Latest / Brewsers / Brewsers #403- Meredith with Original Southside

Transcript

Brewsers #403- Meredith with Original Southside · Brewsers

• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Bruisers, a podcast about beer, coffee, booze, and Bruisers.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: I am your host, Brady John, and today we talk
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: to Meredith with Original Southside. We talk about the Original Southside,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: the Clean Alcohol Collective, and so much more. Meredith is
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: doing absolutely amazing things in the world of alcohol, obviously
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: with her ready-to-drink cocktail, the Original Southside, which is delicious,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: by the way. Also, the Clean Alcohol Collective, because we
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: all need to know what is going inside our drinks,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: that is going inside our bodies, because these giant corporations
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: are just putting all kinds of stuff in it. So
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: you don't hear from me, you want to hear from her.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: So without further ado, here is Meredith with Original Southside.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: I would like to welcome to the show Meredith with
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: the Original Southside. How are you doing today?
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: I'm doing great. Thanks for asking.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Well, thanks for being here.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Well, for those listening, kind of paint us a word picture.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Where are you at and what's going on around you?
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: So I am in sunny Southern California right now. We
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: are having our first break in the weather in a
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: few weeks, which I know always sounds crazy coming from
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: someone in California. What is going on around me right
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: now as I look around at my to-do list that
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: sits next to me all the time on a legal
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: pad is we're actually prepping for our October production.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: So I'm making sure.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: But I've got my T's crossed and I's dotted there
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: for all of our raw materials, as well as building
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: out our kind of October, November, December and 2027 presentations because.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: It is so windy time.
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: I mean, I can't believe it's September 1st. So that's
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: that's crazy to me. So that's that's kind of what's
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: what's going on for us.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Are you a how far away? How far in advance
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: planner are you? Or do you just make lists?
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: I love a list. I love both.
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: If I can get it done earlier rather than later, 100%,
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: that's the way that I prefer to do things. But
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: this whole process and project and experience has been a lesson.
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: And sometimes you can't do anything until the day before. Yeah.
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: a little bit closer to or less something that's a
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: little less than comfortable for me. So I've learned to
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: be a little bit more flexible, but no, love a plan.
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: My husband will tell you one of my favorite things
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: to do is just make Excel sheets of places we
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: could go, but we don't end up going.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: So that's, that's me in a nutshell.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: How many different planners do you have?
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: So I actually exclusively prefer, so both my parents are
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: attorneys and I grew up with them using just like
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: the true blue.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Like legal pads.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: You can't see it.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: I have my background on love a legal pad.
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: I've never found like a planner or an agenda that
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: I'm in love with. So that is my like physical,
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: you know, true, like I would be lost without it.
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: And then I'd say the digital version of that is
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: that mondays.com, you know?
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  Speaker 2: So I think a combination of those two keeps me
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: pretty accountable.
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  Speaker 3: Okay.
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  Speaker 1: I'm always curious when I meet planners and I'm like,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: cause I'm not, I mean, I know I need to
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: be better, but I love, I love hearing other people's
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  Speaker 1: plans and lists and people go, I need to start
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: implementing that into my life.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 2: You know, it, it's helpful for me.
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  Speaker 3: And I will say there is actually nothing more satisfying
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: than the cross off.
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  Speaker 1: Or is more satisfying at the end of the day
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: when they're all crossed off.
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  Speaker 2: A hundred percent.
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  Speaker 3: I actually used to be able to be that efficient
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  Speaker 3: and be able to do that. Like when I was
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  Speaker 3: working my corporate job, I would make my like to-do
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: list for the day. And I've had to update that
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  Speaker 3: to just general priority lists because it was too much
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: for me.
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  Speaker 2: And some of them as you know, are a lot
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: longer of a lead time. And as much as I
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  Speaker 2: would love to mark it off the list, I can't.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Stuff is, it gets out of your control sometimes.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: It really does.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Well, let's go all the way back in time. What
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: is your earliest memory of alcohol? Well, with both your
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: parents being in law, I imagine it was very early.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So let's see.
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  Speaker 3: Earliest memory for myself would be, you know, again, this,
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: I grew up with this drink at the lake. You know,
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: my mom would make it every summer. They'd have a
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: bunch of people over just to the house or on
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: the boat or whatever. Yeah. And so I really do
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: have a lot of memories of this, but the second
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: strongest memory, which is just funny is, you know, my
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: senior year, New Year's Eve, Burnett's Green Apple Vodka or
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: whatever you want to call it. I don't even think
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: it deserves to be called vodka. So I'll give you
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: that one too.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: Well, so I'm not going to lie. I've never heard
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: of this recipe before until I did the research for
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: the show. And I was like, I didn't realize it
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: went all the way back to Prohibition, Al Capone times.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: Some people say Chicago, some people say New York. How did,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: where do you think this cocktail came from? I, through
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: various Reddit threads and- Reddit's the best.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: I love Reddit. Yeah. I am always in the forums.
