Meet Bakker Shields | Entrepreneur & Creative

I think as a group, entrepreneurs are very risk-tolerant. I would consider myself to fit into this group. I have noticed that I am definitely much more willing to take risks financially than most of my peers, but I also think it is important to note that the risks I take are calculated. For the most part, they aren’t risks that could make or break me or my companies. I have read about entrepreneurs who take that dive into owning their own business head first, with no safety nets in place, but that is definitely not the route I have taken.

I will say this: most anything worth having in life is on the other side of some level of risk….whether that is financial, social, or anything else in between. When I first started out as an entrepreneur as a Junior in high school, my risk was mostly social. Yes, I was investing a lot of money for me at the time (on a Christian Athlete apparel company), but I had no real expenses to need to save for or worry about paying. I was mostly risking myself socially, being worried that my friends would judge me or wouldn’t like the designs or products I came up with.

Now, I don’t necessarily worry near as much about the social aspect because those around me know me as an entrepreneur and creative. They have come to expect the products, companies, and marketing campaignsI create, as I have built an identity and reputation around these things. However, I now have to be much more conscientious about the financial risks associated with being an entrepreneur. For me, it helps to think of the financial risks I take as investments. No, they’re not necessarily the “safest” or most “traditional” investments possible, but I alone have control of whether or not they pay off. This is what gives me peace of mind, and helps me to justify investing in myself and my companies over what many would consider safer and more secure alternatives.

Taking risks has transformed me into the entrepreneur, creative, and man I am today. With every risk I take, I grow and learn valuable lessons that help me the next time around. This alone makes it worthwhile (successful or not), to take risks.

My philosophy in business is really pretty simple – I create things/products/brands that I think are cool. I realize that not everyone will think the same way as me, but I also realize there will be people out there that love what I create, and that is one of the most rewarding feelings I think a person can feel. Someone whom you don’t know, have no connection to, and owes you absolutely nothing coming across something you have created and falling in love with it. There is absolutely nothing like it.

My start in business came when I was 13 years old. I had a cousin in college who had learned how to make Paracord Survival bracelets. He told me about them and that he had been selling them to his friends, and at the sporting events he attended as well. I remember thinking that was so cool, and starting to ask my parents if I could do that as well. They told me I could, but that I would have to figure it out and buy the supplies myself, so I did. I saved up, and they took me to go buy some paracord, buckles, and a heat iron to melt the cord together. I watched hours of YouTube tutorials to figure out how to make a good-looking bracelet, and started wearing them to school. I must have figured it out at the absolute perfect time, because those little bracelets started selling like hot cakes. I was in Middle School at the time, and every day I would have a list of bracelets I needed to make, and a baggy full of cash to take home from the previous day’s orders. My grandmother worked on the High School/Junior High campus, and soon word spread there. We had a tradition that she would take my sisters and I to school every Friday, but before school she would always take us to the local donut shop. During this period of time, every single Friday she would have one or more sheets of notebook paper full of the week’s orders (and cash paying for them), and I would hand her a gallon bag of bracelets completed from the previous week.

Looking back, this seems much cooler now than it felt back then. At the time, I was just having fun, and thought it was so cool people were so eager to give me money for something I was making. One day my dad asked me why I only make bracelets for my classmates, “Why not sell to other people online?” I remember thinking he was crazy, and that only huge companies could sell things online. I started doing some research and created a website the following weekend. I called the new company Shields’ Survival Gear. I took some very blurry pictures of the bracelets out in nature, made some social media accounts, and spent the money I had been earning on Google ads (again, crazy to think about being a now 14 year old running Google Ads). I didn’t really know what I was doing, but the online orders did begin to trickle in for me. I even had one order in Mexico, and distinctly remember it hitting me that my “company” was international.

