Lesson to look out for each other after Metro Surge is extended to struggling Twin Cities small businesses

The numbers show it: small business owners in the Twin Cities are paying the price for Operation Metro Surge and the presence of more than 4,000 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minnesota this year.

“Business is slow right now,” said Sheletta Brundidge. Her multimedia online podcasting platform and production company, called ShelettaMakesMeLaugh.com, has lost $300,000 since Metro Surge started.

According to estimates from Minnesota’s Attorney General’s Office, Metro Surge has cost the Twin Cities economy more than $800 million, including more than $600 million in business revenue losses and over $240 million in lost wages by April 2026.

“You know what they say, when the going gets tough, the tough get going,” Brundidge added.

And that’s exactly what Brundidge did; she got going and contacted Katie Hennen, founder and owner of Falco Creative Media. “We’re women-owned businesses, we’re both moms. One of the things we learned from Operation Metro Surge was to look out for each other and collaborate,” Brundidge said.

She and Hennen had been working together for three years with impressive hardware to show for it. “When we first partnered, Sheletta knew that I wanted to win an Emmy,” Hennen recalled. “She said, ‘If we set our minds to something, we go for it.’” Hennen and Brundidge won the Board of Governors Emmy Award in 2024 for Black Entrepreneurs Day at the Capitol, an event Brundidge created to drive attention to Black small businesses.

The award-winning duo knew they could face their newest challenge: break through the lack of new business that had descended upon the state since the surge.

“We were talking about how hard it is to be a business owner right now,” Hennen said. “We talked about partnering together to go after bigger projects and equally handle the load.”

“She's a super talented videographer, and I'm a great writer,” Brundidge said. “I put together proposals for folks to contract us for production services, including gala videos, commercials, and online content.”

The team put lines in the water until they got a bite: Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. They hired Brundidge and Hennen to write and produce videos for their annual Board of Trustees Awards for Excellence Gala, which honored, in person, four educators in Minnesota for their superior commitment to student learning and to encourage the ongoing pursuit of excellence at the colleges and universities of Minnesota State.

Brundidge and Hennen were charged with producing videos and scripts that captured each award winner's excellence, a task that required long video shoots and attention to detail.

“They had ideas on the script and video, but were also willing to listen to my ideas,” said Jason Cussler, business, economic, and accounting instructor at Minneapolis College and a 2026 recipient of Educator of the Year from the Minnesota State Board of Trustees.

Cussler got to know Hennen and Brundidge so well during the process of making his video that he introduced them to his parents at the gala. Cussler’s dad chuckles about the encounter. “Sheletta asked him how to raise an educator of the year. She also loved his seersucker suit and was insistent he get one in another color,” Cussler laughed.

Brundige and Hennen proved their tag-team effort was about more than just getting the job done and leaving an impact. They also did it all without neglecting their families. Brundige is a mom of four and Hennen is a mom of three. They multitask like all working moms, but also found the partnership helped there too.

“We’re really good at stepping in when the other needs to push attention to their family,” Hennen described. Her boys are in the same diocese as Annunciation Catholic School, where a mass shooting took place last August. “It’s been an emotionally exhausting year, especially having to explain the church shooting to them, and this winter, why people were rioting on the streets.”

When you pull out for the wider view, the partnership between Hennen and Brundige is emblematic of what Minnesotans do when the times get tough. “We work together. We share the wealth so that all of us can keep going,” Brundidge explained.

Like Darwin said, those who collaborate ultimately prevail.