Together they discussed the minefields in a business; primarily focusing on technology and problem employees or customers.
December 2017
John Lewis coordinated the pieces in Artitorium and Jake Roche worked the area during the event.
February 2018
John Lewis
About Me
I am a senior at Althoff Catholic High School. I am interested in going into Business Marketing as a career in the future. I applied for the CEO program to get a better insight into the business world.
I am involved in my school and community. Some of my school clubs are Crusaders Against Alcohol and Drugs, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, CRusaders Take Action, Student Ambassadors, and I was even one of the founding members for CBN, the sports broadcasting service for Althoff. I have also been involved in two sports all throughout my high school career, basketball and soccer.
I am very outgoing, intuitive, hardworking, and driven to set a goal and make succeed. Once I graduate from high school, I plan on attending a four year university and majoring in business. The top three schools that I am deciding between are St. Louis University, University of Illinois, and Loyola University in Chicago.
About My Business
My Featured Journal Entries
This week in Belleville CEO was very busy, but I was only able to make it to three classes because of events going at school. I could only make it on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday, and Tuesday and Friday were work days for our class. So, for this I will be covering what happened on Monday when we visited The Edge.
The Edge was a really nice visit for the class. We all enjoyed listening to Keith and Mary Dahm-Schell talk about how they have been improving the business very single year. They were very friendly and open with all of us and were even kind enough to let the class have a spin or two on their Go Karts. But overall it was really surprising, to me, to see how much The Edge has changed from when I was younger, and how much better it is. I highly recommend going there if you haven’t been there in a while, even just to see what is all new.
I did mention earlier that this is one of the last CEO journals, and I’d like to take a second to talk about the class. CEO has really become more than I ever would’ve thought it would be, and I am actually really grateful that I signed up for the class. I’ve learned so so much about almost all aspects of business, networking and making connections, and so many more aspects of just life in general. Being in CEO has been such a good experience for me, and I would recommend it to anyone who would ask about it. Once you get over the fact of having to wake up a little earlier, you’ll really realize just how worth it the class is. I am beyond thankful to have such a good group of people in the class. We’ve grown so much as a group and it is really neat to see how everything has played out. We are down to our final week, and hopefully it goes super well, and that everyone’s future in business (or whatever they choose) goes even better than they can imagine, just like we did with this CEO class.
05/04/2018
The trade show at PSOP went, in my opinion, super well. Many people came by and asked questions and seemed interested, an I felt fully prepared for everything. It was a great event and I am very glad with the way it turned out for the class.
04/20/2018
This week in Belleville CEO, and the past couple weeks included, have gone by superfast. Between visitors, elevator pitch competitions, and now the trade show coming up, we students have been kept very busy. I say this in a good way, this is ending up being my favorite quarter of the class, so much is happening, and we have grown so much as a class, and as individuals.
I mentioned the elevator pitches, and that was a great experience. I believe that a lot of students learned how to effectively talk about their business, and actually learned more about it in the end. We had to hit certain points within the pitch to successfully talk about our business, and through that we filled in possible missing parts within it. It was such a great learning experience and I am glad that we were able to do that.
I officially have a new favorite visitor to our class, and it is Ed Horton. He was so honest and real, and super informative with all of us. I really enjoyed hearing his life story, and he was very inspiring to listen to. I loved all of his insight about starting your own business, and how itis true that people do not care what you think, as long as you do your job well and have confidence within yourself and your own business. He is my favorite by far, in all respect past visitors, but Mr. Horton blew my mind and I really enjoyed his visit.
To conclude, we have our trade show coming up on this Thursday, and we are all finalizing our booths. CEO is winding down, and while it is sad, it is also exciting to be able to use what we’ve learned and put it into the real world. I can’t wait to see how Thursday goes for all of us, and hopefully this whole week will be as good as last week.
