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Craft Rum Distilling: Building a Local Spirits Brand with JoAnn Elardo · The Growth Class with Phil Masiello

• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Hey everybody, and welcome back to another PowerPacked episode of the Growth Class.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Phil Massiello, and today we're diving deep into what it takes to spot an untapped market, rewrite the rules, and scale a category defining brand from the ground up.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: My guest today is a serial entrepreneur who didn't just build a business, she built an entire movement.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: After spending nearly two decades scaling a massive international enterprise overseas, she moved to Florida, grew tired of subpark cocktails, and looked out at local agriculture to ask a game-changing question.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Why aren't we making world-class rum right here?
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: In 2012, she founded Wicked Dolphin Rum Distillery.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Not only did she go on to create an award-winning craft spirit empire using 100% local agriculture, but she also personally took her fight to the state legislature, successfully lobbying to change archaic laws and blazing a trail for the entire craft distilling industry in Florida.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: She's a masterclass in resilience, brand authenticity, and local execution.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: So welcome Joanne Alardo, the founder of Wicked Dolphin.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Joanne, thank you for taking the time to come on and talk to us today.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for inviting me.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_02: I really appreciate it, Phil.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, my pleasure.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: So you've got an interesting background.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, when we talked, I was just blown away by some of the things you've done.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: So why don't you just take us back, give us a little bit of flavor as to who you are and what you've done?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: I alluded to some of it in the intro, but uh I think there's more deeper story there.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_02: I guess serial entrepreneur for sure.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: I've always kind of done my own thing.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: I have worked in in uh a few industries, financial, uh worked on Wall Street um very short time, maybe about three years.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_02: Worked in video film for NBC.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: Uh loved that, but wasn't my thing.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then I I knew I needed to start my own business.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_02: And uh things just fell into place.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: I was on a honeymoon in 1989, oof.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: And um somebody was my husband was in the sporting goods business, and somebody tried to buy the shoes off our feet down in Barbados.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_02: And um, I made some contacts down there and I started shipping in shoes and other goods.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: And when the wall came down in 89, it was the perfect opportunity as I just started my business.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_02: So I went right over to Eastern Europe and I started started working there.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_02: Mm-hmm.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_02: After doing that and uh built that to 11 uh 11 countries, I was the um light I own the licensing rights for cover sneakers.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_02: I also distributed um Harley Davidson uh footwear and apparel, also did Sketchers, Wolverine, Caterpillar.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: This is all footwear and apparel.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_02: And um uh And one and who else do we do?
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_02: I said Skechers, um, and grew that into eleven countries.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_02: And um yeah, then then Nike wound up buying out Converse and asked me expand to expand into Russia.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_02: And to be honest, after 20 years, I knew what that was gonna be.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_02: Russia's Russia's just a different animal.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_02: And um once I I made the uh start in there, a Russian company came in and said, Uh-uh, we we we want your brand.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_02: So they went after and they purchased me.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_02: So I sold my company in 2008 and found myself retired with what am I gonna do after 20 years over there?
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: And um, you know, the lawyers you really need to move to Florida, right?
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: With the taxes and everything.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_02: So that's exactly where I found myself down here in Florida, and um started investing locally and in commodities and other things, and found that 50% of the sugar cane was um was uh grown over here in in very 35 minutes, 40 minutes from my home.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: And uh started looking into that and said, as I was drinking a horrible rum, found out it was a rum from from another country, Canada, north of us, and uh I said, you know, I think I can do this.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: So I bought a still and I I started just trying.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: So you didn't you didn't know how to distill.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_02: No, not at all.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: No, but you know I have the mantra, I think my father always put it in in our heads.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, if if if that guy can do it, you can do it.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, just through perseverance and and work and learning, yeah, you can do it.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: So Yeah, yeah.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh I guess, you know, it's it's funny to me because there's so many people that got into distilling from watching moonshiners and things on the television show.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_02: But uh yeah Yeah, that wasn't even available yet.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_02: So it was all it was all one of those.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_02: I and you know, there wasn't much on YouTube at that time, and there wasn't much going on.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, it was it was a learning experience.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_02: And then I was lucky uh lucky enough to go to one of the conferences for distilling, and I met um a very good guy there who was able to I was able to hire and brought him down and he taught me what we needed to know.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's amazing.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's amazing that you wanted to do that, and it's amazing you know, to go from what you did in uh uh in uh in Eastern Europe and then, you know, transitioning over to here.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: But but let's go back to that because I think it would be um i i i was it very difficult?
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you were working in multiple countries, so you had to deal with multiple currencies, multiple exchange rates, multiple um uh rules and regulations and and and laws and governments.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that just had to be how how do you manage something like that?
