CEO Business Visits

• Mr. Kevin Nicol and Mr. Peter Maer (Investor)

CEO Guest Speakers

• Mr. Charles Fike, Owner
• Mr. Hamilton Callison, Director of Operations

The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand, Desire is the key to motivation, but it's determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal - a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the success you seek. (Vince Lombardi). This week in CEO we met a veteran of war and former CBS correspondent Peter Maer at CEO Empowerment Day, who told us about dedication and success. We also met with Charles Fike, from Rafeedie & Associates who taught us about how to be a good leader of a company.

The week started when Charles Fike from Charles H Fike LLC, came in to talk to us about being a good leader of your company and what you're true passions are. Mr. Fike said the most intelligent thing i have heard so far when saying “Even if you are the owner you are at the bottom of the totem pole.” This made sense because when you are the owner of a company you are the last to get paid. You have to pay all of the bills for your company, you have to pay all of your employees. You are the last to get paid. Mr.Fike also said that everyone is your boss, you work for your people, your employees are your bosses when they are not you are not doing your job correctly. Mr.Fike also said what I wrote down word for word a superb quote. He told us“Don't aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it.”

Later that week we met with Hamilton Callison from Wirtz Beverages, who taught us about the numbers in our company and how we should run a budget and stick to it. He gave us an exercise to do where he gave us papers with different scenarios on it. He gave us some numbers on which scenario that would work best for our company. All the different scenarios had different budget plans that we personally had to pick from that would best fit suit our company. He told us to always use the plan that costs the less expense to the company so your profit will always be over your costs.

The next day the Belleville CEO class took a field trip to gateway convention center for the CEO empowerment day. It was a great vibe when we first walked in and saw our fellow CEO classes such as Granite City and Alton. When we sat down we got to hear from a great person in Peter Maer. Peter Maer was a presidential cbs journalist that got to meet and speak with dozens of presidents. Mr. Maer is from Granite City who always wanted to be in journalism. He got to achieve his dream with persistence and integrity. Mr. Maer told us“If you can’t believe in miracles, then believe in yourself. When you want something bad enough, let that drive push you to make it happen. Sometimes you’ll run into brick walls that are put there to test you. Find a way around them and stay focused on your dream. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

The CEO class is just blowing by and we have just received our mentors and we are getting ready to put our class project into ignition we are going to blow Belleville away just wait and see.

Michael Lassman
Friday, October 21, 2016Learn More About Michael

 This week we started with a work day. We started to finalize our initial ideas and really working out some of the kinks. We finally got to see some of our different options of venues, the Shrine and Scottish Rites. Each of the venues had things I liked and didn't like. We are going to be picking a place pretty soon so I'm interested in hearing what everyone else thought of the venues. Our next big roadblock is going to be picking a speaker. I think we have found details of a few but we really need to pick one soon.

Charles Fike talked to us on Tuesday. He talked about his business as an accountant. He really stressed the relationship between the customer and him. He told us how he targets a specific type of client through word of mouth advertisement. A lot of us were uncertain if that was an effective form of advertisement; however, he assured us it works well for him. I liked how he was willing to try something different than his competitors, like H&R Block, to craft his ideal business.

Hamilton Callison talked to us on Wednesday about his distributing business. He showed us some different scenarios of income charts. He taught us the pros and cons of each scenario. He also taught us how to avoid certain scenarios that were undesirable.

Friday we took a trip to the CEO Empowerment Day. We were fortunate enough to hear Peter Maer speak to us about his job as a White House correspondent. He told us amazing stories about the Presidents and First Ladies. We also heard a speech from Kevin Nicol about the Nicol Foundation. He talked about the importance of American Exceptionalism and how great CEO is. I really enjoyed this field trip and loved hearing from Peter Maer.

Tim Donaho
Friday, October 21, 2016Learn More About Tim

 On Monday, we met at Barcom Security for the first time.  It was fun to transition into a new atmosphere.  We just had a normal work day.  We talked about venues and speakers primarily.  We finally have a date set in stone, and we can move forward. Getting the date helped us go from 0-1. Now we should be able to go from 1-1000.

On Tuesday, Charles Fike came to Barcom to speak.  I like how he values the customer, and likes to build a personal connection with his clients.  I like how he has a standard set for his business, and strongly follows it.  He helped us decide that we should have a motivational speaker for our trade show.

