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Alex Kllanxhja on Drink Entrepreneurship: Leaving Corporate Beverage Sales to Build Pipeline Autopsy · Ready To Drink Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_03: Alex Kalanja, I'm the founder and CEO of Pipeline Autopsy.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome, man.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: So tell me, give me a like a cloud level flyover on what Pipeline Autopsy does.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_03: Well, honestly, man, I started out um working with CRMs and sales pipelines.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_03: Um the couple of the couple of suppliers, the brewers that I'd worked with, um we we were small and we were really just trying to figure those things out.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_03: Um Oscar Blues has grown into a giant now and sold to Monster.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_03: And um, I think I was the 10th or 11th rep with them.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_03: Um back when we all got in the same room and Dale would come in and on his on his bike, you know, and show up.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_03: I got a handwritten card from him and a hundred dollar gift card when my son was born.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_03: So that's how tight, tight a crew it was back in the day.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um but I noticed I'm gonna pause you real quick to connect right off the bat because I didn't know anything about Oscar Blues.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I sold Oscar.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: Oscar Blues was number one, my first craft beer was uh was was uh O Chub.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: Nice one of the one of the first craft beers.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: And then I worked at Ariglio Beverage, uh started out like 20 years ago, and Dale and them came down and launched in Pennsylvania with Ariglio.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I got to meet those guys and work with them.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so Oscar Blues has been a part of my uh part of my life for a long time.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they're they're the ones who uh they're the ones who really got me into the craft scene.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_03: Um that's actually the only job I I actually applied for in the in the industry.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_03: Every other role I've had, I was headhunted.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_03: So nice.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_03: Um and it was it was the one job that after I left, I was like kicking myself for leaving.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_03: So um there it goes.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: I I've told the story a couple times here when uh when I'll I'll say it again because I think it's been a year or two.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: When we when we were at uh in Philadelphia working for the wholesaler, it was very there were suits and everything like that, and everybody was very buttoned up, and and that's how the that's how you operated as the wholesaler and the sales team.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: And when we launched Oscar Beliefs, they had this video, which maybe you were in it, it was their promotional video, like introducing the company.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: And then it was like at the end, we were like a company that was like you know drug tested and all kinds of union house and everything like that.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: And we're there and the owner, and everybody's in their suits.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: There's about 60 people in the room, and Dale and them come out with like construction boots and shorts and like cargo shorts, and then they're like, We don't want to tell you how we are, we're just gonna kill you, everybody.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: The funniest part was it's like the video was like them going all around the facility and introducing the people, but it wasn't corporately shot, it was like very much a phone.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: But the ending was the funniest part, and it made everybody cringe was like, not us, but uh all the higher ups.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: At the end, it was like they opened a closet and they're like, What's going on in here?
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: It was like four employees just ripping bongs in the closet.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I was like, This is a brand I can get behind.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: So they have a sense of humor, man.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it it uh it was uh yeah, so my last name is Kwanja.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_03: Um it rhymes with ganja, right?
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_03: So like all my merch, all my POS, all my samples, everything I would order, they would write the word ganja on the box.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so like I would go pull up to my my my distributor house, you know, that is all buttoned up, drug tested, all that, just like you were saying.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm picking up giant boxes with ganja written all over it.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, they definitely had a sense of humor.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: Well, let's let's talk about let's talk about since then.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: So you start out with them, you're one of the first employees.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: I got a million stories about what it was like cultivating that path.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's like a machete in the safari moment, right there.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: When you guys, not only that, something I just wrote an article about on my Substack recently was a lot of times what you can, you and I can commiserate on was everybody selling craft beer in cans today.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: That that's a given, that's just an expectation.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: When we were selling Oscar Blues when it first came out, we were getting laughed out of places because they're like, Why the fuck would I pay that much for a canned beer?
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: That's patch blue ribbon or that's coarse light.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_03: 100%.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I mean, we yeah, the first craft in a can really.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_03: Um, that was a big selling point for me.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um, that's what I used.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, man, you could take this everywhere.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_03: You can take this to the lake, you can take it to the river, you can take it to the beach.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, nobody's gonna get mad at you for having a can.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_03: Plus, you know, packing it out, you crush it up, you could have a hundred of them in your backpack.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_03: So um, yeah, I it was it was pretty it was unique at the time, and it's it was pretty awesome to watch the can revolution that Dale pretty much started.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, um, yeah, I mean, now bottling your beer, if if you're a craft brewer and you're only bottling, you are losing out.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was it was it it's something that uh that's taken for granted was walking in that like that first year, especially, because we were selling it right in the jump and everything like that.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: It was it was the I think it was them or the first, and then shortly after it was like Sly Fox, I think, out of Philadelphia kind of came out in the cans shortly after.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: And we were it was true, it was tough selling.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: It was really tough to sell it, and then it was tough to educate the consumer about that price point because for whatever reason, in the very beginning of the canned craft beer, everybody just rigidly kept crap or beer, sub-premium beer as a can, and they wouldn't understand the price point differentials and stuff.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_03: It was, I mean, it was definitely yeah, it was groundbreaking at the time.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so so you were in the CRM space, so that that's a in the in the brewing area, that's a whole, you know, what was what was the what was it like that got you into it?