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_02: Aaron Powell To be honest, it's almost impossible at that time, especially, because remember, everybody was still communist.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_02: You know, they they were communist up to communist uh governments up until like 2004 or 508 in some cases.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: So it was uh it was difficult, but you know, I I as I said to you, I'm kind of like Mr.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_02: McGoo, you know, a safe is falling and it's just missing me as I'm walking, you know.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that that was one of the major things that um why I was lucky, because maybe I didn't know enough, you know, and but I just kept plugging away.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_02: I had so much time invested and I loved what I was doing, and I had a phenomenal team that um, you know, you just keep going, even though it might seem the world is ending, you know, you just keep going.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_02: I had about 22 accountants sitting in my office with me.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: I can I can imagine.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: I can imagine that had to be a uh be a nightmare.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I know f I know people that uh that sell on Amazon around the world, you know, Japan and Germany, Europe and uh, you know, United States, Mexico, Canada, blah, blah, blah.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I know that it's for them, they have to have like specialized software just to deal with the currency, you know, just deal with the pricing differences and the currency and you know, even the language problems and and also it's it's definitely not an easy, easy thing to do.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we were I don't you know I remember it being fun and adventurous, and you know, I remember you know, I remember, I still remember that, you know, we were in the Ukraine when um they didn't even have taxis at that time.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_02: You know, McDonald's wasn't over there at that time.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_02: It was I was the first American on sorry for that, but a lot of people had seen or ever met.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_02: And um it was it was crazy, but it was f it was like being in the wild west.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_02: I loved it.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I can imagine looking back on it today, it's probably you know a great experience, right?
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: At this time.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_02: Even then, I can you know, as I said that I remember going into the Ukraine, I think it was in the in the mid to mid-90s, and they had no uh they didn't really have taxi camps.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_02: So you would be hailing on the street, you know, a car would pick pick you up.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_02: And uh I remember having meetings and after the meetings at about seven o'clock, wanting to go to a restaurant, nothing on a Sunday, nothing is open.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and I just remember being like, wow, you know, I couldn't get I couldn't get a beer I wanted at that time, you know, or or it was it was pretty cool to be honest.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I can imagine that there were some great parts to it.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then you you know, then you when you decided to do this, what were I I alluded to it in the in the um intro, but you were talking about archaic laws and and lobbying, uh, you know, because so Florida was kind of stuck behind.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um we saw that there was a lot of progression in Midwest, even in Northeast, and nothing was happening in Florida because there was nobody doing it yet.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, we had a smattering of uh Tuttletown opening up in New York, you know, which we were able to kind of look and see what what um he was doing when he was opening up his distillery.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_02: I I uh had the other one that was down in uh in Kansas had opened up uh so and and in California they had a couple, and Texas, of course, had at least two two nice ones.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_02: So we were kind of looking at them and looking at the laws and seeing what we could change, um how we could change our laws here.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_02: But that didn't happen right away because I really didn't know it.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um what happened was is uh first of all the city of Cape Coral kicked me out of like two buildings because they said they were afraid of me uh blowing the street up, you know.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_02: So they I finally found this building in the middle of nowhere.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um now the city has grown around us, but it was um just sitting by itself right off a lake, uh a reservoir lake.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um and finally got the place open.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: That was that was tough because there was nothing written really on the books yet.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_02: And once we did that, um people just kept knocking on the door saying, What are you?
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_02: We didn't have anything written distillery anywhere on our building.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_02: We still don't.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: So that was that was the the reason.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_02: I had so many people kind of knocking on the door saying, Who are you?
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_02: What are you doing?
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_02: I like your sign.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_02: It just said wicked dolphin, that um I would have to stop part of the day and give, you know, I'd give a quick tour and I wasn't getting any work done.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_02: So I reached out to um I went to the ADI, which is the uh Stillers uh uh distillery conference, and I had happened to meet another Florida man there that was starting a distillery in a few years from now, and he was totally focused on tours.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_02: So I hooked up with him, and him and I lobbied and we spoke in front of the House of Representatives, and in 2012 we had the laws changed in Florida that we were able to sell one bottle to somebody that came in into our tours.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_02: Only one SKU.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: What do you mean?
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: You if if if if let's say that you had 20 people come in, you could own you could each person could buy each person could buy one bottle only for a year.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: And and then what?
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_02: You know, if they came in again and said I loved your rum, they couldn't buy from me, they'd have to get it from somewhere else.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_02: Oh and it was impossible to keep track of that one person.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, yeah without taking their social security numbers, and we weren't gonna do that.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_02: So of course I got in trouble for that.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um and uh Yeah, well, you know, yeah it is, it's gotta be impossible to track.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: You'd have to scan their license or you'd have to have some some sort of database to say that, you know, John Smith bought a bottle on this day.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, that's that's we would take everybody's names, but the the um uh the Florida official that came in first time used Michael Michael Campbell and the next time used Mike Campbell.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: So it didn't register when we pulled it, and bingo, you know, and it was like, wait a minute, you know.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_02: But we always asked, too, you know, cause going on words, you know, have you ever been in before and have you ever purchased?
