Mara Smith of Inspiro Tequila: Lawyer to Tequila Entrepreneur "How She Built a Brand to Stand Out in a Saturated Market"

📢I talk🎙️with  Mara Smith, Founder and CEO of Inspiro Tequila  👏🍷 🎇 🎉 ✨ 👏 🥂  😁

Mara is by far the most educated woman I've interviewed in our industry. She's not only a big Chicago law firm lawyer, she is also a CPA! 🎓🎓💃 🎇

She took the most amazing path from A to Z in building a tequila brand. If you want to build a brand, she's has an amazing path for you to follow!

She jumped all in from the beginning and entered and won WSWA's best tequila and mezcal category. She's well known in the Press, she even has a feature in Forbes. She's using PR to help promote her brand and has been on many TV news segments and podcasts. She's also very active in women-led initiatives helping other women.

We explore Mara's journey from a successful career in law and corporate strategy to entrepreneurship.  We talk about the importance of adaptability, the entrepreneurial spirit, and the evolving landscape of the beverage industry. She highlights the importance of quality, research, and innovative production methods, including the unique aging process in rosé wine barrels.

Entrepreneurs wanting to start a new brand must know the importance of hitting the 4 P's in today's market: Positioning, Product, Packaging, and Purpose. Also of note is the significance of packaging and branding in a crowded market. You're tequila MUST STAND APART to gain attention.

She shares her experiences, challenges, and insights as she navigated her career transitions and the inspiration behind her tequila brand. She has a strong commitment to creating a product that authentically caters to female consumers as 54% of the tequila market are women.

We then delve into the world of tequila, exploring unique flavors, food pairings, and the challenges of navigating the spirits industry as a newcomer.

Mara shares the importance of community and mentorship, and the hurdles faced by women entrepreneurs in securing funding and distribution. We end our time  discussing the future outlook for the spirits market and the balance of personal life and work as a founder.

I've never tasted anything like these tequilas. Plus they are Additive Free!

Luna Blanco
Rests in American Oak 1-2 weeks - very aromatic

Rosa Reposado
is the same blanco but goes straight into French  rose barrels 2 to 3 months
Has herbal vs citrus and unique berries. It has a lot of character and drink on ice.
Lighter than an aged repo and has mixed ages in the bottle.

Special Reserve Anejo
Offered online - Perfect Holiday Gift!🎁
Double Wine Barrel Aged Overproof at 44% ABV
Rose

NOW ON YOUTUBE!!! Thank you for Listening! Join us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter!

Host Jessie Ott's Profile on LinkedIn

Chapters

• 0:28 Introduction and Background
• 2:20 Where Mara is Calling From
• 2:56 Where Mara is From
• 6:10 Type of Law Mara Practiced
• 6:52 Pivot from Law to Global Strategy at McDonnalds
• 14:28 Mara's Unanticipated & Biggest Career Pivot
• 24:47 Understanding the Female Tequila Consumer
• 31:17 The Importance of Packaging and Branding
• 33:09 Tasting the Blanco
• 38:24 Components of Creating a Standout Brand in Todays Market
• 40:20 Must have 4 Ps Positioning, Product, Packaging and Purpose
• 41:48 Tasting the Repo 1st Tequila to be Aged in Rose Wine Barrels
• 47:54 Special Release Limited Edition on Anejo this Holiday Season!
• 53:39 Resources
• 1:00:28 Results of winning WSWA tequila and mezcal category
• 1:03:07 Mentors
• 1:06:47 Pain Points
• 1:08:19 Industry Outlook
• 1:11:04 2 Brain Institute Teachings Men vs Women and Importance of Taking a Break
• 1:13:29 Produced by Fedora J Productions

Transcript

00:00:01:01 - 00:00:09:01
Jessie Ott
Welcome, everybody. This is Jessica, and I have Marla Smith here today with inspire o tequila. How are you today, Mara?

00:00:09:03 - 00:00:10:21
Mara Smith
Good. How are you, Jessie?

00:00:11:02 - 00:00:24:12
Jessie Ott
I feel honored you're with me. You're you're like the, the online celebrity, your, TV. You've done a lot of podcasts. I feel I feel very fortunate that you're able to take time out in this busy season to to chat with me.

00:00:24:14 - 00:00:31:02
Mara Smith
Thank you. I appreciate that. Make my kids laugh. You know, saying that I'm any type of celebrity, but. Yeah. Thanks.

00:00:31:04 - 00:00:49:11
Jessie Ott
Oh, you heard me. I think it's pretty cool the outreach that you're you're reaching and and getting on TV and doing recipes and whatnot. You know, I think it's, I don't know, is it is it outside of Chicago, too? I know there's been some, morning shows and whatnot, so that's good news.

00:00:49:13 - 00:01:06:20
Mara Smith
Yeah, it just depends on, the market and like podcast, I just the reason I love going on podcast because I'm a huge podcast listener. So I usually just reach out to all these podcasts that I like and listen to, just like I reached out to you because I'm like, oh, I, you know, I like this podcast. I love to be on it.

00:01:06:20 - 00:01:14:09
Mara Smith
So that's kind of how all these podcast come up. That's just because I have to like my cue of podcasts to listen to. I like 102 right now.

00:01:14:09 - 00:01:32:23
Jessie Ott
I know, so I know my wife and I are driving to Florida and we're going to take three days and I'm like, kind of bomb because we're driving separately because we're taking a lot of stuff. But I'm like, oh, good. I get to catch up on my podcast. I have it, and it was it tuned so long. I'm actually really excited about it.

00:01:33:01 - 00:01:42:15
Mara Smith
Yeah, I know we just had a road trip to see my son at school, this past weekend, so I was like really excited. I was like, okay, how can I get there as many? And I listen to them on double speed so I can get through.

00:01:42:15 - 00:01:55:04
Jessie Ott
Yes, 100%. You can't you can't wait. Not normal. The normal time you got to speed it up for sure. For sure. Absolutely. So where are you calling from today? Are you in, the Chicago home there today?

00:01:55:04 - 00:01:58:14
Mara Smith
Yes. Yeah. Nice. Here in Chicago.

00:01:58:16 - 00:02:01:17
Jessie Ott
Nice. Is the fall kind of hit yet?

00:02:01:19 - 00:02:13:14
Mara Smith
You know what we've been really fortunate about today's, like, cloudy, a little cloudy, kind of rain, overcast. But, it's been really nice out, like, not heavy jacket weather. Surprisingly for. Yeah. You know, November.

00:02:13:15 - 00:02:31:04
Jessie Ott
Yeah. For November for Chicago. Believe me, I've flown through there and been there plenty of times. Being from Iowa, it's not fun. A place is so cold. I'm cold in the summertime there. I wear long sleeves. It's ridiculous.

00:02:31:06 - 00:02:39:05
Mara Smith
And sorry. I have, someone who's fixing my washing machine who is telling him he can go through it now. Oh, camera. It's okay.

00:02:39:06 - 00:02:42:08
Jessie Ott
Though. No. Don't worry. So are you from Chicago?

00:02:42:10 - 00:03:02:14
Mara Smith
Yes. Born and raised in the Chicagoland area. If you can hear from my very Midwestern accent. Most people can like, can hear it right away. But, yeah, I was born, raised in the northern suburbs of Chicago and came back here nice.

00:03:02:16 - 00:03:07:04
Jessie Ott
When you say came back, did you did you go to school somewhere else or.

00:03:07:06 - 00:03:18:07
Mara Smith
Well, I went to under undergrad, at University of Illinois in Champaign. Then actually, I came back to Chicago for law school. So, have not left since.

00:03:18:08 - 00:03:21:19
Jessie Ott
Nice. Nice. At which which law school did you go to?

00:03:21:21 - 00:03:22:21
Mara Smith
I went to northwestern.

