Week 2 -- Concept Validation / Market Research

Skills Focus This Week:  

• Create a Market Research Plan to Test Your Ideas
• Implement Design-Thinking, User Focus
• Conduct Basic Primary and Secondary Market Research
• Develop, Test, and Refine Hypotheses
• Pitch Your Ideas in an Effective, Efficient Way

Challenge:   Take your best 1-3 ideas from your notebooks, and create a basic market-testing / idea-validation plan (qualitative and quantitative) to gather data and test your ideas.  Report your findings to the group.  

Joseph:  Electronic bot manufacturing for game Agar.io  (test idea with Facebook page, peer surveys, and fan surveys)

Ethan:  Website focused on stencil art.  (test idea with Facebook page, meeting with school’s art teachers, survey friends)

Erica:  Art-focused website (Facebook page, blog, survey friends)

Thomas:  Videogame centered on the Book of Mormon story, JRPG style.  (create a thumbnail for indie game sites, post on church youth sites, count clicks)

Jackson:  writing website for teens with writing prompts and contests

(get test blog up and running with test prompts, interview English, drive traffic and get feedback)

Sean:  Chocolate balls filled with candy

(survey 20 people re details of the proposed ball and contents)

Daniel:  

Ted:  

Summary of Pillars Perspective:  

Culture is a place where people can thrive.  Whether it is in a family, business, society, or even a nation.  This week’s Pillars discussion started with the question: A culture is successful when people are allowed to do what?

These were some of the answers; when people are productive, feel accomplished, feel happy, freedom of ideas, where people can play, have goals, a place where the individual is valued, a focus on individual needs.  
We watched Jacob Barnett, Ted Teen talk, “Forget What You Know,” which talks about how the greatest geniuses are only individuals who look at the world in a new perspective.  They are individuals who have discovered a passion or talent within themselves and thus the world gets to see their genius.  

Our project was called, “starting to think!”  The students looked at the power of the individual to discover greatness starting with themselves.  Questions they answered were: What do I want to do with my life? What are some of my passions? How do I think bigger about what my entrepreneur project can be? How do I take my passion, and gifts and talents and apply them to my entrepreneur project to make it better?

Skills Focus Discussion Material:  

Market Research Basics

How to Validate a Business Idea Spending Minimal Time & Money

https://youtu.be/VouIAoGGm6E

(MVP = Minimum Viable Product.  Get it out there!)

How to validate a business idea with Sean Malarkey (5 min)

https://youtu.be/vywgcbAYHlc

(Examples of market testing.)

Brian McCarthy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz9ACcr3mFE

(Brian is a bit stiff, but he provides a great starting point.)

Elevator Pitching

6 Elevator Pitches for the 21st Century  (5 min)

Daniel Pink
http://youtu.be/XvxtC60V6kc

USU Contest winner / coffee cup ads plan  (2 min)  
http://youtu.be/i6O98o2FRHw

Activities:  

• Explore simple online sources of market data (like Amazon reviews).
• Pitch your best ideas to the class, and develop.
• Break into small groups and work together on basic market-research tailored to your offering.

Guest / Field Trip:  

Andrew Clayson.  Started Awqua Events, which does full-service corporate and private event planning.  Andrew walked our young entrepreneurs through an example of a detailed business planning process around his 12/15 Star Wars flash mob, which included an original score:  https://youtu.be/NrkFBIpaGTA

Trimester 3 Begins! Week 1. Eye of the Entrepreneur

Skills Focus this Week:  

• Ideation
• Brainstorming / Brainwriting
• Experimenting
• Design Thinking (end-user empathy)
• Creating Idea Groups and Space

Challenges:   Open the eyes and ears of the entrepreneur (training our minds to watch and listen continually for ideas opportunities). Fill your notebooks with as many ideas as you can, starting with at least 50 this week.

Summary of Pillars Perspective Discussions:   Culture is a key part of a business, and all businesses try to create a culture where their employees can thrive and consumers will choose them over their competitors to buy.  We examined several of our students' favorite businesses (Google, In-n-Out, etc.) starting with an examination of their mission statements.  Then we considered whether those businesses stay true to the mission statements. Also examined: What are some innovative steps the company takes to stay ahead of competition?  How does the business operate?  How do they resolve conflicts How does the culture create a more productive team?

Skills Focus Discussion Material:  Students lead these discussions at QLP.

How to Find Business Ideas - The Ultimate Guide  (4 min)

Epicster

https://youtu.be/cIsA1s9SwEU

(“Build your idea muscle like a bodybuilder builds his muscles.”)

Where Good Ideas Come From  (4 min)

Steven Johnson

https://youtu.be/NugRZGDbPFU

(What are your environments that lead to creativity and innovation?  “Chance favors the connected mind.”)

