Brazen Imports Owners Laura Becraft and Lauren Ward talk Industry Insights and their new BOLD Initiatives

 Thirsty Thursdays @3PM EST on YouTube! Subscribe and Watch Here!
📢I talk🎙️with  Laura Becraft and Lauren Ward 🎇 Co-Founders of Brazen Imports & Consulting! 🎉 🍸✨ 👏

I feel honored they chose the Thirsty Thursdays @3PM EST podcast to talk about their new venture for the first time from a media-based perspective.

We are a bit less formal with the opening so we are discussing what we are drinking as Laura has a delicious bloody mary made with  The Original Pickle 🥒 Shot and then we just flow right into the conversation. I would love your feedback on your thoughts. 

Laura and Lauren have a client called John King Co-Founder & Owner of The Original Pickle 🥒 Shot. They refer to him throughout the episode so I wanted to make sure you are familiar with whom they are referencing. I interviewed John on November 9th, 2023. Or catch it on YouTube!  📽 🎉

Also super exciting is their announcement of their Brazen Trails Foundation on the Thirsty Thursdays podcast just in time for Women's International Day on March 8th! Check out their website for additional details! You could be selected to be the next candidate for their foundation. https://www.brazenimports.com/trails

We talk about how they started their new venture and why they named it Brazen Imports & Consulting, as well as, many industry insights. They both have such a well-rounded experience and advise others to try as many different positions in our industry to maximize your potential and be ready for whichever may come your way!

These ladies have experience in every corner of our business and have so much to offer their clients. I'm very excited for these talented ladies and wish them both continued success.

 Be sure to catch our Live Happy Hour celebrating women in our industry around the world on March 21st! Join our event posted on LinkedIn! You can call in and speak with us and celebrate  🍻 together with your favorite cocktail!  🥂 🍻 

You also need to check out the way we ended the podcast. I've been wanting a fun catchy way to finish the episode and Laura suggested Rapid Fire Questions,❓so we did with great success. Please do not miss out on this part! It's super fun.

#womenownedbusiness #beverageindustry #killingit #fnbinnovation

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Host Jessie Ott's Profile on LinkedIn

Chapters

• 1:52 Podcast Start
• 3:36 How many states are you opening this year?
• 8:36 How did he start out?
• 14:10 How do you think the product helped with distrubution?
• 17:45 How did you meet Jon?
• 23:27 How Jessie, Laura, and Lauren met.
• 27:26 Celebrity endorsements
• 43:22 How you formed your company
• 52:21 Lauren, You started out in the tasting side?
• 59:41 Laura talks about how she got started
• 1:08:01 Do you have the forumla to hire good people?
• 1:15:32 Lauren's Mentors
• 1:17:31 Laura's Mentors
• 1:19:34 Work Life Balance
• 1:21:16 Pain points
• 1:33:22 Outlook for remainder of the year
• 1:40:43 Women in the industry Happy hour
• 1:44:36 Lauren's rapid fire
• 1:47:38 Laura's Rapid fire

Transcript

00:00:00:20 - 00:00:27:01
Jessie
Welcome to Thursday, Thursdays at 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. My name is Jessie, the host of this podcast, which is all about beverage innovation. I talk with innovation pioneers from agriculture to glass. Thank you for listening and be sure to subscribe to be notified of all new episodes. Hello everyone, and welcome to this week's episode. I am interviewing Laura B Kraft and Lauren Ward, co-founders of Breeze Imports.

00:00:27:03 - 00:00:52:06
Jessie
This interview on Thursday. Thursday's podcast is their first media appearance after creating this venture last year. I'm super stoked to be the outlet. They chose to talk about what this dynamic duo does at Brazen Imports and their exciting announcement of launching the Brazen Trails Foundation. That's right. You heard it first right here on Thursday. Thursday's the day before International Women's Day, March eight.

00:00:52:08 - 00:01:21:11
Jessie
Laura and Lauren really want to give back in a big way. And so they want to help selective women in our industry be very successful. And they have an amazing background of all different types of experiences and can really help a lot of people. I'm excited to announce that here first Thursday, Thursday. I also wanted to point out as the podcast starts, we just hit the record button so it has a different feel to it.

00:01:21:13 - 00:01:43:04
Jessie
Laura and Lauren refer to John King quite a bit, and that's their big client tops, which we know as the original pickle shot. So they do talk about Jon throughout the podcast, and that's who they're referring to. I did interview John on November 9th of 2023, and you can listen to that podcast via the link in the show notes.

00:01:43:06 - 00:01:52:23
Jessie
His low electrical shot is on fire across the country. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I do. Joe.

00:01:53:01 - 00:02:01:14
Lauren or Laura
Yes, I'm the only one with the drink. I have a lot of drinks there. This is my top tequila saga.

00:02:01:16 - 00:02:08:12
Jessie
I am so jealous right now. I love it. I love this.

00:02:08:14 - 00:02:10:13
Lauren or Laura
If I were going to get it.

00:02:10:18 - 00:02:14:13
Jessie
Yeah. I love those cocktails.

00:02:14:15 - 00:02:32:14
Lauren or Laura
The second room. Yeah. It's so easy to drink. They're good right now. They're just crazy. It's. We had no idea how many pickle fanatics there were out there, but it's really transcended now, and it will go back.

00:02:32:15 - 00:02:47:04
Jessie
Everybody, I'm sure, was like a precursor to help people think that they, you know, think to use pickle juice as a as a shot. Right. I mean, that's kind of.

00:02:47:06 - 00:02:49:00
Lauren or Laura
Yeah. Yeah.

00:02:49:02 - 00:02:51:16
Laura
We've got a lot of these.

00:02:51:18 - 00:03:19:03
Lauren or Laura
Phone calls lately with distributors and just different people in general. And it's just it's so fun right now. It's crazy. But I mean, we're on track. It's so fun. It's so fun. That's all you hope for in this industry. You know, you get lucky and you hit these brands sometimes and it's so fun. And we probably will do about 2000 cases this year in 23 states.

00:03:19:05 - 00:03:36:14
Lauren or Laura
So, you know. Yeah, it's all organic growth, which we're just doing the claims and making stat strategic changes. Yeah. John so had on not too long ago. John King, our client. And it's just so much fun.

00:03:36:19 - 00:03:42:15
Jessie
How many states are you opening up this year to, you know, yet?

00:03:42:17 - 00:03:46:06
Laura
Well, the question Lauren and I get.

00:03:46:07 - 00:04:02:23
Lauren or Laura
Over we stopped opening states for six months because we there was a lot of logistical things that we wanted to get under control behind the scenes and the branch with this brand. We have a brand for 300% every year. I mean, it's got to be a plan.

00:04:03:00 - 00:04:03:12
Laura
Yeah.

00:04:03:14 - 00:04:31:19
Lauren or Laura
And it was, yeah, started planning because that perfect storm piece to that is just everything is right for this brand in the industry right now. The culinary piece the resurgence that pickle juice with with the good we feel you know the the low ebb all of it is happening at once and there was a lot logistically we wanted to get under control before we opened any additional states.

00:04:31:21 - 00:04:32:11
Lauren or Laura
So we do have to.

00:04:32:12 - 00:04:33:06
Jessie
Right.

00:04:33:08 - 00:04:55:14
Lauren or Laura
So it'll be ready for you when you get back Texas to. Yeah, we're opening Texas soon and then some different control states Lauren's working on and then we will work on. Yeah, probably six states all said and done by the end of the year. We need to open South Carolina, Indiana, Ohio and Minnesota from an open state perspective.

00:04:55:14 - 00:05:03:13
Lauren or Laura
And then I'm dying to expand the control center. Officially.

00:05:03:15 - 00:05:21:05
Lauren or Laura
Yeah, so TBD right on the rest of them. But yeah it's I actually was out on a work with and Maryland and I relaunching the brand with our distributor there last week and I will I called LA at the end of the day and it's kind of what we already knew but I think one of the most interesting things is the span of the accounts and the consumer.

00:05:21:07 - 00:05:39:05
Lauren or Laura
It's young college kids that are taking shots. Older people drinking martinis, Bloody Marys. It's mythology accounts, it's dive bars, and it's spanning this like something for everyone. And I think that there's still a lot of runway for the brand to grow from a youth perspective.

00:05:39:07 - 00:06:03:12
Jessie
That is so interesting. Well, it shows you the versatility of the brand. I mean, you know, being mixology in a cocktails to just a shot, I mean, that's pretty versatile. And then the low alcohol is, you know, right at the right time. Right. Because this low ABV low and no movement that's behind it right now is is is certainly going to I think, be a positive for sure.

00:06:03:12 - 00:06:29:12
Lauren or Laura
And anybody who show that that's not you know it's not like, that'll go away. It's not going right And the next generation of consumers, they don't they're looking for the lower APD options the they're they're my my daughters the next generation of consumer and they just drink differently. It's very different. But, you know, there's something to be said for for all of it.

00:06:29:12 - 00:06:38:02
Lauren or Laura
It's again, the right the right combinations of things. It's very for me when the going brought the brand new last summer and I was like.

00:06:38:04 - 00:06:39:16
Laura
No, she.

00:06:39:17 - 00:06:47:21
Lauren or Laura
Thought I was crazy. My head around it. And I'm like, No, no, no, hold on. Look at this.

00:06:48:03 - 00:06:52:13
Laura
You and.

00:06:52:15 - 00:07:22:13
Lauren or Laura
Consummate salesperson. So we know it's gone. And I was like, my God. And for me, it's very reminiscent of Strong in the early days. They, you know, obviously different. You know, one's a luxury brand. One's more of the everyday brand. But the fact the, the cult following, the organic growth, the it just all of that in how hard John has worked on the rescue like that's one thing a lot of people don't understand.

00:07:22:15 - 00:07:50:13
Lauren or Laura
It's not easy to make people products like that is something he had been working on for years. I mean, being able to working with Brian is complicated. So he he's done such a great job. You know, there's the formula, everything. And, you know, just to have 300,000 cases with no national advertising, no national marketing, all all word of mouth, all word of mouth, people are buying in word a lot of small distributors.

00:07:50:13 - 00:08:17:07
Lauren or Laura
Exciting. And we did have a lot of small distributors. We did hire a know an agency out of California and is going to start working on it. They've already started to kind of tell the story a little better because it really is a remarkable story and I don't think it's being done justice right now. You know, just John's whole story.

00:08:17:07 - 00:08:28:23
Lauren or Laura
And in general, it's the everybody's dream nightmare, especially people in our industry, you know, to fight that hard, your bartender to make brand, it's really tell that story. So we're excited. We're proud of it.

00:08:29:00 - 00:08:44:04
Jessie
So. QUESTION As far as the, you know, distribution goes, was he using a like beer distributors or how did he start out to kind of get that momentum behind him?

00:08:44:06 - 00:09:15:09
Lauren or Laura
Alliance okay. It's kind of a combination. So they actually started to the bar that the brand started out in Maryland. So they started out honestly getting pickle juice from like all the bars in the area and like making it themselves the bar. So they started out contracting, distilling in Delaware and then they were distributing juice from. Yeah, because nobody had so they once they found a food supplier to provide the pickle juice, they started making it in Delaware and they bottled it and they sold it to a small distributor in Delaware.

00:09:15:09 - 00:09:32:23
Lauren or Laura
And then actually we have breakthrough in Maryland. So larger distributor in Maryland. After that, when they started expanding, I believe that the first distributor was out in Kansas, which ironically I'm actually going there this afternoon. He's texting me as we speak, and they were one of the first distributors to take on a brand, which is a small beer distributor.

00:09:32:23 - 00:09:52:10
Lauren or Laura
And they've done a really, really good job, is actually the second largest state in the country for the brand. And then they've had a mix. Yeah. So Kansas, which, you know, historically you see it more growing from the outside to the end. It's kind of the opposite. The Kansas and Missouri are the largest market bar and I are actually going out to Missouri this week as well.

00:09:52:12 - 00:10:11:07
Lauren or Laura
But it started within the Midwest, mainly with beer distributors in some of the larger controlled states. They have wine and spirits brokers, but they're not with the main larger organization. That's for a combination, right? In some states, they tried to get into the larger distributors and were turned down in the beginning. In some cases, they didn't have the connections to get in.

00:10:11:07 - 00:10:29:20
Lauren or Laura
So it was kind of a mix. You know, they have our in D.C. and a few markets and then they have breakthrough in a couple of states. But then other than that, it's primarily beer wholesalers and it's a mix of AB and MillerCoors. So it's not just one across the board and then some wine and smaller craft distributors in a couple of states too.

00:10:29:20 - 00:10:58:01
Lauren or Laura
But the distributors are really got behind the brand and actually got out there and built the brand, you know, from the beginning right now, which is nice to see that the top market like Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, Colorado. So it's it's nice because it's not the you know, everybody looks to the top five liquor states and is really being built from the inside and spreading out over the country.

00:10:58:07 - 00:11:04:07
Jessie
That is really cool. I've never, never, never heard of that before. But that's what makes us so unique.

00:11:04:09 - 00:11:19:13
Lauren or Laura
Yeah. Yeah. The events are a lot of fun. We've been doing a lot of like tasting events and different states. We did one in New Jersey and I had to like, send them. I was like, You guys have to read this recap because from the agency and it's fun because it's like we see it obviously a lot because we're the ones talking to people.

00:11:19:15 - 00:11:41:20
Lauren or Laura
But it's always like validating to see the perspective in someone else's opinion and then sharing that out with the distributors as well. I think there is. I mean, the broker that went on on Thursday, every single account took it in on premise. And like I said, it was from like mixology into accounts that are going to put it in a spicy margarita, you know, to dive bars and, you know, the outskirts of the area.

00:11:41:20 - 00:12:04:16
Lauren or Laura
So it's just like it's all over the place and it's that every trade show we've done has been interesting, regardless of the age, it's something that people are like, I don't know. And then they're coming back and they're coming back and they're coming back to the table and they're like, this is my favorite. We did a festival. The owner, actually, John, was down in Atlanta over the weekend and texted Laura and I, and they ran through pretty much all of the product in the first 4 hours of a six hour event.

00:12:04:18 - 00:12:27:01
Lauren or Laura
And we're one of the most popular tables, and that's been pretty consistent everywhere we've gone, which is nice to see. People are really excited. I think it's also like something new and it's different and there hasn't yeah, there hasn't been a lot of new products out there that have been different, right? There's a lot of flavored vodkas out there, but there's not something that is this taste profile, which is that.

