“What in the world? Banana Milk?!? I’m All In…”
Was the first thing that came through my head when I met my business partner nearly 4 years ago, and he introduced his product idea to me as college students in the school of business office.
I’d always dreamed of being a part of a team of people who would change the world…
And when that opportunity came to me while in college, I took it on full force.
Now fast forward nearly 4 years later and we’re now selling our Banana Wave Bananamilk beverage inside of Whole Foods, Harmons, Walmart, Moms Organic Market, HEB, GNC, and over 600+ retail locations nationwide.
So as we continue to grow our beverage company I wanted to share with you 5 major lessons I’ve learned in the process of building this world changing company.
These lessons are so powerful that if you decided to follow them, I have full confidence that they will shape the nature of your business and entrepreneurial journey.
LESSON #1 – Set The Intention & Make It Clear
At first I drifted around hoping to find an opportunity, then when I did find an opportunity…
It landed me back home as a college dropout and caused me to lose my college scholarship.
Then that was when I said to myself, “I’m going to be a part of the team that’s going to create a billion dollar company like Facebook, or Google.”
And just a few weeks before graduating college…
I decided to put on a seminar teaching how I was making thousands of dollars from internet marketing while I was a college kid.
At that seminar the Founder and inventor of the idea approached me after the seminar and told me about the idea – Banana Milk – Milk made from bananas.
In my head I thought to myself “What in the world? Banana Milk?!? I’m All In…”
And since then I’ve been one of the Co-Founders getting ready to make history with something that no one else is doing, or has ever seen before.
So set your intentions for what you want to accomplish in 2017 and beyond.
The clearer you are on what you want, the stronger your attraction will be for exactly that.
LESSON #2 – Have The Courage To Stay The Course
Building a business is never easy, especially when you have intentions on building a big business with the intention to produce Millions or Billions of dollars.
I’ve seen many people come and go over my few years of experience with entrepreneurship & internet marketing…
And in that process I’ve learned that the successful people were always the ones that kept on going even though things got rough.
During the process of building our company did things get rough? Yes they did bro, and we still have some unforeseeable bumps in the road…
But what’s most important is staying the course – staying focused and not giving up even when things don’t go your way.
In our process we’ve had investors flake, business partners stop, designers die in heart surgery, family members pass away – and some come down with cancer and other illnesses, partners go to jail, and so on…
Although it was tough to keep going despite so many set backs we kept the vision in the front of our minds and never stopped pushing.
Before you know it we’d collectively raised the money from various investors (over $1.5M to date) to make the dream a reality and now have our first few tens of thousand produced.
So when you have your vision, and you know where you want to go…
Pick 1 single system and stick to it as if your life depends on it.
Nothing else will move you to building a successful business faster than sticking to it no matter what happens.
LESSON #3 – Have A Relentless Focus & Work Ethic
The number of sleepless nights, early mornings, and weapons of mass distractions come a dime a dozen as an entrepreneur building your own business.
And for the record weapons of mass distraction include social media, useless cat videos on YouTube, marathon partying (meaning partying all the time), watching TV when you have work to do, drugs, alcohol and so forth…
Not to say that I don’t indulge in these activities – because I do…
But I make sure to limit my distractions unless it’s moving me closer to my goal.
I can’t count how many nights where I’ve stayed up working on projects, deals, and devouring information when I look out the window and the sun was rising.
While building my information marketing and coaching business as well as this billion dollar beverage company it’s never been simple to juggle it all but because it’s my vision…
I know it’s worth it, so I choose to work my butt off to keep making success happen.
You’re probably wondering what does it take to work at your craft relentlessly and maintain the right state of mind so you can keep focused.
Well it takes you putting your back against the wall and listing out the most important of all your priorities in life.
If your priority is your kid, then you’re going to make sure that you focus on getting paid at your job, or with your current business model so that you can afford to feed your kid.
Same thing has to happen with your business in order to make your vision a reality.
LESSON #4 – Have Fun & Enjoy The Process
A lot of people will tell me I’m this, or I’m that – or that’s not the way you’re supposed to do business and blah blah blah…
Look brah, life is only lived once for most of us, meaning there isn’t much time to be angry, or sad, or depressed because things didn’t go your way the first or second time…
When my business partners and didn’t win 1st place in a business plan competition for the major award of $35K we didn’t get sad, look down at our shoes and start kicking rocks…
No, we got happy because that brought us major attention and a lineup of investors that threw more than 6 figures into our company.
Not to mention later that weekend we took a road trip and went up to Wet-N-Wild in Orlando Florida to celebrate.
Yes we won one of the awards for $5K, but even though we didn’t win the big kahuna award we still made the most of it.
You see “life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass…It’s about learning to dance in the rain.” ― Vivian Greene”
And no matter what level you’re at with your business building journey – you have to stop and celebrate the small victories along the way.
I’ve come to find that most people go about building their company as if it’s going to be one big event, and then BAM!
Someone buys them out for $50,000,000 million.
Brah it don’t work like that…
It’s a process, and rather than let life pass you by in the process of building your dreams…
It’s best to enjoy, have fun, smile, and live life to the max during the process of building your global entity which you’ll be able to sell for 8 – 10 figures somewhere down the road…
Exit strategy, what? Eh – that’s another post.
For now just build on your vision style business – and make sure to have fun in the process man.
LESSON #5 – Have A Good Team Or Mastermind Group
No man or woman is an island in this big yet digitally connected world we live in.
Meaning trying to do things all by yourself will not get you to where you really want to go.
I can tell you firsthand that where we are now...
Would not have been possible had it not been for the mentors, coaches, advisers, and companies that we’ve hired and worked with over the years.
You see once we started working with a brand management company to help us take Bananamilk…
To the level where it so rightfully belongs to be…
Our connections immediately increased, our credibility instantly improved, and we became one of the brands being managed by a multi-million dollar and well-connected branding company in our industry.
And even with my online business, I didn’t start doing 5 figure months until I began to partner up with people, hire consultants, invested in coaching & mentoring and so forth.
The answer is never in buying more tools, or more software, or more SEO, or more STUFF to consume…
In my professional opinion the key to succeeding as an entrepreneur is in surrounding yourself with mentors, coaches, and colleagues…
That can help you move to the next level in the shortest fastest route possible.
So feel free to reach out to others for help and guidance along the path to creating more success and reaching your ultimate vision for your business.
TO SUM UP THE 5 BIGGEST LESOSNS I’VE LEARNED
LESSON #1 – Set The Intention & Make It Clear
LESSON #2 – Have The Courage To Stay The Course
LESSON #3 – Have A Relentless Focus & Work Ethic
LESSON #4 – Have Fun & Enjoy The Process
LESSON #5 – Have A Good Team Or Mastermind Group
And there you have it, keep things simple man – life isn’t that hard to win at.
It’s not easy either, but at the end it’s worth it bro.
Feel free to reach out if you got any questions.
In the mean time let me know if any of these lessons which I’ve learned have been able to help you out in the process.
Peace,
Michael “Overdeliver” Baptiste
P.S. You might not have a short term problem while building your business in the beginning because it’s exciting and fun and new. But if you don’t have a long term exit plan, growth strategy, or vision for where you want your business to go then you’re kicking yourself in the teeth. Exit strategies and brand management is something I learned along the way and it’s super important if you want to build a really big business that you can sell off and retire young from.
P.P.S. Making friends and being liked in business is never the overall goal. The most important thing to create is LEVERAGE. See things for the long term and focus on doing what will benefit you the most 6 – 12 months or even 5 – 10 years from now. Everything you do – do it because you intend to give value and make a difference.