♪ GARY: Next on Start Up, we head to Blue Ridge, Texas to meet up with Blake Shook and his team at Desert Creek Honey, a company that sells raw, unfiltered honey and all things beekeeping.

All of this and more is next on Start Up.

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SARAH: I never dreamed of being an entrepreneur.

My goal was to get any free first aid kit in America.

JONO: It's been an awesome journey for us.

ANNOUNCER: More than 60% of sales in Amazon's store come from independent sellers like Sarah and Jono at First Honey.

Amazon, a proud supporter of Start Up.

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♪ GARY: My name is Gary Bredow.

I'm a documentary filmmaker and an entrepreneur.

As the country faces uncertainty, small business owners continue to persevere, pushing the economy forward with their unrelenting drive and determination.

We've set out for our 12th consecutive season, talking with a wide range of diverse business owners to better understand how they've learned to adapt, innovate, and even completely reinvent themselves.

♪ This is Start Up.

♪ ♪ Beekeeping is the practice of owning and maintaining colonies of bees for the purpose of harvesting honey, beeswax and other bee- related products.

Beekeepers, also known as apiarists, manage the bees by providing them with suitable hives, regularly inspecting the colonies and ensuring that they have access to food sources.

In addition to honey production, bees play a crucial role in pollinating crops, making beekeeping an essential part of agriculture.

Today I'm heading to Blue Ridge, Texas to meet up with Blake Shook, the owner of Desert Creek Honey, a company that sells raw, unfiltered honey and all things beekeeping.

From what I know, Blake developed a passion for bees at the age of 12 when he won a beehive in a contest.

And his interest in apiculture only increased into adulthood.

I can't wait to meet Blake and learn more about this business.

♪ If you could lament on the importance of bees in the overall ecology of our world.

BLAKE: Such a good question.

I mean, bees are the backbone of all of agriculture and food supply.

One out of every three bites of food we take is from a honeybee's pollination efforts, and then another bite of food is indirectly related.

So bees pollinate things like alfalfa, which we use to feed animals.

And so two outta three bites of food would essentially disappear if it wasn't for honeybee pollination.

We would not have the nutrient-rich food that we have, and we wouldn't have the variation that we have.

90 fruits and vegetables are directly dependent on honeybees for pollination, and yet it's such a tiny industry and it's such a fragile industry, and yet we truly depend on it for our way of living.

GARY: Take us back to the beginning.

BLAKE: When I was 12, I was always entrepreneurial.

And I had convinced my parents that I was going to be a chicken farmer.

GARY: A chicken farmer?

BLAKE: Yes, I know, right?

And so I was gonna have a huge chicken farm in their backyard, and I think they believed me.

And so they're like, we gotta get this kid on anything else other than chicken farming.

One of the things they signed me up for was a youth scholarship program that was trying to get kids involved in beekeeping, because only 4% of beekeepers are under 40.

And so it's kind of a... GARY: Wow.

BLAKE: Dying industry.

And so this local club... GARY: Yeah.

BLAKE: Was trying to get kids involved, and so they signed me up for this scholarship and I won it and I got a free beehive, a free class, but... GARY: A free beehive?

That'd be terrifying.

BLAKE: Yes.

GARY: People run from beehives.

They don't win them.

BLAKE: Exactly!

And so I won this thing and like two classes in, I fell in love and I started producing my own honey and went from two beehives to four to eight.

And then before I knew it, local grocery stores were calling, saying, "Hey, I heard you sell honey."

GARY: What?

BLAKE: And- and so I started selling honey to like a local grocery store.

And before I knew it, I had a sideline business in high school, and continued to build it through high school and moved into it full-time, right outta high school.

♪ ♪ ♪ GARY: I heard rumblings about a chicken farm.

So are you glad he went this direction?

LYNDON: Yeah, so my wife and I had this fear that we're gonna have like thousands of chickens on our property.

And so we had to do something.

GARY: It's crazy to me that Blake at 12 years old discovered what he wanted to do.