00:12:27:03 - 00:12:52:21
Jessie
Yeah, my home state of Iowa. I went back home this fall sometimes and I couldn't believe it. I'm from Fredericksburg, Iowa, a town of I think it's nine 905 people or something these days. And we have two bars and one's a restaurant bar. One's just a bar. And we're at the bar, my brother and his fiancee. And, you know, obviously we're from a small town, so we know a lot of people that are in the bar.

00:12:52:21 - 00:13:10:06
Jessie
But here we are on the back bar of this bar is is is tops pickle juice. And I'm like, you got to be kidding me. It's here. And so, of course, we had to have a shot and I have a picture of it. I forgot the sacrifices in it, too. Is it just blew my mind.

00:13:10:08 - 00:13:11:12
Laura
Yeah.

00:13:11:14 - 00:13:25:07
Lauren or Laura
Yeah, I know. They've done a really good job in Iowa. I was just excited. It just outpaced what Brand won in Iowa. Not yet. It's. It's on track. I won't say now, but it's on track to quickly be the fastest growing flavored vodka in Iowa.

00:13:25:12 - 00:13:27:05
Laura
Nice.

00:13:27:07 - 00:13:30:03
Jessie
That's awesome. That's a vodka state, I think, too.

00:13:30:07 - 00:13:31:02
Lauren or Laura
Yeah.

00:13:31:04 - 00:13:34:07
Jessie
Wow. That's impressive.

00:13:34:09 - 00:13:34:14
Laura
Well, the.

00:13:34:14 - 00:13:59:12
Lauren or Laura
Products made there, too. So there's definitely like a little bit of a following there. But it's it's it's the fastest growing brand in the state, right now. I think the original 750 is growing like 499% through January on a rolling 12. So, I mean, definitely it's on fire, which is good to see. They're launching getting ready to launch the 1375 next week.

00:13:59:14 - 00:14:08:14
Lauren or Laura
And then we have some great innovation for next year. This one. But yeah, good stuff. We're excited to be here I out so.

00:14:08:16 - 00:14:31:05
Jessie
So just a quick question about back to distribution. Do you think that the fact that it was distributed in a slightly different, you know, I guess nontraditional channel, meaning not a spirit house, US wine and spirit distributor house. Do you think that this brand is fit with other, you know, distributors and mindsets and and the way they go to approach accounts?

00:14:31:05 - 00:14:33:06
Jessie
Yeah, that kind of helped really.

00:14:33:09 - 00:14:51:03
Lauren or Laura
I think it's a lot of where the credit is due. And that started I think it was the right network to get the brand up and going. I think a lot of the beer consumption is very similar, right? So if they're calling on a cow better shot in beer places, it's perfect for that. Just from the way that the brand thinks.

00:14:51:03 - 00:15:20:11
Lauren or Laura
And yeah, I think not to mention this on another conversation we had. Not every brand can do something like that. Like, you know, you may, you know high end scotch might not go to maybe down the road. The beer companies are changing a lot. But this brand, you know was right profile for a lot of the states and the beer distributors And you know it's just a lot of this I think is ripe for it to come back to that neighborhood, feel this brand like neighborhood bar, feel.

00:15:20:13 - 00:15:50:14
Lauren or Laura
I mean, speaking of resurgence, again, there was some articles I read recently. You know, it's just people with the economy and everything, they're looking for more. They're outside. They're we had this conversation not too long ago, just you were we were talking about people going back to their neighborhood bars, back to that easy feel. But beer and a shot, things like that, that there's a big I think focus that simplicity city everything's accomplished here now right.

00:15:50:15 - 00:15:52:05
Laura
Yeah.

00:15:52:07 - 00:15:58:05
Jessie
Is are the bartenders embracing it as well like as a as a piggyback What.

00:15:58:05 - 00:16:16:03
Lauren or Laura
Kind. Well that's been like a new thing. So that's been like fairly new, I would say It kind of started out in the dive bars and it was more of a shot Bloody Marys obviously from a branch perspective. But what we're starting to see is that they're utilizing it more like a modifier, so they're utilizing it as a people brand, basically, right?

00:16:16:03 - 00:16:36:07
Lauren or Laura
So in the craft cocktails is because it's inconsistent. And I, you know, one of the sales reps, actually the distributor brought this up to, you know, pickled pickle juice is inconsistent and also it goes bad and has to be refrigerated and so that's one of the things where this gives them a simple, consistent recipe that has a two year shelf life.

00:16:36:07 - 00:16:56:20
Lauren or Laura
They don't have to worry about where they can use it instead of pickle brine and not have to worry about from a food perspective. It I mean, I don't know if you've ever had pickle Brian that's gone bad, but it does not taste good. So that's one of the biggest things they were telling. One of the bartenders actually in Maryland was saying like we've made cocktails, not really realizing it's gone bad and it's just inconsistent.

00:16:56:20 - 00:17:02:23
Lauren or Laura
So I think it can offer consistency as a modifier that, you know, other things.

00:17:02:23 - 00:17:04:20
Laura
Yeah, but that's really.

00:17:04:22 - 00:17:22:01
Lauren or Laura
That's fairly new. I say that's like a new segment that we're starting to see now. But being pickles, as we talked about before, like as a food, are having a moment. So it's kind of a combination. They're all looking at stuff like that and I wasn't sure in the beginning, like Laura and I talked a lot about it and we didn't know.

00:17:22:01 - 00:17:42:04
Lauren or Laura
So it was that's why, you know, we're like, we'll talk to the distributors ourselves. We're going to go out and manager work. That's why we're going to Kansas in Missouri this week to see exactly what is happening in some of these states, because John is the only brand that we managed sales for. We we have we do a lot of consulting work, which we could get into where you can talk about braising.

00:17:42:06 - 00:17:43:01
Laura
But yes.

00:17:43:05 - 00:17:44:10
Lauren or Laura
We managed.

00:17:44:12 - 00:17:45:20
Laura
So well.

00:17:45:20 - 00:17:58:05
Jessie
Do you want to, Lauren, just talk briefly since we've spoken about John and his brand, do you want to just talk about how you met met him and how you he kind of rolled into what you guys were are building?

00:17:58:07 - 00:18:21:16
Lauren or Laura
Yeah. So I actually so I'm from Maryland originally. I live in South Florida now. So actually I just moved back in July to be closer to LA. So we started raisin back in technically May of 2023. So we're coming up on a year. We met at another company prior to this. Laura was the director of Operations that I was running national accounting controls.

00:18:21:19 - 00:18:40:05
Lauren or Laura
So that's how we met. John. I spoke with it's probably been about five years ago now. So it was like at the very beginning. And he one of the sales rep from the distributor that I knew I needed to talk to him and gave him my cell phone number and he called and he was asking me for advice.

00:18:40:07 - 00:18:44:04
Lauren or Laura
I think it was about Pennsylvania, which is complicated. And so it's got.

00:18:44:06 - 00:18:46:14
Jessie
So I've heard the stories that.

00:18:46:16 - 00:18:48:15
Laura
And that. Yeah.

00:18:48:17 - 00:19:15:16
Lauren or Laura
I was like, so I don't remember exactly the context of the conversation, but that's how we first met. And yeah, and then we started, I think I remember saying, Don't go to Pennsylvania yet, you should wait. And you know, here we are today. But when we started the brand are the brazen up in May we had a connected back then on LinkedIn and we I think we were friends maybe on social media and he had reached out to me on LinkedIn and they were making some changes in the brand.

00:19:15:16 - 00:19:33:21
Lauren or Laura
Obviously with that kind of a breaking point in terms of the growth. And he was looking for some help and that ironically, I was moving in July. He's also down here in Deerfield Beach, Florence. RC in Boynton. So I had a I told her I was like, I'm going to talk to him and have a call. And then she was like, I'm not telling people back.

00:19:33:21 - 00:19:36:15
Laura
I because that's what he said. And like one of the things.

00:19:36:15 - 00:19:39:18
Lauren or Laura
But now it's like, my God, So it's so.

00:19:39:18 - 00:19:43:12
Laura
Fun. Yeah, that was like one of those things where I was like, I.

00:19:43:12 - 00:19:58:06
Lauren or Laura
Want to see where he's at and like, what's happening now, you know? And I always take people's call. I feel like at least listen to what they have to say. So he kind of told me where he got, and I was like, do validated data that says this. But he was like, We are VIP. And I'm like, That will do the trick.

00:19:58:06 - 00:20:17:14
Lauren or Laura
So I like order when we need it for VIP. And he sent us a numbers and I sent it to Laura and I remember calling her and I'm like, This doesn't need him. So we went to lunch and we like went through this story and, you know, he's not they're not from the spirits business. Maybe he's bartended and things like that, but they don't know the distribution, the sales side of the business.

00:20:17:14 - 00:20:38:07
Lauren or Laura
But they have a great story, but they definitely needed help. And John's a good guy. So the three of us got together and then we started working on the brand. Like towards the end of the summer. One of the big things we did first is we moved to Park Street. You know, he was just out the vendor. He was previously and it's no knock on them or anything.

00:20:38:07 - 00:21:08:00
Lauren or Laura
They just were not equipped to handle this volume. The volume she were familiar with Park, she obviously in their Miami and they've been great partners and we've done a lot of acquisition work in our life in our previous lives, and it went seamlessly and Park Street is then phenomenal. So that's one of the probably the main things we get called about is help from a compliance and logistics standpoint with I wasn't expecting as much.

00:21:08:00 - 00:21:29:19
Lauren or Laura
I mean, obviously we get calls with like the specialty channels, like Laura mentioned earlier with like military cruise lines, controlled states. But we got a decent amount of calls for just compliance work. Yeah. So, I mean, I guess that's a good question because we get that ask a lot. Like what do we do? Because we don't really advertise and we don't at most of the work that we do.

00:21:29:19 - 00:22:05:08
Lauren or Laura
I would say 90% of the work we do is only by referral, like if you know somebody. So you prison. What we do is we are a full service consulting and managerial and some aspects we don't, we do not manage sales for every brand because that's not something that we get into. Sometimes we do, which I'm an exception, but we do a lot of consulting work because we were working on imports previously, consulting to bring, you know, they don't know how to navigate a lot of grand.

00:22:05:08 - 00:22:24:03
Lauren or Laura
You want to move to the US market, you don't know how to navigate the US market. Yeah, so they don't even understand. It's like you don't understand. You know, we had a brand, we were talking with Alison, I went to the country and you know, they literally the name of the brand were like, You can't even bring up that brand in this country, like with that name.

00:22:24:05 - 00:22:49:11
Lauren or Laura
And they like the cultural difference. They couldn't even wrap their head around why? And we're like, No, no. Yeah. It's like from the TCB to the three tiered system to just the way the political climate is in the U.S. It's just a whole different animal from other countries, you know? So we get a lot of calls. People like a lot of gins trying to get into the U.S. that need formula approvals and stuff like that.

00:22:49:12 - 00:23:13:21
Lauren or Laura
And it's been it's been interesting because it's definitely not quite what I expected in terms of that. But I think the fun part then we worked off of, like Lauren said, all referrals, but it's been people we've worked with in our previous life, so it's been fun to work with them in different roles, whether they're working on a new brand that, you know, they have some type of partnership with that they're bringing us into, or it's their own brand in some cases, and they're doing their own thing.

00:23:13:21 - 00:23:22:15
Lauren or Laura
So that part's been a lot of fun to the people we maybe haven't worked with in ten, 15 years that are kind of resurfacing in different ways. Yeah, it is fun.

00:23:22:16 - 00:23:25:08
Laura
I think. Yeah.

00:23:25:09 - 00:23:27:18
Lauren or Laura
Yeah. Ten years at least. Now, I.

00:23:27:18 - 00:23:54:01
Jessie
Was thinking about that this morning, you know, because we probably should kind of talk about how we connected. And I, and I was thinking, my gosh, it's like almost nine or ten years now that we've known each other and we kind of connected, I guess last March, maybe. But Laura and I met in the military channel. She was representing Petron until the buyout happened.

00:23:54:03 - 00:24:06:06
Jessie
But, you know, we kept in touch and whatnot. And then I guess he saw the podcast and you were like, my cheerleader was so awesome. And then we connected on that and I just said, Thank you so much for all your.

00:24:06:06 - 00:24:07:20
Laura
Support this year.

00:24:07:22 - 00:24:20:20
Lauren or Laura
But I remember having a conversation with you. I don't know where we were. We messaged in in Maryland somewhere. I still picture still pops up. Sometimes we're out in Virginia or somewhere. We were on the water. I don't remember where it was.

00:24:20:22 - 00:24:28:17
Jessie
was that little restaurant, that seafood restaurant? We sat outside, the one on the island outside of Norfolk? Yeah.

00:24:28:19 - 00:24:47:02
Lauren or Laura
Yeah, It was nothing. And you're telling me of all the things you wanted to do one day and you still with the, you know, the broker out there at the time, and I think that you might have mentioned this. And so when I saw you actually do it after, you know, I. When did you started in quarantine or.

00:24:47:04 - 00:24:50:02
Jessie
I started the first week of January of last year.

00:24:50:04 - 00:25:10:00
Lauren or Laura
Okay. So, you know, to see they move forward to do all that exciting day for you. And, you know, obviously, Lauren and I, being female owned company and being in this industry for 30 years, Lauren almost, you know, that's and she's younger than me.

00:25:10:02 - 00:25:11:12
Laura
And you know, it's it's.

00:25:11:12 - 00:25:20:05
Lauren or Laura
So it's so important to see very, very important. So, yeah, we are your children. We're happy for you.

00:25:20:07 - 00:25:21:03
Laura
Yeah.

00:25:21:05 - 00:25:38:11
Lauren or Laura
Well, I think sharing like, the stories of the people you interview and stuff too, like for other people to hear in the industry is cool because I think, you know, Laura and I talk about this all the time. Like people look at brands like Pedro Tito's Fireball, like overnight success. But a lot of these brands have been out for 20, 30 more years.

00:25:38:13 - 00:25:55:07
Lauren or Laura
But from a consumer perspective, it looks like, you know, it's new and even from a brand perspective, we get a lot of like little startup brands that call us, too. And they're like, our goal is to be at 50,000 cases in five years, but there's no like plan to get there. And they want to sell the brand or whatever the case may be.

00:25:55:09 - 00:26:20:02
Lauren or Laura
And, you know, I have to constantly be like, just so we're all on the same page, like, you know, it's like 25 years old, you know, like, this is how long it took. But I think a lot of people don't realize that. So it's cool when you're telling when you're interviewing people with the different stories that people get to hear, like really how these people started or the brand started or, you know, mixologists or whatever it is they get to like the route of how they got to where they are, because it's definitely not.