04/13/2018
While we did have visitors to Artigem this week, my favorite class was when we visited Gas Light Vinyl with Greg Bach. It is vinyl business in the Belleville area that I had never heard about before. They do custom prints on cars, motorcycles, trucks etc, and also do custom stickers, banners, and wall art. They do so much that I am sure that I am forgetting something and it is definitely worth checking out. The tour we were given by Greg Bach was very well done; he is a very personable man who really cares for his business. He puts his everything into his job, and is just a great example of who a business owner should be. It is really great to hear so much about him and from him as well.
03/23/2018
This week in Belleville CEO was very busy compared to some of our past weeks. Though it was full of different speakers and presentations, it was an informative week for the whole class. This week was also our first week of our last quarter, and we are stationed at Artigem, right here in Belleville. We have a lovely space for our class to stay in every day and it is a very welcoming business to be at. We enjoyed our time at MM&R and hopefully Artigem will be just as good if not better for the class.
I mentioned that we had a lot of speakers this week, but instead of listing them all, I’d like to mentioned some of my favorites. Though I enjoyed each speaker, some stood out more than others. I would have to say that my favorite one would be Kurt Artinger, the CEO of Artigem. It was really fascinating to get the full tour of the building (I never knew it was that big of a place!) and to learn the history behind it. I really liked hearing about how he treats his coworkers and employees and hearing about how his business is still growing to this day. He gave the class some really good insight into the business world, and it was a unique talk for the class, I’m sure most of us didn’t expect that to go as well as it did.
It’s been a busy week, with five days full of five speakers we sure got a lot of information to retain for the future. In fact, I’m running out of notebook paper in my portfolio. Anyways, for next week I know that we will be able to meet with our mentors, and should be expecting a few more class speakers. Hopefully this coming week keeps us busy and even more prepared for our personal businesses.
03/16/2018
This week in Belleville CEO was not as eventful as many of our past weeks have been, but we still made every bit of it worthwhile. We worked on our personal businesses portfolios, a lot of finance sheets, and even finalized our resumes. We did plenty of little things that are all very important to complete the final product in the end. In the middle of the week, we took a trip down to Bellecourt for their annual Issues and Eggs. We joined with the local teen groups, BASIC and Teen Court. We each talked about what we are and what we do, and those who attended seemed to enjoy each group’s presentations.
On our last day we watched a really good TED Talk about great leaders in the business world. I hope it struck a chord within the students as the information was very strong and can be very helpful for the future leaders in the world. On another note, we are expected to have a much busier week next week, so hopefully it can be even better.
03/02/2018
This week in Belleville CEO was our biggest week yet. Everything finally came together (and even down to the last minute) with our big event, Belleville’s Got Talent. Within the mix of a couple visitors for our class, it was a very busy week made up of important class days and workdays.
As you probably know by now, we had our class business of Belleville’s Got Talent this past Saturday, February 10, at the Scottish Rite. We had a fantastic turnout for the event, and received very good reviews about everything that occurred. Artitorium, the business that will be open online soon, actually had a better outcome than we seemed to expect. Aside from complaints about prices being too high, and misinformation on what the silent auction would consist of, it went really well. Many of the student’s art pieces sold, and provided just another nice addition during the BGT event.
This whole event has been my favorite part of CEO thus far. Our class really came together as a group, and I really enjoyed the whole experience of it. If you recall, I earlier mentioned that we did some things did come down to the last minute. In this case, the decoration committee came short of their goals for the event, but I was really proud of how the rest of the class came together and made up for their mistakes. Ian and Nick showed some really good authority when things fell through in this case.
To conclude, it was a great week for CEO, and every student should be proud of what they did to make the event go well. The people who attended the event gave us some very good reviews which only gave us even more pride in what we do, and couldn't be happier with how it turned out. Hopefully this event won’t be forgotten by the people who attended and, who knows, maybe it can carry on for years to come!
02/16/2018
This week in Belleville CEO was a very hectic but productive week. We were grateful to have JoAnn DiMaggio-May, Ms. Bowman, and Todd Badgley visit us and assist us in our activities and issues this week. As a class, we were able to sell over 250 tickets (actually about280 and still counting) and are still counting on selling just a little more this final week. Also, don’t forget, this is the final week leading up to the class business, Belleville’s Got Talent. It is a very exciting time here in Belleville CEO as all of our hard work has been leading up to this.
