Jeff Church: Transforming the Beverages Industry
An influential leader is someone who is capable of leading different things simultaneously. A leader is also a creative person who can articulate the company’s vision into an understandable and digestible way for all stakeholders.
While they have their heads in the clouds, but their feet are placed firmly on the ground when it comes to the essential nuts and bolts of running a business. It’s also important for them to gain consensus among peers, investors, and the board to support the ambition, motivations and goals of the organization.
Interestingly, these are the characteristics of one such game-changing businessman in the beverages industry. Jeff Church is the man of the hour who has taken the reins to bring a revolution in the energy drink category. As the CEO and Founder at Rowdy Energy Drink, he aims to deliver smarter, cleaner and 100% natural energy drinks for sustained energy.
For the past 21 years, he’s been on his own — starting, buying, building or selling brands and it’s been an incredible professional joy for him. “I’ve tried over the years, from time to time, to manage a portfolio of brands and yet I keep getting pulled into the action, where, I have to admit, I’m most engaged and inspired,” he shares.
An understated entrepreneur
Growing up, Jeff never thought that he could be an entrepreneur because he believed that all entrepreneurs were born, not made. He had envisioned Ted Turner, who created Turner Broadcasting, and Richard Bronson of Virgin, that they were larger than life characters and unless someone had their same sizzle or chutzpah, no one could be a successful entrepreneur.
But Jeff couldn’t have been more wrong about this. While there are unique outliers like Steve Jobs, Ted Turners and Richard Branson, the vast majority of entrepreneurs are ordinary people who decided for their own reasons, at the most basic level of empowerment, that they want to be their own boss. He believes “As an entrepreneur some would want that primal independence but also leave their own stamp or mark as an amazing experiment of humanity.”
Infact when Jeff Church was young, he was more worried about failure than he was about mediocrity. He recalls, “I just didn’t want to fail in front of my high school friends. But later at the age of 38, I started to get the entrepreneurial itch and began to think that I was now more afraid of mediocrity than I was of failure.”
He recollects a late night special where an interviewer invited a few senior citizens to share the most regretful memory in their professional careers. While they had all been pretty successful in life, they all wished to have taken “the shot” at really trying to change their stars. Perhaps, a yearning for a certain degree of professional risk in their careers.
This discussion caused a dramatic shift in Jeff’s mindset and encouraged him to finally take the entrepreneurial plunge. As a President of twelve businesses, in both — North and South America — he then decided to drop his 6 months’ notice period before going all in to pursue his entrepreneurial dream.
Rowdy Energy: A bubbling energy revolution
Jeff started his first energy drink business with Suja Juice in different places. Sometimes, working from his co-founders James’ nightclub closet, also called the ice chest room and the other times, in his very own garage. These humble beginnings eventually led to remarkable success as the company now generates nearly $250 million in annual revenue and $40 million in profits.
He shares, “I learned and validated a lot of what to do but even more important and unfortunately more costly was learning what not to do”. These were the really valuable lessons that Jeff brought to his next venture, Rowdy. “I feel that finally in my career, with Rowdy being my 8th company, that I have my own playbook of what makes sense and what doesn’t make sense,” he concludes.
Rowdy is a unique and healthy energy drink with complete focus on the wellness and longevity of the people. Jeff found that there is a widening gap in the total energy drink category that generates more than $17 billion in annual revenue.