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: And so through various pieces of research, it sounds to
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: me like the Al Capone storyline has been largely debunked,
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: even though that's the one that we went with, because
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: it was more fun and exciting.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: And I was like- you know, people are going to care.
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: And it does actually trend a little bit more in
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: New York slash Long Island. That being said, every single
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: person you talk to disagrees. And I'm sure when you
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: saw some of this in your research too, where sometimes
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: it's even made with lime juice versus lemon juice. Right.
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: And so I'm like, listen, if bartenders can't agree on
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: how it's made or served, that gives us, you know,
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: a little bit of creativity in terms of how we
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: want to approach this. Plus you also have the south
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: side of chicago which is again like really great for
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: the story and you know that's really where we decided
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: to lean in yeah.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: The original long island would not work out as well
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: as the original.
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: South side no and you also have long island iced
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: tea and people and so it was something too because
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: we just called this you know my mom's name is
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: leah so we just called this beautiful name summertime cooler.
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: And I was like, people aren't going to care about that.
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: So when you looked at the ingredients like lined up,
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: it turned out that it was exactly the same as the,
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: you know, quote unquote.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: Original Southside recipes.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 3: So that kind of also helped us build the brand
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: story and kind of, you know, Hey, okay, we're going
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: to take ownership of this cocktail and here's how we're
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: going to do it. So.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: Well, I had read that you had this muddling around
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: in your head since COVID, but then you didn't actually
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: launch until 2020. Or 2024, right?
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: That's correct.
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  Speaker 1: What happened in those four years for you to actually
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: finally launch?
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: So the R & D process actually took quite a while.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: How many different recipes did it take for you to
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: taste right?
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: However many, we fit into 13 months.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: There you go.
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: That was the part that I was a real stickler on.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: As you should be.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: Again, I agree.
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  Speaker 3: I didn't want to put something out that wasn't as
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: much of an homage to my mom's recipe as possible.
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: Just because I think, too, when it's a family thing,
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: it's so much closer to you that you get to
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: be that picky. And that was kind of this big blessing.
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: And so, yeah, this was mulling around in my head
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: for a while. I would say that I've always... been
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: kind of entrepreneurial in spirit. I've always wanted to do
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: something on my own, but couldn't really figure out what
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: it was. So the timing just worked out from a
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: personal standpoint that we could launch something and do something
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: like that from the recipe side. So after the 13 months,
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: we had to find contract manufacturers for us because I
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: knew I wanted it to be certified organic. That was
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: kind of the first hurdle we had to go through.
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: We also had to deal with, okay, who can tunnel
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: pasteurize at the lowest quantities because we still were small.
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: Our first run was not nothing. It was 3000 cases,
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: but to do that small of a run and try
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: to find a big facility that would slot us in
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: that could tunnel pasteurize, like we were kind of, you know,
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: we were a little big for our britches at first,
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: but As we got to scale that got easier and
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: easier finding facilities, hitting their MOQs and things like that.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: So that took a little bit.
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: And then we actually ran into what caused us the
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: biggest delay towards the end, which was so difficult.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: I really wanted to.
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: Launch in the summer of 2023, because this is a
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: more seasonal product, you know, the lemon it's super great
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: for warm weather.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: So I was targeting a summer 2023 launch.
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  Speaker 3: And what had happened was the first contract manufacturer that
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: we were going to go with, like, I'm telling you,
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: we had signed, sealed and delivered this thing. I'd given
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: final approval on the sample.
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: The master blender.
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: Came back and was like, Hey, by the way, you know,
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: I'm actually not comfortable with the way that your recipe
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: is now. I would like to add two artificial preservatives.
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: And I was like, well, I wanted this to be
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: all natural. So that kind of defeats the purpose. And
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: they also were like, oh, and by the way, we
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: can't really tunnel pasteurize. Like they thought that they would
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: have had the machine by then, but then they couldn't.
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: And I was like, okay, so you're telling me that,
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: you know, we go through all of this months of work, vetting,
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: you name it. And this is a situation. So in
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: that scenario, I was like, this is not right.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: It doesn't sit well with me. I am not going.
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: To, you know, add potassium sorbate and, you know, sodium
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: benzoate or whatever they wanted to add to it. And
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: I was just Like we're going to have to find
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: something else. And so that caused us to delay and
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: launch in dry January.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: 2024.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: I mean, it could be in the advertising. Hey, already
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: done with dry January.
