By Steven Gordon, Lemonade Day National President

Lemonade Day city directors will be hearing from excellent speakers at our 2018 national conference set for September 29, 2018 at Hotel Sorella in Houston, Texas. Our national staff is in the process of shaping up a full agenda that will include extensive sharing of information, ideas and techniques designed to support Lemonade Day in the goal to engage one million young kids per year in our youth entrepreneurship program by 2023.

I am pleased to report that Joe Daly, a partner with the venerable Gallup organization and a member of our national board of directors, has confirmed that he will be one of our special guest presenters during the City Directors Conference. Joe will share highlights and insights from Born to Build of The Wall Street Journal list of best-selling non-fiction books.  Based on extensive Gallup data, Born to Build — written by Gallup Chairman and CEO Jim Clifton and the principal scientist for Gallup's Builder Initiative, Sangeeta Badal, Ph.D. — is a timely call to action that urges all of us to cultivate the mindset and behaviors of a builder.

I am in the process of reading now, and I encourage you to do so as soon as you can carve out time in your schedule. You will find that your investment in reading this book will be time well spent!

Born to Build offers a step-by-step approach to helping builders — who are more than entrepreneurs —not only to innovate and launch new projects and departments inside their organizations, but also to create winning teams, attract and retain new customers, and enjoy better lives.  The book also includes an online assessment that will help readers to discover their builder talents that will build their future and enable them to change the world in some way.

The book includes:

•        access to the Builder Profile 10 (BP10) assessment, which explains top builder talents

•        an updated BP10 report that outlines which of three builder roles for which each person is best suited (Rainmaker, a Conductor or an Expert)

•        exercises to help each builder on his or her journey

•        access to Gallup’s ongoing research into the science of building

Here is a summary of Gallup’s Four Keys to Building outlined in Born to Build:

Step 1: Creating Self-Awareness

The first step is "know thyself." Being aware of your capabilities, motivations and feelings will lead to psychological clarity and better outcomes.

Step 2: Recognizing Opportunities

Opportunities are all around you. Some are visible. Others are waiting for you to discover them. Digging deep within yourself and into your immediate environment, you will learn how to discover and identify opportunities.

Step 3: Activating on Ideas

Ideas mean nothing without action. By learning how to create minimally viable solutions to the problem you want to solve, how to find your first strategic partner (i.e., your first customer) and how to test-drive your ideas, you can take your first steps with confidence.

Step 4: Building a Team

Successful builders rely on their social networks. They co-create with their customers. They build alliances with their suppliers and investors to reduce uncertainty and bring their ideas to market. Explore how to use a talent-based perspective to create a team that includes a Rainmaker, Conductor and Expert and how to build an extended team that includes stakeholders and partners that are invested in your success.

For more details about Born to Build and Gallup, please visit http://www.gallup.com/builder/225173/born-to-build-book.aspx

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.