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Non-Alcoholic Beverage Marketing with Renee Adams: Shelf Placement, Branding and Building the Category · Ready To Drink Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_03: Renee Adams.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_03: I am currently working as freelance, a little bit consulting for the non-alk beverage space, really just kind of your go-to guide for everything non-alk beverage, whether that's you know, navigating how to tell people that you're drinking less, um, what types of beverages maybe to look for when you're new in the space.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_03: And then more recently, I'm actually working with a local bar called the Little Sober Bar in Woodstock, Georgia as their marketing lead.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, really, really excited about that.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I also do a little bit of ghostwriting for uh on LinkedIn for non-out beverage brands, um, just really trying to amplify what they're doing, getting these smaller brands out there so they can get awareness and really just trying to have some fun, you know?
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_03: Like some of this shit can be really heavy.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_03: And so if I can add a little bit of um just slowness and fun and creativity and some laughs, like then I can walk away being happy.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad you said that because a lot of times, like with my involvement federally with the lobbying and and also in in the different states with North Carolina and Pennsylvania, I work with the lobbying there, and it's like in the advocacy campaigns, it's a lot of not negativity, but it's heavy.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's heavy.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think like regardless, my biggest content right, and it's funny you said that because I woke up and I intentionally went to bed Sunday, and I woke up Monday being like, I'm putting positivity out there now.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Because there's two things.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: One is let's say the ban does happen and then the whole world flips upside down.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: I want this, I want this experience that we all had to be an evergreen thing to leave on the internet because I'm gonna be like, regardless of whether people can buy it legally on the shelf, these stories, and that's why I'm going really hard.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like trying to do, I'm doing four to six episodes a week and bulking and elaborating them up.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because I want to get everybody right now, because I want everybody's experience to be out there.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because even if let's say, God forbid, everything happens and we all go back to other things, the world needs to know that we had a we it was a real it was a real industry.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: And even if 10 years from now it doesn't exist, this will exist online.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and to your point, you know, yes, with the government types of things, like that whole sort of um environment can feel very sterile.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and like sometimes you do have to play the game in order to get, you know, the things back that you need in order to continue and for maybe this ban not to happen.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_03: But I also think maybe pun intended, planting the seeds of, you know what I'm saying?
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_03: Like planting the seeds of, okay, there is this entire industry.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_03: If you are talking about money, okay, sure.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_03: Uh that's here, that's happening, that people want, need, and are demanding.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_03: And you can't deny that.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_03: Like the numbers, the data, if you're that type of person, like, yeah, sure, you can go to your in your community to see and really feel it.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_03: But if you're all about data, numbers, all of that shit too, it's there.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_03: Like you can see it.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_03: You can see the growth, you can see what's happening now, you can see the projections, all the things with AI, like all of those things, but also just like from a data standpoint, like people want this and it needs to be here.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: It does.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: And and it's and and I will I will make a fairly what what today would be a political statement is I'm in the middle of the road.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm an advocate of American access.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm American I'm I'm a 17-year business owner in the United States.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: I believe everybody should have access to everything that's in with safety.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think that things should be cut out.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: I some of the stuff should be cut out, some of those were out, and but there should be regulation to cut that out.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not a big fan of broad stroking just because there's bad actors.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Also, working in the alcohol industry.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: There's a reason the word bathtub gin exists because they did exist.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: And what did we do?
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: We regulated them and they don't exist anymore.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: They might some places and stuff like that, but that's not on the shelf.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I think to to ignore history is to just is to shoot ourselves in the foot.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it's anti-American and it's anti-capitalism.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: And the last thing I remember is one thing we we might not agree on it or not, but we're built on capitalism.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: And to go the opposite of that and not put regulation just seems like we're just we're just not even looking at the same picture, you know what I mean?
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: And it's and and that's where I really I it's where it gets grinds my gears.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's super frustrating.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I think because of all of this momentum, naturally, people are potentially afraid of that momentum because I think there's still a lot to be said about the language, the education, um, how we're presenting these sort of new functional beverages to the marketplace.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that a lot of it is sort of fear-based because it's like you don't have the full picture.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_03: And when, as you said, with history, you know, if you're relating some of these functional beverages to certain, you know, historical things around like cannabis and around THC and around different things, um, then yeah, people are gonna be afraid of it because they just think that you're adding one more thing to people to like numb with.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_03: But I think it's really like super important to understand as a whole, people want to feel better.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_03: They want to feel better, they want to be clearer, they want to be able to unwind in a way that really isn't detrimental to their health for whatever reason.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_03: Like whether you are just taking a break for the night, like on a Tuesday or Thursday, whether it is you're taking a break from alcohol for the 30 days or because you're running, you know, whatever, wherever you fall on the spectrum.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_03: For me, it's about normalizing it to a place to where it's not even a question whether or not places have like have access, people have access to these types of beverages.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um, because if you put them there, people will people will have them.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_03: People will order them.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_03: You can't just keep like if you put them on the bottom shelf, if you put them in the back of the corner, like, yeah, of course nobody's gonna order it because they don't know that you fucking have it.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_03: Like put it out there like you do with the normal alcoholic drinks.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_03: It's the same thing.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, it's so baffling to me how lazy people are in terms of educating themselves on something that does have a lot of ROI.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's a lot.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: And the case they're predictable.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I've seen this movie before because when I worked in craft beer, uh, you know, early 20s, 2000, I started out when I was 19 years old.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: So in 04, I started.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: We were selling Oscar Blues a couple years later, you know, all this other stuff.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: And there's two things that's funny is one was when we introduced cans in craft beer, the retailer could not understand the price point because they they were like, What's in a can?
