Celebrate International Women’s Day! What this 13-Year-Old CEO Learned from her Triumphs in Business and on ‘Shark Tank’

Me & the Bees Lemonade founder and CEO Mikaila Ulmer amazed the nation when, at nine years old, she walked away from ABC’s hit reality show “Shark Tank” with a $60,000 investment deal with Daymond John.

Now 13, Ulmer has been named one of TIME magazine’s most influential teens of 2017 and says that she is reflecting on her nine years of experience as an entrepreneur to write a children’s book on how to start and grow a business.

“I definitely have a lot of goals, but, as my dad always said, it’s important to work step by step and take each little goal one at a time,” she told CNBC Make It during the Women’s Entrepreneurship Day Summit held at the United Nations on November 17.

When Ulmer was four years old, she was stung by two bees within a week. Naturally, she was upset, but she also decided to learn more about what had hurt her. She came to realize that bees are a critical part of how flowers get pollinated and plants grow, and she learned that the bee population is in danger.

Around the same time, her great-grandmother Helen, who lived in Cameron, South Carolina, sent her family a cookbook from the 1940s. In it, Ulmer discovered a recipe for Flaxseed Lemonade. She decided that if she could make lemonade with honey bought from local beekeepers, she could help the bee population.

That fall, her mom and dad encouraged her to make a product the lemonade for a local children’s business competition, the Acton Children’s Business Fair, and Austin Lemonade Day.

Ulmer’s lemonade was a hit. “The first time I sold it, I thought, ‘This is only going to be a one-time thing. I am going to do it once, get the money, donate some and then save some and then use the rest to buy this awesome toy that I wanted.’ I do not remember what it was!” Ulmer tells CNBC.