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: And obviously, you're one of the few that saw the value in it, um, rather than like keeping Excel files and short call notes because every sales guy that's out there thinks he's gonna remember every conversation.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: But two days in and 30 stops later, I mean, I still do it today.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: I'm pulling cold, I pull 20 cold doors a day.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I have to get on HubSpot and put everything in immediately because I know myself, like by 5 p.m., I don't remember 10 a.m.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: to 12 p.m.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not because they were insignificant, it's just a lot of conversations that you have throughout the course of the day.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, 100%.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think um so before CRM was even like a thing, but definitely before Oscar Blues had it, I I had downloaded, I think I paid$9.99 on the Apple App Store for it.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_03: It was just a CRM app.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_03: I still have it actually.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I don't know if it's been updated in years, but I I I always keep it because it was my first.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and it was just called CRM.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_03: That's what I remember, I remember that.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so this was before CRM was like a thing in the industry.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but I covered such a large geographical territory, um, that like, yeah, and you know, I smoked a lot of pot in high school and college, man.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_03: So, like, you know, memory, you know.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_03: Um, eventually you you develop those relationships, and you don't need a note, you don't need anything.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_03: You walk in and tell them their dog's name, their kids' name, you know, like their favorite food, their sports team.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_03: Eventually, you know all these things by you know, but when I was just getting started, it was.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I started off, I was a bar manager for years and years, and I got headhunted to go work for Miller Quarters, but I only did that for four months before I went for that Oscar Blues job.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_03: So, like, I didn't I hadn't cut my teeth in the sales world at all.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_03: Um until the longmot facility.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so I actually I I did western Colorado for him.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so I covered basically Glenwood Springs west, all the way down to Durango.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_03: Everything that's the windshield time right there, man.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, a lot of windshield time.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, 30 over 30,000 miles a year every year for sure.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_03: Um but yeah, at first I I just wanted to make sure I remembered everybody, and you know, um, eventually I had I had worked this same territory for Tivoli Outlaw for RNDC for Breakthrough.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_03: So I mean I knew all the players eventually.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_03: So, but the CRM is crucially important.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I've been on both sides of it, been the manager trying to enforce it, and I've been the rep trying to dodge it.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_03: Um and really that's that's a system problem.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_03: That's not that's not the person because the CRM should be there.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_03: They should that should be your personal assistant, that should be your buddy.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_03: That shouldn't be like the drag at the end of the day, or like, god damn it, I gotta fill this out before I walk in or after I walk out or whatever.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_03: Like, it shouldn't be like that.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_03: It should it should be a partner.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so that's really what what why I wanted to get started with pipeline autopsy.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_03: Um, because there is everywhere I've been, there has been a CRM that is not working, or at least not doing what it should, right?
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_03: So there's a need for that.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_03: Um but as I've been doing this, and the more conversations I've had, it's turned out to be more of a consulting gig.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_03: Um, my 14 years in the industry, all three, I mean, well, if if you go food and bev, it goes to like almost 30 years.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_03: Um because I managed restaurants and bars.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so I I did that side of it.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_03: I even worked cooler d'or at a liquor store when I was in college.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_03: So I mean I'd really done all three um tiers.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah, that that experience and then launching chains.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_03: I launched wine in chains um in Colorado.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_03: So like dealing with the Target Walmart, Sprouts, Whole Foods, you know, dealing with all those buyers and those, you know, those program leads.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_03: Um, it was it was a huge experience.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_03: Uh and I'm I'm like I'm a mom and pop person, you know.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_03: I like the mom and pop restaurants, I like the little liquor stores, I like to, you know, I like to support the locals, and um, but and so I was a little hesitant to take that job, but I'm really glad I did.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_03: It was a huge experience.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and it's it's come in handy.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and it it turns out that companies will pay for that experience.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_03: So um, yeah, so like my pipeline autopsy, I'm still happy to do CRMs and pipelines and help with that, but it's kind of it's kind of evolved into more of a fractional VP kind of role.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: So, what types of brands do you currently work with and are adjusting help, or are you in the various adult beverage categories now?
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I'm kind of working in all the beverages right now.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_03: So um, I'm talking with a uh hemp-based THC brand.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I'm talking with a a New Zealand-based wine brand.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_03: I'm talking to an Arminian gin brand.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_03: I'm talking talking to some some some Mexican spirit, agave spirits brands.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_03: So it's kind of all over the map.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_03: Um and I was originally thinking I'd I'd do all a CPG, but really my experience is in beverage, um, especially in the three-tier system.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah, I my grandpa started the first Italian wine importer in Denver back in the 80s.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so and I I I was kind of raised by him.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_03: So I've kind of been in it my whole life, and I kind of have a passion for it.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_03: I can tell, man.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: And that's that's why when did you start uh pipeline autopsy?
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: I started in January.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome, man.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's awesome.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, I'm this is so cool.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: Now I I love the fact to talk to somebody so fresh and all right, so now I got a million questions.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: So working in the industry for so long, and now everything's focused on you know, I'm solopreneur the last 17 years, but I'm still figuring it out.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: So I try to tell people like they're like, oh, you got you must have these systems.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: And this is not like not when you work in a regulated industry in the adult beverage category, like I have hemp, I have this, I'm going to DC, I go to Harrisburg, I'm doing all the legislative stuff.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's like you're you're some of it's selling and some of it's consulting, some of it's market development work, but it's constantly evolving.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: Are you a solopreneur or do you have a team under you now?
