Should North Dakota's "The Good Life" Be Renamed "The Gas Light"?
The Good Life appears to produce state-sponsored propaganda, enables rank discrimination.
This past June, the North Dakota Department of Commerce re-launched The Good Life program after retooling it and adding a “Relocation Help Desk”.
There are two sides to this story. One is from the state’s communications, who is administering the program and the other is from a participant of The Good Life. Who is a tax payer and resident of Fargo, ND.
Here is the press release from The ND Depart of Commerce:
The North Dakota Department of Commerce announced the latest campaign efforts behind the state’s comprehensive workforce initiative geared at assisting those interested in relocating to North Dakota.
Centered around the revamped findthegoodlife.com website, Find the Good Life in North Dakota has been refreshed and is the latest talent attraction and marketing campaign dedicated to informing people outside of the state about job opportunities and the quality of life in North Dakota, with an emphasis on connecting people to opportunities in rural areas.
The website now includes a relocation help desk that provides a personalized relocation assistance service for prospective residents. The personalized service begins with a series of questions that include basic information pertaining to relocation such as career goals, hobbies, and interest in specific areas of North Dakota.
"The Relocation Help Desk will provide every prospective resident of North Dakota a totally personalized experience, with the real-life community and career support they need to make their move,” RoleCall Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer Winona Dimeo-Ediger said. “North Dakota is the first state to approach talent attraction in such a proactive, personal way, and we're already seeing an incredible response from people around the country. This program is a perfect combination of kindness and innovation."
The initiative also includes strategic marketing that will target four personas: boomerangs, young families, recent college graduates, and veterans to drive traffic to the refreshed website. The target audience will be reached through ad placement on Connected TV, a channel that is accessible on all devices: mobile phone, laptop, desktop, television. A geo-conquesting tactic will also be implemented to target specific locations such as colleges, military bases and job fairs.
“Our targeting strategy enables us to identify defined audience lists across target markets,” Commerce Workforce Development Director Katie Ralston Howe said. “Audiences in the plan align with the personas identified by our partnership with RoleCall.”
According to Governor Doug Burgum and Lt. Brent Sanford’s 6th Annual Reflection Press Conference on December 16,
(North Dakota’s Department of ) Commerce’s “Find the Good Life in North Dakota” workforce attraction campaign also was refreshed and expanded to support a comprehensive workforce initiative. The marketing drives interested relocators into a pipeline which connects job seekers with community champions. In less than six months, the marketing campaign has delivered 7.8 million impressions and driven 43,000 visitors to the website resulting in 3,582 potential residents. Workforce staff and community champions are working with over 1,000 leads in the pipeline; 77% of those individuals have not been to North Dakota, with 65% looking to relocate in the next six months.
According to a news story from Valley News Live on August 3, The Good Life campaign has been active since mid-June and has more than 300 people enrolled for its services.
Gov. Burgum focused primarily on statistics and analytics that did not produce results, rather used the larger inflated numbers to describe the program. Whether the governor is playing mindgames with the public or not, it is a huge psychological strategy and narrative to use the analytics of 7.8 million impressions versus 300 actual users.
The reality is millions of dollars were spent to produce 7.8M impressions over six months resulting in about 300 users to potentially fill an expectation of 3,582 potential residents.
Is this economic investment or economic Swamp Juice?
Since Gov. Burgum doesn’t actually list the results, only selective marketing stats, it is bizarre that he would ask for an additional $25M in public money to bolster this program.
ESG University has retrieved emails and has engaged with at least one of those 300 people, and here are some of their emails and experience notes.
The Good Life Experience Notes: Signing up for The Good Life did take some time and commitment. There was about a 15 minute or so website survey questionnaire asking everything from where I want to work, willingness to relocate and if I wanted a Community Champion. They even asked me for a referral so they could send someone information about The Good Life.
I felt a little uncomfortable sending the personal information to The Good Life. There are questions I necessarily do not want the public to have access to. This is troubling to me and I wasn’t comfortable through the process.
The Good Life Experiential Notes: I have no idea where to begin. First off, the subject line has three exclamation points, three words and two sentences. This is insulting, uneducated and hype.
The next thing I noticed from this experience was the manufactured hype. I am looking for a job and all this email does is advertise the North Dakota Tourism website. There’s nothing else of value in this email. No names, no jobs, just manufactured hype and propaganda.
For the record, the email had five exclamation points and seven sentences. Combine that with the subject line and its eight exclamation points and nine sentences.
While some working for the state may roll their eyes or shrug their shoulders at this sloppy and unprofessional English and grammar, it infuriates others.
There was a time when government didn’t act like a business and served the people with an attempt towards professionalism. In fact, if you look at the majority of federal or state buildings they are built with brick, marble and granite. Not wood or vinyl siding.
The government traditionally built their buildings not only to withstand a tornado or shoe-bomb, but also to symbolize stability. Show the people they are not going anywhere.
Bricks, marble and granite are building materials that withstand the test of time and elements. In the same way a picture of a fire creates a warm and hot imagery inside of us, the brick and marble example are also a psychological and marketing reality embedded in humans.
People expect the state to be a place of trust, not manipulation. Eight exclamation points in nine sentences that give no real information is not trust, it’s actually insulting to a college-educated individual looking for work in communications.
About 45 minutes after the initial email from The Good Life automation service, a second email came. The email was another robo-email from The Good Life.
The Good Life Experience Notes: The second email is targeted to my job choice. I have worked in energy communications for 15 years, over 30 years total in communications, but North Dakota didn’t offer any energy jobs with The Good Life. There wasn’t any Communication or Marketing either.