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: You know, damp January is what I say. Like, you know,
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: you don't have to go.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: As heavy during the holidays as you did during that list.
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Exactly.
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: Like you can, you can have a little bit, but
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: you just don't have to go, you know, necessarily overboard.
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: But anyways, so we decided to relaunch. So we launched
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: January of 2024 instead, and we were actually exclusively direct
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: to consumer at that point.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: So we were only selling through our website.
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: We had the first batches of samples sent out to
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: the first couple of markets. So for us, that was Florida,
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: New York, and California, my home state of Oklahoma as well.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Oh, where in Oklahoma are you from?
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: I'm from Oklahoma City. Oh, okay.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: That's where I was born.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: No way.
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: I haven't been there in years, but yes, I was
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: born there. We moved down here to DFW when I
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: was two.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: Lifetime discovery. I lived in Dallas for seven years. I
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: did my undergrad and graduate degree at SMU.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: Very nice.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: Go Mustangs.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah. What year were you out there?
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: From 2013 to 2020. Okay.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Oh, so I only asked because I know that there
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: was like a, Oh, what's that cupcake place. They had
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: like an ATM, but it was like sprinkles. Oh my God.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: They had a sprinkles ATM, but I knew it was
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: like right by SMU.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: Oh my God. The sprinkles ATM.
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: I had a friend who we would be studying and
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: she'd be like, let's go.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: Cause it was again, open all hours of the night.
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: And there was also like the concept store where it
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: was like the sprinkles plus.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: Ice cream parlor.
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh.
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: Devastating loss honestly for all of us like for anyone
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: listening and it was amazing like so anyways those were
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: that was a huge part of my college experience nice
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: okay well i'm glad i could bring it up for
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: you i know so anyways i don't even i don't
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: even remember where we were but.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: You're launching in certain states oklahoma was.
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: One of them oklahoma was one of them because we
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: were like okay like we kind of got to be
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: here like all my friends you know families here same
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: thing and so we started really slow and just had
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: a couple of markets and we were like, let's just
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: see if this even works.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: Like let's, let's just test the waters a little bit.
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: And so from, you know, that January to the end
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: of the year, we sold through our first run and
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: then we sold through our second run. And so our
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: second run was about 5,000 cases. And so we started
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: to kind of work our way up and we were like,
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: wait a second, people are actually, buying this despite very
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: low levels of awareness and you know us not having
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: a background in beverage alcohol and so from there we
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: started to open more doors we took the approach of
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: let's have the distributors approach us versus us you know
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: be down the door of someone who's maybe not interested
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: because we had so many other things and i say
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: we it's.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: Me like i understand we as a company yes so
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: we We as.
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: A company, me as intern slash CEO slash you name it,
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: depends on the day. It was just flying by the
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: seat of our pants. So slowly we started to open
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: more and more markets.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: We started to see more and more volume.
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: And now that takes us to today where we're in
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: a little over 20 states and just opening up our
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: first sets of really wonderful chain retail partners, looking towards
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: the spring, like you said, planning for October, November, December,
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: making sure we've got all our ducks in a row.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: And so you know, it sneaks up on you as
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: you know. Yeah.
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: As someone who's been in the industry for a very
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: long time. Although I still think October is not as
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: big a month as they think it is. It's more ND,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: but it sounds bad. You would just say, Oh, we're
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: looking forward to ND. It's like, no, no.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: But Oh, ND in there.
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: ND of your end of year.
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah. A hundred percent.
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: I mean, you got like Halloween that kind of sneaks
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: in there, but you're like, it's.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: More spirits than like wine or anything else for the
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: most part.
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: Obviously RTDs as well now because there's people as much
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: as they love still making cocktails. It's so much easier
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: if it's in a can for you.
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: And listen, I think what I like too about even
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: our SKU specifically is I get a lot of people
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: who ask me like how to jazz it up. And
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: I think that's great. And so you can add more
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: lemon juice. You can add more gin. You can add,
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: if you want it to be a little bit fizzier
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: because we're a lower level of carbonation, you can jazz
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: it up with a little Prosecco or like a dry champagne.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: That's not too sweet.
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: So for any of those parties or, you know, at home,
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: like bartending skills, I am always curious to see how people,
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: you know, spice things up in a can. Yeah.
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: I saw that you actually did put out recipes also
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: so that people could help spice it up themselves.
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. And that was important too, because I mean, listen,
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: I love this drink and it's been so fun to
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: experiment with.
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: What it's delicious with, which it's delicious with.
