''If I could start all over, I'll do things differently'', Bolatito Okolie, CEO, Bonix Empire

Everyone has a story to tell, but what sets one apart is the peculiarity of the experience in the journey. Today, we bring you an interview-styled extract from ''Poured for Purpose'', an inspiring memoir-cum-business book of Bolatito Okolie, the dynamic CEO of Bonix Drinks and Bonix Second Cup -- a woman whose journey from humble beginnings in Oyingbo to international recognition is as refreshing as the drinks her brand is known for.

Tall, big, bold, and beautiful, Bolatito carries an aura that draws you in instantly. Her story is a masterclass in resilience, innovation and faith chronicling her rise from ground zero to leading a thriving company with over 75 dedicated staff members. She has travelled far and wide--even abroad--to cater at some of the most exclusive events, pouring not just drinks, but passion, excellence, and authenticity into everything she does. While she may wish one too many things were different, the lessons remain and the principles formed continue to shape her success and inspire many female entrepreneurs, small business owners, and anyone passionate about turning dreams into success stories. Enjoy!

 

Looking at you, one would think everything was handed down to you. What was growing up like?

Well, I started selling very early in life, like nine years old. When I was nine with my mom. My mother was selling food inside the market at Oyigbo so I'm a market girl. In fact, at a point, while I was at Marywood primary school, Ebute Meta, I had to move from morning school to afternoon school because I wanted to help my mum to sell. So eventually, when I grew up, I started selling on my own. It was no problem, because I've done a lot of experiment with selling. So at the end of the day, we had to divide the market. My mother was selling rice. Then I was the one selling ice water. You know, back then we were the first set of people that started running after moluwe (a kind of lorry in Nigeria) to sell ice water. You know, I went through all those. Along the line, we moved to Tejuosho market and started selling drinks too and my mum had to stop selling food because her health was not too good. She was hypertensive and a lot of sicknesses sha. Over the time, she died and I took over the business. So when I took over, I moved forward, like moving on by creating my own walls. That was when I created the Bonix thing. 

So, what was it like?

It really wasn't easy but I enjoyed doing it. Then, if I hear that anyone has just given birth to a child or they want to do something, or they are doing birthday, I'll go to them, tell them. I'm selling this, I'm selling that. Can you buy from me? You know, and I will take the drinks to them without collecting money for transportation because I was even the one begging them to help me buy my drinks. I don't have a car, I don't have a bus, but I struggled, and I wear that pride today. So that was how the event thing came in for me. I didn't, I didn't see anybody. The only person that was my mentor was my mother, and then my grandmother too because along the line, I went to live with her in the village. 

 

Can you relive a bit of that experience? 

Okay. Along the line, when I was with my mum, then my grandmother. I was working for my mum or selling, then my grandmother came over to Lagos to visit and she said that I am very, very enterprising, that she wants to go with me to the village, despite the fact that I was very, very useful to my mother, she still had to release me to go with her own mother, to the village that was how I went to the village. Then when I got to the village, the business changed. My grandmother was iya egbe oja, iya egbe church, iya egbe this. She was a market woman. She goes to Abuja to buy, like a, like a whole lorry of yam. Then when she comes she just divides it to maybe, like six or four. The people that wants to buy it from her, they're already there. She's a big time distributor. So I just went to the market with her twice. And ever since my grandmother didn't go again. I was the only one going to Abuja, Abaji. During holidays, I will still have to come to Lagos to help my mom. That one is drink oh. So I was, I was learning trading and all of this was happening almost at the same time, simultaneously. So you can see how I'm like this, that I can multitask, and that is why I'm hyper, because I can do a lot of things. I am working, I am laughing and I'm angry and I'm sending this and that. That’s why I don’t have a PA because I would never be satisfied. So everything I know about market, I learnt from them.

  

What about your father? 