This week was also a very good week for me personally with my own business. I was able to meet with my mentor this week and we have already started on the business plan. A lot of the ins and outs of the business are still being worked out, so I don’t want to spill too much information at the moment, but my mentor and I are meeting again this coming week and will be hammering out this idea.
I mentioned earlier that JoAnn DiMaggio-May and Ms. Bowman had visited our class, and they were very helpful with giving us information on our business plans. I believe that by having them come visit us, it really kicked some students into action to actually get serious about their businesses, and start cracking down on ideas. For others, they were prepared and some didn’t even appear to need help as they were already ready. We are very grateful to have them visit our class.
To conclude, this week in Belleville CEO we were able to sell many many tickets, and were very productive in our own personal businesses. This is now our final week leading up to Belleville’s Got Talent, and we are all very excited to have our hard work pay off during this event, I know all of the students are looking forward to it.
02/02/2018
As you have hopefully heard about by now, Belleville CEO is hosting our class business at Scottish Rite on February 10th. A couple days ago, ten of us went to Scottish Rite and helped the workers out at the fish fry. I and some of the other students were able to get a good look at the room we would be using for our business, and talked through our layouts and what decorations will need to do. Helping out at the fish fry was a good experience in general, and I’m glad CEO was able to be a part of it. Our class is slightly behind on ticket sales, but Nick and Ian have really been pushing those sales and I’ve seen people start to step up and sell their tickets which are great. At the moment, I am working on getting a good sound setup for the talent show; something that would be loud enough and clear for the whole room, and I know a couple different people who could help me out in the area, and hopefully they will get back to me soon.
I’m excited to see how many tickets we will sell this coming week, and looking forward to a successful class business, from sponsorships to ticket sales. Hopefully we can really kick it into gear this week.
01/19/2018
This week in Belleville CEO was one of our most productive weeks to this day. In my opinion, everyone had put in a solid effort, and it was beneficial for the whole group to succeed. On the smaller side of things, Artitorium is getting kicked into gear. For our class business, we have finally picked our top 10 contestants, and will be informing them soon, if not already by now.
I mentioned Artitorium getting its start this week, and it has. On Wednesday, I met with my mentor, Bob DeRousse, and we are working on building a business plan, building a website, and even contacting art galleries. I am interested to work with Artitorium as my personal business as well, but I am also 100% good with it being the whole class’ business as well. When there is an opportunity I would definitely like to talk to the group about that. I believe that Artitorium could really be kicked into gear if it had a secure leader to it, and I would enjoy doing that, but as I said before if the class wants to keep it as a class then that is all good with me.
For our class business, Belleville’s Got Talent, we have made some exciting advancements as of recently. Within the past two weeks, we have reached out to past visitors and contacted them about sponsorships, and I do believe that we have actually had a couple respond positively! Also this week, on Wednesday morning we all branched out from class and took about two hours to go to individual businesses, in person, and talk to their managers about sponsorships and tickets. A lot of us enjoyed being able to actually get out and do that, so I think that that was a great idea for the class.
To conclude, CEO is really growing as a group, and as individuals. If you compare this week to our first week, there is a HUGE difference in the amount of leadership, participation, ideas, productivity, and so much more. We are halfway through the year now, but I am very excited to see how much different it will be in May, hopefully you are as well.
12/17/2017
On Monday we visited Thouvenot, Wade, and Moerchen with Roland Thouvenot, and they gave us a very detailed presentation about their jobs as surveyors, and how much their business has changed since it had first began. They told us plenty about how technology has been the driving force in keeping their company ahead of their competitors. They also showed us how they can use it to save time and increase productivity for the group as a whole.
We had also visited Auffenberg Auto Mall with Jaime Auffenberg, and his talk was nice as well. We weren’t able to stay as long because we had to get out early for school, but I did enjoy his presentation about the company, and how car sales today are very different from car sales when his father was in charge.
