

Brown went on to live across the country, from California, to Texas twice, Maryland and finally Alaska, where he spent 13 years.

It was while reconnecting in Alaska that Ristau’s background in commercial cleaning led them to their business concept.

“We started talking about how we do commercial cleaning and the service industry in general the right way,” Brown said. “Taking care of employees and providing professional cleaning services.”

They knew Brown’s military career would allow him to move back in two years, so they set a 2022 launch date – and met it.

RightWay Commercial Cleaning now offers carpet and office cleaning for businesses, events and public facilities.

“I think the market forces we talked about back in 2020 have only gotten stronger, as far as the importance of having a good, dedicated, professional staff and treating them right,” Ristau said. “We’ve been busy, and we’re looking to get busier, and now that Kyle’s back in town, we’re working on building it all up.”

Brown and his wife, Bethany, moved back with their kids this year.

“My wife is from California and Colorado, so I was worried about convincing her South Dakota was the place to go for our forever home, but she loves it,” Brown said. “I was worried I was painting a super-rosy picture from what I remembered, but as soon as we bought our house and moved back this summer, we had people we didn’t even know coming over working on the house and helping mow the lawn and replace sprinklers. Only in South Dakota is that a thing for people you didn’t even know to come help.”

She’s now going back to school to earn a master’s degree, with their kids in high school, middle school and elementary school.

“Our kids are loving it here,” Brown said. “The schools are amazing. Even in a couple weeks, they’ve been happy and adjusting, and we’re not even done unpacking yet.”

After years of tight military housing, the family is loving its yard, a bonus swimming pool and new puppy.

“They just enjoy having space and everyone being able to spread out and have fun,” Brown said.

“When you live in Alaska, it’s hard to get other places unless you fly, and now we’re in the middle of the country, and we can do Yellowstone, the Black Hills and drive to Denver.”

The family represents a trifecta of reasons why people are moving to and loving Sioux Falls, said Denise Guzzetta, vice president of talent and workforce development for the Sioux Falls Development Foundation.

“Their experience checks so many boxes, from returning to your roots, to growing a business, continuing your education and supporting your family,” she said. “We’re thrilled to see them succeeding already in every way.”

Brown agreed that after a whirlwind of moves, it has been an ideal place to settle.

“Everywhere I’ve lived has something good about it,” he added. “Texas had great food, California was beautiful, Alaska has great hunting and fishing, but the one thing I compared everywhere to and that I missed was the people and sense of community. Nowhere compares to South Dakota when it comes to that.”

To learn more about RightWay Commercial Cleaning, visit rightwaysd.com.

Ready to learn more about carving your own path in Sioux Falls? Visit siouxfalls.com, or reach out to deniseg@siouxfalls.com.