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: A lot of different things from, you know, Indian food
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: to caviar on potato chips. But in between, you're like,
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: you've got to give some options. And what I really
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: like to do with it is when it's really, really hot,
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: you can pour it in black tea for kind of
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: your approach on an Arnold Palmer because it's already sweetened.
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: with that organic cane sugar. So it's been really nice
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: to do. And again, like I said, we've been having
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: kind of like a mini heat dome in LA. And
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: so that's been, that's been my go-to for the beach
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: on the weekends and it's been.
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: Pretty good, but yeah.
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: So it's been nice to kind of give people a
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: range and be like, okay, yeah, you're going to buy
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: this four pack, but here's what you can also do
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: with it. Right.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, obviously when you're creating the brand, you
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: got to figure out, I mean, you had the name
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: for the most part you had, um, kind of what
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: the label and everything was going to look like, what
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: your logo, but which can size were you going to do,
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: what the packaging's going to look like. How did kind
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: of all of that kind of come together for you?
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I spent a lot of time in liquor stores.
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: And so I was in Southern California at the time.
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: So I spent a lot of time in BevMo and
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: the Total Wines, even Whole Foods out here because they
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: can sell liquor. I was just looking at the packaging
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: and trying to figure out what I liked. And I
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: really liked the taller kind of slim cans. I thought
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: that those would be really beautiful and flattering. And when
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: we got this started, we originally thought that we were
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: going to take the approach of each can is two servings,
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: which- It is anyways, but most people see one can
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: as one serving. And so that's also kind of why
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: you see that. And then when I looked at the packaging,
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: I was really fortunate to have been introduced to my
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: graphic designer, whose name is Eric. And I sat down
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: with him and he's still with me and he's been
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: with me this whole time. He does everything for us.
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: And I was like, this is a pie in the
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: sky moment. I was coming from a job in the
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: beauty world where it was so serious and so clinical
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: and so just dry, which is not a bad thing
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: because when you're buying something that's promising these, you know,
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: big results, you want it to feel serious and nice
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: and clean. But for booze, I was like, this is
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: supposed to be fun. Like we're, we're having a good time.
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: We're selling something that's like giggle juice. Like we're, Let's
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: let's blow this up a little bit. I always knew
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: I wanted a character. So you see our lemon character squeeze.
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: I knew that that was going to be really fun
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: at the time. I really wanted to take a backseat
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: to the brand. I was like, I want people to
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: see themselves.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: In this product.
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: And so squeeze was the way that I thought to
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: do that and have a lot of fun and have
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: this very particular brand voice that wouldn't necessarily be my
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: own voice.
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: And so that's where you'll see the squeeze character come in.
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: And so because this was a 1920s cocktail, but we
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: were bringing this kind of fresh, modern, better for you
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: twist to it. I said, how do you make something
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: feel like it's been on shelf for forever, but still
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: feel new? And at the time, a lot of the
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: packaging that I was seeing in terms of just like
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: the competitive set was all these really muted, like millennial
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: pinks and lavenders and whites with like less than, I'm
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: going to call them less than exciting fonts. And not
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: very much that was visually, you know, exciting on shelf
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: and knowing what I know about the amount of time,
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: the lack thereof, that you have to get your consumer's attention.
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: I was like, we've got to do something that immediately
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: stands out. And so going kind of back to what
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: you said earlier, I knew the name and actually what
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: came to me first was our tagline, which is, you
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: Because you take a sip and you're like, oh my God,
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: this is so refreshing.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: And oh my God, so fresh. I couldn't put that
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: on the packaging. Thank you to the TTB.
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: But kind of using that as like a guideline of
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: how do we get people enough like off base to
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: like pay attention to us and like maybe pick us
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: up and then go from there.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Cause like you said, it's very retro looking, but
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: at the same time is obviously a very new drink
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: for people. So again, they're like, wait a minute, how
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: long has this been around? Because if you are, that's
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: what everybody doesn't think about is that you are either
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: different than, same as, or better than. And so if
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: different and is almost always the best way to go,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: because unless like you are literally better than the top,
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: whatever RTD is or whatever in that category it is,
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: then be different than, because like you said, you don't
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: have much time when it comes to any of the aisles.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: They're the most user unfriendly sections, unless there's actually somebody
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: there Yeah, I love that user unfriendly. And, you know, I,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: because this was a gin based spirit. Mm hmm.
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: You know, in my head at the time, this is
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: years ago, I was like, I'm not going to be
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: competing with high noon. I'm not going to be competing
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: with carbolas. I'm not going to be competing with, you know,
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: white claw truly.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: Those are different.
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: No, you still are in the consumer competitive set. And
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: we had a really high price point. And so I
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: was like on the packaging, we also needed to portray like,
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: a slightly premium appearance to justify the price and, you know,
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: the ingredient sourcing, because yeah, we were all organic and,
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: you know, didn't.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: Take the time to, to do a little extra something, something.