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_03: No, I'm 100% on my own.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_03: So sweet.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: So figuring it out as I go.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly, exactly.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: So when you're doing, and I'm still doing the same thing.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: I have a couple contractors that I bring in, but I'm still 100% owner, solopreneur for the for everything that I do.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that's why I still edit and prospect and book guests for this too.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it's I like also that you said about the independent thing, and I I was resistant to that as well, like leaving the independent.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't leave independence ever.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm still doing actually on the road right now in a hotel room on the road doing the same thing, working with breweries and retailers across Pennsylvania.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: When when you do the chain thing though, and this isn't to speak ill of it, it's actually the opposite is like, did it feel like it was like, well, that's just easy because you make you go in there and once you pitch it, you're in 700 locations.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: You're like, I'm doing the real work because I'm going door to door opening up individual points of distribution.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I you know, um God, I I would say maybe to somebody that has no idea about the business, yeah, they would say that chain grocery would be easy.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_03: Um, it is not.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_03: That's why I wanted every I wanted everybody to hear that.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it is absolutely not.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_03: Um, they are so high demand.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you have to be on point with these chains.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, sure, you could open up 4,000 doors, right?
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_03: Uh or whatever, 18.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_03: What did I just saw a company?
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_03: They they got a Walmart deal.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_03: I think 1300 plus doors.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_03: Um, yeah, once you get that open, great.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_03: They don't have to keep you, and you better show up for them.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and they are demanding Walmart, definitely on the top of demanding list.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um, Kroger's right up there, too.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, I really liked working with the target people.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_03: I I I enjoyed working with everybody, honestly, but um it is not just plug and play and go.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_03: Like you you have to maintain that relationship, you have to maintain your shelves, you have to maintain your merchandise and your marketing.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_03: You have you have to be on the ball to keep those chains.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_03: And a lot of times for the smaller, you know, these these up-and-coming brands, um, you know, pre-acquisition or whatever, um, that do land these deals, I don't think they have any idea of the scope of.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, some do, of course.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm not talking this is more just generalities, but um, yeah, cool.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_03: You you signed a deal.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_03: Now, do you have the back office and infrastructure to maintain that deal?
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_03: Do you are you gonna put more SKUs out there?
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_03: Are you gonna is Target gonna run your stuff for more than a year?
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I you you've got to have some infrastructure.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_03: You gotta have you get you gotta you gotta nurture the relationships.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think there's a hidden cost too that a lot of people don't realize too.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like, not not that anybody's deceiving anything from the hidden cost, but they don't, they're like, Oh, it got in.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you got in, but now you got tastings, you got labor, you got you know different activations you need to do, you got shelf talkers you need.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: If you got it, if you're lucky and you got an NCAP, you might have some buybacks, some price promotions.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's another thing that in this industry, especially the newer brand founders really like um overlook that.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and they get they want those points of distribution, they want the scoreboard, but they don't realize the capital that is that's needed to truly stay in for multiple years in the future.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_03: Sure, yeah.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_03: And then yeah, I I didn't mention slotting fees and all of the I mean there's there's there's hidden costs, it's not just we got the target contract, booyah money in the bank.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_03: It is yeah, you got the contract, there's a lot of work to do, and some money to be changed in.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_03: So um, yeah, I you know, um, there's a lot of and I also I won't work with companies that I don't align on values with.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I'm real big into like giving back to the community.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_03: I'm big on sustainability, I'm big on using quality ingredients and you know, not cutting corners and just not being shitty person, you know.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_03: Um good people, I want to help.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_03: I want to work with them.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_03: Um, there has been two brands now that I just flat out refuse to work with because our our values didn't align.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it's a shame because I think they had a good product, but um I fired a laundry list or a scroll of of brands in the past in my history, and and it's always it's never vindictive, it's always that.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's always because it's just not a lot in alignment, and whether it's misaligned expectations, miss constant misunderstandings, or sometimes deceitful behavior, you know what I mean?
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I have a zero tolerance policy for it, you know what I mean?
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: Like I try to be, I'm so vulnerable with my clients with my own mistakes that I expect the same from them because the only way we can fix anything is to address that vulnerably and not hiding and being egotistical about anything.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, 100%.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and the other thing is if I'm if I'm out there working for your company, repping your company, and you're feeding me garbage, and I'm out there regurgitating garbage, like you're you're killing my brand too.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_03: So, yeah, no, thank you.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, exactly.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_03: I I have a passion, you know, I want to be able to get behind you, you know.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_03: So, and I think that's what's really elevated my work is having the passion for the brands I've worked for.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: That's and that's that's the number one thing is that I always tell people it's passion and purpose.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: Like when I was a brand manager at the distributor, I mean, you guys, when when when we were siding on brands from like 2010 to 2017, it was a flood.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was like 7 a.m.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: every day, somebody's coming in with a growler, 8 a.m., 9 a.m., you know, duct tape on the growlers, all that stuff.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I would always say to them exactly what you just said, I'd be like, what is the principle and passion behind this?
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you're not selling, like if it's not pulling and you don't have any principle and passion, or the reverse, if you don't have principal and passion and we all of a sudden hit a home run and you're just grambling the money and you're not even focusing on building the brand and expanding it, nothing, every effort is worthless.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yep, absolutely.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_03: It's yeah, I mean, really, everyone, I mean, we all need the money to survive, right?
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_03: But if if money isn't your only motivator, then I think you have a better chance of success.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_03: If you're only chasing the dollar, you might as well hang it up.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I I and there's no short, there's no uh short-term, long-term in beverage, it's all long-term.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what I think a lot of people don't realize, too, is you think you're gonna become a millionaire in 12 months when in actuality you you're gonna give up a couple hundred thousand dollars in the first year, and then you're gonna you maybe make it up in year three and four, right?
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: And so so you gotta be able to stay in business for three to four years to be able to make that return.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, yeah, with anything, right?