00:03:23:00 - 00:03:33:04
Jessie Ott
Northwestern? Nice. Okay, okay. That's cool. That's a great school. It's like one level below Ivy League, right? I mean, it's pretty pretty esteemed.

00:03:33:06 - 00:03:39:17
Mara Smith
It was. It was a great education. It's, super intense, but I. Yeah, every minute of it.

00:03:39:19 - 00:03:58:03
Jessie Ott
Yeah. I had some other, another. They're not a couple, but they're, they were met in law school and I can't remember if it was you, Chicago or Northwestern, but they they are now in the business. And it went through that whole process too. It's pretty intense. I mean, it's crazy.

00:03:58:05 - 00:04:01:13
Mara Smith
Prepared me for entrepreneurship. Pretty intense as well.

00:04:01:15 - 00:04:20:04
Jessie Ott
Yeah. And it's on all the time. And you got to read the fine print. Yeah. I always wanted to be a lawyer. And then they're like, just. You have to read a lot. And I did an internship at an insurance company because by then I was like, yeah, right. I'm just going to be in in real estate.

00:04:20:06 - 00:04:29:22
Jessie Ott
And I'd fall asleep reading those contracts. So I'm like, yeah, I don't think that's for me either. Can't do it. I don't have the brain for it.

00:04:30:00 - 00:04:44:00
Mara Smith
It's not a brain. I think it's just a discipline of like, sitting, you know, and being of, like, just sit and focus and read kind of more. Yeah. Boring material. Maybe for like, a long period of time.

00:04:44:02 - 00:04:49:16
Jessie Ott
And to into borderline A.D.D. for that.

00:04:49:18 - 00:05:09:18
Jessie Ott
I was happy to hear my, my wife's boss. She she's like, on this, like, 80s. I don't know, insomnia spectrum. It's just, I guess you have it or you don't or whatever. Anyway, I leave cupboards open, I'll go into the kitchen and I'll do my thing, and I'll leave cupboards of women and and, And she is so mad at me and I'm like, what I'm working with.

00:05:10:00 - 00:05:18:05
Jessie Ott
And and then I found out that that's a thing because, her boss does it to look at this. I mean, yeah, you don't know real.

00:05:18:06 - 00:05:25:09
Mara Smith
Correlation, but, like, executive functioning, like just, you know, organization planning, things like that. Yes. I have.

00:05:25:11 - 00:05:26:01
Jessie Ott
Yeah, I'm.

00:05:26:01 - 00:05:37:07
Mara Smith
On her. So. Yeah. So I totally can appreciate it and understand that I come from labs and I'm like a lot of lists and organization like that is like my happy place.

00:05:37:09 - 00:05:48:07
Jessie Ott
I wish I'm a high, high visionary, like, off the chart visionary. And it's that's a real challenge for me. But, you know.

00:05:48:09 - 00:05:49:20
Mara Smith
You need different skills.

00:05:49:20 - 00:06:03:05
Jessie Ott
You figure it out, you figure it out until you can hire people to help you. So what got you, or what was tough? First of all, what kind of law were you? Were you interested in?

00:06:03:07 - 00:06:19:06
Mara Smith
Yeah. So, when I practice, I was at a really large law firm in Chicago. Right out of law school. I went to the big law firm thing, had lots of law school loans to pay off. So I went to the big law firm, and, great experience. Like, you get thrown in the fire really quickly.

00:06:19:06 - 00:06:47:22
Mara Smith
I was, doing commercial real estate, a lot of rework, selling huge buildings and, also doing, like, securitization work. So really exciting. Great big fun deals. And that was like, like, like first chapter of my career and then, you know, then then pivoted, to, the corporate strategy group at McDonald's Corporation.

00:06:48:00 - 00:06:50:16
Jessie Ott
Oh, that's interesting.

00:06:50:18 - 00:07:01:03
Mara Smith
Oh, yeah. What? It was a it was a significant change. So my undergrad, was in business. I have a business degree, and I actually got my CPA before I went to law school.

00:07:01:04 - 00:07:03:06
Jessie Ott
Like, do you get your CPA and you're like.

00:07:03:08 - 00:07:04:05
Mara Smith
Okay, so I.

00:07:04:05 - 00:07:04:21
Jessie Ott
Came in.

00:07:04:21 - 00:07:30:03
Mara Smith
Owning my CPA, went straight to law school. So when I was at my law firm, I got married while I was there, and, I had started thinking about having a family. Right. And all of a sudden I looked around, I'm like, wait, there are no female partners in my, like, entire department. So I really had no role models at the time to look to, to see how I could possibly manage a large law firm life with having a family.

00:07:30:05 - 00:07:46:01
Mara Smith
I kind of didn't occur to me until then, but so at that time, the option was really just to go part time, and it wasn't a great option. I hope things have changed since then, but it meant really you kind of you work full time, you just get paid for part time. You're off the partnership track and I like work.

00:07:46:01 - 00:08:06:01
Mara Smith
I bought off to be on like partnership track and, you know, get those big fun, sexy deals. You get like very kind of routine matters. So I was like, you know, I had such a great experience. I, but I that's not going to work for me. So I decided to try the business side and go and practice law at McDonald's Corporation, but go on the business side.

00:08:06:01 - 00:08:24:21
Mara Smith
So I joined their corporate strategy group. And it was kind of right when I was getting started. So just opened my eyes to a whole lot of other things were like studying consumer trends and customer insights and just ideating new concepts and ideas for the company. So it was.

00:08:24:23 - 00:08:25:22
Jessie Ott
And that's a mess.

00:08:25:22 - 00:08:26:15
Mara Smith
Fascinating.

00:08:26:16 - 00:08:37:20
Jessie Ott
You're talking mass amounts of people all over the world with at McDonald's. I mean, yeah, different flavors and different cultures and how fun that actually would have been. Really, really fun.

00:08:37:22 - 00:08:57:19
Mara Smith
It was cool. I actually got to travel internationally quite a bit. So, it was just interesting because like, every McDonald's is like, you know, they're all different. They'd have to do a menu item. So, you know, like based on the, you know, certain locale. So it was it was really cool, very interesting, you know.

00:08:58:00 - 00:08:58:10
Jessie Ott
Yeah.

00:08:58:14 - 00:09:21:16
Mara Smith
Job. And also, I think all of a sudden my entrepreneurial spirit maybe was sparked there because I never contemplated, like starting my own company until then. And I'm like, oh, this is cool. Look at all these different ideas and concepts and, you know, things that I thought I could do better. Or, you know, maybe then how someone is running something else, not at McDonald's, but like just different concepts we're looking at.

00:09:21:18 - 00:09:32:13
Mara Smith
So I actually started contemplating opening, a ice cream franchise, but then decided it decided that, you know, Chicago, not the best location for an existing.

00:09:32:13 - 00:09:36:10
Jessie Ott
Store, but ice cream was so young.

00:09:36:12 - 00:09:42:15
Mara Smith
But it just it got me starting to think about ideas that I never contemplated before.

00:09:42:17 - 00:10:12:21
Jessie Ott
Yeah. Yeah, certainly. I mean, that's a, a massive switch, actually, going from real estate, big deals in Chicago. You know, I can't imagine how big those deals are. And the people that you encountered or met or read about within the paperwork, you know, of all that and then to go to, you know, kind of have a completely different perspective or outlook on your tasks of the day because they're you're thinking about a large strategy.

00:10:12:21 - 00:10:21:06
Jessie Ott
If you're on that global level, that's that's a big umbrella of strategy that you get to learn and kind of, you know, run with.

00:10:21:08 - 00:10:47:05
Mara Smith
Right. It used to very different skills. I think, you know, just working in corporate, it's a different law firm is like you're you're billing by the, you know, eight minute increments of your day. So it's like, I see and things like that. It's, a lot more like, especially as an associate of law firm, a lot more time, kind of like on your own.