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: But even within that, I, I didn't, I didn't go
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: into this being like, I know I'm going to be,
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: you know, number one immediately. No, there's always got to
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: be number two, finish long drink, paved the way for
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: us all day long. And I will ride his coattails.
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: So that's kind of where we are.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: Hey, take it while you can.
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: 100%.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: Now, where did, so, I mean, we talked about earlier
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: how much you wanted this to be all natural. And
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: then you helped start the Clean Alcohol Collection, Girl Collective.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: Tell us how this started, because I hope this isn't just,
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's not a trend, because more people want
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: to know what the hell's going on inside their bodies.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: And so they want to know what the hell's inside
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: their foods and drinks. And the alcohol world is synonymous
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: for never showing you what is in any of the drinks.
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: That's correct.
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: So the Clean Alcohol Collective got started because I was
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: introduced to my co-founder, Connor Bedgley, with Father's Beer via
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: a contact of ours that worked to help diversify the
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: several alcohol-based family offices away from alcohol. So obviously they
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: were not interested in us, but they were like, you
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: guys are doing something similar.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: You should meet each other.
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: And so- I didn't know Connor back in my beauty days,
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: but he also came from a beauty background more on
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: the tech side. And when we sat down and got
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: to talking, you know, he was doing to beer, what
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: I was trying to do with canned cocktails. And we
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: were like, why, why is nobody talking about this? Or,
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: you know, what have the previous hurdles been to talking
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: about this? Because to your point, You know, it's a
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: very delicate balance. You kind of have to define for
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: yourself what clean is because alcohol is, you know, inherently.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: Not healthy for you.
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: It's poison.
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: It's a literal pot of toxin.
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: And so it feels a little like funky to be like, oh,
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: it's clean, but it's alcohol. And so we decided we
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: were like, okay. Beauty, what beauty did really well and
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: at the advent of TikTok did really well was to
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: educate consumers so that they would at least look at
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: the list of ingredients that was on packaging and make
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: the decision for themselves. Then you could go even further
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: and have those clean preferences. So you have like the
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: clean at Sephora section where it has the little check
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: mark and it's been verified and you know, Sephora is
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: the one that came up with that list of what's
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: on there.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: You also have like.
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: Something that is clean by EU standards, which is different
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: than clean by other standards. And so where we landed
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: after many talks with many different people was let's just
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: be super clear and define what clean means to the
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: clean alcohol collective and go out with that approach. We
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: also decided, you know, we're not going to attack anybody
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: or any brand that is producing something or manufacturing something
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: that isn't considered clean. where we really care and where
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: we spend the bulk of our time is advocating for
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: ingredient transparency. Because if you think back to like, okay,
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: alcohol is objectively not healthy for you.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: Neither really is a chocolate chip cookie.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: I mean, if you look at a, you know, anything
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: from like a gluten-free sweet Lorenz to Pillsbury to making
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: it at your house, you know exactly what's going in there.
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: You deserve to know exactly what's in your beverage and
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: that power is of knowledge should lie with the consumer
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: and not the company.
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: And that was it. So that's how this got started. I.
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: To your point, you know, this isn't something that Connor
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: and I are both extremely passionate about. It's something that
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: I could go on and on and on about, but
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: I'll spare you my soapbox.
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: And so really as cheesy.
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: As it is, like we just wanted to raise the
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: bar and be like, okay, you deserve to know what's
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: in your drink.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: Bonus points for.
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: Being, you know, certified organic and, you know, joining the
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: collective in that way. But we have people on our
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: advisory board. Most recently, his name is Alex, Alex is
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: B he is with happy dad. And this is something
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: that he was just personally really excited about and really
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: interested in. We're also about to welcome Henry Roland from
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: the detox project onto the advisory board. And that's for
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: like the glyphosate certification and the clean label project and
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: things like that.
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: And so it's people.
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: Who's just person who are personally interested in seeing it
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: happen versus the organizations that they worked for or have
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: previously worked for or affiliated with may not be the
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: perfect fit for the clean alcohol collective, but you know,
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: in happy dad's instance, they do publish their nutrition facts.
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: So I'm like, that's perfect.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: That's amazing.
