Being in CEO has really changed so much in my everyday life! I realize that because of my professional dress I am respected by adults more and more each day. When I walk down the hallways and see a teacher they greet me with a smile and tell me how sophisticated I look almost every day. It’s really great to see the impact that just dressing nicely can have. I was also able to have a mock interview this week and CEO definitely helped! I used multiple tips that Jerry Bender gave us and used them to my advantage. One of those tips was about speaking and how you shouldn’t stumble on your words and say things such as “um,” “like,” or “stuff” a lot because it’s very noticeable and distracting. Once I went into my interview this week, I was confident in every answer that I gave and didn’t even stutter or use words like that! I was event complimented by my interviewer at the end for not using those words, and about how grown up I was! CEO has such a great impact in my life, and I will draw on different tips and strategies that I learn on the daily.

12/17/2017

When I thought about owning my own business someday, my first thought was that it had to be in a large city to even begin to be successful at all. Then, Jill Shaulis came to talk to our class and my whole perspective changed. She told us her journey and how she made her business  successful when she started it in the small town of 800 people in Pearl City, IL. This really astonished me because I go to Pearl City all the time for various sports events and didn’t really know that there was much of anything there! However, Jill knew that she wanted to start her own quilt shop and made it a goal of her’s. Yellow Creek Quilt Designs became a very successful business and a destination for quilters everywhere! So crazy!

I am not very interested in quilting but I do find them to be very beautiful and I admire the work that quilters must put into making them. A couple things that I took with me from Jill Shaulis is that you must work hard to get to where you are someday. If you want to own a business in a small town you must make it a destination for consumers to want to go there. You also must know how to be independent. I can see that Jill is a very strong lady and didn’t have much support from her husband when she went into her business because he is a farmer. I think that people often give up on their dreams because they don’t have much support, so I strive to not be one of those people. I must learn to be independent and strong just like Jill Shaulis! Learning from her was a great experience!

10/22/2017