[00:00] Akeem Shannon: I auditioned for Shark Tank. It was pandemic year, 2020. And not only that, I kept telling the producers I want to be on before Black Friday, so I get the most sales. Well, they obliged. But it happened to be that the Friday before was Election Friday. And it was four days after the election. And if you remember, no one knew who the president was the Friday after the election.

[00:24] Akeem Shannon: And so my episode gets pushed by two hours and I’m getting real nervous. I’m just like, there’s no way that I could come this far, get on national television, the Super Bowl of business, and then I get screwed out of it. Like, there’s just no way.

[00:41] Akeem Shannon: Welcome

[00:42] Jim Harshaw Jr.: to another episode of Success with the Athletic Minded. Man, real talk on harnessing your athletic drive for clarity, consistency, and focus in business and life. This is your host, Jim Harshaw, Jr. And today I bring you Akeem Shannon. Akeem is the CEO of an Inc magazine top 50 fastest growing consumer brand.

[01:05] Jim Harshaw Jr.: He has an incredible story. He had a full scholarship going to college, dropped out due to poor academic performance, ended up on Shark Tank, launched a Kickstarter campaign. The story you’re about to hear takes all these turns, these unexpected turns that you would just not believe. And it is an incredible story.

[01:25] Jim Harshaw Jr.: He shares a book that is really the crux of the mindset that carried him through the ups and downs of his journey. And he shares about his athletic experience as well. You’re going to get a lot out of this practically and sort of tactically, but you’re also going to Really hear an amazing story from an amazing person.

[01:44] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So here we go. This is my interview with Akeem Shannon. You have openly shared your story, your journey from college dropout to the CEO of a top consumer brand. Can you share that here with my

[01:58] Akeem Shannon: audience? Yeah, man. I mean, look, it’s been a crazy journey, you know, for me, it started. As you mentioned, dropping out of school, right?

[02:05] Akeem Shannon: I had a full scholarship. I was studying chemical engineering and I lose it. And I was devastated. I remember being up in school and I hadn’t told my parents, hadn’t told anyone. And I was actually like squatting in the dorm for an entire semester. And at the time I didn’t realize it, but man, I was going through just severe like anxiety and depression.

[02:24] Akeem Shannon: I mean, I was in a really dark space and you know, when I finally told my parents and I came home, You know, I just made myself a promise that I needed to, by the time my friends graduate college, I have to be making at least as much as the average college graduate. And that set me off on a journey. You know, I went, worked at two Fortune 500 companies, became a top sales rep at both of those companies, saved up nearly 100, 000 over the course of about four years.

[02:50] Akeem Shannon: So I started making six figures at one of those organizations. I ended up working at Square, which was, I always wanted to work for a tech company and got to work with them and Cash App. But I wasn’t fulfilled. I had done sales. I was making more money than ever. I felt like I recovered from that failure, but I wasn’t satisfied anymore.

[03:06] Akeem Shannon: I wasn’t enjoying life. And so I quit. And that led me on this crazy journey of starting Flipstick from reading this book, The Alchemist, that Changed my whole perspective on life to, you know, starting Flipstik, writing my own patents and trademarks, and eventually, applying to be on Shark Tank, not making it.

[03:25] Akeem Shannon: And then going in a very roundabout way of wrapping a pitch to Sean Diddy Combs, who introduced me to Snoop Dogg Dogg got me on Shark Tank. And then we ended up getting in all these different retailers like Target and Best Buy and AT& T and. You know, eventually I made my way back up to Washington, DC, where I once flunked out of school at Howard university.

[03:45] Akeem Shannon: And that time I was back at the invitation of the commissioner of the Smithsonian museum, and they were putting me in an exhibit on the history of cell phones. There was some reason, and man, it’s just been an incredible journey of failure, success, and then failure again with lots of setbacks, but man, you know, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

[04:08] Akeem Shannon: It’s been truly. A great pleasure to, to be on this

[04:11] Jim Harshaw Jr.: trip. I want to unpack this because this is a perfect conversation, not only for my prior podcast success through failure, but it’s perfect for this as well. Cause we’ll get into your athletic background and how that kind of may have influenced you and affected you as well.

[04:23] Jim Harshaw Jr.: But so you fail out of school. And listen, I’m, I’m a guy and you told me off the recording that you’re, I mean, you sound like a really normal guy too. And about the sense that if I had to fail out of college, I’d have been like, okay, I’m, I’m not cut out for this success. Isn’t for me, but you decided that I’ve got to make at least as much as the typical college graduate.

[04:46] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Making, getting a college degree was supposed to make that easier, but you chose the hard road. Yeah. I had to do it the hard way. Yeah. Well, like what’s going through your head that makes you think, okay, I’m not doing the thing that I’m supposed to do to be able to make the money that I’m supposed to be able to make, but I’m just going to do it anyway.

[05:02] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Like what was going through your mind? What drives you

[05:04] Akeem Shannon: to think like that? Honestly, I was embarrassed, you know, like I went to a school where I was like one of five black kids in the school and, you know, I was a pretty smart kid. I had this full scholarship to go to college and everyone thought I was going to make it.