00:26:20:04 - 00:26:37:20
Lauren or Laura
It's rare that you see something that's truly like an overnight. I work for Southern. I was a sales rep and I would definitely age myself at this point. But Tito's came to the U.S. and still a silently tiny little batches like almost out the back of his car. And like we were like.

00:26:38:00 - 00:26:41:17
Laura
Wow, probably.

00:26:41:17 - 00:27:06:11
Lauren or Laura
Like the late months, you know. So that's and now look at it. The same thing with the channel. When I started the channel was maybe ten sales people in the whole country. And, you know, and for a long time it was only kind of us. And you know, then they started adding people. But to watch the brand, like I started when it was like 50,000 cases and watched it go to 300.

00:27:06:12 - 00:27:26:01
Lauren or Laura
That is crazy. Crazy. So, yeah, grand act, you know, people thought it was an overnight success. I mean, I don't want to I might be wrong on my date night after the fact I'm pretty sold John Paul's got involved in 1986 on it so it was a long time making.

00:27:26:03 - 00:27:40:21
Jessie
When you think about to like the celebrity endorsements, I think it started in maybe mid to early nineties with Hennessy, but then I feel like Patron was really the next one and I could be remembering this completely wrong, but I just remember it being.

00:27:41:02 - 00:27:43:02
Laura
Usher is a.

00:27:43:04 - 00:28:05:14
Lauren or Laura
Daughter of the other name because of the Super Bowl. So they were asking me about that and I was on stories of I met Oscar in Atlanta, I was in Charter, Georgia, but we had a philosophy in the beginning, and this is 100% true. They did not go out and try to find celebrity endorsements. John Paul was friends with a lot of people.

00:28:05:15 - 00:28:25:22
Lauren or Laura
Obviously, Dan Aykroyd, people like got Clint Eastwood movie. So there was a lot of people he was involved with. It already had a very successful company. And down here in the beginning, you know, it wasn't like the brand was making tons and tons and they were just dumping money and trying to find endorsements. They get it happened organically.

00:28:25:22 - 00:28:52:03
Lauren or Laura
People start writing about it. It sounds. Then it crossed over to country Western. And that's the same thing with like top. That's the way I get that feeling. It's so much fun because like even when we see something, they happen that we would see, they would stand out. I remember having like couple of weeks they would send out a list of all the new songs that it was in, or that when it crossed over from rap to country Western, somebody wrote it and you were just like, this is happening.

00:28:52:03 - 00:29:14:13
Lauren or Laura
Like this is happening. It's crazy. I mean, and it was organic. I mean, it was it we may now it's like a little fourth day in Miami. We would drop little John was huge for John drinker until he got involved with getting paid for each like I could get paid for this. But it's it's consciousness that tells me.

00:29:14:13 - 00:29:30:09
Lauren or Laura
And so it was all organic in the beginning, very, very organic. I can't speak to what happened, but, you know, I don't I don't want to get into that part. They may have gotten more involved in sponsorships after a while, but in the beginning it was organic.

00:29:30:11 - 00:29:30:23
Jessie
That's really.

00:29:30:23 - 00:29:53:06
Lauren or Laura
Cool. Okay. I think the environment is a little different now, too. Like, I think that things that you, you know, the big companies have paid for a lot of things over the last couple of years, and I think that's made it a little different. It's harder for the little guys where back in the day it was a little bit easier to get like organic partnerships without having to pay tens of millions of dollars.

00:29:53:06 - 00:30:13:09
Lauren or Laura
And now and now you're seeing the celebrity brands even more, more where they're not like paid, let's say, sponsors. It's more they have equity in the brands and they're becoming part of it. And now a lot of them, that's the angle. And it doesn't work for them, but it doesn't work for everything. And obviously you've seen that explode tequila more so than any of the other categories.

00:30:13:10 - 00:30:33:08
Lauren or Laura
Probably going back to the LA thing, like for example, really the one that started it. But it's a little bit of a different, you know, philosophy nowadays. I know for me to walk into a restaurant and right now I get overwhelmed by like the year when it started, there was no cute stuff.

00:30:33:10 - 00:31:07:21
Jessie
You know, I had a thought. Have you ever seen Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation? Yes, with Bill Murray. And how in Japanese culture it was cool to have celebrities do a commercial. And in the U.S. it was like, you don't do commercials, You don't do that. Yeah, right. And so just I mean, maybe they had something to do with each other and they grew kind of towards that because, I mean, now the latest T-Mobile commercial I've seen, there's like six of them in there.

00:31:07:23 - 00:31:09:04
Laura
Yeah, not just.

00:31:09:04 - 00:31:09:10
Jessie
One.

00:31:09:10 - 00:31:12:07
Lauren or Laura
Six or the Dunkin Donuts commercial.

00:31:12:09 - 00:31:14:14
Jessie
You know, it's just we flipped.

00:31:14:16 - 00:31:15:08
Laura
So.

00:31:15:10 - 00:31:40:06
Lauren or Laura
Yeah, I mean, I think it's you know, obviously technology's changed. Things have changed. Their access to information is changed. Yeah, I'm not sure. Like, look, I'm not no one knows, right? They would everything happened the same way. Have there been huge like social media back then and had there been that that all these different platforms for information? I don't know.

00:31:40:08 - 00:32:02:05
Lauren or Laura
It might have. It might not have. I just knew that in that particular moment in time, everything was right. And, you know, they obviously they're those guys involved who I respect that were very they knew what to do and they were good at hiring people. That was another thing, the chance, very good hiring people. So they hired the right people.

00:32:02:05 - 00:32:36:06
Lauren or Laura
That could do a lot of different things. When you're running that league, you have to be able to do everything and learn. And I encountered this a lot of brands that college like, you know, you can't just be a brand owner. You have to know every aspect in a John does. They will say that he if he does it he tries to learn because it it's it's really hard and I've owned businesses outside of this industry and you really have to know every part of it because if you don't you know there's going to be things that fall through the cracks or that get missed and you have to be able to step in and

00:32:36:07 - 00:32:54:11
Lauren or Laura
jump in. And they were good at hiring people that could navigate different, you know, from Operation marketing to sales to jump on everything. And Lauren as well and our like in our we've been very cross-trained in a lot of aspects which is helped us tremendously.

00:32:54:11 - 00:32:55:17
Jessie
Yeah that's amazing.

00:32:55:19 - 00:33:21:12
Lauren or Laura
Yeah, we talk about that a lot. I think that's one of the things, one that makes us a little bit different, but I like that's a piece of advice I give to everyone. It's like if you have an opportunity to work in a different channel, go do it. Because it might seem like a lateral move on a paper, like if you're a regional manager, let's say an open space and you're going to move and be a regional manager and control consolidate, get over the final piece of it and go do it for the experience.

00:33:21:12 - 00:33:40:00
Lauren or Laura
Because most people get pigeonholed into a spot like if you're in Florida, you, you know, you might have a region of four or five states, but you're still being tied to Florida, right? Specifically or if you're in control states, you get tied to that. I as the military is similar to that where and a lot of the basics of the business are the same.

00:33:40:00 - 00:33:58:20
Lauren or Laura
I always say to people, I started it open stage before I clearly lost my mind and wanted to go in control states. But there's a lot of things I do different now, managing open state that I wouldn't have done had I not learned control. These chains are very similar to the way control states work, so I think there's a lot of crossover.

00:33:58:22 - 00:34:20:16
Lauren or Laura
But in the industry people have always like, you know, specialized in one thing right out in the mid-Atlantic or in the Northeast or national accounts. But it's rare that you see people cross over. And I think it's important. It's also important to the business because you need to understand how the like if you're running national accounts, but you've never managed an open state distributor, that is a problem, right?

00:34:20:16 - 00:34:37:17
Lauren or Laura
Because you don't understand the lead time to like how the product is getting to the distributor and how does a single barrel get from there to there. Like there's just a lot of logistics that even if you're the salesperson of the channel, if you had worked in other elements, you'd understand the process a little bit different rather than just this one piece.

00:34:37:21 - 00:34:57:13
Lauren or Laura
I think it's it's really important because there's a lot that goes into all these channels, but they work together and that's one of the things we say to people all the time. Like people call us and say we want help in military or cruise lines, one or national accounts. And we're like, we don't take on business for one channel because it collectively has to work together.

00:34:57:13 - 00:35:22:05
Lauren or Laura
Well, we will can solve for you. We don't get, you know, actively involved because they just six months. I mean, when I was at the churn and the CEO at the time, you know, looking back now, I probably give enough credit for time. But, you know, he he forced me. He didn't force me, but he pushed me into, you know, I was doing Florida, Georgia, Indiana.

00:35:22:05 - 00:35:41:00
Lauren or Laura
I know that's random, but where we kind of tackled and he was like, I need to go up in the Caribbean. I need you to work on the Caribbean. I need you to cruise lines. And here 20 years later, you know, I always had one foot in international, one foot in domestic. So I got to see all of it.

00:35:41:02 - 00:36:15:18
Lauren or Laura
And it was I can't thank them enough for that because that really enabled me to navigate, especially this is where you saw it happen a lot, too. It was hard with during the layoffs and quarantining because he had worked out once area for so long and never went out and then quarantining, furloughed too many people or they downsized and then they were having trouble applying for positions in other channels because they didn't have any experience in that channel were for myself.

00:36:15:18 - 00:36:53:17
Lauren or Laura
Fortunately, I had had always a foot in domestic, a foot in international operations. To some extent I could just maneuver. So I discovered Vice cross-training got across. And I think nowadays too, the big companies are like, you know, with all the mergers and acquisitions, it's like limiting, right? So if you're working for start ups and you don't have that reach of different roles and something happens, you know, a brand gets bought by print or card or whatever the case may be, it's hard to move because it's, you know, one person in a region and then it's ten people basically fighting for the same job.

00:36:53:19 - 00:37:15:07
Jessie
In my experience. And, you know, I haven't worked for as big a companies as you have. And, you know, maybe that's the key, but I haven't seen people be able to cross over and do all these different types of jobs. Now, if there is a start up like a Patreon, but you get pigeonholed no matter what. Like I spent two, I spent eight or nine years in the military.

00:37:15:07 - 00:37:38:02
Jessie
Well, no one will hire me outside of the gate because all my relationships don't matter to them, right? It's all about relationships now. And it's to me that's a really I wouldn't say it's sad, but it's just kind of like I think they're missing out on really good talent just because it's whatever whatever account management job you're doing.

00:37:38:02 - 00:37:47:05
Jessie
It's so account management. It's different people, it's different channels. You know, it's there's different rules, there's different this, that and the other. But it's still account management.

00:37:47:07 - 00:38:10:13
Lauren or Laura
Right? Someone like yourself to learn other aspects. I mean, I've seen you manage. You know what you do and you should be able to. But getting that opportunity is it's tough nowadays to me. It's not as much about like if I'm looking to hire someone, it's not really as much about the current relationship. I have a different perspective.

00:38:10:13 - 00:38:11:10
Lauren or Laura
I've tried it.

00:38:11:10 - 00:38:12:15
Laura
All.

00:38:12:17 - 00:38:32:15
Lauren or Laura
Right. I've hired people with years of experience and I thought that that would be better, especially in specific channels. I've tried it where I've hired people with no experience and honestly, like somewhere in the middle is the best. I've always done better with people that it's the person, right? They have the work ethic. They want to learn more.

00:38:32:15 - 00:38:55:12
Lauren or Laura
I like an employee that doesn't want to just is it's the vice with doing their job like they want to learn other things well, willing to roll up their sleeves and get into other projects. But to me, it's not really about the relationships. But here's the thing that buyer can change tomorrow and it doesn't it it doesn't matter if it's the ability to build the relation step that is important and doing the same things consistently.

00:38:55:12 - 00:39:18:14
Lauren or Laura
And that doesn't really I mean, it's risky, right? I think it depends on the size of your company, how much money you have to pay in a salary, and then what is the goal, right? If you're looking to just drop quick volume, Yeah, you need the relationship that are going to need to go in there and get whatever done for Lara and I, we're looking to like actually build the brand long term and it's not like we're not dropping 500 cases and walking away from it.

00:39:18:14 - 00:39:34:09
Lauren or Laura
Frankly, I don't want to chase those 500 cases next year. So I like to put it where we're going to get the 500 cases and then it's going to organically grow and not just drop the cases. But I think it's hard to find people, you know, who keep some people interview well, but then they don't want to put in the work.

00:39:34:09 - 00:39:51:16
Lauren or Laura
So it's really more about the work ethic and finding the right person that's willing to roll up their sleeves honestly, because since COVID, a lot of people also don't want to leave their house. So that's but another job. Yeah, it's it's different nowadays for sure with that things that teens

00:39:51:18 - 00:39:54:06
Jessie
Yeah people want to work from home.

00:39:54:08 - 00:40:13:20
Lauren or Laura
for sure. Yeah and we're in sales, right? There's nothing that's going to replace walking and a bar or a liquor store with a sample bottle and talking to the buyer. And there will never be a day that I don't like to sell. I don't care what level you're in, you have to get out of the market because you have to hear it straight from the distributors are going to tell you their perception.

00:40:13:20 - 00:40:31:07
Lauren or Laura
So let me preface like they're not lying, but their perception of why the brand is selling or why people are picking it up and you know, whatever that looks like. It's also different from a brand perspective. If I'm talking to the liquor store owner, then the sales rep that they see every single week, you know, trying to tell them hundreds of items.

00:40:31:09 - 00:41:06:10
Lauren or Laura
It's always interesting to me just to listen to what they say. And look, some of it's, it's not what you want to hear, especially when we were selling brands that aren't growing at 300% and they don't want to bring them in. It's a very different conversation than what we're seeing now. Right now, for sure. I agree. I think one thing that people key piece of advice that I would give anyone that that a company, large or small since the crossover is is you don't get that ability that you like which was very entrepreneurial so they were like the you know they had no with everybody we were about blocking and tackling.

00:41:06:10 - 00:41:38:22
Lauren or Laura
The times were different than, you know, Lauren and I worked most recently for a Division Sazerac that was very similar. There was it was brand lean. We blocked and tackled. Everybody helped out. Lauren and I that's you know, obviously we work together a lot. This is why this relationship stemmed from. But one thing I started doing there and it was mostly because I was being asked by women, a lot of women were was to take like, could you can I have an hour every other week just to talk to you, to ask you questions.

00:41:39:00 - 00:42:00:00
Lauren or Laura
So, you know, sometimes you would have prepared questions and we would run through and sometimes it was about channel specific that sometimes it was about, you know, how to navigate in your heart as a woman or what should I do? I have kids and trying to figure all this out. Where should I go from here? So I think that applies to men and women right?

