After he sold his manufacturing company, he started a consultanting business. He also wrote a book, Your Life is Your Business by The Momentum Builders.
October 2017
He explained the three City of Belleville Programs: Enterprise Zone, TIF and Facade Improvement Programs
March 2018
Nick Lippert spoke about the three main projects that the Belleville CEO's students work on during the school year: Badge Project, Class Business, and their Personal Business.
March 2018
Nicholas Lippert
About Me
I am currently a senior at Althoff Catholic High School. I found out about the CEO Program through a friend. I instantly was interested in taking the class, knowing I was on the fence about going into business.
I am involved in many extracurricular activities throughout my school and community. I am a member of Student Council, Student Ambassadors, Varsity Baseball, Crusader Cru, Crusaders Against Alcohol and Drug, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Teens for Life, Physics Club, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Blessed Sacrament Youth Group, tutor at Blessed Sacrament. I also worked over the summer at Liese Lumber Co.
I am dedicated, broad minded, outgoing, and try to excel in everything I do. I hope by taking this class I will become a better leader and a stronger business man. After graduating high school, I plan on attending a four year university and achieving a business degree. I am currently deciding between Indiana University, Western Kentucky University, and Missouri State University.
About My Business
My Featured Journal Entries
Another week of CEO has passed and this next week will be our last. Kind of sad to think about. I have learned so much in the past year through this program and I have met so many people that I never would have the opportunity to without CEO. I’ve also made some new friends and grew closer with friends I already had. I’m already excited to come back next year and visit next year‘s class and see how they are doing.
This week we got the opportunity to visit with Keith and Mary Dahm-Schell at The Edge. This was definitely one of my favorite visits that we’ve done all year. I was pumped when I heard that they were going to let us ride the go-karts. I think it’s really cool that they make money by selling “fun.” Keith and Mary are the type of people who are always finding the new and upcoming things to add to their business. Besides the go-karts, they recently just added a bunch of virtual reality games.
This week we also met with Renae at Copper Fire restaurant. I think it’s cool how they are focusing on a healthier meal by using only ovens. Renae is the definition of a serial entrepreneur she’s always coming up with new business ideas and she manages her time well. It just shows that hard work pays off. Renae puts in over 100 hours a week between PPM and Copper Fire and she still finds time to support her community such as CEO.
05/04/2018
Overall I felt like our CEO trade show was a success. Everyone’s booths looked very nice and I feel like it was a good learning experience for us. I am very thankful that Geri took us out to dinner after. I didn’t really think about it but she made a great point about celebrating success.
04/20/2018
Another busy week of CEO has passed. My personal business is starting to come along now that I have my business plan and financials out of the way I can really start creating the website. I still need to meet with Fred and finalize everything with him. After that I need to start building up a bigger client base so I have more pieces to sell. Once I have enough inventory it will be mainly advertisement that I will have to worry about. As a class this week we came up with our core values. I wish we could’ve done this a little bit earlier to help us with our class business. If this is implemented next year they should do it at the beginning of the year.
This week we got to meet with Greg Bach from Gas Light Vinyl which is a decaling shop for cars. I thought Greg’s story about how he and his brother had to take high-risk loans so that they could start their dream business was extremely inspirational. They were willing to risk it all even though no one believed in them. It is all finally starting to pay off for them. Even just meeting him that day I was proud just knowing them and what they have done for their business. I was also very happy to meet Greg because he is willing to help make posters for our personal businesses.
This week we also got to meet with Joanne DiMaggio which I was so gracious to meet with. She help me make corrections in my business plan and my financials. She has been a super big help for me and I’m sure the rest of the class. She is always willing to give her time and full effort to help. Hopefully I can meet with her at least one more time so I can get help with advertising my company and finding buyers for the craft masters pieces.
03/23/2018
Another week of CEO has passed; this week was full amazing guest speakers. This week was also the start of being at Artigem. I'm really liking it so far. At the beginning of the week we met with Mike Riley the president of Professional Therapy Services. Mr. Riley talked to us about the different kinds of physical therapy and the importance of it.
This week we also met with Patrick McKeehan who is the economic development director of the city of O’Fallon. Mr. McKeehan also helped each one of us with our class business and gave us a start of our personal business pitch.
My favorite speaker this week was definitely Kurt Artinger. Kurt's life story was really inspiring and I felt that it was relatable to my own life because we both have family business and he didn't know if he really wanted to do that. Then he decided to go off on his own to come up with his own company. I also thought the way he started off buying houses was super cool. You can tell he is a very intelligent person with his money and investments.
We also got to tour Providence Bank in Fairview from our class mentor Matt Warren. It’s crazy I have driven past that bank so many times and never really noticed it. Matt talked to us about the importance of our credit scores. He gave us a few ways that we can check it and explained how the whole system works. Hopefully I can establish my credit score soon and start building it up.