00:10:47:07 - 00:10:57:08
Mara Smith
Yeah. Because you're doing you know, preparing or doing documents or marking up documents or things like that, as opposed to like the corporate side where it was much more interactive.

00:10:57:13 - 00:10:57:22
Jessie Ott
Yeah.

00:10:57:23 - 00:11:05:21
Mara Smith
You know, a lot of meetings, a lot of presentations, things like that, more group, kind of more group work than when you're, you know, practicing law.

00:11:05:23 - 00:11:25:06
Jessie Ott
Yeah. That sounds like a a little bit more fun. I, the closest I got to law was when I was living in New York City, and, I got some temp temp work and law. Big law firms would hire temps to come in. And just, like, make sure all the documentation is in there or I can't even remember all the things.

00:11:25:06 - 00:11:47:20
Jessie Ott
It was super easy. And we ended up meeting, ended up meeting and some really cool people that were that, you know, just needed an extra side hustle. But so I can understand, you know, that I learned a lot about how how big, these, you know, these law firms are and the billable hours that they have is pretty incredible.

00:11:47:22 - 00:12:01:22
Mara Smith
Yeah, it's pretty intense. I actually worked in in our New York office for a summer. So, and it took my Chicago experience, I think, even to the next level of how much I thought I was working. It.

00:12:02:00 - 00:12:22:00
Jessie Ott
Yeah. Yeah, that's that's that's tough. So tough. I, I've met people in New York that, that did that. I mean, you know, we travel and we work and we work weekends sometimes when you need to, or work nights or do tastings and all the things, but, nothing like that. Well, depending, but.

00:12:22:02 - 00:12:23:06
Mara Smith
I would say I hopefully.

00:12:23:06 - 00:12:23:12
Jessie Ott
Enough.

00:12:23:12 - 00:12:27:13
Mara Smith
Now, as a founder, I work more than I did at the largest law firm in Chicago.

00:12:27:14 - 00:12:29:23
Jessie Ott
Well, so it doesn't stop.

00:12:29:23 - 00:12:32:06
Mara Smith
My hours are unlimited. Yeah.

00:12:32:08 - 00:12:42:06
Jessie Ott
But it's fun work. It's not for someone else, right? I mean, not it's not always fun, but at least you know the end goal is like, this is a company that I'm building, which is.

00:12:42:06 - 00:12:52:15
Mara Smith
And it just doesn't have a delineation of like personal and professional life when it's like you're all in and it's yours because, yes, it's all intertwined.

00:12:52:17 - 00:13:14:13
Jessie Ott
It is because, you know, I was thinking about I need to get back into, you know, like, the schedule and get up at six because after Covid, we're, well, I'll get up early and then I'll work and then we'll work out and I'm like, no, I got to go back to get up at six, get into the gym, get the office and have, you know, a mark.

00:13:14:14 - 00:13:35:04
Jessie Ott
Because I'm a high visionary. I'm not a task person. I need I need to have that structure to like, keep, keep me on track and, yeah, I think that would, I'm, I'm actually pretty excited about, you know, maybe I'll get a lot more done, but then you work all the time and it's like, oh, Saturday, is it Saturday or Sunday or Monday or Wednesday?

00:13:35:04 - 00:13:45:03
Jessie Ott
It doesn't matter because every day is the same.

00:13:45:05 - 00:13:53:17
Mara Smith
But sorry. Yeah. Once again, having someone check on the washing machine going out upstairs. That was a repair. Yeah. Yeah, that was a warning.

00:13:53:19 - 00:13:58:00
Jessie Ott
Oh no. I was like, it wasn't a Samsung was it?

00:13:58:02 - 00:14:02:12
Mara Smith
It's not a Samsung, but it's it's a problem child.

00:14:02:14 - 00:14:18:05
Jessie Ott
I've we got front loaders likes tackles. And we've been told that they, they leak. I've heard at two people that I know that it happened to. I'm like right.

00:14:18:07 - 00:14:26:23
Jessie Ott
Okay. So you're at McDonald's traveling the world, getting to look at some pretty cool markets, doing some cool things. So what happens after that?

00:14:27:01 - 00:14:41:22
Mara Smith
So nothing goes according to plan. So as I'm like, you know, working my way up the corporate ladder, I become pregnant with my oldest kids who are twins, and they're great now, but I ended up on emergency bed rest.

00:14:42:00 - 00:14:46:03
Jessie Ott
Oh, no. Was that my sister in law? Did that?

00:14:46:05 - 00:14:49:01
Mara Smith
Yeah. I was on for three and a half months, so three.

00:14:49:01 - 00:14:49:12
Jessie Ott
And a half.

00:14:49:12 - 00:15:15:07
Mara Smith
Months. Screeching halt, and then I preemie twins and decided to stay home. Something I never, ever foresaw or contemplated, but I just thought they needed my attention. I'm very fortunate that I had that option, but, Yeah, that was probably the biggest pivot that I never anticipated. Honestly, I stayed home.

00:15:15:09 - 00:15:35:23
Jessie Ott
Yeah, well, you know, you you you roll the circumstances, right? Like, you know, I got breast cancer this year, and my mother in law has stage four lung cancer. I mean, you just deal with what comes and you pivot and you work it out. I had I'm six weeks behind, you know, but but you pivot and you, you figure it out.

00:15:35:23 - 00:15:53:20
Jessie Ott
I mean, I mean, that's what especially as a mom, that's what you do. Right. And I'm I'm sure you really appreciate that time with the boys and preemies. That's that's a tough road. I've I've, I've, I've had friends that have gone through that before and it's it's touch and go for a while. They're it's hard.

00:15:53:22 - 00:16:12:13
Mara Smith
Yeah. And they just take a lot of attention. And here so my oldest so I have boy girl twins and then I had a third child nine and a half years later. So I was actually out of the workforce for a very long time, still working just out of the traditional workforce.

00:16:12:13 - 00:16:13:10
Jessie Ott
Right.

00:16:13:12 - 00:16:21:10
Mara Smith
Still working very hard. So yeah. So I was out for like over 16 years before I got back and started a company.

00:16:21:12 - 00:16:26:10
Jessie Ott
Oh, wow. That's a long time. So you were able to stay home. That's great though. You know.

00:16:26:12 - 00:16:55:05
Mara Smith
I feel like I got a lot of different, you know, just like opportunity. So here I had this great opportunity to be home and, you know, here raising my kids for a long time. I think part of that is that, when I'm in something, I'm like, all in. And I think I'm actually terrible at balancing things. So, they talk about my, my hours now and my hours, like working in a law firm.

00:16:55:05 - 00:17:06:18
Mara Smith
Like I'm really good at being myopically focused on, like, getting one thing done and things totally. And, and I think that's how I was also as a stay at home mom. Like it?

00:17:06:20 - 00:17:08:02
Jessie Ott
She zoned in and it.

00:17:08:02 - 00:17:16:07
Mara Smith
Took a ton of my attention. I was like, super, you know, honed in on. And that part of my life so.

00:17:16:09 - 00:17:34:04
Jessie Ott
Well, you got to experience it all already, right? You get two amazing different careers that, and all the education that you're able to receive and, and good. And so not everybody can say they've, they've experienced all the things. And now you're an entrepreneur.

00:17:34:06 - 00:17:37:14
Mara Smith
Who would have thought seriously? Yes.

00:17:37:16 - 00:17:46:17
Jessie Ott
Well, it sounded like you kind of had the bug there. It was in planted in maybe in the McDonald's time frame.

00:17:46:19 - 00:18:01:03
Mara Smith
I think the things that kind of led to this, one hearing that I'm not great with authority, which is probably accurate. So I'm better. I'm better running my own company than probably yes.

