The Ice House Entrepreneurship curriculum helps the returning citizens we work with do more than just learn about an entrepreneurial mindset. From the start participants are challenged to develop an entrepreneurial mindset of their own on their path to self-employment.

Ice House has successfully empowered our local entrepreneurs to thrive in starting businesses that are stimulating our economy and revitalizing our community. We intend to expand our impact by bringing Ice House to hundreds in the coming year.

The Ice House Entrepreneurship Program had a significant impact on the learning experience of participating prerelease inmates at a maximum security prison and their perception of the transfer of skills learned in Ice House into securing employment upon reentry.

Ice House is a promising approach to prison programming for prerelease inmates.

Since we introduced the Ice House Program at the City of Albuquerque, employees are becoming fully engaged in their work, solving problems they used to expect their supervisors to solve.

The eight life lessons Taulbert and Schoeniger describe are timeless examples of the power of entrepreneurship to overcome adversity and achieve independence, regardless of one’s circumstances.

We all have an idea of what we want in our future but actually sitting down and writing about it made us students realize not only the importance but the timing, which is now. Life just started, college is months away. And that’s why this class is one of my top 3 most impacting classes I had in high school.

The program is giving me the tools to fulfill my goals and personal vision, since through the lessons, I have learned to make good choices, to see opportunities instead of problems and to take action.

This training is mind opening on so many levels. Personally, professionally as well as community involvement and engagement potential. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in making a difference in their life as well as their community.

I considered myself a huge supporter of entrepreneurship programs and somewhat knowledgeable, but this training broadened my thinking immensely and gave me a great deal of additional material, resources and ideas for promoting the mindset to young adults.

The Ice House Training was one of the best training events I’ve attended in years. Gary’s matter of fact, upbeat style, combined with Bree’s warm approach and expertise in higher education created a very engaging, informative, presentation that made it easy to understand, and inspired me to return to my college and get started! I think this will be a great addition to our re-entry program.

In the coming years, the Ice House experience is going to be written as the reason to why I made such significant changes to my life and influenced the lives of those that I get to develop. Without a doubt, I can confirm that this experience has had more of an influence on my life than what my bachelors degree did. Thank you, Ice House.

This experience was transformational for me in the difficult transition between the dissolution of my business (an entrepreneurial endeavor) and whatever is next. I learned a great deal about what we did right and where following the ‘rules’ of business did not support us in finding success. It uncovered the areas where I can choose differently next time and reinforced that I am, at my core, entrepreneurial. Before I walked through the doors, I felt like I had found myself at a sad and hopeless ending when, in fact, I am at a ‘limitless’ beginning. So excited to see what’s next!

I have been working in the field of entrepreneurial mindset development for 20 years and this is the first time that I feel like I’ve come home – I’ve found a team of like-minded people who are walking their talk and who have taken the time and effort to research, define and develop accessible materials and processes that can be easily utilized by others. Their “abundance mentality” and their zeal in being willing to share and “spread the word” is infectious and admirable.

The information was exactly what the organizations needed to hear.

The best presenters are those who speak from their experience and from their heart. Bree Langemo spoke in a manner that demonstrated this integration of knowledge with passion for the entrepreneur and the mindset that sets them apart.

Bree’s innovative keynote on entrepreneurship education was inspiring to our audience of community leaders, students, faculty, and business owners. She presented a compelling argument for instilling the entrepreneurial mindset in every student. Bree’s application of statistics, multimedia, and real-world examples was customized to our audience and very persuasive.

I first met Gary Schoeniger at an Innovation Summit we started at Purdue University in 2016. We invited Gary to be a speaker and to serve on working groups to help us develop an innovation and entrepreneurship curricula for our college.

Gary was an outstanding contributor to the summit and gave what I think was the best presentation of all of our speakers at the summit.  Gary[‘s] breadth and depth of knowledge related to innovation and entrepreneurship is quite extraordinary.

If you are interested in starting a business, the book makes it easy, but for people who are not interested in starting a business, there are so many messages in the book that are easy and so impactful. Reading a book about someone who is marginalized and who has grown beyond it, is a message that everyone can benefit from.

The Ice House program is all about understanding the mindset of successful small business owners and entrepreneurs. It doesn’t matter whether you are an established business or a prospective business, or even someone looking at ways to be a better employee, mindset makes a huge difference. And this is not something that is typically explored as part of a business planning course.

The Entrepreneurial Learning Initiative team has proven itself to Cisco. They created a world-class, multimedia course on the entrepreneurial mindset for the Cisco Entrepreneur Institute.

I want them to have skills, I want them to have a mindset, I want them to have the abilities to be able to hang in there and make it successful for them and that’s what I see this course providing for students … really sending them the message that it doesn’t matter your situation or circumstances, you can still be successful.

I was very glad to encounter the Ice House concept at the Kauffman Foundation several years ago at a program sponsored by the Philanthropy Roundtable. As a philanthropist, I am proud to contribute to an effort that will create a transformational shift in mindset within our community.

Anybody can do it…it doesn’t matter how old you are, it doesn’t matter what your job is, if you’re a student, if you work in government, if you work in the private sector, you can think differently and do something differently.