No opportunities in energy? Or communications?
There was Public Relations, which I ended up selecting.
As someone who has worked in communications for 30 years, I do not have a lot of confidence as that position tends to hire younger and female. But it was the only job option that was remotely close to what my experience is in.
I found it interesting that the state and tax payers are promoting Arvig Communications, KAT & Company and IRONCLAD Marketing as some pretty “amazing” PR firms. Did they pay for this advertisement and endorsement?
What was their criteria for selecting PR Firms? Do they rotate every PR firm in the state or just pull them out of a hat? Are there notes or a process for this “pretty amazing” state endorsement?
Did any of those employees or owners of those PR Firms donate money to political candidates? Are any The Good Life employees making side money for inserting and endorsing these company names in The Good Life emails?
Also, are these places of business in debt to Senator John Hoeven’s bank or tenants in one of Gov. Burgum’s buildings? Is there any accountability within The Good Life to avoid this level of state-sponsored grafting. I’ve seen Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, it’s a classic.
I was under the impression that Good Life was to help me find a job, so far it’s just endorsing businesses and promoting other North Dakota state services.
It also continuously is hyping the future. This is insulting on many levels.
My first impression is this is another group like the Chamber or Economic Development or Business Council that will eliminate more voices and cultures for The Greater Good Life and attempt to give one unified voice for state leaders.
Why is The Good Life telling me to go to the Toasted Frog in Grand Forks when I am in Fargo looking for a job? Why did I fill out that 15-minute form to “get to know me”? It’s more than obvious they don’t know me nor care to, only what to think and where to spend money.
Also, there is a Toasted Frog in Fargo, why are they asking me to drive to Grand Forks for some fried pickles?
This is a fine dining establishment and I am looking for a job. My doctor at Sanford has told me if I want to live not to eat fried foods, yet you are telling me to order the fried pickles and then thank you for it.
This is not something I expect from tax dollars. These emails are more like an episode of The Kardashians than anything that can actually help me in life.
The Good Life participant brings up several interesting points with The Good Life email.
A North Dakota Secretary of State search indicates Arvig Media calls Perham, Minnesota home, not North Dakota.
So far The Good Life has produced an abundance of exclamation points for hype, misleading information from their own North Dakota state website and several examples of telling people what to do and think, rather than give them any assistance.
Email three is where The Good Life story gets great. Before The Good Life Experience Notes from the participant, note the times of these emails.
The first email came within a minute after The Good Life participant finished the questionnaire survey. The second one came about 45 minutes after that. Both were from robots and before 8am.
The third email came from a Community Champion from The Good Life - Melyssa. At 8:07am, right away in the morning. To the average person this would appear that The Good Life is on top of their game.
However, according to The Good Life Experience Notes, it’s a boondoggle and their own Champions have already left to find A Better Life.
The Good Life Experience Notes: Email number three came later this morning and it took me back in several ways. First off, I already live in the state, which was in their questionnaire. I am now leary of Melyssa, but maybe it was an oversight.
This is good news that 10 companies are hiring in UAS TODAY, however none were listed in energy or communications, or even public relations, so I am not sure if I will have to go to school or get special training for these jobs available TODAY.
I am not sure what to say about the director of Job Service telling a person looking for a job that he can set me up with an opportunity for me to give away Free Labor in five minutes, but can’t find me a job.
I am in a tough position because I remember Community Champion Pat from his energy work and I am sure he can find me volunteer work, but I am looking for a job.
What a weird position to be in. Will reacting to the insensitivity of the emails towards my employment search and the Job Service connection weirdness to volunteering cause their staff not to help me now?
This seems more like a psych or mindgame trap than anything offering assistance.
Need more evidence? I looked up Melyssa this morning on LinkedIN and it turns out she doesn’t even work at the Department of Commerce’s The Good Life anymore. So this was another robot email telling me where to shop, what to think and how to feel rather than find me a job or place to live.
According to Melyssa Diebold’s LinkedIn profile, she was hired by the Department of Commerce during COVID and was the primary face of The Good Life.
She then left Commerce in October 2022 and started at the Department of Transportation the same month.
So far, the investigation into The Good Life has uncovered a lot. Considering the investment into The Good Life 1.0 and then 2.0 relaunched last June, one has to ask what the Governor has in store for The Good Life 3.0.
In October, Gov. Burgum proposed an additional $167 million to invest in workforce development initiatives, with $25 million earmarked for The Good Life.
The proposal includes:
$76 million in recommendations to improve the affordability, availability and quality of child care programs;
$20 million for a competitive Regional Workforce Impact Grant program for local governments, economic development groups and others addressing labor demands.
$25 million for a strategic marketing and recruitment campaign which will include support for expanding the Department of Commerce’s Find the Good Life campaign and virtual job fairs, in addition to other initiatives.
A $10 million Workforce Innovation Grant program to support higher education institutions that create new programs or alter existing ones based on urgent workforce needs.
$10 million for an Energy Scholarship Pilot Program to help compete with other states to attract and retain not only energy workers, but their families as well.
$5 million for a workforce transition training program to help retrain and upskill citizens who have been provided a new work opportunity through automation.
In our next installment of this series, The Good Life Experience interacts with a human. Then another human and another robot.
In conclusion of Part One it is quite clear that full time North Dakota state workers with large salaries are volunteering for The Good Life right now and Gov. Burgum wants to shrink government, cut taxes and drain the swamp by taking more money from the tax payers to expand The Gas Light The Good Life.
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