Mar. 1—ROCHESTER — Gov. Tim Walz believes Minnesotans are much too humble when it comes to talking about successes, particularly when other states aggressively promote themselves.

"It drives me mad to see a South Carolina tourism ad or even a South Dakota ad, for God's sake," Walz told the crowd of local business leaders at the annual

Rochester Area Economic Development Inc.

meeting. "We're kind of at a crossroads. How do we think about that in the future? ... One of the things that we've done is we just kind of assume that's the way things are. And then because we are Minnesotans, if you do something good and talk about it, it no longer counts. So we don't talk about it much. We don't go and sell it to the world."

Walz and outgoing Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development Commissioner

Steve Grove

talked to Rochester small business owners on Wednesday as well as speaking at the RAEDI event. They highlighted the economic successes of the state and the Rochester area with the caveat that more needs to be done, particularly to attract workers, to keep things rolling.

"This is the first metro in Minnesota that gained back all of the jobs that were lost during COVID-19. That's an impressive feat and not just in the medical field, but across a whole host of industries. ... This is an economy that is growing and adding jobs and just doing things in a unique and innovative way," said Grove. "You're seeing huge amounts of growth and huge amounts of innovation in this part of our state."

One sign of Minnesota's success — having one of the tightest labor markets in the US — is also a major pressure point for small businesses. That's why Walz and Grove are spurring governmental efforts to promote the state to businesses as well as to a new generation of employees who can work remotely from anywhere. They framed the issue as being similar to marketing Minnesota's tourism industry.

They also talked about the governor's paid medical leave legislation as another tool to help small businesses compete with larger employers as well as being a tool to help keep workers in the job market.

During a small business roundtable before the RAEDI event, Rochester business owner and new mother Sarah Richardson told Walz and Grove how important family leave and child care are for businesses like hers. Richardson owns

Neighborly Gifts

in Rochester.

"I was really excited to see the parental leave and, specifically, women in the workforce, in your plan. ... I have a team of five, and they are all female. Out of those five, last year alone, three of us got pregnant," she said as other business owners nodded in agreement.

Richardson has a week-old baby at home. She added a six-week paid leave to her employee benefits. Another part of the challenge for young families, she added, is finding affordable child care.

"One of my employees who's on leave right now can't find day care locally. They've called 24 care providers and nobody's responding. No one's getting back to them. They have a timeline of July," said Richardson.

Other business leaders at the roundtable included Ali Johnson and Stephanie Donovan of

Roasted Bliss

, Sammi Loo of Mezza 9 and Ootori Sushi as well as Bill Mirsch of Mill Creek Life Sciences. They also voiced workforce concerns as well as needing government agencies to act more quickly,

These kind of economic tools, like paid medical leave, must be calibrated correctly to benefit small businesses without added challenges, said Walz, adding that few issues are divided between just options.

"The devil is in the details," he acknowledged.

Later at the RAEDI event, a small crowd of protesters held up signs criticizing Walz. While not acknowledging them directly, he did talk about how Minnesotans need to work together to move the state forward.

"I would say after three pretty tough years that we've all been through, showing a little grace to one another is not bad. Family fights are okay, but this idea of division or absolute elimination of the other way of thinking is not helpful," he said. "Let's see compromise as a virtue instead of a vice."

While Walz and Grove repeatedly cited Rochester and the State of Minnesota as success examples of capitalism, they also acknowledged that new workforce solutions are needed in a state where there are four open jobs for each job hunter.

"People are aging and they are predominantly white. ... We know that the workforce of the future is going to be predominantly people of color. How do we make sure that this isn't a choice of one or the other? It certainly doesn't need to get into an ideological fight about this," said Walz. "It's a simple demographic issue of where we're going to find the workforce to continue to grow the jobs that allow people to live the standard of living that they have come to expect."