I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Michael Baptiste, the founder and CEO of Be Greater Media Agency. He helps start-up entrepreneurs, coaches, and consultants all over the world own their expertise so they can build lucrative online businesses by leveraging their own ideas.

Michael coaches and consults with businesses to help produce ROI for their digital marketing campaigns as a certified entrepreneurship and business coach. He is also the co-founder of the world’s first-ever Non-Dairy Banana milk beverage called Banana Wave where he helped raise over 7 figures in start-up investment capital.

I spoke to him to learn how he helps entrepreneurs, experts, and coaches creating powerful funnels while unlocking their inner energy to help them impact millions of people around the world.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us your origin story? Who is Michael Baptiste?

Yes, thank you for having me, it’s a pleasure and an honor to be here. First off, I believe everyone has a superpower. I help people discover their superpower, own it, and consciously package it into an online business. However, it wasn’t always like this for me. You see, I grew up in poverty in the ghetto projects of South Miami, Florida to a single teenage mom while my father was in prison.

My mother is the strongest woman I know, and I wouldn’t be anywhere without her love, commitment, and dedication to raise me. Where I come from many people don’t make it out. Through obsessive hard work on the basketball court in high school, I earned a basketball scholarship to college and temporarily made it out.

In 2013 while being a college student I had my big break at FMU. I hosted and delivered my first internet marketing seminar to 100 students and faculty attendees about how I was able to earn online while in my dorm room. After that seminar I attracted consulting clients, copywriting clients, and also the attention of a start-up product called Banana Wave Bananamilk.

We later did a deal, and I walked away with a 6 figure equity share in a start-up project as a co-founder of business development. Years later that product has gotten into big-box retail stores like Walmart, Whole Foods, and many others.

From there I took my knowledge of building digital marketing engines, consumer package goods and products, conscious inspiration, and I combined it into an innovative lifestyle and business training platform called High Ticket Freedom.

What problem does your business solve? What is the main value people get from working with you

We specialize in helping our clients build automated digital marketing engines that accelerate company growth. The main value that people get from working with us is the certainty that they are following a proven business model that has the capacity to get their message in front of thousands if not millions of people around the world. We add our own unique innovative flare to it which allows our clients to achieve life-changing results.

Based on your experience, what attributes make a sales funnel sell more?

Based on my many years of experience in the trenches of digital marketing, I’ve learned that there are a few attributes that help a sales funnel sell more. One of the important ones is having high amounts of value to help a funnel sell more.

When a person who enters your funnel with big problems, goes through your sales funnel process, and then understands the value of your big solution to their big problem then this can increase conversions.

The more value and differentiation you can offer in your sales funnel, the better. Also ensuring that the message is congruent with the market is key. If the messaging in your funnel communicates to the pain that your prospects are experiencing combined with the value of the solution you offer, mixed in with a degree of differentiation, then you can have an offer that converts more prospects into customers and clients.

Can you specifically address how you were able to scale YOUR consulting business? Step by step, how did you do it?

I was mentored and groomed by the excellent master builder Mrs. Ann McNeill to transform myself into a success-minded man. Through her guidance, I went on to share my knowledge with others online, and I knew I had something when I began coaching people using my online marketing and business development strategies back in 2014.

My first online coaching client launched his digital product sales funnel and within 90 days of starting, he had a 4 figure launch. It was incredible to see my very first client get results back then. After that, I ran several experiments on my strategies to see if they could help me get better results, and eventually, I did start to get better results.

Then I hired several mentors along the way, and my many mentors guided me to the idea of packaging my results into my next sensational online brand. My main mission was to help people generate better results online, in a shorter time frame, and to create real life-changing impact.

After this I ran more experiments, fortunately, those experiments began to work better for myself and my clients and in 2015 High Ticket Freedom was born. Since then I’ve leveraged the power of video marketing, growing my own Facebook tribe, Facebook ads, email marketing, joint venture promotions, and influencer marketing to scale my consulting business.