The main lesson I had learned this week is that businesses will definitely have to keep up with the constantly changing market, but if you can find a way to use it to your advantage then you can be in really good shape for the coming future.
11/24/2017
These past two weeks in Belleville CEO have been very beneficial for our class business, meeting with other businesses, and even having CEO’s come meet with us at PPM. Precision Practice Management has been very kind and hospitable by letting us stay in their building for this quarter, and allowing us to get a lot of work done there. Within these past eight school days, we had three different visitors come by and talk with us about their experience with business, and how they have run their own.
Out of all of the people who came by these past two weeks, my favorite was probably Jason Eding, who is PPM’s Director of IT. I really enjoyed his presentation, and he was very personable with all of us. The way that he had kept the whole class engaged on interesting topics was better than many others who have come through. I enjoyed hearing his story about how he started out as trying to be a musician, and the whole transformation from that to being in IT.
Mr. Eding had also given us some very good tips on how to interview really well when applying for a job, because he told us that he had probably done about 50 interviews when he was younger, and learned, with experience, how to do that very well.
Our class business has also made a lot of progress these past couple weeks. Our business is, Belleville's Got Talent, and is a local talent show that we will be hosting for the Belleville area. In my department, Marketing and Advertising, we have sent out a majority of our flyers to the elementary schools in the area. These flyers contain information on how to audition and enter in the talent show as a contestant. Right now, we are working on putting out advertisements for the people in our area, which will advertise the show, and hopefully draw in a large crowd on February 10 when it will be held.
To conclude, our business has made vast improvements within the past couple weeks. We have chosen our venue of the Scottish Rite on February 10, and we are all very excited about it. I’m really hoping we can continue making positive progress with our business, and just growing as a class in general. Hopefully next week will be even better!
11/17/2017
This week in Belleville CEO was very interesting compared to the past couple of weeks. We went all the way to SLU for our TrepStart Field Trip, we had visited the Chamber of Commerce in Belleville, met with Kevin Nichols, and even had two productive class days. It felt like a very busy but productive type of week for the class, and myself in general.
For our TrepStart day at SLU, our CEO class met with many young and successful entrepreneurs. It was really interesting to learn about how they have balanced their school with their business and how it has all worked out for them. I really liked going into the separate rooms to get more insight for what I am interested in, and how they can share what they have learned to help me.
For our two class days this week, we advanced even more into the future of our class business. We are realizing that we may need a bigger venue than Belleville CEO has ever needed before, and that’s exciting news for all of us. At the same time, that means the new venue will have to be more expensive to use, adding more prices to decorations and everything else to fill up the space that will be used. For the advertising department, we are finishing up the process of putting out our audition advertisements to the schools in our area. Now we are working on the ideas of getting adults and families to want to come to our event, and be interested in what Belleville CEO has to offer. Our whole department has been doing very well with our communication and we are all on the same page before we put out something, or even start something. We want to make this as best as possible.
To conclude, it’s been an interesting week, but has worked out well for CEO and we are all excited and interested to see what next week has to offer. Hopefully we can put what we have learned into ourselves for the future.
11/03/2017
This week in Belleville CEO we started our presence at Precision Practice Management. We had a couple speakers come in who brought in some unique viewpoints and stories. It was a productive week with our class business as well.
Patty Gregory was our first visitor. She is the brains behind Art on the Square, and gave some really great stories on how to deal with customers, and people who she hired to sell and how to deal with them. She hit the point of doing the best to treat everyone equally, allowing people from all over the world to send in their art, and giving an equal opportunity when deciding who is in or out of the festival. I really liked that whole perspective of equality.
Renae Nichols, the Owner and Partner of Precision Practice Management gave us a full tour of our new building on Wednesday. I and a few other people noticed that it was a major majority of women working there, but Renae had told us that she looks more for qualification rather than having a certain gender. That is what the good businesses do; it must’ve just been a really good coincidence to not have many men there.
Lastly, we had John Perles visit our class on Thursday. He was really interactive with all of the students, and had a great activity to show us how communication and having a plan can make doing things and being successful, much much easier. I really liked all of his points on setting a goal and then achieving it, and the whole how-to process behind doing so.
