It's A Girls' World

Amy Irvin hosts Out to Lunch at Mansurs On The Boulevard in Baton Rouge

I’m sure you’re familiar with the phrase, “win-win.” People often use it to try and convince you that something that’s good for them is actually good for you too.

In business, it’s rare to find a true win-win business model, where everybody in the supply chain, from manufacturer to distributor to customer, actually wins. But there is one business in America that has perfected the win-win.

It’s not Walmart. Or Apple. Or Uber.

It’s The Girl Scouts.

They’ve come up with a product everybody loves: cookies. They create demand for the product using what’s called “the scarcity principle.” The cookies are not available in stores. You basically have to know somebody to buy them. The distribution, sales and marketing of the cookies are all done by people who are legally too young to employ. So all of those usual business expenses are free! There are never any labor issues: All of the young girls who are working for free are delighted to do so. And while they’re marketing and selling cookies, the members of the sales force are getting a free education in entrepreneurship and business.

Oh, and one more thing. Every single expenditure, in every direction, at every level, istax exempt or, even better, tax deductible.

Here in Louisiana, the mastermind of this operation, and a whole lot more, is the CEO of Girl Scouts of Louisiana East, Dr. Rebecca Pennington.

Dr Becky Pennington, CEO of Girl Scouts of Louisiana East, one of the few girl scout regions where member numbers are growing. The new approach to potential young girl scouts is, “Find the girl within.”

There are a whole other bunch of girls, or, rather, women, in Baton Rouge who are decidedly not interested in win-win. They’re interested in win-lose. And if they have to use a certain level of raw violence to get a win, well, that’s just the way it goes. This group of women are called Red Stick Roller Derby.

If you’re not familiar with what exactly roller derby is, well, it’s basically rugby on roller skates. Two teams circle a track, one skater on each side tries to fight their way through the pack to score, and everyone else is trying to stop them or help them. It’s super physical. And it’s almost always a women-only sport.

Red Stick Roller Derby in action

Red Stick Roller Derby, if you’ll pardon the expression, punches way above its weight. It consistently ranks in the top 25 teams in North America and has reached the top 3 in the South. One of the people responsible for this success is the team’s trainer, Cynthia Speer Sanders, whose Roller Derby name is Original Cyn.

Cyn Speer Sanders (aka Original Cyn) is a skater and trainer at Red Stick Roller Derby. Although that’s a voluntary position, Cyn is a professional roller derby coach, training competitors across the country and around the world

Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the Boulevard.