CEO Guest Speakers

• Garret Reuter, Kurt Schroeder, & Donald Schoemaker
• Ed Hoering, Principal
• Brian Mentzer, Owner

This week felt like a very slow week. We were at Allsup all week and I think that is why. Despite being such a slow week I think we learned the most this week. We learned a lot about what it takes to be a successful business person.

Monday the gentleman from Greensfelder law firm came in and told us about what it takes to be a lawyer. Being a lawyer isn't as glamorous as some people might think. To start only the top 10% of a graduating law class will get big time job offers. Being a lawyer has also turned into a 24 hour job, because problems can arise at any time of the day. Lawyers have to deal with high stress constantly. Hearing some of the things that most people don't tell you about being a lawyer really opened my eyes to the fact that a job isn't always what you think it is, and that you should really know all the ins and outs of a career before you pursue it.  Also it taught me that to be successful you have to give everything a 110% effort. They also told us that if you really want to be a good business owner that you should take an accounting class since that’s something that business owners do every day. I think these gentlemen gave us some really valuable knowledge about part of the business world that you don't hear about too often.

This week I feel we also got a lot accomplished for the badge project. The GroupMe has been on fire the past week. There has been constant communication and it has helped for us to tackle more goals. I feel like we’re really starting to pull together as a team, and I can already see the benefits. We have gotten all our platinum investors already and now we just have to sell the cheap spots which I feel like won't take long since it's not as much money. Also after we sell all of our other investment spots I think we will have a lot of more left over for other things this year.

Friday Mr. Mentzer came and spoke with us and I think he’s been one of my favorite speakers this year.

James Wiegers
Sunday, September 17, 2017Learn More About James

This week in CEO, I learned a lot about the importance of balance. In a business it’s important to balance not only the financial aspects but also your work life and your home life. When a business is successful but tries to grow too fast, it can end up destroying their profit. It isn’t worth the risk of expanding a business if you don’t have the cash flow to back it up.  

This is also how accounting plays in. If a company poorly records their financial history or does it in an unorganized way, it can be detrimental to their business. This is why it is important to manage financials on a timely basis and keep a thorough log. It is also important to know how to cut expenses if necessary. If a business is on its last limb, finding cheaper ways to get things done is the only way to keep the business from dying.

The class had to use this advice to work in class when we realized how expensive the t shirts were going to be. So, in order to cut costs, multiple people found cheaper ways to make the shirts. By doing so, we were able to save more of the revenue that we will make from the donations and will be able to put it towards our class business.

Emilie Smyth
Sunday, September 17, 2017Learn More About Emilie

...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.

John Lewis
Sunday, September 17, 2017Learn More About John

This week was the most fruitful week regarding our badge project and sponsors. We as a class have received our total amount of platinum sponsors, which is $250 each. Not only did we meet our platinum sponsor goal this week, but we are also starting to draw up and decide who we are going through for our shirts. We have been in touch with multiple shirt companies so far, but the shirt estimate costs are very high. With the shirts being a large sum of money, I decided to ask around and build some connection. Luckily, my mom's coworker has a friend who works at Standard Rule. So I scheduled a meeting with the contact my mom gave me, and hopefully we can work out some type of deal. If we could get our shirts for free, then we will save more money for our class business. That’s why I’m really trying to make this deal work, so wish Cam and I luck.

Besides our badge project, we met with some more business owners. We met Brian Mentzer, who is the superintendent for the Belleville 201 district. Not only does he hold an important position for the schools in Belleville, but Brian and his family also own multiple businesses around our city. Businesses like M&M storage and West End Car Wash. I would have never known that him and his family owned so many prevalent businesses if it weren’t for this class. Brian himself bought three barges, which are used to haul corn and feed that are sent up and down the Mississippi River. Brian plans that the money he gets from the barges can be used to pay off his three sons’ college tuition. The barges cost between $400000-$600000, which gradually pay themselves off. I think it was a great idea; hopefully it works out for them! Besides the storage facilities and car wash, Brian decided to get into racing. All three of his sons used to race Sprint cars. I thought that was cool, especially coming from a racing family myself. Overall, this week was very interesting, and fulfilling.

I think it’s awesome that our project is actually making more headway, instead of just proposals. This week was great and I can’t wait to see what week 5 has to bring us, hopefully more sponsors!

Brett Rowe
Sunday, September 17, 2017Learn More About Brett

Starting this week out, we met with Garrett Reuter, Ed Hoering, and Brian Mentzer. Through these speakers, they showed and explained us the law and accounting side of each business, and how they correspond. Giving their speeches and explaining the positions they play in the entrepreneurship world was an eye opener, because it gave me a better visual on the other aspects that apply to a successful business. They talked about the common problems and mishaps that are often skipped over when forming and growing a business, which will come back and hurt, or even destroy a thriving company.