LYNDON: You know, within the first couple of classes, I mean, he was all in, and he tends to be that way anyway.

GARY: He goes all in on whatever he does?

LYNDON: All in.

And so he really enjoyed it and really loved it.

By the second class, he was getting phone calls.

People had swarms of bees GARY: Mm-hmm.

Yep.

LYNDON: In their yard or attached to their house.

They would call Blake.

He and I would go get those swarms.

We really didn't know what we were doing, but just kinda learned as we go and jump in and do that.

GARY: Yeah.

LYNDON: So yeah, a lot of opportunity.

♪ GARY: When you were selling early on, I would assume probably local cottage laws came into play?

BLAKE: They did, yeah.

GARY: Okay.

BLAKE: There were local cottage laws, but, you know, even in my mid-teens, you know, I built a- you know, my grandfather and I literally built a, you know, 15 by 20 building that could pass local health laws and codes.

GARY: Like your own commercial kitchen.

BLAKE: Yeah.

My own little commercial kitchen.

And so that's what I had to have to get into like, you know, this grocery store chain that had six stores, you know?

And they required that food manufacturer's license.

And so I built a building that could pass and started selling.

GARY: Talk about your first like, I guess big sale.

BLAKE: My first I would say big win was, I actually got on a reality TV show.

GARY: What?

BLAKE: Yeah.

When I was in my early 20s.

GARY: Okay.

What TV show?

BLAKE: It was called Billion Dollar Buyer.

It only lasted a few seasons.

But it was this billionaire, Tillman Fertitta was his name, and he owns the Houston Rockets and Landry's Empire and Golden Nugget Casinos.

And they were doing a TV show on like going out, getting to know small businesses, and then you pitch him to supply his empire with your product.

And so we did, you know, a couple days of filming and came out and did the whole thing.

Met the guy and pitched him on like, "Hey, let us supply your empire with honey, all your restaurants, all your stores."

GARY: Yep.

BLAKE: You know, thinking whatever, we're not gonna get this thing.

And we got it.

So we got this, we like, okay.

GARY: A massive contract?

BLAKE: You know, it's this huge contract.

GARY: What kind order did that look like?

I can't even imagine.

BLAKE: It was hundreds of thousands of dollars, you know?

It was hundreds of thousands of pounds of honey.

GARY: What was going through your head at this time?

BLAKE: I was thrilled and terrified.

And so in two and a half months, we had to jump out, buy this automated packing line, scale up, hire a few employees, produce more honey.

And we did it.

I mean, we did it.

And then at that point we were thinking, okay, well if we're doing it at this scale, we may as well approach a Walmart, you know?

We may as well go big on Amazon.

We may as well try to start selling honey to scale, now that we have this equipment.

And that's kind of where we started diversifying.

That was the point at which we said, "Okay, let's be more than just a beekeeping company.

Let's pack and sell honey."

GARY: Got it.

BLAKE: And then, okay, well we built out the infrastructure for that.

Let's get into pollination.

Let's get into selling beekeeping supplies retail.

Let's help other people get started in beekeeping.

And so that was the starting point of a much more diversified business.

♪ GARY: Talk about the different divisions of your company.

I understand that you have six different businesses, under this umbrella?

BLAKE: Right, right, right.

GARY: Let's break down each one of them.

BLAKE: Absolutely.

So our legacy one is, you know, our commercial beekeeping operation, right?

Where we have, you know, thousands and thousands of beehives that we're using to produce all this honey.

Then we have our packaging company, so Desert Creek Honey, where we package all this honey, sell it to retailers.

And we have a company called The Bee Supply.

And The Bee Supply, we have three retail locations: Dallas, Austin, Houston.

GARY: Amazing.

BLAKE: And then we sell a ton through e-commerce to help people get started in beekeeping.

So we've got a thousand SKUs of products.

So anyone that wants to start beekeeping themselves on a small scale level in their backyard, we do a ton of education for free.

