CEO Guest Speakers

• Mrs. Wendy Witte, Donors Services Manager
• Mr. Jason Eding, Director of IT

 Week 13 has been a very busy week. We didn’t have to leave PPM all week, and had two very helpful speakers. On Tuesday Wendy Witte from the Greater St. Louis foundation came, and the Director of IT at PPM, Jason Eding, spoke with us.

 This week we really focused on Belleville’s Got Talent. In past weeks we haven’t really gotten a lot of time to only focus on the class business so it was very nice. We got our sponsorship pamphlet completed, our table decorations close to being figured out, and finally secured a location. Mahlik does a truly great job of making these contract and pamphlets, so we’re lucky to have him in class. The decoration committee did a good job of making a table design, but it was going to be way over budget so we need a new design. We decided to go with the Scottish Rite, which I knew we would probably end up there anyway, but that’s because it’s close to perfect for what we want. Truthfully I wanted The Edge to be the place, but it was just too small for our estimated attendance.

 Wendy Witte came Tuesday and I thought that she was very helpful for our class business’s sake. She told us what our class business classifies as in the eyes of the IRS. She also informed us as to what is going to be taxed, and how our silent auction is going to work.

 Jason Eding visited us on Thursday and he had a great story to tell of how his career is where it is today. I found it very interesting how his story was a perfect example of “life aint no laser beam” from Craig Lindvahl’s book. He has done a few different jobs, and finally has ended up being the director of IT at PPM. Also my favorite part of his meeting with us was his tips on interviews. He gave us really good insight as to what a job interview is like, and what we need to do to separate ourselves from the rest of the pack.  

James Wiegers
Friday, November 17, 2017Learn More About James

...On November 7th, we met with Derek Betz, the owner of Fletcher’s Kitchen. I really liked his presentation, it was interesting to hear how a restaurant that I often go to is run. I appreciated that he actually told us specific examples of ways he runs his business because a lot of places that we go to just give us a very broad description of how any business is run, and by now, we already have heard most of those types of things over 10 times. For example, we are all fully aware how useful social media and having a good internet presence can be to the advertising of a business, but almost every place we go tries to tell us about this as if we probably don’t know more about social media and online networking than they do. I really liked that Mr. Betz told us about his business failures a well as his successes, like when he told us how the second location of Fletcher’s that they opened actually almost put them out of business, and then he actually described how if we could avoid that if we have a business of our own sometime in the future.

I really enjoyed speaking with Amy Tarr on Wednesday about her job at Midland and how her past careers have led her to where she is now. I liked that she made an effort to make us feel comfortable while talking to her and that she was so open with us. She told us that when you’re in upper level management, you need to be able to have the tough conversations with people, so that’s probably why she is comfortable speaking to us to honestly...

Emilie Smyth
Friday, November 17, 2017Learn More About Emilie

As we end week thirteen of our CEO journey we have encountered 10 guest speakers and have been on 21 business visits. Something new has been learned every day. A new experience, a new a story and new people. Our class is in the process of creating our class business for the year of 2018. I never knew there was so much work that needs to be done in order to put on a talent show. As we continue our weeks of class were slowly making progress with our class business and we are very excited! February will be here before we know it and we hope all of our business friends that we have gotten to meet are involved.

 On November 11th, we got to talk with Jason Eding, the director of IT at Precision Practice Management. Besides talking to us about privacy, security and things along with the internet he mentioned interviews. When having an interview there are a few things that would be considered a plus when managers are considering hiring. There always need to be research. You need some type of understanding and information about the company that you are applying for. It will be a good look when you can provide history of the business. Canned questions. Come to an interview with questions that could be asked for the hiring manager. These question don't have to be specific to just the particular workplace. There also need to be a resume. It isn't really required but it is a good fit. With all the things that Mr. Eding told us I could never understand after all the interviews that I’ve went I have not gotten a job. Before his presentation I was aware of the things that needed to be done with having a great interview. I would add to list of things with conducting a good interview. I would add on that timed management is a good plus as well. With being involved in so many different school activities and being an athlete as well I wouldn't even have time for a job. When managers ask me about my availability, my time is limited because I have so much going on. And now I see why it's harder to find a job.

Teonna Davis
Friday, November 17, 2017Learn More About Teonna

These past two weeks in Belleville CEO have been very beneficial for our class business, meeting with other businesses, and even having CEO’s come meet with us at PPM. Precision Practice Management has been very kind and hospitable by letting us stay in their building for this quarter, and allowing us to get a lot of work done there. Within these past eight school days, we had three different visitors come by and talk with us about their experience with business, and how they have run their own.