As our badge project continues on, our whole class has been extremely productive, working on collecting sponsors and working together on designs. The fact that each individual in the group is taking on an investor will help us strengthen our project, but also ourselves. Next monday, I will be meeting with Dave Zura of Allsup to discuss investments. From this, I hope to not only learn from my own speaking skills, but to hear out Mr. Zura’s responses and how he reacts to our prepositions. Judging by our progress in the project now, I believe that my meeting with Mr. Zura will be our last investor needed to order the shirts and ID badges. I look forward to that immensely.

Meeting with Mr. Mentzer was very eye opening, as his entrepreneurship experience is not creating his own companies from scratch, but rather taking past ideas and reinventing them for more success. Whether it’s his innovation and drive for sales with the storage units, or his policies on his apartment rentals, he showed a different perspective of business to me that I never thought much of. Seeing his investment plans and morals that he has stayed true to helped expand my thoughts to other business possibilities.

Ian Hass
Sunday, September 17, 2017Learn More About Ian

This week during CEO was very informative and I think really is going to help us in down the road with our badge project and projects that are coming up. This week we talked to Garrett Reuter from Greenfelder, Hemker & Gale, P.C., Ed Hoering from Clifton Larson Allen, and Brian Mentzer, who is an assistant superintendent for Belleville School District 201.

On Monday when we talked to Mr. Reuter about what he does as an attorney of law he said one of the things that helps him on the job is that he stays organized. He said that if he doesn't stay organized a lot of information can be lost and a lot of time can be lost looking for that information again. Another thing that he talked about was that you should always get your agreements with someone written down. On Tuesday we met with Ed Hoering from Clifton Larson Allen Can we talked about some very interesting things that I think will help push us in the right direction later in other projects. One of the things Mr. Hoering talked about was that you have to manage your cash flow. Another thing that ties into that is that you can't be dependent on your customer I think this is very important because if you get too dependent on the customer and expect a customer to give you everything that you want you could lose a lot of business not trying to go out and get new money. An important piece of information that he also told us was that you have to manage a risk and I think that in the badge project and in the later projects that are to come we will have to be able to weigh our risk with our rewards on some of the decisions we make.

On Friday when we talked to Mentzer, he broke down running a business into two simple things which were you either cut expenses or you bring in revenue. I think that is very important that we know that because we as a group May sometimes trying over-complicate things when we are trying to decide on what to do while we are working on our badge project. Another thing he said was that you may have to raise expenses to raise your profit.

Jake Roche
Sunday, September 17, 2017Learn More About Jake

This week we had a lot of time to work on our class project, and we made a lot of progress. We reached our goal for platinum donors and surpassed the cost of all expenses. People are beginning to become more comfortable in the position of being an entrepreneur, and it felt awesome to get my first sponsor.

One of our visitors this week were a few attorneys from Greensfelder. The main concept I picked up on is that they are mainly advisors, not just people arguing in court. Since only about one percent of cases actually get tried, that does not mean that the cases are just dropped. The majority of cases get settled by means of arbitration or mediation. It is usually much cheaper and better to work out cases in those ways. Every day is different for lawyers because they are always working on different cases. Sometimes they help each other out with their coworkers cases because they have more expertise in certain scenarios. Lawyers also have vigorous hours because even though they may be working an 8am-6pm day, they most likely will not have more than a six hour billing day. It is vital for them to maintain enough billing hours each year, otherwise their salaries will be deducted. One of the reasons they have such long hours is because technology has revolutionized communication, which is a blessing and a curse. It allows them to respond to their customers reasonably fast to make them satisfied, but it means the lawyers have to work extra time even when they have already had a full day.

Mr. Mentzer was very interesting to listen to. It turns out he owns many businesses in the area that I am familiar with. His big theme was to surround yourself in life and your business with people you know and trust. His partnerships and employees have good relationships, and it helps to make work very efficient. One of the points I was most interested in was the barge companies he works with all share the same profits and expenses. I thought that was a little odd because it does not seem like a usual business practice. Another thing that stuck out to me was his personable attitude. Mr. Mentzer has to collect many payments from his residential rentals by going to the buildings themselves, which is a lot of work to do. He understands his clients and works to please them in each of their own unique ways, and I think that is vital for a successful business.

