Welcome to How Leaders Lead, where every week you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world. I break down the key learnings by the end of the episode, you'll have something simple you can apply as you develop into a better leader. That's what this podcast is all about. Now, I've been honored to have some incredibly wise leaders on this podcast, and usually they've won that wisdom through decades of mistakes and failures and tough turn arounds. But today, you're going to see that business wisdom and leadership insight can come from any age, because today's guest is 15-year-old Michaela Omer, the founder and CEO of Me and the Beast Lemonade. Michaela turned the lemonade stand she started as a four-year-old into a nationally distributed brand that has sold 2 million bottles of honey lemonade and is backed by Shark Tank investor Damon John. She's just a fearless leader with a big heart who is so wise beyond her years. And I have a feeling you're going to see your big ideas and your big dreams in a whole new way after you listen in on this conversation. So here's my conversation with my good friend and soon to be yours, Michaela O mer. Now, Michaela, I thought it was pretty special when I got to interview Evan Spiegel who started Snapchat in his early 20s. Well, you started your company when you were just four and a half years old, and now you're the 15-year-old CEO. I really can't wait to learn how you did it and how you lead. But first, give us an idea of the size and scope of your company. Well, it's a little bit unbelievable how the company has grown from starting as a lemonade stand in Austin, Texas to becoming a nationally distributed lemonade company. But currently we have sold 2 million bottles of lemonade around the country. It's sold in over 1,500 stores in over 40 states. We're making a huge impact on bee populations through our new nonprofit, which we've collaborated with around six different other nonprofits to make an even bigger change. And it's gone from one flavor to now having five flavors of honey sweetened fl ax lemonade. Wow, that's so good. How did you develop your passion for bees and lemonade? Let's go back to the beginning. Tell us the story. Okay, so that's the fun part. So my story started in Austin, Texas when I was four and a half years old as a kindergartner. And I signed up in two different events. They were both kids on top of the events. And one was lemonade day and another one was acting in business fair. And they're both events where kids can come up with ideas like buy a booth and sell their product for a day without the need of a permit. And so I was doing this a couple of other of my peers at school were doing it. And over the summer I needed a product to create. And so two big events happened. The first one was that I got a cookbook from my great granny Helen from the 1940s with her favorite recipe of flax seed lemonade in it, which is very interesting. I didn't really know what I was going to do with it at the time. But I also got some by two bees in one week that same summer. Oh, no. That was terrifying, very painful. And I quickly became afraid of the bees as you can imagine a kindergartner would. My parents encouraged me to do some research on them and kind of reluctantly I watched the animated videos and I read the picture books and I learned that we rely on bees for our food. And so I was like, okay. And then I learned that the bees are dianolombing rate. So I decided to mix those two ideas and take my great granny Helen's recipe, sweeten it with honey and donate a portion to organizations starting with organizations in Austin that we're helping save the bees. So it was a little bit of a weird mix of things that made my story, but it had a huge potential even as a four year old. So how did you get started? Did you have the typical lemonade stand? I had the typical lemonade stand. The first one didn't go great. It was in front of my house and it was very spontaneous. But the second one was for the fair and my dad said, okay, the first thing you 're going to need to do is you need a budget. And so I had $50 of birthday money from my family members. I made a budget listing like my ingredients, the expenses that I would need to buy. We ended up getting donations from a local beekeeper. And so we bartered and we ended up building our lemonade stand instead of buying our lemonade stand. So I learned a little bit through there, but it was a lemonade stand. I was dressed up in a bee suit, which was my mom's idea because she's the marketing bee. And I sold my product and I ended up really enjoying it and wanting to do it again. So initially it was kind of going to be a one time thing or doing it for those two fairs, but I decided I'm going to keep going. You're bottling it now. I mean, how did you, when did you know you had a big enough idea to do that? And how did you go through the process of really developing a brand and bott ling it? And then you've said you're selling it to 1500 stores. So it definitely wasn't overnight, like probably most of the other entrepreneurs that you've interviewed. It didn't happen that quickly. I started probably around when I was eight, I started doing little workshops on the bees at stores while parents are shopping, their kids would learn about the bees and they could plan a bee-friendly flower and I would bring a trifle to be facts. And so after one of these little presentations, it was at a local beach store and the owner said, hey, if you can find a way to bottle your lemonade product, I'd like to carry it in my store. And so that was the aha moment you were asking about when you asked, what was that moment when you realized this could be a bigger thing? I didn't even think of putting my bottle on shelves. And the fact that people asked me to and said, if you do it, there's going to be a demand for it. That's probably what made