Out of all of the people who came by these past two weeks, my favorite was probably Jason Eding, who is PPM’s Director of IT. I really enjoyed his presentation, and he was very personable with all of us. The way that he had kept the whole class engaged on interesting topics was better than many others who have come through. I enjoyed hearing his story about how he started out as trying to be a musician, and the whole transformation from that to being in IT.

Mr. Eding had also given us some very good tips on how to interview really well when applying for a job, because he told us that he had probably done about 50 interviews when he was younger, and learned, with experience, how to do that very well.

Our class business has also made a lot of progress these past couple weeks. Our business is, Belleville's Got Talent, and is a local talent show that we will be hosting for the Belleville area. In my department, Marketing and Advertising, we have sent out a majority of our flyers to the elementary schools in the area. These flyers contain information on how to audition and enter in the talent show as a contestant. Right now, we are working on putting out advertisements for the people in our area, which will advertise the show, and hopefully draw in a large crowd on February 10 when it will be held.

To conclude, our business has made vast improvements within the past couple weeks. We have chosen our venue of the Scottish Rite on February 10, and we are all very excited about it.  I’m really hoping we can continue making positive progress with our business, and just growing as a class in general. Hopefully next week will be even better!

John Lewis
Friday, November 17, 2017Learn More About John

Every student in the CEO class learns something different from each speaker we acquire over the many weeks. Each speaker has their own special touch to their stories and messages, and sometimes the messages tend to have the same overlap. However, this last week, I found Jason Eding and Derek Betz to have a very nice message and great stories that gave each student a better teaching and understanding. These stories stuck out to be very influential, grasping our attentions.

Jason Eding, Precision Practice Management’s director of the IT department, spoke about his own story of becoming the IT director along with very valuable skills on how and what to do for a successful interview with a business. It is always fantastic and continues to amaze me to hear ever speaker’s background and story of upbringing in the business world. Mr. Eding showed us the struggle and perseverance it will take to find what you want and love to do. I found one of the best and amazing things he talked about was the influence and skills of a successful job interview. Even though this is a CEO business class, we are still striving every day to learn new values and skills that we can always put to use in the real world, and I feel as though Jason Edingdid a great job of giving us that information.

Derek Betz runs the local Belleville restaurant, Fletcher’s. We do not get to go to and see many businesses such as restaurant, and I was really ecstatic to know that we were going to be going to Fletcher’s because it gives our class another outlook on any type of business. Many of us are probably not accustomed to or looking to grow a business in the restaurant franchise, however it is always very important to look at how they manage, run, and become a successful restaurant. One of the major things that Derek Betz stressed was that in the business world you need to be either pig committed not chicken committed. A chicken lays an egg, providing for food but still lives, whereas a pig has to die in order to give food. You need to be 100%committed in your business or job just like that pig is. I thought that was a fantastic analogy to give to the Belleville CEO class, especially as we get into the heat of our big class project.

As I said, every speaker has their own message and story behind their upbringing. Some may have the same messages as other, but there are those that really grab your attention and will influence you as you move on in your life. Jason Eding and Derek. Betz did an amazing job speaking to the class, and showing and teaching us what it will take as we move on into the real business world. As always, this last week of CEO went very well, and I look forward to this upcoming week to see what it will bring for all of us.

James Monken
Friday, November 17, 2017Learn More About James

My favorite thing that happened in the last two weeks was that I had the opportunity to meet with my mentor. I think we were matched up really well, and I am excited to see how it goes. She gave me some input on the flyers I am working on creating for the class business and gave me a very helpful list of places I could deliver the audition flyers to. We also discussed my idea for a personal business, and she seemed genuinely excited about it, which is a good sign. By doing my own designs, she pointed out that I will not have to be concerned about copyrights of other businesses, but I think I should make sure to protect my designs by getting them copyrighted. If I can make enough progress on my personal business, it would be very beneficial to have it going during the Christmas season because people could purchase my products as gifts. That would require a lot of work and research to get that done, but I am going to try. I am going to meet up with my mentor and her mentee from last year during Christmas break, and we can discuss how they were successful and see if any of their tactics would be applicable to me and my idea.

During Thanksgiving break I am hoping to research information on where I can get the best service and price for producing my product. I also will utilize the downtime to spend time creating different designs and prints. One of the reasons I am so excited for my personal business is because it collaborates with one of my passions—art. I have lots of fun doodling, and I always look forward to art class. Lately I have been using water color for my projects in that class, and that is what I plan to use to create my prints. It has the quality of looseness that will bring out the playfulness and lightness I want my products to be associated with.

