Archived News

Helping Businesses Connect and Network with Each Other


Mr. Brian Mentzer, Mentzer/Shipp Family of Businesses

On Tuesday, Brian Mentzer came to Allsup to speak to the class about his family business ventures and answer any questions we had. Everything that Mr. Mentzer said really resonated with the class and he captivated all of us for the time he spoke.  It was incredible to hear about all the businesses he is involved in from airport storage to even owning multiple barges.  The class and myself are very grateful he was able to visit and we hope to see him again.

Written by Cole Maul


Greater Belleville Chamber of Commerce

Ms. Wendy Pfeil, Executive Director

Ms. Beth Tucker, Office Manager
Mr. Landon Brooks, Marketing & Communications Manager
Ms. Peggy Schifferdecker, Membership/Event Manager

On Wednesday our class went to meet with the dream team over at the Greater Belleville Chamber of Commerce. For handling around 550 members and multiple of events throughout the year, it is amazing that the Chamber is able to do all of this with a low amount of  employees. We talked to the Chamber and got to learn the ins and outs of this interesting non-profit business. We would like to give a big thank you to the Chamber for sharing their marketing intelligence with us as it will definitely help us with our businesses.

Written by Joe Beussink


Peer 151

Mr. Kurt Artinger & Mr. Chris Oswald

On Thursday, the CEO class visited Peer 151 to meet with Chris Oswald & Kurt Artinger. Mr. Chris Oswald is the Executive Director of Peer 151. Peer 151 is the first co-working space in Metro East. Mr. Kurt Artinger is the creator of the downtown entrepreneurship training center. The class was able to have presentations by both Mr. Oswald and Mr. Artinger. They both were very friendly and informative. Mr. Oswald took the class on a tour of the business and explained each set up. The interior of the business is very professional and serene, but also feels very homelike and comfortable. Both Mr. Oswald, and Mr. Artinger expressed how important it is to overcome adversity, be persistent, and work hard. Mr. Oswald taught the class a valuable lesson about how to stay consistent in our efforts to keep improving, and never giving up. Mr. Artinger stressed that change is constant, and how to always find a way to make your ideal business a reality.

 Written by Epiphany Smith


BIG Thanks to Allsup

The CEO class would like to thank Mr. Jim Allsup for allowing us to meet in the Allsup's training room for the First Quarter.  Thanks to Ms. Carol Papenberg for coordinating the efforts of everyone involved.  We also wanted to thank Ms. Nancy Mayo and Ms. Nicole Gould who greeted us every morning.  Thanks to the Allsup technical staff for helping us with any Internet connections.  We appreciate everyone at Allsup who helped make the First Quarter a success!  

Student Journal Highlights for this week

On Tuesday, our class met at Allsup to hear Brian Mentzer speak about his family businesses.  Mr. Mentzer is a very smart business man.  He creates ingenious ways to make money out of spending virtually nothing, like selling the Amish sheds for a 10% profit.  He also looks ahead to the future in his finances.  He invested in barges that will begin profiting around the time his children will be attending college.  I believe these are very valuable qualities.  I learned that I need to be concerned about the future of my business as well as be aware of how my business is doing presently.  I also learned that creative thinking can make new ways to make profit with very little cost

On Wednesday, we went to the Greater Belleville Chamber of Commerce.  Wendy Pfiel gave us an overview of what the chamber does.  It was really interesting to learn that this committee organizes most of Belleville’s events and connects local businesses.  Mrs. Pfiel said, “The only thing that is constant is change.”  I think this is a great quote.  It really summarizes the business world.  She discussed how her job has changed over the years and how the chamber has grown.  I think it is amazing that so many people work to advance Belleville and make it a better place.  Mrs. Pfiel said that the Greater Belleville Chamber of Commerce works with 550 other businesses to benefit Belleville.  The quote also applies to our class and personal businesses.  I learned that when starting my own business, I need to expect the unexpected to become a more successful business.  If I am prepared, I have a better chance of being successful.