my gear start turning and me start thinking. So I asked my parents, how do you bottle a product? They asked their friends and family friends who were entrepreneurs. I remember going to some stores and asking store managers, hey, what sticks out to you about a bottle on a shelves and taking all that into consideration. We did research. We started in a commercial kitchen in Austin and just like that, more stores were asking, more stores and restaurants and little convenience stores were asking to carry the product. So it was a little bit of a spark. And from that, we started from Austin and kind of grew on from there. Yeah, no kidding. And you know, Michaela, everybody is talking these days about the power of being purpose-driven, having a mission. You know, what's yours for your product? What are you trying to do with your brand and how are you trying to make a difference? Yeah. From the very beginning of me and the bees, my mission was to make a measurable impact on saving the bees. I had no clue. I didn't know that the bees are dying. I figured a lot of the people who are trying my product probably didn't know that either. So let's use this business as a way to help save the bees. And so since then, I've also added teaching social entrepreneurship because as a social entrepreneurship myself, I've realized a lot of the skills that I learned from my business. I'm able to use in school. And even though it's in school, I'm able to use in my business. So realizing the power of entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship as well. And I think passion is really important. Passion within my team and making sure that all the people who are working on me and the bees align with that goal. So we're able to, I guess, do a lot more and be a lot more productive and have more fun while running me and the bees. Speaking of your team, how many people do you have working for you and how do you go about leading people who are older than you or do you make it a requirement that everybody's younger? So it's a family run company, but I don't think I'm not a bossy. I'm not that bossy of a boss. I think it's always makes people laugh when we're at events with my dad's like, oh yeah, I know the boss is right here. Ask her. So that makes people laugh. But right now our team is five employees. And then we have multiple teams like a national sales teams, an amazing ops team that makes sure everything runs smoothly behind the scenes. Marketing and then kind of the core team, which is finance, ops, and then head of marketing and then me. How do you go about managing those different functions and how would you describe your leadership style? First, we go about managing that through always communicating. This is something that I say you can learn from the bees. Bees communicate through dancing. But what's interesting is that each bee in a hive knows its role. And so they have to communicate through fair and ohms and then also dancing to, hey, where is the closest source of honey? What are the next tasks that has to be done? So that's kind of how we work in the lemonade company, but we have core meetings where we talk about the goals and what are the action items for each pillar of the business to get that done? So it's long term, but also thinking about what are the tasks that we have to do now in order to achieve that. And then I think also one thing that's interesting is that everyone at the company learns about the bees and we also start each of our meetings with testimonials or facts or letters from our fans or customers. And that's also an amazing way to start each meeting. And then I think I lead by example because I balance being a student and a founder of a nonprofit and a CEO. I think that kind of shows that you can incorporate your passions with what you do every day. And also I get a lot of work. I get a lot of help from my parents and mentors. How do you manage and lead people who are older than you? I lead by asking a lot of questions, which is kind of a new way to think about leading. But I ask a lot of questions and sometimes those questions force people to look at things a little bit differently. And then it's like, oh, I could think about that differently. Then I say, okay, what if you looked at it in this perspective? So I ask a lot of questions. Sometimes I'm way off the mark and I have something to learn from the person who's older than me. I have some wisdom to offer as well. You said your dad says you're the boss. What's it like having your dad as someone that theoretically works for you? Is that really true? I think I would call us co-queenbeas or co- I don't even know what the word is. I get the co-queenbeas. Yeah, you get it. I think it's interesting because sometimes when we're at conferences and people are asking, people want to know about the company, they'll ask my parents who are usually like right next to me. It's like, what are your stats? You're where, what's the scale of your company today? And then they're always like, oh, no, point to her. She's right here. Ask her these questions. But for the most part, like I said, I give input and then they also give input. I think for the most part, I'm learning from them, especially now at the moment about business. My dad teaches me what he knows about ops and finance. My mom teaches me what she knows about marketing and PR. And what I bring to the business is my passion and my mission. You know, Michaela, every leader has some disappointment that happens along the way. What's been your biggest disappointment and how do you deal with it? My biggest disappointment? So I wouldn't say it's a disappointment right now at this point because I think what I got out of this was a lot more than the stress that was put in it at the time. But my biggest challenge that I faced or disappointment was having to change the name. So it was originally B-suite lemonade. I