00:18:01:08 - 00:18:19:07
Jessie Ott
I understand I have my that's good though. That's that's good. You know, because for me, I just didn't want to work for anybody else because I, I just got tired of it. I just get, you know, you just it's a burnout. You know, you just you're like, yeah, but I can do it better. I can do it different, or I can do it this way and.

00:18:19:09 - 00:18:40:05
Mara Smith
It's just I just think it's, you know, also, listen, I was calling back in the workforce after being out for a long time. Yeah. This is not easy for women to enter the workforce. I didn't know, like, who would hire me, what I would do. I'd been out for, like, that long that I. You really. I'm like, in some knocking on someone else's door.

00:18:40:05 - 00:19:11:18
Mara Smith
I'm like, I'm going to build my own door. Like the only vision I could see of, like how I would get back in is me starting something. And I own. So I think that was like kind of the second piece of that. I think the third thing is, I feel like I just wanted to build something. I wanted to see something that I built, like a company that I build, I knew was gonna be product based, cause I like literally one, like a physical representation of that.

00:19:11:20 - 00:19:35:02
Mara Smith
So they just had that drive to, like, actually create something, see, it. I think every stage of my life has had like different types of learnings, and I'm just intellectually curious. I like Sam to learn it all, and I didn't know at all. Like, I just like to absorb information and learn. This was a completely different area.

00:19:35:02 - 00:19:40:17
Mara Smith
And I'm counseling, learning. Like every day I'm learning something new.

00:19:40:18 - 00:20:06:18
Jessie Ott
Yeah, I am too. I've been in the industry for 20 some years and I'm still learning. You know, what happens out in, in, in our, in our industry, if you're, if you're lucky enough, you can get hired to get in different positions and learn different roles and different things. I went into the, I was in field marketing, went, jumped into, did some analytics and then kind of jumped into the brokerage side.

00:20:06:20 - 00:20:27:19
Jessie Ott
No one would hire me. I mean, I didn't really try that hard because I kind of knew I was going to do my own thing. But, you know, it wasn't like a I wasn't out of the workforce for 16 years, like you. I mean, you have obviously a lot of degrees and, and great history work history, but it's still kind of, you know, frustrating even just being in the industry and how hard it is.

00:20:27:21 - 00:20:46:11
Jessie Ott
And then there's so many aspects of it to learn, like, I'm learning, you know, duty free and cruise lines a little bit now. So I'm expanding, you know, outside of just calling on the military, which is exciting, but it's still a learning curve. There's a lot to learn. And I think that's, you know, it's that's an exciting part of the industry.

00:20:46:13 - 00:21:12:18
Mara Smith
Yeah. And I actually think in this particular industry in spirits, you know, degrees and things like that, I think are less relevant than industry experience. Oh yeah. That's one of the things I saw was the hardest things to like overcome is coming in as an outsider. You've been in for so long. So many people grew up in the industry and have been for so long, so to be taken seriously.

00:21:12:20 - 00:21:36:19
Mara Smith
Yeah. In the industry coming in is like, who are you and where do you come from? And you don't have industry experience? It's really hard. Yeah. I feel like I did do it. I did my homework. I wanted to come in prepared. You know, there's always more to learn. As you said, you're still learning. But I really did a lot of due diligence to make sure that I was.

00:21:36:21 - 00:21:52:13
Mara Smith
Well prepared. And also tried, you know, becoming involved in, like, industry organizations and things like that because I did it to build, like a ton of credibility.

00:21:52:15 - 00:22:13:12
Jessie Ott
Well, let's backtrack just a second. What was the moment or the inspiration where it just. Yeah, you got the warm and fuzzy and, and it was like, this is what I want to do. I mean like explain kind of how that came to, to be because that's that's exciting.

00:22:13:14 - 00:22:33:10
Mara Smith
Yeah. So there are a couple things I, I start out and that's a great question, like how in the world did I get here? But so I start out, I knew I wanted to start, company knew it was gonna be in food or beverage. I'm just a super consumer. I love the category. I like taste testing mostly the better for you.

00:22:33:12 - 00:22:58:00
Mara Smith
So everything you see on Shark Tank, like, I literally just bought some new Shark Tank product that just came out this last Friday when she pitched, I, I taste test them or like walking the floors of Expo West. So this is an industry that I've always been really fascinated with. And I was looking at different concepts, and I was thinking of like, what kind of product it would be.

00:22:58:00 - 00:23:14:05
Mara Smith
And I just kept coming back to tequila. I'm like, I feel like there's something here. And tequila at the time. This is end of 2019 to beginning of 2020. You know, impeccable timing and founded a company in February of 2020 before the entire world shut down.

00:23:14:05 - 00:23:25:03
Jessie Ott
But, but it gave you time to. You weren't, like, needing to sell anything at that point. So you get it was a great time for you to kind of, you know, just learn here. Yeah.

00:23:25:03 - 00:23:46:02
Mara Smith
Yeah. And learn. And the reason it became tequila's really, at that point, I've been a tequila drinker for a while. I was drinking tequila because I thought it was like something just better for me as far as an adult beverage goes. Like, just a better option. I don't know. I like wine, but it just does not like me as much.

00:23:46:04 - 00:24:05:09
Mara Smith
I would wake up in the middle of the night and, you know, go the next day, like, because the sugars. So I start discovering like, oh, tequila. I don't feel like is bad. And it felt just I love sweets like we talked about, I love food, I love trying products I don't love, like drinking my calories or sweet drinks.

00:24:05:09 - 00:24:08:04
Mara Smith
I like to eat sweets but not like drink them.

00:24:08:06 - 00:24:10:12
Jessie Ott
So I understand.

00:24:10:14 - 00:24:33:06
Mara Smith
So that's how I started drinking. Like tequila. Mostly like just tequila. Soda. Then I learned two things. One, everything I was drinking had additives in it. So sweeteners, artificial sweeteners, coloring, glycerin, I was like, what? I, I thought this was like a better for you option. I had no idea. As many.

00:24:33:08 - 00:24:34:12
Jessie Ott
Surprise.

00:24:34:12 - 00:24:34:19
Mara Smith
Yeah.

00:24:35:00 - 00:24:36:10
Jessie Ott
Just learning.

00:24:36:12 - 00:24:44:08
Mara Smith
I don't eat aspartame in my food. I don't eat artificial sweeteners, so I didn't want it in my drink either.

00:24:44:08 - 00:24:45:14
Jessie Ott
Right? 100%.

00:24:45:14 - 00:25:00:12
Mara Smith
Yeah, and all these women kept telling me that they're tequila drinkers. I'm more and more women. Like, yeah, I don't feel like that's why I drink. Like, really, all these women do tequila. And it was like walking up and down my local liquor store. Look at these show. Some, like none of these, seem to speak to like a female consumer.

00:25:00:12 - 00:25:07:20
Mara Smith
Like, you know, from the bottle design thing, like skulls and agave fields to the marketing.

00:25:07:22 - 00:25:11:02
Jessie Ott
Big locks and stuff and guns.

00:25:11:02 - 00:25:37:08
Mara Smith
And the marketing is like scantily clad women in dark club scenes, like, you're not speaking to me as the consumer and, you know, I just didn't think anyone was trying to address like, a thoughtful female consumer like me, and then learned that 54% of tequila drinkers are women. So I'm like, well, if all these women drink tequila, why do brands not focus on them and focus on them in like a really authentic way?

00:25:37:08 - 00:26:02:13
Mara Smith
Like, I was like people I know, like want like good quality craft tequila, full ABV, like not dumbed down. You know, you put a bunch of like, industry men in a room together. I know, like, how about how pink battles or like fruity flavors? I'm like, no, like, this is a really thoughtful, educated consumer who wants really good quality products, right?