I also liked hearing from Jason Eding because his field is constantly changing and being attacked. A lot of effort has to go into protecting the company he works for, and a single error can be catastrophic and costly. Everyday, his workers have to be on top of their game in order to keep their customers information safe. He also gave us helpful tips for when we go to interviews, since he is the one who interviews applicants and hires people.

Elizabeth Harla
Friday, November 17, 2017Learn More About Elizabeth

Over the past two weeks during CEO we have met with many business owners who have talked about many different business ideas and ways to run a business. The people that we have met with over the last two weeks are Derek Betz of Fletcher's Kitchen & Tap, Amy Tarr of Midland Institute of Entrepreneurs, Wendy Witte of the Greater St. Louis Community Foundation, and Jason Eding PPM's Director of IT. All four of them brought something different and unique to the table when they talk to us and I think that everything all of them talked about are going to be very helpful going forward with our class business.

When we met with Derek Betz of Fletcher's one of the main points he hit on was  that there are people who are pig committed and chicken committed in the industry. What he means by that is if your pig committed it means you're going to be going after your goal with everything you've got.  If your chicken committed it means that you are committed to the idea but you not necessarily wanting to be as involved as the pig committed person.

When we talked to Amy Tarr of Midland, she told us we have to have the tough conversations because some of the stuff conversations are going to be the ones I get the ball rolling on the project and if you're not willing to do that you may not ever be able to get the project off the ground.  I think that's going to be really important for us during this project because we have to be willing to to be asking each other are you going to do this or you can do that and we need that person to be able to tell us truthfully that they are. Sometimes during this process we may even need to call someone out because we believe that they're not stepping up to the challenge and then we asked them to step it up we're doing it because we want to see them succeed and we want to see the business succeed.

When we talked to Wendy she explained to us how to run another profit and how to register a not-for-profit and that's something we need to look at as we continue this process for the class business.

Finally when we talked to Jason he gave us some very insightful information on how to have a great interview for a job. Some of the tips some of us already knew but other tips were very insightful and new to a lot of us.  One point that Jason brought up while he was talking about how to interview well was that you should act as though you really want the job. I think that for this class business all of us need to act as if we want this to succeed because if even one of us doesn't act like we wanted to or isn't as interested as everyone else it may not succeed like we wanted to. That also brings us back to being pig committed or chicken committed. If not everyone is pig committed than the class business may not succeed as well as we want it to.

Jake Roche
Friday, November 17, 2017Learn More About Jake

In the past two weeks, we have visited some interesting people. Last week, on Tuesday we met with  Mr. Betz, at Fletchers, on the west end of Belleville. He discussed with us the importance of always knowing every detail of your business and knowing the true definition of profit. What I found interesting about Mr. Betz was that he had started off as a manager for a chain and come as far as owning his own restaurant and even having the possibility of branching off into another location.

Tuesday this week, we met with Wendy White, who handles investor’s contributions to the Belleville CEO program and Thursday, we met with Jason Eding, the Director of IT at Precision Practice Management. He told us the story of how he went from majoring in music in college, to becoming head of IT at PPM. Something Jason really stressed was the importance of education and being able to evolve in whatever environment you’re put into. That really stuck out to me, because many of the speakers we hear from had an odd way of reaching success, many without higher level education. It really put into perspective that success can be achieved with or without college, it is majorly dependent on how hard you are working towards it.

The remaining days we had the past two weeks were class days spent working on the class business. We have finally secured a venue, The Scottish Rite, and come to an agreement on pricing for the night. We also set everyone with a goal of getting at least two sponsors for the event, as it is the most costly event we will have this year, and the class has made it a goal to make our event memorable. Last week, we started reviewing the submissions we’ve had sent to us, and printed out a huge stack of flyers to start advertising for the event in February.  Overall, the past few weeks have been decently successful and made our class put everything into perspective.

Josie Proffitt
Friday, November 17, 2017Learn More About Josie

“Someone has to be pig-committed”, said Derek Betz owner of Fletchers Kitchen. I think the word “pig-committed” stuck with my whole CEO class, because know in our upcoming project we need everyone to be pig-committed. But what does the word pig-committed mean? It means being all into, or giving your all into whatever you are doing. Such as with my CEO class and our project we need every single person to give there all in this project or it will not succeed. Derek Betz talked about how he tried to open of his second location of Fletchers Kitchen and how it did not go well because it was no one who was pig committed but him. He emphasized that the only way you are going to have a successful business is if everyone is pig committed. Derek Betz also talked about successfulness and that everyone goal to be successful is different. He said that successfulness is investing back into your own community’s.