So we teach classes, we have a YouTube channel, we have videos to help people get started at beekeeping and then we can sell them all their supplies and the live bees.

We have one similar called Commercial Bee Supply that's located in the Midwest, and that sells supplies to commercial beekeepers, so guys like me that are raising thousands of beehives.

And then we have a company called Desert Creek Bulk Bees, where we essentially raise honeybees and resell them.

So this is helping other people repopulate their businesses.

Final company is called Desert Creek Pollination.

And that business is actually located in the Central Valley in California where we broker bees.

So we take tens of thousands of beehives of other beekeepers and we use them to pollinate the almonds in California.

The biggest pollination event in the world is California almond pollination.

You know, with bees, almonds produce about 3,000 pounds per acre.

Without bees, they produce about 300 pounds per acre.

And so it takes every commercially managed beehive in the country to pollinate the almonds.

Almond growers pay us a lot of money 'cause they have to have the bees to bring our bees, pollinate their almond crops.

And then it's done in early March, and then your bees can move on to the next event, whether it's honey production or splitting other pollination.

GARY: It's this whole underground world happening.

BLAKE: It is, absolutely.

GARY: Most people will have no clue about.

BLAKE: Right, right.

Right.

GARY: Wow.

BLAKE: So our company does a lot of the logistics work for a lot of those other companies.

So a lot of people just send their bees out, don't come out themselves.

And so we receive their bees, put 'em in almond orchards, negotiate with the growers.

GARY: Give 'em a ride.

BLAKE: Exactly, give 'em a ride.

Yep.

♪ GARY: Tell me about the facility and the site that we're at right now.

What's the history and origin of this place?

LYNDON: This building that we're in, and the retail store over here... GARY: Mm-hmm.

LYNDON: These were a couple of buildings that Blake built, back around 2013.

These were his honey houses.

GARY: Okay.

LYNDON: So where he extracted honey.

Eventually he outgrew this property and decided to buy land down the road.

So this was actually on my land.

I didn't want him to sell it to anyone else.

So I bought it back from him.

And then after about a year or so, we thought, "Well, we need to do something with those buildings."

So we talked to Blake, and Blake had always wanted to start a bee supply store.

GARY: Excellent.

LYNDON: And so my wife and I, Tammy, said, "Okay, let's do that."

And so we just kind of jumped right in and we stocked the store.

Didn't hire anybody at first.

We manned it ourselves.

GARY: Okay.

LYNDON: We had no idea if it was gonna be a part-time job.

You know, people come in occasionally to buy things.

GARY: Sure.

LYNDON: So we just took that step to see what happens.

GARY: Are you doing a lot of shipping and fulfillment of the products in this store, or are you relying on physical foot traffic to walk through?

LYNDON: Yeah, so it's both.

So we do all our fulfillment and e-commerce out of this store.

GARY: Okay.

LYNDON: It's also retail space.

So a lot of walk- in customers.

♪ GARY: Tell me everything about this store.

What do you guys sell here?

What do you supply?

What do you do at this store?

JENNIFER: Our store is a front for the hobbyist beekeeper.

We have everything they need for starting out, everything from protective wear to wooden wear, methods of controlling pests.

Pretty much you can buy anything you need as a beekeeper here at our location.

GARY: For a brand new beginner, what is the key to success in beekeeping?

JENNIFER: Learn and be willing to take in lots of opinions.

There are so many different things that you can do as a beekeeper in many, many different ways.

So you have to test things out and see what works best for you.

♪ GARY: How hard is it for a beginner to get into beekeeping?

RICK: They give kind of like online classes on different subjects in the beekeeping and stuff.

I took- me and my friend of mine took a college course.

GARY: All about beekeeping?

RICK: Yeah.

Basically.

And we had to buy a book, and the guy that was teaching it was a beekeeper.

He had about 90 hives.

GARY: What do you think of this store and what the folks at Desert Creek are doing?

RICK: They're doing a good job.

They- they will inform you that they're not scared to tell you something.