Elizabeth Harla
Sunday, September 17, 2017Learn More About Elizabeth

Lawyers spend about 90% of their time simply preparing for cases as the other 10% is actually doing things for the cases. Just for only 1 of 100 cases to actually go to trial! Three intelligent men from Greensfelder law firm talked to us this week about their jobs in law. It's amazing the amount of time you have to spend in order to become a lawyer, attorney and etc. I learned about the various different exams and classes you must take to be in the field that you want. For example, in order to be a lawyer you must first of course have an High school education. In college, you must earn a bachelor's degree in whatever you like but after your degree you must go to law school. In my opinion, it'll make more sense to get a degree isn't law related because then you will have something else to fall back on besides law. The entire presentation present was so informative! I haven't really thought much about going into law but after this presentation I really thought about the possibilities.

In addition to the other presentations we got about business this week, the class and I are making so much progress on our badge project. Coming into this class, I wanted to come out of my shell and be more open with things. This class so far has made me take on leaderships tasks. I am the committee chair for the newspaper articles for the classes website and I also made an mock email for the class to send to businesses for the badge project. I am learning how to speak with business owners in order to get investor to help with our project. Also with the help of our project leader, Mahlik, I learn something new each day.

Organization is such a huge part of being a business owner, or in a career field in general. Its key to running successfully. I slowly learn that as we continue with our project. We have contracts set up and spreadsheets to know how everything is going. It just so much better than having to ask question all the time. We have access to everything that we could possible need. This is just our first project and its teaching us all so much, I am excited for the future projects as well.

Teonna Davis
Sunday, September 17, 2017Learn More About Teonna

Arbitration: method of solving disputes. Donald Shoemaker told us that arbitration is a word that all entrepreneurs should know. The two men who also came and talked to me and my CEO class left us with a lot of useful knowledge that we can use in the business world. They talked about how staying organized is the key to production. Which is a very key fact for not only other people but for me. They talked about the different things that they did in their jobs as a lawyer. They said that marketing was a big part of being a lawyer. Which I really never thought about until now. They also went along and talked about how education is the key factor in getting a good job. So that means if you want the best job you have to have the best grades. They gave us some tips on what we should do when starting our own businesses. They said we should talk to a lawyer or an accountant about financial reasons. They said when dealing with clients or employees always get a contractual obligation. The last key thing that they said was someone always has to be the boss. They criticized over how when sharing a business with another person usually does not work out well.

Ed Hoering talked about we should be more involved in our community. He works in the 7th largest firm in the world, which is pretty impressive. He talked about how if you are going to start a business you have to be working on that business everyday all day. He said it was times when his business got in the way of his personal life. But in the end he overcame that hardship. Which I think should be a lesson to everyone that you are going to have some obstacles in your life at some point. It is about how you get over the obstacle rather than what the obstacle was.

Brian Mentzer is a multitasking business man. He runs a total of five family oriented businesses. Which are the most businesses that I have heard ran by one family. His businesses are very successful and he has plans in the future on making his businesses better. He talked about how in business if you are ever in a situation when you do not have enough money to pay for something; you have to find ways to cut expenses. He also talked about the different relationships that he created with other businesses to help his business. I liked how in his presentation that he went down each and every business that he created partnership with and explained how they came together. I can tell in the future when Brian Mentzer can no longer run the businesses that he will pass it on to his three sons just like his dad passed it on to him. I also can predict that those businesses will continue to be very successful down the road.

Martrell Robinson
Sunday, September 17, 2017Learn More About Martrell

Before I was able to listen and talk with the attorneys of Greensfelder, Hemker, and Gale, I will admit that my knowledge of what attorneys/lawyers are, and what they do stemmed from their portrayal on TV.  However, they were able to explain to us that they did not only argue in court, but also advise their clients and try to steer them in the best direction in order to resolve their issues. I do like to argue with people, but I’m not sure I want to spend all my time trying to actually get to court and deal with the high stress and heavy case loads involved with becoming an attorney.

This week, we had a good amount of class time to work on our badge project. I think that we made very good progress, with getting all of our platinum investors in order, finalizing what shirt design we will be using, and nearly deciding who will make them. Though this happened later on in the week, I was glad I was actually able to talk with a potential gold investor. I always love feeling like I contributed to something, because if I don’t, I feel like I’m being useless in the activity.

Ed Hoering explained that similar to being an attorney, being an accountant is very time demanding. However, it also also pretty rewarding. From what I’ve seen and heard from the few businesses and people that we’ve already talked with, it seems that many jobs and the responsibilities of a CEO or leader revolve around time, and how little of free time that one can have. I’ve even seen this in my own personal life, since I work myself. I’m not able to go hang out with my friends when ever or go do something that I want, because of work, but on the plus side, I’m making money and connections.

