Latest / Ready To Drink Podcast / Building a Hemp Beverage Brand at 70 | Mary Bernuth, Pharos Premium Beverages

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Building a Hemp Beverage Brand at 70 | Mary Bernuth, Pharos Premium Beverages · Ready To Drink Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, I'm Mary Bruno.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: I am the executive chair and uh co-founder of Ferros Brands International, LLC.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: We produce a delicious uh THC beverage uh called Pharos Premium Infused Beverages.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: Excellent.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm gonna start off and remind everybody there's no script, there's no agenda, but in this, I have to give a disclaimer, Mary and I have met before, but not for an extensive period of time.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: We've crossed paths at a few conferences and things like that.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: So I want everybody to know this will be the most in-depth conversation that Mary and I had.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: But in keeping with the authenticity of this, I want to let everybody know that we have met prior, unlike other guests where they are completely cold and I've never met in person before.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm excited about this conversation, Mary, and I want to give you a first off of congratulations.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: I saw on LinkedIn about uh recent wedding and everything like that.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: So kudos to you and a new hire in the same month of uh your CEO.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: So big big month here in August going on.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: The same week as the wedding.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Was he at the wedding or did he cut the game?
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: He was he, you know, well, no, he he couldn't make it.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: He he he would have been there, but he couldn't make it.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, we're um so for your listeners, uh um I've uh co-founded this with my now husband, uh, with uh Rhino Stenchfield.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: He and I together built Pharaoh's brands and uh and this wonderful tasting beverage.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um and we uh we're we've done it ourselves.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: We bootstrapped the entire company ourselves uh financially, and we were the team, the two of us, and uh took the show on the road, started with distribution in Wisconsin, and have grown it from there.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: And we've been um uh really been working to make this happen.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we're both in our 70s now, and uh so it's getting it's getting hard to keep to keep it moving at the the pace and the level, and uh the demand is there for the product.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: So we were very fortunate to hire a senior vice president of sales, uh Jason Moore.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: He came from the Diaggio Guinness family, uh years and years of experience, and he lives in Montana.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: So we're all Montana, we're a Montana brand.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: We're the only THC beverage brand or a Delta 9 hemp derived THC beverage brand that uh that lives and works in Montana.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and we're very fortunate that we get to be in this beautiful state and and run our business.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: We are also very much involved with uh with getting um our legislators locally uh here in the state um for the hemp beverages, and we're very successfully got Tim Sheehe on board with us.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: He's our senator in in Montana, one of our senators, and um we also have a good track record with our attorney general.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we've got a lot of people rooting for THC beverages in Montana, but we don't yet have it have it yet.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: So we're not selling here.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um and uh yeah, we got married and we decided to hire a CEO right before the wedding.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we got married on a Saturday and our CEO started on Wednesday.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: So that that actually gave us a little bit of uh relief that we could take a very small honeymoon uh and uh try not to think constantly about pharaohs, which is not easy to do.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but yeah.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: Walk me through a little bit.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: Go let's go all in the way back machine, all the way to give me the environment, the scene, where you are, and then how many years ago with you and Rhino's.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Rhino was named after his grandmother's maiden name.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: So it's R-H-Y-N-O.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: And whenever he meets anyone, he says it's Rhino, R-H-Y-N-O, instead of instead of uh thinking it's the animal.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but no, we so to go way back, uh we uh Rhino is the one who worked with an ad agency out of San Diego called Kellico and came up with the name Pharos.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: And he chose Pharos because it is representative of the beacon in the industry that he wanted Pharos to be.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Pharos is the name of the first lighthouse in Alexandria, Egypt, built by Alexander the Great.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it is definitely for us a symbol of lighting the way uh through education, through understanding, through quality, through safety for this whole new beverage industry.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's a it's all new, I mean, it relatively new compared to every other beverage, um, and especially in the alcohol space.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: So we're uh so Rhino named it Faros.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: He intentionally set it up as a medicinal cannabis company in the vertical market of Oklahoma.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: So he started in Oklahoma in a vertical market with Farrows and very quickly decided that that that it really wasn't as medicinal as he had intended it to be.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: There were a lot of customers that were wanting to, who did not need it for medical reasons, uh, and who were just wanting to get more and more um potency in the products.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: That wasn't what he wanted.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so he sold all his inventory in Oklahoma to his wholesaler there.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and then that was when we were just starting in our relationship, and that's its own history.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you want to hear any of that.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: As much as you want to share, yeah.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: Well, relative to how it all works together.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: So we shows a business together, so that's part of it.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we sort of wildly chose a business together.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I was married for 30 years.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, my husband and I were very happily married, uh, but he was diagnosed with a very rare blood cancer.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and he was really, you know, it was it was a journey, of course, as it is with anyone listening to this program who's gone through this, I'm sure they can relate.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: But he um relied heavily on cannabis uh in the last years of his life.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I was not that educated.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: I did not use cannabis, um, not because I had a bias necessarily, uh, but that I just don't don't like how it feels to be high.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: I've never liked it.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that that sort of, and especially with with the newest strains of cannabis that started coming out in Colorado in 2012, uh, you know, when it went recreational, which is when I think it did.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: I can't remember exactly.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: But um, but so I was not super supportive.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: I I understood that this was something that was really helping him.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I was always, I always felt like I was saying, you sure you want to do that right now?