If you're doing it wrong, they'll tell you.

But if you're doing it right, they'll also pat you on the back.

GARY: Good.

RICK: Which is good.

♪ GARY: Are you married?

Kids?

BLAKE: I am married.

Yeah, married.

GARY: Okay.

BLAKE: Got two amazing kids, two girls.

GARY: Is your family involved in the business at all?

BLAKE: So my wife and kids, not so much.

My dad still works with me part-time now.

My younger brother... GARY: Yeah.

BLAKE: Is our head of beekeeping operations.

And then one of my other brothers is our VP of sales on our honey packing side.

GARY: Amazing.

BLAKE: So, yeah.

So I do have some family members.

And then eight years ago now, my best friend and I became business partners, and he's a brilliant businessman.

I know the beekeeping side, he knew the business side.

And so when we started scaling and diversifying, I was like, "Man, I don't know what I'm doing on the business side."

You know, I didn't go to college and I learned everything the hard way.

GARY: Yep.

BLAKE: And so I really saw a need for, "Hey, if I'm gonna scale, I need someone that really knows business."

GARY: How has the partnership been?

BLAKE: Amazing, yeah.

And so we've been able to stay incredible friends and business partners for a long time.

GARY: Yeah.

BLAKE: And we complement each other.

I think that's so important in a business relationship, GARY: Yeah.

BLAKE: Business partnership, 'cause business partnerships usually don't work.

I mean, I've been a part GARY: Yeah, it's rare.

BLAKE: Of 'em in the early days and I've had some that didn't work.

But I think when you find someone that really complements your weaknesses, GARY: Yep.

BLAKE: And vice versa, it can really work.

♪ GARY: What were the major sort of blanks that you were filling in?

ANDREW: When I joined, there was a business foundation.

He was just wearing way too many hats.

GARY: Got it, stretched thin.

ANDREW: He got stretched very thin.

And so, you know, what he's extremely good at is seeing an opportunity and growing it from a concept to, you know, a few million dollars.

And then kind of from there, I'm good at systemizing it, figuring out how do we scale it in a profitable and sustainable way.

And so that's kind of the one-two punch we've developed over the years.

GARY: What are all the grocery retail outlets, right now, that you're selling in?

ANDREW: So we're in Walmart all throughout Texas, H-E-B all throughout Texas, Safeway regional chains kind of throughout the country.

GARY: Yep.

ANDREW: And then a bunch of other small ones, Wegmans, Publix, chains like that kind of throughout the country.

GARY: Obviously there's a lot of competition, especially for shelf space ANDREW: Yep.

Yeah.

GARY: In a physical grocery store.

What's your approach to marketing and branding, you know, the product itself?

ANDREW: For us, it comes down to our story.

We're the only company in the country that's selling honey in grocery retail stores, but is also a beekeeping company and so heavily invested in the agricultural space in the bee world.

It's about getting that story out there and about telling people, you know, why- why they can trust us, and telling them why we do what we do.

♪ GARY: Give me some examples.

What are you making back here?

BRIAN: Right, well our most exciting new product is, the hot honey that we're making, mixing several different peppers in to create a nice, flavorful hot honey.

GARY: Is this used as a dip?

Or are people like, like it smells kinda like, something I would dip a chicken finger in or something like that.

Or is there other applications for it?

BRIAN: There's a lot you can use it for.

You could use it to glaze meats.

You can use it as a- a hot wing- for hot wings, for Asian food.

There's a ton of different things.

GARY: Like a marinade or something like that, even.

Okay.

I would love to try it.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Oh my God.

That's got some heat to it!

BRIAN: It does, a little bit of a kick.

GARY: We should have brought a glass of milk out with it.

Whew!

Wow yeah, that's- that's- that's potent.

I love it though.

It's really, really good.

♪ Where all do you have your beehives?

BLAKE: Texas is our headquarters.

So our bees spend March, April, May and June in Texas.

And then once it gets too hot and dry in Texas, it's not good for the bees.