On Wednesday, met with Hamilton Callison, and discussed his alcohol distributing company.  He is in charge of the southern Illinois portion of the company.  I like how he often promotes being safe with alcohol.  I enjoyed learning about his business because it was something we have not seen before.

On Thursday, we visited the Shrine and Scottish Rite to look at possible venues.  I really liked both venues, but in my personal opinion I want to go to the Scottish Rite.  They had a huge fountain in the lobby which complements our theme nicely.  I really liked the man who showed us around, and told us that a price is never set in stone.  It was an important financial lesson that we did not expect to learn while searching for venues.

On Friday, we went on a field trip to CEO Empowerment Day.  I enjoyed mingling with other students from different schools.  I especially liked the secret to making money.  Peter Maer was very interesting.  He has lived a very eventful life, and had some amazing stories to tell.  Finally, I enjoyed the statement about not underestimating the importance of the in-between job.

Stephen Waltrip
Friday, October 21, 2016Learn More About Stephen

This week was our move to Barcom. We also got further into the class business. On Wednesday we visited places we thought would be a good fit for our business. We visited the Lady of the Shrine and the Scottish Rites. Both very different from each other. The Lady of the Shrine’s space is very long and not very wide. The Scottish Rites has two different places for us. One room is a big banquet room that could fit what we would like to do. The other room is set up like an auditorium, it can fit around 800 people. This is probably a tad too big. I also think Fischer’s could be a good location for our business.

Also this week we listened to Charles Fike and Hamilton Callison speak. Charles Fike talked about his business Charles Fike LLC & Rafeedie. He also talked how getting to know your customer is very important. You want your customer to trust you and keep coming back. He usually only advertises by word of mouth, you will not see his face on any benches or posters.

Hamilton Callison talked about his family business Wirtz Beverage. He talked about how selling to different business that are different sizes can really change your numbers. Just because you sell more does not mean you make more money.

This week we also found out who our mentors are. My mentor is Renae Eichholz, I think she will be a great mentor for me. I have heard such great stuff about her. I am so excited to see where my personal business will go with her help.

On Friday we went to CEO empowerment day. This was put on by the Nicol Foundation. It was very moving to hear how a regular Granite City guy made it all the way to a CBS correspondent for the White House. Anyone can conquer their dreams as long as they try and not give up.

Claire Randle
Friday, October 21, 2016Learn More About Claire

This week in CEO our class started off with us moving to the our new location at Barcom Security. Moving to this new location felt like it was the true start of CEO. We had spent the last 2 months figuring out how the class works, getting to know each other, and starting to form business ideas. Now it was time for our class to run a business and I’m happy to say that we have got off to a good start. I never really realized all the planning that goes into just running one event. The discussion of what to do and all the small details that need to line up for it to work is a long and sometimes drawn out one. It will be a hard and long road to our class business but I truly believe that there is no better class of students that could pull this off other than us.

Our class met with Charles Fike on Tuesday and that was a very interesting presentation. I really took to heart him explaining the type of customers he has. He says the only way his business is passed around is by word of mouth and it guarantees that if he gets a new customer they have a similar reputation to the customer that referred them. It is impressive that he can have such a good reputation with his customers and that he doesn’t even have to advertise because his service speaks for itself. Another important thing I took away from his talk was him emphasizing on making good connections with your customers and to some extent having a personal relationship with them.  He also made sure to point out that in the business world you have to be outgoing and an introvert to be able to succeed.

On Wednesday we met with Hamilton Callison of Wirtz Beverage. He seemed to be more focus on the numbers side of business and even though I am not a big fan of spreadsheets I believe it is essential to any business to keep good records. He explained to us why we need to be careful when you sell a product to make sure who you are selling it to and if this market is a sustainable one to be selling your product in. I never thought about why someone wouldn’t supply a product to a big box chain but after listening to Mr. Callison I can see why. It is interesting to realize that if you sell to every business you could find your market dry up very quickly.

Joe Beussink
Friday, October 21, 2016Learn More About Joe

First week at Barcom Security for our CEO program starts off on Monday at Barcom to get a feel for our new main workplace. On Tuesday we met back at Barcom to listen to Mr. Charles Fike on tax preparations. On Wednesday our class met back at Barcom again to meet and speak with Mr. Hamilton Callison about the importance accounting. On Thursday our class met at the Shrine then moved to the Scottish Rites to figure out a location for our class business. On Friday our class took a bus to Collinsville to listen to special guest speaker Peter Maer during a Nicol Convention.