00:26:02:17 - 00:26:04:13
Jessie Ott
Yeah, 100%.

00:26:04:15 - 00:26:08:02
Mara Smith
And can we deliver that right.

00:26:08:04 - 00:26:18:13
Jessie Ott
And so that's how it was sort of something that kind of happened over time that you, you saw you saw like a, gap in the market essentially.

00:26:18:16 - 00:26:40:14
Mara Smith
But once I was in, once I was like, I think there's something here. I was like, all on. I'm like done February, like done incorporated LLC set up. It's kind of funny because we talked about I'm a huge podcast listener and I love podcasts. Well, I binge a lot of like how I built this. And I remember literally how impactful this was.

00:26:40:14 - 00:26:48:07
Mara Smith
This is like what put me over the edge of, like, starting. I listened to the episode, on Dave's Killer Bread.

00:26:48:09 - 00:26:48:20
Jessie Ott
Oh, yeah.

00:26:48:20 - 00:27:09:00
Mara Smith
I listened to it. I was like, oh my gosh. I'm like, if he can like come out of jail and start a company successful, I'm damn like this, man. I'm coming out of like stay at home mom mode can, like, start a company, know absolutely, literally what drove me and like to believe that. Like, you know what, I think I could do this.

00:27:09:01 - 00:27:24:12
Jessie Ott
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And so what was your first like, foray? I mean, did you just go start tasting tequilas or did you start researching like, the additives and like all the different?

00:27:24:14 - 00:27:48:06
Mara Smith
I started researching first ton of due diligence. Well, one, I couldn't get to Mexico because then everything closed down for everything closed of it. Right. So there were like a number of steps to this. I wanted to learn about the history, and production of tequila making. So I took the course offered by the CRT in Mexico to understand the production methods and how what the different alternatives are and, and expressions of skill and all of that.

00:27:48:08 - 00:28:13:02
Mara Smith
Yeah. I started reading, like, every book I could find about, tequila. I listened to, like, every podcast I was listening to, all the, like, people, the tequila people who have podcasts on it. I started subscribing to, like, the industry circulars so that I was getting those to to understand, like just the spirits industry, like how it operates and works and works, you know, started researching the laws and legalities around it.

00:28:13:02 - 00:28:33:22
Mara Smith
That part was like a little easier. Me maybe for me to, like, get my head around because I had a legal background, even though it's totally different area. But, you know, just understanding the three tier distribution system and how each state operates differently. So I, I just started doing a ton of work and researching. Then, I needed to find a distillery and a master distiller.

00:28:33:22 - 00:28:51:03
Mara Smith
So I knew for me that I wanted a female master distiller to bring this to life. Like, if I was going to do this, it was not going to be this, like one woman figurehead. And everyone behind me is like industry, you know, men like it had to be through and through. Like we want it to be powered by this.

00:28:51:03 - 00:29:14:09
Mara Smith
Like all women team. So I wanted to find a master distiller down there. So I read a book on all the women in tequila. It's a very small book. And I found, I read Anna Maria Romero. Mina. I found consultants, like every introduction led to another introduction, and I found consultants down in Mexico and asked them, they can connect me and Anna Maria.

00:29:14:09 - 00:29:37:21
Mara Smith
And so we got connected and I had them doing virtual tours of distilleries for me to find a distillery. I did a ton of research, even on distilleries I like. Narrowed it down. Yeah. Considering how many tequila brands there are, there are not that many distilleries that actually manufacture for all those brands. But I quickly narrowed down once I'm like, okay, I want a distillery that doesn't produce for a ton of suppliers because I'm not buying both tequila and tweaking it.

00:29:37:21 - 00:29:58:00
Mara Smith
We want our own recipe. Okay, now narrowed it down. I want, you know, them to have access, easy access, agave time. Agave prices were high. So who has their own agave fields? I want them to let me bring my own chef into their kitchen. I have a male master distiller, so like, the universal distiller is actually, like, narrow down pretty quickly.

00:29:58:01 - 00:30:00:03
Jessie Ott
Yeah.

00:30:00:05 - 00:30:21:05
Mara Smith
So that's kind of what happened. And then I finally got the distillery masters tiller, and we were just working back and forth remotely until, you know, then they finally sent samples. That was a whole nother disaster. Our first run of samples, which we didn't use. But I know great. Fine. I'll tell you, it's a process. May of 2021.

00:30:21:07 - 00:30:24:15
Jessie Ott
Okay, so that's not very long.

00:30:24:17 - 00:30:27:03
Mara Smith
It felt there's a lot of time, but I guess it's not that long.

00:30:27:07 - 00:30:48:04
Jessie Ott
Yeah I mean sometimes it takes two years to get the right iteration. It just depends on your access to materials and the process and all the things. And then, you know, what kind of processes or flavors or whatever, whatever you things that are unique to your brand. Did you want to, you know, do you want to bring to the, to the bottle?

00:30:48:04 - 00:30:58:01
Jessie Ott
So is there anything, you want to taste, maybe get into that and then just talk about the process and your decision making behind each squarely.

00:30:58:05 - 00:31:02:22
Mara Smith
Okay. Yes. And then when you went to the bottle to see, you know, that also was a whole process because you.

00:31:02:23 - 00:31:04:10
Jessie Ott
Oh yeah, we'll get into that.

00:31:04:12 - 00:31:06:23
Mara Smith
Custom bottle that took a ton of time.

00:31:07:01 - 00:31:15:09
Jessie Ott
Yeah, that bottle is awesome. And it does deserve its time. Honor for sure, because it's awesome. And and so do the caps there. Cool.

00:31:15:11 - 00:31:33:21
Mara Smith
I appreciate that. So yeah. So I wanted an at it I started with the Blanco obviously first. So we didn't even introduce our rubbers out until much later. Because as you know it takes time to age it. And so I feel like always, always be a little cautious about a brand that comes out with like an entire line of SKUs at one time that like, when do they meet?

00:31:33:21 - 00:31:34:13
Mara Smith
Yeah.

00:31:34:15 - 00:31:37:14
Jessie Ott
So before them.

00:31:37:16 - 00:31:55:09
Mara Smith
Totally. So we start with the Blanco. And when you talk about the Blanco, you know, I want it to be additive free but still have some of those sweeter tasting notes that I, we, we did a bunch of customer, you know, kind of research. We had focus groups and I conducted a survey and I tried to understand the brand.

00:31:55:09 - 00:32:11:00
Mara Smith
She generally likes and drinks, and a lot of them, they have a little bit of a sweeter profile. So just like second tastes like overly sweet. It's not going to taste like, you know, cake batter or anything like that. But how can we get a little sweeter notes without using any of the additives to get those that are typically used?

00:32:11:02 - 00:32:33:04
Mara Smith
How can we get like fresh light and very not to have, a lot of burn on it or bite. So we want to get like any harsh ness around it because as we discussed, I don't mix it in drinks. Like if you mix it in a sugary drink, you can mask anything. But if you want to drink it just on the rocks or with some water, I want it to be really approachable.

00:32:33:06 - 00:32:57:22
Mara Smith
Yeah. So we actually ended up resting our blanco for short time in, former bourbon barrels used bourbon barrels, and by putting it in bourbon barrels for a really short time that we rounded out and got some of those sweeter notes of the caramel and vanilla and took out a lot of that bite without using the additives. So that's kind of try the Blanco first.

00:32:57:22 - 00:33:01:10
Jessie Ott
Yeah, let's do that. So it's rested in bourbon barrels.

00:33:01:11 - 00:33:02:17
Mara Smith
Yes.

00:33:02:19 - 00:33:07:00
Jessie Ott
And do you know anything about the bourbon barrels or where they come from or.