came up with that when I was in kindergarten. That was my favorite name. And I thought that it encompassed my mission and saved the bees and it was a cool pun, like B-suite. And I love that name. But after we went on Shark Tank and gained national publicity, I think the story about getting a deal for Mr. Damon on Shark Tank also went viral at the same time. There was another company that reached out to my parents. And so after my parents put my younger brother Jacob down to bed, they came to me and they said, "Hey, there's another company with a name similar to yours that wants you to either change yours altogether or borrow B-suite for a couple million dollars." And as a 10-year-old, I think now 11, I didn't have a couple million dollars to borrow name. And I say I'd been stung by bees before, but I had never been stung by lawyers. And so this was completely different and pretty disappointing because we didn't look into that. We didn't even think like, "Is there another B-suite out there?" We did a quick maybe Google search, but not looking into the documents, seeing if there's anything else registered. And so it ended up being a very time-consuming and expensive lawsuit, but what ended up happening is I asked for help. So I was presenting at an agency in California. I shared with them my dilemma. They had their team come up with hundreds of names along with ours. And we narrowed it down to mean the bees, but what I learned from that process was that it's not just a product you sell, but also the story you tell. And so even though the name of the company changed and is different at this point, it's still my lemonade, my mission, my product, and the naming and the brand can change as long as it evolves all of that. So me and the bees, which name do you like better now? I like me and the bees better. I think B-suite is catchier, but I like me and the bees because everyone can become the me in our mission to save the bees. So there's that. And then the next thing that I love about this one is that our logo right here, if you flip it upside down, it becomes a heart. And then if you take off the wings, it becomes a drop of honey. So I think that's also really creative and our old logo didn't have that. Where'd you get your creative ability? How have you developed this intuitive skill that you have? I don't know. I think I've always been a little bit, I've always been creative. A lot of it also comes with collaboration. I think we come up with the best ideas when we work together. Now, I know you got your big break going on Shark Tank and you just mentioned that a little bit earlier. What was that like? Talk about that experience. I describe it as nerve sighting because it was very nerve-wracking because there's a bunch of millionaires or billionaires staring at you while you're pitching your company. And it's also very exciting because it's the potential to grow your company and take this idea or this dream that you've been working on for so long and make it big. That's kind of the big thing. People ask, "Have you been on Shark Tank? This should be on Shark Tank. Go bitch on Shark Tank." And so I was nervous but also very excited to see, "Hey, where could this opportunity take my company?" What have you learned working with Damon Johns, who was the guy who said, "Hey, I really like your idea?" Well, I think one thing I've learned is what the power of a mentor can do for your company. I've also learned to always, always reach out to potential customers because we weren't doing that enough before. We were kind of waiting for companies to reach out to us. But with his help, we went out and asked, "Hey, are you interested in new product?" We were pitching more not only in Texas but nationally as well. And that also rapidly increased the sales and the growth of me and the bees. You've got this distribution, Whole Foods and Fresh Market, which are great high-end retailers. Did you go make those sales calls yourself? Some of those yes, some of those no, but most of them yes. I think that's one thing. I always, I pitch on those sales. Actually, this COVID season, I guess, is I was recalling it during COVID because I was at home. And school was remote. I was able to hop on a lot more of these sales calls. And I closed a couple of deals too, which are going to be coming towards the end of this year. But I guess that's one of my abilities is to close sales on new deals. And it's always cool because people get to see the person behind the brand. And so pitching, I mean, no one knows your company better than you do. So I think it's so important for me to be present at these sales pitches. You know, you talk about seeing the person behind the brand. You're actually on the bottle, the front of the bottle. Was that a hard decision to make? Easy decision for you? What's your thinking? I'm glad you asked that question because it wasn't, it changed over time. When we started, it was a hard decision for my parents because they weren't sure whether they wanted their, I think at the time, 10-year-old daughter to be on the face of a bottle, just for like privacy reasons. Do we want our daughter to be on the face of her product? And so we ended up with going with, yes, it was an illustration of me. That was our original design. It was the illustration of me. And we decided to keep it on the bottle because it showed the product. But I think as we grew and we were reaching out to more stores, we started getting some people saying, hey, we might carry your product if you put your face on the back of the bottle. Or people, I mean, letters coming in the mail saying, no one's going to buy this because your face is on it and what's going to buy it because you started this or I would buy it if your face wasn't on the bottle. Or even people like trying to be helpful saying a lot more people would buy this if you removed your face from the