Mini Titans is a Calgary-based nonprofit that aims to instill the values of hard work, discipline, and honesty into the next generation. Founded on the belief that resilience and discipline are best learned through experience, Mini Titans positions itself as an alternative to traditional classroom learning with a strong emphasis on entrepreneurship and personal responsibility. Joining us today is Mike Mammel, founder of Mini Titans, and Bodie Bragg, director of the program, to discuss why they believe entrepreneurial thinking is missing from education, how their programs work in practice, and what both success and failure look like when kids learn the realities of business.
00:00:00.000Hello, Western Standard viewers. Today we're taking a look at MiniTitans, a Calgary-based
00:00:13.720nonprofit that aims to instill the values of hard work, discipline, and honesty into
00:00:17.360the next generation. Founded on the belief that resilience and discipline are best learned
00:00:21.980through experience, MiniTitans positions itself as an alternative to traditional classroom
00:00:25.980learning with a strong emphasis on entrepreneurship and personal responsibility. Joining us today
00:00:30.360is Mike Mammel, founder of MiniTitans, and Bodie Bragg, director of MiniTitans, to discuss
00:00:34.400why he believed, why they believe entrepreneurial thinking is missing from education, how their
00:00:38.600programs work in practice, and what both success and failure look like when kids learn the realities
00:00:43.340of business. Thanks for joining me, gentlemen. Thank you very much. Thanks for having us. No
00:00:47.780problem. Well, right off the bat, can you guys tell me a little bit of how your program works? I know
00:00:51.940it started in 2022 with you guys doing sort of youth workshops, but now you guys have said that
00:00:55.800you've expanded into schools. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Yeah, absolutely. We
00:00:59.860started with our summer programs, and this was a five-day program where kids came in, learned
00:01:06.700how to plan, learn how to build, produce, and then also the sales aspect of things and the
00:01:13.720marketing aspect of things. And then we combined that, and then at the end, the kids got to sell
00:01:17.700their inventions back to the community and keep the money that they earn, all while also supporting
00:01:22.160a charity of their choice and donating as much money or as little money as they wanted. Okay.
00:01:26.460And you said as well, like traditional schooling was designed, I saw on your website, to create
00:01:29.780efficient employees rather than independent thinkers. So would you say that was kind of the main reason
00:01:34.520behind sort of starting this? And what do you think, how do you think schools are maybe possibly
00:01:38.560failing kids and what they had learned from your guys' program? It's more, they're required to
00:01:44.020deliver a certain curriculum over a certain period of time. So they don't necessarily have the
00:01:50.220flexibility to start getting into things like financial literacy and some of the core values
00:01:56.760that we represent within the existing curriculum. So they're not really failing. They just have a
00:02:01.940lot of ground to cover in a very limited period of time.
00:02:04.700Okay. So how would you guys say that maybe your sort of model of learning would be
00:02:09.080fundamentally different from a classroom model then per se? Because I mean, obviously you guys are
00:02:12.900focusing more on like business and preparing them, I guess you could say maybe more for the real
00:02:16.880world than maybe some classrooms might possibly, if I'm wording that correctly.
00:02:20.840Yeah. So out of the camp program that Mike originally created came a highly participative environment.
00:02:30.400So there's a lot of time spent in the program on conceptualizing a product, building the product,
00:02:42.800learning how to market it, learning how to market it, all that stuff. So it's highly interactive and fast-paced as opposed to, we do have modules where we teach things like sales and marketing and operations and financial literacy, but most of the time the kids spent actually doing something.
00:03:01.140Bus Mike's introduced a whole ton of exercise breaks into the, into the program and games that are physically active.
00:03:11.580Okay. Interesting. And you said as well that the products that the kids were making, they were selling and they get to keep the profits from said products. Can you explain a little bit about how that works?
00:03:20.100Yeah, absolutely. So with the products, they design them all themselves. They, we want them to have full ownership of the whole, the whole gamut. So the planning, the production, the sales and marketing aspect. So
00:03:31.100So it's all of their own inventions that they get together in a group and decide what they're going to do. Um, and that comes from the planning phase.
00:03:38.100And so they've created things like, um, mistletoes to like a full airport with, uh, paper airplanes. And even the little tug, uh, I don't know what it's called, but the, whatever that machine is that pulls the airplane away from the terminal.
00:03:51.100Yeah. Um, it's called a tug and a credit tug. Yeah.
00:03:54.100So even the tug was created out of, out of paper. And so he sold this full model and he made it all into camp. Um, and then we had, uh, the latest invention was sugar scrubs.
00:04:05.100Yeah. And so all of it's all them derived and, um, they, we just enable them to think outside the box and whatever they want to create. And then how do we actually effectuate that?
00:04:16.100So who comes up with, uh, creating those sort of products? Is it the kids or you guys have sort of like a set list of stuff they can choose from, or how does that work exactly?
00:04:23.100So in our camps we have, um, it's all the kids. So whatever they can imagine, whatever they want to create is up to them. Um, in the school though, because we have our little tighter, um, timeframe, we do have a backup list that kids can actually buy.
00:04:39.100So in our camp, nothing is free and we charge the kids, um, real camp dollars, which is a Canadian denomination. So they get used to handing cash back and forth.
00:04:48.100Um, and we have a list for them if they get stuck anywhere.
00:04:52.100Okay. So what's some, the sort of general age of these kids is it's like elementary school kids or what exactly?
00:05:00.100And what do the parents think about this program?
00:05:03.100The, the parents actually love our programs. Most of the time, the parents are having to pull the kids away from our program, pull them away from school.
00:05:10.100Um, and so they're really engaged all of the time and, uh, we even set goals for at home.