“Be brave” Amy Tarr talked about when you get that gut feeling go for it. So that means whatever you have a good feeling about something do not overthink it. I can really learn from this because I overthink a lot of things and I just need to be brave and go for it sometimes.

A very smart man named Jason Eding, talked about the ability to learn new things is powerful. Which is very true because that is what keeps human beings going every day of our lives. Mr. Eding said that anything is life is not easy. So you have to work for anything you are trying to achieve or get at in life. Because everything is not going to coming at you on a silver spoon.  Jason also talked about how you should prepare for an interview. He said whatever you are interviewing for you should research the company and find out all the details and what the company is about. So when the company asked you questions you have a little bit of a background of the company. He also said that you should write down a list of questions to ask the hiring manager. So the conversation can keep on flowing. Jason said you should always make eye contact and make sure they can hear when you are speaking. These interview tips that Jason talked about with us really helped me because I did not know about a lot of stuff you should do to be prepared for an interview and I will keep remembering them for the rest of my life.

Martrell Robinson
Friday, November 17, 2017Learn More About Martrell

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.

   

Nicholas Lippert
Friday, November 17, 2017Learn More About Nicholas

Despite that last week was a shorter week, a lot of information was covered over the last fourteen days. Not only were the speakers very open to the obstacles they overcame when they found their career path, but the class as a whole had major progress.

Mr. Betz, owner of Fletchers, was extremely vocal about the necessities needed within each entrepreneur for success. He got his two major hit points across by a metaphor; a chicken, can produce an egg for food, and still continue to live. But a pig, will have to die to produce the food needed. Mr. Betz explained that there is always two mindsets when running a business. Being chicken committed, meaning that you will provide for the company, but never risk your own neck for it. But there is also pig committed, which is when you are willing to die/ risk it all for the company that you are running. This really stuck with me since we met with him, as I have come to notice that your commitment to a business can truly make or break it. True success will come with sacrifice.

Furthermore, our class business has began to make more progressive steps. We finally landed firm on our venue, the Scottish Rite. This was a major first task that needed to be accomplished to further pursue the other obstacles. Now that this is completed, we can start advertising, creating tickets, decorating, and much more. I am more than excited for the upcoming event, but I hope that everyone, if not already, becomes “pig” committed to the show for a successful night.

Ian Hass
Friday, November 17, 2017Learn More About Ian

This is week 13 of Belleville CEO and we had two guest speakers and class days. We had Wendy Witte and Jason Eding speak to us about their jobs. First we had Wendy Witte of Greater St. Louis Community Foundation come speak to us. It was very interested because I get to know how the process of getting correct sponsor for our CEO class. She was very interested and I learned a lot from her. She gave us this packet which is really helpful for us because we can determine our food and ticket price and determine the charitable price for it. She had a lot interesting things she talked about and I am glad to have met her.

Then we got to meet with Jason Eding of PPM’s director of IT. He talked about his job and explained the importance of Internet and protecting someone’s record. I did not realized how difficult his job can be because every day he and his team has to make sure the system is updated so that no hackers can break into their system. It was interested because I never knew this is what IT does for a living and I get to hear from Jason Eding what it is like. I liked how he gave us some pointers about applying for a job. He gave us some good pointers we can use to try to get a job in the future which is great. Both he and Wendy Witte gave us some really good information to use later in life.

Last week we meet with Derek Betz of Fletcher’s Kitchen and Tap. He talked about how he worked for a business and decided to own his own business. He also talked about his struggles with previously trying to buy a Fletcher’s 2. I liked how honest he was with owning his business and how it can be very difficult sometimes. He said to us that we can either be a “pig” or a “chicken” in the business industry. It was nice to meet him and see his perspective about business through his success and failure.

Then we got to meet with Amy Tarr of Midland Institute. Amy Tarr is a very interesting person because of how energetic she seems. She is a very cool person and I liked the way she talked. She talked with high confidence and one day I want to have high confidence and talked to people the way she talked to us.

This week we had class days and we decided to have the event a Scottish Rite. So we decided a venue and now we have to work on decorations, catering, and advertisement. We are trying our best so that we cannot let the CEO class down. I believe we can accomplish this goal as a class and be successful.