bottle. And so we were getting that criticism, but we were also getting people saying, I picked this up just because of your face or like it stands out so much on the shelves or your bottle really inspired me or inspired my daughter or just a lot of positive feedback as well. And so that really outweighed the negative criticism. And I think I decided along with my family to I decided to keep my face on the bottle, which in the end was a really amazing decision. But even if it wasn't, it was meant to inspire. And even if you're walking through grocery stores, you can still be inspired. Absolutely. Well, you have a heck of an inspiring story. There's no question about that. You mentioned closing sales, you know, and being the closer to sales. What do you think is the key to great salesmanship? How do you sell? I think the key to great salesmanship is believing in your product. That's probably the one thing that I've learned. I have a lot more to learn about sales, but believing in your product and really advocating for it. Obviously, you're growing this brand, you get more and more distribution. Are you having any challenges raising money? And how do you go about doing that? So whenever I present, I also talk at the very end, I say, you know, join my team, become a believer and reach out to us if you have any questions or if you'd like to join the team or help me grow my dream of this company. And so we will get offers from investors from there saying, I'm looking to diversify my portfolio or include more social companies in my portfolio. So that's one piece. Another one is we already have an amazing network of believers. So because I'm invited to speak at different conferences and even share my stories on podcasts like these, I've met investors. And if I needed to reach out or if there was something urgent, I could say, hey , would you be interested in learning a little bit more about the status of the company or investing? So we already have an amazing network. And then right now, the next step is a big one for us. So we are looking for people in companies that believe in the mission. And I'm going to sum it all up based on the past ones. We had our very first investment from damage on Shark Tank. And then more recently, we got another round of investments from 10 NFL players . And next, we're looking for investments so we can expand the company to all 50 states and beyond. Fantastic. And I also know that you've got plans to move beyond just the lemonade business and you're developing beeswax, lip balm. A lot of times people get into difficulties when they lose their focus. How have you rationalized moving into these other categories? Or is this really that serious for you? I'm not concerned about losing my focus as a leader because when I'm adding new products, even if it's an amazing idea, I want to make sure that it goes with, I mean, I want to make sure that everything combines well. So if it combines well, if it involves like honey from the same honey bee keepers that make the honey for the lemonade, we could also use their beeswax for the lip balms, that's amazing, and that also combines the lemonade with the lip balms or the t-shirts . So no, and I think a big part of that is my team that helps me stay focused and do exactly what I'd like to do with the company. What advice can you give to adults on how to best work with young leaders like yourself? I think the first one would be when, especially for parents, if you have kids that have an interesting idea or an amazing idea to them, instead of instantly shutting it down or saying no or wait till you're older, I would say, ask them, okay, tell me a little bit more, how are you going to do that? Let's go look online and read some books to see the next steps. That's a big one. That's something that my parents did that kind of kept me motivated to continue growing the company because they were interested in it. They wanted to hear what I had to say. The next thing that I say is learn how you can use, I say dream like a kid, learn how you can dream like a kid in your company and think of the opportunities of what you're doing instead of just the obstacles. So dream like a kid, and I think that will make it a lot easier to understand kids when they have their own companies or business ideas. You know, as I mentioned, and you just brought it up, you know, you've written this book, be fearless, dream like a kid, what does that mean? I mean, you know, what do you mean dream like a kid? Are you saying that adults don't dream? No, I'm saying that the biggest, I'm saying the biggest dreamers are kids. And I think if you're an adult, you also can make things happen a lot, not a lot faster, but you can turn those dreams into reality. So if you foster your kid mentality of dreaming big and having these huge ideas and then put those to action, I think that you can make a lot more change. And so the book Be Fearless Dream Like A Kid was for, it was initially for middle schoolers. And then I was like, they already dream like a kid. Let's figure out how I can take this book and also teach adults how they can dream like kids in business. And so it became like part memoir of how I started and grew me in the bees, but also part buzz in it. I call them buzz in the lessons, part buzz in the lessons that I've learned in business. Well, you've, I love that you've become a believer. You take this bee thing in the back. You've probably got more definitions for bees than anybody in the history of the world, more derivatives. That's great. You know, what advice can you give an adult that, you know, that would help them start their own business and follow their own dream? I would say once you have a great plan, I would say don't think about just the limits. One, don't think about your limits. Don't be afraid to fail. I actually, I actually failed a couple of companies before I started