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: And so it's been really cool to see. And I've met,
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: we have met some incredible suppliers and I just, you know,
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: we're trying to figure out how to add value for
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: them every day so that they like to stay. And,
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: you know, our eventual dream goal is to, have a retailer,
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: even if it's just one store, have like a little
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: clean alcohol pop-up. I think that'd be really cool. Yeah.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: Now I know in the wine world, it was very,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: you know, a big thing to be, make sure you
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: were obviously eco-friendly and obviously sustainable. And because that's what
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: you want, obviously, because they're growing the grapes that are
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: going inside your wine. So you want those wineries that are,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: you know, most of them generations old, but also like
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: they're creating a ton of, product. So that's why a
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: lot of these big companies kind of cut corners and
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: we'll kind of throw any pesticide or whatever it is
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: on there and then figure it out on the backend.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: But if you just are sustainable the entire time, yes,
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: it's an investment, but at the same time, you're getting
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: it back in the end.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: It's also a big commitment.
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: And I think there are a lot of people and
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: I had a really bad consultant in the beginning, um,
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: who sort of told me when I referenced that story
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: about where we hit the snag and had to delay,
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: he was like, I would have just gone ahead and
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: produced and then fixed it after.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: But from my beauty days, I know how hard that
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: is because.
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: Once you set up the supply chain and once you
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: kind of get in the groove, people are so hesitant
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: to change it. Yeah. And I was like, I am
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: not making that mistake. I have seen that happen so
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: many times. And so to your point, you know, you,
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: The fact that we had to commit from day one
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: is great. It was something that I personally wanted to do,
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: but I can see how as you grow and if
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: you were to do something and get to scale and
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: then all of a sudden things change or you change
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: your mind, it is a great undoing. And all of
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: those layers and sourcing and all of that. And so
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: I think having an understanding of, you know, yes, this
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: is what's happening in a dream world married with, oh,
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: this is what I am allowed with modern manufacturing capabilities
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: is always something that you have to really work on
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: marrying in your mind.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's and that is a that is kind of
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: a problem a lot of times, especially when it comes
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: to wanting to put the best things in your body
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: at the same time. Oreo just came out with a
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: new flavor or, you know, the new chips things, or,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: you know, I got to buy a box of Franzia
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: for somebody. I don't know. Just things like that. Definitely
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: don't look into seeing the vats of Franzia.
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: Don't.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: It's horrible.
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: Listen, I have no plans to.
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: That said, I have had some great sangria made with Franzia.
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: So there we go.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: Hey, I think we all have. We all slapped the
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: bag at least one time.
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: Oh my God.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, so tell us, so you kind of have
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: your own podcast as well, or just a little interviews show, whatever.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: It's fantastic. It's called Yappy Hour. How long have you
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: been doing this and where did the idea come from?
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: It is brand spanking new.
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: And so I am actually so grateful that you have
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: given it a listen. And the idea came from, to
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: be honest with you, being terrified of tight house laws
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: and how to talk about my product because I had
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: so many conversations early on with lawyers about just the
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: horror stories that you hear about certain watchdog groups or
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: bigger brands coming for smaller brands and you know specifically
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: is it related to how can I talk about this
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: product on social how do paid ads work like how
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: do I how do I get word out there and
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: so it was that idea married with the idea of
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: after me, myself, and I being on some podcasts, I
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: was like, you know, yes, this brand is something that
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: is amazing. And I am so proud to have brought
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: it from idea to shelf, but I am not an island.
• 28:53
  Speaker 3: And there were so many people along the way that
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: helped me from the photographer who shot our assets to,
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: like I said, Eric, my graphic designer to, um, you know,
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: the creative strategist who helped me plan the entire sets
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: of photo shoots that we've.
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: Had to our contract.
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: Like there are so many people between you and that
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: product getting on shelf and coming from the brand management background,
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: it was a similar situation where. people just don't realize
• 29:20
  Speaker 3: how many other people are sitting and making decisions about
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: these products that you just only simply interface with. And
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: so I was like, let's peel back the layers of
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: that a little bit because I just, you know, I
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: had had friends in the industry and I was like,
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: I think your job's cool. And when you look on
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: LinkedIn and you see these people that feel like you
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: know if they're a mystery and they're like they they're
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: kind of you know you're like I wonder what they
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: do every day for work I'm like let's talk to
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: them like let's break that down And so that's really
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: where the idea came from is, hey, let's talk to
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: the people who do.
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: More of the behind the scenes.
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: Obviously, you'll still hear from C-suite people because I'm a
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: founder and I know other founders. And it's just nice
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: to bring people like yourself and your friends on. But
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: at the same time, I'm like, let's hear from the
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: people who nobody else hears from and see what they
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: can get.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: The down and dirty.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: What have you learned the most by doing this?
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: I have learned that....
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: People are like, so, and everyone is creative. Yes. No
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: matter what you think, even if you are on like
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: a more like analytical, like side, like everyone is creative.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: It's just a matter of tapping into that.