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_02: So at that point, you know, I we needed to change the law.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I actually said to them, Well, I guess you'll have to make an example of me.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_02: I'm okay with that, you know, if you if you're gonna do that.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_02: And they backed off and said, No, no.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_02: And we we asked the following year, the next, the next go-around, and they opened it up to three SKUs.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_02: And finally, when DeSantis got into office, he said, What is this?
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_02: and took it off the book.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_02: So we're allowed to sell now.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: Oh if somebody wants a case, we can sell a case.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, that's great.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: So is that your primary is that the primary distribution method, uh having people come and and do tours and and and purchase, or are you selling it?
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_02: Well, we do sell a lot that way, but no, our our primary we are the largest um craft rum and distribution in Florida right now, for the state of Florida, especially.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and we are only in the state of Florida.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_02: So that's that's our our main point.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_02: I that's our main focus.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: Are you trying to expand out of Florida?
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I get asked a lot to do that, and if I was a little bit younger, I I of course I would, but I I think I have to leave that to the person that takes us uh and or purchases us in the future.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_02: We get asked all the time from some major stores in the Midwest, and we can tell through our um you know our software and and um uh and any sales online with liquor stores where exactly our areas we should be expanding to.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_02: But I didn't start this to be uh, you know, a national brand or something.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_02: I I started it because I really wanted to focus on our product and really just having a good, good product.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: And we created it very our marketing organically through the state of Florida.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_02: And to grow into uh one of the larger brands is it's because we have a good product and that's what we I focus on.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not focusing on selling, I'm not focused on on going out of state.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_02: That again, somebody in the future is gonna do that.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: But even still, like when you when you you know when you build a great product and you focus on building a great product, you do need a certain amount of scale to make sure that that product can continue to be profitable and grow.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so you do need that to a certain extent.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now, how much you need is a different story, but why why would it I mean why couldn't you just hire like a a uh head of sales to go out and say, you know what, you open up the Midwest, you take care of that, and I'll just do what I do, which is making sure that the product is great.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_02: We're right about there now where where this is gonna happen.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_02: In the next year or so, that will probably be one of our main focuses.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_02: Either either another brand is gonna come in and purchase us.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: Which would be the ideal scenario for you.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_02: Well, we do we're doing such a volume here, you know, um, that it kind of would make sense.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_02: Or I acquire maybe other brands, which I've been thinking about as well.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I might pick up a a tequila and start something like that.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_02: I might and then start growing our own portfolio into into one of those, you know, into something that, you know, we have salespeople going out right now and they're selling one product that's not making sense.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_02: You know, just like when I had Converse in in Eastern Europe, you know, I also sold them the t-shirts and the shoelaces and the socks that went into those stores.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we we need to add now to to what we're doing.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_02: So that's going to be our focus starting in the new year, is definitely that we're we're starting on it now, matter of fact.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_02: So that that'll be our growth.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: So you have you have a couple of different options.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: You're looking at acquiring brands or or acquiring like uh acquiring uh small small startup quality high quality brands?
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: Do they have to be in uh do they have to be in Florida or does it matter?
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_02: I I actually um I've had several uh bourbons contact me recently and say we'd love to team up with you and and uh expand them and expand our brand into their state.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_02: So I mean it could be something like that where we do a probably a joint venture.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um we've been we've been discussing that.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_02: That could be interesting.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_02: And you know there's a lot of possibilities out there, you know.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um I think when you're like myself, those brands have concentrated just growing their brands organically and are number one in their state as well.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_02: So it's kind of interesting you know, we both kind of the gentleman I'm talking about own owned a brand before this, and he just, you know, just keeping just wanted to keep into his state, but we're both at that point right now where we get we're getting too many calls not to move.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I would imagine that when you build a quality product and you start going to other people want it, it's sort of like when you go back to the you know, the the 70s, I guess, and you you look at coors, and you know, you couldn't get it east of the Mississippi River, and people wanted it because they had it or whatever.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they even had the that's what Smokey and the Bandit, that whole movie series was about, bringing the coors east.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, and then people people wanted it because it was a different, higher quality beer than what was available at the time.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_02: So it's funny that you're bringing them up because you know they are our distributor, the Reyes group.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, is that right?