Brainwriting (Instead of Brainstorming)  (4 min)

Leigh Thompson, Northwestern Kellogg School

http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/news_articles/2014/06262014-video-thompson-brainwriting.aspx

(Virtual bowties, giraffe disco, unicycle built for two)

Design Thinking Plus Agile  (6 min)

IBM Think Academy

https://youtu.be/pXtN4y3O35M

(“Put your end user first.”)

Activities 

• Brainstorm / Brainwrite:  as many ideas as possible around four common items from your backpacks.  
• Design Thinking:  Build a better backpack / book bag.  Deep focus on user empathy and experience.  
• Create a space where ideas, within the subject you’re interested in, can emerge.  
• Go to a place where you can generate a lot of ideas fast (dollar store, Walmart, etc.).

Guest / Trip:  We visited a Dollar Store as a class, an excellent place for cheap, easy idea generating across many categories.

Congrats / Call Outs

Many of our QLP students passed the 100 mark for ideas in their notebooks!

Rebekah, our first AISU student, was admitted to USU this week!

Here is our course plan visual map for the trimester:

Week 9 -- Continuous Improvement w/ Systems Thinking

Skills:

Every business or nonprofit movement requires continuous assessment by its team to grow in the right direction.  At the heart of this assessment is a "systems" view, understanding that no one part of anything can be viewed in isolation from its broader system.  

We discussed principles from the following video presentations:

Eric Berlow:  Simplifying Complexity
(3.5 min video on systems analysis from ecologist’s perspective)

A Systems Story
(4 min.  really great video.)

Tom Wujek:  Got a Wicked Problem?  First Tell Me How You Draw Toast
(excellent activity in systems thinking and collaborative visualization)

We then explored systems analysis using Tom Wujek's Draw Toast Activities, starting with drawing the process for making toast.  Here is the classes favorite picture, Jin's alternative #2, in which a mother gives birth to a baby and simply names her/him "Toast."  

Each Student approached the step-by-step analysis differently.  We could see how each person's unique approach to this process contributed different elements that could be used in creating a comprehensive, better collaborative process.  We tried this with another process dear to the hearts of our Students:  "how should parents assign chores to their children?"

The Students started by mapping this process individually, and then breaking out into teams of four to collaborate on a group design.  One unique team proposal included a "level-up" approach from video gaming in which the children choose to take on a more challenging set of chores for a reward.  (Parents, take note.)

Thomas took on the tool of collaborative visualization in exploring possible flavors for his cactus juice.  He and a group of students wrote out their best ideas on colored cards and then used clustering and laddering to arrange the best ideas and come up with news ones. 

Guest:

Rob Brunt of Blueline Services.  

Like our Students, Rob jumped into entrepreneurship in high school. He joined DECA and took his marketing presentation to wins at the state and regional championships.  

Rob's training included joint degrees in marketing and Russian at the U of U, an MBA from Thunderbird, time in DC developing foreign-sourcing proposals for the Senate Energy Committee, and work overseas.  
  
After interviewing with global finance firms in New York, Rob realized that his heart was in striking his own path as an entrepreneur.  Instead of taking the traditional track with an established firm, he moved his family to Minnesota to work closely with an investor who helped him launch Blueline.  Rob has since started other businesses and plans to continue doing more.  

Rob continually asks himself, "how can I leverage technology to make something easier?"  He sees answers to this question everywhere, and laments, "there are so many cool ways to make money with new ideas, but so little time."

He challenged our Students to continually ask the key question in considering their businesses and nonprofits:  "is your idea sustainable."  He also encouraged them never to fear making mistakes.  Making mistakes is simply part of the necessary process required to get an idea to market.  

Soapbox:  

Parents, please watch the Systems Story video.  It is short, only 4 minutes long.  You'll love it.  It applies systems thinking to relationships and family life.  

Challenge:  

The challenge this week is to apply methods of systems thinking and collaborative visualization to any aspect of your business.  These tools have powerful application.  

Call Outs:  

Thomas brought in his latest cactus juice recipe to class for taste testing and public feedback.  Everyone loved it, and nobody died.  Great application of basic marketing research principles, Thomas!

Next Week:  

We will study leadership next week and prepare to launch our business / nonprofit offerings.  Next Saturday, Nov. 14, is the Utah Junior Entrepreneurs Fair.  Be there early to set up.  The fair is open to the public from 9:00 - 11:30 a.m.  Please come and support our Students.  

Representatives from the University of Utah's Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute will be at the fair to review our Student's work.   

Week 8 -- Sell

Pillars:

(Coming soon.  David.)

Skills:

We pulled key sales principles (discussion led by the Students) from the following video presentations:  

Jeffery Gitomer's

The Two Most Important Words In Sales

Sales Training - Closing the sale -- the definitive answers you won't like.