[05:19] Akeem Shannon: I’m a parent’s only kid, you know, and I just failed. Felt embarrassed and I felt ashamed and I didn’t want anyone to know that I had failed. And so in my head, I was like, okay, well look, I flunked out of school, but if I can at least be as successful or more successful by the time all my friends graduate, my peers, well then I won’t feel so bad because I just felt ashamed.

[05:43] Akeem Shannon: I didn’t feel good. And so that’s really what drove me is I was like, I don’t, I didn’t know how I was going to get there. Right. But I just knew I had to get there. And so that journey started in a cell phone store. I was working for Sprint selling cell phones and cell phone accessories. And I just knew I had to do it.

[06:01] Akeem Shannon: And at the time, man, like I had nothing. I owed my school 4, 000 for squatting in the dorm and then I didn’t have a car. So I had to ride my bike to the bus station, take the bus an hour to get to the store every day, and it was just, it was the worst. I hated it. I’d never taken the public bus in my life.

[06:21] Akeem Shannon: And so here I was, and I’m just like, man. I can’t let anyone know about this failure if I was just determined to make up for

[06:29] Jim Harshaw Jr.: it. It’s interesting. I have a business partner, Dr. Tom Perrin, who the listeners may remember the episode. I interviewed him, had him on about six months ago, but he’s a performance psychologist he’s worked with.

[06:40] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Professional, a lot, a lot of professional athletes from NBA, NHL, women’s and men’s national, world cup, national teams and on and on. But he said, I asked him this question once I said, are a lot of high performers, successful people? Like we look at you, Akeem, you’re obviously very successful at what you do.

[06:58] Jim Harshaw Jr.: I said, are a lot of them driven by like this need to prove themselves to themselves or prove themselves to others or even like self doubt? And he said, yeah. Absolutely. And it’s like basically like, hell yeah, like that is what’s behind a lot of high performers. And here you were, you fell out after, you know, obviously a stellar high school career, you get a full ride to Howard, you’re studying chemical engineering, you fail out now you’re embarrassed.

[07:23] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And it drives you and it drives you and it drives you to become successful in sales and what you do and you’re like, Hey man, there’s more. So you quit your job.

[07:35] Akeem Shannon: You know, so for a while that was enough, right? It was like, okay, I need to recover from this failure. And I remember listening to, to Michael Jordan in his documentary and he kept talking like the funniest line.

[07:45] Akeem Shannon: I used to love this. If somebody would say something to him to slight him, Oh yeah. You know, he really not as good as they say. And he’s like, And I took that personally and, you know, for a while that I take that personally drove me, but, but then you reach a certain point in life, I think, where, you know, the universe or God or whatever you want to call it, like tells you, okay, it’s time for the next chapter now.

[08:07] Akeem Shannon: And so while I have been fueled right by being number one, getting all these sales, making more money than I ever had. At a certain point, it didn’t satisfy me anymore. I wasn’t fulfilled doing the things that I had been doing. And so I quit, you know, I leave my job and I say, I gotta go do something else.

[08:24] Akeem Shannon: And I wanted to start a business the first time I quit. And this was at Verizon. I was coming off a call center and I started doing something. I was doing some political stuff on the side, working for a local. Campaign, but I was afraid still, I was afraid to truly take the leap. I’d invested some money in this idea I had called now chef, like blue apron was blowing up and I was like, Oh, I can do this and create like a cooking business.

[08:47] Jim Harshaw Jr.: You had invested in it or you started it

[08:49] Akeem Shannon: yourself? I started it myself and you know, I probably invested my own money, probably about 5, 000 I invested in my own savings, you know, to build the website and testing stuff and doing things. And at the first chance I got to give up on that dream, I basically took it and that came in the form of another job, right?

[09:06] Akeem Shannon: It was at Square. And I’d always wanted to work for a tech company and Square helps tons of small businesses and, you know, it just felt like a good fit and so I took that, I took that opportunity and I’m glad I did because at the time I wasn’t ready. Mentally, I did not have the fortitude and the confidence to take on the journey of entrepreneurship and I probably would have given up too soon had I gone any further.

[09:27] Akeem Shannon: But once I took that job at Square, I talked to all these entrepreneurs and these were regular people. And they’re like, yeah, you know, I was just making cupcakes in my house and my neighbor said it was good. And so I went and I just spent 3, 000 on rent at the shop and now I make a million dollars a year and I’m like, wait, what, what are you talking about?

[09:49] Akeem Shannon: And I’m hearing these stories every day. All these entrepreneurs who start just all kinds of businesses and how it got started on their father started the business and how they fell into it and how it wasn’t successful and they made it. And I’m hearing all these stories. And I’m like, man, these guys are no different than me.

[10:05] Akeem Shannon: In fact, they’re calling me asking me for my opinion on what marketing, how they should run their marketing, what they should use for this, what they should use for that. And honestly gave me the skills and most importantly, the confidence to say like, if they could do it, I can do it. And so we got to this point where I just, once again, I wasn’t happy in my career.