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, Reyes owns Coors, and and they just acquired our brand um from RDC.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_02: Uh there was a lot of turmoil in our in the industry when RDC went into chapter 11 recently, and Reyes picked up the smart move by them, and they're gonna they're gonna be phenomenal.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's there's a lot of turmoil.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: I was I've been reading articles about it.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not in that that side of the industry.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have any clients in that side of the industry.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we did a little bit in wine, but not not so much in in alcohol, but um or liquor.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um but I I have been reading a ton of articles where it's just the there's a couple of people saying, well, you know, it's because people are drinking less and some of these brands are struggling because of that.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: Some of it has to do with the tariffs, some of it has to do with, you know, Canada not importing or other countries not importing the product.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I I I have a friend who uh has a small distillery in Kentucky, and uh he's struggling.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, he used he he does not only his own brand, but he's also uh distilling for some other small I call them micro brands if you want to.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um and and you know, they're they all seem to be struggling, so it's probably a good time, you know, to to acquire brands and put them into, you know, the distribution channel to to sort of grow them, you know, especially if you can consolidate some of the costs.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, true.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_02: And that would be that would be the main thing for sure.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um year over year, even with uh three hurricanes we had, right?
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_02: COVID, three hurricanes, and uh the R and D C complete mess up, um, we've expanded every year.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_02: Which is which is saying something for the brand.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_02: Every year we are growing.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_02: And and this is a great year because we're finally entered into the groups, like hotel groups and and uh restaurant groups.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_02: So that's been phenomenal for us.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I I I also think that there's some categories within the overall that are sort of saturated, right?
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: I think vodka has just been way oversaturated.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: Every celebrity has a vodka.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: Tequila, maybe I think there's There's still probably some room on the high, high end, right?
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: Really craft tequila.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: Brown liquor, you know, w whiskies and bourbons.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that that's sort of gotten oversaturated over the over the past few years.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: But rum, you know, you don't really hear about people that are creating sort of uh really high quality crafted rum.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: And when you start thinking about where you are geographically and that whole area and what people the types of drinks people drink, you know, it's bullseye.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's all you know, even I came from vodka, right?
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: From from from Eastern Europe is all potato vodka, rye vodka, wheat vodka.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's all we drank was vodka over there.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_02: And uh rum was new to me when I got back when I came back down here.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, it's it's a great beverage.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's it's so versatile.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_02: If you look at uh uh the flavored ones, and we've cut out a lot of sugar, so that really helps your drink.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um you know, we've been focused on natural, we've been focused on organic, we've been focused on all these things, what I want to drink.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_02: I I I'm not really looking at everybody else, which is probably not the smartest business move, but for me it's been, you know, this is what I want to see.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_02: I don't want to see preservatives, I don't want to see chemicals, I want to see something natural and and um you know, that we can be proud of.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_02: And this is why this is a different business for me, because in my last career, I had somebody else's product that I sold.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_02: This year it was very important for me to have the product, and that's why I spent so much time with it.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_02: The real thing.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_02: You'll get the real thing.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: Is it difficult to go uh offshore with your product?
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: So to to say, you know, the Bahamas or, you know, uh Bermuda or Aruba or places like that?
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we we also do a little bit of contract bottling where we make some rums for the cruise ships and for the islands.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so that's kind of kind of cool that America's running some uh rum over to the islands.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_02: I love that.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, it it's it's not difficult.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_02: It is a procedure though.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I would imagine.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: But I guess it can't be anything uh anything worse than what you uh already went through in Eastern Europe.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: So you're probably used to it.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_02: I know that you know it's hard for that's why uh when people see me coming, they go, oh no, she just won't take no That's funny.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I I hate to say it, but uh we're we're about 30 seconds out of time, and uh I do appreciate you coming.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, it was a great conversation.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: Time just flew by.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's the best kind.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: I love your insight.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: I love uh the stories you shared, I love how you uh, you know, you just go ahead and do it, you put your head down and get done what you want to get done, which I think is great.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um so how do people find you?
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Is there anything people can do outside of Florida to to buy the product?
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: You can't sell over online, right?
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_02: We we are, you know, it's always that gray subject with with alcohol and shipping, but there is a um a shipper on our site that will be able to send you Wicked Dolphin rum.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um it's not associated with us, it's just an independent shipper that we have to go to.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_02: So his pricing and shipping is different.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_02: Alcohol is Alcohol is expensive to ship.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_02: I say, come down here, enjoy paradise, enjoy the beautiful weather and the blue blue waters that we have off the coast of you know, Captiva, and um sit and have a have a glass of Wicked Dolphin.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: And take a tour of the uh take a tour of the chillery.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, quickly how we got the name was you know, we have so many dolphins in this area.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_02: Uh when I first moved down here, New Yorker originally, and um we were renovating the house, had no air conditioning, all the windows open, and my dogs every day run after the dolphins up and down the the the um the seawall.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_02: And uh that night I thought somebody was breaking in the house, and it was as my husband, I I woke him up, I said, Bob, wake up, somebody's breaking in.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_02: He goes, Nah, it's that damn dolphin outside.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_02: That's how we got wicked dolphins.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's funny.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's a great story.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I appreciate you coming on.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate you, Sharon.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and and great talking to you, great meeting you.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_02: Great being here.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_02: Appreciate it.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.