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: So it must be a sub-premium product.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then the next part is exactly what you just said is the placement of the product and the ROI and the margins that exist, and the amount of retailers across the state we'd have to argue with, which eventually now are big craft beer places.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: But in that time, people forget it was a struggle because it was like they wanted everything to be what it was, and then they put it behind everything, and then they would come to us and be like, it's not selling.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, well, number one, we still have to educate the consumer, and number two, they have to find it.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: And that's and that's also the same conversation I'm now having with the functional non-alcoholic space, where a lot of times still we're still fighting to get non-alcoholic not in the back by the bathroom in the storage ring.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, get it up on the floor and a place where we can access it.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_03: Oh my god, Nate, I have to tell you this story because it I was at Kroger a couple of weeks ago, and I still don't really know if I like agree that non-alk in the is in the alk like section.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I think that is okay because it's just like the one-stop shop.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_03: Like, if you are still getting alcohol, whatever.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_03: But it was an NCAP, and it had one of my favorite non-alcoholic sparkling wines, the Mianetta, on the bottom shelf.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_03: And I was just like, you've got to be kidding me.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_03: And like, yes, while I am grateful that it's even on an NCAP.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_03: I don't like discredit that.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_03: I level is what sells.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_03: Why is it that it's not on eye level?
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_03: And you could say, yeah, same thing with functional beverages.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_03: Anything that's not alcohol, and is it just like dollars?
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_03: Is that why?
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_03: And if it is, what do we gotta do?
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, what do we gotta do to get the shelf space?
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_03: I don't get it.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's the funny part too, is like um is when you talk to at least in Pennsylvania, they're they're old school retailers, and um, and they all they've known me for 20 years now, so they know that I'm gonna tease them when I say this.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: But like these I was a Miller Core I have Miller Cores distributor, I did work with Amaz or Bush distributors, independent, the whole thing.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I've said this even to Miller Cores and things like that.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: The fact that we the fact that they own the front and like it's like a way, it's like a wall when you come in, and retailers be like, Well, I gotta put it there.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's the most, it's the most grab thing.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: We just want people to be in and out.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I try to explain to them like this, which I'd like any retailer that listens to hear this.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: If you put the thing that somebody already wants in the front, they will not buy anything else in your store.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: There is a reason why grocery stores put gr put the meats and put the milk and everything like that on the opposite side of the entrance.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because they want you to buy the other stuff off the shelves as you're going to the necessities.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: So if Core's light, Miller Light, Bud Light is a necessity and it's a turner, you don't have to hit them in the face when they walk in because they're already coming for it.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: We're human beings, we're linear most of the time.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: We're coming in, we're grabbing our 30 rack and we're leaving.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: If you switch things up a little bit, that display is still gonna be there.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: They're still gonna see it, they're still gonna get it.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: But guess what?
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: While they're walking to the other side of the store for their Miller Light or their Coors Light, they might grab something else.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then all of a sudden, you might have an extra 20 bucks.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then if five people do that a week, that's a hundred bucks, it's four hundred bucks.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: And all of a sudden you get that growing and you're paying your rent with the impulse buy on the way to the display.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_03: Right, right.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, it's the ego of the of needing that front-end display space as opposed to the business owner who needs to think about their business, not what we suppliers are coming in telling them what to do.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Think through the more of it.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's when you when you walk in and you're more of a consultative rep, which it sounds like you are as well.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: You're very much, it's not like walking in and doing orders and checking the box.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, hey, I want to help you grow your business because what we need to do is as the service side is I tell everybody I train if your retail partner is not in business, you're not in business.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what every retailer needs to understand.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and everybody in this ecosystem, like they're the most important piece of everything that goes on, including distributors and warehouses, important.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: But at the end of the day, the retailer is the most important piece, and them being sustainable and healthy is more important for the entire system.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, there's like a whole psychology behind all of our behaviors.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_03: And I can almost guarantee that if you put a rack of non-alcoholic beer next to the beer, like, yes, maybe you'll get one or two people that are like, oh shit, I got the non-alcoin or whatever.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_03: But um, more oftentimes than not, I think people would be like the retailers would be pleasantly surprised at how much that is embraced by people, being like, wow, that you're the retailer.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_03: And now you've got loyal customers who are coming back because they feel seen as a customer.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_03: Coming in on the end cap, seeing my Mianetta on that middle shelf.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_03: I can guarantee you right now, like, I'm going to that Kroger every single week because I feel seen as a consumer.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_03: I get like the bigger picture, you can't necessarily maybe do that with everyone and everything, but like try it out.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's my thing is try it.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: Try it out.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then the other thing is too on the brands, and I I talk to a lot of brands from a strategy consulting standpoint.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: If you're doing a non-alk version, do a different logo or do a different color.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like right.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like make it easy for the consumer to know this is NA and this is this.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I think a lot of times they want it to look so similar because they want the experience to be similar.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: They're not realizing exactly what you just said, too.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Where it's like, because also by making the branding and the packaging the same, it does stop the retailer from putting it together for exactly what you just said.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, Well, I don't want them to grab this by accident, then they got to come back, they're upset, you know, everything like that.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, that's fair.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it's a whole industry like tweaking.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: I don't mean overhaul or reform, I mean tweaking.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, you make your thing purple, you know, the box is purple instead of the other one because you're already paying for new boxes, you know what I mean?