You know...I don't know. My dad...he just died last year. He was not really, really present in our lives. My father was a tailor, a tailor that had a lot of girlfriends. You know, he doesn't really care much about the family. It was just my mother. So when I saw that, so I was really like, okay. And my mum really likes us to go to school. We were five and she's always saying it, ‘’Ah, to ba je pe mo kawe ni, to ba je pe mo kawe ni’’ and I will always say ‘’e ma worry, a wa maa ka’’, you know. So I really struggled. So fast forward, when I finished nursing school, the certificate is not for me but my mum. I already learnt trading and money comes in, owo nla. Though I was very young, I don't really know what to do with money. Like I keep saying to people when they say se iya je mi ri? Iya o je mi ri o! Because I didn’t consider those processes as iya. Se bi ti o ba mo any other thing lo ma so pe iya. I don’t know any other thing. My parents don't travel. There is nothing about summer. There is no holiday. Ohun ma ma n so fun awon omo mi pe se ntori pe mo bre ibi tefe lo le se ma n sako ehn mummy we did London last year, okay, let's do America now. I didn't have that opportunity, and I didn't see it as iya. The only thing is ta ba ti gbolude ni ilu, I’m coming back to Lagos to sell. Iya o je mi mama mi ta ounje awa la tu ma fun yin lo fe. So mi o je iya ri, I don’t know what people consider as iya. But my father was a tailor. Oma mu gbogbo one yard teleyi, half-yard ti leyi oma mu, oma jan po afi ran so fun wa. Awa ma wo so. Se mo jiya? Aso mi o pon, mo ra so wo. When he moved to the village. They call him Eko tailor. And he was very, very popular. 

What was life like in the university as a market girl?

Honestly, I just wanted to go to school because my mother wants us to go to school. I just wanted a degree. I just wanted it because I promised my mother I would go to the university. I was 23 when I entered Ife. So she likes the fact that awon omo mi losi university, and the nursing school for me is for her for me to be able to take care of her. Unfortunately, she didn't even stay. She died, 1991, October 29. I was with her like this. I was begging her not to die. I told her, I'm going to take care of her. So she died in Eko hospital in Ikeja. So igba yen, mo ti n se business, owo ti wa. I built her a house in Ikotun. I stopped her from working. I told her, anything she needs, I will provide. So I wanted my mother to be comfortable in life. I wanted her to be okay and it kept you know, that spirit, kept driving me pe o gbudo make e.

 

So you already built the house before you went to university?

Yes, I was just 20. I was 20 years old. I was selling all these things and I had money. Like I said, mi o mo ya. Yes, I don't even up till now. Mi o fe owo billions, billions. I just want a good car.I want to be able to live in a good house. I want my children to go to good schools, which I've tried my best, you know, so me all my life, I'm a very comfortable and contented person.

  

What number are you in the family?

I'm number three. I'm in the middle, two, two. I am just there in the middle. And I'm actually the one that made sure everybody goes to school. So I'm the one that is working. I'm the one that is paying everybody’s school fees.

 

Did you stop trading in the university? 

I think that was even when the whole thing became really defined. While I was in school, I was cooking, I was selling rice. I was selling gala, I was selling Coke. I was doing a lot. By Thursday morning, mo ti ku ro, mo fe wa se party l’Eko. Monday morning, mo ti pada. S’omo, awon ti mo ti gba owo lowo e. Ibi ti mo ti blow gan gan, that people started noticing Bonix this, Bonix that was in school because my jollof rice and my fried rice was nice. Awon student, to ba fe se birthday, ma sare wa si Eko wa gbe cake. So ri nkan ti mo rora n so fun e yi, wala e po gan o. Amo nitori pe mo je akinkanju ni o, ti mi kin ro ju. You see and I was determined that I'm going to make it. I was so determined. I was pushing so then I bought one small car, Colt, two doors in 1996. Mo terrible. Nitori p a n ta Coke, mi o ni ra ni Ife. Mo ma di gbogbo e lati Eko tori Coca Cola ma ka fun mi. So mo pe we are on rebate. Ti n ba ti n bo ni Thursday, ma tun ko gbogbo igo yen pada si’Eko. Then it was bottle not plastic and I didn’t know better. Apart from drinks, mo ma ra 20 cartons of gala oh, ati gbo gbo ingredients. 

Another thing that helped me is that I was not in any clique even up till now, I'm not in any clique. because I'm one man MOPOL. I can fit in into any group. Mo de maa n le relate mo yan daa da. So mo fit in ni Ife daa da pelu awon omo ti baba won o lowo, mo tun wa fit in daa da pe lu awon omo ti baba won wa okay. Then I now became like a competitor to everybody. The people that were selling, I became a serious threat to them because they now saw that anybody to ba se birthday, emi lo n pe. Te le, gbogbo ibi to ba n lo se party, my presence changed the narrative. They were all like calling me. So I became an event planner early in life. So because e mi lo ma gbe cake fun, e mi lo ma organise ounje, emi ni ma tun gbe cake wa. So I became an event planner right from there, without any prior training, apart from the training from my mothers, my mother and my grandmother, okay, so I was able to, like, do anything. I brought people from Lagos to be living with me in IFE, in school. Mo gbe Aganyin lo l’ati Eko, a jo n sun, a jo n ji. I bought PG, awon post grradate students lo ni hostel yen. It is one bedded. So most of the PG students, they sell it and they don’t stay in school. I bought two and because of my workers: awon iya to ma ba mi se rice ati awon omo to ma ba mi to table while I go to class, so that was what I did. And in the same school, I got married when I was in part 2.