[10:23] Akeem Shannon: And I went to my boss and I said, Hey, you know what? I just don’t think I can stay like, you know, it’s a great, great place to work, but I can’t, I’m not happy here. And he was a good boss and he was like, Hey, you know, Kim, I understand. He’s like, but I don’t want you to go out there and be a bum. I know you got some money saved up.

[10:37] Akeem Shannon: You know, I don’t want you backpacking through Asia or anything like that. And he gave me a book and that book was the alchemist and, you know, I should have read the book, but I didn’t read the book. He gave me this book. He’s like, you didn’t read, read this book and it’s going to show you what you need to do next.

[10:54] Akeem Shannon: I was like, okay, whatever, Tom. Great book,

[10:55] Jim Harshaw Jr.: by the way, I recommend it for the listener.

[10:58] Akeem Shannon: So I don’t read the book and I do recommend it now, but at the time I didn’t read it. As it would happen, I started doing some marketing. And I’m doing marketing for other brands and I’m feeling kind of the same way, right?

[11:08] Akeem Shannon: Like I’m, I’m building someone else’s dream, not building my own. And so I was finding I wasn’t satisfied, but I’ve just quit this great job. I don’t want to tell anybody, you know, I’m ready to quit this thing too. And my mom just randomly sends me a video. It was Oprah and Oprah was interviewing Pharrell.

[11:25] Akeem Shannon: Right. And she’s like, you know, Pharrell, you’re a multi Grammy award winning producer, artist. Can you tell the audience what’s one book that you just feel really changed your life? And Pharrell’s like, Oprah, the book that changed my life, got me all these Grammys. Is the alchemist and I’m like, oh, I have that book.

[11:43] Akeem Shannon: I should really read the book, get the book out, turn the first page. I’m like, I’ll read this book later. I set it aside. And so this stuff kept happening. I kept hearing about this book. People are talking about it. It ended up on the New York times bestseller list again. I’m like, this book’s 30 years old.

[11:59] Akeem Shannon: Why are people still reading this book? And so. As it would happen, I would be moving to a new apartment and chaos everywhere, boxes everywhere. And my boss would give me this beautiful copy of the alchemist. It was hard back and had leather illustrations inside. And I put it on a shelf somewhere in some box.

[12:16] Akeem Shannon: And I’m in my new apartment. I look at the counter and there’s this paperback tattered 6. 99 Torah book. And I walk over and I’m like, what’s this book? And it’s the alchemist. And I freak out because now I’ve heard about this book multiple times and then a totally different copy of the book. in my house.

[12:37] Akeem Shannon: I asked my buddy who was helping me move, I’m like, dude, did you put this book here? What is this book? Have I always owned this book and just not knew I owned the book? And I sat down, I read it cover to cover. And as you know, and for those who don’t know, the book is about a boy who goes on a journey. to find his treasure.

[12:53] Akeem Shannon: And early on in his journey, he learns about these omens or signs that will guide him, give him direction to find this treasure. And what I didn’t know is that the books themselves were the omen for me. And they had to chase me down because I don’t listen too well. And so, you know, I read this book and it puts me in this mindset where I’m like, man, My treasure is waiting for me.

[13:14] Akeem Shannon: I just gotta go. I gotta go search for it. I gotta go on the journey. And it was with that mindset that I get a late night phone call from my uncle, who’s an engineer at NASA. He was telling me about a project he was working on, the space launch system, and how he’s going to use this adhesive that is based off the feet of geckos to do this project.

[13:30] Akeem Shannon: And I had recently mounted my TV on the wall because I just moved and I was like, man, if I had this adhesive, I could save myself a lot of time and energy mounting that TV. And so I just couldn’t get this thought out my head. And I have lots of Long, drawn out conversations with my uncle and I’ve never taken any action on any of them, but this idea just, it just stuck with me.

[13:49] Akeem Shannon: I kept doing research. I’m looking at papers, looking at universities, talking about this adhesive and eventually I’m like, okay, a TV may not work, but a little tiny TV could work. And that’s where the idea was. Flipstick was born a little device. That allows you, I don’t know if you can see this, allows you to mount your phone to virtually any flat surface.

[14:07] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah. For the listener, if you’re not watching on list, if you’re listening and you’re not watching on YouTube, you got to check it out on YouTube because he’s just stuck his phone to the window. It’s a really cool product.

[14:16] Akeem Shannon: So, you know, and it’s this adhesive, it’s reusable, it’s washable. Flipstick allows you to take, you know, hands free pictures and videos, make TikToks.

[14:23] Akeem Shannon: And this idea was just born out of thin air. And I was just so. Committed to it, you know, I didn’t tell anyone, but

[14:31] Jim Harshaw Jr.: every, I mean, tons of people come across ideas and everybody listening has an idea. They’ve come across ideas. Was it the book? I mean, what was it about you that Akeem made you say, I’m going to pursue this.

[14:44] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So answer that question. And then I want to get into like. Some of these things you did to pursue it that, that failed setbacks adversity. You’re not good enough. This is not a product we want to invest in. First of all, why? I mean, you had an idea. So it’s an idea. Everybody has ideas.

[15:00] Akeem Shannon: Yeah, look, a lot of, everyone’s had that moment, right?

