A husband, farmer, entrepreneur, and spiritual explorer are some of the avenues in which Andrew Blake, 31, cultivates his perspective. Andrew’s commitment to blazing his own trail has served him well professionally; he turned an obscure college idea, which would later become Blake’s Hard Cider Company, into one of the fastest growing beverage companies in the US. All of this happened while Andrew worked to evolve the fields that raised him, by transforming Blake Farms into a leader in the agricultural space and becoming one of the preeminent destinations in the Midwest. Today, Blake’s has expanded its offerings into 18 states, has a 40,000 square foot production facility with 250,000 barrel capacity. Blake’s Hard Cider is now that fastest growing business in its category in the nation. The Blake Family of Companies now staffs over 800 employees and has expanded its portfolio of businesses to include a wholesale food and non-alcoholic beverage company under the Blake’s umbrellas as well as a franchisable modern take on a farm fresh bakery that rolled out in 2020 as Bakehouse 46.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
Andrew’s Dad and Uncle
When business started difficulties overcame:
“I think by in. When you have a new idea and you been doing things for so long in so many ways you have to get buy in for the new ideas. And it’s just like anything you are going to investors in a family business, your investors are your family. And when you are in start-up entrepreneurial phase a lot of times it’s family, sometimes it’s private equities, sometimes it’s venture capital, sometimes it’s a little mix of all of that. And at the end of the day the challenge always is getting people to see what you see and believe what you believe and not just do it off emotion and feeling but on facts. And I think that’s the biggest thing a young entrepreneur can learn”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
The Heart Of Buddha’s Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy and Liberation Book by Thich Nhat HanhFavourite Quote:
“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek” Joseph Campbell
Recommended Online Resources:
- The Entrepreneur Way – Learn from successful Entrepreneurs with Free Daily podcast interviews that reveal their business success secrets
- Equity podcast – TechCrunch. Equity is TechCrunch’s venture capital podcast. In each episode, you’ll hear the stories behind the money that runs Silicon Valley. Each week, TechCrunch reporter Alex Wilhelm, Managing Editor Danny Crichton and reporter Natasha Mascarenhas to discuss the news behind the launches, rounds and public debuts of the companies making waves. Produced by Chris Gates and Grace Mendenhall.
- The Ramsey Show – Listen or watch recent episodes of The Ramsey Show for FREE, on demand! Dave Ramsey shows you how to get out of debt and effectively manage your money
- Schiff Radio Podcast – Peter Schiff is an economist, financial broker/dealer, author, frequent guest on national news, and host of the Peter Schiff Show Podcast. The podcast focuses on weekly economic data analysis and unbiased coverage of financial news, both in the U.S. and global markets. As entertaining as he is informative, Peter packs decades of brilliant insight into every news item. Join the thousands of fans who have benefited from Peter’s commitment to getting the real story out to the world.
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“just do it. And if you don’t want to do it then that’s okay don’t be an entrepreneur. If you are going to be an entrepreneur just do it and be humble that you will learn along the way and be self-aware enough to know that you will change and you will change yourself. And change your direction before the mistakes get to large and you fail but just commit to it, you have to. ”…[Listen for More]
More About Andrew Blake:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
Other Quotes From the Chat with Andrew Blake:
- “I would have taken a better analysis of certain parts of the business that I didn’t know and then shored that those weaknesses with strengths. I’ve never been a financial guru and the spreadsheets and, on the margins and the numbers… I mean I understand it well enough. But to the level that it could be disseminated and communicated out to the team I think we could have done a better job of creating more visibility into that part of our business for our people sooner. And I wish we would have done that… I think we could be a year ahead of where we are now had we had visibility into that we would have made decisions that were smarter, more intelligent and more informed”
- “I hate to say luck but being lucky plays a big part of it was not but I also think you kind of create your own luck. So, I would say put yourself in the position to get lucky a lot. What I buy that is I think that you have to constantly be drumming up ideas and opportunities and presenting them and be ready to capitalise when those ideas are validated by yourself and others”
- “I never thought I was the smartest guy in the room growing up on a farm…I always felt pretty confident I could outwork just about anyone and I could put in the effort and make up for it ”
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