being the bees. I tried friendship bracelets. I tried selling rocks, painted rocks. I tried selling wildflowers and Play-Doh. And I started each of those without being afraid to fail. So I want to see if this is going to work. I would like to see if this is going to work. And I think through that approach, instead of getting mad at myself when I didn 't work, I was like, okay, I'm going on to the next thing. And then also, I think if you have a kid, share your idea with your kid, see what they think about it. If it's like a kid for the interesting idea or if you have an adult friend who you think dreams like a kid really well, share it with them, see what they think about it . So when you say dream like a kid is like, get rid of the barriers. Just think of the possibilities and see where that takes you. You got it. Absolutely. You think you dream like a kid with your David? Oh, man, I think I've always dreamt like a kid. You also focus teaching kids social, mindful entrepreneurship. That's a pretty big words there. Break that down for us. What do you mean by that? Okay. So entrepreneur is someone who identifies a problem or a need and creates a business, sometimes an organization to help solve it. Also entrepreneurship is someone who creates that business but also does good in the world through it. And so in my opinion, I think that social entrepreneurship, based on what I teach workshops and I do presentations and these are sometimes to schools, organizations or conferences, but kids are already, I don't even have to tell them or say, think about this. Think about having a social company. It's kind of automatic to them. They're automatically saying, oh, and I could use this to reduce ocean plastics or and I can donate other extra food to the homeless. And I was like, it comes naturally to them to be social entrepreneurs or to be social with whatever their business idea is. And I think that's truly amazing. You know, you have such good insights. I mean, you know, people are always telling you do what you love. What did you pick up and what advice do you give your friends and everyone on how to find your passion? What did how did you find your passion and what advice do you give others? I would say the first thing is to get out of your comfort zone. What comes naturally to us is trying to stick within our comfort zone. If you get out of your comfort zone, see new perspectives, meet new people. Because I think if you want to become an entrepreneur, if you want to find your passion, there has to be something to make better. And so if you're staying within the boundaries that you've created that are already better to you, there's no opportunity. There's no opportunity to be there. So get out of your comfort zone and be observant and keen to try to see what problems can be fixed or what can be improved. And you really want to inspire this next generation of change makers. Tell me more about this. I want to inspire the next generation of change makers. So whether that's through my book or becoming a role model from me starting my company and being a student at the same time, I want to encourage other youth not to just wait until they get older, but start now and start learning now, be excited to learn , starting their ideas. If it's a business idea, that's amazing. But starting their ideas now, because I guess now you have a lot more time to learn and fail and take risks. And people always ask, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Instead of, "What do you want to be?" Like, "What do you want to do?" And so I'd like to change that question and also change that answer for kids. You're obviously a business leader. You've created a brand. When you go to school, are you a leader at school? I'm not popular at school. But I do realize that a lot of my peers respect me. And if they have questions, even if it's especially if it's about business, they'll come to me and ask it. And so I have the leader of model entrepreneurs at my school, and I'm unapolog etic. And I'm also just a member of the regular student body. But that's one thing that's interesting is that I don't think there's popular people at my school. But I think I'm a leader. I think also school is a lot about teamwork. And so there's leaders in different things. And I guess I could be considered a leader when it comes to business or providing advice based on my experience. You know, one of your tips for entrepreneurs as I understand is that you don't have to do it alone. Who have you asked for help when you've really been challenged? So yes, I definitely have not done this alone. I mean, especially when I started as a four-year-old, I couldn't have done this alone. I had to ask questions. I had to ask for help. So from that point in time, it was my parents, who I talked about, who brought their expertise in business. It was also customers, which I think people often overlook. But asking customers what advice they would have on my product or what facts they knew about the bees. Since then, it has been my investors and also people who I meet when I travel to share my story, people who I hear their stories. That's really interesting. Let me go ask them some questions. Sometimes it's specific questions. It's getting guidance on next steps of the company or next steps of the nonprofit. You know, why do you think entrepreneurs are afraid to ask for help? I think maybe because a lot of the big entrepreneurs you see today, you see one person, not the whole team behind it. So maybe they think that in order to be one of the big entrepreneurs, it has to be just me, but they don't realize that there was a lot of mentoring, a lot of asking questions and confusion along the way. You're very high profile at a very young age. You've actually introduced President Obama at the United States Women's Summit. You were only 11 when you did that. I saw you on YouTube and