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, exactly.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_03: And that also like it doesn't even have to like come down to the can being a different, like, yes, maybe like a stripe on something, or just like something like that for if it's in like a bar or restaurant, because as a consumer, like I personally don't necessarily want to have like this big red flag of like, hey, I'm not drinking, not like I give a shit, like you can ask me whatever, no big deal.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but like the outside packaging, yeah, simple.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_03: Just change the color, change the wording.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_03: Like it's whatever, no big deal.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's funny, I didn't even think about that at the on-premise, though.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it's that actually happened to me a couple months ago.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: I was ordering a Heineken alcoholic, and they gave me a they gave me a bottle of regular Heineken.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: And luckily, I'm so like in tune because of the Cicero stuff and everything like that from crack beer.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't get it sip in before I I could smell the like if the alcohol hit my nose.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I handed it back to the lady and she felt horrible.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: And that's true.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: If you hold a zero in this, they're similar, but not in a reach in.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like you people uh you have to really when you're designing things, you need to think about the real situational situations that that product's gonna be in.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: And when you put them together and they're sitting in the ice and they're only showing that top half and the bartender's grabbing because there's a thousand people in the bar, that's not the bartender's fault, right?
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's not.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Totally, and that's why I told that the bartender was about to cry.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like she was like, My dad's sober.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, do not worry.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Even if it touched my lips, I wouldn't be upset.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's not even a problem that it looks similar, you know.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and I think that's that really is such a good point for for new founders in the space when they are crafting and putting together just like their marketing or what their can looks like.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um, it's the the whole, you got to look at the bigger picture.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_03: You got to look when you are selling to retailers, if that's what your thing is, if it is on premise, like from the time that it's put on premise from the bartending, from the staff, from the servers, how easy it is for them to understand what they're selling.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_03: Um, how is it, how can they relate it?
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_03: You know, because they are essentially your liaison.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_03: You know, when you're on premise, they need to be able to understand what this functional beverage does, how to market it for the consumers confidently, um, and taking their own kind of emotion out of it.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_03: Like there's a neutrality that needs to come with your bartenders and servers, um, regardless of what they what their own, you know, values are, um, because you are the expert.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_03: You are the expert in recommendations for your patrons.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_03: Now, I understand that not everybody like is on with a non-alk, and like, but if you're sitting here being like, oh, I know it's non-alk, there's no alcohol in it, like, yeah, you're not gonna sell it, you know.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_03: So, yes, take some of the emotion, or maybe not emotion, but like some of your own values sort of out of it.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_03: So you have this neutrality.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_03: But also, I think you just something back with like hospitality.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_03: You need to get excited about it, get stoked about it, be like, hey, let me tell you about XYZ.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_03: We have an alcohol menu, but hey, we also have a non-alk menu that's really good.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so I think it does.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_03: There's like a whole big picture from start to finish uh to really encompass like normalizing functional beverages and non-alk in the space.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_03: Because there, like I said too, there's so many new people who want to go out to a bar and restaurant and not order just a soda water with lime or a Diet Coke, you know, which is also fine.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but I would love and I'm so hopeful that we will see a day where we don't have to Google the place before we go to see if they have non-alk available, slash not having to bring my own NA shit and have a$45 corkage fee.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the cork, yeah.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not even gonna get into the corkage fee.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_03: Ridiculous.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_03: Ridiculous.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: Let's jump in Renee.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: Let's jump into your story.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: What let's what got you into this space, but be detailed and like give me the situation, the environment, the years, like what your age you are, that time that it happens, and all that stuff.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, sure.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so about three years ago, I guess I'll start.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_03: I'm sober-ish.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_03: So I 99% of the time do not drink um alcohol.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I have tried like some of the functional beverages, still kind of trying that out in my curiosity experimental phase with that.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but maybe every four to six months I'll have a really, really nice glass of wine.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_03: Um, the more and more that I go, though, it's kind of like, eh, did I really need that?
