As the trade show is coming up, I finally started working on my business. Yesterday I painted half of my pots and finished the rest of them today. Throughout the week I will keep adding extra designs to them and start potting the plants Wednesday. Starting all of this work had a few different effects on me.

First, it helped me realize the connections I had with people that I’ve known my whole life. I was talking to my aunt and mom about about all of the different things I needed to do to get ready for the trade show, and they were so much more helpful than I was expecting. My aunt had what seemed like a million cans of spray paint I could use, and she offered for me to spray all of them in her basement on the cement. My aunt is a painter and that’s where she tests some paints or spray paints what she needs to. My mom offered to help run my booth at the trade show, even though I didn’t ask her to. She said she can try to make time to help, which means a lot because she has a very busy schedule. Both of them also suggested that my cousin help me paint all of my pots since she is very artistic. Thankfully I talked to them about my worries, otherwise I wouldn’t have thought about all of their help.

Secondly, all of the thoughts about my booth and what all I haven’t to do had me awake at 4:30 this morning. At first, I woke up because my cat needed let out, but then I had troubles falling back asleep. I’m not one to normally worry, but it seemed like every time I closed my eyes I thought of something else I needed to do, and it sent me into a panic. Just the other day I felt like I had plenty of time, and now I realize my time is running low. This week will be the week that I take care of everything. My business has to come first, otherwise it will not succeed like I know it can. I’m ready for the trade show to be here so I can stop worrying, but at the same time I need all the extra time I can get!

04/22/2018

One of the main things I picked up throughout this week, and for quite a long time while being in CEO, are job opportunities. Sauk Valley bank talked about their 100 employees, Mrs. Morthland talked about how she came to her position at the Incubator, and Halo is building a new building so they can fit all of their employees. Each company needs people of all levels of education and experience, and you do not need to be a “top-dog” in order to have a job at a company. Each of those businesses that I talked about needs a manager as much as they need a janitor. A customer comes into a business and is not just impressed by customer service, but by also the cleanliness. Sauk Valley bank needs not just ladies to sit at the desk taking care of loans, but also ladies that will step up to pop their popcorn every Friday. Ladies that will take that extra step to make the company stand out, and take their position as a loan officer to make the company look good, even though they don’t run the company. As I’m writing this journal, there is football playing in the background. Coaches, players, managers, water boys, physical therapists. Without one of these positions, a football team would not fully function. Each career has so many job opportunities, and there is so much to get involved in. CEO is preparing us as students to be the managers, or even popcorn employees, of a business, but that does not mean that we degrade those who decide to be the janitors or water boys of our company. Every employee is important; they make the system work. I have a friend at school who always asks me about CEO, and has told me she is jealous that I have a lot of my life figured out. I remind her that I may have a career choice, but that is destined to change, and there are so many jobs out there that I can always change my mind. For students like my friend, being a janitor seems very degrading. While the janitor is not the manager of a company, students need to understand that every job, no matter the pay or education needed, is important.

01/14/2018

Almost every Saturday morning I wake up and go open up a coffee and flower shop on Main Street in Prophetstown. I serve customers and make bouquets of flowers for some of them. I also get the privilege of delivering some flowers to people, and the look on their face is always priceless. It's an experience that I wish everyone could have, and on Wednesday the whole CEO class got a little feeling of what it's like to make someone's day with a couple flowers. When we watched the original Petal it Forward video, I caught myself smiling through the whole thing, and I have a feeling all of you did too. I was very excited for Wednesday, and the experience lived up to the expectation. Being turned down was hard at first, but not everyone knows what to do with flowers being handed to you. By the time people were accepting our gifts and really smiling about it, I had such a warm feeling, and everyone else's stories made my heart melt too. This feeling carried on throughout the rest of the day and everything seemed to go right even if they were going wrong. It also carried on to the board meeting on Friday when I was able to tell the board the story of what we did. I feel that we should try to have this positive attitude every day, especially in the business world. A business and its employees reflects the personality of the owner, and if everyone starts each day with a positive attitude, the atmosphere you create will become more positive. 

10/15/2017