you were so composed and so prepared and you're obviously so articulate. You know, how do you build up your own self-confidence to take on big challenges like that? I build myself confidence by having, being surrounded by good friends who encourage me, by always being prepared. I think when you come into a situation prepared, you have a lot more confidence . So being prepared for different situations or presentations or things like that , not being afraid to fail and learning from my failures. And I think another one is looking back on my past presentations, on my past interviews and being a little bit embarrassed realizing I have come a long way since then and just thinking about, if I, if I guess if I keep this up, I wonder what I'll think about my next interview or my interview today. So being comfortable with yourself and your form of myself and I guess continuing to improve but also realizing I'm great the way I am. You know, you sure are and we've talked a lot about dreams. And what advice would you give someone who has a big dream but they're afraid that they might not have what it takes to be successful? I mean, what do you think it takes to be successful? Everything that it takes to be successful is, I think it's all a gained skill. It's something that you can learn. So if you don't feel like you have what it takes and you're going to kind of give up that idea, I think that's just such a wasted opportunity realizing that you can learn that. So that's the first thing. And then I would also say if you're waiting on the perfect time or you think you don't have, you're not at the right time, I've heard this before but there is no perfect time. Like there's always going to be something or a little thing that is going to hinder whatever launch or whatever dream you want to start. So if you feel like you have an okay time, take that okay time and start there. And I think a good example of it was launching a book even though it was during a pandemic. That was really interesting because I mean, you're an author, you probably know for the book launching process, you're going to different bookstores and you're meeting readers and I wasn't able to do that for a be fearless. So it was online book signings and online interviews but this was something that I hadn't even considered was that people are staying home. They have a lot more time to read. So that was something that I overlooked but ended up being a pretty good thing in terms of launching my book. Well, you definitely were fearless when you did it. There's no question about that. So you walk the talk. No question about that. You know, what are you doing outside of? You know, running your lemonade company. What do you really love doing? I love, I love, I love going outside. So right now I have been actually for a while. I rollerblade pretty much every day or bike but it's mostly rotating biking and then from my school sport, I'm in caving and rock climbing. So we can't do much caving right now. We're kind of sticking to rock climbing or hiking. But that's, I guess my sport that I enjoy. And then I like being creative. So whether it's trying new recipes, if I have a little lunch break, I'll try a new recipe. I have pet chickens and a pet dog named Honey. So they lay really good eggs. They're like trying recipes from them. And I also really like reading. You know, Michaela, what would you say would be your most favorite thing about being a leader? My favorite thing about being a leader is being able to inspire people who may think that they don't have what it takes to be a leader. I mean, I'm going to think about that because I think it would be, I think it would be being able to inspire other people. You already have an audience. And so if you have something that you'd like to share, you have an audience to share that with. And also, inspiring the next generation or the next group of leaders. You know, Michaela, I've had a lot of fun asking you these questions and a lot of them are not that easy. I know. They made me think. You know, but you know what, I want to kind of begin to wrap this up with the lightning round of Q and A, there's ought to be a little bit of fun here. Okay. You know, so what would be the one word that best describes you? Flamboyant. Okay. I'm not that fun boy. I don't know. You're pretty clamboyant. Let's see. Creative, intuitive, non-tutative. Okay. I'll give you a three. Flamboyant, creative, intuitive. Okay. What's your favorite book? I'm looking at my book stack over here. My favorite book is Be Furlough's Dream Like a Kid. But if I had to go with one written by another author, right now it would, I really like Syph. It's by Neil Schusterman and it's part of the Syphum series. But I read that a couple of times. That's probably my favorite book that I can think of. I have a couple. Now, if you could trade places with anyone for a day, who would it be? I think Michelle Obama, I'd like to meet, you know, talk with the president. I'd like to talk with the first, the whole first family. And I like to see what it's like running a nonprofit and being an author and being a former first lady too. That would be amazing. Your favorite subject in school? Science. What's your biggest pet peeve? I, number one like thinking right now is my younger brother Jacob, but that's just right now. We're on online schooling and having us both on classes at the same time is interesting. But I think another one is when you're in a, I, I, I'm just in school right now . When you're in a group project and people don't want to be team members, like they want to be in the group, but they don't want to be a team member. And, and I guess contribute. That's another one. What's your favorite be fact? Hmm. That all the worker bees, whether it's, whether it's bees who are defending the hive, and this is a honeybee fact, all the worker bees, this means nurse bees, protection