00:05:17.100So we tell the parents, um, you know, or we tell the kids, sorry, that in the, in the camp, um, your parents work very hard for you.
00:05:24.100They love you very much. And so what are you going to do? How are you going to help out at home?
00:05:28.100What goals are you going to set? Are you going to maybe walk the dog without be asking, are you gonna clean your room?
00:05:32.100Are you gonna, so then there's tangible stuff that we pay them for in the camp to help bolster their, their experience in the camp as well.
00:05:38.100Okay. And I was looking on your website as well. You guys talked about, um, failure being sort of a central role in the philosophy.
00:05:45.100Obviously like, you know, obviously we know like in business failure plays a big role.
00:05:49.100Could you maybe talk about how you guys deal with that, especially when dealing with children?
00:05:52.100Because as we all know, children don't really take failure the best way.
00:05:56.100Well, if like anybody, if you're left failing with no recourse, no support, no recourse, um, it can be very daunting and very upsetting, but within the program, they have the support of their own group.
00:06:09.100They have the support of the two instructors or one instructor, depending on the program, um, in order to work through it and failure becomes an essential part of not only being an adult, but very much part of being an entrepreneur.
00:06:22.100If you can't overcome failure, you won't survive as an entrepreneur.
00:07:14.100Um, so they had to pivot and pivoting is a very important part of, of business obviously.
00:07:18.100And, um, we teach as part of the program so the kids can understand the importance of pivoting and how, um, a negative occurrence in business isn't, um, an opportunity just to give up.
00:07:43.100And I was talking, I was reading as well.
00:07:45.100Um, the, uh, program also emphasizes things like honesty and discipline, but how exactly do you teach that sort of in practice to kids instead of just in theory?
00:07:53.100So our, our camp philosophy obviously is built on the soft skills that go into building a good entrepreneur.
00:07:58.100So how we reward it is day one, we tell the kids, these are all of the things that we pay you for.
00:08:03.100We pay you for honesty, discipline, resilience, focus, work ethic.
00:08:05.100And so anytime that these soft skills come up in general interaction, we give them TASH, um, camp cash, which then they can use to enhance their experience.
00:08:15.100So for instance, on day one, the kids will electively put themselves into debt through bidding on toys.
00:08:20.100And then we teach them about bad consumer debt.
00:08:22.100So every day they don't pay off their debt.
00:08:23.100We charge them 20% interest and, uh, that's very realistic.
00:08:28.100And, and, and we increase the money that we give them.
00:08:32.100Um, well we, so we have a store where they can buy extra stuff to work on their products.
00:08:40.100So at the end of day one and the end of day two, they can give us a list of items that they need to build what they want to build.
00:09:17.100And speaking of that, I was going to say that maybe some people might argue that a entrepreneurial program like this might put too much pressure on kids.
00:09:25.100Maybe would you guys think that would be like just a fair criticism or no?
00:09:28.100I don't think that they're at the, like we, we admit kids from seven to 17, but generally the sweet spot is about grade six to grade nine.
00:09:59.100Um, and we have to kind of rein in the competitiveness cause we don't want disappointment at the end, but generally they see it's arranged.
00:10:17.100And I mean, kids are known for the resiliency.
00:10:18.100Um, and it's how do you, the most important thing we teach is that how do you pivot from those, those failures and those, those aspects, which is a skill that kids normally have.
00:10:27.100I mean, how many times did you fall over when you were learning how to walk?
00:10:48.100So we are expanding into the Catholic school board at the moment.
00:10:51.100So we were in St. Benedict, um, last week and with great success, the kids actually, um, earned just under a thousand dollars for 28 kids and then donated about $335 back to.
00:11:03.100Um, the special needs program in their school.
00:12:40.100Well, I guess looking ahead, what would you guys say success looks like for this program for, I don't know, five, 10 years from now, if you guys plan on doing it that long or what's the plan going forward?
00:13:21.100Uh, because, because of the nature of the program, the instructors that we want have some training background, ideally, but more, most importantly have an entrepreneurial background.
00:13:33.100Because when you're teaching or training, the stories you tell have as much impact as the curriculum that you're delivering.
00:13:41.100Um, so if you're actually an entrepreneur, it's easier to, to have stories about where you failed or where you had success or what challenges you faced.
00:13:51.100Um, if you've actually been an entrepreneur.
00:13:53.100Well, I was going to ask you, like, do you approach people to do this or do they come to you?
00:13:57.100Because I mean, obviously being an entrepreneur is one thing, but being an entrepreneur and trying to teach that to kids is another thing.
00:14:02.100So how would, what would, how would you say you go about that?
00:14:40.100I was going to say as well, do you guys maybe have any plans of expanding to other school boards apart from just the Catholic one, or like maybe just not even just Calgary, like maybe surrounding areas like Airdrie, Cochran, et cetera, depending on how this goes.
00:15:13.100So that brings up the other challenge that I forgot was we have to physical facility to do the, deliver the program.
00:15:19.100So when we do schools, obviously we have to school, uh, when we do camps, then we're, um, community centers, um, unoccupied school buildings in the summer, things like that.
00:15:32.100Um, but that's always a challenge as the program grows, we need more and more space to deliver it in.
00:15:40.100And, um, well, basically that was kind of what I had for you guys.
00:15:43.100Do you guys want to add anything else or talk into anything else that we can cut in or, um, the big goal, I guess we're done with the big goal.
00:15:50.100So is that we have both evening and weekend programs or day camps running, and then also a school providing this regular education.
00:15:58.100Uh, we believe in it so much that, um, I think regular, um, cause entrepreneurship is just about building good habits.
00:16:19.100One other thing you might want to add in, if you feel it has merit is, um, when you ask you, when you ask a child, what do they want to grow up to be?