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: I I had that that sort of, you know, I kind of make fun that he would wake and bake, it would wake up and he'd start vaping right then.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um and and of course now um I I feel some in some ways that I'm creating, in many ways, creating pharaohs as an homage to his memory, um, to be able to say, look, we have to focus on destigmatizing the category.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: There's some really valid, important reasons to introduce cannabis into an adult um an adult use format that that helps seniors and especially because Farrows is so focused on veterans, but help seniors and veterans.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so when Rhino decided to get out of the medicinal side of things, um we decided then together, after he went to a conference in Chicago, he met Diana Eberline there.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um I don't know if you you've interviewed her.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but we've we've done uh some things in Pennsylvania together in person as well.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: I have not interviewed her yet for the show, uh, but we've worked together at different conferences and presented to uh the convenience stores and groceries in Pennsylvania.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, well then you you've you know her well.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: And and so she and Rhino got talking and and she said, why don't you pivot to beverage?
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so when he came back from that trip, we had already met and I had moved in.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: So when my husband passed away, my daughter's uh stepdaughter and a daughter encouraged me to date after a few couple years, and and I, you know, didn't want to.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: The thought of that at uh at the time was I was uh 67 and there was just no way that I wanted to to date.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um I don't even know if I was 67, I might have been 60, I can't remember now.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: But the point being is that um I did go on a dating site very quietly by myself.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't have my girls over my shoulders or my grandkids telling me what to do and what to say.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: And and uh and I took about 20 minutes, put up a post on a site called Meet Mindful.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm a mindfulness coach in my psychotherapy practice.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I thought if any guy is on a site called Meet Mindful, he has to have some degree of emotional intelligence.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I put up the post 20 minutes later, I get Rhino as a match, and I send him a message.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, with Meet Mindful, they don't give you too many options because they want you to be mindfully present and consider it not just, but of course I didn't do any of that, I just thought he was cute.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't even, I don't think I read much about what he had to say.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: But um, what I didn't see is that he lived in Montana and he had expanded his search to Colorado.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and he'd been on the site for a long time and really wanted to meet his person.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I reached out 20 minutes later, he responded, and we set up a Zoom call for the next day, and I closed down the site that next day.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: I I knew I'd met my person the minute that we met.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: And that's a hell of an ROI right there on the subscription you paid for.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely a great, a great yeah.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: I shut the subscription down, I was done, and uh and we talked, Zoomed every day for 30 days, and then I finally flew up to Montana to meet him.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: And um, the girls were were horrified um because you know, what you're going to Montana?
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like, could he cut you up into pieces and you're in you're gonna be in the woods?
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like all they had envisions of were some, you know, terrible uh scam artist.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, you know, honestly, talking to somebody for three to four hours every day for 30 days, I feel like I know him better than I know the two of you.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: So so we I went up and that sealed the deal.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: As soon as we met, we both knew.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we knew before we even met.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: It was just one of those things.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so by the time he got back from that conference with Diana Eberline, I was living here.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I I'm a psychotherapist.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: I went back to graduate school at 47.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: I started my practice at 50.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I work with my clients remotely since 20 since uh COVID.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: So when COVID hit and I went to working remotely, I never went back.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: I I really like working remotely.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm was working.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm got clients, I'm have my practice, and um that wasn't interrupted when I moved to Montana.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: So um, so when he said he wanted to do the the uh the beverage, I really thought, wow, okay, this is perfect for me because I work closely with clients that have substance use issues, especially alcohol and THC.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: Not, you know, there's addiction problems with any substance.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so I thought this was exactly what I wanted to do.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I invested in the company just as much as he did, and we decided to become 50-50 partners and launch Pharaoh's um together.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so the first thing we did was make sure that it tasted incredible.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: It had to be a drink that we wanted to drink regularly, but that we knew seniors would have to taste something really good.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: It couldn't just be a seltzer with, you know, some flavoring like a LaCroix and and have you know even a hint of cannabis taste in it for seniors to transition into this category.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: So we we found Earl Giles Drinks Apothecary out of Minneapolis, and the his it's all that's what happened.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: They made our incredible flavors, and we've gotten a ton of awards for the taste of our drink.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's um so it's a it's a part of the the consumer base that doesn't get talked about enough.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: I make jokes about my parents on the show and stuff like that, but as a whole, I think that the a brand like Ferro's it needs to be a lead in in what you exactly are talking about.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: Your brand is built on it, but also the most the biggest conversion I think is like I'm 41 years old, and so I grew up in the marijuana world, but I also grew up in the Dare program.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: I have the I have the t-shirt in my dresser drawer, you know what I mean?