I took a lot of the knowledge from our consumer packaged goods business and infused it into my digital marketing strategies for my consulting business. First I had to prove the concept, then I invested thousands of hours into improving the process, and then once I felt it was ready I launched into the marketplace. It was only after a successful launch that I was able to scale with multiple marketing strategies.

Can you share any suggestions for newbies who have no experience with funnels. Are there potential obstacles or issues they should be prepared for with this lifestyle?

If one has no experience with sales funnels or automated business engines, then I recommend you start by learning how to write sales copy. This is one skill that can make or break any business online.

The ability to convert the written word into sales is a very powerful skill that can be performed anywhere around the world. Also, be prepared to work smart as well as hard. Keep in mind that nothing great comes easy, so one must be prepared to persevere through the inevitable challenges that will be faced along the journey.

You and your business partner Pioneered, Non-Dairy Banana milk beverage called Banana Wave. How did that come about?

The recipe originates from ancient Africa, and Senegal in West Africa to be specific. My business partner’s grandmother was from West Africa, and Banana Wave was one of the many ancient African recipes that she brought with her to America. As a young boy, she would make different types of at-home recipes for my business partner.

We met in college, and while I was doing my first internet marketing seminar in 2013, he was an attendee in the audience. He was so inspired and empowered after attending my seminar that he intuitively knew that I was the person that could help him crystalize his vision.

We negotiated, and I came on board as a co-founder specializing in business development, branding, and marketing strategy. Then in 2014 with my partner, we co-wrote an elevator pitch, using my copywriting skills. That same year we entered into the prestigious FAU Business Plan Competition. At the competition, I delivered our elevator pitch on behalf of our company. That led to us winning the elevator pitch, and the people’s choice award which was a $5K cash prize, along with national recognition.

We used that money to invest in grassroots marketing and other start-up expenses. However, winning that elevator pitch led to us attracting serious investors, and later that year raising multiple 6 figures in start-up capital.

We used those funds to create our first 5,000 cases of commercial products in 2015. And then in 2016 we launched into the local and regional marketplace with Whole Foods being our first major retail client. Several months later word spread about our innovative product, then we landed Walmart as our biggest client, and from there, the rest is history.

And you also play professional basketball is that right? Tell us how you are able to balance all of these things?

Yes, I was able to make my childhood dream come true of becoming an overseas professional basketball player. I was traveling the world thanks to my location independent business and landed in Thailand.

While there I went to play recreational basketball at a state of the art gym called JUMP arena, where I won each game against other foreign players. After we finished playing recreationally I was approached by a Thai gentleman who presented the idea of me being able to play professionally in Asia through his many connections.

Several months later I was drafted into the 2019 Thailand Professional Basketball League and it was a dream come true.

In fact, I became the first leading scorer and leading rebounder in the entire league which catapulted my name into a nationwide star for my basketball skill, leadership, showmanship, sportsmanship, and dedication to excellence.

To be honest it became difficult to manage multiple companies at one time. In 2017 I removed myself from active worker status in the Banana Wave project, allowing our management team to run the entire company. Then I went to focus on growing my consulting business remotely while traveling the world.

Since playing professional basketball it became a simple thing to market my courses and digital products thanks to the automation. However, it left me with less time to offer private consulting and coaching as compared to before. All in all, I think it’s really a matter of being able to prioritize what’s important, feeding one’s focus, and starving one’s distractions.

Finally, can you please give us your favorite  “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“When you want to be successful, as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful!”

– ET The Hip Hop Preacher –

One of my best friends introduced ‘ET The Hip Hop Preacher’ to me back in 2011 while in college at FMU. In one of his videos, he mentioned the quote above. Once I heard it, I listened to that specific lecture on YouTube over and over again until I began to embody the words that he was saying. I internalized it, I became obsessed with success, and I wanted it as bad as I wanted to breathe.

That quote has also motivated me to move strategically through the consumer packaged goods and digital marketing business realms to create success my way. Thank you, Eric Thomas!

Thank you for these great insights!

Thank you for the opportunity to allow me to share my story and some great value.