By Steven Gordon, Lemonade Day National President

A thought leader is an individual or firm that is recognized as an authority in a specialized field and whose expertise is sought and often rewarded. The Oxford English Dictionary gives as its first citation for the phrase an 1887 description of Henry Ward Beecher as "one of the great thought-leaders in America." The term had earlier (1876) been applied to Ralph Waldo Emerson, who was said to manifest "the wizard power of a thought leader."

In a 1990 article in The Wall Street Journal Marketing section, Patrick Reilly used the term "thought leader publications" to refer to such magazines as Harper's.  In the previous decade, the term was revived and reengineered by marketers to emphasize an intangible quality of products and brands.

The term is sometimes used to characterize leaders of service clubs, officers of veterans' organizations, of civic organizations, of women's clubs, lodges, regional officials and insurance executives.

(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_leader)

Ralph Waldo Emerson, hailed as having the Wizard Power of a Thought Leader

Source: Wikipedia/Google Images

Lemonade Day is much more than a day or a season. Lemonade Day is a mindset.  Lemonade Day represents a movement to empower youth to learn business and leadership skills that will serve them for life, teaching very young kids accountability, financial literacy, social responsibility, and interpersonal skills—among many others.

Lemonade Day matters. We are making a difference, one lemonade stand at a time, with a goal of 250,000 stands by 2023. Our national Lemonade Day staff, board of directors, city directors, and city champions all serve as ambassadors and thought leaders for youth entrepreneurship.

I am proud and honored to report that Debbie Nazarian, National Director of Cities, and I have been invited to speak at two events this June on behalf of Lemonade Day. 

Debbie will serve on a panel for the Nonprofits Power Breakfast hosted by the Houston Business Journal on Thursday, June 28, from 7 to 9 a.m. at The Junior League of Houston.  Debbie and the other panelists will discuss successful local and national fundraising and marketing strategies as well as ways non-profits can enlist the best team members—staff, volunteers and sponsors—to support them. Debbie will be in excellent company on this panel, which includes: 

Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale, Owner and Founder, Gallery Furniture

Claudia Aguirre, President and CEO, BakerRipley

Yara El-Sayed, Executive Director, American Heart Association, SouthWest Affiliate

Jamey Rootes, President, Houston Texans Football Team

This panel will be moderated by Giselle Greenwood, Editor-in-Chief of the Houston Business Journal. The event is open to the public. Registration and fees apply.  (For more information, see https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/event/161874/2018/power-breakfast-nonprofits)

I will be speaking the day before, on June 27, at the VITALIZE ALASKA Business Conference, which is being hosted by the Alaska Small Business Development Center (SBDC).  I will be presenting the keynote address during the Youth Entrepreneurship Luncheon about the positive impact of youth entrepreneurship on communities, the results of our program in Alaska and exciting new program developments to come. I will be in the company of Jon Bittner, Executive Director of the Alaska Small Business Development Center; Jim Johnsen, President of the University of Alaska; and other featured speakers that include the founders of Barefoot Winery, the producer of the hit TV show “Shark Tank,” and a New York Times writer, among others. The Lemonade Day Alaska program is presented by the Small Business Development Center. As the National President of Lemonade Day, I am honored to be participating in this event.

More than anything, Debbie and I are honored to have been chosen to share our passion about Lemonade Day and our desire to help young kids to Build the Future and Stir Up Success. We know that Lemonade Day is gaining the recognition it deserves as one of the preeminent youth entrepreneurship organizations in North America.  We have high hopes and ambitious goals. At some point in the future, we fully expect to be speaking in statehouses and on Capitol Hill, before the United Nations, at conferences hosted by The Aspen Institute, and with other prestigious organizations and platforms.

As a program that is only 11 years old, Lemonade Day has accomplished so much. That said, you ain’t seen nothing yet! The best is yet to come!

ABOUT LEMONADE DAY

Founded in Houston in 2007 by Michael and Lisa Holthouse, Lemonade Day is a non-profit organization dedicated to teaching every child across North America the business and financial skills that are the key ingredients of entrepreneurship.  By learning these skills early in life, children will be better prepared to be successful, financially healthy adults.  Through our fun, hands-on program, kids K-5 are empowered to start their very own business—a lemonade stand—and experience the feeling of earning real money, using 100% of their profit to spend, save and share based on their own goals.

Lemonade Day is hosted in 67 territories in North America and is growing. Over the past 11 years, we have served more than 1 million kids in our youth entrepreneur programs. Within the next five years, Lemonade Day leaders estimate that 250,000 mentors and millions more kids will be hosting lemonade stands in North America and on other continents throughout the world.