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: Like, and but at the same time, you know, I was a lifelong advocate as well as consumer, but in a different way.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: And it wasn't until I got into my later years and especially where the where we're gonna get into here is when it became a tool instead of a recreational thing to escape.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: So in my twenties and late teens, marijuana was an escape and alcohol was an escape.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I dealt with the addiction and the substance abuse of that, and then in adulthood, the opiates came in.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: My parents really tried to figure out what it was and what it was going on, and I grew up where you know I got in trouble for you know, if I smelled like marijuana and things like that.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: Now fast track to my parents or grandparents, and they're you know in their late 60s, and I could be wrong on the math there.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: My mom will kill me, but might be mid mid to late sixties, yeah.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: But um, but where it is now is now they're daily gummy users for sleep.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: And my mother finally she had multiple surgeries, and she finally has been able to decrease the pills that were able to fix the neck and the shoulder so she could sleep comfortably in bed with just one gummy a night.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: She's not doing 50,000 milligrams or anything like that, but just a little gummy.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the interesting part is if we talk about the psychology of that shopper as well.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: I've talked about it recently with uh Samuel Purier on the uh uh secret shoppers in the dispensary area.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like my parents, as well as some others, they bulk match because they don't want to go to the dispensaries that often.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I want to talk a little bit about where I'm going with this bridge in transition is to talk about how a beverage is a great entry to that group where it might be an adverse thing because you you you know, in the in that area and that generation, you grew up with reefer madness as a thing.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: You grew up even more so than I did, where marijuana was scary, THC will kill you, your brain on drugs and frying the eggs and all this stuff.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: What is it?
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: What is that do you think the number one misconception for anyone that's listening as a consumer that's in that age demographic to get them to really try this product?
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: I would say the number one misconception is safety.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, they they want to make sure the other thing too, because because in addition to Faros, because of this conversation, I've joined up with some uh other partners, there are three of us, and we've designed an entire education program to go into senior communities directly in person and educate seniors around cannabis use and all kinds of cannabis, mostly minor cannabinoids, but certainly THC is in there.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: The biggest, the biggest pushback we get is safety and drug interaction.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, one of my clients, uh, his father just uh suffered a heart attack uh and right away, you know, he was a drinker and now he's been told he can't drink.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: And he checked with his physician.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, could he have some of these cannabis beverages?
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: And the physician was like, Well, I don't, I don't know.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the research isn't there.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I would say the number one issue is is it safe for me to drink it?
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: Can I drink it with my blood thinning medication?
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: Is it is it something that that interacts well uh with with uh diabetic some some issues with sugar?
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we put in some sugar in our drinks for taste, um, but you know, there is a real concern around how do I make this work.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: The irony is that alcohol is loaded, as we all know, with sugar, is but it is acceptable.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think the stigma around cannabis, just like you're talking about, is what we all have to keep addressing, is is to help seniors understand the value uh and and in addition to whatever it is they're doing in their evening ritual, like your mother's is already oriented towards CBD, CDN, maybe a small amount of THC.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what we're saying is in a beverage.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: That how about having that in the evening, if she's already introduced that into her night ritual for sleep, you know, this is a great lead-in for sleep, having having a a hemp derived THC beverage at night in place of their usual cocktail, or in addition to on you know, off nights.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: We're not big believers in um in mixing alcohol with THC.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um I mean, people do it, but um I I I can't you can't uh say no to people, but that's not something we promote.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: So it would be on one night you try a THC beverage, and the next night you can go back to your glass of wine and see see what you think.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I can speak to women in your audience that struggle with hot flashes.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and when I was drinking wine when I was in my 60s, inevitably I'd have red wine and I would wake up with a hot flash 100%, at least a couple.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then the other issue is how scratchy you'd wake up having drinks, or you know, you go out with friends and have a margarita, and I would always wake up feeling like thirsty, scratchy throat, et cetera.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas a THC beverage didn't do any of that at all, and in fact helped me sleep calmly and better.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: And also it manages stress.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it is we call our drinks calm in a can.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: It it really helps people uh unwind in a way that is very different from an alcohol experience.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and and also like I work uh through this show as well as some other things with a lot of different uh you know veterans groups and things like that.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: I think one of the biggest things I was at a I spoke at a conference, uh the normal conference in uh Kentucky a couple months ago, and I saw the there was some data that was coming out where when hemp is legal in certain markets, it was I'm gonna I I want everybody to know I'm gonna spitball this number and I'm around this number, but I'm not sure it's the exact number.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: But it was like a 50% decrease in opiate use in certain markets when hemp ever hemp beverages, gummies, and things like that are regulated in the market and openly accessible to citizens.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's for me as well, like I one of the reasons I get with with veterans is we understand we understand those addiction, that's where we connect is the addiction part as well as our passion for what we're trying to do.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: But I think the the biggest thing for me is for all of these aspects is number one is pain relief.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't mean pain relief and checking out and detaching from reality, I mean being present in your life while also relieving your pain.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: Because one thing I've experienced as well as the other veterans and and as well as other older generations is these medications are you know they're very intense.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: And and not every doctor, for me personally, as well as some other veterans I've joked around with at bars and stuff like that, they don't care how much you drink because when you give them, I was a highly functional alcoholic that was drinking six to ten drinks a day.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I was open with my prescribing doctor about how much I was drinking, yet I was still a s a prescribed a cocktail of various medications that once that started, I was blacking out like after like four or five drinks.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: And then in my addictive mindset, it was like it was just elevating the party in a sense, and it and that wasn't until I got out of it that I look back and I I see how dangerous that was.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: So let's talk a little bit about you know your two mission, you know, the dual path mission you have with with helping older citizens in the United States and veterans, you know.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Let's talk about the accessibility, like you just said, a little bit too, about the beverage part and how maybe where you want to see this product.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: Let's get into that part of the conversation.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: Is what type of retailers do you want to see Pharos in?