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so that's kind of where I'm at presently.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_03: But my whole journey really started three years ago.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_03: I have a background playing collegiate sports.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_03: I played lacrosse um from middle school all throughout high school into college.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_03: I've always been very competitive.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_03: Like I come from a competitive family.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um former wrestler, football player, and loved being college.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: So we're a lot of time.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, podcast with that UFC fighter.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: So we're very as soon as you said athletes, we're good.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_03: So the mentality is there.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_03: So it's like, you know, watched hockey growing up.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_03: My dad's side of the family is all French Canadian, like Norwegian, all this stuff.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_03: So, like, very competitive.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um, was always kind of like in sort of uh and in a sports sort of realm.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_03: Um, health, fitness has always been my thing.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, three years ago, I really wanted to dial into my nutrition.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, okay, I've been hitting the gym, I have been counting macros, all that stuff, like, and I'm still not like hitting my goals that I want.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_03: So hired a nutritionist.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_03: And when I really got into the nitty-gritty of tracking all of my calories, all of my macros with the wine, I was like, oh shit, like this is a lot.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_03: This is a lot.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_03: So it kind of like smacked me in the face a little bit because I think when you're going through the motions and you're like, I don't really drink that much, you know?
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I don't really drink that much until you see the numbers like calorically, and just like the amount, like number of drinks I was having.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_03: It was probably something like 15 to 20 a week.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_03: So, like two to three every night.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_03: So, like two to three glasses of wine a night, and then on the weekends, probably double that, triple that, going through bottles by myself.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then I started like moving food around to make sure I could have a glass of wine, which also felt kind of like, you know, that shame comes in, of course, too, where you're just like, man, that I I don't know, you know, and you hear that a lot too, I feel like, where I'm not alone where people are like, yeah, I want to, I'd rather have my liquid calories or whatever.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, or I'd rather have a glass of wine than cake.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_03: And it's like, I think I want the cake instead of, but, anyways, uh, yeah, that just like didn't feel good.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_03: And then simultaneously, one of my best friends, she's actually the co-host of Nosedive of my podcast.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, knew her in grad school, known her for over 10 years.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um, she started sober curious coaching.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, okay.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_03: So her beta coaching program, one-on-one coaching around sober curiosity.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_03: And she invited me to do some one-on-one coaching simultaneously with this, this nutrition coaching.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, yeah, this actually pairs very nicely.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_03: But also, what the fuck is sober curiosity?
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, I always thought AA was sort of it.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_03: Like, if you were ever questioning anything to do around your relationship with alcohol, I was like, oh, it's only AA and I don't fit in that box.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_03: Like, no hate, no shame to AA, to people who resonate with that, like all or nothing, I get it.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_03: But for me, I was just like, no, that's that's not my vibe.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_03: So I was like, all right, let's do this.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_03: Life changing, life changing.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_03: Like, especially coming with the athlete mindset of you go big, you go home.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_03: It is all or nothing.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_03: There is no in between, there is no gray area.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_03: Like, what are you talking about?
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and so to be introduced to something where it is about experimentation to see what works for you opened up something for me that has just been so dormant.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I think that is a very like, um, once you get into your adult ages, that whimsical side of experimentation kind of comes down.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's like dulled down by all like the alcohol and all this shit.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_03: You're like numbing out from all this stuff.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_03: And so when I started reducing, it really opened my eyes to how shitty I was feeling.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, oh, okay, like this makes sense about why I just am super anxious, waking up in sweats, like, you know, just sweating profusely and just not performing uh in my full clear mind.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_03: Um and so from there, I just like took.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_03: Off.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_03: I was like diving deep into the non-alcoholic beverage space.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_03: I was getting so curious.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, yes, I want to try this.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_03: I want to try this.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_03: It was so fun and got certified to do one-on-one coaching as well around sober curiosity.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_03: Did that for a little while and really just like went full send into the non-alf beverage space, talking about it, talking about it with people, that annoying friend who was like, Have you heard about sober curiosity?