00:33:07:02 - 00:33:11:09
Mara Smith
I do. They're they're for Rose's bourbon barrels.

00:33:11:09 - 00:33:15:04
Jessie Ott
Nice. Good. Good call. This smells delicious.

00:33:15:06 - 00:33:23:17
Mara Smith
Thank you. Well, Anna Maria actually developed the aroma wheel tequila. She identified 600 aromas and tequila where they come from. The easiest.

00:33:23:19 - 00:33:24:09
Jessie Ott
Which is six.

00:33:24:09 - 00:33:25:15
Mara Smith
Hundred. Incredible.

00:33:25:17 - 00:33:28:15
Jessie Ott
Yeah. So how many does she say is in the Blanco? Yeah.

00:33:28:17 - 00:33:33:08
Mara Smith
Sugar.

00:33:33:09 - 00:33:36:17
Jessie Ott
That smells so good. I just want to smell it for a minute.

00:33:36:19 - 00:33:39:00
Mara Smith
I know she really like she.

00:33:39:02 - 00:33:41:00
Jessie Ott
I love tequila so much, though.

00:33:41:02 - 00:33:46:03
Mara Smith
She hit the, nose on that, like, really? She got it. She nailed it.

00:33:46:05 - 00:33:51:06
Jessie Ott
Oh, man.

00:33:51:08 - 00:34:09:05
Jessie Ott
I think I can see the legs on here. You're right. It does have that sweeter, notes to it, but it's not overpowering. Overwhelming. And it's so smooth, it like there's no burn whatsoever.

00:34:09:06 - 00:34:15:23
Mara Smith
You know, I tell people that when you, once you get to a cocktail, goes down kind of dangerously easy. Yeah.

00:34:16:01 - 00:34:33:12
Jessie Ott
Yeah. I mean, when you're in the industry, at least, and I'm in the same boat of not drinking sugar or not putting things in it for me. You know, my wife loves vodka. I'm just. I like I'll drink it like there's been a few that are really, really good, and I will. But for me, it's about the flavor.

00:34:33:12 - 00:34:54:23
Jessie Ott
It's it's not about the alcohol. It's about the flavor and the mix ability of it. If it's if that's what you want, you know. And so this I would definitely drink this straight. Maybe it's just a hint of lime or something, but yeah. This is yeah, I would mix this ever, maybe a little ranch water, like little bubble water or something like that.

00:34:54:23 - 00:34:58:20
Jessie Ott
But this is fantastic. Great flavor.

00:34:58:22 - 00:35:00:01
Mara Smith
Thank you.

00:35:00:03 - 00:35:14:02
Jessie Ott
I'm trying to think of what smell is on there that's unique. And I can't I can't place it. It's not citrus. It's kind of more earth toned then,

00:35:14:04 - 00:35:16:15
Mara Smith
It has a little bit of herbal ness because.

00:35:16:15 - 00:35:16:23
Jessie Ott
The.

00:35:17:03 - 00:35:24:16
Mara Smith
Lowland so definitely has, a little bit of an herbal anise to it or.

00:35:24:18 - 00:35:28:08
Jessie Ott
That's what it is.

00:35:28:10 - 00:35:48:15
Jessie Ott
Because, you know, sometimes. Oh, that's so good. Oh, man. Sometimes you get pepper, sometimes you get lines, sometimes you get citrus. It just depends, you know, like you said, where it's where it's made in their processing. But this is, this is fantastic. I'm so excited. I'm so glad to be able to do this. So do you want to,

00:35:48:17 - 00:35:54:00
Jessie Ott
You want to talk the repo, the do or do you want to just talk about the bottle here of the bottle?

00:35:54:00 - 00:36:06:13
Mara Smith
Yes. So I knew I wanted a bottle that would stand on the shelves. And I was like, you really want it to be easy to hold and pour? So I wanted to be slender in the middle so it's easy to handle. I thought those big stout bottles are hard to like, manipulate.

00:36:06:14 - 00:36:08:21
Jessie Ott
They are for women with smaller hands.

00:36:08:23 - 00:36:35:07
Mara Smith
Yeah. And I just wanted to, like, be sleek, like simple, sleek. Like I didn't want it overly done. I wanted it to, like, be something that you'd want to, like, put out or afterwards put flowers in like that. It's just like, really kind of sophisticated looking. So that's what, you know, that's what we came up with. It was like my mom and I going back and forth and honestly, like a pad of paper, really like how we wanted to look.

00:36:35:07 - 00:36:52:11
Mara Smith
Yes, we worked at the bottle center, too, but it was like I gave them all these requirements, not knowing how difficult it is to actually make this like one lot of people to set to start with a stacked bottle. I'm like, no, the bottle. Like it has to represent, like the quality, the juice and everything about the brand.

00:36:52:11 - 00:36:55:21
Mara Smith
It's like just thought through and meticulously crafted. So the bottle has to be.

00:36:55:21 - 00:37:01:16
Jessie Ott
Also, it's important. It's got to stand out on the shelf. This is going to stand out on any shelf.

00:37:01:18 - 00:37:17:03
Mara Smith
And the gradient paint. So things that are just hard right. So it has like a gradient paint which makes it like difficult. It has like you know metallic printed. Everything's printed on there. I didn't want paper labels. I wanted transparency. So you could see exactly what's in the middle.

00:37:17:05 - 00:37:18:11
Jessie Ott
Yeah, that's really cool.

00:37:18:11 - 00:37:19:06
Mara Smith
Juice inside.

00:37:19:06 - 00:37:28:10
Jessie Ott
So there's no bottle that I. Sorry. There's no bottle that I've ever seen that has that is there? I don't think so.

00:37:28:12 - 00:37:37:01
Mara Smith
Hey, you know, if there's some, you know, it looks different than a typical tequila bottle, like, looks very different.

00:37:37:03 - 00:37:59:07
Jessie Ott
It's very sleek. It's it's, inspiring. And it's going to draw you in for sure because there's so. Well, the tequila is busy, but there's, there's all kinds of things going on. And I think this one is as sleek, you know, it stands out it it has a message and it's a message in a bottle. Right. It says that it's a message in a bottle.

00:37:59:07 - 00:38:06:02
Mara Smith
Gosh, I just want to see sting last week last Monday. So that's nice. And he's like my favorite. So there you go. Message in a bottle.

00:38:06:04 - 00:38:13:23
Jessie Ott
I love that I love seeing I think he's great. He's good. Yeah. And then you want to talk a little bit about the topper yet.

00:38:13:23 - 00:38:36:19
Mara Smith
So you know what. It's just like I think it's about like, this is like the jewelry, like the edition. Like I wanted a glass top closure. Just because I think it, like, adds, like elegance, a little sparkle, like, I feel like that's like the jewelry that just makes it what it is. So I knew from the beginning like that that's something I wanted what you wanted.

00:38:36:21 - 00:38:37:03
Mara Smith
Yeah.

00:38:37:04 - 00:39:02:00
Jessie Ott
Yeah. It's not very common but I've had, I've seen bottles that have done that and it is, it is certainly a stand. It stands out right as something very different I think at least in my, in my experience, I think that's a good move, especially for the, the look and feel that you're getting with these bottles. And then obviously with the quality of the product and all your team that's involved from beginning to end, you know.

00:39:02:00 - 00:39:22:08
Mara Smith
Yeah. You know, I just wanted thought to go into everything. So. Right. We took a lot of time to come up with like the taste profiles. I want to take the time to come up with like the bottle, the name having meaning the logo, every meaning. Like I just wanted there to be, like, you know, a whole, like, story and meaning behind everything that we did.