[15:03] Akeem Shannon: Where you look on TV and then you see something, you’re like, I had that idea years ago, and I’m a big believer that if you’re having an idea, someone else is having it at the same time and it’s, it’s who’s going to actually take action on it. And so I would say the book was huge for me because it put me in a mindset of possibility.

[15:19] Akeem Shannon: Mindset.

[15:20] Jim Harshaw Jr.: That’s a key man. Mindset, not connections, not background wealth, not all the other things. Mindset.

[15:26] Akeem Shannon: I didn’t know anybody and I didn’t have any money to invest in it. I didn’t know nothing, but I just had a mindset that said, it’s possible. I could turn this into something. And since I wasn’t loving marketing, but I was good at it, I’m like, well, I’ll market this product for myself.

[15:40] Akeem Shannon: And if it goes well, maybe I’ll get a really big contract with someone else. That’s what initially I thought. I didn’t tell anyone this was my idea. I was like, oh, it’s a client. And so as we go through the process, I ended up launching it. Like I remember the first day I sat there after making all this stuff for Kickstarter, you know, pre order campaign to make videos and graphics and all this stuff.

[15:58] Akeem Shannon: But I was enjoying it. It wasn’t like when I was working for clients and I was like, Oh, this is work. No, this was fun. And I remember the day it launched. We have made a two, two minute and 50 second video in about two minutes and 50 seconds after it launched on Kickstarter, we got our first sale. Couldn’t believe it.

[16:17] Akeem Shannon: Strangers are buying something that I hadn’t, I haven’t made yet. I just made a video about it. And man, we ended up doing 15, 000 in preorders and it just lit a fire where I was like, I think I can actually do this. And at that point, I just made the decision. I said, I’m taking this as high and as far as it will go.

[16:35] Akeem Shannon: because I loved what I was doing and I just believed in it. I believed it was part of my journey.

[16:41] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So a couple of directions I want to go with this. If you didn’t make a sale two minutes and 50 seconds in, I’m getting inside the listener’s head, right? Who they started their Kickstarter and it did. They didn’t get a sale in two minutes and 50 seconds in, right?

[16:55] Jim Harshaw Jr.: It didn’t catch fire. Like yours did. What if yours didn’t catch fire? Do you, you still push through? Do you, do you give up on it? And maybe it’s a moot point to ask what if, because we can all look back and ask what ifs, but I’m just, just curious.

[17:08] Akeem Shannon: I remember before the Kickstarter launched, I had seen all these Kickstarter campaigns where people had made a million dollars on their Kickstarter campaign.

[17:17] Akeem Shannon: And I’m like, I’m going to become a millionaire from this Kickstarter. And then I’m going to be on easy street for the rest of life. We made 15, 000. Okay. It was nowhere near what I was hoping it would have been, but the 15, 000 we got was enough for me to take the next step. And I think it’s for so many people, they look at the end goal and it’s so insurmountable and it’s so impossible to get to that they give up.

[17:44] Akeem Shannon: And for me, I just said, look, I’m just going to take the next step. If after I take the next step, it’s not enough and I’m not feeling it, I won’t take another. But what I found was every step that I took, I got closer and that was enough because I’m seeing the progress start to happen. And sometimes when you look over a 30 day or 60 day period, you know, you don’t see a lot of progress and it feels like, man, this, all this work and this effort is for nothing.

[18:09] Akeem Shannon: But when you look back over a longer period of time, you look back a year, you look back five years, then you start seeing like, whoa. I’ve come a long way. I’ve made a lot of progress. And so I just started taking one step at a time. And look, right after we did the Kickstarter, we made 15 grand. I’m thinking, okay, I’m going to keep making money on the website.

[18:29] Akeem Shannon: No sales. I was getting like one sale a month. So first sale of the two, two minutes and 50 seconds had to really drive me a long way because after that, it didn’t seem like it was going to work out, but I was committed to it. At that point in the mindset, you know, when I read the alchemist, there was so many times in his journey that he got stuck and it wasn’t working and it didn’t seem like he was moving forward, but yet he still always was, he was learning.

[18:57] Akeem Shannon: And so I remember. I was struggling, didn’t know what to do next. We’d only made 15 grand. Then I made like maybe a thousand bucks after the Kickstarter. Okay.

[19:07] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So there’s a lot of expenses. So you, you make a grand out of that. Is that what

[19:10] Akeem Shannon: you’re saying? No, I was, I had lost a lot of money. I had a lot of savings.

[19:13] Akeem Shannon: I was, I was going through my savings. Okay. Um, but I remember I was like, okay, I’m gonna try to sell it to some, some corporate clients. So I’m just inspired to go to this university and at the university, I meet these twins. They happen to live in my building and they’re like, Hey, let us help you. We won’t even charge you anything.

[19:31] Akeem Shannon: We ended up going to some festivals and we sell some at festivals and it works. We made a hundred dollars the first day, second day, May 1 50. And so then I’m like, okay, let’s go to the mall. Then I freaked out. It was like, that’s a terrible idea. But then I made the commitment to do it anyway. And they went with me to the mall.