03/16/2018
Another week of CEO has passed. This week we mainly focused on our class business. We have secured our 10 acts and they will all be able to make it. We have three judges in line for the show. The programs and sponsorships power points are in the making and will probably be finished sometime next week. The event is starting to creep up on us; I'm a little nervous but also super excited to finally host our event. We really need to start pushing ticket sales; I like Ian's idea of just one ticket a day because I believe that is easily doable.
We also I got to meet with Mayor Eckert at City Hall. I thought it was super interesting to hear about what a Mayor’s daily work day looks like. I never realized how much time and effort goes into being a Mayor. It was crazy to see that even the city of Belleville is ran just like any other business and the Mayor is like the CEO of the city. It was also amazing to see love and passion that Mayor Eckert has for the city of Belleville.
01/19/2018
Another week of CEO has passed. The past two weeks we have really focused on our class business. I love all the progress we are making. After a long and thought out discussion we decided to use the Scottish Rite as our venue for our event. I think the deciding factor for us was the amount of people the Scottish Rite can hold, plus the price was rather reasonable. I'm getting more and more excited for the event as more people send in submissions of their talents.
The night before we visited Fletcher's I actually had eaten there, so it was really interesting to see the business stand point of the restaurant that next morning. The thing I found the most interesting that Derek Betz talked about was the Chicken Investment compared to Pig Investment. Before then I had never heard of that concept. I liked how he incorporated into his own business and talked about how he had to be pig committed in order for his company to be successful. I thought back to what Jeff Platt talked about when people want to open up a new skyzone. He would rather have some run it that just put millions of their own money into it because he knows they will do whatever it takes since it's their money on the line.
We also got to meet with Jason Edding, head of IT at PPM this week. When I first heard about him I grew very curious of what his job actually entailed. After speaking with us I thought his job was super cool he's like the cyber security gaurd for PPM. I thought it was crazy the amount of money that the company could be fined if there was even the smallest hack in the system. It really showed how Important Jason's job is. It was also pretty crazy to hear about the precautions PPM goes through to protect their clients information. Jason is also in charge of hiring the people that are in the IT department at PPM. I was pretty thankful that Jason shared some of the things he looks for in a potential employee’s resume and when they go through the interview process. It will definitely come in handy down the road.
11/17/2017
Another knowledgeable week of CEO has passed. The Trepstart at Saint Louis University is easily one of my favorite things we've done this year. I really liked that it was run by young entrepreneurs that were similar in age to me. I had been to a Skyzone before the Trepstart but I never thought I would get to meet the owner of it. Jeff Platt had his idea in college a time when most students are out partying and living it up. All of his friends thought he was crazy and that he was wasting his time. I guess he proved them wrong considering he just opened his two hundredth store. Jeff Platt also talked about getting punched in the mouth. He used Mike Tyson's quote “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth” I think this is so true and I see this all the time no matter how well things are going, you have to be ready for the blow to the face.
At theTrepstart we also got to talk to a few young entrepreneurs some even younger than me that are millionaires. One of these entrepreneurs I had watched on Shark Tank like a week before going to this event. He had started a dog treat company called Ry’s Barkery. He had talked about the difficulties he went through with managing his school work and his job.
There was another entrepreneur who had started his own non for profit organization where he goes out and feeds the hungry. He started this when he was around seven years old. I think it's so cool that such a young kid can make such a big difference in the world. One thing I thought that was pretty funny is most of these kids parents work for them. Making them the boss of their parents. It's crazy to think, that could be me in just a few years.
11/03/2017
Another week of CEO has passed, this being our last week at Allsup. We've been spending most of our time preparing for the class business, which is much needed. As one of the leaders of this project I feel that it is my job to guide everyone in the right direction and make sure everyone is on the same page. I feel like I'm doing an okay job at this but I could be totally wrong. It's tough to keep everyone happy, when there are so many different opinions. I want to be able to accept them all but I just don't know if that's possible. I think I just have to listen to everything that everyone has to say and take it into consideration. I love a good challenge and I'm excited to see how the class business goes.
This week we visited Rauckman Utility Products run by Jim and Shirley Rauckman. The story of how they started I thought was pretty cool. Jim was tired of the way his greedy boss was running things so he took out the biggest loan he could and then quit his job. From there he started his own sales company that helped other companies sell their products. Once they were back on their feet the Rauckman family started selling their own products. One product that I thought was interesting was their gloves. Their niche for their gloves is that they can have them custom made for any kind of hand for example a man had lost his thumb and the Rauckmans were able to make a glove without the thumb. They are able to do this with the new technology of scanning the person's hand and making a glove fit like a glove.
10/20/2017