By Greg Dardis / Guest Editorial
When Cameron James arrived at Dardis Academy last May, he brought a set of life experiences that had forged a maturity far beyond his 20 years.
There was a grittiness from his early years in rural Monticello, building forts in the timber with his younger siblings. There was the work ethic he’d learned from his father, Dr. Brian James, a dentist who owns a clinic in Monticello and another in Dyersville. And there was the steel resolve he’d developed on a Saturday night in March 2012, when his basketball team lost the Class 3A state championship in double overtime.
The Western Dubuque Bobcats had rallied in that fateful game, going into the fourth quarter down 10 and then putting on the press against the Mount Pleasant Panthers and capturing momentum. It was Cameron’s two free throws with a minute to go that tied the game and sent it into overtime. Then a last-minute three-pointer from the Panthers forced a second overtime that slipped away from the Bobcats.
But that game made the high-school senior better, not bitter.
“The biggest lesson I learned was that it’s not’s so much about winning or losing, it’s about the bond we created as a team,” Cameron said. “That’s the best team I ever played with. We were all so close. We still felt like we won that game.”
So it’s no wonder that Cameron was undaunted when he didn’t get into Cottingham & Butler’s highly competitive summer internship. That’s when he set his eyes on Dardis Academy, our professional training program for college students.
Going into the training, he admits, “I thought I was one of the better presenters in my class [at the University of Iowa’s Tippie College of Business]. But I had so much to learn about presenting in the real world, selling myself and my ideas and looking professional.”
When it was time to apply his newfound skills and go after sales for the duration of the summer, Cameron grew by leaps and bounds.
“I’ve always been a people person, but selling to a complete stranger is scary,” he said.
Cameron managed his time with great discipline, setting a goal for how many appointments he would make each morning and another benchmark for his afternoon. The first two weeks, Cameron found himself sticking to the script, battling insecurity. By the third week, he felt his confidence mounting. He was able to relax and focus on the person he was visiting.
“The biggest thing isn’t making a sale, but building a relationship with someone,” Cameron said. “That was a huge takeaway from Dardis Academy. People hate being sold, but they love to buy. I learned that this summer.”
On the last day of his internship, for instance, Cameron met with a president of a Dubuque bank and quickly developed a rapport.
“We got to talking about basketball,” Cameron recalled, “and we built a relationship, and at the end of the meeting, I wound up selling him a $600 package.”
Once all the numbers were tallied, Cameron emerged as our top seller of the summer among some 200 outstanding interns. He soon received a call from Cottingham & Butler and underwent an intense interview – which, he said, went very well thanks to all his training. His interviewers must have agreed; Cameron was offered a 2015 internship with the prestigious insurance broker.
“I credit that job to my internship with Dardis,” he said. “It set me apart.”
Applications for Dardis Academy’s 2015 internships are currently being accepted. Learn more at www.dardisacademy.com.