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: And I think that's lovely because people don't, people will
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: come all the.
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: Time and be like, well, I don't think I'm creative.
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: I'm like, you are, you just haven't, you know, tapped
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: into it yet, or you just don't let yourself tap
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: into it or your job doesn't tap into it, but
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: you do in your personal life.
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: So that's been really cool.
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: I said, Rick Rubin wrote a book about creativity and
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: I think it's, I recommend it to everybody. So I
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: highly recommend every, especially the audio book cause he reads it.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: And so it's, it's for me, I can't sit down
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: for a long time for the most part, other than
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: doing this, but we're sitting down and reading a book
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: is a process for me. So audio book would vest.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: And if they have somebody actually good reading it, then
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: that's fantastic. But yes, you're right. Everybody has something creative
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: inside them that, like you said, they either don't tap
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: into or don't allow themselves to tap into. Or they
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: think like, oh, I'm not creative because they think of
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: like these massive, you know, artists or musicians or movie
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: directors or whatever it is. But even on a small basis,
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: like you can be creative anytime in your day.
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: A hundred percent.
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: Like I would have never classified myself as being super creative.
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: And then you have this brand that, you know, comes
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: out of your brain and people are like, wow.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: How'd you do that? I'm like, it just, it just
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: kind of happens.
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: You just get into your flow state.
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: So a hundred percent.
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: Also allow yourself to get in the flow state.
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: Now, I read this story that you about your husband
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: that he slept on the couch one time so that
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: he did not disturb the sheets because you love clean
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: new sheets. I get it. Who doesn't? But he did
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: not want to disturb them. And he knew you were
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: coming on the next day. And so he slept on
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: the couch. Please tell us the story.
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: Isn't that insane?
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Congratulations to him.
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: That's amazing. I, I will say, I feel so lucky
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: that I have found one of the most thoughtful people
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: on the planet. And so I was coming back from
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: a pretty rough business trip and he knew that I
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: had been struggling. And so he, And he knows that,
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: like you said, one of my favorite things is, you know,
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: after the sheets are fresh and clean, you know, just
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: getting in and, you know, doing the little cricket thing
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: with your feet. Like, it's just so perfect. And so
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: to be so sweet, I did... I never in a
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: million years... I was like, you don't ever have to
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: do this for me again, by the way. I was like,
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: this is actually like was way too much. Like, don't
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: do that. Like, I'm going to get mad at you.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: Now I feel weird about it.
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, like now I'm uncomfortable.
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: But he.
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: The next day was like, oh, by the way, you know, George,
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: our dog and I slept on the couch so that
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: you and I like so we could all have the
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: fresh bed together when you got home. And I was like, OK,
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: I could cry here and now because that is truly
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: like the craziest, nicest, most thoughtful thing anyone had ever done.
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: But I also was like, never do that again.
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: Like you make me feel bad.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: You did it once. That's great. Don't ever do it again.
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah and like truly you will go down in history
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: as like one of the most thoughtful people I'll another
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: one really quickly that he did which is like a
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: level of thoughtfulness that I like it's just not on
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: my plane or like of existence is he knew that
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: I was obsessed with this one where we honeymooned they
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: had duck tacos at the beach I ate them every
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: day they were incredible they were the part of the same,
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: you know, hotel chain when we were in Cabo. And
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: so for my birthday, I was turning 30. He was like,
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: for my birthday, he talked to the chef at the
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: restaurant to call the other hotels location to get the
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: duck taco recipe. Fun fact, not a lot of duck
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: is being served in Cabo San Lucas. So they had
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: to source a duck, like find a duck, find a
• 34:12
  Speaker 3: duck to make these tacos. And he presents it poolside.
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: And I was like, You are making me feel like
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: shit right now. Like I've never done anything like you.
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: I can't get to this level.
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: Stop. It's like, stop. Stop being nice to me. So anyways,
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: there you go.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: You heard it there first, man. Get better.
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: So I have a segment on the show. I call
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: it the five count. It's just five random questions.
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: Who was your first concert?
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: The Jonas Brothers.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: Oh, phenomenal. Was it here?
• 34:46
  Speaker 2: It was in the eighth grade.
• 34:47
  Speaker 3: It was in Oklahoma City. It was like their first tour.
• 34:51
  Speaker 3: I was in love with Joe Jonas. So it was
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: a good one for me.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: Oh man, that's awesome. Number two, if you were a
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: pro wrestler or MMA fighter, what would your name be?
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: Oh my God. That is such an incredible question.
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: Probably something that has to do with like a bad
• 35:11
  Speaker 3: attitude because sometimes I bring a very cloudy, bad attitude
• 35:14
  Speaker 3: in like a super format, but in like a, in
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: like a fun, you know, successful way, not.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: In like an Eeyore way.