 On Monday our class met at Barcom Security to get a feel for our new workplace and to discuss our class business more.

 On Tuesday class met at Barcom again to speak with Mr. Charles Fike who is owner of Charles Fike LLC Rafeedie. Mr. Charles Fike is a tax preparer who taught me the importance of knowing when to listen. Mr. Fike explained how what he does is basically give out advice to other people and businesses to help pay for their taxes. He explains the importance of help by giving examples of business that fell into a hole by not accepting help from his company

 On Wednesday once again our class met at Barcom to meet Mr. Hamilton Callison who is an accountant for the Breakthru Beverage Group. The Breakthru Beverage Group is an alcohol distributing company which is very much against underage drinking which is very important in the alcohol industry. Mr. Callison gave all of the students three examples of client lists that does business with their company and explained each of them and how they are important to a company.

 On Thursday our class met at The Shrine and later moved to the Scottish Rite to try and figure out the best location for our class business. While the Shrine was a great location and good representation of our CEO class the rooms were a little too small. While visiting the Scottish Rite our class really likes the layout of the Scottish Rite building which includes a big indoor fountain that would be perfect for our theme and a room that was bigger and more visual for our type of convention.

 On Friday the CEO class took a trip to Collinsville to attend a Nicol convention to listen to Mr. Peter Maer who was a special guest speaker. What I learned from the Nicol convention was the importance of hard work. I learned this when Mr. Kevin Nicol had a pamphlet that said “the secret of how to make money” and when opened it said “go to work”. This pamphlet was made as a joke but at the same time it taught me that working hard will pay off.

Devin Alexander
Friday, October 21, 2016Learn More About Devin

On Monday, our class met at our new home base, Barcom.  We had an extremely productive day.  We decided to have tiers for sponsors to allow for a bigger market of businesses to participate.  We also decided on the general set up of the event, and settled on chairs for new committees that were created.  Our class is working together a lot better, and we are becoming increasingly efficient.

On Tuesday, Charles Fike visited us at Barcom.  He discussed the advantages and disadvantages of owning a tax firm.  He also explained that stereotypes about “being your own boss” are not at all true.  He works 14-16 hours a day 7 days a week during tax season.  He also said that he gets paid last because he has to pay bills and his employees first.  Mr. Fike helped answer some questions about our class business, giving us great suggestions along the way.  I learned that if I am going to start my own business, I need to put myself into it wholeheartedly.  I have to do something I am passionate about and enjoy so that the hours I work do not seem so tedious.

On Wednesday, we listened to Hamilton Callsion talk about finances.  He gave us several scenarios and told us which scenario is the best and why.  I learned that it is important to get your business’s name out, but still maintain the maximum profit possible.  Some businesses generate extra work for less profit.  I discovered that extra profit is not always a good thing.  It is important to do the least amount of work for the most profit possible.

On Thursday, we went to see our possible venues, the Shrine and the Scottish Rite Center.  I learned that venue is all about location, cost, and space.  We have to have a solid idea of how we are going to set up the event in order to be able to choose a venue.  I think both options would be very good choices, and either would be a great space for our event.

On Friday, we went to CEO Empowerment Day at the Gateway Center in Collinsville.  There, we heard Peter Maer talk about his path to his dream career.  He also answered some of our questions, most relating to advice for starting careers.  Mr. Maer taught me that I should not forsake the “mean time job”.  Mr. Maer said that we never know what opportunities we can get from working experience.  I also learned to always ask questions.  If I am curious about something, I should expand my knowledge and ask whoever may know the answer.

Kaitlynn Borik
Friday, October 21, 2016Learn More About Kaitlynn

This week was definitely one for the books! As always, we were extremely busy and had a lot going on. To start off this week, we were at Barcom for our new quarter and it's an extremely nice facility and most importantly, closer to home! While here Monday, our class worked on the class business and made up some ground. As we have accumulated knowledge from all of our tours, it’s becoming easier to work because everyone is starting to get on the same page. Though there are things that I don't agree with involving our class business, I’m willing to compromise so that we may keep things rolling.