What was the game changer for you?

At first it was students in Ife that started referring me to their family members. That there is somebody called Bonix oh, she has a shop in Tejuosho, she can supply the drinks. Olorun, bi mo se wo market party niyen. And anything they're doing in the house. They are always calling me. Awon students made me popular. But the gig that changed the game for me was Babangida’s daughter’s wedding in Minna. . I was there for two weeks.  I got it through someone who came to Tejuosho, my mother's shop then to come and drink. You know, we sell in pieces, okay, cold drinks that when people come to the market and they are tired, they want to drink. So I was actually there, and I was taking care of them, and the next thing she asked was that can you come serve drinks? I was like, yes, that I can, that was all. And she came back and that was it. Ever since then, big ones have been coming.

 

You said you got married in year two. How did it happen?

Yes, I got married in part two. I met my husband here in Lagos and because I was a very determined girl, I was just doing my business. I didn't even know he could marry me. I didn’t know he could have that patience. I’m still married. Because if you’re going to marry me, you have to be patient. He knows me, he knows who I am and takes me for who I am. I am an absent wife. I’m permanently not at home yet, four boys. So I'm pregnant. I'm working. I'm having my children. I didn't have any of my children in the hospital because working made labour easy for me.

At what point did you feel you needed to up your game?  

It was when I now know that I have a future in this business. So I had to seek for more knowledge. I had to travel. I went to America, went to Spain to know more about wines, to know about the vintage, to know the difference between a dry wine and a sweet wine. I need to know the wines that are from France, the ones that are from South Africa, the cabinet surveyon, etc. I need to know about Spanish wine. I need to differentiate between Spanish wine and Portuguese wine and then an American wine. The first training was in America. So I was going every year. And I went there nine times. So nine years I was going because every single year there's a new thing, there's a new trend, there's a new thing that will come up. Then I had to go to South Africa to to be a barista. A barista is when you've learnt how to make tea and coffee, mocha, hot chocolate. I am a barista. I also went to Italy and then got more training so that I will be internationally acclaimed. I did these trainings back to back because I found out the more I do it, the more I get more challenged.  

As an expert in the industry, what have you observed about the drinks market?

The market keeps changing. I have erm...to God be the glory. I've been able to survive like four generations now, okay, let me say decades, four decades because when I entered market was my first decade of learning of being in the market and which I fought through the market. I fought to be known. I fought to be reckoned with. The people that I met in this business are basically local people that are selling drinks. Do you get I didn't. I didn't, maybe because of ibi ti mo de, but the people I dealt with were like local people that sells in the streets of Lagos. So at a point Coca-Cola gave me a contract, when they brought in the plastic coke. I was the one that got the contract from Coca Cola International to let the whole Nigeria know of the plastic version.

What lessons do you wish you never learnt the hard way?  

My lesson? I shouldn't have gone into farming. I spent a lot of money and it ruined during COVID 19. I almost went into depression. All my birds died, My 23 acres of land is still there. Well fenced. covered. it's a lot of regret I wouldn't have but I was convinced to. Ordinarily, I'm not a farm girl. I. I'm a city girl. Then, apart from being a city girl, I'm into hospitality. All my life, my mother, my grandmother, all my training in my life is all about business, dealing with people, humanity. Do you get that? I deal with people. Gbogbo oja ti mo n ta, awon eyan ni mo n ba so ro. Gbogbo Coke and Fanta ti mo n ta fun’yami, awon eyan lo n ra. Mi o mo ni pa won fe gbin osan, won fe gbin eleyi. I had wanted a lounge. I wanted it. I can run a club. I have the acumen, I have the tenacity, I have the craziness to run a club. Because for me, club is humanity. Humanity is also hospitality, how you can handle people, and I can handle people.  