We want to make it a part of the entire psyche of Colorado Springs, we are open for business, we have an entrepreneurial mindset.

Once the entrepreneurial lightbulb goes on, the mystery is out of it. It’s not hard for someone to have an entrepreneurial mindset; I believe we are all wired for it. The Ice House Entrepreneurial Mindset Program helps us realize just that.

I see this as a bold, new solution.

ELI’s workshops were some of the most eye-opening learning experiences I have encountered. Their strong message on a redefined approach to entrepreneurship made an everlasting impact.

This is some of the most exciting, impactful curriculum I have ever taught.

If students learn that…they have choices to better their life, they are more apt to own their educational process and become active directors of it, rather than a bystander simply meeting course requirements.

There is only one word to describe the Ice House training that I attended: transformative. I confess that I went into training with a skeptic’s mind. I now understand that we have the opportunity to help people rewire their thinking and empower them to take charge of their own lives. More importantly, I now understand that sharing the Ice House entrepreneurial concepts with PPCC students will have an impact on the college community that creates a ripple effect into our city and possibly our world. We have a tremendous opportunity before us that could potentially change the culture of our college and sharpen our focus – I can’t wait to begin!

It was an amazing few days that was a life changing experience at the Kauffman Labs. We were privileged to spend time and share ideas about education and entrepreneurship with some of the great thought leaders from around the world.

I start to see that shift, some of them see such a shift that they change their majors, some of them change their attitudes about the class and about school, and some of them start to change who they are as a person.

We just finished our second class with IHEP and our students absolutely love it!  We teach it as a hybrid, using the computer portion and an in-class portion to bring everything together.  We also use local entrepreneurs to serve as guest speakers/motivators for our students and it seems to work perfectly.

The Ice House Entrepreneurship Program has given our students the foundation they need in order to build meaningful businesses that have the potential to change their lives. It changes the way students, faculty and our community view entrepreneurship.

I learned of the Ice House program at NACCE in 2011 and started my first class of Entrepreneurial Mindset, using Ice House, a year ago in August 2012. Wow, what a difference.  

Out of all the ways I have changed within this semester my personal vision is the most surprising to me. Everything from work, friends, and family has been changed. Finally, I came to the conclusion that I needed to quit my job…After hearing the stories from the entrepreneurs, I changed the people in my life so that I could have a support group that actually supports me.

I know that my success in my three other courses is a direct result from what I learned in this course…This course has also allowed me to realize the value of dedication and perseverance.  My personal vision has evolved from lacking confidence and understanding of what I was capable of to courage and determination.

I’ll admit that going into this class I was just coming out of a very dark place. However, I believe this class is the cause of a big turnaround for me and has brought me back into academics with a new, more positive light…I have a drive now to get my degree and a better idea of where I want to go when I have it. The fact that this entire class was focused on changing my mindset has kept me in not just for this class but all of my other ones as well.

Having live, real people share their journey is amazing. The entrepreneurs gave of themselves from such a real place, it couldn’t help but impact my thought process and how I was thinking. They all had a different perspective, they all came from different industries, and they all had different upbringings, surroundings, and life experiences.

As an MBA, I have learned more in three weeks of this course about entrepreneurship than I did in 6.5 years of school.

I seriously believe this book has changed my life. I couldn’t put it down. I feel like I read this book at exactly the right time in my life.

This class should be a mandatory class to pass to graduate.

It’s really helped me go beyond expectations instead of going for the regular classes where they spoon feed you the information, … it really helps me go out there and get the information myself.

You must become entrepreneurs of your life. And when I heard that, I had already started the shift but that was the last little kick that shifted me over to really understanding that this is a mindset that is successful for life.

Ice House is reinventing the way we make ourselves successful, you have to think outside of the box, go that extra step, think about new ways to innovate, and I think that is going to be the marker of the next few generations.

“El programa de emprendimiento de La casa del Hielo está redefiniendo cómo la educación en emprendimiento está siendo enseñada en las aulas de clase y comunidades alrededor del mundo”

Thom Ruhe

VP Emprendimiento

Fundación Kauffman

Best learning experience ever!

Well done! World changing program!

I loved every second and hung onto every word!!!

I have been a student of self-improvement and business development strategies for many years, but the Ice House program has made the most impact in the shortest amount of time compared to other books I have read and courses I have taken. I thought I was about to engage in an exercise in entrepreneurial readiness. Imagine my amazement to learn I was taking a course in how to repair the human soul though self empowerment. I won’t gush, but it was really that impactful for me.

Not only was Gary’s message about grassroots entrepreneurship engaging and infectious, it is perhaps the most needed approach for getting the US economy and the developing world on track by fostering bottom up solutions that empower people to take charge of their lives and boost their local economies.

I stumbled on the Ice House Curriculum and thought I found the holy grail. It’s culturally relevant, accessible on many levels, and draws on the principles of effectuation which are being used in the top college entrepreneurial programs.

The Ice House Entrepreneurship Program “method” is wicked awesome. It turns the age-old misconceptions about entrepreneurism upside down and destroys the paradigm.

The Ice House Entrepreneurship Program is redefining how entrepreneurship education is being taught in classrooms and communities throughout the world.