[19:45] Akeem Shannon: And after eight months in business. We’d only made about 16 grand, maybe 17, 000 in those next two months at the mall, we made 30, 000. And that was the next piece of validation. I need to be like, yo, I’m on to something. This is it. And that’s actually being in the mall and making that money then. That’s what inspired me to apply for Shark Tank the first time.

[20:10] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Quick interruption. Hey, if you like what you’re hearing, be sure to get the notes, quotes, and links in the action plan from this episode. Just go to JimHarshawJr.com/action. That’s JimHarshawJr.com/action to get your free copy of the action plan. Now back to the show. So you keep taking steps forward.

[20:30] Jim Harshaw Jr.: You’re doing the Phil Knight thing, the equivalent of, you know, selling. Running shoes out of your trunk, you’re pitching them at festivals, et cetera. And yeah, you’re making some progress. Talk to us about your Shark Tank

[20:41] Akeem Shannon: experience. So, you know, I applied to Shark Tank less than a year into the business.

[20:45] Akeem Shannon: Get really far in the process out of 40, 000 people got to the final 200 and then I get rejected And they say you’re not going to 40, 000 people 40, 000 people apply every year that that that that and they get down only a hundred and twenty people go to air every season and I’d gotten to the final 200 so I made it a long way I’m thinking all my eggs are one basket right because my website cells aren’t working not doing social media So I get rejected and I was devastated You Like, honestly, at that point, I was like, I should have never read the alchemists.

[21:15] Akeem Shannon: Like, this has been a total waste of time.

[21:18] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So I, okay. Pause there. You get told by X. These are experts. These are people who, I don’t know who does the vetting, but they’re, they’re people who go through this. Certainly they’re looking for good stories, but they’re also looking for good products that may get invested in.

[21:33] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And they’re saying, you know what, we’re experts and you’re not good enough. And then you have this thought. I had this thought whenever I was building this business on the side and I was working full time. I had this thought many times, like, man, if I just quit my side hustle, my life would be so much easier.

[21:52] Jim Harshaw Jr.: You’re not getting all that time back and let go of the dream. Like that, that, that fleeting thought go went through your mind. It went through my mind. Then what’d you do? Okay. You get cut to 200.

[22:03] Akeem Shannon: You get caught. I was of the mindset that I was like, okay, well maybe I wasn’t supposed to do Shark Tank.

[22:08] Akeem Shannon: Maybe that was the wrong, maybe this wasn’t what I was supposed to do. And when I was out in Vegas auditioning for Shark Tank at CES, the consumer electronics show, I met a guy who then invited me to the Superbowl. we go to the Superbowl, we give away Flipstiks at the celebrity football game. And then that led to meeting this guy, Salento, who had a viral song back in the day called a Watch Me Whip, Watch Me Nay Nay.

[22:29] Akeem Shannon: And he invites us to the BET Awards. So we go out to L. A. and we get to the BET Awards and all these things just start happening, right? Like, I don’t know where it’s all going, but things are starting to happen. And so out there, a long story short, my mom meets a guy, the guy says he knows Diddy, and he tells me that I should invest in, I should let, give him and his homeboy a piece of, piece of my company because they’re best friends with Diddy and they can get me in there.

[22:54] Akeem Shannon: Well, they felt like scammers and they probably were. One of them was an international drug dealer who had just gotten out of prison through some very mysterious ways. But they told me about this event that Diddy was having called the Revolt Summit. And then I see an ad for it. And I’m like, you know what?

[23:10] Akeem Shannon: I think I need to go to that event. Now, this was a music conference for people who are interested in getting in the entertainment industry. And here I am trying to pitch a business. And they had a pitch competition, so I said, hey, I’m gonna go. So I spent 500 on a ticket. And it was, that was a lot of money for me then.

[23:25] Akeem Shannon: And I plan to go down. Then I find out the competition is closed. I can’t pitch. They already picked the finalists. So there was a music competition and I’m like, well, you know, I took music appreciation in high school. I was in jazz lab band. I played the keyboard. I’ll just write a rap and I’ll wrap the pitch for my business.

[23:45] Akeem Shannon: Now, arguably that is a crazy plan, right? And I’m like, you know, you can write that as part of your dissertation and get anything less than a half. It’s just not going to work out for you. But that was my plan. And I believed in it. And I just knew, like I said, this is meant for me. Too many things have been happening.

[24:02] Akeem Shannon: I’ve met too many people. I’ve never heard of this conference in my life, but now all of a sudden I keep hearing about it. These random drug dealers are telling me about this conference. I need to be there. So I go, I do my rap. I get in the top five to get on stage in front of Puff, DJ Khaled, Timbaland, all these guys.

[24:21] Akeem Shannon: And I’m like, dude, I got this. They can hear my rap. They’re gonna love it. They’re gonna love the pitch. I’m gonna get an investment. This is it. And then I get disqualified from the competition because they say, Oh, Akeem, you’re not a real rapper. You don’t want a record deal. You’re trying to get a business investment.

[24:38] Akeem Shannon: I thought it was the same thing, but they disagreed. And at any other time in my life, I may have given up. Like it was hard just to get there. I faced so much adversity. I almost didn’t even get to audition because I had to submit a video at the last minute, all this stuff. And I get to this moment, I get disqualified.