In my business, in my core business, there's another regret for me and it cost me a lot is one girl that I had to give a beating. She was rude to me, a very rude girl. You know, because I found out that she's dating one of my colleagues so anywhere, they mention my name, she would insist and convince them not to patronise me, you know. So she was doing that, and it was actually getting on my nerves, and it's getting on my business. And I….my brand is very, very important to me. I've worked so hard to build it to where I am now today. So I'm a little bit jealous about my brand. I'm overprotective of my brand. So anybody that wants to bring my brand down, mi kin gba, mi kin take e lightly.  I face you, I fight you till you leave my brand. I reported her five times but her boss kept defending her. That’s one of the major challenges I’m facing in the industry when these new set of girls now refuse to respect me. Thinking back now,  so maybe probably I shouldn't have done it myself. So it was a big regret, but because I now found out that a lot of people gang up for me, so many were talking about me badly. They gave a different narrative. So it affected my job. I sat down, I cried. I said, God, show me the way. Something just told me pe awon t’on ba e ja, elite ni won. Leave them in their west, go south. Go the other way. I start asking again, God, what do you mean? I should go? I was still thinking my phone just rang. Who called? Omo onile pataki. Bi mo se go local niyen. Won kan sa ri pe mo n si se won mo ibi ti ise n gba wa. O wa da bi pe awon ghost ni mo n ba se event because awon ti gang up against me. Bi Olorun se sa’anu mi niyen o. From one omo onile to another. I became their event planner. I handled everything.  

Have you worked with difficult clients before and what was the experience? 

Oh yes. One terrible client I worked for is not here in Nigeria. He lives in France, Okay, I was introduced to him by an event planner. They talked about me like referral, okay, and he went to my Instagram page to check on me, and he said okay. And I remember telling him that I'm not going to be at his event because my cousin is getting married on that day. It's a family thing, and I have to go. I told him that I'm going to come later for the after party, but during the reception that I'm so sorry that I'm not going to be there, and he agreed. We had this agreement. Then the following day, so early in the morning he called that we should meet him at the police station, that his champagne was stolen. He said one of our waiters took it from the table that we should meet at the police station, and the event was on Saturday. So, first thing on a Monday morning, we went to the event event center to check the CCTV camera. So we spent about three hours there, watching the whole thing but so unfortunate the  CCTV in the hall was not working. And from there we went back and forth, back and forth, back and forth for like two weeks. We later bought him another one. He said he bought it in France. He showed me the price and the particular one. So I have to call somebody to help me buy it at that same place or store in France. And we gave him soft drinks. We gave him water, and many things back. We gave him a lot of things back and we served them. He didn't accuse us of stealing. He said we wasted it, and we were giving some people that we were not supposed to give. So he's going to collect it back that in the camera, he saw some waiters drinking his water. Everything he was asking, we were giving him back. I was giving and I was very calm, so we begged him that we're sorry. He was threatening us with a lawsuit. He was threatening us with social media. He said he's going to go on social media. He's going to talk about us badly, this that so it is not as if a ni were ta le se fun but we didn't just want to. I told you, I’m an action person. I was able to satisfy him by begging and by giving him all what he wanted back. I paid a lot to give him back all what he wanted.

My associate was sending him messages every morning, begging like back and forth. It’s been like two years now and the man and the planner are still not in good terms. He still writes negative things  about her on social media and at the end of the day, one of the people you know, we we're not sure if the drinks were being stolen by my boys, but it was correct when he said the person that his friend said took the champagne is wearing black that was true. We're wearing black shirts. The dessert people were wearing black shirts. Apparently it was the dessert people that took it, and I wouldn't have known, if not, because one of my boys saw them fighting over it. So I called the owner of the business and told her that all what I'm going through with the client, that it was her boy and how I already ordered for it from France. She begged me and said that they are going to bring and she was in London. Truly, they brought it back and begged but the pain it caused me is unforgettable.

Another one is a self-acclaimed social media right activist on Instagram. Her mother-in-law died. I know her husband very, very well. I've done parties for her husband like five times. I knew him before she married him. So I've always been like the family drinks person. So I didn't know how she came in and she wanted her own person and her husband insisted that it's going to be Bonix. I think that's my number one offense, maybe, probably she didn't want Bonix. At the end of the day after the party, she started making trouble with me that I should go and be looking for empty bottles. It got so bad I had to leave. I had to leave because.Then the next thing, I left. As I was getting home, they were calling me. That was like around 4am in the morning. She already took all my waiters that are there, packing my stuffs, my things. She took them to the police station. It took us a full day. She started saying all sorts of lies. I didn't take anything. I didn't steal anything, and she still took 14 waiters to the police station. What did they do? Nothing, nothing. She entered into my truck. She brought everything down to see if she has anything that she does not. She gave me 1000 guests. I sent it to her, the quotation. Then, a day to her event, she just called me that I should make it 2000 guests that all those things she's buying from me, I should make it double. And I said, why? Why do you want to make changes one day to the event oh… okay? If trophy is 20 before I should make it 40. So I just thought to myself, that is she having more people. So at the end of the day, she started taking those pictures of those things, of the drinks that was 20 before she said, I should make it 40. I've never seen that kind of thing in my life. She didn’t add money to the previous amount. To my surprise, those were the things that she was showing the police that they should look at all what I want to steal. Bo se wa yen, iya ma je, Olorun ma ba mi fi ya je because iya to fi je gbogbo awon omo yen. So, gbogbo aburo oko e, ko je ki won wa ba se party, o le won. O so fun bouncers pe ko ma je ko wo le. Awon yen, with itiju ati omije loju, they have to go and float another party in their mother's house in Freeman. She didn't allow her husband’s siblings. I don't know what she wants to do. 

