A Las Vegas businessman is teaching kids that lemonade stands can be the start of something bigger.
Brandon Ward, owner of WE Mentality, a leadership, professional development and team training consulting firm, has mentored middle- and high schoolers for nearly a decade. His latest initiative shows local youths how to monetize and leverage their ideas, creativity and skills.
“In the end, it’s about teaching them confidence,” said Ward, a father of four. “Giving them the ability to be able to understand who they are.”
The program, the Lemonade Stand Business Plan, started over a year ago as a workbook sold online. It has since grown into a digital platform — which Ward said he built using Emergent, an AI tool for creating apps and websites — plus workshops and programming in schools, summer camps and the Girl Scouts of Southern Nevada.
The lesson goes beyond lemonade: customer service, timeliness, professionalism and conflict resolution — skills Ward said kids can carry straight into their future jobs.
“These are all things that I feel like people need to be trained and developed upon, and that’s what I built my program around,” he said. “So there’s a lot of tools that I utilize within our programming through personality assessments. I also teach them responsible artificial intelligence usage.”
The platform teaches kids entrepreneurship, using the imagery of the classic kids’ “lemonade stand.” While some of the children he has worked with have actually created a lemonade stand as a result, Ward said others have built their business on selling cookies, bracelets, custom phone cases and more.
The program is not only for the “kid who is creative, but also the child who can’t think creatively” but has other skills to offer, said Ward, who suggested the program’s target audience as kids ages 10 to 16.
“Every kid is different,” he said. “There’s some kids who can cook. There’s some kids who can draw. So the main thing is just teaching people, how do I leverage that?”
Participants in the program do personality assessments to identify their strengths and weaknesses, and how to formulate a plan. They gain a deeper understanding of themselves, Ward said, like whether they excel at research or technology but not sales or communication.
Ultimately, he said, kids become more creative and more confident.
“The kids love the program because when they go into it, they don’t know what to expect,” he said. “They think that they’re going to go in and just build a lemonade stand, but they learn so much about themselves.”
Ward pointed to his frustration with people who study one thing but end up working in another, attributing that outcome to a lack of identifying one’s skill sets and personality type early on, so they can start off “in the right direction.”
The Lemonade Stand Business Plan is also an alternative for kids who may not be successful in school, he said, but have leadership skills or others that could be honed.
“Not every child is going to be good in school,” Ward said. “Not every child is going to be good in social settings. Not every child is creative. So I think that you have to teach these kids this now, so they can make the right decisions for their future.
“I think that once they understand who they are, I think they know what environments they can thrive in and I think they know what environments (are) going to challenge them,” he said. “And I think that that decision right there helps kids make the right decisions in life. And I just feel like it’s just best for you to know.”
Over the summer, WE Mentality partnered with the Urban Chamber of Commerce to host a Youth CEO camp that culminated in a business pitch competition.
Ward, a member of the chamber, and his team taught participants, largely ages 12 to 17, about marketing, finding one’s audience, sales, product development and presentation, said Jenn Cruse, member experience and community relations manager at the Urban Chamber.
The children were also paired up with local business owners and mentors in the community, Cruse said.
“A lot of times we tell kids that you can be anything; you can own this major corporation, but we don’t give any how,” she said. “Kids right now, they have all of the ideas. Like, right now, you can dream to the moon. But the how, and the how to get started and the who to call when you’re stuck — that type of thing was really important because that’s where grownups get stuck. That’s where everybody gets stuck.”
This program is teaching kids to dream and giving them the tools to actually turn those dreams into reality, Cruse said, making sure they know about resources like the Urban Chamber and the Capital Readiness Program and the Small Business Development Center.
“I feel like a lot of times in the traditional school system there’s a lot of theory, but to be able to see the kids put their ideas into action and to develop their model and present it was awesome,” she said.
Participants in the Youth CEO camp were put into teams to develop their ideas. One group created a fragrance line, complete with a brand name, scent development and newly designed packaging, Cruse said.
“The biggest thing that I heard from parents is that they were surprised with the confidence that the kids developed,” she said.
The Lemonade Stand Business Plan already grew significantly in its first year, although there are still many milestones ahead The goal is that the initiative’s work in Nevada ultimately serves as a “pilot,” as it expands from there to other states and even countries
He also envisions a future charter school for entrepreneurship, conferences for kids to attend, certificates and job placement opportunities for them and a franchise model in which Ward could train a team somewhere remote to facilitate the program virtually.
“I realize that our program is going to keep kids engaged,” he said. “And I think that it’s really going to make a difference in the world.”