On Thursday, we met Chris Oswald and Kurt Artiger at Peer 151.  There I learned that environment is part of culture.  This means that the place where you work affects how your business works.  I also learned important social media statistics.  Chris Oswald discussed how the internet is a monopoly.  He said that even though in school we are taught that monopolies are bad, you want to be the owner of a monopoly in business because this limits your competition.  Kurt Artinger also taught me that I have to be able to accept criticism and grow from it.  He told us his business story and how he got rejected multiple times, but still succeeded.  It was a very inspiring story.

Mr. Oswald stated, “Success is not the same as winning.”  He said that if you forget those who you love, you will have no one to share your success with.  I need to keep family and friends in mind and make time for them as I continue to grow my business.  He also stressed the importance of faith.  I think faith is crucial because if you do not have faith in yourself, others, or God, it will be very hard to try anything new.

On Friday, we continued working on our class business.  We discussed colors for our t-shirts for badge sponsors, and then we worked on setting a date.  We also planned a day to visit one of the potential venues we have chosen for our event.

This week was our last week of Allsup being our homebase. Next week our class will start at Barcom security. During this week our CEO class had two last days at Allsup and we visited Greater Belleville Chamber of Commerce and Peer 151.

On Tuesday our class met at Allsup to speak with Mr. Brian Mentzer about his family business. Mr. Mentzer told us about all of the businesses that he has invested into and how they’ve benefited himself and his family. While Mr. Mentzer was speaking i learned the importance of quality in a product. He was telling us how he invested into a car wash and was explaining how he had to replace a hands free car wash machine because of how out dated the current one was. By doing this it brought in both customers and revenue.

On Wednesday our class visited Greater Belleville Chamber of Commerce and talked to Wendy Pfeil. While listening to Wendy Pfeil i learned the importance of community interests. This Chamber of Commerce encourages the growth of existing businesses and helps build trust and relationships between businesses and the community which generally advances the quality of life in Belleville.

On Thursday Our class met at Peer 151 spoke with Chris Oswald and Kurt Artinger. Peer 151 is a business to help other businesses get started by being able to rent a room as a workspace. This business helps other business get started. A co-working space is a great way to get a business started in many ways one being saving money on a workspace for a company.

Sadly this Friday was our last day being at Allsup. Our class met here to discuss more on our class business. We discussed on location, time and date, and our class shirts. Our class have decided to go to Curt Smiths to get our regular and collared CEO shirts. We have also decided on making the event from 4-7 pm but haven’t figured out a date or location.

 This was yet another short week for our class do to Columbus day, but even with the day off this has been one of our most exciting and productive weeks yet.  As we have made even more headway on our class business we have had a few more minor hiccups in the planning that still need to be ironed out.  The location and date being the two most major at the moment

Tuesday we met Brian Mentzer once again and got to hear more about his family and personal business ventures that range all the way from airport storage centers to privately owned river barges.  It's so cool and interesting to know that he has never even seen any of the barges he owns and never knows where they are but they still turn a sizeable profit for him!  Not to mention he also owns a cumulative 362 units for his different storage companies, and 315 residential properties.

Next we paid a visit to the Greater Belleville Chamber Of Commerce, where we learned exactly what their duty is, and how they are able to help and connect the mostly local businesses with each other.  We also gave them a small pitch about the event that we are putting together for our class business, and they sounded like they would be more than happy to assist us, and we hope we can build on that response.

On Thursday we got the opportunity to visit Kurt Artinger and Chris Oswald, at Peer 151 in downtown Belleville.  Here Kurt told his very inspiring story of how he came up in the business world, and even talked about how his ADD has affected it.  This really resonated with me as I also have diagnosed ADD so I know what it's like to have trouble focusing on one thing and then getting sidetracked to something else.  I also thought Peer 151 is also a brilliant idea as a business as it provides companies with a place to use as an office and work out of if they choose not to have their own building, possibly because of cost or countless other reasons.

