FEMALE SPEAKER: I'd like to introduce Mikaila Ulmer.
She is our 10-year-old entrepreneur.
And Mikaila is going to start off today with a presentation.
And then she'll show us a couple of videos that she's done.
And then we'll go into a Q&A. And I just
want to start by saying that I think
Mikaila's a fantastic example that you're never
too young, like Mikaila, or too old to come up
with a great idea and take a risk
and be daring and do something that you've always dreamed to.
So with that, I'll let Mikaila take it away.
MIKAILA ULMER: Thank you.
So again, my name is Mikaila Ulmer.
And thank you for inviting me.
And thank you for coming.
Again, I'm 10 years old, and I'm in the fifth grade.
I'm from Austin, Texas and I am the founder and CEO
of Bee Sweet Lemonade.
[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]
I'm also a bee ambassador, student
and social entrepreneur.
So today, I'm going to tell you a little bit about my business
and some really interesting facts about the bees.
And then I'm going to show you some lessons
that I've learned on being an entrepreneur.
But first, let's start with a couple of bee jokes.
What did the bee say to the sushi?
Or what did the sushi say to the bee?
Take three guesses.
AUDIENCE: [INTERPOSING VOICES]
Yes!
You got it right.
[LAUGHTER]
Where do bees shop?
AUDIENCE: Where do bees shop--
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
AUDIENCE: I don't know.
Where?
MIKAILA ULMER: Bee [INAUDIBLE].
[LAUGHTER]
So Bee Sweet Lemonade is lemonade sweetened with honey.
And it has flax seed.
And it's currently bottled in glass.
We currently have four flavors, mint, prickly pear,
half and half tea lemonade and ginger.
Right now, something really big is
that Whole Foods carries our product
throughout the southwest region of the United States.
[CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]
And we went from selling it out of our lemonade stand
in a very small business to actually selling it
through Whole Foods throughout the southwest region.
And I started Bee Sweet Lemonade when I signed up
in two kids entrepreneurial events, Acton Children's
Business Fair and Austin Lemonade Day.
And so I signed up in those two events, and I needed a product.
So while I was trying to come up with a product,
two things happened.
I got stung by two bees in one week,
and my great granny, Helen, sent me
a 1940 cookbook with her favorite recipe of flax seed
lemonade.
I was very, very scared of the bees.
And I would overreact and freak out when they came anywhere
near me.
So my parents wanted me to just do some research on the bees
to see if would be a little bit less scared of them
And I did that research and I found out
how incredibly important pollinators they are
and how they're dying.
So I decided to create a product that helped save the bees,
and used my great granny Helen's recipe as well.
And that's how Bee Sweet was born.
Now, I save the bees because bees pollinate a third out
of all the food we eat.
And they also contribute over $14 billion
to the US agricultural economy a year.
So that's a lot of money, if you realize
how special the bees are.
And I also try to save them because they're
dying of chemical pesticides.
And here's some ways that we can help save them.
So you can support your local beekeepers
by buying local honey.
Or you could visit local beehives
and learn a little bit more about the bees.
You can plant flowers in different colors, shapes
or sizes to give the bees something to eat.
You can avoid using pesticides.
And chemical pesticides harm the bees,
so you can use natural and organic pesticides.
Or even ladybugs and praying mantises will keep pests away.
So try to avoid pesticides because they harm the bees.
And then share the buzz.
If you find anything about the bees,
you can share it with your friends
and tell your friends to share it with their friends.
And so we can spread the awareness
that the bees are dying and make more of an impact
on saving the bees.
So I've been an entrepreneur for five years.
And so--
[LAUGHTER]
[APPLAUSE]
Here are some lessons that I've learned while being
an entrepreneur for five years.
And so the first lesson is, working hard is a must.
In order to start and grow my business,
I had to work very hard.
In other words, as people like to say,
I had to wear a lot of hats.
I had to wear a marketing hat, finance hat.
I did workshops, teaching families on the bees.
And I still had to be a student.
So yes, in order to even start a business,
you have to work hard.
Lesson two is, you need passion and a lot of it.
As I mentioned earlier, one thing
that helped me start Bee Sweet Lemonade was that I got
stung by two bees in one week.
And again, I was very afraid of the bees,
and so my parents wanted me to do some research.
And doing that research, again, I
found out how incredibly important pollinators they are.
And I developed a passion for saving the bees,
learning about the bees, and just the bees in general.
And so with that passion, I think
that passion helped me create my business,
a growing, successful and thriving business.
And here's a little [INAUDIBLE] that I made up on passion.
You need passion and a lot of it, because the more passionate
you are about what you do, the more fun you
have while doing it.
And so, with that quote, that reminds me how important
passion is to my business.
Lesson three is inspiration comes from many places.
As I mentioned earlier, another thing that helped
start Bee Sweet Lemonade was that my great granny Helen sent
me a 1940s cookbook with her favorite recipe of flax seed
lemonade.
And we didn't know that that-- well, of course,
we thought it was special, but we
didn't know that that cookbook would help start a business.
We didn't know it would be an inspiration or anything,
but actually, that cookbook was the inspiration
behind the product I chose.
And we became inspired by, one, just how the flax seed
lemonade was made, and it was such a special way,
and two, how they had and utilized flax seed back
in those days, and three, just the recipe, how
it was old and special and passed on from our family.
So I just think that inspiration helped
create my business, a growing, successful and thriving
business.
And the last lesson, lesson four,
is you can be sweet and still be profitable.
[LAUGHTER]
[APPLAUSE]
I'm a social entrepreneur.
My business is focused on giving back.
And I donate my time and money to saving the bees.
And Bee Sweet Lemonade is very proud
to say that we are making a measurable impact on saving
the bees, and we're profitable at the same time.
So with that, I want everybody to conclude
that we don't have to choose between being sweet and being
profitable.
AUDIENCE: Right.
[APPLAUSE]
MIKAILA ULMER: Again, thank you for coming,
and thank you for inviting me.
If you'd like to learn more about my business or my mission
to save the bees, you can visit my website
at beesweetlemonade.com or my social media sites, Google+,
YouTube.
So that, and I think we're going to do videos now.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]