I mean, they don't do well at a hundred degrees.

GARY: So you move them?

BLAKE: So we literally pick up the beehives, put them on a semi-truck at night, put a net over the truck.

The truck drives all day and unloads the bees usually further north in the Midwest, you know, Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota.

GARY: Wow!

BLAKE: Spring is just starting up there in June.

GARY: So you've really built like, a national ecosystem, yourself.

BLAKE: Yes, oh absolutely.

GARY: In terms of moving and transporting.

BLAKE: It's a very transient- that piece of the company is very transient I mean, we have crews, managers, housing.

I mean, everything moves to two to three different locations every year.

GARY: So do you have the same staff that follows the bees, or do you have people locally set up?

BLAKE: Same staff.

GARY: Same staff?

BLAKE: Yeah.

GARY: They travel every year?

BLAKE: They travel, yeah.

GARY: Wow.

BLAKE: So, you know, my younger brother, actually, manages our commercial beekeeping operation now.

And so he and his family have a house in Texas and they have another one up in the Dakotas where they live and then they spend a lot of time in California in the winter, you know.

So yes, it's kind of a transient lifestyle.

GARY: This is awesome, man.

BLAKE: Yeah.

GARY: If this TV thing doesn't work out, I'm getting into bees.

I'm fascinated right now.

BLAKE: It has its fun moments, and then it can be painful sometimes.

♪ GARY: Tell me where it is that we're going right now.

BLAKE: So we are headed to one of our commercial beekeeping holding and staging locations.

So this is our kind of defense against the weather because when we have thousands of beehives coming in on trucks, we have to have somewhere to unload them in case it's wet or rainy or the weather's bad before they go out into the fields where they're going to ultimately live.

GARY: Holy cow.

I take it we're here right now because there are bees.

BLAKE: All the bees, yes.

So sometimes we'll have up to two or 3,000 beehives at this one location.

Now today, there's only a couple hundred here.

GARY: Oh my gosh.

This is pretty incredible, man.

So this is just a holdover.

That's all it is.

BLAKE: They don't spend more than a few days here.

And so the trucks come in, the nets get taken off, they get unloaded here... GARY: Wow.

BLAKE: And then after a couple days, they'll go out into, you know, 40 to 50 different locations where they'll stay for a couple months, making honey.

GARY: Okay, well we are here.

Drove around the property.

Time to get out and take a closer look, I guess.

BLAKE: Let's go look at some bees.

GARY: With an outfit on- a bee suit on.

BLAKE: That's right.

We're gonna put a bee suit on.

GARY: Okay.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ How fragile are bee's existence right now?

I mean, is there a really extreme threat?

BLAKE: I have a lot of hope.

I mean, there's a lot of work going on in genetics and breeding a better bee and fighting these pesticides and finding unique ways to keep bees safe and healthy.

But people need to be concerned, and I think people are concerned.

People need to be buying, you know, American honey to support the American beekeeper.

People need to be pushing their legislators for reducing pesticide use on major crops.

I mean, people... GARY: Yep.

ANDREW: Need to be concerned about this.

I don't think we're at the panic point, but they need to be paying attention.

GARY: What can a lay person do to contribute and do their part?

BLAKE: If you have a bee problem, find a local beekeeper and call them.

Don't call the extermination company, because a lot of beekeepers can come rescue those bees.

Buying real American honey is huge because that allows beekeepers to take care of their bees, not spraying pesticides that are unnecessary.

And then, you know, I would say consider donating to bee-friendly causes, and looking for companies that support bee- friendly causes.

GARY: What is the biggest challenge or bottleneck with this company?

ANDREW: We've been very intentional about self-funding our growth.

We've been growing roughly 40% year over year for seven years in a row now.

GARY: Oh my gosh.

ANDREW: So when you're self-funding that, cash can get tight at times, right?

GARY: Yeah.

ANDREW: And so for us, it's constantly looking at that juggling act of where do we need to grow, where do we see opportunity, where should our cash go and where do we need to be more conservative?

