Conrad Fargo sits down with Sue Baron, founder of Golden Drive, a volunteer-run nonprofit supporting homeless children in the Fargo–Moorhead metro. Sue breaks down Golden Drive’s model in plain language: no salaries, no big building, no holding product “just because,” and no complicated gatekeeping. Donations come in and go right back out through schools, shelters, and resource rooms, helping kids with essentials that are easy to overlook until you need them immediately, hygiene items, socks, underwear, sweats, snack bags, and non-perishables.Sue shares how the entire mission started in the most unglamorous way possible: saving restaurant crayons that were headed for the trash. That one habit turned into boots-on-the-ground outreach, business-to-business asking, “Do you want to help our homeless kids?” and eventually into a decade-plus community engine. She talks through partnerships and supporters like Culver’s, Gateway Chevrolet, YouthWorks, the West Fargo Rural Fire Department, the West Fargo Police Department, and the UPS location on 13th Avenue in Fargo, plus a long list of local businesses, schools, churches, students, and volunteers who keep showing up.The conversation gets real about scale and momentum: Giving Hearts Day, filling resource rooms year-round, events like “Fill the Fire Boot” with Jay Thomas, and the sock drive that has reached 46,215 pairs. Sue’s message is simple and stubborn: start with what you have, connect people to helping, and “stay golden.”

Conrad Fargo sits down with Shelle Hagen, owner of Elite Massage Academy, to unpack how one local massage business became three interconnected ventures: Elite Therapeutic Massage (with offices in Fargo and Moorhead), Elite Massage Academy (a massage therapy school), and a continuing education operation that has her traveling the United States teaching therapists and spa teams. The conversation starts with Shelle’s philosophy of pursuing ideas even without early supporters, then quickly turns into the real-world mechanics of building a business that runs while the owner is on the road, and why teams, systems, and delegation are non-negotiable.Shelle breaks down the licensed-profession landscape on the ND/MN border, explaining North Dakota’s state regulation versus Minnesota’s city-by-city approach, and why she actually values regulation as a pathway to safety, education, and broader modalities for clients. From there, Conrad digs into her day-to-day reality: juggling a long-running practice, building a school, and spending weeks each month traveling to teach continuing education, sometimes inside high-end spa environments where premium services can run hundreds of dollars.The core story is innovation in the most literal sense: Shelle describes the pain points of traditional hot stone massage, including the infamous “pulled pork roaster” water-heating setup, awkward river rocks, timing windows, cleanup, sanitation logistics, and the sheer labor involved in resetting for the next client. That frustration leads to Core Stones, an ergonomic soapstone tool system that can be used hot or cold and functions as an extension of the therapist’s hand. Shelle recounts discovering the product in a Massage Warehouse magazine, connecting with the original owner (Dale Grust in New Paltz, New York), flying out to see the operation, and ultimately purchasing the company so it would not disappear when the founder retired.From there, the “Innovate” theme gets even sharper: Shelle explains how the old water-based heating method was still an unsolved problem, so she prototyped a no-water, open-heat system that is safer, temperature-controlled, and designed for real workflows. She tells the story of ordering and hacking together equipment, reaching out to “Evan Dash” and the Dash pancake griddle as an early prototype, then taking the leap to call 1-800-Invention to connect with engineers and move toward a patent-backed product. The payoff is operational: her cleanup/turnover time drops from roughly 40–50 minutes to about 3 minutes, and spas can see measurable revenue increases by adding the modality as a signature service.Conrad also pulls the thread back to origins. Shelle shares her path through Concordia College (exercise science and Spanish), her early cleaning business in 1998, her decision to enter massage therapy, and why she started her massage business halfway through training in Moorhead before licensing in North Dakota and moving into Fargo. She explains how retraining hires sparked the idea for Elite Massage Academy, designed to bridge common gaps she saw in graduates, and even mentions using a synthetic cadaver tool for anatomy education. She also highlights a North Dakota Career Builders funding option that can cover much of the cost of training for those who commit to working in North Dakota afterward.

Heather Aal runs Aal Yours Consignment, a consignment boutique and curiosity shop tucked into the Hawthorne Historic District in South Fargo at 615 9th Avenue South, about a block and a half south of Island Park. The space has its own local lore, originally an Island Park grocery store, and now a rotating, highly curated mix of antique and vintage furniture and home decor, with new items hitting the floor daily and the layout changing constantly. Heather breaks down how consignment works in real terms: items get 90 days on the floor with markdowns every 30 days, and sellers split net proceeds after costs like credit card fees, auction fees, and marketing. Contrary to what many assume, most of her sales still come from walk-in traffic, with additional reach through Etsy as an international seller, selective use of eBay for truly auction-worthy items, and estatesales.org for online auctions when items aren’t reclaimed after the 90-day window.Heather’s path into this world runs through Chicago consignment work, furniture refinishing, and high-end estate sales in Dallas, followed by years in the nonprofit sector, including work connected to the Better Business Bureau in Fargo and later the Essentia Health Foundation. After COVID-era disruption, she built the shop deliberately, leaning on local small business support like SCORE, SBA resources, and the Fargo Executive Club. A standout early “universe has spoken” moment involved a rare desk tied to Henry Ford and a Smithsonian reproduction story that helped cement the vision. The conversation also touches on why older items feel different, the way “joy” transfers from one owner to the next, and Heather’s next creative pivot after hand surgery ended refinishing, including experimenting with a crucible to melt down broken jewelry and obsolete metal pieces.