00:42:00:00 - 00:42:19:05
Lauren or Laura
So if you if you can get an hour with somebody at a higher level or and most people want to do it right, they they're willing to give you that hour, you know, talk to them column up, ask them about other channels that that you don't know about, at least at the start. I like at least it'll start giving you an idea of how things work.

00:42:19:05 - 00:42:41:17
Lauren or Laura
You know. And again, Lauren pointed that out with Jon earlier. She's very I don't want you to get flooded with calls and stuff now, but she's really great about that with people and they circle back a lot. So I try to give people that. I think everybody started somewhere, right? There was a day when I didn't know how to do a price structure and someone sat down in a room with me and taught me how to do it.

00:42:41:17 - 00:43:03:18
Lauren or Laura
And I think that that's important. Like, I started my career in the testing agency side and I had notes. I mean, I sold other things, right? But I didn't sell liquor and someone gave me a chance. And I think it's important to do the same thing back. But I think the work ethic, the big thing is like finding the right people that are actually willing to put in the work, which is easier said than done.

00:43:03:20 - 00:43:27:06
Jessie
So before we kind of jump into each of your journeys, I know you've both mentioned some previous jobs that you've had and and different channels and whatnot, So, you know, I'll let it I'll let you kind of dictate the flow there. But one question before we do is can you talk a little bit about how you formed your company and why you named it what you did?

00:43:27:07 - 00:43:28:18
Laura
All right.

00:43:28:19 - 00:43:50:20
Lauren or Laura
And like, where do we go or mean it starts Well, I'll say that probably about a year and a half ago, like a year and a half ago. Lauren watches me with this. Think about going on your own. And I'm like, I have you know, and I have done I had a consulting company and I did consulting work on Insider and Pointy.

00:43:50:22 - 00:44:15:08
Lauren or Laura
But, you know, for me and, you know, just I'm a single parent. My husband died 12 years ago this summer, you know, met him at Southern. It's a whole nother story. I had to be very aware the last few years of like, you know, my travel and and being present for my kids and things like that. And, you know, there are age now where it works a little bit better.

00:44:15:08 - 00:44:31:22
Lauren or Laura
But it started on company time. It's hard. You know, we're very fortunate that we had a lot of people poking us constantly like in our last position, like when you guys can go out on your own, when you guys can go out on your own. So, you know, she caught me on a good day and we're like, All right.

00:44:31:22 - 00:44:34:06
Lauren or Laura
I'm like, Just do it. I had a bad.

00:44:34:06 - 00:44:39:23
Laura
Day and I caught her on the way for.

00:44:40:01 - 00:45:09:00
Lauren or Laura
That. We we decided to just we started probably December of 2022 that, okay, we're going to do it. We kicked around several names before we came up with reason, but it just kind of fits, right? Like, you know, we're looking for brands that are disrupting brazen brands, you know, brands that are or want to, you know, disrupt a category or maybe look at things a little differently.

00:45:09:00 - 00:45:30:17
Lauren or Laura
But also, you know, as a woman in the industry, a lot of times at all times or or, you know, be different, you know, I think it's a lot better in this industry and easy, obviously, you know, it's been a long and this is not something that women that isn't talked about in and she were very small comparatively.

00:45:30:17 - 00:46:01:07
Lauren or Laura
You know our percentage that we make up, you know, we were like, you know, we could either do what everybody says or we could just be brazen and that's who we are. And like, we are very honest that people are very we don't there's no reason to not tell the truth to. I mean, if they don't want to hear it, there's a lot of work that we can do to turn out a lot of work because if we don't feel like we can help them or we're not on the same page, or as Lauren uses that phrase a lot, then it's it's not going to work for anybody.

00:46:01:07 - 00:46:09:20
Lauren or Laura
So it's kind of the short version of of where reason and being bold and just jumping off a cliff seem fun.

00:46:09:22 - 00:46:14:07
Jessie
Nice. That's great. I love it. It matches you, too. Yeah.

00:46:14:12 - 00:46:34:12
Lauren or Laura
I think the only thing I would say, yeah, I mean, the definition is bold and without saying so, when we were like looking for, you know, different names, like we came across that and we were like, like, that's the one. But, you know, like, I know that I personally rub people the wrong way sometimes. I frankly don't care, because what we said and what we share is, is what did you get right?

00:46:34:12 - 00:46:52:19
Lauren or Laura
Like you might not want to hear it, but it's the reality, right? I'd rather tell someone that that's not going to work for your brand in this particular channel. This is why and this is what we can do instead. But you know where we refuse to take money for people just to take it. So I think for us, that's the most important, right?

00:46:52:19 - 00:47:11:20
Lauren or Laura
Like, not everybody always likes the approach. However, we'd rather be honest and transparent with someone with what we feel the opportunities are like. We don't know everything, but at the end of the day, it's one of those like, if your goal is to sell 50,000 cases in the next three years with no money versus if you're saying we want to grow it at this rate, we just all have to be aligned.

00:47:11:20 - 00:47:30:06
Lauren or Laura
And then if we decide we are on the same page, it's different. But I think from a brand perspective as well, we're looking for brand. Look, we don't want to sell another plain vodka that we're trying to compete, that it's hard to build those brands in that channel. It's not to say that it can't be done, but there has to be something unique and different now to stand out in the categories.

00:47:30:09 - 00:47:52:17
Lauren or Laura
We talked about going into liquor for the deal that's blown up. The I mean, you could barely get anything in a vodka set at this point. So it really has to be something that's unique and bold itself from a brand perspective to kind of fit in to what we're doing. We like disruptive people as well as brands that are willing to push the envelope and maybe do things a nontraditional way, because I think that's the other thing, right?

00:47:52:17 - 00:48:09:22
Lauren or Laura
The industry has been the same for so long and people are doing things the same way. And I think that that's what's kind of made a lot of the brands stagnant, is they're just not willing to try new things and it might not work right, but it might. So we like to try to try things a different way and it doesn't always work out.

00:48:09:22 - 00:48:30:08
Lauren or Laura
But I think at the end of the day. Yeah. And that's why. Yeah, yeah. And know he that's the good part is that we, we can have a conversation, an honest conversation and you know, we're not going to dance on tables for and you know, we want to be right in. So, you know, we have very honest conversations.

00:48:30:08 - 00:48:43:16
Lauren or Laura
We have a lot of fun together, too. And it's it's very fun. But, you know, we're not going to tell them something that that just become something. And we don't do that to anybody. So that's kind of how we came up with the name.

00:48:43:18 - 00:49:12:12
Jessie
I love it. It matches you so perfectly because you guys are I mean, you're badass, you're so badass. And once people, you know, once we start going through your journey, you know, I thought of this question, How did we get here? You know, that's your journey. And for me, that's so important and so exciting, which is why I ask you, your mentors and these are really important key, key moments in your life that helped you get to you guys being this bad ass team.

00:49:12:12 - 00:49:17:14
Jessie
I love it so much. You guys are so awesome. Sorry, I keep saying it. I'll stop.

00:49:17:16 - 00:49:18:22
Laura
On.

00:49:19:00 - 00:49:21:15
Jessie
So awesome. But getting so excited.

00:49:21:17 - 00:49:22:02
Laura
For.

00:49:22:02 - 00:49:46:15
Lauren or Laura
You this morning. We were just shooting this shit verse and like, sometimes people think that like this, we're like everybody else. There is one where we're like, breaking down. Fortunately, like one, I never had a moment. At the same time, it's Either she's having a moment or I'm having a moment so we can balance it out. But, you know, we feel bad for anyone that catches this on the same day.

00:49:46:15 - 00:49:59:22
Lauren or Laura
But that hasn't. We're not we're not nobody's perfect, right? Like, we're all human. And I did think a little bit, you know, now that I'm approaching 52 and I look back.

00:50:00:00 - 00:50:00:16
Laura
And.

00:50:00:17 - 00:50:20:08
Lauren or Laura
Some of the things that I had to go through and some of the things I went through, and it was kind of by necessity in some ways sometimes because of what happened to me on my personal journey. And I didn't understand it at the time. But man, sometimes you have to get knocked down like you have to take you all the way down for you to build yourself back up.

00:50:20:08 - 00:50:38:03
Lauren or Laura
Or, you know, there was just this last role I took, you know, an operations outside of my wheelhouse in a lot of ways. I mean, I knew how I could do it. I knew that there was a few pieces I was going to have to wrap my head around. And I knew that I had already done things like that before.

00:50:38:04 - 00:50:58:19
Lauren or Laura
I jumped off a cliff into the unknown and I knew I was going to go do it. But I first I was like, Why? You know, I don't really it wasn't something I wanted to do. I didn't march down the children at the time, and now looking back like that had to happen because everything that Ryan and I are doing now involves all of that peace.

00:50:58:20 - 00:51:19:07
Lauren or Laura
So it is your journey. Like even if it doesn't at the time, you're not understanding why it always comes to fruition later, why you did it, or why happen. I'm a big believer in fate. We talk a lot about like everything happens for a reason and I think I truly believe that too. And I think like obviously if we didn't work there, we would not have met.

00:51:19:07 - 00:51:29:19
Lauren or Laura
And so I think we look at it from that perspective. But it's been fun. Yeah, that's for different than I think we thought originally, but definitely thought.

00:51:29:21 - 00:51:59:11
Jessie
Well, and I think what makes you two so dynamic and so strong is exactly what we just talked about. All your different experiences in the industry and how you know a lot about a lot because you have had those unique backgrounds and experiences. So you can help a lot of people navigate this industry from from all aspects. So I think that makes you, you know, really a really strong team and, and you don't cross over a lot in some cases, right?

00:51:59:11 - 00:52:18:19
Jessie
You you have some channel specific over here and channel specific over here and operations there and you know, this, this, you know, that kind of skillset. So I think you're you're really set up for some great success. And I look really look forward to watching it.

00:52:18:21 - 00:52:20:02
Lauren or Laura
I think yeah.

00:52:20:04 - 00:52:21:04
Laura
You do you.

00:52:21:05 - 00:52:30:00
Jessie
Think so Lauren You said you started out, in the, like, the tasting aspect of the business.

00:52:30:02 - 00:52:51:01
Lauren or Laura
Yeah. So I studied apparel merchandizing apparel and interior merchandizing at East Carolina. It took me a minute to get out of there. And so when I graduated, I had I worked retail and I thought I wanted to be if I had done an internship with White House Black Market, you can tell it's my favorite color. I only only ever wear black.

00:52:51:01 - 00:53:10:16
Lauren or Laura
But I worked there for a long time and I thought that's like the direction that I wanted to go. And on college I started to do like promotions on the side just for like extra money. And the agency that I worked for was actually a female owned company out of Maryland. And she, Kostic, was the owner. And I learned a lot from her actually in the very beginning.

00:53:10:16 - 00:53:32:13
Lauren or Laura
But she needed a manager. They managed Bacardi and Heineken and then they did a lot of we did like about 130 or so events a week in the state of Maryland. She didn't do. Yeah, Montgomery County in Maryland, a little bit in D.C. as well. And and now I think she does Virginia as well but we did a lot of of that so I worked for her for a long time and manage ended up managing that segment of business.

00:53:32:13 - 00:53:55:23
Lauren or Laura
So obviously through there I met a lot of people that own brands. We did products for William Grant. We did a lot of like special projects still. And then I got into a little bit the sales side and when I left there, I actually went to work for a small vodka company. Beer. Vodka, actually. Lauren sold it for a little while at Southern Great owner, a really good brand, and he's actually based out of Miami for a few years.

00:53:56:01 - 00:54:14:13
Lauren or Laura
And then I went to work for Lockjaw, which was where I ended up at the end 1375 before they had left there. So at the time left there, which was mainly Van Gogh Vodka, it was Van Gogh Imports at the time was the main brand. A lot of the management at the time, old Seagram's guys from back in the day.

00:54:14:13 - 00:54:38:12
Lauren or Laura
So R&D background, I learned a lot from all of them and it was a lot of fun. The company at the time, I think I was one of two females and there was maybe 15 employees, so it was pretty small. It obviously changed significantly over the years. I started in open dates. I lived in Maryland. I ran the mid-Atlantic for the most part for a few years because I was based in Maryland and total wine was nearby.

00:54:38:12 - 00:54:55:21
Lauren or Laura
From a corporate perspective, I got involved with total wine, like at a pretty early part of my career from a national account perspective, just more so because I lived there and they were like, You can have total wine courses right here. And that in turn, the same way I ended up with Pennsylvania and Virginia, because they're like, You can drive there.

00:54:55:23 - 00:54:56:20
Laura
And Pennsylvania was.

00:54:56:20 - 00:55:22:09
Lauren or Laura
My first kind of jumping into the control states which were not recommended out to someone as that being the first opportunity, but they're the hardest for sure. So it was good from an experience standpoint. Then I left actually for a little while. I went to work for some guys that had come from Bacardi that had a start up with a few different brands, and I went there for a while and then the old CEO of 375 at the time asked me to come back.

00:55:22:09 - 00:55:40:18
Lauren or Laura
So I came back and I picked up some additional control. And then by the time I left, I was doing I was running their single barrel program with the suppliers and that I was overseeing national accounts on and off premise and then consolidated and had built a lot of team in those channels. So I've been kind of all over the place in terms of that.

00:55:40:18 - 00:55:57:03
Lauren or Laura
I personally was running on premise and off premise national accounts by myself for a little bit before we build a team out to do so. But I'm definitely one of those people that if there is something that needs to be done and there is no one volunteering, I'm like, I'll do it. And I think, you know, that's the piece, right?

00:55:57:03 - 00:56:04:21
Lauren or Laura
A lot of people don't want to take on the extra work, and I would always like kind of volunteer for it a little bit early just to learn and learn the different channels.

00:56:05:03 - 00:56:06:08
Jessie
Now that's so I always.

00:56:06:08 - 00:56:21:19
Lauren or Laura
Wanted to do stuff on my own. I also didn't want to do it by myself, and I haven't necessarily met the right person to do so. Like a few people have come to me and wanted to start brands or start this or start that. And I kept thinking in my mind like, Yeah, but I'll be doing all the work here.

00:56:21:21 - 00:56:34:17
Lauren or Laura
I know it's a lot of work, you know, so I need to find someone that is the same speed as I am, which is easier said than done, but that I met Laura already at three, seven, five, and I'm like, All right, I think. Right.

00:56:34:19 - 00:56:40:06
Jessie
Yeah. Well, you know, when you know, right? You know, and you know and Yeah.