As the week progressed, Charles Fike came in and spoke to us about what it takes to run a good business. As he doesn’t offer much advertisement, he solely relies on word of mouth to get him new clients. As with my parents saltwater store, they also rely on word of mouth as advertising.  It's quite interesting how many businesses work upon the same structures. As he deals with taxes, it’s definitely a priority to get your taxes done!

Hamilton Callison came on Wednesday and taught us valuable tools when dealing with business financials. As he spoke about his business and how it works, Mr. Callison stressed that you should invest in people so in return your company will be successful. As he spoke of his early years of working, he talked of Gallo Wines and how they’ve monopolized their portion of the wine industry simply because they can afford to have cheaper prices. Now I know Hamilton was not suggesting that we get into the wine industry but he was more or less giving us the base for a good business.

As a business owner, typically you want very low expenses. The way one may achieve this can be to partner with other companies or like Hamilton said, INVEST IN YOUR PEOPLE. I believe that one day when I own my own businesses that they’re modeled upon that principle. I know I didn’t highlight everything that happened this week, but these events stood out!  

Austin Thurman
Friday, October 21, 2016Learn More About Austin

Week after week we have shown extraordinary improvement as we progress forward through the CEO Program. I'm personally very proud of the way my CEOmates and I have truly stepped up to the plate and continued to hit home runs every given opportunity. Our first class work days started off a little slow, but as time went on, we've gotten the ball rolling and now we're in full swing of truly getting our class business together in the way we envision it.

Tuesday, Mr. Charles H Fike joined us at Barcom to tell us about his personal business and how to succeed in our own endeavors. Like most entrepreneurs, he started something he didn't like and then moved on to making his own company. He focuses his attention on helping small businesses and individuals. One major point he also spoke on is when you own your own business, your job is not set to begin and end 8-5 usually you work way longer hours plus weekends. Mr. Fike does not advertise, utilizing only word of mouth references. Using this method helps you know what caliber of customers are coming to you. His company of more a restaurant, than a fast food place because of quality of business. Mr. Fike gets to know a lot more then he wants to know but small businesses depend on relationships so this isn't a problem.

Wednesday Mr. Callison came to speak about Breakthru Beverage Distributing and also to give us personal advice as well. Breakthru distributes drinks to the majority of southern Illinois. They cover bars, grocery stores, restaurants, independent wine and spirit stores. They have in the business for around 70 years. They utilize local ownership to maintain relationships in the community. Mr. Callison is from and grew up in Belleville and also joined the local workforce before pursuing other endeavors. One major takeaway I got from Mr. Callison is that risks are always taken in business, but you have to decide whether it's high or low risk.

Friday was our CEO Empowerment day. We heard numerous things and to try to write all the amazing stories down that Mr. Maer told us is blasphemous. However, it is quite inspiring to know that someone around this area has been in contact with various different huge historical figures yet we had not heard of him ourselves. I thank Mr. Nichols for bringing such an amazing man for us to hear from. Key takeaways from this event were abundant but these were most prevalent to me. Never stop working on your craft. Doing something towards your craft everyday will help you improve no matter what. Don't ask for a job, seek information. Using this ideology you don't have to openly seek for employment, just make good use of someone's time that they give you and be genuine in everything you do.

Royce Payne
Friday, October 21, 2016Learn More About Royce

This has been yet another incredible week for the Belleville CEO class.  As we are now at Barcom Security, we have made even more headway on the class business, as well as meeting many more incredible individuals in the business world

At the start of the week, Hamilton Callison of Break Thru Beverage came to speak to our class.  He did a great job of speaking to the class.  It was really cool learning that he can find everyone who buys products from him, with help from their detailed purchase records.

On Thursday the class went to visit two of the potential venues that we have been looking at, so we can get an understanding of the pros and cons of where the class business will take place.  The first place we checked out was the Shrine.  The shrines venue was gorgeous but unfortunately it comes with a lot of minor expenses. The final place we visited was The Scottish Rights.  This venue was great and even had a functioning fountain that suits our theme of “around the fountain.”  Also they are willing to be lenient with the cost of renting the venue.