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_03: Because I want to tell you, you know.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, I was still working my corporate job.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_03: I was really wanting nosedive to turn into kind of like a workshop working with corporate or maybe collegiate athletes talking about sober curiosity.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_03: That kind of fizzled out.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_03: Started doing the podcast even more consistently.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_03: That also is kind of fizzling out a little bit, but that's okay.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_03: Because selfishly, that is what I want.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_03: I want to see that because it has been such a life-changing uh thing for me.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and this is where like I grew up, yes, liking and being good at a lot of different things, but never felt like I had, you know, when you're growing up and those kids are like, yeah, I want to be a doctor.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_03: Like I know since I was seven that I want to be this, that, the other.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_03: I never really had that.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_03: And so this was sort of my introduction to what being passionate about something really feels like.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, I've loved sports, yes, I love wellness, yes, I love those, that lifestyle.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but really, really being driven uh intrinsically by something that I just absolutely love.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_03: This is my first introduction.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_03: And so yeah, it's been it's been a journey.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_03: This is where I'm at now, like consulting with some brands, helping them with language, with how to formulate some of their beverages just as a consumer, um, just different things to give a value added to people who are new to sober curiosity, who are new to the space, how to talk to people, how to tell people if they so choose, uh, that they are no longer really drinking, how to handle that shit in corporate spaces, like also helping corporate incorporate more non-elf.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_03: Like I just want to see it in places people frequent.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so if there's anything that I can do to help a brand, the people who are out there actually being sober, sober curious, and then also the venues who uh really need these brands like in their premise.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_03: Um, that's kind of that's kind of where I'm at.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_03: And then little sober bar.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_03: I love the little silver bar.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, let me tell you a story really quick.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_03: So I lived in Savannah for 12 years.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_03: I was coming home on a holiday trip.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_03: I was looking for non-out bottle shops because, you know, of course, you got a B Y O N A B all the time.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_03: Um and I stumbled upon the little sober bar, reached out to Brittany Hyde.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_03: She is the CEO founder of the Little Sober Bar.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_03: She's like, oh my gosh, yeah, cool.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_03: Come by, blah, blah, blah.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_03: Picked up some things, had her on the podcast.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_03: Then my husband gets a new job in Atlanta.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and so we move up to Woodstock.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_03: And what do you know?
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_03: The little sober bar is 10 minutes away from my house.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_03: And so now I'm working there, helping her with some marketing and just again, like getting more non-alk everywhere.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: This, like a couple of things you went through.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: And one is uh my phrase was always, if you're gonna hit it, hit it hard.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, that was our our uh shirts for wrestling in high school, and that phrase is just burned in forever with me.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, it's one of the things that like the couple things out of what you said too is like coach has always told me like if you're gonna make a mistake, make it a big one.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I never understood that because my problem in sports was I AUHD, Asperger's, whatever the hell we call it, and I overthought everything.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd be out in the middle of the football field, like in the middle of a play, I could never remember the place.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: I was horrible at like remembering the place, so I was always going the wrong way.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and everybody's like, You're you're a smart guy.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like, why are you doing this?
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: And eventually it turned into my coach pulling me aside and being like, Stop thinking.
• 26:34
  unknown: Yeah.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, What the hell?
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like, stop thinking, like that's what that's what uh gets me by in life, and and so I did.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: And what then led into a stop caring and not stop caring, like I'm gonna sit on the couch and not care about the world, not caring about the eyeballs.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, and so then I fast forward to life and adulthood, and then the eyeballs started to weigh me back in again.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then the drinking went through the roof.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because then the drinking was to numb the the eyeballs and then to numb the brain from the overthinking.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then that's what that stacking began.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: And and then where you went to with the with the other stuff is as well, is like people it the the idea of hospitality, and this is not a either or, and I want to reiterate that again, and as you have as well, is that it's not like we don't want alcohol to die, we don't want the industry to die.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: But we lost sight on what the word hospitality means.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's not hospitality only if you drink alcohol, or hospitality only if you drink liquor or whatever, you know, or only if you eat cheesesteaks or wings.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's hospitality if you're a human being walking in, and it's the job of a retailer to, within the means of their budget, have the widest variety optional.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: And actually, the uh Brewers Association just came out with a really interesting uh year-end report from 2025, and the breweries are closing like crazy.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh tap room tap rooms are closing in Pennsylvania in the city.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it's wineries.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we uh just breweries alone in PA.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: We had over almost 100, I guess, closed in the last year.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: Or 60, 64 exactly.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm exaggerating.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: The rest of them are pending right now.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: But one of the things is that the the report across the country came out, and what happened is the tap rooms that diversified outside of their beer, they're thriving.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's data now that proves it by a national trade organization that if you have a diverse beverage portfolio in the on-premise hospitality world, whether you're brewery, winer, distillery, bar, restaurant, whatever, you will thrive right now.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I'm not saying that everybody that's not doing it is destiny to die.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you have beer, you have great beer.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's a lot of those places, and I'm not knocking them, and they should do what they do.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: But it doesn't hurt to have some diversification.
