It was a real-life lesson in creating and marketing a new business. Some Bingham High School students partnered with entrepreneurs in the community to compete in something called “Miner Tank,” based on the reality TV show “Shark Tank.”
On this episode of the Supercast, we take you inside Andrea Call’s CTE Business and Marketing class, where four groups of students competed to get financial backing for their business ideas which included “Germ a Phone,” “My Creature Teacher,” “Dock Hero,” and “Demon Time.” Find out which potential business was deemed best and scored some big financial backing.
Audio Transcription
Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. It was a real-life lesson in creating and marketing a new business. Some Bingham High students partnered with entrepreneurs in the community to compete in something called “Miner Tank'' based on the reality TV show “Shark Tank”. On this episode of the Supercast we take you inside Andrea Call’s CTE Business and Marketing class where four groups of students competed to get financial backing for their business ideas, which included “Germ a Phone”, “My Creature Teacher”, “Dock Hero”, and “Demon Time”. Find out which potential business was deemed best and scored some big financial backing.
We're talking now with Andrea Call, the Business and Marketing teacher here at Bingham High School, who has organized “Miner Tank”. Thanks for taking a few minutes.
Andrea Call:
Sure.
Anthony Godfrey:
This was an exciting day in your classroom.
Andrea Call:
It was a big day. Yeah. It was really awesome. All the kids were able to pitch for the Jordan Education Foundation, so it was exciting to see them realize all of their work and be able to have questions from the mentors and the Board. And I was really proud of all of them.
Anthony Godfrey:
What gave you the idea to want to make a “Miner Tank” experience? Because that's going above and beyond, that's a lot of extra work obviously.
Andrea Call:
It has been a lot of work, but I really believe that we learn best in real world opportunities. I was trying really hard to make a business and marketing lab where we could have the opportunity to give students real money and let them really try to start these businesses because when you sit in a classroom, you're really limited on the application piece. But if we can get community partners to come in, that opens the doors for us to have these real world experiences for students. So this is something that, luckily, Mike Haynes from Jordan Education Foundation was like in 100% and helped just really drive this engine.
Anthony Godfrey:
I know this is something that is aligned with what we're trying to accomplish in all of our classes. A level of creativity, real world learning. Kids can tell when an experience isn't authentic. And this is as authentic as it gets, pulling in the community the way that you did. So, congratulations on providing an incredible learning experience. It was awesome to see.
Andrea Call:
Thanks.
Anthony Godfrey:
It's obviously had a huge impact on students as well. Tell me about the impact that you've seen over the years when students get a chance to be creative in an entrepreneur class.
Andrea Call:
Yeah. I think creativity, I think the more opportunities we can give for kids to have choice in their learning and to be creative in the way that they express and demonstrate learning, the more that learning becomes very real and something that they actually remember.
Anthony Godfrey:
Well, this was an emotional experience for every team. Because they're working together, and that's the other aspect of it. This is group work at its finest. And I know that you paired people up intentionally to be sure that they learned from each other and from the experience. So this is really fabulous to see because I think teamwork is something that seems to be missing in our society more and more, so for kids to get this type of experience is really valuable.
Andrea Call:
Yeah. Yeah. And it was also really important to me that they have the opportunity to work with a mentor, because I see so many kids who don't know an adult to put as a reference. They don't know another person to write a letter of recommendation for them. And so the other piece that really matters to me is that now all of these kids know all of these entrepreneurs, and have their email addresses, and can call up someone like Shaun Stevenett, who has been incredibly successful and he knows them well enough to write a letter of recommendation and help them in the future, because that network is really important.
Anthony Godfrey:
So it's not just about how it feels in this class to win and have that investment. You've paved a path forward for them through the connections they create so that they can continue to be successful as an entrepreneur or simply having support from an adult that they didn't have a connection with before.
Andrea Call:
Yeah. That was my hope. That was my hope.
Anthony Godfrey:
Well, congratulations. This is fantastic.
Andrea Call:
Thanks.
Anthony Godfrey:
It's the deep learning that we hope to see everywhere and I'm just thrilled with the work you're doing.
Andrea Call:
Thanks. I appreciate it.
Anthony Godfrey:
We're talking with one of the mentors here who is involved in Shark Tank at Bingham High School. Introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your experience.