Dr. Robert Cialdini and Steve Martin: Science of persuasion

(this is an excellent video on ethical ways to persuade and build commitment)

Then we studied application of these principles while watching Grant Cardone handle two actual live sales calls.  

Key points from the discussion: 

• The first sell is always "you" because either you have established credibility or you haven't.
• Build trust by carrying a positive presence, knowing the customer, knowing the product, and preparing for the sale. 
• Sales are "earned," not "closed."
• Listen well. 
• Asking questions engages people.
• Only promise what you are willing to deliver. 
• Resolve concerns head on -- don't cover them up.
• Lead with small commitments before going big. 
• Make a personal connection and follow up with a personal touch, like a gift.
• Show the reasons why the offering will help the customer.  
• Cement the commitment by asking, "is there any reason you'd change your mind?"
• Ask for other contacts and referrals.  

Guest:

Jeff Kirkham, serial inventor and entrepreneur. 

Jeff has logged 28 years of military service.  He spent his career primarily in the Army Special Forces, serving in various location in the middle east, including Iraq.  

After retiring from military service, Jeff began inventing and building businesses around his inventions.  He currently holds nine patents.  

His inventions that interested our Students the most were his Ready man cards, credit-card size tools for emergency situations.  (He gave us samples of these.)  And his RATS tourniquet.

To generate new ideas, Jeff advised our young entrepreneurs, "walk around Toys R Us."  "That place is full of ideas," he explained.  

Jeff advised us to watch for opportunity amidst change.  He explained that the Internet is quickly transforming the old factory/dealership/distributor/retailer model of business.  He showed us a small package he had recently received directly from the factory in China (after ordering on the Wish app) and asked us to consider how this new exchange model would impact business and create new opportunity.  

Jeff encouraged us to be willing to "fail faster," experimenting with the market.  "Get rid of your ego, and be willing to learn from your mistakes."  He told the story of his experimenting with social-media marketing by trying to sell coffee to a certain market segment.  The experiment was astonishingly successful, and his coffee company is struggling to keep up with orders.  From the experiment, Jeff's team learned that Facebook can be an unprecedented marketing tool with its data analytics, and that its easy to sell humor, a point several Students took to heart.   

Challenge:  

Get out and sell!  Take pre-orders if your product or service offering is not ready.  

Week 7 -- Online Marketing & Social Media

Pillars:

(Coming soon.  David.)

Skills:

Alexis Ohanian of Reddit, “How to make a splash in social media”
Seth Godin, “How to get your ideas to spread”

After watching the following video presentations, our Students led a great discussion around these points: 

• The Internet provides a level playing field for anyone with great idea. 
• The greatest advantage of Internet marketing is that it costs virtually nothing. 
• The disadvantage is that the marketer may have to give up some control over the direction and outcome of the business or movement.  
• The key to getting noticed in the Information Age is to create something remarkable (the purple cow example).  That's what ultimately gets noticed, build, sold, and moved. 
• Taking the traditional "safe" road in marketing can be the most dangerous path of all. 
• Find the people with Otaku, the early adopters who really car about the product or idea you are selling, and they will do the marketing for you.

Guest:

Kelly Cassady, owner of Letter 23, a ad/marketing agency.  (Check out Kelly's print ads in his sample portfolio -- very funny.)

Kelly shared 5 rules to pursuing our marketing plans:

1. Know your goals.
2. Know your audience (customer and competitors).  
3. Be creative (purple-cow principle). 
4. Be consistent.  
5. Repeat often.  

He also helped our crew generate ideas for cheap web development.  

Challenge:  

Get your business online.  Website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (even if it is just to show your future customers what you’re up to on a blog).  Explore simple website building tools.  

Week 6 -- Marketing Imagery Set

(We had a shortened week due to the UEA convention.)

Pillars:

What is the difference between money and currency? This week in Pillars we started with this question.  Currency is built upon consumer confidence. It is a medium of exchange, it is portable, fungible, durable and divisible.  Money is all these things as well but stores its value over long period of time.

We then looked at historically every fiat currency has led to overspending by its government, and how for the first time every nation on earth is practicing the use of fiat currency.  History shows that this will open up a great transfer of wealth, and for the young entrepreneur to constantly look for ways to navigate this transfer.

We also examined other economic principles: inflation, deflation, Keynesian economics, and quantitative easing, considering their operation in ancient world economies, and then to discover a deeper thread to help these definitions applicable to the students on their journey of entrepreneurs.  

