Meet Greg Konsor

We were lucky to catch up with Greg Konsor recently and have shared our conversation below.

Greg, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

Growing up on a small farm in Central Minnesota was my first experience. I worked a large garden with my grandma, picked rocks on freshly worked fields for a week straight, stacked hay on a hay rack and then in a 100-degree hay loft, and chased livestock that broke through the fence after a summer storm. After such experiences as a young adolescent, one does not give up easily when facing obstacles.

Secondly, I spent two years in the Peace Corps in a rural village in the tropics of Belize, Central America, which hardened my resiliency and skill set. The village had no electricity or water, and I had to take a one-hour bike ride to get supplies. Learning the Spanish language was also challenging. Looking back, the experiences were difficult but oh-so rewarding.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

Our business is on the beautiful Lake Wobegon Trail in Holdingford, MN. We are a seasonal business from mid-April to the end of October. Our platform is multi-faceted, starting with the Boho Cafe, which offers specialty coffee and morning baked goods, gourmet sandwiches, soups, and salads—serving hard ice cream, craft beer, and weekend wood-fired pizza when music is performing.

We have a monthly rotating art exhibition space that showcases amateur artists in the area, along with traveling informational exhibitions and art and craft fairs.

We have a working art studio for classroom art instruction, dance classes, weekly family art walk-in classes, a workspace for artists in residency, and a general meeting space.

We have a connected outdoor pavilion with live music and wood-fired pizza on Saturday evening.

Our outdoor property grounds have walking trails and through pollinator fields with various sculptures on the property.

Located off the Lake Wobergon Trail, we cater to the biking crowd and host various bike and running events.

In the off-season, we do provide opportunities for winter venue rental.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

One of our goals is to be patient and willing to change ideas to create a better customer experience.

My first career in the grain industry gave me a lot of experience dealing with adversity. So when we opened in July 2020, at the beginning of COVID-19, we had to adapt to the new environment, and the business plan would be challenged in the short term.

Most importantly, surround yourself with people who will improve your entity rather than being a distraction. We are fortunate to live in a rural area with a strong work ethic, but we need you to be shoulder to shoulder for a percentage of the time to create the right work atmosphere and expectations. We rely on teenagers and part-time workers to execute our cafe operations. Many of our staff return for another year even though we are a seasonal business. Creating a positive work atmosphere goes along with retaining staff.

Kitchen Manager Cindi Konsor is very creative with her menu, ready to share her knowledge with the staff, and a joy to the staff.

Amanda Pentzak manages our exhibition rotation and art activities as our Art Coordinator.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

We are always looking for an artist who would like to share their art experience through classroom instruction or possible exhibition opportunities that match our planned gallery showings.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Artinmotiononthelakewobegontrail.com
• Instagram: Artinmotion.mn
• Facebook: Art in Motion on the Lake Wobegon Trail
• Linkedin: Gregory Konsor
• Twitter: @gregory_konsor
• Youtube: Art in Motion on the Lake Wobegon Trail
• Other: google business — Art in Motion on the Lake Wobegon Trail