- January 23, 2025
-
-
Loading
Loading
On a November evening in the lunchroom at Delphi Academy in Clearwater, the energy was palpable. The meeting of Boy Scout Troop 313 was in full swing and Popcorn Colonel Carly van den Berg was armed with confetti cannons and great news: the troop had raised $303,000 — surpassing the national record to make them No. 1 in the country.
Cheers erupted from approximately 80 children in the mixed-gender troop and parents alike as colored paper filled the atmosphere and rained down. Among the throng was van den Berg’s 11-year-old son, Grayson. He was the troop sales leader, with $26,000 in sales. That's also good for No. 1 in Florida.
Getting to the top of the popcorn heap provided business — and life — lessons for Grayson, from goal-setting to reframing rejections.
The van den Bergs relocated from Thousand Oaks, California to Clearwater in 2019 and plugged into the scouts that same year. “The first year I was very shy, but now I’m really good at this stuff,” Grayson says.
Like any good salesman, his technique is a blend of being data driven on the back end and providing personable front-facing customer service. Although there is an option to send an online link, the majority of his sales are made in-person.“Every shift, my goal is $1000,” he says matter-of-factly.
‘Shifts’ are three hours long at different retail locations around town. Trail’s End, the popcorn company responsible for providing treats for troop sales, negotiates times and dates for storefront sales and releases reservation slots for different troops to book. A $25 donation is required to receive a bag of popcorn, meaning 40 bags must be sold per shift to meet the predetermined metric.
How does an elementary schooler even begin to make the dream a reality? Mom, of course. The matriarch van den Berg, when not working her day job in IT, is tasked with booking the shifts for the troop as part of her role as popcorn colonel — a real title — and schooling her kiddo in the ways of popcorn wiles.
“My mom told me to be great. I remember at the start, my mom told me to act polite about it,” Grayson recalls. A solid, polite greeting is the best first impression. He notes that a box of store bought popcorn usually retails for $5, so to redirect consumer sticker shock, he crafts language around making a donation and receiving the popcorn as a thank you instead of paying that much for a single bag. Trail’s End is also there to help, with banners stating the scouts receive 73% of the proceeds from each sale.
As for what is to become of the six-figure sales record, the proceeds are split into thirds. One third goes to the troop, one goes to the regional boy scout group Greater Tampa Bay Area Council and the last third goes back to Trail’s End. The troop uses the funds for camping and educational trips and craft supplies, after throwing a celebratory party, of course.
“We have 80 kids in this pack, so it's really hard to buy supplies for that many kids, unless you have funds,” Carly notes.
Mom is particularly proud of how Grayson started out as a shy boy who came out of his shell through this process. “One thing is he talked about, you know, overcoming the shyness,” she says, “Obviously, the mom and as one of the leaders here, that was kind of a big thing for me on popcorn, was being able to give them an opportunity to help grow in that way.”
The No. 2 seller is Mario Gil, a friend of Grayson’s. “His mom and I are friends, and so we take them out together to sell, and it's just a fun thing to see them grow and enhance their communication skills and figure out how to navigate those kind of more tricky conversations,” she notes.
In the same vein as traditional sales, there is also cutthroat competition which has evolved with the times. Another scout in a nearby troop is often neck-and-neck with Grayson, and stats can be tracked online. Making sure he stays ahead of the competition is noted as his biggest challenge. “That kid was like, ‘I'm gonna beat you. I'm gonna beat you.’ I'm not gonna let that happen. I want to be first,” he declares, proof that competition will always be a strong motivator.
From here, the goal is to reach Eagle Scout — the highest possible rank within the organization. Despite shining as an individual, one only moves through the ranks with their pack.
“My uncle was an Eagle Scout, and he told me about Eagle Scouts, and I thought that was cool, and very few people make it. So I thought, how about I give it a shot? And I've been working my way up,” he says, “So I'm in boy scouts right now, and I'm on my way to make it to eagle scouts.”