00:39:22:10 - 00:39:47:20
Jessie Ott
Yep. But that's what it takes. I mean, it as you read, you know, the younger consumer, they want a story. And as you, as you, you know, entered into a category that's I don't think it's peaking, but it's, it's, you know, it's it's there's a lot of entrance into the marketplace. So in order for you to stand out to someone else, you're going to have to have all those things.

00:39:47:22 - 00:40:09:07
Jessie Ott
Right? A story, a reason, an explanation for every piece. And, and, you know, has to make sense to the consumer. And I think you certainly hit it. Hit it. I mean, you know, through and through. So I think that, yeah, it's a it's a great package, great logo. So. Well well done. Yeah. I can't wait.

00:40:09:09 - 00:40:21:15
Mara Smith
I appreciate I said you kind of need to deliver on all the things. Like I say, the four piece. It's like positioning, product, packaging and purpose. Like there have to be because of that, you're just lost in a really crowded category and really.

00:40:21:15 - 00:40:22:14
Jessie Ott
Crowded category, really.

00:40:22:14 - 00:40:27:20
Mara Smith
Tough industry to compete in. So I feel like you have to deliver on all of those.

00:40:27:22 - 00:40:50:13
Jessie Ott
Yeah, I mean, there is a reason that people that are in the industry, not not most of us aren't really from the industry because we know. Well, first of all, we know how hard it is. Right? And so if you don't know how hard it is, but you're passionate, you see something? I think that, you don't you don't know, you know, the struggles that we have.

00:40:50:13 - 00:41:05:10
Jessie Ott
And, you know, typically when you're, you know, I've worked for big, bigger companies, right? So even thinking about starting a brand was not something that was on the forefront, you know, I mean, I have a lot of friends that have done it and this, that. Yeah. There and I'm like, no, it's so.

00:41:05:10 - 00:41:07:00
Mara Smith
Far scared away for sure.

00:41:07:00 - 00:41:25:13
Jessie Ott
Yeah. Yeah. Well it's just so hard, you know, I mean, unless you can really stand out and do something unique, you know, you got to go through the brick and mortar and that's it's a process, right? I mean, Tito's. Yeah. I don't know if you've heard the story of Tito. He.

00:41:25:18 - 00:41:26:13
Mara Smith
Yeah.

00:41:26:15 - 00:41:31:08
Jessie Ott
It wasn't an overnight success. That guy.

00:41:31:10 - 00:41:38:18
Mara Smith
I know I'm going to have to put it in my car and start driving around, but, you know. Yeah. So do you have the repo there, too?

00:41:38:21 - 00:41:41:21
Jessie Ott
I do, I do, I do right here.

00:41:41:23 - 00:41:44:14
Mara Smith
Oh, okay.

00:41:44:16 - 00:41:45:14
Jessie Ott
This pretty little.

00:41:45:14 - 00:41:52:00
Mara Smith
Well, this one's really this one's really unique because, this one's the first tequila agent. Rosé wine barrels.

00:41:52:02 - 00:41:55:03
Jessie Ott
Yeah. I can't wait to hear all about this thought process.

00:41:55:03 - 00:42:17:14
Mara Smith
So I had this, like, great idea. Like, oh, my gosh, I love rosé wine. And I love, you know, tequila. So let's age the, you know, tequila and rosé wine barrels. Not realizing that, okay, rosé wine is a young wine that, traditionally never touches wood. So when I had this great idea, I'm like, oh my gosh, I can't find rosé wine barrels, like, anywhere.

00:42:17:16 - 00:42:25:11
Mara Smith
So I was scouring the planet and I found them,

00:42:25:13 - 00:42:44:19
Mara Smith
And I found them in the south of France after, like, calling, tons of places all over. And we finally found a broker who found that in south of France, that there are some rosé wines that actually go into what basically, they take Pinot noir barrels. They use them one time to make rosé wine, and so we buy them like once a year.

00:42:44:21 - 00:42:50:08
Jessie Ott
So it was it didn't come from the distiller. It came from you thinking about.

00:42:50:09 - 00:43:07:17
Mara Smith
Yeah. No, no, we found them. We own them. We bought them ourselves. We found I sourced them like every year and now I can get them once a year. Just me. Such a unique expression. Like one. It's not just finished in wine barrels, but the actual whole aging process is in the wine barrels, so it doesn't go into American oak at all.

00:43:07:17 - 00:43:21:19
Mara Smith
Only the French oak and the colors all natural. So you see in the bottle has that like rose gold hue. It's really, you know, unique sometimes to sipping tequilas, but usually they're like, coloring them. But yeah, you know.

00:43:21:21 - 00:43:26:14
Jessie Ott
It's kind of hard to see with this big background, but I'll, I'll post. I can put.

00:43:26:16 - 00:43:27:05
Mara Smith
Thank you.

00:43:27:10 - 00:43:28:19
Jessie Ott
Picture like real picture, but it.

00:43:28:22 - 00:43:54:23
Mara Smith
Does have like a really pretty rose gold hue. It's like, it's a and it's a lighter right now. So you're going to want the nose on. This is like now that I know you love aromas, this one is just dynamic. It's amazing. It has a little more berry, more floral, and it's just a little less heavy and not as woody as a traditional reposado that goes into, like, you know, American oak.

00:43:55:01 - 00:44:09:06
Jessie Ott
Yeah, I don't, I don't there's no word at all on the nose. It does have that herbal, profile to it now. Is this is this the blanco that you're putting in here, or is this a different blanco?

00:44:09:08 - 00:44:27:00
Mara Smith
It's the same blanco, but, it doesn't go into the, American oak barrels at all. So, you know, because our blanco actually rest for a short time. So the blanco goes into, American oak barrels to rest. Then we take the other the same process to make the blanco. But we put this just in the rosé wine barrels.

00:44:27:00 - 00:44:27:20
Jessie Ott
Just in the oak.

00:44:27:20 - 00:44:37:11
Mara Smith
So it's not. It doesn't. We don't take our rested Blanco and put it in. We take our blanco before it goes in to American Oak. That's never goes into American Oak at all. Only French.

00:44:37:13 - 00:44:39:11
Jessie Ott
And how long.

00:44:39:13 - 00:44:58:13
Mara Smith
It's going to be somewhere between 2 to 3 months. Like, okay, because we don't use additives. It's going to vary depending on how often we these the barrels, you know, how they've been cleaned. Let's see a blend. Some is we have some new barrels, some older barrels. So it's going to be kind of a mix, but it's a pretty light repo from the flavor profile.

00:44:58:15 - 00:45:10:08
Mara Smith
I think it's really good entry point also to maybe some people who aren't used to drinking eight expressions that it's like a little, a little lighter of an aged expression.

00:45:10:10 - 00:45:16:07
Jessie Ott
Okay. And then, the blanco, you said it's on American Oak. So how long is that rested?

00:45:16:07 - 00:45:22:17
Mara Smith
That also ranges, but it's going to be anywhere from, like a week to like two weeks.

00:45:22:19 - 00:45:23:03
Jessie Ott
Okay.

00:45:23:03 - 00:45:28:11
Mara Smith
So this a 15 days also depends on how often we've used them and run them over.

00:45:28:13 - 00:45:31:17
Jessie Ott
So it's a quick time for a lot of flavor.

00:45:31:19 - 00:45:55:02
Mara Smith
Yeah. Well for the Blanco we didn't want to impact the color a lot like right. So you don't want to like dark looking. You want to still like have a clear feel and like we just wanted to have a little hint of it. The repo. You get a lot of that wine barrel even on the finish and things like that, without putting it in for that long, because it really you really get a bunch of that wine.

00:45:55:04 - 00:46:02:01
Jessie Ott
Yeah. Is there, is there like on the end of the nose, is there, is there like some floral notes that I'm getting?

00:46:02:01 - 00:46:18:00
Mara Smith
I smell a lot of floral. I smell like some floral, some berry. When I taste it, I have I can taste the wine on the finish. It's. And it's very aromatic.