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_03: You gotta put you got to put some money into it, you know.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_03: And then there are those unicorn brands that they're out there for six months and they get acquired by Sazarac for a billion dollars or whatever, you know.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but that's that's just like that's like content creation or whatever.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_03: It's like that one guy hits a viral, got lucky, and then there's people that do it for 20 years and haven't hit a single viral video or whatever.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_03: It's the same in the industry.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_03: Um, chances are you're gonna have to work at it for years.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, anytime in Discovery that somebody would I would ask them what they're three years, four years, five years, you know, I don't do big long things, I just kind of keep it year by year.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like at any point between zero and five, your your goal is an exit.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I didn't bring them in.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: Because every time within 30 days, they're like, where's the ROI?
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: Where's the ROI?
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, guys, this isn't how this works.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: Like, yeah, it's a it's a cultivation, it's a gardening, it's not it's not sniper hunting.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, absolutely.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_03: And that's one of the first questions I ask too when I do a call is you know, what are is acquisition on your on your mind?
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_03: Because I mean it is, but I want to know how close are you thinking to it?
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_03: How realistic is your optimism?
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_03: Like, are you hoping for it next month?
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_03: Are you are you are you realistic and thinking five to seven years?
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, what are we doing here?
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_03: Uh the next piece is they show their book so I know whether it's a need or a want.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, right, right, right.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_03: And that is that is one thing.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_03: I've yeah, um, capital is another thing that I ask right away, usually.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_03: What uh what are we looking at here financially?
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_03: Because you gotta have money to back your brand.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: So let me go to let me go to Gibby, and and this everybody's very vulnerable in this, so feel free to paint this picture however you want.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: The moment you decided after all those years of working within these industry within these businesses in the industry, you're like, I'm gonna take the chance on myself and I'm gonna invest in myself.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what was that and what was going on in your life, and where were you when the light bulb came and when the pen to paper started?
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so like I said, I'd I'd been headhunted for almost every role except for the Oscar Blues role.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_03: And and breakthrough, my last major role was with Breakthrough Beverage.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_03: They only asked me three questions in the interview.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_03: How much money do you need?
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_03: Are you gonna put in notice?
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_03: And when can you start?
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_03: Were the only three questions they asked me in the whole interview.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, damn, like they want me, right?
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_03: Um and and I was taken on that's when I took on the chain um national accounts role, and it was something completely new to me in the industry.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_03: Like the industry wasn't new, but that side of it was.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I, you know, I was a little hesitant because I I didn't want to piss off all the independent liquor because in Colorado you couldn't sell wine except in the independent liquor stores, right?
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_03: So that was a huge part of the independent liquor stores business, and they were all against wine and chain.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_03: And so 10 years of developing relationships in independent liquor stores, and then I go work for the chain side.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, you know, I was a little hesitant to burn some bridges, some relationships and things like that.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I really I tried hard to foster some of them.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_03: Some of them were really, really pissed that I took that job, um, which is unfortunate because I I definitely still want everyone to succeed, right?
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_03: I mean I didn't I didn't actually vote for what chain and or wine and chains, I voted against it, but and then I took the job, right?
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_03: So it's almost selling your soul or whatever, but um no, it was a good good educational path for me.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_03: But to get to your question, um I did that for a full year for breakthrough and I fucking knocked it out of the park.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_03: Excuse my language.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_03: And I don't like to float my own boat, I don't pat myself on the back very often, but I killed it for them.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I got a Bebby Award.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know if you know what that is, but breakthrough they give out Bevies every year.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_03: It was my first year with them.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_03: I got a Bebby.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_03: I got one of the four that they gave away for our region, so um, I did a good job.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_03: Um Then that's when I mean consolidation started happening a couple years ago, but everything started shrinking.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_03: Corporate all the big suppliers, Gallo, especially.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_03: Um, they everyone started squeezing down, and breakthrough is no different.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_03: And they just did it again this year.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_03: But um they decided to hand me independent beer on top of chain wine.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_03: Which I was already doing chain beer, but they handed me independent beer, which pretty much doubled my workload.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's not the same buyer, yeah.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it doubled my workload, uh if not more than that.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_03: And they didn't offer me a single penny more.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_03: Um and that burnt me out because that like fried me.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_03: It like put me in a bad, bad place with them because I it's like, yeah, you guys just spent hundreds of dollars on this little crystal award for me and had this little ceremony.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_03: That doesn't pay the bills, that doesn't, you know, like and here's a you did a great job.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_03: Here's a whole bunch more work and no more compensation.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_03: Like that that that really scraped me wrong.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_03: Um and so I just thought I I I just put pen to paper and was like, Man, these companies are looking for you.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_03: Like your work speaks for yourself because everybody sees what you've been doing out here and then they want to hire you.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_03: Just go out and try it.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_03: Um I didn't really have anything to lose.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_03: I lost my wife to cancer in 2020.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_03: Um mother and my child, and um, you know, I I just got sick of working for the man.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_03: Um and I know that there are so many good people out there making a good product that maybe they only know their product or they only know their ingredients, or they only know their clientele, but they don't know the back office stuff and they need the help and they can't afford a$200,000 CFO, or you know, um, I can jump in for a couple months, do some hard work for you, get some things done, and get you rolling.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um, yeah, I I want to help out.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_03: I don't want to work for the man and I I wanna I want to help good people succeed.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm gonna give you two things in there is I want you to, after doing this for such a long time by myself being a solopreneur, I missed a lot of opportunities because I because of humility, because I wanted to overly be humble.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: I after this conversation, I want you to step it, step it up on that.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: Don't sell yourself short, man.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: Don't be egotistical, don't be you know flashy and all that stuff, but own own the what you've done for other people and continue to say exactly what you just said, because that's the key, is you're not looking to be the man, you're looking to help people.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, it's gonna cost money to do it, but it's you're not, it's not costing what it would cost to have an employee.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I think you're exactly right too, because a lot of people don't think about all the other stuff, like even just a street rep, let's say, for independence, people don't realize that like that's a hundred grand in 12 months, no matter what, if you had an employee minimum.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's not even including like the car, the insurance, like all that stuff and bonuses.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_04: You know, exactly, exactly.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll I'll connect to you because it sounds like we do a lot of similar stuff between strategy and market development.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, we offer a fraction of that.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: And and we we're able to do that because we have bundled portfolios of brands.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, sometimes brands will be like, oh, you're spending, can you give me some love?