When we got to the police station, awon olopa yen wa n la enu. Mo wa duro bayi…o ko gbogbo awon boys mi, awon waiters mi lo si police station, the one at Barbeach. So when I got there and I told them that before I could even say anything, they have to come out, because the person she wanted is me, not them. They are not Bonix. They have their individual names, so I will not say anything. And immediately I had to call. I have to start calling my friends. Then in another one hour, the whole police station had like about almost over 50 cars in one hour that I got there in solidarity. So people came for me. I had like five lawyers. And I keep telling the DPO that you see these boys for like, three, four days, we have not slept. If anything happens to any of them, if anyone collapse… I told you that we always work back to back. So I think the DPO, let them out when a lot of people were now coming in. Then Kafila, one of my people also came. Kafila called auntie ni Abuja. Immediately, she told her husband, her husband called his friend and his friend called the IG. It was later I heard it’s what she does to people. She records things and use it against them.

So practically, she didn't pay, and the one in her hand, she did not pay for it, because she doesn't like paying people. She likes evidence, negative evidence, and she will plan it, and she will get it. So you will just fall in, into her hand innocently because I think I fell. Because at a point, I ranted. I became uncomfortable with the recording. I was asking her why she was doing that because I wasn’t stealing her stuff or doing anything wrong but she twisted everything at the police station. She told them I was threatening to kill her and showed them the video. She was showing a record that I was threatening her because I asked her that is it your mother that died? Sebi it’s not your mother's death now. So I left, but she had all those recordings that I was threatening her. So people have to be careful, especially when they're… when they want to paint a negative picture because she's an activist. She's a social media person. She makes her case on social media. Social media judges, se you know, she's good at that. I am not into that blackmailing business. But she is this so called activist, she is into blackmailing business. So she knows her point. She knows what to take. She knows where to record. So, if not because of God, that a lot of people knows the IG that they were calling, it would be worse. By the time the IG started calling and said they should dismiss us, she fainted, she was on the floor, I fainted too. DPO ni awon were wo lo fe awon leleyi? Awon girls yi, were ni won. Like seriously. They were waking the two of us. Maa tun la ju bo ya o ti di de. Ti nba ri pe o si wa n le, ma tu diju pa. That was the yeye social media activist for you, she’s a manipulator, she’s evil. She fainted because the IG commanded that we should go.  

How to did you conceive this legacy project idea?

I think I got the inspiration from Jerusalem. I went for a pilgrimage, and my pastor was preaching about you leaving something behind for people to see. Let people feel your impact, even when you are gone. Do a new thing. Se oun tuntun. It was as if he was talking to me and I was now asking Oluwa, what should I do? He was talking like this. I was like he was talking to me. Okay. What am I doing? I am into drink service. What should I do? I started thinking, drinks conference came to mind, I ignored it, but I got that message and that message was for me. When I got back from Jerusalem, ko ju a month lo, we went for a conference, and I saw my colleagues and they are asking me to do it,. What other confirmation did I need? 

So that was what prompted the legacy conference which is a drinks conference comprising of people that does cocktails, which I would call, the mixologist. So it's a combination of different drinks company that we're going to come together. We're going to talk about water, we're going to talk about tea and coffee. Some people don't know how important water is. You can be selling only water, and you make it in life, only water.  Then you can you can also be into tea and coffee business, and you make it in life. Do you get it? Depends on the kind of level that you were going to be selling it. The person that is going to be speaking to us on my own drinks conference is somebody that imports coffee from Ethiopia, and she sells, she sells the best coffee now in Nigeria, and it's good from one hotel to the other. I mean, five star hotels, that's the people she supplies and it’s only coffee that she serves, but you know she's making it, then you can also be into this kind of business that I'm into, like serving in parties and you will still make it to become a millionaire. You can open a lounge, you can you can open a restaurant, and you are at the bar section, selling all sorts of drinks, and you will still make it. I'll go back to the Yoruba that says apon mi ta kin shorti. So everything that revolves around drinks is water.