00:56:40:08 - 00:56:41:05
Laura
Yeah.

00:56:41:07 - 00:56:52:20
Jessie
Yeah. You had a chance to work with each other, I mean, for a couple of years, right? So it wasn't like you just dove into this blindly. It was very strategic. Yeah.

00:56:52:22 - 00:57:16:02
Lauren or Laura
No. And I think, like it was then knowing that she would be able to bring as much to the table as I would, You know that that's the right. Because we you know, I can't even tell you over the years how many times they get a call that say, you know, let me pick your brain. And that that usually equates to me giving them information that they don't have.

00:57:16:02 - 00:57:35:04
Lauren or Laura
You know, and I'd say a lot of that happened and I feel like it happens to women a lot. So for me, I wanted to make sure that if I opened a company with someone or when someone that they were going to bring as much the table as I could potentially bring. And, you know, that way we could really make a difference around things.

00:57:35:06 - 00:57:57:12
Lauren or Laura
And we do. We want to help people just like that. That's our biggest. We get so many calls from brands that have gone down a rabbit hole, somebody in a wrong way. And, you know, by that time too late or or you know, you can't pull back from some of the decision making because it's hard it's hard to navigate the industry.

00:57:57:12 - 00:58:14:10
Lauren or Laura
And we just want to help, you know, we want to make sure that people are working with that we can help. And it's expensive, right? Like, you know, they're spending a lot of money in terms of just like it's expensive to do business in the U.S. in general because of the way it's set up. And we talk to people a lot about that.

00:58:14:10 - 00:58:32:11
Lauren or Laura
And like, we don't want to waste people's money, but a lot of the time, by the time they are coming to us, they've already blown through. I mean, potentially millions of dollars. And it's hard to sometimes dig out of some of the of the commitments that they've previously made through bad advice a lot of the time or they just didn't know.

00:58:32:11 - 00:58:50:03
Lauren or Laura
And I think one of the biggest things which I always say like we spend a lot of time like strategizing and the strategy changes like it's not like today we might say one thing and then the business is going to shift and the strategy has to change again. But they need to have people need to look at a little farther out and plan a little bit better.

00:58:50:03 - 00:59:03:13
Lauren or Laura
And I would say my open day brain didn't rationalize that. It was like I was living in like a 60 day window all the time. And then when you go in and change, it like pushes you out of year and you're getting farther and farther. And now we're talking about five years, ten years, you know, depending on the brand.

00:59:03:13 - 00:59:20:16
Lauren or Laura
And I think that's the biggest thing is like, don't make rash decisions. Take a step back and look at it from if I do this, that I think women brains work a little bit more like this, right where we're like and to to the detriment and to the positive that you think like, you know, okay, if I do this and these are the potential outcomes.

00:59:20:16 - 00:59:35:20
Lauren or Laura
So sometimes it's harder to make a quick decision, but I think that that's important, right, is like planning ahead for what's going to happen next, because most people are just like reaction to everything that's happening instead of actually taking a step back and planning for the future. And I think that would get a lot of people in trouble.

00:59:35:20 - 00:59:43:19
Jessie
So. So, Laura, do you want to kind of talk about your journey and how you got started in the industry?

00:59:43:21 - 00:59:47:04
Lauren or Laura
I'm like, yeah, to clarify this is to.

00:59:47:06 - 00:59:53:06
Jessie
Take a drink of water, have a little bit of your your cocktail there. Yeah.

00:59:53:08 - 00:59:55:20
Laura
Get comfortable.

00:59:55:22 - 01:00:02:08
Lauren or Laura
Bloody Mary water. I don't know what that says about me and some kind of psychological test, but.

01:00:02:10 - 01:00:04:16
Jessie
You're out Thursday, Thursdays. It's okay.

01:00:04:18 - 01:00:05:18
Laura
Yeah, that's what we.

01:00:05:18 - 01:00:08:08
Jessie
Do around here.

01:00:08:10 - 01:00:09:03
Laura
Yeah.

01:00:09:05 - 01:00:31:18
Lauren or Laura
I got so to to not to go back too far, but to go back to where it needs to go. I was working my way through college. I, you know, bartending. I work for Delta first, but that's a whole nother story. They help pay for college because I didn't you know, I'm not money for college and there are still companies that will pay for college.

01:00:31:20 - 01:00:32:05
Lauren or Laura
I work.

01:00:32:05 - 01:00:33:18
Laura
For.

01:00:33:20 - 01:00:54:11
Lauren or Laura
A part of Delta for a while, and then I was bartending my way through the rest, the college. And after I had done with college, I was still bartending. And listen, I should have the best career and I the days of bartending, I met some of the best people. I had some of the best times. I'm still friends with those people.

01:00:54:13 - 01:01:22:08
Lauren or Laura
I mean, it's an amazing experience in a hostile industry. And, you know, it's so much fun and it's it's so much craziness and it's just a great thing. And I found myself after college that I was like, I still like it. I didn't know what to do. But and it's going to sound so dated for people nowadays, but it's more about like my daughter say that I wanted a business card and I was like, I need a business card with my name on it.

01:01:22:14 - 01:01:48:09
Lauren or Laura
And I do something like that. It was either door to two directions because I had customers at the bar. Our friends, the pharmaceutical industry people in the late nineties are busy time for that. And there was a couple of Southern guys that would come in all the time. You know, that was one of their accounts or to the bar that the district manager ran and they knew I was looking for a job and they were there.

01:01:48:11 - 01:01:58:00
Lauren or Laura
You know, they were like, Why don't you just come work for us, try it out. You get it as you would probably enjoy it six months. I choose then to get this entry.

01:01:58:00 - 01:02:01:00
Laura
Level salary.

01:02:01:02 - 01:02:29:21
Lauren or Laura
Responsible, right as I'm meeting with the first year, knowing the Jagermeister rep at the time. So we had a Jagermeister machine in our house. You might if you go everywhere. She was working with this other guys, they just keep at it. Don't give up. I chased them down for six months. They finally got the sales out and of course, all the rocks jumped all their couch they didn't want and my were out before I started, so I almost quit twice when I was working for Southern, but I don't quit, so I stuck with it.

01:02:29:21 - 01:02:41:04
Lauren or Laura
And by the time I left Southern town, I had it was in South Florida. So I worked the my ad of the Miami office. I had one of the top three routes in in the.

01:02:41:05 - 01:02:41:17
Jessie
Awesome.

01:02:41:21 - 01:02:42:17
Lauren or Laura
Area.

01:02:42:19 - 01:02:44:12
Laura
Yeah, I killed it.

01:02:44:14 - 01:02:57:10
Lauren or Laura
Went in everything to the point. Lauren and I were just at a show and one of the reps that used to work in music. Remember the time you left and came back? And one like you were still winning stuff from previous night?

01:02:57:12 - 01:03:02:06
Laura
What do you mean? You had everything.

01:03:02:08 - 01:03:38:16
Lauren or Laura
That every woman. Captain, what is the point at this point? All the time. But during that time at Southern, towards Jen and I met a ton of great people there. I met my husband and with Southern, we were the Seagram's guys at an office split by. So he knew them and, you know, yeah, a couple of Seagram's guys had come over to form with Shawn, and I remember taking orders for Bouchon when, you know, one of our friends, Greg Cohen, who works for which until he didn't start with them when I did, I started in 2005 right when it was starting to take off.

01:03:38:18 - 01:03:57:21
Lauren or Laura
But he always asked me like, he's like, did you know? And I'm like, No. But I also remember working at Southern and taking out order like somebody would order a bottle of the champ and then all of a sudden was four bottles in office and six bottles, and it was a cape and it was toothpaste to me. And it was like, there's something's happening here.

01:03:57:23 - 01:04:19:16
Lauren or Laura
And so they were forming and I wanted to do more. I knew I wanted to go into the supplier side. I just I always I wanted to do more. So they were like, Come help us. And I was, I think maybe like the 10th or 11th sales employee in the US. And I took on a bunch of the H But again, like Lawrence, I've got a small company.

01:04:19:16 - 01:04:44:15
Lauren or Laura
So we did a lot, you know. Yeah, I did. I did pretty in, I did military cruise lines, national accounts. So I was very fortunate to be able to work in a lot of different capacities. The brand sold to Bacardi in 2018, and at that time it was like I almost 14 years later, you know, it's something I can't put into words like what that was like.

01:04:44:15 - 01:05:09:12
Lauren or Laura
I mean, this is crazy, crazy fun, exciting, stressful at times, you know, to to to build a brand like that is just unbelievable. The people I built it with and worked with and, you know, I didn't build it by myself. Obviously, we are amazing people that work there and it's part of history that, you know, I just can't put into words sometimes.

01:05:09:14 - 01:05:29:08
Lauren or Laura
But I didn't want to go right into another supplier role. I felt like it was like the end of something big in my life. I spent my whole adult young adult life there, and I had went to so many changes. My husband passed away and at the time they were amazing. My family, they become my family. So I went to work from work to see that.

01:05:29:11 - 01:05:47:16
Lauren or Laura
And, you know, third party marketing agency, again, another jump off a cliff. The guys at the agency were like, You could take the cruise lines like it's different. You're going to be doing third party agency stuff. And it was very different, but it gave me the opportunity. I want to continue on at the cruise lines and work with those people.

01:05:47:16 - 01:06:10:23
Lauren or Laura
I become very good friends with a lot of the buyers and the cruise lines, and for years I did that. And so quarantine and then I ended up at the operations side with with Lauren and Sajak. I almost took a big sales job with the Tequila Company. But again, I like to jump off Cliff and I'm crazy. And I was like 50,021.

01:06:10:23 - 01:06:34:18
Lauren or Laura
And I would say, do I go work in operations and go do something that I am not 100% familiar with? It's not in my wheelhouse. There was times, you know, that I would get up and like study stuff early in the morning with the TV in compliance because I didn't know all of it. And I could it just took an easy sales job with the Tequila Company and I didn't have something I don't know.

01:06:34:20 - 01:07:04:08
Lauren or Laura
I don't know why yet, but it's going to be beneficial to me. An alarm. I can work from home for a couple of years. I did it from 2021, so Lauren and I formed the company and. And crazy, crazy fun, right? It's so crazy and fun. But, you know, a big thing for me when I when Lauren approached me about this is that we were going to have to try to start a way to help other women in this industry as well, because there is so important.

01:07:04:10 - 01:07:05:00
Jessie
So important.

01:07:05:01 - 01:07:32:09
Lauren or Laura
Important, the being through all these different phases in this industry. And you know, from the Southern days when I was one of like a very few women and, you know, to where we are now, it's and we have so far to go as women in this industry. So that's really important to me. And I know we're going to talk about it in a little bit, but that's kind of my evolution and I've been very blessed and fortunate, despite everything with the curves that I have.

01:07:32:11 - 01:08:01:10
Jessie
Have Yeah, I mean, you kind of had a once in a lifetime opportunity with Patreon. I mean, I know you didn't know that obviously at the beginning, and everybody is taking that chance to get that opportunity. But it's awesome to like to think about the culture there and how it got so big so fast, but that never changed and how close you all were in My my question to this also is you said Patron, the organization got really good at hiring really good people.

01:08:01:10 - 01:08:11:23
Jessie
Do you have the formula of that success that they were using to hire the right people? Like, do you have any idea they were good?

01:08:12:01 - 01:08:39:03
Lauren or Laura
And I don't think this is a secret. Good. So, you know, they they would go they just to take some of the best people from other companies. They were very good at working lean and writing. And John McDonnell was a big part of this. And I BROWN you know, obviously writing, they took very good care of their people like, you know, benefits packages, you know, competitive bonuses.

01:08:39:03 - 01:09:05:17
Lauren or Laura
That's now pretty much and share. But, you know, they're very competitive on packaged just little things like you know and they making it so people didn't you know it was just exciting nobody wanted to lead but they would go find you know, connections they had connections obviously, they've been an industry a long time. And they would take people from other companies that were really, really good.

01:09:05:17 - 01:09:27:15
Lauren or Laura
And they were, you know, good at showing them on what we were doing, you know, what we were accomplishing here. We're making history. And, you know, I don't want to see them ever be another brand like that, or there definitely are opportunities for other brands to become like that. But I don't know that they keep building the same way.

01:09:27:17 - 01:09:50:12
Lauren or Laura
But again, again, it goes back to like I bring it back to top and I know Lauren and John probably get sick and say like, I know I've been through this before. It's very similar, but it is like this is like very similar in a lot of ways. And the excitement that you get when you talk about top and just the potential and and the camaraderie.

01:09:50:12 - 01:10:06:19
Lauren or Laura
So, yeah, I think the best they do, they do have a recipe. I don't think it's mine to divulge all of it, but I mean, we were very good about going and finding the best people that could do a lot of different positions. Now, that was huge.

01:10:06:21 - 01:10:32:14
Jessie
Yeah, Well, I mean, if you're if you are treated like a human and not a number, because that that tends to happen sometimes, you know, you're always replaceable. And that sounds like that's not how how you were treated in that in that company. They were more of family. Right. So that's that's completely different And then if they're paying you, you know, extra bonuses on top of that, like what what more could you ever ask for.

01:10:32:16 - 01:10:45:13
Jessie
Right. If you're cross-training and you're making, you know, a living and you're loving what you're doing and it's a family like, you know, and, you know, experience, you know, it's that's pretty awesome.

01:10:45:15 - 01:11:09:10
Lauren or Laura
Well, I think one big thing and Laura and I both talked about this because it's been missing. I know there are many companies we've worked out that for. Everybody worked together as a machine, Like everybody worked together like we had one goal, like I'm one thing, you know, like, so if one market fell behind, for whatever reason, it could be that they had bad weather.

01:11:09:10 - 01:11:30:16
Lauren or Laura
I don't know. I'm just making stuff up. But everybody worked to the same goal. Like there was no me. There is no my territory, there was no anything we were all working to to drive the machine forward. And that was very important because a lot of companies don't operate like that anymore. And no heat arms. Exactly. Well.

01:11:30:17 - 01:11:34:14
Jessie
Cover your ass emails, right? Yeah, that's that's the environment.

01:11:34:16 - 01:11:55:07
Lauren or Laura
But yeah, we were all working towards success in history and that was it. That was it took off. And I think that's the key, right, to being is like if everybody is not working towards the same goal, it's not going to work. And it's frustrating for the people that are carrying the weight and pushing it forward when the rest of it's not.

