- This month on The Spark, our theme is "Growing Leaders, Building Skills, Shaping Futures."

We'll learn about an organization developing character, citizenship, confidence, and leadership through experience and service, a nonprofit combining hands-on agriculture with leadership, entrepreneurship, and sustainability, and a company helping people crush their sales goals and love what they do while giving back to the community.

We'll also share a special moment from our Spark Awards 2025.

- From Higginbotham's founding in 1948, our insurance agency has been built on the values of customer service, leading with integrity, and supporting our community.

We believe in promoting the positives, encouraging engagement, and leading by example to power the good.

Higginbotham Insurance and Financial Services is honored to be the presenting sponsor of The Spark.

- (male announcer) Additional funding for The Spark is provided by United Way of the Mid-South, ECOP, the Memphis Zoo, and by the Medical Education and Research Institute.

- Have you ever been excited by a new idea?

Inspired by watching someone lead by example?

When we talk about creating change, we start by sharing the stories of everyday heroes who are making a difference in their own way, so we can learn and do the same.

I'm Jeremy Park, and this is The Spark.

They're an organization developing character, citizenship, confidence, and leadership through experience and service.

We're here with the Scout Executive and CEO, Chickasaw Council, Scouting America, Casey Norwood.

And let's start out, give us some background on Chickasaw Council, Scouting America.

- Well, we are about leadership and we're right now in the middle of our recruitment efforts for the fall.

So not that we don't sign up kids all throughout the year, but we, this is kind of our main push and so we're going in all the elementary schools throughout the Shelby County and the Mississippi Delta all the way down in our 15 counties we serve and in Arkansas.

And so you know, we're signing all the kids up and giving them the experience of a lifetime and adventures of a lifetime.

And that's what, you know, getting kids outdoors, and teaching them to be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent all through the outdoors, kind of tricking them through that through weekly programs.

And so they learn all of that and how to be good citizens and lead other people through just having fun.

- Walk us through some of the different programs.

When you talk about Cub Scouting, scouting, venturing, exploring, there's a lot.

So dive into some of the programmatic pieces.

- Program starts in kindergarten in Cub Scouts.

It goes through fifth grade.

And then somewhere along fifth grade, ten and a half to eleven years old, they transfer over into a Scouts BSA unit.

And then that goes to their 18th birthday or as long as they could stay in until their 18th birthday.

And then we have our Exploring, which is career oriented, which starts at, we have Exploring clubs, which starts in middle school, but then 14 to age 21, so very much career based.

And then we also have our Venturing program, which starts at 14 to the age of 21, which is high adventure mainly.

Those are our main programs.

We have Sea Scouting and some other things, but they all kind of fall under those programs.

- Talk about some of the numbers that put a smile on your face when you talk about the number of youth, the number of adults and volunteers.

What does that look like?

- We serve over 5,000 youth here in Chickasaw Council each year, and we have over 1,300 volunteers that help us do that, that meet in church basements and city parks.

And the thing that puts a lot of smile on my face are community service hours.

When you see them out doing Scouting for food or helping out clean up a cemetery or something like we did this last year, that's pretty fun to see the kids come out and get the time to experience that in citizenship.

- You mentioned the service hours, touch on the aspect of community service because that is a through line with scouting.

- It is.

One of the things people have probably heard about becoming an Eagle Scout.

And so to use that as an example, it is all about giving back to your community.

So the projects that they plan cannot be for scouting, it has to be for the community, for someone in the community, for an organization other than scouting.

And so thousands of community service hours, I was trying to see, I think last year alone, we had over 10,000 hours of service just through our Eagle Scout projects.

And so we had over 101 Eagle Scouts last year, but it can be anything from park benches and could be... It's very likely that at some park in Memphis, you have sat on a bench that was built by an Eagle Scout at some point in time.

- Talk about some of the initiatives, because when you talk about building, you have a number of projects, especially related to different camps around the Mid-South.

So talk about some of the projects going on right now.

- So we own two camp properties, Camp Currier, which is in Udora outside of Hernando, and then Kia Kima Scout Reservation in Hardy, Arkansas, which is where we do most of our summer camp program.

And so we have units from all across the country that come to our camp over a six-week period.

We had over 1,300 youth this summer and 5 weeks come camp and also 600 adult volunteers.

So that's fast and furious where we have over 90 merit badges they can earn.

And then we have our Camp Currier, which is our weekend camping kind of close to here.

We had over 10,000 nights of camping last year just from our units across our area, and it's free, free of charge for them to go camp.

But we are doing some things, we're finishing up some of our capital projects that we had, but we finished up a Flag Plaza at our new dining hall facility.

So that camp is more and can be used by outside groups as well for training, but we finished up a Flag Plaza, we've got a timber cut, we have to manage be good stewards of our property.