Eventually, the paracord survival bracelet trend died out, right around the time I lost interest in continuing with the company. I still did the traditional young entrepreneur things and ran a lawn care company with a friend, did neighborhood chores such as helping remove limbs and trees, helping people move, and helping them clean out their old junk. I never forgot the feeling of getting to create a brand though, and market it in a way where it gets to become something more than just a logo. With the odd jobs, our business didn’t have a brand or logo, it was based purely on need and word of mouth. Most of our clients were friends of our parents who knew we provided the service they were looking for. Although we made very good money for kids our age, it just wasn’t as fun or fulfilling to me.

At age 17, I started a company called All Glory Apparel with a friend of mine. It was a Christian Athlete Apparel company, with the mission of helping promote that everyone has a special gift they were given at birth, and it is each person’s duty to find that gift and use it as God intended to help better their life. This is an idea I still wholeheartedly believe in, and is constantly reinforced through my observation of life and those around me. We approached a local print shop with the idea and they agreed to let us print the first couple of runs of t-shirts without paying up front to get the business started, so that we could pay for the order after the fact with sales revenue. This was a huge help in getting us launched, but with our limited apparel, business, and design knowledge, we found ourselves in a predicament. They printed on low-quality shirts (which made sense because we were a risk and just kids to them, they weren’t sure they’d ever see money for the orders), they made the designs themselves with little input from us, made WAY too many shirts overall, and WAY too many shirts sizes XL and above. Almost everyone we were selling to was small, medium, or large, because we were High School kids. They overloaded on XL, 2XL, and even 3XL, because those were the sizes they were accustomed to selling the most as their customers were adults. At the end of the day, we learned from this experience and moved on to several other shirt designs, some hats, and even into performance fabrics later on. I learned basic graphic design and bought the Adobe Suite to make our future designs, we emphasized high-quality shirts that our customers constantly raved about, and we bought in smaller quantities that were more reflective of our expected sales volume and customer sizing spread. While we did several events, the majority of sales were online via the website I created. I continued to run the business off and on through my first two years of college around school and my internship, but it eventually fizzled out. I still get orders to this day (three years later) that I happily fulfill with any inventory that still may be in stock.

My next venture was built around a product I actually created called the Buckle Band. I had to undergo a knee surgery my junior year of college, and as a result I had 8 weeks of physical therapy to go through. In physical therapy I was constantly using rubber resistance bands for glute and hip exercises. Stronger glutes take pressure off of your knees, so this was a very important part of my recovery. I was terrified, because the therapist would stretch out this huge rubber band and pull it over my injured knee to get it into position for each workout. I remember wondering how on earth there wasn’t a safer version of these, and being scared they their grip would slip resulting in the band smacking down on my knee and ruining my surgery (which actually didn’t work anyway). A few months later in one of my Entrepreneurship courses at school, we had to create a “company” and product to sell and pitch to the class and potential “investors” at the end of the semester. I told my group about my pain point and a potential solution (adding a closure to the resistance band), and explained that I was actually wanting to pursue this as a venture. No one had any better ideas, so we decided to run with it. We created prototypes, and I chose the name Ubora Fitness after finding out Ubora meant “excellence” in Swahili. I mean, what company doesn’t want to be known for being excellent? In testing the prototypes, we found that the resistance bands out there were actually extremely frustrating for those in a general fitness setting as well. Girls hated that the bands would pull on their leggings and bunch them up, guys hated they they pulled on leg and body hair, and EVERYONE hated the awkward shimmy dance of stepping in and out of them. However, halfway through the semester COVID-19 hit, and put a huge pause on everything. We finished out the semester virtually, but I could not get the idea out of my head. I began searching for manufacturers and ordering samples of the product. Eventually, I found one and placed a large order for an initial run of Buckle Bands.

I launched in right around New Years’ of 2021, and the company went international soon after in march when an online retailer in Canada placed my first large order. We have since expanded with several new products, the most popular of which being our DeadGrips, which help an individual to optimize pulling movements and not be limited by their grip strength.