• 28:40
  unknown: Yeah.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: One other one, too, is anybody can look up uh total wine and spirits.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, we all know that.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: Look up some recent quotes from from the CEO where he said he had a 30% lift in foot traffic in 2025 for the hemp section and functional beverage section.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: Out of that 30% lift of foot traffic, 60%, I believe it I could be misquoting, but 60% were people that'd never been in total wine before.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, again, I could be reversing them, but either way, if I reverse the numbers, it's still there.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's still there.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_03: Like the proof is in the pudding here, people.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I just yeah, and and it's still like so frustrating for me, like I mentioned before, having to do the digging, especially at some of these like nicer restaurants that offer non-alk, great non-alk, and I have to be a detective to figure out if you have it.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_03: It shouldn't be that hard for consumers to understand whether or not that uh you have non-alk.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_03: Um, it needs to be on the same level as your alcoholic drinks.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_03: Hands down.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_03: It's simple.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_03: It really just like keep it simple.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_03: It doesn't have to be this big announcement and this nuanced sort of complicated thing.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_03: Add one to two non-alk or functional beverages to your menu, start low, start slow, see how that works, see how that, you know, you can incorporate these things easily enough, and then you build on there.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_03: It doesn't have to be again this all or nothing, like, oh God, we have to add this whole non-alk menu and da-da-da-da-da.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_03: It's like add one, add one first.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_03: That's not a Heineken Zero.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_03: Jesus.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I'm simply I love like I will take Heineken Zero if that's all I can get, but there's so many, there's so many other better options.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: There is, and and the funny, yeah, and the funny thing is when I when I sit down with the retailers and do the stuff as as the the regular core of what our business does, it's as simple as this.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: Every day they're being pitched new products, every day they have to edit and change these venues.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: It is literally we're talking keystrokes.
• 31:00
  unknown: Yeah.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, they're already doing the keystrokes to fit in the category.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: And and a lot of people are gonna argue it's a pain in the ass.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna agree.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's a pain in the ass.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: But only if you think keystrokes is a pain in the ass.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like, because here's the thing, and that's when you really pull the onion back and you go, how much of a pain?
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because then I'll straight up say to them, Hey, I got this new RTD coming in, like uh, you know, orange crush, two moods coming in.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like, can I get that on the menu?
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll do I'll do it as a trick almost to get with them, and they'll be like, Yeah, absolutely.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then I'll and I'll be like, All right, when can we get that on the menu?
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, probably the next two weeks we're printing again for the next menu reset, blah blah blah.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, cool, awesome.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, All right, we got these other things, and it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then I I do it intentionally, where I lead with the one I know is gonna be openly received.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and then I literally call it out on it on the floor and I say, Okay, then they'll push me back on the other stuff, and I go, What's the difference?
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and they'll go, Well, well, this this is new, and I'm like, This is new.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, wait, what?
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then I'm like, and this is the same product description as this, and actually, the literally the the characters are the almost the same, the amount of characters are the same.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: So, and then they can't explain it, and then nine out of ten times so far, when I actually get to have that conversation where they don't shut down and they actually hear me, it ends up on the menu.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and it's interesting too, like maybe with the ones too that are like, oh no, like keystrokes or whatever, like maybe there's something wrong with your process, then.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's a whole that's a whole another thing.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's that hard for you to add in there, but yeah, no, I I agree.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_03: I think there's definitely a lot of barriers still uh that need to have, yeah, that conversation.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_03: And like people like you who are human who are just saying, Hey, what's really going on here?
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_03: Like, yeah, is it really that it's new or is it because it's not non-elk?
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_03: And if it is, all right, cool.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_03: Like, let's let's talk about it.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_03: Like, why is this such a scary thing for it being new when you've got a new product right here?
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_03: You still have to put in the time, the work to market this new thing.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_03: It's the same thing.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_03: This is just non-elk.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_03: Like, why is it?
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_03: And it's and it's the same thing with when people are talking about sobriety or Cali sober or anything that has the word sober in it, there's still that connotation with that word and with that language that is very sticky for people.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_03: That's like, I don't want to mess with that.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_03: I we don't like we're not messing with that.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_03: This is where you have the open dialogue about like it's really not that scary.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_03: It's really not that big of a deal.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and you're making it harder than it actually has to be.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and here's all the proof kind of around that.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_03: And also, like, let me help you.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_03: Ask for the support.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_02: If you really feel that right there too, yeah.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, if you really feel that uncomfortable, like, okay, I don't know how to market this, no big deal.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_03: There are plenty of people like yourself who can help them with a toolkit to market the non-alk because it is maybe that is new to them.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and ask for support, like and put your ego aside, you don't know how to do something, ask for the support.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_03: There's plenty of people in this space who are ready and willing to help you sell.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_03: And on the flip side of that, if you are a new brand in the market, foster those relationships.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_03: Like if you are direct to consumer or if you are trying to get on premise, like follow up with these places, follow up with the bars.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_03: Don't just show up, drop it on them.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_03: Hey, like, hey, try this, let me know what you think.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_03: Like, here's some free stuff.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_03: You gotta foster and cultivate some of these relationships to help each other out.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_03: If you want your stuff on premise or if you want your stuff in venues, whatever your vision is for your brand, you've got to do some of the work too.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, there's a lot of work in putting together a brand in general, the marketing, all of that, of course.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_03: But you've got to foster the relationships.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_03: You've got to follow up.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_03: You've got to, like a month later, two weeks later, hey, how did it go?