01:11:55:07 - 01:12:18:01
Lauren or Laura
And I think that's one of the biggest things. I mean, and that's why I like to go back to top like we're consistently we don't always all agree but we're and then something burn out or maybe isn't the right thing we're going to do it anyway because let's see how it goes, you know, And I think it's one of those things that's like being able to see where the other person's from and make adjustments as you go, I think is important and be very entrepreneurial.

01:12:18:03 - 01:12:53:14
Lauren or Laura
That was huge with the charm. They were very entrepreneurial. They were willing to try stuff, you know, the the you know, they just the that that that spirit is where I was always like, worried I wouldn't find again after it ended. It's that we've got to find that entrepreneurial, you know you got to like she what happens like within parameters and try things and break boundaries and I'm very very to be experiencing it twice in industry so it's I'm very grateful.

01:12:53:16 - 01:12:54:05
Laura
Yeah.

01:12:54:07 - 01:13:09:10
Jessie
Yeah and you think about it too are like if if if Petron hadn't sold, would you still be there? I mean, you wouldn't have had these two other career experiences to help kind of build those gaps, right? To help you be even more valuable to brands now?

01:13:09:12 - 01:13:32:18
Lauren or Laura
Yeah. And listen, it was hard when it saw it was like getting divorced or something and people were just like, yeah, we weren't. You know that in retrospect, I can understand why they sold it, but I get it now, looking back. But it wasn't like, you know, they didn't like just being honest, but they also you never would have been ready for it, right?

01:13:32:18 - 01:13:52:01
Lauren or Laura
Like, you just never would have been ready for it. But I would not have. No. I mean, I probably would still be with them. And I don't know that I would have I would never met Warren. I would have never branched out into these other areas. And a lot of people that I met along that, you know, five or six years, whatever it's been now.

01:13:52:02 - 01:14:15:08
Lauren or Laura
And, you know, again, it goes back to like everything happens for a reason, even the bad stuff, you know, it is you got to build off of that and kind of like it's easier when you're in it. It's hard to see it, but later on you look back. Even Lauren and I are very close and I know some of the things that she's experienced and it's been hard for her.

01:14:15:08 - 01:14:34:01
Lauren or Laura
But, you know, in some ways and some of it needs to happen in industry and without taking her story away from her. But she is I, I can safely say I think you look back now and be like, yeah, I know. Like, I know what I would learn from that. Like, for sure. Yeah.

01:14:34:03 - 01:14:35:03
Jessie
Yeah.

01:14:35:05 - 01:14:39:02
Lauren or Laura
Yeah. There was days where I was like, I don't know that I want to sell liquor anymore.

01:14:39:04 - 01:14:41:23
Laura
That I wouldn't even look at.

01:14:42:01 - 01:14:52:21
Lauren or Laura
A company and like, now, because we have more women like you in this industry, we don't need women leaving the industry. We need more women in this industry. Like taking. Well.

01:14:52:22 - 01:15:14:20
Jessie
Exactly. And then you guys starting a women owned business and you want to really help. I mean, you're going to help brands and people, but you're you have this other mission that we'll get to soon about really helping women. I can't I can't wait to get to that. But I think we'll end on that because we'll talk about our little exciting women's international happy hour coming up.

01:15:14:20 - 01:15:17:14
Jessie
So that's exciting. But we still have.

01:15:17:16 - 01:15:18:00
Lauren or Laura
More to.

01:15:18:00 - 01:15:31:07
Jessie
Learn about you two. Yeah, Yeah, let's do it. Give me some fun. It's like I love talking to you too. So much. Don't want it to end, but I have something to look forward to, so that's really fun.

01:15:31:09 - 01:15:32:19
Lauren or Laura
We're excited.

01:15:32:21 - 01:15:36:03
Jessie
So, Lauren, do you have any key mentors that you want to mention?

01:15:36:05 - 01:15:56:19
Lauren or Laura
So I will. I would say that there's probably two people specifically that impacted my career the most, one being Angela Cosmic from that event. I think I like laughed because I was like, you know, 22 right out of college. I like learning how to draft a professional email and, you know, maybe wasn't the most political back then for sure.

01:15:56:19 - 01:16:19:03
Lauren or Laura
I wasn't. And she was really good and, you know, I'm coming from the agency side where it was pretty much all women, but we were dealing with the distributors that were pretty much all men at the time. It was challenging sometimes to get things done. I think like, you know, from an organization standpoint down to planning and just the communication sometimes didn't always go well.

01:16:19:03 - 01:16:42:13
Lauren or Laura
So I learned a lot from her, mainly how to how to start a paper trail going, make sure you're covering like I did tell you that this was and I would say like that one of the big things and then Norman Pontiac, who was the original CEO at 375, which was the important parts at the time, along with Steve Ackerman, who was my first boss on the side, I think I had probably the most impact.

01:16:42:15 - 01:17:05:15
Lauren or Laura
Both were at Seagram's guys that have been in the business for a long time and shared, you know, the Seagram's sales one on one manuals with me. And, you know, that took the time to actually sit down and teach me things. But I think the biggest thing was they were also always supportive, like If I had a distributor, you know, I'm always on the plane tomorrow to come in and sit down with the head of the house, you know, and like with us.

01:17:05:15 - 01:17:30:05
Lauren or Laura
And so and I think to have supportive managers like that in the beginning, especially when there wasn't a lot of women and I was really young then, you know, with really not the right experience to do the role that I was doing. And they were willing to sit down and support that. I mean, I think I've come across a lot of like great people in the industry over the years, both female and male, but those two probably have like the biggest impact of the way that I am today.

01:17:30:06 - 01:17:31:07
Jessie
Awesome.

01:17:31:09 - 01:18:11:12
Lauren or Laura
Laura said. Feel like I talked a lot about the on people. Obviously were very very impactful my careers John McDonnell I Brown So I'm going to take back to International Women's Day and and touch on a few women to a couple in the industry and one on side. But Donna Frederick and Laurie Wallace, Donna Frederick is retired now with Jim Dean and Laurie with Constellation, not just because of their class and like the way they handled themselves in the industry and just their experience and their relationship.

01:18:11:12 - 01:18:38:15
Lauren or Laura
I could gush over them for hours. But also the way that as women, they took me in, in the sense that after my husband passed away and some of the first shifts I had to go on were national accounts, jets. And, you know, my husband died suddenly and they were just so supportive and so care. And still to this day, they're like massive cheerleaders for for me, like anything that I do any.

01:18:38:21 - 01:19:10:13
Lauren or Laura
And they are rock stars in their own right. So they are familiar with them, look them up because people but just, you know, everything about them. I can't say enough good people, good things about nice and great and well, huge, huge resources for knowledge in this industry. They do great things. And then, you know, obviously, I know that my mom, you know, she she passed away that summer, but that woman and looking back, she's the reason that I work the way I do.

01:19:10:13 - 01:19:29:18
Lauren or Laura
Like, you know, she had three jobs, you know, all we always had planned on together, everything. So there's been some very impactful men, but definitely some very impactful women in my life. And You know, I hope to be the same for her. That's a big thing for Lauren. And I believe the same father.

01:19:29:20 - 01:19:31:22
Laura
Yeah.

01:19:32:00 - 01:19:36:11
Jessie
Do you want to talk a little bit about work life balance? Laura?

01:19:36:13 - 01:19:43:15
Lauren or Laura
Laura gives you a whole section on this that I used to get asked that a lot.

01:19:43:17 - 01:19:47:14
Jessie
Well, do you want to maybe talk about that on the happier?

01:19:47:16 - 01:19:52:04
Lauren or Laura
Yeah, let's do that. Let's do the talk about on the half hour.

01:19:52:06 - 01:19:54:18
Jessie
We're going to leave people in suspense.

01:19:54:20 - 01:19:57:08
Laura
Yeah. And that's totally.

01:19:57:10 - 01:20:07:23
Lauren or Laura
Part of this conversation. Personally, the two of us, we have to check each other sometimes, but also we get that from a lot of women.

01:20:08:01 - 01:20:13:01
Jessie
Yeah. Yeah, I don't. I don't. I don't do that at all. Not right now.

01:20:13:03 - 01:20:13:19
Laura
It's.

01:20:13:21 - 01:20:17:07
Lauren or Laura
I'm not good at it either. So it's hard. You have to constantly think about it.

01:20:17:07 - 01:20:19:02
Laura
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:20:19:04 - 01:20:39:23
Lauren or Laura
Yeah. Because it does. I think we make it work on the outside. Like it's super. Just like slow is easy, but there's a lot of things we have to do personally on the back end to make sure that that happens and mistakes like, right, Like I've made mistakes with it before and I do that again. So yeah, we're out.

01:20:40:03 - 01:20:41:05
Laura
You. Yeah.

01:20:41:07 - 01:21:01:04
Jessie
Yeah, I agree. I mean, you can't get that time back, right? So but, but you can, we can change behavior and, and whatnot. So yeah, I think that'll be a really good topic us to discuss. So from, you know, the brazen imports perspective of what you all are building, are there any main pain points that you kind of want to point out?

01:21:01:04 - 01:21:22:16
Jessie
I mean, we all kind of know there's a lot of brands and the you know, the distributors are too big and they can't keep people and whatnot. But is there do you want to talk talk about that or do you want to is there is there any movement to fix that or is there other options out there and or are there other pain points that you're seeing that you want to point out?

01:21:22:18 - 01:21:53:23
Lauren or Laura
Sure. I mean, there this again, this could be like a whole podcast. So a lot of question, a lot. I think for me, for brand owners, one of the big things for me and and that's why I hate even using the term console and sometimes it's it's a loaded gun I feel like lately like I don't even like to use it with our self because it's a lot of consultants in this industry and and I feel like it's for me, a big pain point is.

01:21:53:23 - 01:22:22:16
Lauren or Laura
It's your brand owner like Lauren and I have boxes that we form, boxes that people have to chat before we have conversations done. Like we need to understand some more things. So I for I, it breaks my heart when we get, you know, brand owners on the phone and the doctor heart soul does everything into to their dream and they may have like gone down a road they can't pull back from now or something to that effect.

01:22:22:17 - 01:22:46:09
Lauren or Laura
So I think for me a big pain point is I would love to see them, you know, maybe like ask more questions or like, you know, do yourself in due diligence and research the people you're getting involved with ask questions, look at where you ask yourself, where are you going? Yeah, this question first two of a call. Where do you what do you want to do in five years with this brand?

01:22:46:09 - 01:23:15:08
Lauren or Laura
Like, where do you see yourself? Like, what is the goal here? So, I mean, ask yourself that before you get involved or you try to get excited, right? Like, That's right. I get it. It's it's saying the absence of what is my goal here? Because I think that will help in the decisions, you know, and kind of guide you little bit better and that's that's one for me one I'm sure you have others are just all kind of add to that because I think look everybody always says the same thing, right?

01:23:15:08 - 01:23:30:18
Lauren or Laura
Like one of the main point is managing the distributors well. It's really not as much about the distributor, right? Because it's like a necessary evil have to read, or at least I've seen, I've been on both sides. The salesperson analyst fired back. So, you know, it's you guys, we see their side of it a lot.

01:23:30:20 - 01:23:32:19
Jessie
100%. And I was going to say.

01:23:32:19 - 01:23:48:15
Lauren or Laura
I and I don't know that I believe like I would say if you ask me this question six months ago, I might have been like the distributors is probably the biggest pain point. I don't feel that way today. I think the probably the biggest pain point goes back to what we were talking about earlier. It all starts at the brand, right?

01:23:48:15 - 01:24:08:01
Lauren or Laura
If you are going into the distributor with like we asked them for a five year plan, you have to show that to the distributor, too. Right? Right. Why should they believe in this? Why should they help you grow it? What's that investment look like and what are you doing? I think it goes back to kind of taking the step back and having a plan for your own brand, because I think that's where it goes sideways, right?

01:24:08:07 - 01:24:40:11
Lauren or Laura
You go to a consultant, they give you some advice based on the knowledge, the limited knowledge that they have and whatever capacity some decisions get made. And then you end up here three years later that maybe some of these that you made, you know, again, if I make this decision, what happens next? You know, and I think a lot of it ends up at the distributor level because they start just taking any distributor that they can get because it feels like the right thing to do or they get an introduction from their friend and they can get into Georgia, which Laura and I are big like don't go into franchise.

01:24:40:13 - 01:24:57:16
Lauren or Laura
I'll say that now. Free advice don't go in the franchise days franchise It's too early because you can't change that decision later. You know it's not that easy. And I think a lot of it comes back to the brand like I think the last point like that, the people you're working with have a five year plan, ten year plan of what?

01:24:57:16 - 01:25:13:14
Lauren or Laura
Where you want to get the brand and how you want go there and then align with people that want to have the same objective view. And I think there's no difference. Like when we look at a brand from a like a larger perspective than when they look at it from a state wide perspective and find the right partners.

01:25:13:14 - 01:25:45:12
Lauren or Laura
I think, you know, while the distributors are pain point, the distributors are a pain point. When you go to how to manage the distributors and provide them with the proper data to support it. I think one of the pain points that I have is, is the generic thing is there's no like central unified data, right? So when you go to like do a national account RFP like and this has been a topic at VIBE in several conferences over the years, like there's no one like from a supplier standpoint, pricing and distributors by market, there's no like system for that.

01:25:45:14 - 01:26:09:15
Lauren or Laura
And I do think our industry is a little antiquated terms of the system, like there's all this technology out there and I think it's getting better, right? You're starting to see e-commerce come into play and the distributors themselves, you know, whether it's Southern R&D, see what they're doing in a in a data standpoint. There's some great systems coming out now, but we're definitely behind as an industry of the technology side of the business.

01:26:09:15 - 01:26:23:18
Lauren or Laura
And I think there's an opportunity for that. To me, that's one of the biggest pain points that we have. All these little distributors, not everyone reports into the IP. How do you collect the data? And then, you know, there's small startup brands that don't have the money to pay for the IP right out of the gate. So what's the easiest way?

01:26:23:18 - 01:26:40:05
Lauren or Laura
I think that's the hardest part for a new brand is like, how do you wrap your head around some that? And just because we're so far behind in the technology, I mean, look at the console days. A lot of the systems haven't been updated for years at the state level, so it's hard to work in those systems because it's not as easy as it should be.

01:26:40:05 - 01:26:45:04
Lauren or Laura
And I think it makes it a little harder to work through for a small brand.

01:26:45:06 - 01:26:52:20
Jessie
Yeah, that that makes a lot of sense. Is it that? That really is a hard part data. You know, it's it's it's it's really difficult.

01:26:52:22 - 01:26:58:02
Lauren or Laura
Yeah. And we've got yeah like.

