Day 3 was opened by the greatest program manager, Janae, and our theme was “Making Moves,” sponsored by the Allstate Foundation.
Our first keynote speaker was Rob Goggins, the CEO of Great Clips. A little background on Great Clips: It was established in 1983 and today has over 1,200 franchisees, $1.6B in sales last year, 35,000 stylists, and is the biggest hair salon franchise in the world.
Rob talked about leadership, as a leader of a big company himself, and he talked about the good, bad, and in between as a leader in the workplace and just in general. The tough parts being: the rate at which things are brought to you, the future is murky, terminating people, and decisions that make winners and losers. And the best parts being: the ability to help people, build/reinforce a great culture, and creating & executing strategies to drive results.
He referenced people that highlight certain elements of leadership. He brought up Martin Luther King Jr. for passion, Elon Musk for integrity and trust, and Bono & Angela Merkel for empathy. “These make great leaders!” As Rob was signing off, he was asked how he described himself, and he said “an optimistic realist!”
After that, campers broke into companies for their first meeting of the day to finalize their details for their business plan, which they will be uploading through FlipGrid. Then, they attended breakout sessions. Today, the theme for the sessions were “Soft Skills” and the sessions were “Emotional Intelligence” with Laura Boyd of Leadership Delta, “Mood Elevator” with Adam Cohen of United Health Group, “Overcoming – Grit & Persistence” with Daniel Shannon of Daniel Shannon Speaks, and “Soft Skills for Success” with Kim Nelson of General Mills Foundation (retired). Each of these sessions was meant for campers to assess themselves and reflect on their experiences and possible experiences.
Students also got the chance to do a virtual campus tour of the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University with Tony Amelse from Admissions and Tyler Johnson, a campus tour guide and a football player for the Johnnies.
Shortly after, companies got together for a short while to work more on their business plans and products/services. Then, we got to hear from our second keynote of the day, Jesse Ross of the Minneapolis Foundation. He asked campers to think and reflect critically as he asked the following: what is it that you want from your life? What are you willing to start or stop to get it? And, who’s counting on you? Then following that, he began to share a philosophy, The 5 C’s: Be Connected, Communicate, Be Committed, Be Coachable, and Be Consistent. He said that the 5 C’s are what people use to achieve success.
He explained why each one is important and how now more than ever its a serious task to follow these when you have to support yourself and be there for yourself more. And as a common idea and solution that has been shared throughout the session, “Stop hanging around people who don’t give you life. If they don’t support your ideas then what’s the point?” After answered some questions from campers, he asked “What are your special set of skills?” He asked because that should always be your basis for knowing who you are. One tip from Jesse on finding your special set of skills: text 3-4 people and ask them what you’re good at!
Following Ross’ keynote, our student emcee Akshay and Arian did the Oreo Challenge as they encouraged students to do it and take pictures of themselves doing it! The Oreo Challenge involves placing an Oreo on your forehead and using the muscles in your face to move the Oreo from your forehead into your mouth. Then, Janae joined Akshay as they shared camper shoutouts, where campers acknowledge the successes and good things that other campers have done, and gave further instruction to campers about what’s happening next.
Then campers had the chance to ask questions to Ron and his daughter Kamryn Johnson, a 9-year-old who started a lemonade and bracelet stand and donated all the proceeds to Minneapolis communities in need. Ron Johnson described, “It got to a point where we were like ‘wow, this is a lot of money!’ and we’ve made about double since the last couple of articles were published.” Ron also spoke about being African-American and living in a predominately white community.
After, we got a celebrity call in from PaviElle an award-winning vocalist, dancer/choreographer, and director. She spoke about growing up in Rondo and the amazing people and opportunities she was surrounded with. She opened up for Maya Angelou in a Martin Luther King Jr. event when she was ten. She explained the struggles she has faced and the lessons she’s learned.
This was a very bittersweet moment, but thank you to all the campers and CEOs and RBLs and Staff for making this session run as smoothly as possible. And once again a huge thanks to The Allstate Foundation for sponsoring today’s theme which was “Making Moves.”
See you all next year!