bees who stay out guard bees, or what they're called. Also the queen bee, of course, scouting bees, bees that go out and find flowers and sources of food. All those are female. That's something that's I think is interesting. What would be the three most important bits of advice you'd give aspiring leaders? Hmm. Three most important bits. First one is ask for help because there's always help back at the hive. The second one is learn the power of storytelling in business. And the third one is when it comes to watching and growing your business be fearless. Michaela, you've been running this business now for 10 years. That's your huge milestone. What are you doing with you and your team to celebrate this momentous occasion? Well, at our 10 year anniversary, and you celebrated it before the pandemic hit , we celebrated it by traveling. So I had a presentation in Budapest, so we traveled to Budapest and also made it a little bit of a vacation as well. And then also in Singapore at the Dell Women Entrepreneur Network and made it a little bit of a vacation as well. I think those are the biggest celebrations. That's good. Yeah, it's perfect. You've had so much success, Michaela. You've started your own business. You're CEO. You've written a book. You know, how do you stay humble? I say humble by looking at other leaders. I think I say humble by looking at other leaders and realize I have so much more that I can learn or many more skills that I can acquire. Another one is always like even when I graduate from my school, continuing to be a student and being open to and being open and excited to learn more things. When you look ahead, Michaela, where do you see me and the bees heading in the future? I see mean to bees as America's favorite women aid company. I see as a big women aid company with a big mission and a big impact that's been made. And then I also see, I guess I kind of want to see a measurable impact on saving the bees so an increase in bee populations. I want to see the people who I've started inspiring now to whatever the smile point we're looking at. I want to see their companies become big as well. Yeah, fantastic. You know, one of the really sad things that our countries had to deal with besides COVID-19 is we've seen just a lot of racial inequality in this past year. How do you look at that as a young person coming up and a young person of color ? Well, the first thing that I would say is I appreciate and acknowledge all of the hard work that my ancestors and my people have put in before me to allow me to even think about this idea, business idea, and then to actually get it to where it is today. I realize that this could not have been done without their work. The second thing is realizing that there's still a lot of change to be made. Like female black CEOs only get a tiny fraction of venture investments, even though they're the fastest growing statistic of new entrepreneurs. So there's a disconnect there. And then another thing is making sure to pressure other entrepreneurs or corporations to continue the change. Not just do it because it's a trend, but realize that there needs to be a lasting effect. And I hope that it will continue and we'll continue with the same speed and excitement and drive that we have right now in years to come. I hope so too. And when you think about the American dream, what's that mean to you today? That means being a problem solver, being resourceful, and amazing stories and inspiring stories. Not just from me, but from so many other people who are living their American dream. They've had amazing stories on how they started. You know, Michaela, I want to tell you how inspiring I think you are. And you're definitely making things happen and you provide such an inspiration and you talk about the importance of storytellers. Well, your story is amazing and I think it gives hope to people who really have ideas that they can make it happen in the world. So thank you so much for taking the time to be with me today. I appreciate it very much. Thank you. And thanks for asking some hard questions. That's just really easy one. I was a trip. I think you made them all sound pretty easy to make. Thanks. I have to tell you, Michaela has made a believer out of me. Oh my God. I really did it. Well, Michaela is an amazing leader. She has an amazing mission and I just can't wait to watch what she does in the future. You know, when she looks at life and business, she chooses to focus on the opportunities of a great idea. Not just the obstacles or the bad timing or whatever could get in the way. That's really inspiring and it's a great lesson for leaders of all ages. Let me take a second here and help you apply it. This week as part of your weekly personal development plan, ask yourself what dream or big idea of yours has been sitting on the back burner. A key initiative, a new venture, a fresh chapter in your own personal development. I don't know what it is, but I bet there's something. I think the older we get, the more likely we are to only see the obstacles when we consider those big dreams and ideas that we all have. But Michaela reminds us that we've got to focus on the opportunities. So take that dream or idea and list some of the great possibilities that could open up if you just decided to pursue it. Yeah, you'll have to consider some obstacles too, but it's just as important to focus on the opportunities and really dream like a kid. So do you want to know how leaders lead? What we learned today is the great leaders focus on opportunities, not just obstacles. Thanks again for tuning in to another episode of How Leaders Lead, where every Thursday you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world. I make it a point to give you something simple on each episode that you can apply to your business so that you will become the best leader you can be. [BLANK_AUDIO] [ Silence ]