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: And what type of distributors do you want to kind of work with?
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: Is that because of the fact of what your mission is?
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's a little different than the spray and pray approach that some other brands have, you know?
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, well, there's a few questions in there.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: What I will add to your question is on-premise accounts, not just retailers.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: I really think that where we have to focus is on-premise.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's where a consumer gets to have an experience of a THC beverage that they don't that they can then say, hmm, that felt pretty cool.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: I like that.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because the onset is 10 minutes, right?
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: So they order a THC beverage.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: We prefer five milligram, 2.5 to 5 milligrams for an on-premise setting, uh, because otherwise, you know, 10 milligrams, you number one, you won't order another drink, but but well, for most people.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, it's a good, it's a good entry point.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: But I think that we've access accessibility is a critical component.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we're pushing so hard for the normalization, the mainstreaming of the product.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: What you just said about, you know, your mom going into a dispensary and loading up, the the armed demographic are not that keen on going into dispensaries.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: And let's also look at something really critical.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: The dispensaries that are available to consumers are in states that have decided it's legal for that state, but it has never been federally legal.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: So you have a veteran has to give their driver's license, has to go into a dispensary, give their driver's license to purchase any cannabis products, and they're in a database.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: They're in a system.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: We have a gun rights issue in certain states for them to access a gun, and in certain states they have a custody issue with their own children if they're divorced.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so you you there's the and so to to make a a mild THC beverage that allows them, just as you said, to cut back on opioid use, cut back on other substances that they're using to manage their pain and their psychological pain.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: This is not just a physical pain issue.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of stress and anxiety that goes along with uh returning from uh from active combat or not even active combat.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's a whole uh culture in the veteran community that that is um oriented around support and around collegial support.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, going to VFWs, that's where we want to impact the most.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: We want to be in those gathering places where we sell on-premise a hemp-derived THC beverage to give veterans that opportunity to just feel the calm that can be associated with a low potency beverage.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: We are not advocates for high potency beverage.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: There's, you know, with the little bit of research there is around cannabis in the US, there's a lot more, interestingly, coming out of Israel.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: But but when it when it comes to large doses of THC, that can actually produce anxiety, that can produce paranoia, that can work against the objective.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: So that's something I want to be sure your listeners hear, that it's important to start low and go slow and see how your endocannabinoid system individually, everyone's got one, it's how it responds to the products.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I I'm I'm a big believer in on-premise.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: As far as accessibility for retail, this is the whole point.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: We want to reach people in their day-to-day life experience.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a huge market that people are going after right now, which is the soccer mom market.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: The the people between 30 and 45, let's say, um, that those what you're gonna leave your kids in the car, you can't take them into a dispensary, there's no access there, you know, whereas a low potency beverage or low potency product that can be purchased online or in their local grocery store allows them access to this alternative.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: If we if we put everything into a dispensary, number one, low potency beverages do not sell in dispensaries, period.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: We were in over a hundred dispensaries in Oklahoma, and 25 milligrams in one drink was not enough.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: And they still didn't sell.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: So you can't the cost of goods of making a drink and the shipping alone, all of the cost associated, the the you can't get enough milligrams for your buck.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they're gonna get more potency from the flour or from the vape than they are from the can.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: So it just is is not a it's not marketable in a dispensary the way that that their other products are.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_01: And also uh last week's episode uh we were doing analysis of dispensaries, we got into what I'm sure you'll agree with as well.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: But a dispensary is is is built for a legacy user.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: A dispensary experience is built for somebody that knows what they're doing.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_01: I have yet to ever walk into a dispensary that is built for a new consumer, like let's say someone who's 45 or 55 or 65 years old and just stopped drinking, stopped taking pills, and has just now never smoked a joint before, but wants to experience this, there's not really a lot of welcoming places that'll uh just gear that direction.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I I appreciate what also you said with the rise of these of the vapes.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, a lot of people are buying and they're buying based on kind of like craft beer in the early 2010s, where we kind of had a trend where I was as well, one of them where you walked in, you're like, whatever's the cheapest and the highest ABV is what I want that day.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's kind of what's going on now.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's whatever you got is buy one, get one, and I'll take everything that's 85% and up.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that's and that's where I think a lot of things come into play, which is the paranoia part where people have a bad experience then, and then they're done forever.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: And they're done exactly.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the more we work in unison and and the and the dispensary channel, and I don't say this as a negative on it as much as it's a get with the consumer experience time.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of complaints happen in that market where it's like we're not expanding our market, our margins aren't great enough, and this and that, but there's nothing inside of that consumer experience that is welcome to the expansion of audience outside of people who are already ingrained in the inner circle of the marijuana industry.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't agree with you more.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: Is it okay to comment on what you just said?