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: You're not spending enough love.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I try to explain people when you walk in a portfolio, you're getting that savings, but you're not getting a full-time 24-7 employee.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: What you're getting is your brand will be a presence 24-7 five times a year, but it's not exclusively.
• 25:37
  unknown: Right.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like, it's not gonna be exclusively that.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's a hard thing for some brands as well to be like, I go, I'm gonna go this co-op like you know, portfolio route, but know that the output might not be the same as it would.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_01: Now, on the flip side, there's a ton of savings because people like you and I, be with our history, we can start day one.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: We can sign that contract at 9 a.m.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_01: And by 9 30, we can be calling prospects.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: And that's that's the thing that is undervalued in all this.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: There's no tuition bill, there's no roll-up, there's no onboarding with stuff that we do.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you don't, yeah.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_03: I don't need a 30-day training course, I don't need HR, I don't need your insurance.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I don't know.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_03: Send me your sell sheets and I'm good.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_03: Tell me, tell me who we're dealing with, give me an email address, and let's call it.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_03: Um, let me in and we're good.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_03: I'll I'll have you in deep conversations by the end of the week.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: What um what states do you currently are you guys current are you currently working with or prospecting and stuff like that?
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so like I'm I've always been Colorado-based, but um like right now I'm trying to work with I'm trying to work with the Western United States for um the agave-based spirits because that's where the market is, right?
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_03: Fish where the fish are.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_03: Um then the THC-based stuff, I'm I'm I gotta work where that where where it's legal, where where it can go.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then things are changing daily, really, on that front.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_03: So um I feel like I have to update my list of where it's okay and where it's not every day.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_03: Um and then I'm I'm I'm working with some East Coast distributors right now trying to get some gin over here from Armenia, um, which you know I've I I spent a lot of time in Georgia growing up, but um, so I know the southeast pretty well, but I don't know the northeast.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_03: So um I'm getting to know some of the distributors and stuff up there.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I know I've got I've got a short list of people I want to work with up there.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but yeah, so I'm I'm not really working in California right now, which is crazy.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_03: I know that's the biggest agave state, but it's also the hardest to get into, the hard most competition.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_03: Um and quite honestly, probably too much work for just solo me.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um it it is definitely it it's I I was out there during COVID doing remote work and stuff like that.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: And as a solo person, it was a lot in California.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like it was it was it was a little.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_01: I had to be humble in that one and be like, I think this is more than you need a team, yeah what I mean.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like and a full-time team, not a portfolio team, like you have to be exclusive with it over with a mature market like that.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, absolutely.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_03: And I mean, really, like your best bet is to be from there um to to have local connections, to have a full team.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, if you're like if you're based out of Louisiana and you're bringing a new agave spirit to California, like you better be prepared to hire six people, right?
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_03: Like, good luck.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you're not you're not launching anything in California with a phone call or a Zoom meeting.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_03: Like you you have to do.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and there's certain there's certain states and and markets that are like that.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I think uh it's under underappreciated as well.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: Like we were doing work in Chicago and I had that same problem.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like, if you're not from Chicago and you're calling from Pennsylvania, nobody wants to talk to you.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I can see Chicago being real territorial like that.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: There's you know, California, Texas, uh, West Virginia, you know, there's certain states that are like if you're not, if you're not, if you don't have that driver's license in your wallet, they don't want to hear anything you have to say.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and New York, New York City too.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_03: That's that's a good one, that's another weird one.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so when you were so how old you're how old's your uh your child?
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: He's 12 now.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_01: Nice one.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_01: I got I got uh four between 11 and 20.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_01: So it's uh being uh being a parent in this uh this industry is pretty wild.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: And if he's 12, he's been through a good lot of seeing the evolution as well from the outside.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_03: Uh before he was one, he'd been in more brew pubs than any 21-year-old.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, uh he was raised in the industry for sure.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: I got some pictures of my kids crawling around the uh mill of the light house and stuff like that in the warehouses and everything like that.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_01: There's yeah, it's some good stuff there.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_03: I got some pretty I've got some I've I've got pictures of my baby being held by some pretty big wigs up in the in the craft beer scene.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_03: Awesome.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's pretty funny.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_03: I'll but I'll bust him out at Christmas sometimes.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_03: I'll send them to them for a Christmas card.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_03: Like, remember when you held my baby?
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: Well, let's let's talk a little bit about kind of where when you when you're going through this, let's talk about the future.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: Like right now, you're you're you're a couple months in and you and you're grinding and prospecting like crazy.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure you're having tons of discovery meetings.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: What are what are kind of some of the goals as far as how when when things kind of settle into to where you want to go with everything, what are some of the goals there?