And so we have a timber cut going on right now that's allowing us to put that money back in the camp.

And then we actually have a Pitts Eagle Walk that we're finishing up in the process right now with a few tweaks here and there and some other things we want to do.

We are going to get that started and completed in 2026 and 2027.

So we're excited about that.

- Talk about how the community can support Chickasaw Council, Scouting America.

- Sign up, okay?

Get your kids involved, that's the most important.

And then if you want to make a donation or something like that, we can always go to chickasaw.org and click on the donate button.

But more than anything, hey, there's kids out selling popcorn right now to help fund their adventures for the year.

So buy some popcorn from a scout.

If you want to volunteer to get involved and run a meeting or start a unit in an area that doesn't have it, have one, please contact us here at the office.

You can always contact me at casey.norwood@scouting.org and we'll get you in touch with the right people.

But Memphis and our council in the Delta are so supportive of scouting.

I can't say that we don't always need more.

There's always a need for more, but their community is very supportive.

And so just keep doing what they're doing and reach out.

But buy some popcorn from a scout, how's that?

- Wrap up with website.

Where do we go to learn more and get involved?

- Chickasaw.org.

And then if you want to sign your son or daughter or grandkids up for scouting, go to beascout.org or contact me at casey.norwood@scouting.org and we will get you signed up and get you where you need to be.

- Well, Casey, greatly appreciate all you and your amazing team do to power the good.

Thank you for coming on the show.

- Thank you, Jeremy, appreciate it very much.

[upbeat music] - They're an organization combining hands-on agriculture with leadership, entrepreneurship, and sustainability, we're talking about Urban Roots of Tennessee.

We're here with their agriculture advisor, Dr.

Maddy Hunter.

And let's start out.

Give us some background on Urban Roots of Tennessee.

- Of course.

So Urban Roots of Tennessee is a nonprofit based in Memphis.

Our entire focus is on agriculture education, so teaching students, adults, community members the importance of agriculture in an urban area.

- You have an urban farm, and so talk about the urban farm.

Give us a walkthrough.

- Of course, yeah.

So we have a lot of fun, exciting things currently on the farm and then also projects that are currently in development as well.

So some of the things we currently have is a pollinator garden, a freshwater eco pond, a greenhouse, learning labs, garden beds, an outdoor classroom pavilion, and then we're also currently working on a strawberry farm as well.

- Talk about the strategy around what goes into the planning side for an urban farm.

- So it's definitely a very dense development side of it.

Everything plays into everything, right?

So pollinators, they help us grow the food that we're growing.

So they really are the beginning stage for us, which is why we wanted to make sure that kids could learn about how important pollinators, bees, butterflies are to the environment.

And then with our freshwater eco pond, all of that water is being directed through our irrigation system.

So every time we water our plants, vegetation, anything like that, it's all coming straight from our own water source.

So we're not taking anything from the community, which is a great addition as well.

- And so when you talk about the power of hands-on agriculture, talk about some of the things that the students are learning.

Obviously an appreciation for where food comes from, but it's so much bigger than that.

So walk us through the power of hands-on agriculture.

- So we have two main core focuses, which is stewardship and entrepreneurship.

So sustainability, the environmental studies, agriculture, but also how they can use agriculture to better themselves in a business perspective too.

So we really want to teach students how to make a profit off of agriculture, how that this can turn into a career in the area.

Agriculture is so important in Memphis and something that we really wanna gain attention to.

So giving these students the resources to really create a career out of it, that's our main goal.

- What's been some of the feedback already, some of the obviously joy that you get to experience, but also too, some of the learning lessons that the students have been able to realize?

- The students absolutely adore it.

It's something that they've never witnessed before.

It's something that they don't necessarily get to learn about in their day-to-day classes.

So Urban Roots provides an opportunity for them to see a whole different perspective of the world, whether it's learning about climate change, AI in agriculture, how to create garden beds in your own home, and being able to create produce for your own family.

There's different levels that we go through between the K and eighth grade, so we really get to see them develop through all the years that they're with us.

- Talk about that aspect of what they learn hands-on out in the field, literally, being able to take that into the home, because when you talk about fresh fruits and vegetables and being able to cook them as meals, there is a nice kind of play forward with them and their family.

So talk about what they're taking back into the home.

- So Memphis is considered kind of a food desert, so there's not a lot of fresh produce in the area.

So we're providing the knowledge and the actual tactical skills to learn how to do it on our farm and then bring seedlings home and start things on balconies, hydroponics, things like that.

And then we also give them an opportunity to create a marketplace so where they can physically grow and sell that produce to the community as well.

- Touch on the community revitalization component of this, because I think there is a component where you are helping to build community pride and obviously engagement and community as a sense of this with the students, with the adults, but also with the neighborhood.

So talk about that ripple impact.