01:26:58:04 - 01:27:15:01
Jessie
And that also and it costs a lot right. Yeah. But I think it also you know is data that is information that people can use to make sure their they're building the right brand like is there a real fit for this, Is there a real need for this? Like you said, Buck is tough, right? You got to be really unique.

01:27:15:03 - 01:27:34:21
Jessie
Like, you know, Jason Momoa, right? He and his partner have Maly Parker. That story is great. Like whoever did the marketing, I'm so in, like, I can't wait to try it now. You know, you got to have that compelling story in order to really make an impact on it. Uncertain brands. I mean, he's a celebrity that works, too.

01:27:34:21 - 01:27:58:07
Jessie
I mean, let's be honest right. People really like him. But if he has the quality product to to back it, then great. I mean, you know, the rock is the same way, right They wanted a prices bottle $20 higher And he said I'm the tequila for the people. No, it has to be, you know, 2931. So, you know, the quality is in the bottle.

01:27:58:09 - 01:28:11:16
Jessie
Right. That's story in. And his daughter's initials are on the bottom of the bottle like there's a whole thing to it. So if you're unique like that, even a celebrity, you still have to get the product right because we've seen it like we've talked about before.

01:28:11:17 - 01:28:34:05
Lauren or Laura
So this story and like we get a lot of calls, we feel like I have the best gin, I have the best tequila. I have Well, everybody gets got even more so. You have to have more than just you. I truly believe you believe your brand is the best it might be, but you have to have more than that.

01:28:34:05 - 01:28:57:13
Lauren or Laura
Like, you have to know what your story is. How did that go to market? Like, there's a lot more to it. So, you know, for me that that's a lot of it is helping them make the right decisions ahead of time so or or that he does it himself and then the data is very you looked at it when I looked at it look at a lot of it you'd be surprised to like some of the basic things we ask people for.

01:28:57:13 - 01:29:12:01
Lauren or Laura
But in the big and I always try to laugh because she's like, they're probably not going to have this. I was like, Yeah, now let's just see what they say. And I like, you know, ask them for stuff and I like even this. And it's that a lot. They don't know they need or they have a brand debt, but there's really nothing meaningful in it, right?

01:29:12:01 - 01:29:29:11
Lauren or Laura
So we're like, okay, you need to add this to support that and like it, but people don't know where to start, right? If you have a brand and you've somehow stumbled into whatever you're in, and then every now and then, you know, like a brand like Topps, it actually takes off kind of on its own and it's like, how do you get things in order when it's already going like that?

01:29:29:11 - 01:29:51:20
Lauren or Laura
In other cases, it's, you know, they sold 2000 cases there in two states and they're you know, they're trying to figure it out still. So it's it's interesting. I definitely think there's so much out there, but it's not necessarily all accurate either. Right. There's information there. There's consultants, there's different people, there's different distributors. But, you know, like one of the we talk about national accounts, a lot of people come to us for national accounts.

01:29:51:20 - 01:30:10:00
Lauren or Laura
But I'm like, well, you're in three, right? Like, we should expand your network first and then this is like a five year plan from today when you do X, Y, Z first, you know, and you're not in the right states for teens and that and everything now. So it's been I think that's one of the biggest problems is like every state has different regulations.

01:30:10:05 - 01:30:27:20
Lauren or Laura
The control states are a different animal. The process is for national accounts are different. So when you're a new brand and it sounds good, you know, like I think we've talked about this before with you, just like getting into Walmart sounds like a good idea, but there's lot of pieces, right, in hundreds of Walmarts over the country, all over the country.

01:30:27:20 - 01:30:36:19
Lauren or Laura
So I think it's again, taking a step back to go forward. But I think the information and the legal piece of it is what makes it a lot more challenging.

01:30:37:00 - 01:30:49:18
Jessie
And I think people misunderstand the investment because if you if you think you want to get into Walmart, you got to have a of money to produce the amount of cases they're going to need. And that's a whole piece to itself. On the other.

01:30:49:18 - 01:31:11:23
Lauren or Laura
End, do you want to be nervous all the time? Like, okay, so we'll get you in. See you about, you know, the village delay and they don't understand the magnitude of and the timeline. You talk to them before us and they're like, okay, you want to change, we'll do this. And like, when does a lot of work with the change our issues more than I have done in the last five years.

01:31:12:01 - 01:31:31:16
Lauren or Laura
But getting into some of the change now horror, it's not. You can get into a chain, it's getting the pull through and the chain so you don't get, you know, it's thing with military, just you don't get delisted because then once you get out of there, like you can't get back in again, it's it's kind of hard. Cruiselines in the same way in a lot of respects and the control things for that we.

01:31:31:16 - 01:31:33:07
Laura
Say that yeah, we.

01:31:33:07 - 01:31:52:17
Lauren or Laura
Say that all the time. And I'm like, Look, there's one thing to get in the chains. It's another thing to stay in the chains. And there's it's a lot of money. And then I also don't think I mean, I'm not picking on Walmart at the moment, but like, you know, not every brand belongs in every chain either. So maybe you don't have a brand that's right for a Walmart or whatever the other chain would be, you know, Costco for that matter.

01:31:52:17 - 01:32:14:08
Lauren or Laura
Like they have specific things they're looking for. And I think like that's the thing. If like while there's a lot of stores and you can get a lot of volume I think it's also again goes back to what is your brand identity, where do you want to be in five years and aligning with the right partner account that gets you there, whether it's a chain or a national account on premise or a restaurant group regionally, whatever that looks like?

01:32:14:08 - 01:32:34:15
Lauren or Laura
I think it's just again, people like Rush to get these drop the volume, but that it's not sustainable a year from now. I think that's the biggest thing. Like we won't touch something that we don't think is long term sustainable growth. If it's been a lot of like drop nothing, we can't fix some of that. Have you found that to fall sales and then they're chasing the sales constantly.

01:32:34:15 - 01:32:52:09
Lauren or Laura
It's a problem and yeah, it's hard to get away. It's like bad behavior and it's hard to get out of that because you're going to have a massive like volume drop to get out of it before then you can move forward. And that's what I think is hard. And some brands can't afford the volume drop because of whatever commitments they have.

01:32:52:10 - 01:32:58:01
Lauren or Laura
Yeah, we actually developed different strategies for tops this year that this we will not share because.

01:32:58:02 - 01:33:01:23
Laura
It top secret. Yeah perhaps top.

01:33:01:23 - 01:33:03:10
Jessie
Secret.

01:33:03:12 - 01:33:04:20
Laura
Is.

01:33:04:22 - 01:33:12:06
Lauren or Laura
Like that more then we'll talk about it later but we.

01:33:12:07 - 01:33:13:07
Laura
Have Yeah.

01:33:13:08 - 01:33:16:19
Jessie
Yeah well this is I get to have you on again.

01:33:16:20 - 01:33:19:11
Laura
Yeah, you were. You were.

01:33:19:13 - 01:33:43:00
Jessie
So let's, let's move over to your outlook for the remainder of the year. What do you guys think is a what do you want to talk about. Like, do you want to talk about your organization that you're building? Do you want to talk about the industry? I mean, we've talked quite a bit already about the industry. Yeah, I'll leave that up to your you ladies.

01:33:43:02 - 01:33:45:20
Lauren or Laura
Well, we could talk more about the industry in the happy hour.

01:33:46:00 - 01:33:47:13
Jessie
Yeah, true.

01:33:47:15 - 01:34:19:00
Lauren or Laura
It's so much going on with trends right now. It'll keep unfolding. I mean, I definitely like to, you know, go back to the pinpoint question exactly and easily. You know, obviously, we've talked about a lot of big pain point for Lauren and I. We've experienced a lot more over the years as women in this industry. So, you know, one of the big things for me and it was and for Lauren as well, is to be able to start breathing trails, our foundation to help other women in this industry.

01:34:19:02 - 01:34:46:05
Lauren or Laura
You know, whether it's you know, we have a large Lauren and I have a lot of mine resources and we would like to be able to, you know, help other female distillers, other female entrepreneurs, other females in this industry, whether it's just like helping them. Right. Or resonate like anything like that. It just kind of pushes this initiative forward for women in this industry is so important right outside of the industry as well.

01:34:46:05 - 01:35:04:21
Lauren or Laura
You know, I have a six year old daughter and like we tell her stories and she's just like can't fathom like they don't have glass ceilings. This next generation. They don't you know, it's just different. And, you know, she's been doing a little research intern work for us and stuff like that. It's it's fun to see this next generation.

01:35:05:02 - 01:35:27:14
Lauren or Laura
We have a long way to go out in all industries, have more work they can do, but our industry needs a lot. So we want to be a resource. And this foundation will help women. You know we will not the men. We we can't help men. She but we will be specifically looking for for female people, females to help.

01:35:27:16 - 01:35:44:14
Lauren or Laura
You want to add that, Lauren, now, I mean, I think that's a good summary. I think the main thing for us is like, you know, like we talked about earlier, people have all different needs, right? Like some brands are coming to us because they need help, like they want they need to try to sell a certain amount of cases for whatever.

01:35:44:16 - 01:36:12:20
Lauren or Laura
Right. Or they want a specific channel. And I think the biggest thing is how can we help some women own brands before they get too far down the path, right? Like, is it reviewing contracts before they signed a deal with one of the big companies and just making sure that they don't get burned? So we're going to basically donate some of our time and then utilize some of our other and whether it's PR marketing and yeah, to help some brands and give them, you know, like almost like a like a period of time.

01:36:12:20 - 01:36:43:01
Lauren or Laura
So we'll have a few brands each year that we'll be able to support and donate some of our time to, to help them with whatever they need. Right. Whether it's compliant help or pricing strategies or a brand strategy, General. And when we've gotten calls with, you know, several different brands and female and male, where people feel kind of stuck and, you know, we feel bad and then we're like, all right, we want to do something to help people that, you know, can't get out of the hole that they got into for whatever reason or are just starting out and don't want to make some of those decisions.

01:36:43:06 - 01:37:12:22
Lauren or Laura
Sounding board, too, right? Like, yeah. Or some women. I know we talked about it. We were all in that last call. It destroyed the female collective and there was 100 amazing women on there and, and something that just stuck out that when they that show they she's probably I'm paraphrasing or may not exactly correct but you know that women don't become CEOs and just because they don't they're not unless they start their own company and question you Right.

01:37:13:00 - 01:37:38:23
Lauren or Laura
Like I hate hearing that is she the I read it and you know, like we just want to be able to give whatever kind of headstart we can to some of these women and and get them going. So that's why they can contract. There's a tab by the time this comes out, they'll be a contact on our page where they can submit to, look, we can't get to everybody.

01:37:38:23 - 01:37:56:16
Lauren or Laura
You know, Lauren and I would love to, but we'll review and then we'll we'll make some decisions. We have our first one. Do you just see which Yeah, I would talk about it a little bit, but maybe I'm happy our call but we have our first email that we can't wait to dive. Yes more.

01:37:56:16 - 01:37:58:11
Jessie
Suspense.

01:37:58:13 - 01:37:58:22
Lauren or Laura
Yeah.

01:37:58:22 - 01:38:01:02
Jessie
She's for the happy hour.

01:38:01:04 - 01:38:02:03
Laura
We love. Yes.

01:38:02:09 - 01:38:04:18
Jessie
So yeah she's she's pretty awesome.

01:38:04:22 - 01:38:08:18
Lauren or Laura
Go to our Web site and and get more information on the trail.

01:38:08:20 - 01:38:11:21
Jessie
You want to talk what talk about what? That website is.

01:38:11:22 - 01:38:23:20
Lauren or Laura
Yes it's WWE dot rays and import wsj.com and then they'll be a tab where they can go. You know they've done a brazen trail to get to the foundation where they can submit some forms.

01:38:23:21 - 01:38:43:16
Jessie
That is super awesome. Thank you, ladies, for seeing the need and being able to take time out of your professional and personal lives to help other people. I mean, I know, Laura, you mentioned other women in your life kind of taking an hour here and hour there. So this is your way to give back in a really impactful and formidable way.

01:38:43:18 - 01:39:07:17
Jessie
You know, that sounds like it's not necessarily just a call here and a call there. It's a little bit more structured, which is pretty awesome. So I can't wait to see how things go with that and the kind of people you're able to help. So I would love to keep in touch with you for the Thursday Thursday format and keep everybody updated on on your progress, because I think that's super important.

01:39:07:19 - 01:39:10:20
Jessie
So yeah, thank you.

01:39:10:22 - 01:39:20:09
Lauren or Laura
Hopefully by that you. Yeah, I don't know when the happy hour will have more information to it. We will have a little toast to new person.

01:39:20:11 - 01:39:26:01
Jessie
Well should we should we talk about it and then end on our rapid fire question time.

01:39:26:03 - 01:39:30:07
Lauren or Laura
Yeah. I'm going to have Let's go. Yeah.

01:39:30:09 - 01:39:49:08
Jessie
So all the all of us talking about, you know, Laura and Lauren giving back to women and they they've helped me, too. You know, we had a call before this and, you know, I'm doing the best I can with this podcast and starting other businesses. And so, you know, I made the comment, well, I'm just doing I'm doing everything I can on my own.

01:39:49:10 - 01:40:06:23
Jessie
My brother in law is helping me edit, which, you know, they could take 6 to 8 hours is it and is perfectionist as I get about it because it's my name out there. Sometimes I can fix it, sometimes I can't. But you know, it's taking time away from other things. But I love this so much, I'm never going to stop.

01:40:07:01 - 01:40:33:07
Jessie
And I think it, you know, the feedback that I'm getting is that it is impactful to other people to hear other people's stories. And the people that have impacted their lives is my favorite thing. I love hearing it. I get excited every time. And so they they they reflected on what's going on with the podcast. We've come up with a couple of really cool ideas, one being the happy hour.

01:40:33:07 - 01:40:55:10
Jessie
So in honor of International Women's Day, as we've talked about at the beginning, we are going to have a happy hour with the three of us and we're going to have a link for the audience to call in and ask questions. So I know that we talked earlier about we're going to talk about work life balance and then maybe some more pain points.

01:40:55:12 - 01:41:31:08
Jessie
And, you know, maybe just advice for people that are starting off brands. Maybe they have maybe they're in a dilemma. Do I go left or do I go right and they can call in and and ask you some questions, which, again, thank you so much for donating your time to to the to the two Thursday Thursdays in the in a in our listeners but also they they I've been struggling with the last question to ask like what would you do with the million dollars that what it was pretty fun and then you know getting to know people like what are your passions or what do you do outside of work.