Shaun Stevenett:
Oh, man. Okay. Well, I'll give you the short introduction. So Shaun Stevenett and I am originally from Alberta, Canada. I've been here since I was nine years old. And I come from a family of entrepreneurs. My father was always self-employed, his dad was always also self-employed, goes back, and then I just caught that bug when I was 25 years old. So I've had a few different companies and I was invited with Bingham at this entrepreneur class. I didn't know exactly what it was, but as soon as I saw the passion with these students, and what they were doing and learning, real life experiences as far as like what it takes to start a business or even come up with the ideas and whatnot, I got excited and so I was on board as soon as I entered the classroom.
Anthony Godfrey:
What are some of the things that you offer as advice to students and others who want to be an entrepreneur?
Shaun Stevenett:
Oh, man. I think the biggest advice is get your relationships. And if you have strong relationships, and even if you've got a good business idea, there's definitely things you cannot do alone. And one of it is starting a business. So as long as you've got those right relationships, and relationships sometimes go bad, I get it. Especially like if you're best of buddies or best friends or whatnot. But you kind of keep at those relationships until you find the right ones and then you can succeed together.
Anthony Godfrey:
As an entrepreneur of many years, and, like you said, it's a tradition in your family. What do you think of a program like this?
Shaun Stevenett:
I wish they could do this in every school, not just here in Utah, but across the country.
Anthony Godfrey:
What was it about the presentation from these two in the product that made you want to jump on board? You said, I am all in, you were enthusiastic in, in your mentorship with these two. Tell me about what, what made the difference for you?
Shaun Stevenett:
I think the biggest difference was that these girls, I quickly realized that, the first time that I met them, that there was something special about them. I knew that quickly that they were friends and I asked them that. I said, are you guys friends? And they quickly said, yeah, we're best friends. And so that told me everything right there. And not only that, but they had a fine definition as far as like what each of them did as far as like how they were gonna bring their ideas together. So they, they both had their own responsibilities, and I think that was kind of cool to see that they recognized where each other strengths were early on.
Anthony Godfrey:
You're a great supporter of Jordan District. You're a member of the Foundation Board. You also, I know, are involved in a lot of other charitable endeavors. So that's an important part of a business model for you obviously.
Shaun Stevenett:
Gotta give back. So if you're not giving back, I think that you're not gonna be given to. So if you are giving back, whether it's time, money, or even introducing individuals to other relationships to help others, because you might not be as strong in that field, but you've gotta get back. I've seen it over and over again, that by just giving back other things happen in your life. You've heard karma. So karma is a real thing. And then once you catch that bug, or actually take that step, sometimes it's very, very difficult to be able to do that because you know, I did this, I made this, blah, blah, blah. But as soon as you start kind of giving back you wouldn't believe how many more doors open, especially this experience. Right? Like, I wouldn't have been able to, if I didn't give back and I didn't get involved with the Jordan Education, and I wasn't introduced through it to it, I wouldn't have had this awesome experience today.
Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I love that you were here to mentor them. Thank you for everything you do for Jordan, and thanks for being a great example to them. Just your being here shows them the importance of being connected to the community as an entrepreneur and as a businessman. So I really appreciate it.
Shaun Stevenett:
Thank you so much.
Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us when we come back. We are very excited to talk with the winners of “Miner Tank”.
Break:
In Jordan School District, we like to support students in and outside the classroom along with their families. That's where the Jordan Family Education Center comes in, offering support services and a wide variety of classes for students and their families, free of charge. You can take a class called Blues Busters for children feeling sad or worried. Just Breathe is a class that helps students reduce stress. Or how about a class that supports parents in helping their children make and keep good friends. There are also support groups and free counseling, all provided by Jordan School District school psychologists and counselors. To find out how you can benefit from free family support services offered by the Jordan Family Education Center, call 801-565-7442 or visit guidance.jordandistrict.org.
Anthony Godfrey:
We're here at Bingham with the two students who just won “Miner Tank.” I'm going to ask them to introduce themselves and talk about their company and their product.
Rylin:
My name's Rylin.
Mary:
I'm Mary.
Rylin:
And we're the founders of My Creature Teacher.
Mary:
Yeah. So My Creature Teacher is basically this product that we designed that's a little stuffed animal toy that comes with a book and some accessories, and it's designed to help teach children valuable lessons that they can learn through auditory and visual learning.
Mary:
So the one that we started with today for Miner Tank was Bedtime Lion. It's a little stuffed lion that comes with a book that teaches kids the major, most important steps of getting ready for bed to make parents' lives easier.
Rylin:
And make it fun.
Mary:
Yeah. Something that we did with our product that we really like is we put a special effect with it. Bedtime Lion actually has lavender in the stuffing to help your kids fall asleep. Not only with teaching, but showing, and that helps it as well.