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Not like an Eeyore way and kind of like
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: a Batman way. So yeah.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: Number three, I've never asked this to anybody, but I
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: had this come up or I had this thought come
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: up the other day and I wanted to ask somebody,
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: explain your pantry setup.
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: As much as I wish it was organized, it is
• 35:39
  Speaker 3: just chaos. And so obviously I have my spices. They
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: are not labeled. They are just in the jar. And,
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: you know, they've got a nice little staircase. Like you
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: can see all of them, but that's as organized as
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: it gets. Then below that, I've organized by like oatmeal
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: slash granola slash, you know, whatever you're going to classify
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: that as. And then I have like chips and pasta.
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: And that's that's truly as good as I get. We'll
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: throw some 10 fish in there. We'll throw, you know, it's,
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: it's a mess basically, but it's kind of a peek
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: behind the curtain of like my life where it's like,
• 36:18
  Speaker 3: I really try to be as organized as possible.
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: And you'll see that start and then the wheels fall off.
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: So that's a good reflection of my pantry.
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: I love that. Number four, who or what inspires you?
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: I am inspired by, um, The people who've allowed me
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: to pave, you know, this path for myself, I think
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: I owe a lot to various, you know, business owners, entrepreneurs,
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: other people who have allowed, you know, me at the
• 36:48
  Speaker 3: young age of 31 to start my own business and,
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: you know, do the things that I want to do.
• 36:55
  Speaker 3: Because generations ago, if we really think about it, that
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: would not have been as easy of a reality for me. Right.
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: I love that.
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: And number five, what would you tell your 17 year
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: old self?
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: Buckle up, sweetheart.
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: In the best way, though, like when I was 17,
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: I was what? God, I thought I was going to
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: be a lawyer like my parents. I was like, I'm
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: going to go to school.
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: I'm going to get into the business school. I'm going
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: to take the LSAT. I'm going to go to law school.
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: And then that's my life.
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: And I am so glad that I've had such a
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: nonlinear path to success here.
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: I've learned so much. I've done so many things. I've
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: met so many people.
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: And so I, I would have never expected that, you know,
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: I would have met the love of my life when
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: I was 19. We've been together for 11 years, which
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: is so interesting. Um, and you know, he was from,
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: I was from Oklahoma. He was from North Carolina.
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: His family was in Virginia, Maryland, DC.
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: Like we all get to travel and do all these
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: things together that I would have never expected. So I
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: feel very fortunate and I would tell her to buckle
• 38:03
  Speaker 3: up and enjoy the ride.
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: So that's perfect.
• 38:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: Well, if anybody wanted to find out more about you,
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: follow you online, obviously support you in any way by
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: the original South side, how can they do all the things? Yeah.
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: So best place for that is our website, which is
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: just drinksouthsides.com. Or you can give us a follow on
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: Instagram at drinksouthsides. If you're interested in the Clean Alcohol Collective,
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: that is cleanalcoholcollective.com or at cleanalcoholcollective. And for the Yappy
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: Hour podcast, if you or someone you know is interested
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: in yapping with us, that's at OGYappyHour on Insta.
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: I love it. Meredith, thank you so much for your time.
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: This has been fantastic. And I can't wait to see
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: where this goes for you. This is all fantastic.
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: Thank you. I appreciate it.
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: No problem. Thank you so much to Meredith for being
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: on the show. Again, grab yourself some original Southside. Find
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: out where you can go. Check their website. They have
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: a store locator. It's absolutely phenomenal. I found at least
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: two or three places around me that has it. And
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: obviously check out the Clean Alcohol Collective because we need
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: to know what is going in our drinks that is
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: going inside our bodies. And as you heard, obviously check
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: out Yappy Hour. I am on the Yappy Hour today.
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: So obviously go check out Yappy Hour. Go check out
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: my episode and see what is going on inside the
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: world of alcohol. and also with entrepreneurs and startups all
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: around the world. So while you're doing all that, make
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: sure to go follow us on social media. It is BrugesPod,
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: that is B-R-E-W-S-E-R-S-P-O-D.com. on the Instagram, the threads, and the Twitter.
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: If you want to send us an email, it is bruiserspod.gmail.com.
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: If you want to follow me directly, it is Rody John.
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: That is R-O-D-I-E-J-O-N. Rody John is the name on the Twitter,
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: and I'm untapped. In case you want to find out
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: what I'm drinking, maybe we can have a beer together.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: If you want to follow me on the threads or
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: the Instagram, it is OfficialRodyJohn. So until next time, make
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: sure to enjoy life, drink local, and cheers.