As the week concluded on Friday; the end of the quarter, we bid farewell to Allsup.  Our new home base will be located at Barcom Security.  For our last day at Allsup we discussed in depth about possible locations, and addressed many of the scheduling problems for our class business.  The class and myself would like to greatly thank Allsup for allowing us to use their facilities to start of this year of the CEO program.

Cole Maul

Cole Maul
Friday, October 14, 2016Learn More About Cole

Although my week was short I still learned a lot this week about how to work as a team, and made some serious progress on our class project.

Because of the holiday on monday, we re-met as a class on tuesday to talk to Mr. Brain Mentzer, the assistant superintendent for district 201. He came in to talk to us about his family business and how his family worked around the community.  Mr. Mentzer’s family owns and operates tons of businesses, from a motorsport company, to owning barges, to owning carwashes.  The way that his family operates, every member of his family has a certain department of the Mentzer Family Company.  Mr. Mentzer seems very intrigued about how our businesses are going, one thing he told us was,“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do”.

Due to family reasons I was also unable to meet on Wednesday, so I met with the class again on Thursday at Peer 151 where we met Kurt Artinger, and Chris Oswald. They taught us about the Internet Office, and coworking companies. The internet is the biggest business area on the market and it’s like a island. To get to the island you need to find a bridge and there is usually a toll on the bridge. If you can create a bridge that will give people easy access to the internet you will make a lot of money. Mr. Oswald told us that you always need to be good at dealing with rejection. Your Ideas will not always work or they will not always be accepted, but if you can adapt you will be a great business leader.

Although the week was very short for me we still learned a lot about building a business we also picked our potential mentors. Next week we will find out our business mentor who will help us build our personal business. We also had our final meeting at Allsup this week and will meet at Barcom Security for the second quarter of the CEO Class.  

Jaylen Davis

Jaylen Davis
Friday, October 14, 2016Learn More About Jaylen

As the school year continues to roll along, things have been picking up in pace and anticipation of our future endeavors. Our class business has really started to hit us as being urgent due to the realization that we do not have as much time as we thought before. While thinking about how to affect our class business we have also started to go into more detail about our own personal businesses. And speaking of personal businesses... Tuesday we started off our week by having Mr. Brian Mentzer describing his various business endeavors to us. It's pretty difficult how someone can manage one business, let alone fathom managing various different ones! It is very evident that having such a great support team and family is different a major key aspect to how successful he continues to be in his life. Mr. Mentzer also makes sure to keep family first as well. He will bargain shop when it comes to grocery but spares no expense when it comes to his family's happiness. That is a great mentality to have for such a great businessman.

Wednesday we visited the Chamber of Commerce and before gaining the knowledge from our visit, I had absolutely no idea what the Chamber was. The Chamber is actually a huge part of not only the Belleville area, but also surrounding communities. They are a major contributor to many different events, such as the Chili Cook Off, Oktoberfest, and many more that are big draws of Belleville. They utilize these events also for giving small businesses opportunities to showcase what they really are and network them to other organizations. The Chamber has over 10 committees that see to the overall betterment of the Greater Belleville area.

In my opinion, Thursday was the most informative day to me. Mr. Kurt Artinger and Mr. Chris Oswald are a team that have a goal in my mind. They both make sure to keep their community in mind first, which includes their family as well. Mr. Oswald personally stated that most people will keep striving to achieve their personal goals and after obtaining them, they turn around and have no one to celebrate with because of being neglected. They both made it very clear that failures are only learning experiences and never let one stop you from being accepting of the next. You have to be a "no eating monster" and keep coming back bigger and stronger from each failure to become what you truly aspire to in life.   

Royce Payne

Royce Payne
Friday, October 14, 2016Learn More About Royce

 This week I got to hear from Brian Mentzer about his family’s business, and from the Chamber of Commerce. I found each of these visits interesting and helpful. We also worked on our class project some more this week which is coming along nicely.

