We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Camarie Roorda a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Camarie, thanks for joining us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard

I’ve heard that one way to find your purpose in life is to find that something that really bothers you and create a solution for it. I despise the phrase “kids these days”. I think it’s missing the second half of the sentence, “are the way the are because of adults these days.”

At RodeoKids, we believe the kids these days are amazingly smart, talented, willing and hardworking when presented with the right opportunities, guidance, boundaries and consequences. When youth are educated, encouraged and supported in the right ways, they have the capabilities to break down barriers and advance in ways we’ve never seen before. It takes time, patience and curiosity to navigate the changes and challenges from prior generations to the current generations.

We have more data at our fingertips to process in one day than they did in an entire year one hundred years ago. Of course navigating and understanding that is going to take some time, patience and most importantly, team work. While the “kids these days” are struggling, rather than stepping back, “adults these days need to step forward to help them navigate this unknown world of information, because creating connections and relationships will outlast any information overload.

That’s what we’re working on at RodeoKids. Developing future leaders, by helping youth navigate the world through the relationships and opportunities created in our vessel, rodeo.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

RodeoKids is a God thing. In 2018 Camarie Roorda was in Las Vegas, NV working a booth for the Performance Pony Company during the National Finals Rodeo. She’d always had a passion for helping youth and through the P.P.C. she had seen and heard from parents and kids the need for a deeper connection with the youth in the industry. Yes, there are more opportunities for kids to compete and win money than ever before which helps to develop their competitive and physical skills, but what about leadership, relationship, character building and life skills. As she asked around, she found that support for the youth ended in the arena. She grew frustrated as conversations on the topic continued throughout the week, but thought it would stay in Vegas or become someone else’s problem until one night.

It was late and she has just gotten on the elevator to head back to her room. She was alone for the 11 story elevator ride when it was like God smacked her on the forehead with words, “RodeoKids,” then, “RodeoKids.com.” As this struck like lightening she remembers thinking, “no, absolutely not! I don’t want another company, I don’t need another one, I don’t even know what I’m doing with the one I have!” But curiosity got the best of her.

Once she got to her room she started jotting down all the thought that were coming to her mind, An online platform for youth with a blog, ambassador team, podcast, store, and daily inspiration on social media. As she wrote, she continued to fight it, but kept going anyway. She then pulled out her computer and looked up the domain name. It didn’t get any cheaper than $2300. That was a lot for a young entrepreneur who was only three years into her first start-up business.

Four years later, it’s all come true. God continues to guide her steps to impact the lives of youth across North America. RodeoKids is currently lead by Roorda and her 15 youth ambassadors. RodeoKids provides daily prayers, weekly podcast episodes lead by the leaders, monthly zoom meetings, challenges where members work together to include, educate and encourage others, monthly scholarships, fundraisers, trips and more!

“RodeoKids belongs to the Good Lord! We don’t have a ceiling. We’ll go in whatever direction the Lord needs us to go!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I don’t want to build a reputation, I want to build a legacy. I believe honesty and transparency are the most important elements in building that. In today’s social media “highlight reel” world, people are seeking authentic, honest, genuine people. In my experience, people want to connect at a deeper level, especially the youth. We all want to feel relatable. The image of perfection through screens, filters, lighting and only posting the pretty picture isn’t relatable. Sure it looks great, but it leaves customers, clients and fans feeling less than.

At RodeoKids, we share the struggles, hardships and successes on the other side. We acknowledge the good that people do, share the Bible, and encourage people to look at the bigger picture. We don’t try to pretend that we’re perfect, we apologize and own our mistakes. We ask for feedback and give honest feedback when necessary. We hold our team accountable. We tell them when we’re disappointed and frustrated and we celebrate with them when we overcome those struggles.

It takes time to build those relationships. It isn’t always easy or pretty and not everyone will stick with it, but that’s okay. When you’re honest and doing things for the right reasons, God will place those on your path and in your care who need what you have to offer at all the right times. It won’t always make sense, but keep him in the lead and he’ll make your path straight! Side note: it might feel like a lot of zig zags, but when you look back it will all make sense and you’ll be building more than just a reputation, you’ll be building a legacy.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

My first company, the Performance Pony Company, taught me a lot about manufacturing products. All of our main line of products are custom designed to our brand. It takes courage to jump into that pool! We do as much of our business in America as margins will allow us to. For our foreign made products, my biggest suggestion is to get samples. I learned the hard way that pictures and descriptions don’t always match the final product. When I first started, I purchased $1400 worth of product from Pakistan, paid the invoices, and the taxes and duties. The product arrived on my doorstep a few weeks later and it wasn’t the material or quality I thought I was ordering. Another time a foreign company had been hounding me about doing business with them so I decided to give it a shot. I sent them the specific measurements I needed. They claimed the had a special machine that could do just what I wanted. Again, they made the product, this time the quality was there, but they didn’t make it to my size specification which was critical. I’m now left with 1000 pieces and not sure how to move them! Moral of the story, get samples!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rodoekids.com
• Instagram: RodeoKids.com
• Facebook: RodeoKids.com
• Linkedin: Camarie Roorda
• Other: TikTok: RodeoKids.com