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, absolutely, absolutely, yeah.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: It is the driver of why myself, along with two other partners, have created our program.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: So our education program is not only for the consumer, it's for the dispensary, for the dispensary owner, the MSOs, of how can they create a more welcoming environment for first-time users, for the senior, especially the seniors.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, we're talking about 65 to 80 years old.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about, you know, you know, there's a yes, 55 plus communities, but that's not really in my mind a senior.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, we're talking 65 to 80.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: And they are, they could potentially be a huge market in the dispensary community if there was a program that welcomed them into a dispensary model that recognized their needs.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, for instance, transdermal patches are a very effective way for seniors to have, I mean, and your mom talking about sleep, et cetera.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: But a transdermal patch lasts 24 hours.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: It can just have minor cannabinoids, it could just be CDN for sleep and CBD.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: It helps with inflammation.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I mean, those kinds of, I've surveyed several dispensaries all over Florida because we're launching this education program there in Florida, and there are very few that have transdermal patches.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: There are very few that have low, low milligram opportunities for seniors to experiment with a low milligram gummy.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's there's also most of the gummies were 10 milligrams to start with of THC.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know about your parents, but we all get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, navigating that when you're high is is a real turnoff for seniors.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's, I mean, in in terms of statistics, falling in the bathroom is a big statistic for seniors.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: So we're interested in educating seniors around start low, go slow, and really understand the value of minor cannabinoids that have no THC in them.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a that's a big piece for us.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: The other piece of this in terms of of safety and quality around senior and veteran communication is is that um in the retail environments, almost all the retailers are going for 10 milligrams because they are that's their market.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: The market are the people that are legacy users that are, wow, I can buy a drink with THC.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: Fantastic.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what's the highest milligram count you got?
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you got 10 milligrams?
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: I guess I'll spend 20 bucks on a four-pack for 10 milligrams, but I'm sure as heck not going to spend 20 for five milligrams, right?
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: So when we first came out, because of our dedication to the senior demographic, we were all five milligram.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we they the one big retailer in Florida really had to twist my arm for us to go to 10.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: And and they said, Oh yeah, we'll we'll we'll buy fives from you.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: We'll, you know, okay.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: But I said, because we're going after seniors, we want fives available.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: They've yet to buy any fives.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: There's still no fives available in our biggest retailer in Florida.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, and then I was in this in one of our stores, not that one, and this woman came in, she's down on her hands and knees, she's on the bottom shelf, she reaches her hand back, she pulls out a four-pack, and I can't remember the brand because they're a great brand, but I can't remember who it was.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: She said, Oh, thank God, a five milligram four-pack.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: She's right in front of me.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I look, I look to the to the buyer who's standing with me and saying, What about this?
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: We're trying to get our fives in here.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, they just don't sell, they just sit on the shelf.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I just had to say it on your podcast, like, how do we make how do we make that change?
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now, one of the ways it might change is that the new feds, the feds are working on regulation and they may cap it at five federally.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: So if they cap it at five federally, they might make it open to the states to decide, but it may make five milligrams more accessible.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: And and and that's that's our that's our passion.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: We really want to make fives accessible to the new user of cannabis beverages.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I want to ask you about your, you know, you had your practice in and um, you know, before, so entrepreneurship was was a wasn't really new to you when you came into the beverage space, but the beverage industry was.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_01: But I also want to say that there's, you know, you age is age is not relevant in a lot of times with entrepreneurship.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I try to say that in a statistic way because a lot of people think we look at I grew up with Inc.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_01: magazine, entrepreneur magazine, and all those things.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so when I was 23 years old, I started a business my senior year at college.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's still the same business we're communicating through today.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_01: That's the same business.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_01: But at the same time, it's like when you look at the statistics, I'm an anomaly because we focus our attention on the young people to become entrepreneurs, but really the big entrepreneurs are becoming entrepreneurs 45, 50, 55, 60.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_01: That's where the real stuff's coming.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I firmly believe I'm gonna say it as of owning of myself, I sometimes I'm glad of what I did, but also I'm also there was a lot of stress with that because you didn't know what the hell you were doing.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I didn't know what I was doing in my 20s, like I didn't know anything what I was doing.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like I'm just now getting into a phase, but also because I got rid of the addiction, I can focus on the clarity and that's helping.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_01: But also, I'm excited to see like people like yourself and things like that being like, I'm jumping in a new industry, full bore, and the I at the age I'm at and all the things going on in the life and the life that you live prior.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, and just to jump in, what is kind of what are maybe one or two things that were maybe in the bev as the beverage industry as a whole, not necessarily him.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_01: What are the few first few things that maybe kind of caught you off guard or or kind of advice for anybody else jumping in, being like, hey, heads up over here, you know what I mean?
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, what a great, I mean, wow, how much time do we have?
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: I, you know, I I uh okay.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, first of all, just a little bit.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: So my background is executive coaching.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I have a whole practice um that's uh counseling, substance abuse, other challenges, a lot of relationship issues, I do a lot of couples work.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: But one of one of the aspects of my business is executive development.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I work a lot with senior executives that are um dealing with the challenges of entrepreneurship.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I had this naive idea that because I work with entrepreneurs as a therapist and I look at how their uh their neuroses, if you will, or their issues are showing up in the workplace and and how they can become aware of those things, I had no idea what this was going to be like.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: I really, you know, I you'd think I would, right?