I was impressed by how many businesses Mr. Mentzer and his family have to run and manage. Some businesses are easier to start and operate than others - referring to his storage business - which is to be expected. When I start a business of my own, I hope to find an efficient way to increase my revenue, without having to make giant sacrifices, as Mr. Mentzer emphasized.

Kaleb Leatherman
Sunday, September 17, 2017Learn More About Kaleb

Excuses are a reason or explanation put forward to defend or justify a fault. Excuses formed the main point in last week’s Belleville CEO class. We read Into the Storm, a chapter from Craig Lindvahl’s book, Things You Wish You Knew Yesterday, dealing with the problem of excuses. If you are confronted with a task, you simply do and complete the task no matter what problems may occur. Excuses get you no where, and successful people do not rely on excuses to get them through tough challenges. They simply complete the task at hand. This idea of excuses wrapped up the main focus of Belleville CEO’s fourth week in projects and speakers.

Earlier this last week, Belleville CEO had speakers Garrett Reuter from Greensfelder Hemker and Gale, P.C. and Ed Hoering from Clifton Larson Accounting LLP. They spoke on the structures of what they do, how they do it, and what it takes to be successful in a business firm like there's. Along with all that, they also spoke on the subject of excuses. They said in a business like there's, they receive excuses from clients all the time. It makes business more difficult, more stressful, and more problems tend to occur. To be successful and responsible in the real world you approach problems with strength, complete the task at hand, and take responsibility for your actions.

Friday’s speaker, Brian Mentzer, served as the perfect example for a man who strives for his goals and what he believes in, and someone who does not believe in always taking the easy route. He is a very innovative business man, with many connections with successful business men and women in the world. He showed us the effort it will take to be successful, and even told us that certain times will be very difficult but you have to keep moving forward no matter what life throws your way. Mr. Mentzer also shared the success stories of his close and fellow friends and partners he works with. Becoming successful will not be easy for anyone, but it must start somewhere with a goal and ambition. Excuses will not drive you and motivate you to complete your goals. You must stay focused, motivated, positive, and willing to complete any task given to you. Every successful business person has been through this, and will tell you the same thing. Always keep moving forward, and never make excuses.

James Monken
Sunday, September 17, 2017Learn More About James

Arbitration: method of solving disputes. Donald Shoemaker told us that arbitration is a word that all entrepreneurs should know. The two men who also came and talked to me and my CEO class left us with a lot of useful knowledge that we can use in the business world. They talked about how staying organized is the key to production. Which is a very key fact for not only other people but for me. They talked about the different things that they did in their jobs as a lawyer. They said that marketing was a big part of being a lawyer. Which I really never thought about until now. They also went along and talked about how education is the key factor in getting a good job. So that means if you want the best job you have to have the best grades. They gave us some tips on what we should do when starting our own businesses. They said we should talk to a lawyer or an accountant about financial reasons. They said when dealing with clients or employees always get a contractual obligation. The last key thing that they said was someone always has to be the boss. They criticized over how when sharing a business with another person usually does not work out well.

Ed Hoering talked about we should be more involved in our community. He works in the 7th largest firm in the world, which is pretty impressive. He talked about how if you are going to start a business you have to be working on that business everyday all day. He said it was times when his business got in the way of his personal life. But in the end he overcame that hardship. Which I think should be a lesson to everyone that you are going to have some obstacles in your life at some point. It is about how you get over the obstacle rather than what the obstacle was.

Brian Mentzer is a multitasking business man. He runs a total of five family oriented businesses. Which are the most businesses that I have heard ran by one family. His businesses are very successful and he has plans in the future on making his businesses better. He talked about how in business if you are ever in a situation when you do not have enough money to pay for something; you have to find ways to cut expenses. He also talked about the different relationships that he created with other businesses to help his business. I liked how in his presentation that he went down each and every business that he created partnership with and explained how they came together. I can tell in the future when Brian Mentzer can no longer run the businesses that he will pass it on to his three sons just like his dad passed it on to him. I also can predict that those businesses will continue to be very successful down the road.

Martrell Robinson
Sunday, September 17, 2017Learn More About Martrell

Since leaving Belleville CEO, I have been an undergraduate student at St. Louis University.   I am in my second year and studying in the John Cook School of Business with a major in International Business and a minor in Entrepreneurship.  I am also a part of the service and faith based learning community, Micah, Filipino Student Association, and International Business Club.  This upcoming spring semester I will be studying aboard at SLU-Madrid.  I am super excited for what the future holds and thankful for what the CEO program has taught me.

Shown with Kaitlynn Borik (Class of  2017), also a fellow student at St. Louis University.

Cassandra Amorado
- Class of 2016