[24:53] Akeem Shannon: I’m like, why, why me? But something inside of me, I was sitting at the comedy show, which was right before the music finale, the music competition for now, and something just told me to just stand up. So I stand up, everyone’s sitting, I’m standing up at the comedy shows, DC young fly on stage, and I’m just hold your hands up and I hold my hands up.

[25:11] Akeem Shannon: I got my Flipstik in my hand and the comedians just looking at me. And you can tell he’s pissed because why am I standing up in the middle of his show and in very colorful language? I don’t know if I can curse on the show. Oh, he’s just like, you know, bro. What the f are you trying to tell me? What the f are you trying to sell me, man?

[25:29] Akeem Shannon: And I go in full pitch mode. This is the Flipstik. You can stick it here. You can make TikTok videos. You can do Instagram. You can watch Netflix. Stick it to the back of a plane seat. And he looks at me, And he must have felt sorry for me because he played along and he was just like I got one question for you, man He’s like can can the Flipstik can it stick to my girl’s a because if it will i’ll take 50 of them right now And the crowd just starts laughing And all of a sudden his whole show gets derailed.

[25:59] Akeem Shannon: Everyone’s running up to the stage. I sell this. I do this I have a hair care company and it derails the whole show and him and his boys are on stage They’re cracking jokes on all these people’s businesses And eventually, this kid comes up to do a freestyle and i’m like, yo, yo, wait, wait, I have a rap I got a rap and they’re like, oh not the Flipstik guy.

[26:18] Akeem Shannon: You already derailed our whole show Now you want to come over here embarrass yourself And I said, yes, I do. And I got on stage, the crowd loved it, and the same woman who disqualified me hustles me to the backstage, she’s like, you have to meet the CEO of all of our companies, you have to meet our sponsor, AT& T was the sponsor of the event, let me introduce you to all the AT& T executives, and I’m backstage, and DJ Khaled’s there, Puff’s there, and all these people there, and I’m like, holy shit, what did I just do?

[26:48] Akeem Shannon: And it was one of those moments where I’m just like, how did this happen? And man, that was just, that was set it off because they would end up buying a ton of Flipstiks and they would invite me to come out to LA. And I’d meet Snoop Dogg in LA and Snoop Dogg would love the Flipstik. And, and eventually the guy who was the judge for the pitch competition, I never pitched for.

[27:10] Akeem Shannon: He was a casting director for Shark Tank. They called him up. They’re like, you’re not going to believe this crazy guy we got here. You’ve got on stage in the comedy show. And then he convinced Snoop Dogg. He was a brand of genius at our next event. Like you got to get this guy on Shark Tank and Shark Tank calls.

[27:25] Akeem Shannon: And they’re like, we want you on the show, but you got to do the same rep you did for Diddy for us.

[27:31] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Wow. So it came. You get back onto Shark Tank and live happily ever after, right? You get on the show, it airs, you get a deal and, and, and, and Pete, these are flying off the shelves, right?

[27:43] Akeem Shannon: Yeah, man. Look, that’s what you think is going to happen.

[27:45] Akeem Shannon: That’s what I expected to happen. And that is not what happened. As luck would have it, I auditioned for Shark Tank. It was pandemic year, 2020. And not only that, I kept telling the producers, I want to be on before black Friday. So I get the most sales. Well, they oblige, but it happened to be that the Friday before was election Friday and it was four days after the election.

[28:08] Akeem Shannon: And if you remember, no one knew who the president was the Friday after the election. And so my episode gets pushed by two hours and I’m getting real nervous. I’m just like, there’s no way that I could come this far, you know, national television, the Superbowl of business. And then I get screwed out of it.

[28:25] Akeem Shannon: Like there’s just no way. And so it gets pushed by two hours. We’re like, it’s going to be okay. People are still going to watch. It’s going to be all right. So it finally comes on and the, and the broadcaster tells us before the episode comes on, he’s like, Hey, you know, we’ve been doing election coverage.

[28:37] Akeem Shannon: If there’s any news, you know, we’ll preempt Shark Tank to bring you the news. And I’m like, please, God, do not let them. I don’t want to hear it. I don’t care who the president is. I don’t want to hear it. And so the episode comes on, it’s going, everything’s going fine. I’m the last person on the episode. I come on, I do my rap, right?

[28:58] Akeem Shannon: And I got a whole watch party together. We’re screaming at the TV. We’re like, Oh, I got everyone’s so excited. And I get about two minutes into my pitch and interrupting this regularly scheduled programming to bring you a message from candidate Joe Biden. And when I tell you my heart sunk into the ground, everyone at the party was screaming.

[29:21] Akeem Shannon: It was a nightmare. I have never been so that night I was so crushed. I could not believe that this could happen to me. It felt so unfair. And I, man, I was crying. I have never been so devastated. I was crying that night. My phone was off because I just couldn’t take it. You know, I told everybody, like everyone I’ve ever known, was watching Shark Tank.

[29:48] Akeem Shannon: Yeah.