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_03: You know, man, I I was thinking about this and like when I was doing the CRM uh pipeline stuff, and I was really looking at the AI automations and trying to figure out how to like, you know, and that that's still a service I will offer.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I still will go into your back office, figure out what we can automate and automate it for you and hand it off.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_03: Um, that is something I will definitely offer.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_03: But um, you know, like when I first started, I was thinking I could get enough people that on retainer that I could just sit back and relax, right?
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but now now that it's kind of evolved into this more consulting and you know, helping out, helping grassroots.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_03: And um I kind of I I I'm thinking I want to I want to be the name, you know.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_03: You got the pipeline of autopsy approval, you know.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_03: Like I want to be the go-to, the you know, the trusted name in the business.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_03: Like, hey man, this guy will help you out.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_03: He doesn't charge every an arm and a leg, he knows everybody, and he'll he'll get you going.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I I kind of just want to be the the trusted name.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's good, man.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's exactly that's exactly the way to go.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I I want to, for anybody listening and stuff like that, you know, for you know, we have 60% of our audience is founders and and owners and senior leaders in in the food and beverage industry.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that what you're saying is something that you know I say it a lot, but I like to hear it from other people is exactly that.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_01: Is if you want somebody that you can, like I said, you can call, start it, sign the contract at 9 a.m.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_01: and be booking stuff by the end of the week, you don't find that anywhere else.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_01: And you find that after it's not because you're smooth and it's not because you're a charmer.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of people in this industry that are that.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: But it's very, it's very superficial and it's not sustainable.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, 14 years in, and and what you just said, even deeper than 14 years in, because if you go to your retail and your back-a-house experience, you're like you have every tier understood.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_01: And that allows you to situationally manage things so quickly that it's the old adage of like, uh, you ever heard that thing where like guy guy walks in, the he has a floorboard loose in his living room and he calls a carpenter in to fix the floorboard.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_01: And the carpenter walks in, walks around the room, you know, tapping here, tapping there, and then all of a sudden just takes one nail out of his out of his uh pocket, pops it into the certain spot, and then hands an invoice to the guy for twelve hundred dollars.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_01: And the guy goes, '1200 bucks, you've been here for six minutes.' He's like, You're not paying for my time.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_01: You're paying for the 30 years I I knew how to listen and I knew where it was.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, That's what you're paying for.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where people like you and I have to show that.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_01: And we have to find a way to not be egotistical, but let people know that, yeah, I'm gonna do shit fast, but that doesn't mean you pay me less.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: And it does, you know, it's one of those things, and that's a cautionary thing for you as well that I get into even 17 years in, where your speed sometimes can inhibit the perception of you from the brand standpoint.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: Because if they're naive and new to the industry, they don't they're thinking hourly wages, they're not thinking skill sets and value.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and I mean you pretty much have to productize your service because you know, when you've got decades in the industry and you've got the contacts and you've got you've got the experience, um you can act so much faster, and you can get things done so much faster.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_03: So, yeah, like you know, 90 days with me, I could probably get more done than a new hire in a year, right?
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_03: Um so yeah, I I you know, I I am humble in the fact like I I have to look up, you know, I use all the different AIs or whatever to see what the fair market value is for my services.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm still like, oh, that just feels like so much, you know.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_03: Like, but really, I mean, it is it is a value to these people, and not having to onboard and not having to jump through all the hoops and not having a long-term, you know, debt or bill that they have to pay, and being able to get the things done quickly and efficiently, um, it it is worth it, but it is it's one of those things is you start off by on your own, you're like, God, like that seems like a lot to charge for what I do.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_03: But um I and I try to keep my prices on the lower end of what I you know see out there.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_03: Um obviously it's scoped, right?
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_01: If if I'm if I'm launching multiple states and I'm spending a ton of time every week, then yeah, it's it gets up there, but yeah, there's some when things don't work and like buyers don't participate and you have to do a lot of outreach, it does suck at the end of the month when you're like that brand, that was just minimum wage work.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, if you really get into ones where the buyers are a little you know dodgy or whatever you need to do there.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_01: So every you gotta hit those home runs and bangers as soon as you can to make up for the other ones.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_03: 100%.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_03: And I mean, seriously, like I do a couple hours of work before I even get on a call.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I know more about your brand than probably half your retailers do by the time we even get on a call.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_03: So um like to know what I'm talking about a little bit.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but yeah, so like that's the kind of work I like to put into it too.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_03: I I I fully like to research my name, means everything, right?
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_03: That's all I really have, is like my reputation, my name.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, so I I I go full pride.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and you know, if it doesn't work out, I gave it a hundred percent.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm just as fucking bummed as you are.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_03: Excuse my language.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_03: Uh you're good, man.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_03: Because failure is not something I take lightly easily.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and yeah, I take great pride in what I do.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_01: So um I appreciate you said I appreciate you saying that too, man, because there's a lot of times where it doesn't work all the time.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and like brands will come in and and they're like, Oh, I'm gonna go with this.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_01: He's so experienced, blah blah blah.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_01: And then when it doesn't work out, they're it's the finger pointing.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't say this in a defensive way, but I think a lot of people need to kind of grasp too the the the safety net of the fact that sometimes it's not gonna work.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like the overall might work, but certain markets just might not work, and certain states might not just work, but there's no that's not to devalue the RD, is what I call it, that got us to the point to realize it doesn't work, right?
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like, and that's where there's a value in that too.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_01: There's a value in knowing what you don't know.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, 100%.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_01: So I I I I um I'm looking forward to I'll kind of I'll wrap up on this one here, but I want to I wanna bring you in for uh some we're gonna do some roundtables and things like that.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so I'll I'll let you know and bring that through and and want to bring you in, and we'll bring a brand and want to talk about everything as far as that goes.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_01: But last thing I want to kind of ask you before before we close out is like in the past few months that since you started everything, is there anything that's kind of popped off in a lesson for anybody where you're like, whoa, I didn't think about that?