- I think it really creates a sense of responsibility among everyone.

When we had our grand opening in August, the amount of people that came out, I mean, the mayor of Memphis came out and gave a speech as well at our grand opening.

So it's really impactful for all people.

It's impactful for community members to see how much care and devotion we're trying to pour back into the community.

And it's also really important for the students as well in teaching them how to be respectful, kind stewards to the city of Memphis.

- How has this already kind of changed your perspective of working with youth, focusing on entrepreneurship, leadership, sustainability?

How has this work already changed you and your perspective?

- It's really made me realize how important these steps are creating from the beginning.

So creating the foundations for the younger generation to understand how important this is for the community and for the environment.

It really starts at a young age.

Like I said, kindergarten, pre-K, we have them out there.

And just them understanding the respect and responsibility it takes to grow something like this, it really changes your perspective about how important this is to the community.

- So how can the community support Urban Roots of Tennessee?

How can we get involved?

- Of course.

So we have volunteer days monthly.

We have multiple workshops that we would love for people to sign up for, donations.

Anytime someone wants to get involved, we're open.

So whoever wants to reach out, we would love to have them on the farm.

- So wrap up with contact information.

Where do we go to learn more and get involved with Urban Roots of Tennessee?

- All right, so you can go to urbanrootstn.org.

- Well Maddy, greatly appreciate all you and your amazing team do to power the good.

Thank you for coming on the show.

- Thank you so much.

[upbeat music] - The Spark Awards annually recognize and celebrate individuals and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to the community.

The 2025 Education Leadership Award went to Dr.

Lewis Reich.

- My name is Lewis Reich, I am the president of Southern College of Optometry.

Southern College of Optometry is a private, not-for-profit institution.

We are approaching 100 years old.

I am the seventh president in all that time, so the presidents of SCO tend to stick around.

We see on average about 300 patients per day in the eye center on Madison Avenue.

A lot of our patients come from our surrounding zip codes and they are not receiving any other kind of eye care, in some cases, any kind of healthcare.

I love being involved in my position, not because I get to be president of SCO, but I get to interact with students who are amongst the brightest in the country.

I used to think I really love to teach and I realized I don't like giving grades, but what I do love is interacting with students on a daily basis.

Second to the students is our 200 employees at Southern College of Optometry.

I get to learn a little bit about them each day, and it's a job that I take very, very seriously because we are one big family.

I also think that SCO has developed even a stronger sense of community.

About a little over 10 years ago, we redefined our mission statement, and our mission statement now includes a service component.

We believe and we believe very strongly in service and service activities.

If somebody goes to Memphis, to Southern College of Optometry to four years, one of the things that they take with them is our culture of service and service learning.

And I think it's really, really important that Southern College of Optometry isn't just a tower on Madison Avenue that lights up pretty colors at night, but we're doing positive work for the community, and I want more people within the city, within the region to understand the impact.

[gentle music] - They help people crush their sales goals and love what they do.

We're here with the founder and CEO and head coach at Skillway, Dew Tinnin, and let's start out, you have a team in Memphis, a team in Nashville, you work with clients all over the nation.

Give us a little background on Skillway.

- Man, I feel like I need to bring my energy to the next level.

Jeremy, thank you so much for having me today.

We have teams all over, we support our clients all over the country.

And one of the things that we have found at Skillway is the more you put into your relationships and the more you love on people, it really can make a difference.

So we spend all our time, Jeremy, in the relationship-based sales space.

We want to know what you're doing, how you're taking care of your customers, and just how you can really improve your sales process to grow that revenue that most organizations want to do.

- You talk a lot about process, and so you help organizations and individuals with the process, but you also have a process of your own.

- That's true.

- Walk us through a little bit of the magic process for Skillway.

- What's very unique about what we do is we want to roll up our sleeves, we want to become part of your team, we're not just an outsource sales training division of you.

We want to roll up our sleeves and truly see what you're doing.

One of the things that we do that most organizations are pretty curious about is we will secret shop your team.

So you don't know what your team is doing, you don't know how your sales process is working, and you don't know what it feels like to be a customer of yours.

So we will call and interview your clients, we will secret shop as a shopper.

We have had people out to our own personal homes, to our businesses to really see what the sales process is like.

And then we put everything together to create a one-year or three-year plan on, here's all of the areas we're going to change and tweak.

This is where we're going to change customer service.

This is how we're going to write talk tracks or scripts or things like that to help your team grow.

And then also this is what we really think we could do to grow that revenue that most people are looking at.

- You recently helped host a workshop, "Building a Repeatable Sales System".

A part of that is you walk through the sales cycle and people, where they need to spend the majority of their time.

Give us a little bit of a takeaway from that event.

- One of the biggest takeaways that we see every single time we talk about the sales process is that a sales process is really seven steps.

