Ben Kesterke competed at the business competition, Prospects, in Bozeman on May 20. Outside of pitching, students networked with judges and other participants, enjoyed meals together and went bowling.
At 17-years-old, Ben Kesterke understands that business interactions hinge on the foundation of making deals with others. In meeting that end, Kesterke has spent the last year developing his social and networking skills despite having a lot of social anxiety around the same time.
He wasn't bad at socializing, Kesterke said, but it made him really anxious and he wanted to get better at it.
Kesterke traveled to the Bozeman-based Prospects business competition, hosted by the Montana Chamber of Commerce, with Seeley-Swan High School Business Professionals of America Advisor and entrepreneurship instructor Michele Holmes on May 20. He was eligible for the statewide final event after placing in the top five of the new business category during the pitching competition that occurred before finals.
While Kesterke didn't place at finals, he didn't let that mar the experience too much. Instead, he focused on expanding his networking skills. His goal through the competition was to talk to every competitor, every faculty member and every judge, which he came close to accomplishing.
"Ben's strength is totally in networking," Holmes said. "He changed the dynamic at the social event (at Prospects). He was going around to all the students and introducing himself and inviting them to rehearse with him."
It was cool to see, Holmes said, because at Prospects the year before participants stayed in their school groups and were pretty shy. Kesterke also invited other participants to exercise with him and booked a room at the hotel for competitors to practice their pitches together.
Holmes said she talks about having a win-win mindset in her entrepreneurship classes at Seeley-Swan High School, and Kesterke embodied that at Prospects in the way he was encouraging his rivals to do their best but was also putting his best foot forward. This school year was Kesterke's first time in Holmes' entrepreneurship class. He was home-schooled the prior years.
This was the fourth year Seeley-Swan BPA students participated in Prospects, Holmes said. She uses it as a final for her entrepreneurship class and students have won money competing each year. Kesterke got $1,000 for his new business pitch and was in the running for $5,000 or $2,500 in Bozeman.
The new business he submitted was called To-You Mechanic Service. In this framework, if someone had a broken lawn mower, say, they would call Kesterke and he would come fix it, negating any reason for the person to haul it into their vehicle or borrow someone's truck.
Kesterke's plans for the summer mirror that pitch in some ways. He will be starting his own furniture flipping business this month and moving to Missoula to do so. He's been flipping furniture - taking broken furniture, fixing it and reselling it - for about a month on the weekends and said he feels ready to take the jump to full-time. Kesterke doesn't plan on graduating high school as he wanted to get into the real world sooner, he said, knowing he wanted to pursue the business entrepreneurship path.
"My networking skills kind of make up for the lack of resume appeal and I'm feeling confident in my ability to get hired in Missoula full-time even without a GED or diploma," Kesterke said.
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