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: There would be, but no, I mean, I can't tell you how many times I sat, you know, on the edge of the bed crying.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like the the amount of stress associated with the risk that you're taking.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: And we just kept, that was one of the things.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, initially we we dove into our retirement accounts, um, and we, you know, okay, you know, we'll throw some money towards it.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: And what we've soon found out is that once you start, and you so this is the big advice I have.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: Once you start, you need to know exactly how much you're gonna put in and and and not sort of treat it the way we did, which was, oh wow, that was more than I thought it was gonna be.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, let's put let's put more in.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: And we just kept putting more in and more in until we're really we that we are caught.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like we can't stop now.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_00: If we stop now, then we lose everything we've put in.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: So there has to be a very clear understanding of what you can afford to start with, of your own money.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: If you're not gonna use your own money, then a very clear understanding of something called a cap table.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: So the capitalization table is exactly what the investors look at.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_00: How much are you selling in order to fund your venture?
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: And how's that going to show up on your cap table?
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: And what's gonna be left when you need to keep scaling the company?
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: I would say that not having enough money to really make your venture go is the big mistake that a lot of uh people in the beverage industry have made.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things that, you know, the only way, number one, it's a whole new category.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_00: And number two, besides the fact that it's a whole new category, um, and yeah, you don't have as much competition as you have with with you know putting something out in a grocery store, but still you've also got a whole new brand.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_00: So none of the consumers know your brand.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: How are they going to get to know your brand?
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: What are you going to do to help them buy your drink instead of the guy next to you?
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that requires discounts.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: And the retailer isn't paying for those discounts.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: You are as the brand.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: That was the one thing that really was like, whoa, oh, we pay that.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: So somebody gets four dollars off a four-pack, and I'm getting a bill for that four dollars.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: And and and then I'm like, well, what's my margin on that four-pack?
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: So it eats out the margin on the four-pack.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm getting that bill, and and everyone's excited because wow, we just sold in 1,600 cases, right?
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then out of those 1,600 cases, we sold set, we, we, our velocity, we moved 75% of product off the shelves in a month, right?
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: But who got the bill?
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: We got the bill.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what I think a lot of brands don't understand is what it really costs to get your your brand out to the consumer.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_00: And and then of course the the retail uh the retail side of things are are you're so dependent on what your retailer is willing to offer.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_00: And in the beginning, because there was no regulation and there still isn't, but in the beginning, retailers were taking a piece of the action.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_00: So in addition to what you're paying to get your product out there, they're they want a percentage of your business.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now that's not legal in the alcohol space.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: And and fortunately, most of the retailers stopped doing that.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: But in the beginning, when we were all starting up, and this is now, so we've been we've been doing this now.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we we came in with the idea in 2023, and we made our first batch in 2024 in South Carolina.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so we in April of 24.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: So we we're in a solid, we're solidly two years in.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it's and we did a$750,000 raise on top of the$650,000 we put in.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: Right, Rhino and I.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_00: So you know, it's it it is and it and it just never stops.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's constant, the the need to make sure you've got you've got funding.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, talk to any of the VC people.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've interviewed any of them that have funded Uncle Arnie's, that have funded the big the big brands.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_00: They, you know, they they are always reserving their powder for for this kind of situation.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they they're like, no, we can't invest with any other brands because if this brand needs another bump, then we've got to have the money to keep it going.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because once you start investing, you can't you can't stop.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: And does that does that answer the kind of question you were wanting to keep?
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_01: 100%, because I think that's the biggest thing is um, you know, it's a couple different aspects.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh it's you you raise the series, you know, the first series round and you get excited, everybody's celebrating popping champagne and stuff like that.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_01: And it's the same thing that I have an issue with in the newer entrepreneur and in the beverage space, which is what you nailed was everybody's celebrating points of distribution.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_01: We just signed all these locations.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_01: All my heart sinks when I see a brand, a new brand being like that I know is underfunded, and then all of a sudden they're celebrating, you know, a 1600-store rollout.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_01: And my heart sinks because I'm like, they're not, and I speak to them, and sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't know that there's a bill coming on the back end, and it might not be in the first six months, but it'll be when things slow down, and then it'll be in the quarter, you know, the spring, and there'll be a spring reset, and then they'll have an end cap.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_01: And and um there's nothing nefarious in the billings, I'm gonna be clear.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like everybody agrees to all of those terms, but I think when when the actual sales happen and the volume happens, especially when you know, like you just said, a four-dollar discount on a twelve on a 12 pack or excuse me, a four-pack, and if it does really well and you're going into it underfunded, and here's the thing for everybody else, too, you're you're also not necessarily getting paid immediately for some of that stuff on top of that.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_01: So sometimes your billing from the distributor can land at the same time your retail billing at the same time that your actual tractor trailer you shipped out hasn't been paid as well.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_01: So you can be triple stacking a cash flow problem where you on paper are successful, but on the stage two, you're freaking out.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_00: Hence the beginning of my comment of sitting on the edge of the bed crying.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that I spent many nights crying as well.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the thought of owing somebody money was always uh like an anathema to me.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_00: I just thought I could I never always had to pay everything, I had to, you know, make sure.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I didn't owe anybody any money, like ever, ever.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_00: And and so, I mean, obviously have a mortgage on a house and maybe a car payment, but uh, I remember when Rhino and I met, one of the first things I wanted to vet, and so did he was, so how's your credit rating?