GARY: So cash flow management.

ANDREW: It's constantly prioritizing your opportunities and how aggressively you pursue things.

GARY: You guys have never had to take any sort of loans or any capital?

ANDREW: Well okay, so yeah, so self-funding, we've definitely taken loans.

We just have never taken outside investment money.

GARY: Any advice to somebody else, trying to get into the CPG space?

ANDREW: Don't do it.

GARY: Don't do it?

ANDREW: I'm just kidding.

GARY: Okay.

ANDREW: It's challenging.

It's very challenging.

It's rewarding, but you have to be willing to put in the really long hours, crazy late nights.

GARY: Yep.

ANDREW: You know, be stressed out... GARY: And accept failure.

ANDREW: Accept failure 'cause that's absolutely gonna come.

And just be resilient.

GARY: What is the future of this company?

How far do you wanna take it?

BLAKE: We want to help save the bees.

We want to provide amazing, healthy products that not only tastes amazing, but is good for you as a consumer.

GARY: Yep.

BLAKE: And we don't see much of a ceiling there.

And so we want to continue scaling these businesses as long as we feel like they're benefiting the consumer and benefiting the industry, benefiting bees.

We have big plans, and we wanna keep scaling each of our business units.

GARY: In hosting Start Up over the last 12 years, there are people that I've met that just seem to have a profound and definitive sense of clarity about their life's purpose.

And it may be impossible to understand the behavioral, biological, or environmental factors that contribute to having this level of assuredness about their direction in life.

Either way, Blake is definitely one of those people.

He knew at 12 years old, exactly what he wanted to do.

And he's still doing it at an incredibly high level.

Blake has assumed a level of responsibility on behalf of the bees, and the business is simply a byproduct of his commitment to these imperative insects and the vital role that they play in the overall health of our ecosystem.

While some people are immediately drawn to something specific, most of us have to search our entire lives to find our calling.

And regardless of where you fall on that scale, the important part is that you stay true to yourself and your interests, explore everything available to you and never stop looking.

I'm so grateful for Blake and all the other beekeepers who are out there doing the necessary work that many of us would rather not do.

For more information, visit our website and search episodes for Desert Creek Honey.

Next time on Start Up, we head to Dallas, Texas to meet up with Jennifer Allen, the founder of Just Elope, a business that specializes in micro-weddings for couples seeking a luxurious wedding day experience on an intimate scale.

Be sure to join us next time on Start Up.

Would you like to learn more about the show?

or maybe nominate a business?

Visit our website at startup-usa.com, and connect with us on social media.

♪ ♪ We've got a long road ahead of us ♪ ♪ A long road ahead of us ♪ Got a long road ahead of us ♪ ♪ Before we pay our dues ♪ We've got a long road ahead of us ♪ ♪ A long road MAN: That's good, there you go.

GARY: Oh!

(indistinct) ♪ I'm sitting in a cave.

ANNOUNCER: The future is not just going to happen, you have to make it and GoDaddy Airo can help you get your business online with an AI-generated name, logo and website.

GoDaddy Airo, learn more at godaddy.com/airo.

ANNOUNCER: Running a business isn't easy.

BambooHR supports your HR strategies by automating operational tasks, leaving you with more time to concentrate on what's most important to you and your business.

Learn more at BambooHR.com.

BambooHR, a proud supporter of Start Up.

JARRED: We have a mission, and we call it sweat and do good.

BRANDON: The more we're able to grow our business, the more we're able to give back to our community.

ANNOUNCER: More than 60% of sales in Amazon's store come from independent sellers like Brandon and Jarred at NOOMA.

Amazon, a proud supporter of Start Up.

ANNOUNCER: Colonial Penn offers guaranteed acceptance, a type of whole-life insurance that does not require answering health questions or taking a medical exam.

Learn more at colonialpenn.com or by calling 1-800-372-8383.

Colonial Penn is a proud supporter of Start Up.