HEI week two

The HEI summer program fellows kicked off their second week with a workshop on Social Media orchestrated by guest Paul Kortman, an expert on the subject.  The students learned the benefit of utilizing the many social media networks available online such as twitter, quora, foursquare, yahoo answers, and google plus as a way to test hypotheses related to customer segments, customer problems, and solutions.  Through Paul’s teachings and some experimentation on the web, the HEI group became well-informed on how to apply this information to their personal entrepreneurial ambitions.

Also on Monday, Luciano Hernandez came to the Center for Faithful Leadership to share his story.  As an individual of modest beginnings, Luciano has lived an inspiring, adventurous, and entrepreneurial life, building a great business in the process (Tiger Studio).  His pieces on wisdom on taking risks, not being afraid to try new things, and not necessarily focusing on a financial safety net were great words for the students to take away as new entrepreneurs.

Tuesday was a fantastic experience for the HEI students as they met the well-respected businessman Dick DeVos at Windquest in downtown Grand Rapids.  Dick was wonderfully eloquent in describing his faith calling to business and provided great feedback for the individual ideas of the students.  He is an example of someone who has successfully navigated through the cut-throat business world in such a faithful, admirable way.

After a quick stop for pizza in Grand Rapids, the HEI group traveled to Amway’s world headquarters in Ada, MI.  John Faye, our tour guide who has spent over 35 years at Amway, blew us away with his knowledge on the company’s story, family owners, and facilities.  Getting a peek into the production and manufacturing process of these high-quality products provided an eye-opening, interesting afternoon.

After a long Tuesday, the HEI students were back to working on their projects Wednesday morning and benefitted especially from the help of Seth Getz.  He provided very insightful feedback on the student’s business canvases and really helped strategize their future business direction.

Lunch was spent with Jessica Daly, the founder of the MiPhotoBooth business which has clients for weddings, parties, graduations, celebrations, and beyond.  It was quite useful for the students to be able to learn from a small business success story and someone who was essentially in our position four years ago when she began the photo booth adventure.