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I think almost everything about it has caught me by surprise.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh thanks for the fair.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's an honest answer.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I mean, I you know, like my my my background is alcohol bev, right?
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_03: Um craft beer and spirits.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_03: I little bit of wine, chain wine.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_03: Um so um that's kind of where I was starting off, and then all of a sudden I'm I'm you know, I'm saying stuff or I'm posting something that is catching the THC brand, you know, um catching their attention or whatever.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_03: So um and then Yeah, the the one deal that I've I've I've closed that I went into that call not thinking that I was that I I after I did some research on them, I was like, they're not ready for me.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_03: They like there's not much I can do for them, and it was quite the opposite.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_03: So um I guess like not letting your expectations get in the way, um, is what what a lesson I would say to somebody new.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_03: Um expectations are cloudy, you know, they're they can they can really so I don't know.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_03: I for me, it's almost like I get luckier when I when I don't expect anything to work out, right?
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, like when I go in with I'm gonna get this, I'm gonna get this, I'm gonna get this, and then it kind of fizzles or it stalls.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_03: It's a crusher.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_03: But when you go in and you're like, yeah, and nothing, this is just gonna be another conversation, and then it works out.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_03: That feeling is like, oh my god.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_03: And then maybe you're carrying a little confidence when you go in, not expecting it to work out.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_03: You have a little more about you swagger, whatever.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I don't know.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so I would say, you know, limit your expectations, you know, go in it with your heart.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_03: Um yeah, and then yeah, be real.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_03: Like you said, there's a lot of that fake bullshit.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, you've been in the industry long enough.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_03: I've been in it, I can spot that shit before like before I even walk in the door.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_03: I can smell it.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_03: Like I know what the perfume is, you know, like um, yeah, I I'm a genuine person and I want to work with genuine companies with genuine ingredients and genuine practices and treat their employees right and treat the planet right.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, I I I yeah, just have some passion for it, I guess.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_01: That's that that's a great, that's a great response.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_01: And also I'll I'll add to that is like don't believe what's in your own head.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and like I try I I I reach out, I shoot my shot even to this day.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_01: I'm shooting my shot every day, every week.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'm prospecting, I'm emailing cold emailing people, I'm cold calling people.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_01: And it's one of those things where there's been multiple times of that same thing where I'm like, maybe they're too small, maybe they're too big, maybe they're not gonna be interested in me.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I might not say something to them for three months.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_01: And then all of a sudden, one day I'll be like, yeah, fuck it, I'll send that email.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I send that email up, and then all of a sudden, you know, they're they're in they're in like Flynn and we're ready to rock and roll.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like one of those take backs, and that's happened multiple times.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_01: So I I I will I want to piggyback and and and say that that everybody needs to understand that you don't know anything.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you don't know anything, like you don't know anything from their social media, you don't know anything from their website until you sit down with them or or Google Meet or Zoom or whatever and and spend 20-30 minutes getting to know them, that's when you can start making judgment.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, and even that's confusing sometimes.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think a couple couple of companies I'm working for are way bigger than I would have gone out for.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_03: And then, like I said, this the small guy where I didn't think he was ready for me, and whatever, he's much bigger than I thought.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_03: And there was no research on the internet on that.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_03: So you're right.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know, I think researching is always a good thing, but until you actually talk to the person, you have no idea.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's the funniest thing is during the day with free mind strategy, I'm researching like crazy.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_01: And then this show is like this organic conversation, so it's really fun to do the duality of my life where this one I'll send an email or whatever, and like we book, but we don't talk.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_01: We don't, there's no questions in front of me right now.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_01: Like we're just having a raw conversation.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so it's funny to like have I kind of have to switch my flip my switch every other hour.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's like which phone call is this?
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_01: Am I am I prepping or am I going cold to show the world how to connect with a stranger?
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_03: You're doing a great job, man.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't know what uh, you know, this is I this is actually my second podcast now, so I came in it a little less nervous, but you're great.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_03: You're you're dying.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_01: You're doing fantastic, man.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_01: And it's it's it's one of those things where keep doing it because I've learned really quickly, and I just started doing other people's shows in the past two months.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_01: Keep booking on other people's shows.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like keep doing it.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it is it is an unbelievable uh lead generation for it.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I started this four years ago in my basement, and I've never like I'm still using just my phone on a little tripod and and everything.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_01: I don't I'm not I don't do studio work or anything like that.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_01: I've done them in the side of the car or side of the road on the turnpike while tractor trolls are whizzing by in a field.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_01: I don't care.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's because the story is what's important.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's not about the production value, it's not about, I mean, for some people it is from a vanity standpoint, and some people like that, you know, symmetry and the cleanness of it, but I'm a raw guy.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_01: I've been running this business for for my for myself, and and so it's very similar to what you're doing.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_01: And you have a different mentality when everything falls on you.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that that mentality is different.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't I know like what is my capacity, and it's like, what can I do within myself to produce this and scale this and make this a controllable thing?
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it's a big thing for me, like in my sobriety of the past three and a half years.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_01: Controlling what I can control is my number one thing.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I scale things to what is controllable.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_01: And when it comes to production, people are like, Oh, you got a low quality audio or video and audio.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, No, it's raw.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, if real.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't ask him to repeat that statement.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't go back and say, Oh, that sounded good.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_01: Could you say that more into the mic now?