On Tuesday, Brian Mentzer talked about a few of his family business. It was amazing to see all the different things he and his family were involved in. I was really interested in their barge business. I realized that not every business is meant to be successful immediately. The point of their barge business, Shipp-ment, is to make money in the long run. It takes about 15 years to pay off the price of the barge, so after that they start to make money. This helped me to think of some businesses as investments. When starting a businesses you need to be confident and risky. You hope that in the long run the investment proves worth it.

On Wednesday, we visited the Chamber of Commerce. There they explained what the point of the chamber was and what they do. It was cool hearing how big they were. Being in the top 3 chambers in the area is impressive to me. I like how they talked about the St. Louis chamber and how they use them as a resource. I've been noticing a lot smaller business will often use their bigger competitors when they don't have the proper resources they need. I was mainly interested in hearing the type of events the chamber puts on. For our class business, they seem like they will be very helpful. I think if we utilize the chamber we could really make our class business that much better.

Friday was our work day for the week, and our last day at Alsup. We had an agenda and worked our way through. Although we did not go through it as fast as I had hoped, we still brought up very interesting ideas. Right now our main focus is finding a venue. Hopefully people are doing what they promise and talking to these other venues and getting the information we need. Overall it we are doing fine, I'm just worried time is going to fly by and our date is fast approaching.

Tim Donaho

Tim Donaho
Friday, October 14, 2016Learn More About Tim

I think the most interesting thing about being in the CEO program is that I get to make connections with all types of people. Men and women of different races and backgrounds are always teaching me things, giving me new perspectives on life and on business. What is particularly intriguing though, is when we meet someone who is involved with multiple businesses, like quite a few of our speakers this week are.

 On Monday we met Brian Mentzer, a businessman, family man, and family business man. He spoke to us about the responsibility of taking on family businesses, and explained to us the connections between over five businesses and his family’s involvement in each, including car washes, storage units, and even the barge business. Mr. Mentzer loves everything he’s involved in, the way he lights up when speaking on his businesses makes for a compelling session, and I enjoyed hearing about his business ventures.

 My father owns a business teaching self-defense classes, and although I believe it's important to know how to defend myself I do not believe I will have the passion for it like my father does. This is what makes Mr. Mentzer's family involvement in his businesses so fascinating, that the dedication runs between generations and has become an entrepreneurial tradition.

 Of course all of these businesses need help now and again, we learned about how businesses in the Belleville community can work together to promote each other, instilling a stronger sense of community pride than I had formerly thought Belleville possessed. At the Greater Belleville Chamber of Commerce, we learned of the planning, involvement, and overall dedication it takes to truly keep a community of businesses  running smoothly.

 Ms. Pfeil was the first to greet and speak to us; and she proceeded to tell us how a chamber of commerce works. From the presentation, I gathered that a lot more planning and community involvement than I assumed went into this particular business. Communication and love for your city/ town/ whatever Belleville is considered drives this Chamber of Commerce to further success each year.

 Kurt Artinger and Chris Oswald ended our week with a splendid tour of their business Peer151, a business that helps other businesses bring their ideas to fruition and profits from it. Businesses like Peer 151 inspire me into thinking outside of the box; there is a service for everything, even a service for helping services! This gives me perspective and ignites my ambition in my search for a sustainable business where I can be prosperous, yet entertained and happy in my daily work.

Alayna  Wells

Alayna Wells
Friday, October 14, 2016Learn More About Alayna

Our class met with Brian Mentzer this week and the way he operates his businesses is very interesting and impressive and one example of this is that he does business with Amish craftsmen. Brian Mentzer has many different businesses running from barges on the Mississippi to a car wash in west Belleville. The barges grabbed my attention mainly because Brian Mentzer was in a 250 pool with these other barges and I thought that was really interesting since it reminded of businesses back in like the 1700s when they would all own a share of a fleet of trading ships. The barges also were interesting because he told us they were his kids college fund and that's pretty cool having his kids college fund be intertwined with a business.