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and we both were thinking that ours was better than the other because we were we were solidly in the in the whatever the highest rating is now, eight something or whatever.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_00: We were you know, we were very proud of how fiscally responsible we'd we'd been.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and he'd been an entrepreneur his entire career.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now that's impressive to have a good credit score and be an entrepreneur.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're it was impressive.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're, you know, coming into this and really not planning for what it was gonna cost.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_00: And we've we've ended up, we hired a couple of incredible consultants that have really helped us.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_00: I would highly recommend that you do that first.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_00: Spend your money there first.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_00: Prepare as much as you can for how you're gonna hit the ground running once you get started and make sure you've mapped it all out, like really understand what where the expenses are gonna be, and also the boots on the ground piece.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_00: It, you know, this idea of we're all we're still to this day only in six states.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like we've been really careful to roll it out slowly.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_00: We've we've got a big increase in sales.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_00: We've we've did it, we had 153% increase in sales in this last year.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but again, door-to-door knocking, liquor store to liquor store to liquor store, on-premise to on-premise, is a very slow-moving machine.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so then you have the big retail account.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of your listeners think, okay, total wine, we got to get into total rine, we've got to get into Target, we now need to get into Sprouts.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_00: And all right, so they place that order, then they want to do an end cap if you're lucky, and you do a bump out, and then you put it all on sale.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then, so do you have the money?
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_00: Is it there?
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_00: And just like what you said, the distributor, some distributors want 45 days net.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so you're, you know, you're shipping out, you're paying for the shipping, you're you're you're sending out the product, you're getting a bill before you even get paid for the product that went on the shelf.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I mean, we we're we're very fortunate to have some good distributors.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_00: And and if they pay on time, we're we're very grateful.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and if we get 15 days net, we're we're saying hallelujah.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_00: But that whole that whole piece that you just described, the stacking piece, is um is essential to work through before you do anything.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_00: The other that I'll I'll share with you is be careful about the excitement in the industry driving important strategic financial decisions.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we made way too much product.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_00: And and we did that because we didn't want to be caught without the product.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_00: We thought that we the main thing we had to be sure with the distributors that we could supply them with what they needed, um, assuming it would sell well.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_00: But we came in right on the tail end of the big first wave.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so brands had already got their, I mean, this is these are the brands everyone knows now.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, can was already going, and I can name several, but they were already, they were already going, they were on shelves, and we were just that much behind.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then we chose to use real fruit juice, fruit oil, fruit concentrate.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_00: I don't regret that because I still love the taste of our drinks, and and our cost of goods were double with most people, because everyone was carbonating water and adding some flavoring and the emulsion.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_00: The emulsion is the least expensive part of the product.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_00: Less expense, it's not as expensive as the can.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, just it's so you're um so when you put in higher milligram count and you're charging for that, your margin is wider because the emulsion doesn't cost that much relative to the cost of the the product.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_00: So when our drinks were expensive, and so we were selling in to distributors at a higher price per case, and that was the other other piece that we didn't, you know, we we we didn't fully figure out ahead of time.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we've figured out a lot now, and we've just hired a CEO that came straight from PepsiCo and Del Monte, and he really knows his stuff.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_00: And and he's been now working in an entrepreneurial capacity for 15 years after he left those brands.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but he's a marketing guru.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_00: So he gets all this, but we're ready for him.
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like we are our brand is absolutely ready to scale because we've made all these mistakes and we've learned and we've paid for them.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_01: I think as much as as much as everybody wants the the yeah, as we're kind of closing out here, I want to I want to say, like, you know, uh the the podcast people listen to like this and others, sometimes it I'm very much a I'm a hot stove guy, like meaning I gotta touch the hot stove a couple times in order to realize it's hot.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_01: But also it's because of the way I analyze how the context is because every environment's different and everything's a little bit of everything's a multi-piston engine, you know, and some things are gonna go and some things aren't, but having multiple things going, I respect dearly those brands like yourself that are able to say, these are the mistakes we made, instead of those that want to hide it and and want to not not really admit because of some inhibition of vulnerability or whatever it is that they don't want to express, because the the the lessons in the failure.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_01: There was a book.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_01: I'll go I'll I'll close out with this is uh Monk's Cafe in Philadelphia is like premier Belgian beer or craft beer bar.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_01: It was like one of the, you know, it is still, I don't know if it's still open or not, but it's one of those places on the back of the menu.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_01: It says in the back, it says, if you don't like these beers, yes, they're expensive, but we don't return, you don't get a refund if you don't like the beer.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_01: That's life's tuition.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_01: That right there was has stayed with me.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_01: It stayed with me for 20 years or whatever since I saw that first.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_01: I was I started at Drexel and saw that on the menu when I was getting lunch some time.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_01: And that's I've used that phrase forever.