However, more than 50% of the whole entire sales process is done during the discovery phase or the needs analysis and asking really effective questions.

When you are thinking about what your team is doing, most oftentimes they go from lead to presentation.

They don't spend any time on asking good or effective questions, and that is really where we have seen the biggest opportunity for growth is to absolutely dive in and ask questions.

You don't know if you're a fit for them, so ask better questions so you can identify whether or not you are.

And so that repeatable system that we're looking at, Jeremy, is wanting to know what are those questions that you are asking that really uncover what somebody should be doing with your customers?

And then how do you ask those questions on repeat with everyone that you're talking to?

- You are a cityCURRENT partner in Memphis and Nashville with us as well.

At each Signature Speaker Sries, you have a chance to get up and give a Skillway business tip.

One of your recent ones was on referrals, and so talk about the power of referrals.

I think this is important for all of us, so give us a little bit of the tip for referrals.

- You're 50% more likely to get a referral from somebody once they know what it feels like to work with you.

So who knows better than anyone what it feels like to work with you is typically your current clients or your referral partners, yet that's where we don't have a strategy for growth and opportunity.

We believe at Skillway that every single company has at least a 10% growth opportunity just by tapping into your current book of business that is just untapped and sitting there.

And so creating a system where you are looking at how can we actually pour into our clients and when do we ask for a referral?

Because if it takes when they know what it feels like to work with us, then what's really important is knowing that this is the time to ask.

But because asking for a referral can sometimes feel like you're asking for the business, people don't want to ask.

So what they do is they're like, "No, they're good, "I'm not calling them.

What if they tell me they're not happy?"

Or something like that versus really leaning into it and saying, "This is our opportunity for finding out how well we are serving our clients and asking for it then."

- Talk about the power of community service.

Talk about why serving in the community, things like Samaritan's Feet shoe distributions, why is that so important to you and your team at Skillway?

- When you think about how you get to give back, being in business, we have an opportunity to help organizations grow and develop their teams, but we talk a lot about, I'm gonna use a term we use at Skillway, which is an income- producing activity.

And an income-producing activity is what helps your company grow or what helps your team grow.

And a lot of people don't understand that team development is an opportunity for that.

And so the more you're spending time in your community or giving back or having more conversations, it's incredible.

But then the other thing that you get from it that you don't even really see is how much your heart is smiling at the end of the day after going through an event like that.

So we are constantly looking for all of the events.

Our shoe distributions is one of our team, we call it a Skillway Team Day, where we're gonna get the whole team out there to participate.

We're all in different areas, we're volunteering for different things, but really, truly being able to participate in that is one of the most rewarding areas that you can ever give back to the community.

So we love it, we pour ourselves into loving on people hard.

- So where can we go to take those first steps to learn more about Skillway, to reach out and connect with you and your team?

Where do we go to get involved with Skillway?

- You can find us anywhere where you can Google SkillWay, S-K-I-L-L-W-A-Y.

You can find us on Instagram and LinkedIn and all of the different channels, but I'll tell you our website is a great place to start.

- Well Dew, thank you for all you and your amazing team do to power the good, thank you for coming on the show.

- You're welcome, thanks, Jeremy.

[upbeat music] - Here in the Mid-South, our future is being shaped every day by organizations and individuals giving young people the opportunity to grow, learn, lead, and discover what they're capable of.

We're fortunate to have organizations like Chickasaw Council, Scouting America that expose thousands of people each year to new experiences, activities, and outdoor adventure to help them develop self-reliance, confidence, character, citizenship, leadership, and personal fitness.

Urban Roots of Tennessee is empowering youth through an urban farm with a hands-on agricultural program, leadership development, and sustainable entrepreneurship.

And Skillway is building practical skills and pathways toward a brighter future by providing local coaching to help people crush their sales goals and love what they do while giving back and serving youth in our community, like through Samaritan's Feet shoe distributions.

Different missions, but one powerful purpose, growing leaders, building skills, shaping futures.

And each of us can be part of that future.

Volunteer your time, share your expertise, mentor a young person, support an organization making a difference, because when we invest in our young people, we're not just changing lives today, we're helping shape a stronger Memphis for tomorrow.

So where will you help power the good and become a spark?

To learn more about each of the guests, to watch past episodes, and to share your stories of others leading by example, visit wkno.org and click on the link for The Spark.

We look forward to seeing you next month, we hope that you'll continue joining us to create a spark for the Mid-South.

- From Higginbotham's founding in 1948, our insurance agency has been built on the values of customer service, leading with integrity, and supporting our community.

We believe in promoting the positives, encouraging engagement, and leading by example to power the good.

Higginbotham Insurance and Financial Services is honored to be the presenting sponsor of The Spark.

[upbeat music] [acoustic guitar chords]