To conclude, this week was a very informative week for the Belleville CEO class. We had three different visitors, and only one short class day after all is said and done. Though I liked having visitors, I would like to get some more work done on our class business in the future weeks, as we still having plenty of planning and work to be done.
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10/27/2017
These past couple weeks in Belleville CEO were very exciting. We’ve taken some major steps on our class business. Our plan is “Belleville’s Got Talent”, which will be a local talent show for children and young adults in the local area to come and showoff their best talents. It will be a fun night for the whole family, full of fun and entertainment, all only a couple days before Valentines Day. This gives those who are busy on Valentines Day, a date night the Saturday before, allowing everyone to have a great time.
As I stated before, we’ve taken some big steps for our class business. We’ve already divided into multiple groups, so we can be as good as possible in every way, to make this event great. I am part of the Advertising Department, and I spent a good amount of my time this week designing a good logo that represents us well, as well as making it catch the eye of a passerby. Hopefully it works out well. Our department has started working on a flyer for those who are interested in sending in submissions for our talent show, and Elizabeth and Emily have put in some really good work there. Our department is really well balanced in our skills and I really believe that we have made a ton of progress, and have been very productive with our time.
We are still working on our budgets, and food services, but we have already narrowed it down to only a couple different options. I really see that we are moving much faster, and much more productively than we were on our badge project. Nick and Ian have really raised the bar as our two CEOs. I like the way that they have taken on problems that have arisen, and how they are easy to come up and talk to. They have been great with keeping all of us on track, and I really have high hopes for this class business, because it is going so well.
After this whole week, I’m really interested to see if next week can be even better, because that would make it just be fantastic. Belleville CEO has made some major progress lately, I have a strong feeling that next week will be even better.
10/20/2017
As we finished up week 7 of our CEO class, things are starting to really get on track and work more smoothly. We finally have indicted a CEO, COO, and CFO to help run, lead, and represent the class in their jobs ahead. At first, I did not think having a duel CEO position would work best especially considering this class is preparing us for the real world of business. However, having two CEO leaders like Nick and Ian, who are close, and with a big class that we have, I think this position could really work well if performed well and correct. I also have a very good feeling by nominating and electing Martrell as COO. I voted for him because I believe he has some great ideas and capabilities that I am hoping this COO position brings out of him. Along with that, we also touched up a little more on the ideas and concepts for our class business coming up this winter. Right now, I believe that the ideas we have come up with and shared will not ultimately reach our goal of $20,000. I believe that the entertainment idea is a step closer in the right direction, but we need to be smarter and think more outside the box as a class on what this project entitles us to strive for. As always, I do believe that the class is going great so far, and I look forward to being paired with a mentor and getting my business started.
10/06/2017
This week in Belleville CEO was my favorite week we've had yet. Going into this week, I was just tired and did not think that it would turn out the way it did.
The Empowerment Day was a blast and I really feel like I learned a ton from all of the presentations and speakers. Meeting with all of the CEO groups was a great experience. It was really nice to hear about how they have going along with their badge project, and just what they have been doing when they meet every morning like we do. In a way it is inspiring, because it makes me want to go out and make our group better than the others. In another way it is humbling to see that maybe we are already doing better, and I could maybe offer some advice to the students who were struggling or holding back in their classes. From that aspect, I learned a good amount about myself, because to give advice you have to actually know it yourself and there were some moments where I thought to myself, “I really need to look into that subject more”, or “I actually have no idea how to help you out there, I’ll ask around”.
Near the end of the day, when we had to make a company out of a t-shirt, the ideas just came easy to me. My partner appeared so impressed with my creativity it gave me some more confidence for the future. The Empowerment Day was very well done, in my opinion.
My favorite part of the whole day was Steve Davis’ presentation and performance. I found his story very inspiring to find what you love doing, and go out and do it. This hit me, and as a person who is still deciding on what he wants his future to be, this was some very helpful advice. After his stories made me a little teary eyed, I realized that just doing what you love can change people’s lives in countless ways. So to find a job you love and keep it is the best way to go into the future.
