Real Leadership is Home-Cooked

A Visit to Culver’s Headquarters: A Legacy of Excellence

Our journey began with a visit to Culver’s Headquarters, where we had the opportunity to meet Craig Culver, whose family opened the first Culver's restaurant in Sauk City, Wisconsin, in 1984. Craig was joined by Rich Modjeski, Vice President of Culver's Franchising System. While Culver's is best known for its iconic ButterBurgers and rich, creamy frozen custard, the company’s true foundation lies in its unwavering commitment to people—both customers and employees alike.

What truly sets Culver's apart is its dedication to excellence and a culture of care. As Craig shared, the company’s core philosophy emphasizes treating people with respect and building a sense of family. This value is reflected in their business model, where every Culver’s franchisee is required to be an owner-operator. In practice, this means that the owners work side by side with their employees in the restaurants, fostering a sense of camaraderie, responsibility, and shared success.

Culver’s commitment to excellence in service and its focus on family culture have been key drivers of its growth, ensuring that each location is not just a restaurant, but a community-oriented experience for both employees and customers.

Exploring Our Crucible Stories: A Transformative Experience

The theme of the day centered around identifying and sharing our "crucible stories." A crucible story refers to a defining moment in someone's life—often a challenging or difficult experience—that forces them to confront personal vulnerabilities, emerge stronger, and undergo a profound transformation. These stories represent turning points where we’re shaped by hardship, ultimately leading to a deeper understanding of ourselves and a shift in our perspectives.

As we each shared our crucible stories, the experience became incredibly emotional. It was a safe and supportive space where we could open up, reflect, and connect with others on a deeply personal level. Hearing the stories of growth and resilience was both powerful and humbling. It reminded us all of the strength we carry within ourselves, even in the face of adversity.

Sharing these parts of ourselves allowed for genuine connection, and we left the day with a renewed sense of appreciation for our individual journeys—and for the strength we draw from the challenges we've overcome.

"Let's DO This!" Legacy Projects Begin with Grassroots

SCILsters were introduced to Marietta Reuter, Owner at Tools of Marketing, and Fritz Wyttenbach, Owner of Wyttenbach Family Farms. They were to discuss their involvement in the Culver Community Park Project, but delivered so much more.

Fritz Wyttenbach’s mantra is “Attitude is Everything” the importance of being involved in your community, dedicated to it’s growth and prosperity is paramount. His success in business and in life is used to better his community and the lives of those around him. After attending the Badger Honor Flight with a WWII veteran, Fritz was so moved by the experience he founded Heroes for Honor – Sauk Prairie. Over the last 11 years Heroes for Honor has earned over an incredible $500,000 for Badger Honor Flight.  He is largely responsible for creating the annual State Cow Chip Throw through the Sauk Prairie Jaycees. The Cow Chip Throw celebrated it’s 50th anniversary last summer. The other guest speaker for this segment, Marietta Reuter fondly remembered volunteering as a young teen for the Chip Throw in it’s early days.

The spirit of volunteer work and generosity never left Marietta and carries on through her and her family to this day.  Inspired by her daughter while volunteering at the food pantry on a Thanksgiving week that didn’t have enough turkeys to hand out to the local families in need, Marietta decided to use her family tradition of cookie baking to help make a difference. In 2008 she leveraged her business and community contacts to start an annual Home Made Holiday Cookie Sale. On average these cookies raise $5,000 per year for the local food pantry. Her community involvement doesn’t stop there! Marietta is the Sponsorship Specialist on the State Cow Chip Toss Committee and perhaps most notably, President of the Friends of Sauk Prairie Parks and Recreation Inc. A major fundraising and driving force for the Culvers Community Park Project. A 67 acre park of active and passive year round recreation for Sauk Prairie and surrounding communities. A 10+ year passion project that Marietta described as her “legacy”.

Fritz and Marietta gave much of the credit for the positive changes they’ve made in their communities to the support of their spouses, community members and divine inspiration. 

Exercising Interpersonal Agility for Leadership

The last SCIL Guest Speaker for the day, Lisa Barker, Executive Director of UW-Madison’s Professional Learning and Community Education (PLACE) , spoke on Exercising Interpersonal Agility for Leadership. OR Improvisation and The Power of “Yes And….” This Stanford graduate ran SCILsters through a series of improv games and exercises that demonstrated the value of improvisation in life and the workplace. 

One of the first rules of improvisation is “yes, and”. The rule is to accept whatever improv partner(s) say or do and use it to create. This requires those in the exercise to be open to something new and be willing to collaborate.  This builds confidence and acceptance as both partners feel heard and can take ownership in the results.  Participants were encouraged to celebrate their mistakes loudly and own it in the moment, shouts of “taadaa” could be heard throughout the room with jazz hand gestures being thrown up towards the ceiling.  Mistakes in improv exercises are common, as are mistakes in real life. They are to be embraced as part of the process. These exercises required participants to be present, open, vulnerable and honest. Characteristics all leaders should strive for. 

In closing, our SCIL Cohort discussed how vulnerability and openness to change impacted our leadership for the better. We left inspired and motivated with a new sense of appreciation for our communities and for each other.

Written by: Blair Murphy and Anita Nielsen