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_03: How did you like it?
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_03: How do your servers liking it?
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, they don't know how to sell it.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, let me help.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_03: You know, so I think that there's a lot more that comes with the attention and the intention when you are selling marketing these non-alchebeds.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_03: You can't just drop it on somebody's doorstep and expect it to sell.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'll I I want to I want to piggyback on that because that's something that I do.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: I just we just launched a new product, and I'm the one that goes out between me and the distributor partner that we have is uh warehouse and last mile delivery.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: So we're the front end agency that's sets from them.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, um, so they they help out with the farther distances, they'll do the sample drops while they're already making deliveries, and then I do the other ones.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: And one thing I find is to answer the menu thing.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: So anybody that's listening that's wondering, how do I do this?
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like you guys are saying some great stuff.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: You're not we're not trying to be negative at all, we're trying to help actually enhance everything and try to help everybody sell more.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's this conversation.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: If you're listening to this and you're taking it negative, you're not in the right mindset.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: So the fact is, we're not downing anybody, we're tweaking out what can be tweaked so that we can flow a little bit better when it comes down to this.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: I even have a template on my computer where I'll pull it up and I say, hey, if I go to Staples and I print out 30 of these or 50 of these, and then I send you the PDF, will you take care of it from then on forward in replacements?
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: But I'll take care of the first run.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: And that's$40 out of my pocket, which for a lot of people, yeah, you're gonna say, Oh God,$40 at every other place.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: Think long term.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: If that place is in there and you put that in, you yes, first month, you might not make any money.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: You might lose$40 in the first month.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: But month six, seven, eight, when they're producing it themselves, because when they start producing it themselves, then they have ownership of it.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: Then they're paying attention to who throws it away, they're making sure it's inside, they're making sure it's taped in there, you know, whatever it is, or it's it's a table tent or whatever.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's my old school piece is like working so long in the beer industry, we're a big table tent company, we're a big, you know, menu company.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's what you gotta do.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta get that stuff out there and you gotta get in front of people.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I think as as much as we're bootstrapped in, let's say, specifically in hemp, like capital's capital's rough.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not everybody's like, I don't have the money.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's not about the big budgets, it's about the little moments and the little things.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because running to staples and getting 10 or 20 and then bringing it back, it's a$20 investment that literally it's probably gonna in 12 months pay off in thousands of dollars in sales.
• 37:23
  unknown: Right.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: And if not if not more.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: And and that's where I think we lose the sight of in business, you got to spend money to make money.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: And the problem is we're in the scarcity mindset because we don't have the capital we need in this industry, that we're in that scarcity mindset.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I try to teach founders like I am not a millionaire, I've been in this business a long time as a solopreneur.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: You don't become a millionaire being a solopreneur in the beverage business.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't I think you cut you you grind it out and you're persistent, and you're just a battered guy that can still stand there and smile and you touch it.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you last 17 years.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: But one of the things that I think a lot of people need to understand is too, is that we can't lose sight of you got to spend money to make money.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: And we're not talking about a million-dollar marketing campaign, we're talking about a few$20 investments across the state.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, yeah.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, well, even to that point, like if you're bootstrapping even more, listen, AI can do a lot of shit.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_03: You go on Canva, you make a repeatable template for somebody, whatever that looks like.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_03: If it's like, hey, use this language, hey, use this for your servers, you put it together, you send it in an email to whoever you're taking it to, even if you can't print those things out, or you print one copy, you have one copy that you take to all of these different places, they can make copies if they want.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_03: Email is free.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_03: Canva, for the most part, the free, they have free editions of everything.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_03: So if you can have a sort of toolkit that you're bringing to these bars or that you're, you know, working with these relationships with people to see what will work, you put together a repeatable SOP, a repeatable strategy that's fun, take the sterile part out of it.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_03: I know SOP can be like, oh, gross, you know, like SOP, corporate language, whatever.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_03: But you need to have these systems in place so that when somebody new does come in, if you are, you know, a server or a bartender, they can easily read these things off and start repeat the systems.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_03: And then you can grow and then you can change the systems if you want.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_03: So if you are coming into these places, put together a little cheat sheet, put together something that's fun.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_03: You can freaking email it to them in a PDF if that's the absolute like lowest tier, I think, for barrier to entry in sort of these sort of processes.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then follow up with them.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_03: Be like, hey, did you use this?
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_03: Was it helpful?
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_03: What part wasn't helpful?
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_03: Get the feedback, start that rapport so then you can start building out these actual foundational things that will help build your business, help build the businesses that you're also working with so that you can all thrive together.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna say any retail partner that's listening, please close your ears for a second because I'm gonna give a tip to all the brands out there and distributors.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_00: If you make whether it's PDF or print, if you make the menu for non-alcoholic functional and all that hemp, if you were on the menu, they might give you one or two SKUs because they're gonna squeeze you in.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: If you make the menu, guess what you get to do?