[29:48] Jim Harshaw Jr.: You’re going to be on national TV, on Shark Tank, and get a deal, and it’s going to, it’s going to change everything. This is the hockey stick

[29:55] Akeem Shannon: moment. And I’m sitting there and I’m sobbing, I’m crying and my, my now fiance comes up to me and it’s like, have you checked your phone? And I’m like, no, I can’t look at my phone.

[30:04] Akeem Shannon: I checked the phone. And in the lifetime of the business, at that point, we made 120, 000 total in the lifetime of the business. Look at my phone. And then in over the 48 hour period after Shark Tank, even though we didn’t air, we made over 100, 000 doubled the lifetime sales of the business. And even though I was like, probably could have made 500 if it had to air, I still had to take some joy in the fact that dude, we still got tons of orders.

[30:31] Akeem Shannon: And then on top of that, even though, like when you go to Shark Tank, they make you sign a document that literally says like, we will schedule you to air. We will have every intention to air it. But by some act of God, if it doesn’t air, you can’t sue us. It happens. And it happened before there’s like a terrorist attack and it didn’t come on and they got sued.

[30:47] Akeem Shannon: So now you got to sign that document. But even still, I decide to make a video and I send it to the executive producer of the show and be like, dude, this was just like so unfair. It’s just not fair. And for the first time ever in the history of sharting. They decide to re air an episode in the prime time slot.

[31:06] Akeem Shannon: I couldn’t believe it. And so on January 1st, it is regular schedule viewing. They re aired our episode and that was a holiday. So even more people were watching. And so it was like, we came on shark tank twice. It was just incredible. And man, so many things would happen from there. You know, we got a deal from Lori on the show.

[31:24] Akeem Shannon: Then we ended up having to back out of the deal because it just didn’t make sense for us. It kind of changed after the fact. And you know, then I was still upset cause I’m like, Oh, I did all this stuff and I got a deal. And now I don’t have a deal, but man, we will go on. And I remember like, I want to be on QVC so bad.

[31:41] Akeem Shannon: And then when we didn’t close the deal with Laura, I’m like, I’m never going to be on QVC. And man, as luck would have it, one of my investors had a call with someone else. Then they’re like, Hey, we know this guy. And I would end up talking to QVC and they’d be like, we’d love it. Is Lori going to be okay with it?

[31:57] Akeem Shannon: Then Lori was like, yeah, he can be on. And I would get on anyway. And all the things I wanted to do that I thought wouldn’t happen, especially that night, you know, when Shark Tank wasn’t going through, I hadn’t closed the deal yet getting into target and Best Buy and all these retailers and international stuff, like it all happened anyway.

[32:14] Akeem Shannon: And it was, it took longer, you know, and it was more difficult. But it all happened and it just went to show me like, man, anything’s possible.

[32:24] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah. Keep moving forward, man. What an incredible, incredible story. I came and now you’re in thousands of retail outlets and you have multiple products and just really, really cool.

[32:34] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And for those, I’ll have a flip style. I’ll have the link to the website Flipstik where you can check out the product. And it’s, it’s a really cool product. I’m going to buy one because it’s like really cool. I’m probably going to buy one for I’ll send

[32:42] Akeem Shannon: you something, Jim. Just send me your address.

[32:43] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Okay, go ahead.

[32:45] Jim Harshaw Jr.: One of the perks of being on the, having me on the podcast, my daughters will love it for sure. You were an athlete, you know, and we look at athletics. We, we see these kinds of stories. These are these sort of, you know, documentaries get made on these stories, you know, of adversity, failure, setback, the Tom Brady who gets drafted 199th and he becomes the goat, you know, it wasn’t even the starter most of his career at Michigan.

[33:10] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And this is your story. You competed in a lot of sports. You weren’t, you know, you. Admittedly weren’t like an all star athlete, but, but was there any impact? What was the carryover from any lessons you might’ve learned in sport? And to be honest, like I know some people have bad experiences in sport and they’re like, okay, I had a terrible coach, a terrible experience, and I’m not gonna let that happen again.

[33:29] Jim Harshaw Jr.: But I don’t know what, what was your experience in sport and did it? And if so, how did it carry over into your business career?

[33:36] Akeem Shannon: You know, for me, when I look back on it, I realized that when I was competing, I never believed in myself. I was always focused on not failing, not finishing last. Never thought I could finish first.

[33:51] Akeem Shannon: Just didn’t want to finish last. Didn’t want to embarrass myself, embarrass my family, didn’t want to look stupid. Like, I had such a negative mindset when it came to competing in general, and especially when it came to sports. You know, I had a father who was, you know, a D1 athlete, basketball player. You know, full scholarship, all that stuff.

[34:11] Akeem Shannon: And I just felt like I could never be that. And no matter what, I’m gonna be a letdown. And so I had such a negative mindset in anything I did. And I remember, like, one time I won first place in this golf tournament. But I convinced myself that I couldn’t play golf. I convinced myself I couldn’t play basketball.

[34:28] Akeem Shannon: I convinced myself that I couldn’t do any of these things. And I was just mediocre at everything. And man, I wish I could go back and talk to that kid. And be like, dude, if you believe in any of these things, if you enjoy any of them, you can do it. But I didn’t believe in that. And nobody ever spoke that to me.

