Shake It Out Owner, Jesica Temple, is shaking things up in West Virginia

Feb 25, 2019 | Entrepreneurs, Positively West Virginia

Jesica Temple is the CEO of Innovation Abounds and her brand of products called SHAKE It OUT located in Meadow Bridge, West Virginia in Greenbrier County. Temple’s goal is to empower and inspire men and women to embrace a healthy lifestyle and to reform the way people consume powdered supplements. She is reaching her goal through her patented innovation, the SHAKE It OUT shaker. Temple is an accomplished fitness expert and has competed on the national stage as a bodybuilder in the National Physique Committee USA Bodybuilding Competition.

Temple talked with Jim Matuga, host of The Positively West Virginia Podcast, about her new product, how she got started, what she has learned from being in business in West Virginia and her advice to new entrepreneurs.  

Tell us about your product.

“Basically, Shake It Out is a disposable or reusable, BPA-free plastic container and it is collapsible,” Temple explained. “You can pre-fill it with your supplement if you Shake It Out are taking a pre-workout performance enhancement. Anything that can be combined with a liquid, Shake It Out would definitely be your tool to use to mix it.”

How did you get started?

“Greenbrier County in West Virginia has been really good to me as an entrepreneur because it has given me access to resources that might not have been available to me in a more populous state,” Temple said. “For example, the WVU Law Entrepreneur Innovation Clinic has a pro-bono course where they would do a trademark for you if you signed up for their course. I did that, and WVU Law Entrepreneur Innovation Clinic did the Shake it Out trademark for me. There was also an entrepreneur pitch clinic in Greenbrier County that was a contest that I participated in. I did not win, but I did make great contacts there.”

“The connections that I made there brought me down this path to Concord University. There was a gentleman there who was able to get a grant for me. I applied for a grant, got it and it funded my website. I also met another person while I was working at The Greenbrier who introduced me to my patent attorney and that patent attorney helped me get the design patent.”

What have you learned from being in business in West Virginia?

“Again, West Virginia has been good to me as an entrepreneur because it has given me access to resources like KISRA [The Kanawha Institute for Social Research & Action]. I got a small loan with a small interest rate and it was a seven-year payback,” Temple said. “And, as I said about WVU, getting that pro-bono work to do a trademark and then a grant from Concord University to fund my website. West Virginia has been really good to me.”

What is one piece of advice you would give a young entrepreneur?

“Use other people’s money,” Temple advised. “Starting a business is expensive. Everything costs money.”

“I did not have enough money to launch Shake it Out, but I didn’t let that stop me. I explored my options and I looked at grants, venture capitalists, loans and credit cards.”

“It was other people’s money that I was using to get Shake it Out where it is today, and I couldn’t have done that on my own. If I had just looked at my checking balance, I would have immediately been deflated and not encouraged.”

Temple was a guest on The Positively West Virginia Podcast. Listen to her full podcast here.

PWV QUICK BITS | Shake It Out 

  • RECOMMENDED BOOK: The One Minute Millionaire: The Enlightened Way to Wealth by Mark Victor Hansen
  • PIECE OF ADVICE: “Use other people’s money,” Temple advised. “Starting a business is expensive. Everything costs money.”
  • PERSON TEMPLE WOULD LIKE TO MEET: Mr. Phil Pfister, a former strongman from Charleston, West Virginia.

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