We were lucky to catch up with Michael Baptiste recently and have shared our conversation below.
Michael, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea
I started Be Greater Media Agency in 2015 after gaining experience being a co-founder of a start up beverage business called Fresh Start Beverage Company. The core product is called Banana Wave Bananamilk, which we packaged from an idea into a retail product that sells in stores like Walmart, Whole Foods, and many others. I also gained experience in the online marketing universe as a college student by creating and selling my own digital ebooks, courses, physical e-commerce products, and affiliate marketing. You see, I found myself in a position where I was able to turn my ideas into a digital course or ebook with an entire funnel, marketing system, and automated customer fulfillment platform with 5 days or less. I realized that I had valuable skills that I could pass on to help other people, and earn a greater living.
That’s when I went to my drawing board, and started to generate ideas on how I could start coaching people and help them start earning income online or with retail products like I do. Within a few hours of masterminding, the idea hit me that I could take my existing skill set, start coaching people on what I was doing to get results, then most likely they would be able to get results too.
So I did a beta test with one client to see if he could apply my information and get results. Within 2 weeks, that client reported back that he sold his first $5,000 package to deliver a done for you marketing service to his first client. Then I did another test with a 2nd client, and he generated results to the tune of 2 new clients for his coaching business along with $4,000 in sales in 7 days. This is when I knew I had something with my online coaching business, and thats when our High Ticket Freedom system was born. Since then we’ve been helping people from around the world turn their ideas, knowledge, story, and expertise into online courses, coaching and consulting programs, and retail products that can sell online or in stores.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am Michael Baptiste, I am an entrepreneur, a digital marketing expert, a certified life and business coach, and I am also a former professional overseas basketball athlete.
I got into the digital marketing industry back in college because I was desperate to earn income on my own and live life on my terms. I discovered internet marketing one day, took action on the information I learned, earned income on the first day, and I have been going deep into the industry ever since then. I met my business partner around the time when I was doing my first seminar teaching other college students what I was doing to earn income in my dorm rooms. Within a short time after that seminar, I came into the start up company as a co-founder to help him launch and scale Banana Wave Bananamilk to the world.
I solve the problem of educating people on how to turn their ideas, knowledge, experience, and expertise into their own online courses, coaching and consulting programs, and now their own retail products that can sell in the mass market. I help them learn how to market, advertise, sell, and scale their businesses.
What sets me apart is the fact that I have experience being on the co-founding team of an idea that went from just an idea in our college dorm rooms, to helping raise capital from investors, helping to innovate a new market segment with the non-dairy bananamilk market, to helping scale the brand into more than 4,000 retail stores internationally. I also have experience with transferring my skills as a professional athlete into my profession to help impact the lives of more people.
I am most proud of the fact that I was born to a single teenage mother in the inner city of Miami, while my father was in prison, and now I transformed myself into a real life success story based on what I wanted in my life. I am also very proud of the fact that we’ve helped many of our students, clients, and customers learn how to start earning more income online, and we have multiple of our students that went on to create their own thriving million dollar businesses online.
I speak English, Thai, Mandarin, Spanish, I love traveling, I have been traveling abroad through different countries in southeast Asia since 2017, and currently traveling in Thailand. I have been a digital nomad since 2015, and I am always looking to explore new parts of the world.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
I knew that I was dealing with obscurity, meaning no one knowing who I was, and how I could serve them. So I decided to do 1 video per day for 365 days to share my life with the world as we were building our start up businesses.
When I started the “365 Day Video Quote Challenge” I knew that it wasn’t going to be easy, however I knew it would give me a great chance to document our journey of creating OUR-story and making an impact in the world. Plus it would give me a chance to show the world that I am a new breed of inspiration that the people didn’t know they needed to hear from.
Along the 365 day video quote challenge journey I shared my story, I shared my family, I shared my intimate details, I shared my struggles, I shared my successes, I shared real life events, I shared my travels in another country, I shared the building of my online business, I shared the launching of our Banana Wave business, I shared behind the scenes content, and I shared my life with the world. I shared so much in such a transparent way that many people became long term supporters and followers of my journey. That allowed me to build an audience which still serves me today, and I get to still serve them today.
I would advise for those just getting started to plan very strategically about what you will be sharing, plan how you will approach your market, plan the strategy, plan to show up consistently, master one platform for one year, while distributing your content to all platforms, and be authentic. People will respect you for your consistency, your authenticity, and for the fact that you have something valuable to share. Also, these days you want to have an omnipresent approach with your marketing, meaning share your message and brand on all of the relevant platforms if you are to lead in this hyper-competitive entrepreneurial universe
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
Yes, I thought I was going to be a first round NBA draft pick, and so I trained hard in high school and dedicated my life to earning a scholarship so I could be seen at the next level by NBA scouts.
However, I suffered a terrible knee injury in the post season during my freshman year. That would lead to me having to get my 1st knee surgery. Once I thought I’d recovered, I tore my knee again less than 1 year after that surgery. I had to go back and get a 2nd knee surgery by the age of 20 years old. Thats when I knew that I needed to find another way since basketball wasn’t going to be the way for me anymore.
Before I knew it, I fell into a depression, dropped out of college, and went back home feeling like a total disgrace to my family and community. I felt like a failure, I felt like a loser, I felt like my life was over, I didn’t want to live life without basketball, and everyday was a serious struggle being back home knowing that my dreams of making it into the NBA were completely dead.
Then one day, an idea hit me “if I’m not going to make it to the NBA, then maybe I can inspire some other kids on how to make it to the next level of basketball like I did, and maybe one of them will make it to become a professional.” Thats when I started training, and coaching kids – and I discovered that I loved to coach others, inspire others, and motivate others, but I didn’t want to be coaching kids all day on the basketball court. I wanted something with more flexibility.
When this happened, I decided that I was going to pivot and find a way to be successful in life by inspiring others, motivating others, and helping other reach their dreams in life. Years later, this would lead me down the path to discovering digital marketing, creating my own products, and eventually coaching others on how to create their own products too.
Contact Info:
- Website: highticketfreedom.com
- Instagram: @mike_baptiste
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mrmichaelbaptiste/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelbaptiste/
- Twitter: @mike_baptiste
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCer7SJbpR4KarBfIemOAEAA
- Other: Join my Free Facebook group – the High Ticket Society: https://www.facebook.com/groups/highticketsociety Tune into my free podcast – The High Ticket Freedom Show – https://highticketfreedom.com/radio Get my free training – https://highticketfreedom.com/free-training
Image Credits
Thailand Professional Basketball League Think and Grow Rich International Masterminders Association Les Brown