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's like everything that people I'm putting out is a real conversation, and that's the truth.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't care if it's blurry or whatever, but it is what it is, man.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_03: That's and that's awesome.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm glad you said that because those are the brands I want to work with.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_03: The rough, the raw, the real, those are the brands I want.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_03: So exactly.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna we're gonna we're gonna curse, we're gonna call you out, but we're still gonna be there and locked arms with you.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not exactly, and I think that's for me, it's like I I was a rugby player, wrestler, and things like that, and that's where it started.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_01: It started in that that you know, it's all on you, you know, especially in wrestling.
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's like you can walk out there in the middle of the ring.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_01: If you lost a match, you lost a match.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_01: You can't point fingers at anybody else.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_01: And and I enjoy working with people that some so the outside world sometimes says we're a little gruff, but I think we're just real.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, and and we're not afraid to say the shit when it needs to be said in an intentional and positive way, to be like, hey, that you need to hear this and you need to be checked, and this is how we can fix this, or or whatever, you know.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, absolutely.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_03: And I mean we're
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: grown-ups in the booze bizarre i mean yeah so you and you can't have you can't have thin skin you get i mean and if you're in sales at all whatsoever you better not have any thin skin i i did i think i did for the first 10 years and the last seven got real raw yeah yeah i i remember the first little bit was yeah it was like holy shit people are mean but and it's it's not personal it's business no and it's uh yeah you go out on a couple cold calls you'll realize quick that the kumbaya the industry doesn't exist no no no yeah when you see it you're seeing a highlight reel you're not if you walk into you walk into a high food uh high traffic bar at 1245 and uh try to sell something that that'll get you woke up yeah a hundred percent absolutely just shoot try sending out a hundred cold emails a day man not getting a response like geez i uh i i i uh i was telling the other day with somebody that like until hubspot started tracking all the clicks and everything like that on the emails yeah it was so defeating because i do i do seven to eight hundred cold emails a week like to prospects and so none of it's automated because i i want i honor the you know the laws and everything like that so i copy paste copy paste copy paste i put my strategy is i learned from garivie is that he was just like throw a movie on and do your outreach and he's like the outreach will be that much easier so now i tell people like they're like what do you do i was like i watch a lot of movies i'm sitting there sitting there just hitting my databases and and doing what needs to be done but keep doing that man like you know hundreds of emails even if it's a thousand a week that's what has to happen and people don't don't realize that like you're not gonna send out 25 emails and land a sale right you're gonna send a hundred emails and land a sale you're gonna send 200 emails and land you know and that's where that's where it goes through and on the flip side you're also prospecting brands and also in the solopreneur world you're prospecting brands at the same time you're selling the current brands because one of the things the current brands don't realize is some of your time has to be allocated to when they depart.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah because that and that was a hard thing in the first 10 years I did this I wasn't ex I wasn't expecting departures I figured everybody's gonna stay with me forever and we're gonna you know we're gonna be like the same thing in distribution but and then nothing bad or anything like that but you're right three six nine months 12 months brands gonna probably change things up a little bit or they're gonna be or you did a good job to where they've outgrew you and that's a compliment and that's the our goal too is that's the compliment.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly my goal is to get to the get the company to the point where they can afford the full-time hire.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the thing I I'm glad you said that.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'm glad you reacted that way because I wish every brand would understand that that our role we know we are the bridge and we're the shoulders to get you higher we're not they we're not the higher ones nor do we want to be because we're a necessity of the bridge.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah yeah and I would that's the that's the lane I want to stay in.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_03: I don't want to go back to the top no I don't want to be that VP in the office anymore.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_03: I I want to be the bridge I want to be the helper I want to be that crutch that got that person over the hill um and then move on to the next one.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_01: And then cheer on their success as they go you know exactly well Alex I appreciate you taking the time in and I'll let you kind of close out any social medias or LinkedIn or anything like that.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah I mean check me out on LinkedIn Alex Klonjo the two L's and an X in there um pipeline autopsy I don't I don't do much with that page but I'm on LinkedIn Instagram x pipelineautopsy.com hello at pipelinautopsy.com is my email if you want to reach out.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah I appreciate your time Nate this was awesome.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome Alex well hey and publicly I do have to say to everybody there's no script there's no agenda there's no questions up on my screen what you just saw was two strangers connecting in the past 45 48 minutes or anything like that.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_01: So really I want everybody to understand that while we talk about adult beverages the most important thing that we do is we want you to understand that you can connect with a stranger.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I want people to get out there and I'll close with what I always do which is when you're walking down the street say hi to a stranger put your phone in your pocket make eye contact with people when you're at the gas station filling up that cup of coffee look to the person next to you filling up their cup ask them how they're doing and actually listen to see what they say and care and respond because this world is a beautifully destructive place and we are all in this together and a lot of us feel very alone at different times and a two minute conversation with a stranger at a gas station who knows what's going on in their life it could change their week or their month or their year.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_01: So Alex thank you for having the courage and the cojones to come on man and with no script and no agenda and just you know tell your story man.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_01: Tell your story from a true and authentic place.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I really appreciate it and I hope that this kind of gets your story out there and allows people to reach out and connect with you man.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_03: I really appreciate it Nate that's awesome man.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_03: And I would love to chat again man and I'd also like to around some you know strategies and tips and tricks for me.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_01: So oh yeah we'll be doing some offline stuff there for sure.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'll send you an email we'll set up another meeting for that buddy.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_03: Right on I appreciate it Nate awesome man you have a good rest of your day buddy cheers man thank you