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like anytime there's something that happens, like we're gonna use that for our drinks because they are the best on the market.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, and and many of the brands will tell you they're the best, you know.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_00: They there's no question that we get that feedback regularly.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I've got my brand in the fridge, but I definitely want some ferrous in my refrigerator.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_00: But that yeah, no, I'm totally with you there.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_00: I I do, you know, my mind is going and very I know you were wrapping up, but um the other piece of uh that I will say in the beverage industry is weight.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_00: How much liquid weighs?
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_00: And that's something that I think a lot of brands need to, we all need to adjust to what that in terms of our cost of shipping.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_00: And now with gas prices going up, um, our shipping prices are going up, it all eats into the margin.
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_00: But shipping liquid also is incredibly fragile.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_00: So investing in the right packing materials, making sure I can't tell you how many mistakes we made with with the wrong 3PL or you know the third-party logistics for those people who don't know what that means.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, this is this is all the learning curve I was on.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_00: I knew nothing about this and just just the damage control, the the ways in which you have to make sure your product gets to the customer safely.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it whether it's a whether it's a distributor and you're shipping pallets or whether it's a direct-to-consumer and you're shipping a four-pack, the shipping piece is a critical part of the business.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I would highly recommend that when you're introducing a beverage, you consider a product, a complementary product that would be lightweight, easy for consumers to use.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think you're seeing that happen across the board.
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_00: There's more and more talk about small, small, you know, air airline-size bottles that you can put in your pocket and go on a plane.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you can put it in your purse and take it with you.
• 52:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think that looking at those pivoting to those types of products in addition to a beverage, um, because we don't want to lose the ritual of having a beverage.
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_00: We think that's very important.
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now, yes, can you make your own beverage?
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_00: There's lots of 750 milliliter bottles, there's 375 milliliter bottles, they're encouraging consumers to make their own THC cocktail.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we're we're we're in that same boat.
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_00: But we do need to keep looking at innovation and product innovation that doesn't necessarily have all of the weight associated with shipping liquid, and at the same time maintain the ritual of pouring yourself a cocktail at night and having a drink and mainstreaming THC beverages with that model in mind.
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_00: So you're you're walking that fine line all the time as an entrepreneur, as an owner, of how much things are costing you to make, how much you can sell them for, and what does it cost to get it to where it needs to go?
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, and with vertical markets in the dispensary world, there's not been a lot of thought around that.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_00: They're they're opening up two, three, four dispensaries, they're making their products in state, possibly down the street, you know, they're getting their grow operation, everything is happening in a vertical market.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_00: But when you go into the CPG world, consumer packaged goods world, and you're talking about nationwide shipping, critical.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_00: Excellent.
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_01: Mary, I'm I'm so excited and thank you for for uh for coming on today.
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I I we definitely are gonna have a follow-up when when you guys are ready to go public with the training and education.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I do have to abruptly end as I have to run my son to his doctor's appointments.
• 54:33
  SPEAKER_01: I want to remind everybody as I do on every episode.
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_01: Mary, thank you so much for having the courage to come on.
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_01: There is no script, there's no agenda.
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_01: I say it's the cojones to come on and do this, and I really you you have it, you got it, and I bring I appreciate the filtration process of people that know what they're doing and are passionate what they're doing and are not afraid to come on without any questions in advance or prep.
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_01: So, Mary, thank you so much for doing that.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's a testament to your personality and the business you stand for.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_00: And mate, I loved, I loved all of it.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_00: It was wonderful.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I I hope mostly that it was helpful to the people that are listening.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that's my goal is to is to keep educating and and uh and be be of service.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't help but I'm a therapist.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's kind of my thing.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, absolutely.
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I remind everybody in the audience, you guys enjoyed the last uh 45 minutes to an hour, but I want to tell you that there is a challenge to each of you, and every single week, it is five minutes of kindness to a stranger every week.
• 55:28
  SPEAKER_01: When you're walking down the street, put your phone in your pocket, look at the strangers while they're walking by, smile, don't be creepy, feel the vibe, feel the value language.
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_01: When you're at the coffee shop, when you're at the gas station, the person standing next to you messing around with the coffee and the sugar and the creamer, ask them how they're doing.
• 55:43
  SPEAKER_01: You know, ignore yourself, don't talk at all about yourself, just talk about them.
• 55:47
  SPEAKER_01: Five minutes a week.
• 55:48
  SPEAKER_01: There is a lot going on in this world.
• 55:50
  SPEAKER_01: It is beautifully destructive.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_01: Your life may be full, but I want everybody to remember that is not the case for everybody.
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_01: I speak a lot about my own experiences, and I feel for every other person that's out here.
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_01: There are a lot of opportunities where five minutes of kindness to a stranger might change somebody's life, literally might change somebody's life.
• 56:07
  SPEAKER_01: And guess what?
• 56:08
  SPEAKER_01: It costs you nothing to take that chance.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_01: So this is all about entrepreneurship and taking bets.
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_01: And I just really appreciate it.
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_01: And Mary, thank you so much for your time and your story today.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_00: This is wonderful.
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you're talking the way that we live.
• 56:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's the whole that's the whole piece.
• 56:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's gotta be about kindness.
• 56:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 56:26
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 56:26
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks.
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'll talk to you soon, Mary.
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_01: You take care.
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_00: You too.
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_00: Bye.