On Wednesday we met with the people who operate the Greater Belleville Chamber of Commerce. These amazing people handle hundreds of clients ranging from Freeburg to St Louis and plan several events a month without even breaking a sweat. The Chambers main goal is to promote commerce in Belleville and they told us about one way they do this and it's a brilliant idea. Every year they get 200 new airmen from Scott Air force base and all buy them free food from Fischers. It may sound like a waste of money but in the process they get these new airmen from Scott to see part of Belleville and more likely than not they would come back to Belleville and buy stuff. The Chamber also runs all the big events at the square and I think everyone can agree that those are successes every year without fail. At some point I think our class should meet the group of people that made downtown nice again because it would be interesting to hear from those people and find out how they actually did it.

On Thursday we met with the people at Peer 151 and I thought Kurt Artinger is a real entrepreneur. We visited his business Peer 151 and this place was quite amazing, The whole concept is quite interesting business response to more people working from home. These coworking places are a good idea and if I ever work from home I might use one of those businesses.I thought it was a really good idea to have experts come in like an account and lawyer

Joe  Beussink

Joe Beussink
Friday, October 14, 2016Learn More About Joe

Week 8 of CEO class went by very fast. We celebrated Columbus day on Monday with no class, Tuesday we stayed at Allsup but Brian Mentzer spoke to us about all of his businesses. Wednesday we visited the Greater Belleville Chamber of Commerce, and Thursday was our last visit of the week and it was to Peer 151.

Tuesday Brian Mentzer spoke to us about his businesses. He is involved in many businesses and has to manage his time between them and his full-time job as assistant superintendent. He is involved in M&M Storage, West End Car Wash, Shipp-Ment Barge Service, Mentzer Motorsports, and multiple rental services. It is amazing to me how he is involved in so much, and that to me is the true entrepreneurial spirit. He has inspired me to not only stick with one business, but work on many at the same time.

Wednesday our class went downtown to The Greater Belleville Chamber of Commerce and heard from Wendy Pfeil. She was an extremely nice lady who is tasked with advertising for around 550 businesses with only 4 employees. She said “the only thing that is constant is change”. This quote resonated with me because it is so true. Whenever I own my business I must be able to adapt to market change and never remain the same.

Our last visit, to Peer 151, was very cool. Kurt Artinger and Chris Oswald both spoke to us a little about themselves and about the business. They were both extremely cool guys and I could tell they love doing what they do and helping other people. Kurt said, “be a ‘no’ eating monster”. This is honestly probably my favorite quote all year, and it means so much to me because it reminds me that being told no can be such a positive thing. Every time someone tells you no, another door is opened. Chris also had a sweet quote when he said, “the secret sauce of business is connections”. Even though we have been told this all year, we can never be told enough. Connections, connections, connections.

This week in CEO we visited Peer 151, The Greater Belleville Chamber of Commerce, and had a presentation by Brian Mentzer. This week was relatively short; also this week was the last week at Allsup. Although this was a short week it was kind of busy, and not as enjoyable as previous weeks. I enjoyed our class meeting at Allsup, because of the atmosphere. I will miss meeting at Allsup.

Tuesday we had a presentation by Brian Mentzer. Brian Mentzer is the Assistant Superintendent of 201 District. He and his family own multiple businesses. He talked about him and his family businesses, and how they manage them. He talked about how they keep the businesses afloat, and thriving.

Wednesday we went to the Chamber of Commerce. We had presentations by Executive Director Wendy J. Pfeil, office manager Beth Tucker Landon Brooks the Marketing & Communications Manager, and Peggy Schifferdecker Membership/Event Manager. They spoke about events, marketing, and membership. The Commerce consists of 12 committees. The executive director Wendy Pfeil explained that change is inevitable, and to do things that attract people time wise.