Anthony Godfrey:
The Lavender Lion
Both students:
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Anthony Godfrey:
I have trouble going to bed, so I should probably read this book. I think I need this product.
Mary:
We’ll send one your way.
Rylin:
I'm not even joking. I've read the book and I'm like, ‘oh, I guess I’ll brush my teeth now’. I'm like, dental hygiene .
Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. So what gave you the idea to choose the book and the stuffed animal as a product?
Mary:
Yeah, so Rylin and I both work with kids. I come from a really large family, so I have tons of nieces and nephews that I'm constantly babysitting and then Rylin nannies. Yeah. And so we both are just bouncing ideas off of each other, kind of come up with something. And Rylin had the initial idea, and then we just started building on it together. We wanted a toy that just was made, made learning more fun for kids.
Rylin:
Yeah. Especially because when I do, like, when both of us take care of kids and it's time to put 'em to bed, we know how much of a hassle it is. Especially with like the two to five year old, they're like tornadoes and they don't wanna go to bed. All they wanna do is play and play and play. Barbies, dinosaurs, anything you can think of, they wanna play with it. So that's why we created this, to help us go through that bedtime process.
Anthony Godfrey:
And how did the book come together? Who wrote it? Who illustrated? It looks fantastic. I had the chance to look through it.
Rylin:
So I actually wrote it and then, yeah.
Mary:
So then I helped edit it, and then I started the illustration and then Rylin helped vet my process through it. So we just kind of worked together on both of the processes. So that just kind of was both of our child.
Rylin:
Yeah, it really is.
Anthony Godfrey:
So you didn't outsource any of that book?
Mary:
No, no, we did it all.
Anthony Godfrey:
That's fantastic. It looks really good.
Both students:
Oh, thank you.
Anthony Godfrey:
Now tell me about the stuffed animal that accompanies it. How did that come to be? It's a great looking lion.
Rylin:
Oh, thank you. So actually what we did is originally, because we did wanna do these stuffed animals, I have a connection to Minky Couture Blankets. So the way we did it is we took leftover scraps from like blankets that weren't big enough to be made into a blanket anymore. And we took those and pieced them together and we found a pattern just for our original prototype. And Mary sewed it up for us.
Mary:
Yeah. And then I went to my sister, who's just the most amazing seamstress, the most generous, charitable person I know. And I was like, ‘Hey, do you wanna help me out with this? It can be an early Christmas present. Teach me how to sew this.’ And she helped me out. And it was, it took a long time. I mean, it's kind of a complicated little pattern, but I mean, it was so worth it. And it all came together really, really well.
Rylin:
Yeah.
Anthony Godfrey:
Well, they look fantastic and now you have a mentor who is investing in your company. So tell me what's happening next.
Rylin:
Yeah, so we had Shaun, he's literally the best mentor ever. He helped us through so many different things, and so did his brother Mark. He helped us with the name and everything for our company, which, you know, is pretty important to have a name to your product. So next, I mean, we're gonna start producing these, we're gonna get patterns, books, and everything ready so that we can start selling these.
Mary:
I mean, the first step is really just taking it to a larger scale. I mean, we're gonna start looking at graphic design, commissioning our own pattern and that kind of stuff that can really actually start us making a product.
Rylin:
Yeah. So we can actually start selling it.
Anthony Godfrey:
So you're gonna continue to work with Shaun and his brother? And they're investing in the company to get you started off. Are you excited? There's a lot of work ahead.
Mary:
Yeah. I mean, scared and excited, I think.
Rylin:
Scared, scared and excited. Yes. Cuz just these couple weeks or this quarter that we've been doing this has been insanely busy and stressful. And it's all been worth it in the end. And I think that's what's gonna get us through the next part, is we know how this victory felt. So I think it'll be helpful to know that like, if we do all this work, a new victory's coming.
Mary:
Yeah, totally agree.
Anthony Godfrey:
And it's not just the product, it's the process. It's what you've learned along the way. Do you feel like you're thinking in a different way because of approaching this project the way you have?
Mary:
Totally. I mean, I was just telling Miss Call the other day, our teacher, like, even if nothing came out of this, this is before we knew that we won. But even if nothing came out, I was so grateful for this experience because it's taught me so much about being a better, like team player and just thinking about things in a more logistic way and just, I feel like the way I think about things is so much more broadened and so much more logically put than just pure what I wanna do. And then learning to work with Rylin, like could totally be a struggle at times, but then my goodness, also, like, I'm so grateful because now, now I feel like I can work with anyone.
Anthony Godfrey:
Now that you've worked with Rylin, you can work with anyone.