To conclude, this past week for Belleville CEO was very interesting. Whether it was visiting a funeral home, or watching Elvis perform, CEO was there and learning. I really enjoyed this past week, and I learned so much for my future.
09/22/2017
...Brian Mentzer is now one of my favorite speakers that we've had thus far. It was really interesting to learn about how he has handled all of his business differently, yet still treats his customers the best way he can. He talked about his storage business and how he made big changes and turned around a failing business to a storage unit area that is practically all full. Mr. Mentzer gave us some really good tips about what to do to raise income and expenses. I trust what he says, seeing how he owns several businesses. His presentation felt very informative to being an entrepreneur in today's world, and I took his advice very seriously.
Lastly, for our badge project we made some major advancements this week. We have already hit our maximum amount for Platinum investors and are moving to fill up this in the Gold and Silver spots as well. We are almost up to our goal in investors, so it’s very exciting. We also drew up different prices and options for our t-shirts for our CEO group here in Belleville. Talking to local companies and having relationships with those companies really pays off in situations like these. Many businesses have been very kind and generous with offering some great deals for our group.
09/17/2017
This week in Belleville CEO, our group really seemed to start getting a hang of everything. I already know that I have grown closer to some of the students I never thought I would have. From working on our badge project, to travelling all the way to Holiday World, our group is coming together.
The difference between our first week and our second week sticks out to me greatly. In our first week, I look back and see just some students going to an early class and almost dreading the idea of having to look nice and be fully alert at 7:25 am. But now after this second week, it already appears to be different from that. The students, at least I myself, appear to enjoy the time they have during the hour and a half in the morning, and really want to work now. Even if that means having to be at Allsup at 6:30 in the morning for a three hour bus ride. Holiday World gave some excellent insight on how to be a business that can be productive and have fun as well.
I actually really enjoyed our visits this week as well. When we visited Jeff Dosier on Thursday, I got a lot of good information out of the meeting we had. Much of it was based on giving yourself a good social media representation and making sure you give yourself a good image in general. Especially if that seems as simple as a handshake and eye contact, I have some very good notes, and just advice in general to take from that meeting which I know I’ll carry with me for a while. Also visiting the Egyptian Workspace Partners was an excellent experience. I thought that Brett Baltz gave some very good insight on how the market is constantly changing, and how they have kept their business up with the market and millennials.
To conclude, I really enjoyed Belleville CEO this week. We found extra time to work on our badge project as well, and it really is coming along well. I have plenty of notes and advice from all the companies we've visited, and hopefully next week is even better.
09/01/2017
This week in Belleville CEO, we had a lot of new beginnings. From friendships to even some possible partnerships, new bonds were formed between I and many other people. On our first day, Mrs. Julie Siebers did a fantastic job of making all of the students feel welcomed into the program. Each student had to stand up in front of everyone in the room, and talk about themselves, which can be difficult for some. This was already teaching us the skill of being personable, and just being a more opening and honest person when it comes to the business world. On our second day we were already jumping into our first big project. Mahlik Good, a student in the class, gave us some really good insight into ideas and finding ways to approach companies and ask for their sponsorship. He talked about how he has been in that type of field for years now, and he really showed that he could be a strong asset and leader in our CEO group.
The next day, Vertical Performance came in to our classroom and did a wonderful job of bringing us closer. Going into that class, I expected it to be uncomfortable icebreakers, and I thought that it would be a waste of time. In fact Vertical Performance did the total opposite for us. By the end of the class, I had already memorized everybody's names and found out interesting info about people as well. One example that stuck out to me is that Daniel Stovey skydives, and I think that takes a lot of courage, which could pay off greatly in the business world.
On our last two days of the week we visited Holland Construction, and one of the main buildings for Allsup. I found both very informative and I really enjoyed the Holland Construction PowerPoint he did. I found it very related to our class, and he gave some great insight on how to be a better leader among fellow workers. I am excited to see how next week will go. I have some high expectations after this first week.
08/25/2017