Thursday our class visited Peer 151 to meet with Chris Oswald & Kurt Artinger. Chris Oswald is the executive director of Peer 151. Peer 151 is the first co working space in metro east. Kurt Artinger is the creator of the downtown entrepreneurship training center. We were able to have presentations by both Mr. Oswald and Mr. Artinger. They both were very friendly and informative. Chris Oswald took the class on a tour of the business and explained each set up. The interior of the business is very professional and serene, but also feels very homelike and comfortable. Both Mr. Oswald, and Mr. Artinger expressed how important it is to overcome adversity, be persistent, and work had. Mr. Oswald taught the class a valuable lesson about how to stay consistent in our efforts to keep improving, and never giving up. Mr. Artinger stressed that change is constant, and how to always find a way to make your ideal business a reality.

This week was our last week at Allsup and I think it was a week well spent. I’ve gotten quite a bit done on the treasurer side of things. We only have $700 left to bring in out of $2600. We’ve also gotten some pricing on the shirts we are making this year at last. A couple of weeks ago I had figured out that being an entrepreneur/CEO is a 24 hour job. But now that realization is starting to take its toll while still being in school. Having to juggle sports, homework, studying, and the financials of the class along with having to come up with ideas for our class “business” and my personal business is forcing me to handle my time management better than I ever have. I’ve learned that even if you don’t feel like doing something at the time, you need to do it anyways because you will definitely regret it later when you are scrambling to finish seven other things at the same time. I have never been good at my time management and have now learned tricks to get around it. I used to think that I was a decent multi-tasker, but this class has totally shredded that idea which has contributed to forcing me to handle my time better.

Carson Gamboe

Carson Gamboe
Friday, October 14, 2016Learn More About Carson

This week was our last week at Allsup. Starting this Monday we move to Barcom Security. On Tuesday we talked with Brian Mentzer about his family's businesses. I've known Brian and his family for a couple of years. They are really good people. He was talking how his customers are really important to his family and they really try and help them when they're in need.

On Wednesday we went to the Chamber of Commerce and talked on how much they do for the Belleville community and the cities and towns around Belleville. They try and get all business owners together and talk about their company and see how they can help each other. Once a month they do a business after hours and a coffee cup connections for those businesses. They are a key component for where Belleville is today and how much it keeps growing. Also they help a lot with Scott Air Force Base and making them feel like they are welcomed into this community.

On Thursday we went to Peer 151 and learned all about how you don't have to have your own space for a business. At Peer 151 you rent a space and start your business from there. They have an accountant and other things on site to help you. Chris Oswald who is the main person also helps you with the start up. They are also starting a coding class for young individuals.

On Friday we worked on our class project. We really need to find a date and venue. Every date we've picked someone has something with their schedule conflicting. We also have been working on social media for our class.

Claire Randle

Claire Randle
Friday, October 14, 2016Learn More About Claire

This week in CEO Brian Mentzer came to Allsup and talked about his different business, he first told us about M & M Rentals, he has 315 residential units in Belleville, Swansea, Shiloh, Millstadt, Mascoutah, and New Baden. It was real interesting learning how he handles the rent collection. He also old us about how he sponsors M&M Mentzer motorsports and how his kids take part in it. Then he told us about all the partnerships he has.

Later in the week we got to go to The Greater Belleville Chamber of Commerce. And got to hear from their leader Wendy Pfeil and her crew on what they all do, and how they support business by networking. And host business after hours. She also told us how they organize the recent chilly cook off. And then told us about Bell-Scott, where it's an annual dinner to welcome the air men from Scott Air Force Base. It was real interesting how different members of their crew describe their job to us.

Then we went to Peer 151. And got to hear about Kurt Artinger and how he got to be where he's at. Then got to learn more about computer employs. Like google, amazon. They own most of the stock of the internet in a way where they can just make more and more money. Where it’s near impossible for them to lose to new business because they're that far ahead.

Kelly Rowden

Kelly Rowden
Friday, October 14, 2016Learn More About Kelly


Share this news article

Belleville CEO Calendar