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_00: Well, look at all this dead space over here.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_00: So then all of a sudden, 90% of the time, your sale becomes eight to ten skews.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the back end that nobody wants to really hear is you sell more when you make the effort to help them out.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_03: It's true.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_03: It's so true.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_03: And there and to your point of like how our mentality really does change how we operate just in this world, in this space, it's hard.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_03: I understand that there are hardships, there are challenges, it's not as easy as implementing these things that we are saying.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_03: I recognize that.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_03: I am not delusional in that, but I think if we can all get on the same page about the open dialogue, how we can leverage each other's skills, how we can help one another, I think when we band together, that's the whole reason why this community is so great, is because there are so many talented people in this space who are advocating for some really like impactful things, and we we can help one another, leverage each other's audiences, leverage each other's knowledge.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_03: Golden.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_03: It's golden.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_00: That was a per that's a perfect closeout right there.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate that.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, real quick for for the audience and everything like that, just circle back and remind them, and corporate language is there too for everybody.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, circle back.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_00: Let them know.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_00: Let them know.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I've never lasted more than 90 days in a corporate environment.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: I have to publicly say that to everybody.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_03: So unemployable is what I've heard.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_00: My mom, my mom cringes when I say that.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, you need to understand, mom, it's not that I'm devalued, it's that when you've run your own business for 17 years, nobody wants to hear your opinion in the corporate world.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's like you know, they don't want to know what you want to say.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so let's go with uh, yeah, remind everybody social media tags, LinkedIn, websites, your podcast, everything like that as we're kind of closing out.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, absolutely.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_03: So you can find me on LinkedIn at Hey Renee Adams or if in the search bar, just Renee Adams non-alk on Instagram.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_03: I'm at Hey Renee Adams.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_03: Also follow the little sober bar, which is the little sober bar.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then of course you can find us on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, just nosedive one word.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_03: Um and yeah, if you're looking for any help in the space, if you need some of those templates, if you need some of those toolkits, if you need some help in any way, shape, or form, or just like some wrecks on some good non-alk beverages.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_03: I have tried like hundreds at this point.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_03: So just reach out to me.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_03: I'm always here as a support, as a resource, and I'd love to help.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking forward to uh to logging as many non-alk and functional and hemp beverages as I did with crap heroes on untapped.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_03: So yes, we need to compare.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_03: I have like a whole freaking list going.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_03: So anytime you find a new one, please let me know.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_03: We need to do like a little share our list thing because I'm always about trying new things.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's perfect.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well, hey, Renee, I I uh really appreciate you you coming on here.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I appreciate I say this a lot as you listen to the show, but I have to publicly tell people and remind everybody there's no script and there's no agenda, there's no monitor over top of me.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_00: Renee and I have literally never met in person.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_00: We never even met in a Zoom meeting or a Google meet prior to this.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: What you're seeing is two strangers connecting in under an hour.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I want everybody to understand that that's how simple this is.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_00: If you stop caring about the eyeballs and you stop caring about what dumb shit comes out of your mouth, and you just act like a human being, you can connect with other human beings.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that that's the hard part.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_00: It is hard, it's hard to ignore the noise.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but just Renee, thank you for the cojones and I know uh, you know, like the courage and all that to just come in here and do this because we get rejected a lot.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_00: And we and not I'm not saying that as a victim vote.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: I mean I laugh when people reject it because it's just not they don't have it.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_00: They just don't have the hookbooks.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, exactly.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm a big let-go fan, so I don't take things personal.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, but I want to close out also with letting everybody know, you know, uh it's it's this world is beautifully dangerous and it's also beautiful.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_00: And when you're walking down the street, put your phone in your pocket, look through the person in the eye as you're walking through with the strangers, that you're at the gas station, look to the person next to you filling their cup of coffee, ask them how they're doing, actually give a shit about what they say.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_00: Take a minute, have a conversation.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_00: You don't know what's going on in their life, and while your life might be full and you might be connected to everybody in the world, somebody else is really fucking lonely out there.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_00: And that five minutes could make their week, their month, their year.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna be honest too, there might be a time where they were thinking about exiting this world, and the fact that you reached out as a human being, they could pause.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that there's that's that's something that I don't say enough in this, and I think it's coming to light more as people are dealing with the mental health across this country and across the world.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_00: So be a good human out there, it's pretty free not to be a piece of shit.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_00: So uh, you know, it's pretty inexpensive.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_03: That's what's up.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_03: That's what's up, Nate.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much for having me.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_03: Very grateful.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_03: Appreciate it.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome, awesome.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much, Renee.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_00: You have a good rest of your day.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm on the next one.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we'll see you till next time.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_03: See ya.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_00: You take care.