01:41:31:10 - 01:41:50:08
Jessie
But I really wanted to have something that said a little bit more, you know, ended it a little bit more exciting. And the only podcast that I've listened to that really was kind of doing what I was thinking was, What's your favorite swearword and why? Well, I don't really want to do that one. I want it to be a little bit more dynamic than that.

01:41:50:10 - 01:42:10:23
Jessie
And so these ladies, I don't I can't remember as both you are Laura, Laura and I apologize think it's Laura came up with rapid fire questions because that killed two birds with one stone. We got to end really in a really fun place. And then we also we also get to use it as reals, right, for for the upcoming segment.

01:42:10:23 - 01:42:25:16
Jessie
So you get to kind of know these ladies a little bit before you before you listen to their podcast. So I think it was a really, really smart way and I think it's going to add a lot of value. So for that, I thank you both so much for that. And then did we talk about the happy hour?

01:42:25:16 - 01:42:28:07
Jessie
Did I just talk about the reports.

01:42:28:09 - 01:42:29:22
Lauren or Laura
That.

01:42:30:00 - 01:42:32:02
Jessie
Did they follow that? Okay, So the happy.

01:42:32:02 - 01:42:33:09
Laura
Hour. No, no, no.

01:42:33:11 - 01:42:39:07
Lauren or Laura
Like we might be like, yeah, that was another one of my really bad good idea.

01:42:39:09 - 01:43:07:13
Jessie
No, no, I'm super, super stoked about it because it's fun and it's spontaneous. Yeah. And they're not serious or just joke. They're just fun. And so the other aspect that these ladies so we mentioned Happy hour throughout this podcast. So on the regular happy hour for Thursday Thursdays which is the third Thursday's third Thursday at 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

01:43:07:15 - 01:43:18:11
Jessie
We going to have a happy hour in honor of International Women's Day. So the three of us will be on and we'll have an audience link for people to call in. And so it'll be exciting.

01:43:18:14 - 01:43:26:15
Lauren or Laura
Yeah, it'll be fun. Open to everybody. We're excited and I get that. We're very fun when we drink.

01:43:26:17 - 01:43:32:02
Jessie
Yes. You bring your bring your own cocktail, baby. I okay, Yeah.

01:43:32:04 - 01:43:32:13
Laura
Yeah.

01:43:32:14 - 01:43:35:22
Lauren or Laura
That one that you want us to try, make a suggestion. So it will.

01:43:36:01 - 01:43:46:06
Jessie
Yeah, that's true. If you want to send us, you know, a recipe or or a brand, let us know. We'll. We'll try it. That'll be fun.

01:43:46:08 - 01:43:48:04
Lauren or Laura
Tell me. Really? Sorry. Well.

01:43:48:06 - 01:43:50:10
Laura
It.

01:43:50:11 - 01:44:04:18
Jessie
So I guess with that, if you do have any brands you want to talk about and or cocktails or questions, if you want to send them ahead of time, reach out to me and we'll make sure that we get the questions to you.

01:44:04:18 - 01:44:06:23
Lauren or Laura
All Perfect.

01:44:07:01 - 01:44:29:17
Jessie
All right. So are you ready for Rapid Fire question time? I think I need to fix that name, but hey, Laura, I to take a drink. Okay. I am going to ask each of the ladies three random questions and they have to answer within 10 seconds.

01:44:29:18 - 01:44:31:16
Lauren or Laura
Well, Blake Margolis.

01:44:31:18 - 01:44:32:17
Jessie
Lauren goes first.

01:44:32:17 - 01:44:33:02
Lauren or Laura
All right.

01:44:33:06 - 01:44:34:15
Jessie
Okay.

01:44:34:17 - 01:44:36:05
Laura
Okay.

01:44:36:07 - 01:44:40:22
Jessie
If you were a cocktail, what would you be and why.

01:44:40:23 - 01:44:46:03
Lauren or Laura
A dirty martini? Because I'm straight and get it right.

01:44:46:05 - 01:44:54:12
Laura
So I like that. My where I should answer your question comments? Yes, I have answered that question. That's actually one of my favorite.

01:44:54:12 - 01:45:02:22
Lauren or Laura
Interview questions when I interview people. So I have that you don't have always.

01:45:02:23 - 01:45:03:23
Jessie
What movie.

01:45:03:23 - 01:45:06:13
Lauren or Laura
Make no nonsense. Just right to the point.

01:45:06:14 - 01:45:08:00
Jessie
I like it. No, that's.

01:45:08:00 - 01:45:09:01
Laura
Good.

01:45:09:03 - 01:45:12:10
Jessie
What movie do you enjoy quoting the most?

01:45:12:12 - 01:45:19:03
Lauren or Laura
Me. Are yourself intimate, right? Okay. Step brothers probably not on purpose. It does end up coming out.

01:45:19:03 - 01:45:24:01
Laura
If I put anything in particular.

01:45:24:03 - 01:45:31:10
Laura
Yeah, then we just. We come back to you. Do say that I dare to see the best person.

01:45:31:10 - 01:45:37:09
Lauren or Laura
Next to your favorite line from that movie. I don't want to stay down here, but my something. Yeah.

01:45:37:11 - 01:45:39:00
Laura
Okay.

01:45:39:01 - 01:45:41:23
Jessie
What is your go to karaoke song.

01:45:42:01 - 01:45:44:03
Lauren or Laura
I don't think Carrie should I?

01:45:44:03 - 01:45:47:03
Laura
She never. I've made it this.

01:45:47:03 - 01:45:57:16
Lauren or Laura
Whole time of 13 years of my life. I have never done karaoke. Despite an entire lot of work trip in Scotland. I still made it out by being the videographer.

01:45:57:18 - 01:46:00:05
Laura
And did not go for my life.

01:46:00:05 - 01:46:00:20
Lauren or Laura
I don't.

01:46:00:20 - 01:46:01:21
Jessie
Ever catch. I have another one.

01:46:01:21 - 01:46:08:01
Lauren or Laura
I do Saturday night with you. And we didn't. We weren't even at a karaoke bar there. Nobody was doing karaoke. I was just doing it.

01:46:08:01 - 01:46:15:04
Laura
I, I know you like bottle, so I'm not that much fun.

01:46:15:04 - 01:46:20:05
Lauren or Laura
I like, draw the line somewhere. I prefer like a dive bar in the corner as opposed.

01:46:20:06 - 01:46:23:17
Laura
But yeah. Well, how about another question?

01:46:23:19 - 01:46:31:05
Jessie
Yeah, we do mission excepted. What are.

01:46:31:06 - 01:46:32:09
Laura
I don't know.

01:46:32:11 - 01:46:37:14
Jessie
What are the least likely three words someone would use to describe you?

01:46:37:16 - 01:46:39:15
Lauren or Laura
God.

01:46:39:17 - 01:46:42:23
Laura
That's a good one. It is a good one.

01:46:43:01 - 01:47:08:19
Lauren or Laura
I would say the least likely terms to describe me would be like easy going. However, I think I have a perception that is different than my reality. I have kind of like two sides of my life. Like my personal life is very different than my work side of my life. But I think if you ask someone at work like I would not be described as using their street, you got to pick three.

01:47:08:21 - 01:47:11:08
Laura
Yeah. three.

01:47:11:10 - 01:47:15:20
Lauren or Laura
Lazy would be another one. Now.

01:47:15:21 - 01:47:17:18
Laura
Good.

01:47:17:19 - 01:47:21:04
Lauren or Laura
And let me do this newlywed style next time.

01:47:21:04 - 01:47:23:04
Jessie
That's okay, I think.

01:47:23:04 - 01:47:23:18
Lauren or Laura
Yeah Yeah.

01:47:23:19 - 01:47:27:21
Jessie
I was just going to say maybe Lauren needs to finish it for you.

01:47:27:23 - 01:47:31:00
Lauren or Laura
This disorganized. Disorganized is probably.

01:47:31:05 - 01:47:35:09
Laura
Okay.

01:47:35:11 - 01:47:37:10
Jessie
Yeah, that was a good one. Is kind of hard.

01:47:37:12 - 01:47:38:16
Lauren or Laura
Yeah.

01:47:38:18 - 01:47:46:16
Jessie
Are you ready, Laura? I am right. All Right. If you were a cocktail, what cocktail would you be and why?

01:47:46:18 - 01:48:04:22
Lauren or Laura
So I was going to say the martini, too. I say dirty martini, as you say. Because, you know, I'm. I'm very sorry for, but I can go a little off the Richter scale sometimes. Some words are that dirty in that way. But like.

01:48:05:00 - 01:48:05:14
Laura
You see.

01:48:05:15 - 01:48:19:17
Lauren or Laura
Janis Joplin with the Miller Lite bottle kind of so that I guess maybe that maybe a topical martini do a shameless plug for top.

01:48:19:18 - 01:48:25:20
Jessie
Go for it. It's yummy. It really I mean, it surprised me.

01:48:25:22 - 01:48:49:10
Lauren or Laura
I used to think that my set was 101 ten proof at all times from a patron. Over the years I've gotten a little bit. It was like coming out of town challenge. They coming out of like court. Like all of a sudden I was like, there's bourbon, there's there's there. And I've kind of expanded my horizons after drinking tequila for so many years.

01:48:49:10 - 01:49:02:02
Jessie
Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Whenever we'd go out, it was always there's always tequila, which I love. So next question. What is your guilty pleasure?

01:49:02:04 - 01:49:20:14
Lauren or Laura
That's a good one. did you like to watch Netflix? I'm trying to think what shows. God, that's a good one. I have. I have a lot of them, but not a lot of time to indulge all. It's also public. You don't want to share.

01:49:20:19 - 01:49:28:01
Laura
Yeah, sir, I we.

01:49:28:03 - 01:49:45:17
Lauren or Laura
I you know what? I do love muscle cars and, like, driving cars and like, so I would say my guilty pleasure is, you know, getting in my Bronco or getting in and telling the kids I have to go to the grocery store and just leaving for a couple of hours and driving around.

01:49:45:19 - 01:49:48:21
Jessie
That's awesome. I did not know that about you.

01:49:48:23 - 01:49:49:16
Laura
All right.

01:49:49:18 - 01:49:53:15
Lauren or Laura
I love me some some trucks and muscle cars.

01:49:53:16 - 01:49:54:21
Jessie
That's awesome.

01:49:54:23 - 01:49:58:01
Lauren or Laura
That's true. That's another. Yeah, I watch those movies a lot.

01:49:58:03 - 01:50:05:22
Jessie
My wife loves those dogs. Yeah, except for the dog. The dog part is. Very sad.

01:50:06:00 - 01:50:09:01
Laura
Yeah, because they don't get some gummy.

01:50:09:03 - 01:50:17:23
Lauren or Laura
Bears mix of the staff, and then my boyfriend has them like all that. So.

01:50:18:01 - 01:50:26:09
Jessie
Yeah, that's awesome. And third, the third question is what is your favorite pun?

01:50:26:11 - 01:50:32:11
Lauren or Laura
All right. So we talked about I can't believe why we think everything's a big deal.

01:50:32:13 - 01:50:49:06
Laura
Everything you did all the time. Now I really can't. I'm like, that's a big deal, like every kid. But then that is we're in a little bit a pickle where.

01:50:49:08 - 01:50:50:00
Lauren or Laura
I'm we're in a little.

01:50:50:00 - 01:50:56:22
Laura
Bit of a pickle. I don't like I say that all. Are you being salty like, isn't it?

01:50:57:00 - 01:51:01:01
Lauren or Laura
We're in typical pond, you know.

01:51:01:03 - 01:51:02:13
Laura
When she said she's can think.

01:51:02:13 - 01:51:13:14
Lauren or Laura
Of one earlier, I was like, man, we use one every day like my Christmas card. It's a delightful holiday. Yeah, we're on that cape right now, so that's great.

01:51:13:14 - 01:51:16:13
Laura
Get into it. The the.

01:51:16:13 - 01:51:20:01
Lauren or Laura
Format. Ryan saw her next time as she answers my.

01:51:20:03 - 01:51:21:23
Laura
Yeah.

01:51:22:01 - 01:51:25:06
Jessie
I think we should. That would be really fun.

01:51:25:08 - 01:51:25:17
Laura
We'll be a.

01:51:25:17 - 01:51:28:15
Lauren or Laura
Little more Randy next time it was your first one so we didn't want to go.

01:51:28:15 - 01:51:30:16
Laura
After. Yeah.

01:51:30:17 - 01:51:31:19
Jessie
this is great. I mean.

01:51:31:19 - 01:51:33:05
Lauren or Laura
I didn't use one curse word.

01:51:33:05 - 01:51:34:11
Jessie
I know.

01:51:34:13 - 01:51:40:06
Lauren or Laura
It's like, you know, they fall off my mouth. We decided not.

01:51:40:08 - 01:51:54:02
Jessie
Well, you know, we're. It's mostly industry people, you know, other owners and start ups that are it's very okay with it. It's not made for children. So we're good. We're good.

01:51:54:04 - 01:52:03:13
Lauren or Laura
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I'm Italian and I'm from Jersey. So, I mean, so that's just part of your vocabulary. It's.

01:52:03:15 - 01:52:11:19
Jessie
Yeah. Awesome. Well, ladies, you guys are a team. You're a force to be reckoned with. I'm so.

01:52:11:21 - 01:52:13:02
Lauren or Laura
Yeah. Thank you for having us.

01:52:13:02 - 01:52:39:18
Jessie
Yeah, of course. I mean, this is my pleasure To help tell your stories to as many people as we can. And. And, you know, you're so generous with your time, with the happy hour to talk to other women in honor of International Women's Month. Really? Right. Day and month. So super exciting. And I look forward to, you know, following your progress and and, you know, working with you both.

01:52:39:20 - 01:52:46:11
Jessie
It's going to be great. It's going to be fun. I can't wait to see this brand go. I mean, it's early going, but like.

01:52:46:13 - 01:52:54:15
Lauren or Laura
Exploit it. Yeah, we know it to be we're looking forward to to thank you so much We love Yeah thank you so much. We're excited for the happy hour.

01:52:54:15 - 01:52:57:08
Jessie
Yeah. All right. Me too.

01:52:57:10 - 01:52:58:06
Laura
Okay.

01:52:58:08 - 01:53:04:12
Jessie
All right. Well, have a good rest of your weekend and we'll we'll talk to you soon.

01:53:04:14 - 01:53:05:21
Lauren or Laura
Yes. All right.

01:53:05:23 - 01:53:12:10
Jessie
Okay. Actually, this week's episode was produced by Fedora J Productions.