Courage and Transformation (Year 2, Week 25)

Imagine this…

You have formed your own company and come up with an idea you think will change the world. Your company needs money to get their idea off the ground. You find a potential investor and pitch your idea to them. There’s a dramatic pause and the investor says… “No.”

If your idea has the potential to change the world; why would an investor say no? Will you continue to use your same pitch and find different investors or will you improve your pitch? How important is learning from your failures?

This week, the heroes discussed 4 key points many investors consider when they hear a pitch.

Point 1: Did the entrepreneur do their homework?

• Did they research their product. Do they know what they are talking about?

Point 2: Character matters

• Do they have passion and integrity?

Point 3: Fit matters

• Am I excited about what this person is doing?

Point 4: Business fundamentals

• Does this entrepreneur know how to use the money I invest to make more money?

This week, the heroes started their Entrepreneurship quest. They completed challenges to name their business, assign company positions, come up with a mission statement and create a business contract. These challenges are preparing the heroes for the Children’s Business Fair where they will be selling their products to the public. This will take place at the The Village in Meridian on Friday May, 24th, something we do every year at Heroes Academy.

While the exhibition will be similar to last year’s exhibition, this year’s quest focuses on working in teams and a set of different entrepreneurial questions and challenges that will require careful thought, problem solving, and determination. Ultimately though, standing in front of a customer and selling them a product requires courage, and acting in courage creates transformation.

Writer’s Workshop

To inspire the heroes to do excellent work in writing this session, Writer’s Workshop is linked more intimately with this session’s Quest. For their first writing challenge, each hero is creating a product pitch they will present to a panel of potential investors. These investors will decide if the investment gives them an opportunity to get their money back, or if it is too risky.

In addition to linking to the quest, each Wednesday the heroes will also have some time to play fun writing games as a group before working on their writing challenges. This week they competed in a Mad Libs Competition. The heroes were split into two teams, who filled out prompts for different Mad Libs. Each team elected one member they thought created the best Mad Lib.

This week’s winner was Paxton!

Badge Islands

This week the heroes were introduced to badge islands as a way to better to see their badge progress in the studio.

Each hero is on a badge island. When a hero completes all of the Core skills badges on a level, their core skills raft become strong enough to move to the next island. What is keeping your raft from being ready to move to the next island? This week, the heroes each checked their badge progress and set a Session Goal that will make their raft stronger. Each hero who meets their session goal will have access to special treats and games at the end of session party.

Town Hall Meeting

Town Hall was busy this week, with several hero proposals.

“During flow phase I hear a few people voice-typing. I think it’s really distracting when people voice-type. I think we should only be able to voice type when we don’t know how to spell a word.”

Result: The heroes passed this proposal with a majority vote.

“I think we should do a quiet challenge, up until 11:00. Last person to talk gets a prize.”

Result: The heroes passed the proposal and have decided to hold this competition next week.

“I think freedom levels should change every week. If you are in nesting and have earned the points for that week you don’t want to stay in nesting you want to move into flying.”

Result: The heroes voted to pitch this change to the guides.

“I think we should get drop everything and read back. I feel like we are just skipping that and I really like it.”

Result: The heroes voted not to add DEAR back to the schedule.

Wrap-up

After two weeks, the heroes are back at it and are highly motivated to reach their goals and earn badges. The studio was very intentional this week, with a few heroes hitting new personal records for points earned and several badges being submitted and earned.