Rylin:
Oh yeah. I'm the worst.
Mary:
No.
Anthony Godfrey:
Well that's a big hurdle to overcome.
Mary:
Yeah. Yeah.
Rylin:
So Shaun introduced us as best friends, and we totally are, but I mean, through parts of this, I mean, one of our documents that we used for this was, ‘I'm pretty sure we wanted to kill each other in this moment.’
Mary:
What it's titled.
Rylin:
Yean, it's what the document's titled, because that's the mood we were in. Like, we were just trying to figure out problems. And I was like, ‘Mary, just listen to me.’ And she's like, ‘just listen to me.’ And then like we, it was definitely a struggle through it all, but I'm so glad that we figured it out in the end.
Mary:
It worked out so good. I'm just so grateful, and I'm so grateful Rylin was my partner. I couldn’t have done it with anyone else.
Rylin:
Yes. Mary is the best partner. Are you kidding?
Anthony Godfrey:
Well, and Mary, I think you're the only student to have a repeat performance on the Supercast, so that's another big win.
Mary:
It’s true. Dogs and lions, kind of the same. Animal themed for sure.
Rylin:
They’re somewhat related.
Anthony Godfrey:
Animals are always involved, yes. You mentioned your teacher Miss Call. Tell me about her and the class.
Mary:
Oh, I mean, Miss Call is just the bomb. If I am ever having a problem with anything, I just go to Miss Call. I'm like, help me solve this. And then Miss Call, like the really, really kind of amazing thing about her is like, she's so brilliant that she does not have to be a teacher. And she was saying the other day, we were joking, we were like, well, we're just gonna hire Miss Call as our marketing director and then we won't have to do anything. And she just like, completely serious. Like, you couldn't afford me. Which is so true because she is so brilliant. She knows so many things, but she does like teaching because she wants to help us and like she's our DECA, we're both in DECA together and she's our DECA instructor. And I mean, she just goes the extra mile every single day, every single week to just help us become better people. And it's sometimes for no reward, honestly.
Rylin:
And then we also owe a lot of our project to Miss Call. She actually put groups together and all of the other groups are three and four. And she put me and Mary just as a duo and she was like, you guys can do it, right? We were like, yeah. And I think she definitely believed in us more than we did cause we were like, this is a lot.
Mary:
She had to tell us to keep going sometimes.
Rylin:
Oh yeah. Yeah. She was like, you guys need to relax and just like get through this. And we were like, I don't know. But it's pretty stressful. But yeah, she's super helpful with all sorts of different aspects of life.
Mary:
Yeah. The most amazing teacher for sure.
Anthony Godfrey:
Having a teacher that believes in you makes a big difference.
Both Students:
So much. So much. Yeah.
Anthony Godfrey:
So what advice do you have for those who are hearing this and thinking, well, maybe I have an idea and maybe I could become an entrepreneur.
Rylin:
Yeah, for sure. So something I would say is just, you gotta, it's hard to do on your own. You need backup, you need support from other people around you. Because I know if I had to do this all myself, it probably wouldn't be done for the next five years. So I think it was super helpful to have someone that was here to do it with me, with Mary, and Shaun, and Mike, and Anne, and Miss Call. We had so many different people helping us in like the, the most absurd ways. Like, it didn't even have to relate to this, but in so many aspects they were really helpful.
Mary:
I think what I would say is just like, if you have an idea and you think it's worth something and you care enough about it and you have enough passion to do it, just do it. It doesn't really, it's not gonna cost you something to research into something and to see if this is a plausible thing, even if you don't, you know, enter it in some competition or whatever. But I mean, just do, if you care about it that much, go as far as you can.
Rylin:
Yeah. Cuz I think we were told today that one of the reasons that we did win this competition was because of our passion for this product. And I think even though all the other groups, they had amazing ideas and they were passionate about it, we had personal connections to ours, totally through kids. Like my future career I want to do with kids, Mary is with kids literally almost every day. I think since our connection was so personal, it made us have such a strong passion for it.
Mary:
The product mattered so much to us because we were like, this could help us too. This is in our favor.
Rylin:
We're not just gonna design something that doesn't help the people that we care about.
Mary:
Yeah. Exactly.
Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I admire your passion. I admire your bravery, and I admire that you worked so hard on this, and that friendship survived this process.
Rylin:
Yeah. I'm glad too.
Mary:
We didn't kill each other. We're still here.
Anthony Godfrey:
No. Congratulations. And I can't wait to see where it goes.
Both students:
Thank you so much.
Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for joining us on another episode of The Supercast. Remember, education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see you out there.