Skills:

Keeping Promises.  We watched and discussed Alex Sheen’s presentation, “What All Great Superheroes have in Common.”  Alex makes some powerful observations:

• The “superhero ability” is the ability to make and keep a promise.
• In every superhero story (Spiderman, Superman, Batman, etc.) the will to make a superhero promise comes from some extraordinary challenge or difficulty.
• It's not our ability that makes or breaks us (villains have ability too), rather, it is the commitment to do good.

The Students had a great discussion around these points. For example, Will made the point, “if you keep a promise will gain a reputation that you’re trustworthy.”

Soapbox:

"Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage."

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Week 5 -- Marketing Plan

Pillars:  

We studied the economics of medieval feudalism and how monarchs were in complete control of the economy, owning all the land leasing to whomever they pleased.  Feudalism was introduced into England in 1066 and lasted for hundreds of years changing little over time. 

We then studied how economics was turned upside down with the emergence of Adam Smith, who introduced a free market system in his book the Wealth of Nations, which opened a door for entrepreneurs.  The book, first published in 1776, and was adopted by the new nation in America, changing economics forever. 

Lastly we looked at how the free-enterprise system has created wealth for the betterment of society and how the standard of living has risen significantly, because of the entrepreneur.  We looked at the example of the life of Manoj Bhargava the founder and CEO of 5-Hour Energy drink, who has invested billions of dollars to find free energy, to find the answer to water shortages and to find better health for people.  Entrepreneurs can bless the lives of society because they have been trained to see differently and have a mentality that anything is possible. 

Skills: 

This week our Entrepreneurs are formulating their marketing plans.  To launch this segment, we watched some videos on the how-to theme, including Reg Gupton's on the "3 Ms of Marketing."  Our Entrepreneurs appreciated the simplicity of his approach, and we used it to create a model to work from, which is in summary:

• Market:  identify your ideal customer, considering specific demographic, psychographic, and geographic characteristics.  Also analyze your competition and key differentiating elements.
• Media:  identify at least four different marketing channels you will implement.  Remember that everyone has some type of face-to-face marketing opportunity, which is the most effective alternative.  Consider phone calls, events, email, websites, social media, etc.  Create a strategy with specific actions and goal dates.
• Message:  What is the overall message you are using to connect with your ideal customer?  How can you harness the power of a slogan, imagery, and emotion to connect with your ideal customer and his/her "tribe"?

Our Entrepreneurs also discussed ideas presented by Seth Godin, in his classic presentation, "The Tribes We Lead."  We learned several important principles: 

• Take a piece of the status quo and break through it. 
• Leadership is finding "disconnected people who have a yearning."
• In marketing a product or a movement, "you don't need everyone, you just need a few."  Some of our Entrepreneurs' own ideas on Tribes included these:
• "People really want to be a part of something."  Thomas
• "Don't waste your time trying to force your product or service, just find a group that connects with it."  Charles
• "You don't need to start a tribe -- just find one to tap into."  Jackson

We explored how well-funded marketers combine the elements of an effective message, when emotion, visual elements, and slogans are combined in a powerful and memorable way.  Our examples included a McDonald's "Love" ad aired during the Superbowl, (for contrast) Burger King's funny "Eat Like Snake" ad, and Nike's 25th anniversary "Just Do It" ad.  

Guest:  Nick White, Founder and CEO of Epic Marketing

Marketing genius Nick White, founder and CEO of Epic Marketing paid a visit.  Nick's entrepreneurial journey started early in life.  In third grade, he began selling paper throwing stars to his friends for $.25 each.  Using low-cost materials (paper) and his own labor, he realized that he could make his own money.  While still in elementary school, he then moved on to selling candy.  He had his parents load up on blowpops and other popular items at Costco, and then he sold them to students out of his backpack.  He earned enough money doing this to take his family to Knotts Berry Farm.  

As a young father, Nick expanded on the sales and marketing talents he had been developing as a boy.  He reached top-performing positions on sales teams at RC Willey and later at KUTV Channel 2.  But at both places, Nick felt a burning sense that he had something greater to offer.  He left KUTV determined to succeed on his own.  Ten years ago he started Epic, which now employs around 20 people and carries a distinguished client list.  

Nick walked our Entrepreneurs through two real case studies in a before-vs-after format to help them understand effective messaging, connecting visuals, emotion, and slogans in effective print media.  

In addition to some great lessons on grit, hard work, passion, and planning, Nick left our Entrepreneurs with paper throwing stars, which he made by hand!

Soapbox:  (Note to Parents)  Do you believe it is good to make mistakes?  We sure do.  We want our Entrepreneurs to make mistakes early and often.  In QLP, we are working to create a "flight simulator" where our learners' mistakes come at a relatively low cost and where we have lots of opportunity to reflect upon and learn from them.  Please encourage your children to have courage, to experiment, and help them learn from events that don't go the way they want.