As explained in the previous answer, I also run a supplement company called REVIVE Gummies (currently undergoing a rebranding), that sells Creatine HCL Gummies and has been wildly popular online for my “job”, and an Online Personal Training company called The BAMN Coalition alongside my sister. BAMN stands for By Any Means Necessary, and we chose coalition because the definition of coalition is “an alliance for combined action.” We wanted to create a different kind of online training experience that was group/community based, and emphasized all of our members had not only our support as trainers, but the support of everyone else who is also on the same journey as them. We have found this builds significantly more adherence and discipline in those involved when they know others are working hard and in the same boat.

A huge lesson I have learned along the way is that it isn’t necessarily “hard” to start a business…. it’s hard to run a business, especially successfully. This lesson can be applied to many other things in life as well. It’s not hard to do a workout….but it is hard to be consistent and live a healthy lifestyle. It’s not hard to enter a relationship…but it is hard to make sure you’re building a healthy and fulfilling one that adds value to both you and your partner’s lives. At the end of the day the most difficult part of any journey is the consistency and hard work it takes to follow through. Yes, many struggle to take that first step and start. But in my experience this should be the least of your concerns when contemplating beginning. You will learn, struggle, and grow much more in the middle when going through the process.

This brings me to my next lesson I have learned – NO ONE knows what they are doing. When many of my peers see me operating my companies they make comments about me knowing so much about business, or knowing exactly what I’m doing in life, and this could not be further from the truth. I had no idea what I was doing when I started any of my ventures, but I have learned extremely valuable lessons from each one that have helped me tremendously in the next. My point is that you will never be fully prepared or ready, and it’s only through doing that you can get there (or at least get closer). Take that first step, get started, and soak up everything you can from the journey.

The last thing I would love to share as a lesson I have learned is something I touched on when discussing the idea behind All Glory Apparel. We all have a special gift, something we are better at or know more about than most everyone else. This is VALUABLE. This is WORTH SOMETHING. I believe mine is helping people to believe in themselves and build their self-confidence, and providing resources to do so. The route I have chosen to do this is through helping people prioritize their health and fitness. The reason I chose this is because there is a very strong correlation between developing hard work and discipline with your health and fitness translating into other areas of your life. It was only when I felt this with my own fitness that I began really applying myself as a creative and an entrepreneur. I challenge you to figure out what yours is, and see how you can begin to use this to create value for others, or even just more value in your own life. Often times, it brings both.

I actually have a bunch of friends coming to visit me next weekend, and I am extremely excited to take them to Grandscape in The Colony! I live close to Grandscape, but I had no idea it existed until a few months ago. I found out it opened during the height of COVID-19, and so it took them quite awhile to fill space with vendors and finish the entire build out. It is one of the coolest spots I have ever been to, and it makes me feel like I am on vacation every time I go.

They have a movie theater, a ferris wheel, a concert area complete with a huge turf area, 10+ restaurants, multiple dessert/sweets stores, boutique stores for almost anything you could want, arcades, go carts, putt putt golf, and the world’s largest sporting goods store, Scheels (which also has a ferris wheel INSIDE of the store).

My ideal week would consist of:

Monday: Visiting local a coffee shop and catching up during the day while we get some work done.

Tuesday: Making sure to get in a workout together at one of the many awesome bodybuilding gyms in the area, such as Plano Athletic Club, Precision Fitness, Hidden Gym, or Destination Dallas.

Wednesday: Taking them with me to a basketball open gym I attend with other 20 something year old guys at a church called The Well in Plano.

Thursday: Dinner at Twigs, followed by putt putt Golf at the Puttery at Grandscape.

Friday: Dinner at Moxie’s in downtown Dallas, followed by going out in Dallas to Bottled Blonde and The Backyard.

Saturday: A full day of fun at Grandscape, starting with some very intense go cart racing at Andretti, followed by lunch at Walk-On’s Bistreaux, dessert at one of the many options in the area, shopping around the small outlet shops, and then dinner at another of the restaurants in Grandscape or just down the road a mile at The Shacks on Windhaven Parkway.