[34:45] Akeem Shannon: You know, no one ever taught me that as a coach, like you can do this. I always believe like the kids that are going to be good at this, have raw talent. Right. They were born with it. They’re great at it and that’s just what it is. And I wasn’t born with it, so I can’t practice and get good at it and figure it out.

[35:02] Akeem Shannon: That’s not, no, you can’t do that. Like I’m not tall enough. I’m not fast enough. You know, I’m not fit enough. I don’t have the ability and going through this journey, I didn’t know anything about business. Not only did I know anything about business, I had no money, I had no connections, had no mentors, nothing, but I just figured it out.

[35:18] Akeem Shannon: I didn’t give up. And then all of a sudden I find myself here and I’m like, man, I could have done that back then. But I didn’t know. And I, you know, I don’t really live with any regrets, but when I do, I get the chance to speak to a lot of kids and I always speak that into them, like guys, whatever it is you want to do.

[35:37] Akeem Shannon: You know, if you believe in yourself, you can go do it, but it starts with the mindset and that’s, I just had a terrible mindset. I did not have the heart of a champion as a kid.

[35:48] Jim Harshaw Jr.: This is why I have guys like you, people like you on the show. It’s just, you know, we hear believe in yourself and mindset and you add context, your story adds context to these cliches that we hear and it’s just.

[36:02] Jim Harshaw Jr.: So inspiring, Akeem. Let’s make this actionable for the listener, for the listener. Who’s like, okay, this is great. I’m inspired. What can they take with them? Do you have any recommendations in, as far as habits or routines or things that you do that move you forward in your business career or your life

[36:20] Akeem Shannon: otherwise too?

[36:21] Akeem Shannon: Well, I think number one is you have to protect your mind. Like when my mindset is off, my business is off, my relationships are off, everything’s off. And so I often will come and listen to a podcast like yours. I’ll listen to motivational speakers. I’ll read a book that inspires me. I’ll read about someone’s story, you know, that inspires me.

[36:40] Akeem Shannon: And when I cope my brain with that information and not, you know, mess this on social media or crap, this on the news, like it shifts. Where I am both emotionally and spiritually so that I can see opportunities that may be right in front of me. So I think number one is protect your mind. Number two is take the first step.

[37:01] Akeem Shannon: So many of us don’t take the first step. You can’t take a second step if you don’t take the first one. And so I always just view things as just keep, just take the next step. Take the next first step because if you just take the next step, you can achieve that. It seems possible to you. It doesn’t seem far fetched for you.

[37:19] Akeem Shannon: It’s just one thing. You know, I don’t try to overwhelm myself with the end result of where I’m trying to get because the path is never going to look the way you think it’s going to look. But if you just choose to take the next first step that you have, Not only is it possible and easy for you to achieve, but when you actually, when you see some momentum happening from it, all of a sudden, it’s like, man, I think I want to do this again.

[37:43] Akeem Shannon: I think about when you’re in the gym, right? Like if you’re constantly focused on, you know, I want to have a six pack abs, I’ll lose 50 pounds and I want to be there, you know, and that’s what my goal is. And then you’re going day one to the gym, like you’re probably gonna quit day two. But if you’re just like, you know what?

[38:00] Akeem Shannon: I just want to go to the gym for five minutes. You’ll probably stay for 30 or an hour. And if you just do that every day, you’ll look back a year later and you’ll find like, Holy shit, I did what it was I wanted to do. And I just took one step just every day, one step. So for me, that’s been big factor in my life that kind of changed everything.

[38:20] Akeem Shannon: Cause I always used to think I was lazy. And then once I kind of just realized like, no, I’m not lazy. I’m overwhelmed with options. And so just pare it back down to one and just take that one. And then it becomes a lot easier. And

[38:32] Jim Harshaw Jr.: this is like taking the words right out of my mouth in terms of stuff that I talked to my clients about.

[38:37] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And the listeners have heard me talk about before my solo episodes. So this is really incredible. Akeem for people who want to find you, follow you by Flipstik, where can they track

[38:48] Akeem Shannon: you down at? Yeah, so you can follow me at Akeem Shannon, that’s A K E E M Shannon, S H A N N O N on all social media channels.

[38:57] Akeem Shannon: If you’re interested in Flipstiks, you can get those at getflipstick, that’s G E T F L I P S T I K, no C in stick, dot com, and getflipstick on all social media channels. And then for those people who are like, man, I’m just looking for a little motivation, you know, I’m starting this journey of speaking, I got a new show coming out.

[39:16] Akeem Shannon: with the Corvette museum, which is really excited where I drive people around in my Corvette, which is my dream car for years and, and give them mentorship and stuff like that. So if you’re interested in just a little bit of motivation, you know, you’ve got a story you want to tell, or, or you just need a little pick me up.

[39:31] Akeem Shannon: People can text me and my number. They can reach me directly on is 3 1 4 7 8 9 9, 005.

[39:40] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Excellent for the listener. As you know, we’ll have all of that in the action plan. So grab your copy. I came. Thanks for making time to share your story with us, man.

[39:49] Akeem Shannon: Thanks for having me on Jim.

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