Emmie Huynh
Friday, November 17, 2017Learn More About Emmie

These past two weeks have really given me insight of how I should look at and approach upon my future. There are so many things I could do and the speakers we have had over the past two weeks have had very interesting things to say.

One of my favorite tips was from Derek Betz, owner of Fletcher’s. His talk about being chicken committed or pig committed was very influential. This was a great time to learn about those terms because during this time they can be applied to our class business. We are probably in the hardest part of our class business right now so being pig committed if very necessary to the outcome we strive for our class business.

I feel as if that if one committee had to be one of the most committed it would be our advertisement. Without advertisement who else would know about our event. We are aiming for 450 people for our highest goal and we are very dependent on getting the word out to achieve that number of people. With them being the most dependent on, investing most into that committee will help our goal become more possible.

I always thought computers and new technology was something it would love to do. Technology is the future and I would like to start a business that would have that as one of the things the business is built on. Our talk with Jason Eding was very helpful because he explained very well how technology is always changing. If I want to have a technology based business I need to stay up to date about the newest pieces of technology that comes out. He had to go back to college because he saw that many jobs opportunities were growing in technology based fields. With all of the resources we have today all I need to do is stay pig committed and I believe that I will find success in whatever job I will be doing.

Cam Wicks
Friday, November 17, 2017Learn More About Cam

During our visit to Fletcher’s Kitchen & Tap, the owner Derek Betz, showed us many aspects of owning a food oriented business such as the one we were visiting. A significant thing that I got out of this visit was the importance of managers. From the words of Mr. Betz, a manager’s job is not to worry about profits, but for something specific. This includes scheduling or maintaining the food inventory. If a manager is not focused on one specific thing, but rather how profitable the business is as a whole, they will not fulfill their role as effectively, and their roles are very crucial in maintaining the business.

Mr. Betz also discussed the commitment and dedication needed when running a business. He described that there are two types: being “pig committed” and “chicken committed.” Being pig committed is being completely committed to a specific business, and someone can’t be pig committed to more than one. Being chicken committed is “safer”, but you are not as involved in the business. I definitely want to be pig committed when it comes to my own business, since I want it to become as successful as possible.

On Thursday, I was able to meet up with my mentor, Josh Dermott, for the first time and we were able to get to know one another more and discuss business ideas. I appreciate the fact that we were already able to come up with a possible business idea and that I was able to get feedback on the class business. Honestly, I was a bit nervous going to meet him, but in the end, I enjoyed our conversation together and was glad that my mentor was someone who seems to really want to support me and my ideas. I hope that I will be able to learn a lot from him, and that we will be able to maintain a good partnership.

Most of this week was spent discussing the class business and working towards finalizing choices and ideas. We were able to choose which venue we wanted to use and got an idea of how we want to decorate our tables. Our advertising seems to be effective, since we have already started to get submissions and I have personally overheard people talk about the talent show within my school. My biggest hope is that it becomes as successful as it can, since it has the potential to.

Kaleb Leatherman
Friday, November 17, 2017Learn More About Kaleb

I'm really glad that we have our venue picked for the class business. As predicted, once we determined this, we are now charging full speed ahead in arranging the different aspects of Belleville's Got Talent. I'm also satisfied with how sponsorship is going. I knew I couldn't think of everything right and wrong to do with arranging the tiers and brochure, and my classmates couldn't be better at helping me improve our ideas. That's one of the great advantages to having 22 different perspectives in this class.

I found Fletcher's to be quite interesting. We had never heard a speaker in the food service industry before, so it was a new and unique perspective for us to hear from. I liked Mr. Betz's philosophy of "pig committed" versus "chicken committed". I liked how he went over how many employees he has on a given night, and hit on how sales are essentially how every business stays afloat.

I really enjoyed Amy Tarr's talk with us. She was easily the most genuine, straightforward speaker we've had. I really liked how she not only hit on talking to us about CEO, but also how we will need to cope with the upcoming changes in our lives, such as  going away to college and being exposed to new environments. She kept her talk informative, somewhat serious, and entertaining for us at the same time.

I didn't know what to expect from a head of a company's IT department, but I was really interested in Jason Eding's talk. I liked how we talked about Bitcoin, which I previously knew next to nothing about. I also liked how he gave good interviewing tips. I would imagine we will probably have to attend the same amount of interviews he did, if not more, before finding a job that applies to your education. He is also one of the many speakers we've had that talked about their college journey and the changes they experienced, highlighting Craig's message in "Life Ain't no Laser Beam".

Jacob Gall
Friday, November 17, 2017Learn More About Jacob