I have had many mentors, sources of inspiration, and a fantastic support system throughout my life and certainly the period of which I have been an entrepreneur. First and foremost, my family has always supported me and been my very first customers in everything I do, whether they actually need the product/service or not. I’ve got an amazing mom, dad, and two younger sisters. My dad is quite possibly the kindest and most well-liked person I know because of his remarkable ability to connect with and understand others. I talk to him almost daily to get advice on navigating people and feelings not only in the business world, but in life as well. My mom is one of the strongest, hardest-working, and most creative people I know. We grew up constantly entertained by her quick wit and sense of humor, but it was her hard work and dedication to always improving herself both professionally and in her fitness and health that taught us what it meant to strive for something more.

My girlfriend McKenzie, has also been one of my biggest supporters. One of the things that most attracted us to one another was our entrepreneurial drive, as we both met as Entrepreneurship majors at the University of Oklahoma. We frequently talk about building an empire together. She has made more sacrifices in order to support me as an entrepreneur than anyone else I have ever known. I travel to events and bodybuilding shows on the weekends to set up booths for my companies, as this is a great way to get my products in front of a lot of those in my target market all at once. I would pick her up from work on a Friday night and we would immediately hit the road for hours, not arriving at our destination until well into the middle of the night sometimes. Her previous job required her to work 60+ hours per week, along with a 45 minute commute. I couldn’t find anyone else willing to help me, and so she always volunteered never complaining a single time. No one has ever supported me this way outside of my family, or been able to believe in me to the extent that she does. I am actually planning to propose to her this upcoming weekend on April 2. So I guess by the time this gets read, she might be my fiancé, McKenzie!

I had several mentors in college at the University of Oklahoma in my Entrepreneurship professors, whether they really knew that or not. I met with a few outside of class for advice on some of my ventures or current projects, but others I felt I learned enough from by just attending class to help aid me in my efforts.

In business, two figures really stand out to me as those who taught me the most. One came from an internship I landed my Freshman year of College working for a startup software company in the public/government sector, specifically local town and city governments. We had a software that allowed city councils and other bodies to broadcast their meetings across multiple platforms live simultaneously, as well as created an on-demand video accessible to constituents after the fact complete with meeting minutes and notes, completed voting results, and more. I worked extremely closely with a man named Rodger Schuermann, who was one of the founders of the company and programmers that developed the product. Rodger was a very successful entrepreneur, and recognizing the drive that I had to be one myself, he took me under his wing and put me in situations from which I learned a great deal. I ran sales and marketing for the company, for a year and a half while we market-tested and worked to try and create a product to fill the hole the other co-founder had identified. Ultimately, we found that although there was a market pain in the area we sought to place ourselves, smaller cities were not willing to spend the money for increased transparency our software provided, and larger cities already had similar products that they were fine with sticking to. Nonetheless, I learned a great deal from Rodger during the time we worked together, and it was him that later recommended me for the position that evolved into one of the businesses I currently run.

Rodger recommended me for a role with a Health and Supplement manufacturer that was in need of someone to come in and help with their sales and marketing. I interviewed with both investors and the CEO of the company, Woody Bannister, and was brought on to run their social media. My role running social media quickly evolved into Head of Marketing for the brands manufactured under our umbrella when I was offered a full-time role before the start of my last semester of college. They were completely understanding of my need to still attend class to finish my degree, so I agreed to take the job. This made for an extremely busy and exhausting last semester of school, but it also helped me grow more than possibly any other period of my life. The CEO I previously mentioned, Woody, took me under his wing much like Rodger, and soon i was arriving to work early, and staying late when possible just to learn more from him. He also recognized my passion and brain for entrepreneurship, and wanted to help pass on any knowledge or experience that he could to help me on my path to trying to become a successful business owner. We have had countless discussions about business in general, partnerships and personalities, employees and how to manage them, deals, and more. My background has always been in fitness and health, so I had pushed pretty hard for us to get into sports nutrition. Woody and the other leadership eventually agreed it was a necessary move for us, and put me in charge of launching a new company and product line in the space. This is what I currently do for my day job, alongside running my Fitness Equipment company Ubora Fitness, and my Online Personal Training Company The BAMN Coalition that I run with my sister, Addison.