Meet Bryson and Peighton Cantrell

Bryson and Peighton, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

Bryson – Up until this point my confidence and self-esteem have been developed by the people around me. The people you surround yourself with, family included, make a big difference in how you view yourself. I’ve learned that being my authentic self has taken me a long way and I plan to keep on that journey.

Peighton – My confidence comes from being exposed to different social settings at a young age. It allowed me to share my personality, opinions, and views with a variety of people that engaged with me and explained things to me. Recently I have been inspired by Ncuti Gatwa’s quote: “Face your front”. To me it means to focus on yourself and not let what anyone says tear you down. Face forward and keep going!

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

We started off with a simple book club, BookIt4Life Children’s Book Club, created when we were in the second grade. The main purpose was to encourage our friends/peers to read other books – not only ones with pictures in them. We quickly realized this would be harder than we thought and had to find creative ways to relate books to real life activities. Our passion for reading fueled these efforts.

As we grew and accepted more members, people became comfortable talking to each other and sharing their experiences at their individual schools and/or home. This led to us to add social club to our title, and we began doing additional socialization activities – including community service projects and community partnerships with the Friends of the Library and local Rotary clubs.

In 2019 we created the Memphis Children’s Business Fair. This is a one stop shop and space for young entrepreneurs to gather, launch their own products, and learn how to run a business for a day. It allows them a safe space to network, learn, and grow – with the support of the community and their peers. It means the world to a child to have their feelings and thoughts validated. The number of shoppers, volunteers, and community supporting them goes a long way.

In 2020, we received our official 501(c)3 non-profit status allowing us to reach out and develop more community partnerships that want to support the innovative and creative minds of the youth locally and in surrounding areas. Seeing the impact, it has on the children that come through our fairs and the growth of those that return or move on is exciting and makes us feel good to know that we possibly helped someone fulfill a dream! We have two upcoming Fall fairs with dates of Saturday, September 16, 2023 at Junior Achievement’s Wang Experiential Learning Center (Binghampton) and Saturday, October 21, 2023 at the Wolfchase Galleria. (Cordova)

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

The three most impactful qualities, skills, and knowledge for us would be reading, patience, and having great role models /leaders in our lives.

Reading is a critical life skill. Most people think that it is only required when in school, but it’s vital to success way beyond that. Thinking back, one of the reasons we took reading so seriously at a young age was because our Mom told us a story of a musician that did not know how to read. He had been taken advantage of and had money stolen from him because he could not read or understand the contracts he signed. We knew at an early age that we never wanted to be in a position that could jeopardize our future just because we could not read. And we didn’t want this for anyone else we knew either.

Good leadership skills are important! The same way we can inspire others, others often inspire us. It only takes one person to open the door of opportunity to others and change the world. Be open to allowing others to help you but be brave and confident enough to take what you’ve learned and add to it. Don’t be dependent on others for your success.

Lastly, there is patience. Things do not happen as quickly as you want them to, and everyone is not always on the same page at the same time. You must stay focused and keep going no matter what it looks like now. Usually, it’s worth it at the end!

Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?

The most impactful thing our parents did for us was not to immediately disregard our thoughts, ideas, and opinions when we came to them. They never “shut us down” when we approached them with our business ideas or ways that we could incorporate others that weren’t having the same life experiences we were. They have been supportive of every initiative we took and helped us find ways to succeed in our goals. If it was not able to be done, they helped us understand why that idea may not have been right. As we’ve gotten older, we’ve learned the value of that kind of support.