He told the audience at Thursday’s annual dinner of the Greater Fort Dodge Growth Alliance that the list of those attributes includes businesses, parks, recreation programs and public safety services.

But those things are not what makes the city remarkable, he said.

It is the people who live in the community who make it remarkable, he said.

“Fort Dodge is great because of the people,” he said.

The keynote speaker for the dinner at Fort Frenzy, Coleman has written two best-selling business books, “Never Lose a Customer Again,” and “Never Lose an Employee Again.”

Coleman said Fort Dodge, and all other communities, consists of three types of people. He used examples of Fort Dodge residents to illustrate the three types.

The first type, he said, are those who “started here and stayed here.” They are natives of the community who never left.

He cited Matt Cosgrove, the Webster County Conservation director, as an example.

“Matt changed where he lived by changing where he lived,” he said of Cosgrove’s accomplishments over the years.

The second type of person is what he called a transplant — people who were born elsewhere but put down roots and commit to a different community. As an example, he cited his sister-in-law, Bridget Coleman, who is the rodeo coach at Iowa Central Community College.

The third kind of person, he said, is the “boomerang.” The boomerang starts in a community, moves a way and then comes back. As an example, he cited Webster County Supervisor Niki Conrad.

He offered these words of advice regarding a boomerang type of person: “A boomerang can’t come back if there isn’t an open hand to catch it.”