What kind of DNA creates a successful entrepreneur? Nearly everyone can agree that you must be ready for everyone to push back on what you think is going to work; from investors, customers and the overall market. The more impact that your idea is going to have on the market place, the more you can expect people to say “you can’t” even when you feel deep in your heart that you really can. Being able to create action and go beyond just the discussion of what might work is what it really takes to build something new, something creative… something with value.
Those fundamentals are well understood by Jessica Kim who is the magician behind the curtain for BabbaCo baby products. You may be wondering why a typically technolog oriented blog is talking about baby products, and the answer is simple 1. The market in which you want to develop yourself has absolutely no bearing, the fundamentals are the same, and 2. Jessica Kim is an incredibly bright, outgoing individual who had her first taste of tangible success while in college.
Jessicas Wonders
As mentioned above, Jessica had already been able to check a genuine success off her list of to do’s by the time she generated market interest, investment and revenues around her first company called ‘Jessicas Wonders‘. This baked goods company had been her project from a dorm room her Sophomore year (at Brown no less) and generated a respectable $1 million by her senior year in seed capital. She was ultimately able to grow the business to $3 million, but the important part of Jessicas Wonders was that she finally understood not only what it took to create success but more importantly understood what it took to be happy with what she does on a day to day basis. This excitement and energy for life (which even over the phone is contagious) wouldn’t be contained for long and so began her new venture.. BabbaCo.
BabbaCo
As Jessica progressed with her life and with her family, the entrepreneur in her DNA started to itch with all the new opportunities and challenges that are associated with being a new parent. As she started to look at available solutions, it was obvious that there were practical needs for new products but the type of customer who buys the products also looks for a particular type of style that fits into their lifestyle and identity. So she started to create products that, much like their website, utilize crisp design and functionality to deliver product value few vendors are able to do in her space.
The creativity that is represented in her products, is only matched by the outgoing nature of her personality. If you don’t believe that after looking at her website, consider that she is now working with Gary Vaynerchuk the author of “Crush It!” because she was able to captivate his passion for personal brands and is now taking on clients through Vayner Media and I think that partnership is going to build Babba Co into a near unstoppable force in their market. In the next few years you can count on Jessica Kim to be the authority for baby products not only through her own company… but for the entire industry.
What it takes
So Jessica made it in baked goods, and now has a strong partnership in the baby product industry.. but how can I apply this to what I am doing, how can I expect to have the opportunity to sit down with Gary Vaynerchuk and be outgoing enough to get his attention and make him interested in what I am doing? The reality is that no matter what industry you are in, or who you think will help you facilitate what you are doing you need to remember a few key points:
- Be genuine. We live in an age that doing something negative or shady will always come back to bite you. Own who you are and what you are trying to accomplish and your audience will start to assemble itself.
- Have a vision. If you simply want to copy and clone people who have reached success in everything they have done, it may produce short term returns. However, only those who can think creatively see real success.
- Work your ass off. Nothing in life is free, but this actually a good thing for those willing to put in the effort. As Seth Godin describes in his book ‘The Dip”, those barriers to entry are your friend because it is what separates the leaders from the consumers. Put in the effort, stick to your passion, innovate and successful will soon follow.
What is your passion, what are you doing to make the big picture come together and what roadblocks are you running into? Let me know in the comments or on Twitter! Today is day 1 of your new success story.
BUT, I bring this up instead to try and understand what the definition of “freedom” means to you?