On Friday we went to CEO Empowerment Day in Collinsville, IL.  Here we met man wonderful individuals and even had the opportunity to listen to White House Correspondent, Peter Maer, speak.  It was awesome hearing stories of the presidents and important figures he had met in his time of being a White House Correspondent.  All of his experiences he discussed were so incredible it'd be hard to even imagine.

 In final this has been yet another truly incredible week for the Belleville CEO Program, and I am more than excited to see what in store for the weeks to come!

Cole Maul
Friday, October 21, 2016Learn More About Cole

Although I was absent for the first day of this CEO week, I'm glad I could be present for the eventful majority. The Tuesday when I started my week was my first day at Barcom, and the day we met the acquaintance of Charles Fike. Mr. Fike gave us a lot of wonderful feedback on our class business and poked holes in the weak points that we need to think about and build a stronger plan for; his perspective on how to reach the older generation (people who don't use social media) is extremely valuable for us to consider, looking at how most of our sponsors are in his age group.

 Mr. Hamilton Callison paid us a visit the next day, like Charles Fike he gave us wonderful advice to put into our class business. He taught us a few things about his career in accounting and the wisest choice out of quite a few hypothetical scenarios he presented to us. From Mr. Callison, I learned that all factors are important when making money, not just the end profit of whatever you make. He made this very clear in our hypothetical choices we were to consider during his visit.

 Thursday was a day we took to progress our class business plan by deciding on a venue. First we met at the Belleville Shrine to see their dining hall and if whatever they were offering us could accommodate the type of event we are trying to execute. Personally, I was more excited about the Scottish Rite for a venue location. The spacious dining hall plus the lobby space would be an ideal place for us to put on a wonderful trade show. Our theme for our class business is “around the Belleville fountain”, meaning that we wish to have Belleville businesses put up booths around the walls of whatever venue we choose, this will reflect how Belleville businesses surround our fountain in the public square.

 Not only will this build Belleville business relationships with each other, but it will give us all a stronger sense of community to have so many professionals invested and interested in the Belleville CEO program together in one place.

 I am extremely excited to see this idea come to fruition and the wonderful business connections we all will form in this event.

Alayna Wells
Friday, October 21, 2016Learn More About Alayna

The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand, Desire is the key to motivation, but it's determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal - a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the success you seek. (Vince Lombardi). This week in CEO we met a veteran of war and former CBS correspondent Peter Maer at CEO Empowerment Day, who told us about dedication and success. We also met with Charles Fike, from Rafeedie & Associates who taught us about how to be a good leader of a company.

The week started when Charles Fike from Charles H Fike LLC, came in to talk to us about being a good leader of your company and what you're true passions are. Mr. Fike said the most intelligent thing i have heard so far when saying “Even if you are the owner you are at the bottom of the totem pole.” This made sense because when you are the owner of a company you are the last to get paid. You have to pay all of the bills for your company, you have to pay all of your employees. You are the last to get paid. Mr.Fike also said that everyone is your boss, you work for your people, your employees are your bosses when they are not you are not doing your job correctly. Mr.Fike also said what I wrote down word for word a superb quote. He told us“Don't aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it.”

Later that week we met with Hamilton Callison from Wirtz Beverages, who taught us about the numbers in our company and how we should run a budget and stick to it. He gave us an exercise to do where he gave us papers with different scenarios on it. He gave us some numbers on which scenario that would work best for our company. All the different scenarios had different budget plans that we personally had to pick from that would best fit suit our company. He told us to always use the plan that costs the less expense to the company so your profit will always be over your costs.

The next day the Belleville CEO class took a field trip to gateway convention center for the CEO empowerment day. It was a great vibe when we first walked in and saw our fellow CEO classes such as Granite City and Alton. When we sat down we got to hear from a great person in Peter Maer. Peter Maer was a presidential cbs journalist that got to meet and speak with dozens of presidents. Mr. Maer is from Granite City who always wanted to be in journalism. He got to achieve his dream with persistence and integrity. Mr. Maer told us“If you can’t believe in miracles, then believe in yourself. When you want something bad enough, let that drive push you to make it happen. Sometimes you’ll run into brick walls that are put there to test you. Find a way around them and stay focused on your dream. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

The CEO class is just blowing by and we have just received our mentors and we are getting ready to put our class project into ignition we are going to blow Belleville away just wait and see.

Jaylen Davis
Friday, October 21, 2016Learn More About Jaylen