00:46:18:06 - 00:46:49:05
Jessie Ott
Yeah. It's like a party in my mouth right now. Yeah. That's. Yeah. I've never tasted anything like this before. I would definitely say that the rosé brings a whole unique experience to what you would consider, you know, a normal repo. It's certainly a unique experience. And when I first read about how this is the rosé barrels, I was like, I got to try this.

00:46:49:05 - 00:47:11:07
Jessie Ott
This is obviously you're on a podcast for a reason. I mean, it's a know. It's such a you're doing something so innovative that it's so exciting and, you know, you have an amazing story. And so I'm really excited to be able to experience this with you and, and talk through it because it it is really good. I it's a really I'm a tequila drinker.

00:47:11:09 - 00:47:38:04
Jessie Ott
I really like it. And yeah, it definitely has. It's got a great finish. It is certainly a party in the mouth because it just it kind of comes in like smooth and chill and then it just goes, I'm here. Hello. And and it has like that. Like you're saying that those berries and some of that rosé now flavor that just soften it and then it just kind of, you know, has this really nice smooth finish.

00:47:38:06 - 00:48:01:01
Mara Smith
Thank you. I'm so glad you like it. And unfortunately when I sent you all this was before. So just so everybody knows, we do have a very limited release, special edition anejo that literally just came in and it's going to be offered online for on our website for holidays. Nice. It's it's double wine barrel aged.

00:48:01:06 - 00:48:18:20
Mara Smith
So it's like really unique. Yeah. Over proof. So it's actually 40 for ABV. So it's like, very special. And we, we were fortunate we had like four barrel full. So it like we just got it it that's awesome.

00:48:18:20 - 00:48:23:02
Jessie Ott
And it is it just is it two different types of red wines.

00:48:23:04 - 00:48:52:19
Mara Smith
So it goes into. So the background part was we used to double barrel age our first runner up rosado. We actually put in rosé wine barrels and then finished it in Pinot noir barrels. We decided to like make it a younger reposado and not do both aging processes. So we decided just to use rosé wine barrels. We still had four Pinot Noir barrels full of juice, and we're like, let's just leave it there.

00:48:52:21 - 00:49:09:17
Mara Smith
I kind of forgot about it, to be honest. And then we went down to Mexico. We're like, oh, it's been like over a year. Let's yeah, turn out. And we're like, wow. We tried it at cask strength because we fill our barrels at 45 ABV and so came out like a little over 44 or like everyone's like, oh my gosh.

00:49:09:19 - 00:49:31:03
Mara Smith
So it actually was aged for months in rosé wine barrels. And then 15.5 months in pinot in French Pinot noir barrels. And we kept it at a cask strength, which is like not typical for me because I'm not an over proof person. Like, that's not usually what I would drink. Yeah. It doesn't even taste like it's a higher ABV.

00:49:31:04 - 00:49:49:14
Mara Smith
It is. It's. And I'm not even a Ne-Yo drinker at all, which is why it wasn't even on my repertoire. Like, I never even considered making one, because I'm like, oh, that's not really what I drink, and I really want to make things that I actually like. But this one is, it is really spectacular. Everyone has tried, it goes crazy.

00:49:49:14 - 00:49:55:02
Mara Smith
Like I literally stopped my husband because we only had he had a few sample bottles I brought back from Mexico. I'm like, don't drink it, stop drinking it.

00:49:55:02 - 00:49:56:18
Jessie Ott
Can I hide it from him?

00:49:56:20 - 00:49:57:21
Mara Smith
Yes.

00:49:57:23 - 00:50:14:01
Jessie Ott
But that's funny. I want to talk a little bit more about this finish because it is really, really unique. And then let's get into the price points. With this rosé, you say it's up to three months or 2 to 3 months.

00:50:14:04 - 00:50:21:17
Mara Smith
Yet we 2 to 3 months. Yep. Because that is it has a lot of character for that sort of.

00:50:21:19 - 00:50:45:20
Jessie Ott
It really does. It does have that herbal, you know, versus the citrus, which is great. Right. But then it really does. You're right. It has, it has this berry kind of flavor kind of jumping around in there. That is it's not plummy. You know. It's not, you know, cherry or even a strawberry. It's sort of like the combination of something joy.

00:50:45:22 - 00:50:59:08
Jessie Ott
Joyful. Right. I think, and it just it just adds to this unique experience of, of of what you've done here. So, I'm excited about it. I'm really excited about it. I should really be a.

00:50:59:08 - 00:51:00:23
Mara Smith
True sipper, like.

00:51:01:01 - 00:51:02:00
Jessie Ott
It really is.

00:51:02:00 - 00:51:13:09
Mara Smith
I've done a lot of cocktails with it. It's just really great just sipping neat or if you like, I happen to like cold drinks. I do one big cube, like it's just a great simple sipping.

00:51:13:14 - 00:51:34:07
Jessie Ott
Yeah, 100%. And you know, a lot of times with my tequila, like tahini or little salt and lime, I wouldn't do anything with this. Yeah, I think it's got a it's got enough going on just in its own little ways that it's just really fun. I would love to experiment with this with different foods. Right.

00:51:34:09 - 00:51:37:13
Mara Smith
I think dark chocolate goes really well with it.

00:51:37:16 - 00:51:57:13
Jessie Ott
But I could even see doing desserts and sweets. Yeah, because of that, that little berry. I mean, I love chocolate skewer. But I wouldn't think of it like, you know, eating it with fruit or, you know, something maybe a little like a maybe even a, a creme brulee. You know, I know it's.

00:51:57:14 - 00:52:03:00
Mara Smith
Super taste testing and pairing for us and let us know. And we're going to put that combo out there.

00:52:03:02 - 00:52:16:07
Jessie Ott
Okay? Because you know how sometimes with creme brulee, they'll put the little berries and the, you know, whipped cream, like I think you can. There's some play in there. I think, you know, maybe this could.

00:52:16:07 - 00:52:17:22
Mara Smith
Be a fashioned.

00:52:18:00 - 00:52:27:03
Jessie Ott
Yeah. I love old fashioned, so don't even get me started. But, I think this, like, this could be a flambé on top of crumbly.

00:52:27:05 - 00:52:34:17
Mara Smith
Oh, it's really cool. Now, I would end up setting my hair on fire, so I'm not going to test that out and try.

00:52:34:19 - 00:52:51:13
Jessie Ott
Oh, I, I don't know. When we go to Florida, I'll have to find a chef for me to. That has one. I don't know if Gustavo has one or not or if he makes custard, but I think that to me would be really interesting. But I love creme brulee. I'm not a big dessert person either, except for chocolate.

00:52:51:13 - 00:53:10:13
Jessie Ott
So the creme brulee is one of those things where once in a while. And I'm. Because that's one thing where berries kind of work for me. I don't care for berries and chocolate, but let creme like that style. You know the custard part with fruit is is very good. And so for me, those flavors just kind of like that.

00:53:10:14 - 00:53:13:01
Jessie Ott
It sounds like a perfect pairing.

00:53:13:03 - 00:53:21:05
Mara Smith
No, I think I think that sounds fabulous, but, I do like dessert a lot. So I think,

00:53:21:07 - 00:53:55:04
Jessie Ott
Well, I will do some research and get back to you, but, so pivoting here, I know that you, in terms of resources, you've talked a lot about reading and you've talked a lot about podcasts. Is there anything else that you really relied on? I mean, and one more comment before, before that is, you know, yes, I'm learning in an industry that I've been in for a very long time, but I'm when you change positions, you learn a whole different perspective and you learn a whole different thing for you.

00:53:55:06 - 00:54:19:06
Jessie Ott
You've already surpassed my knowledge of I mean, I've been to distilleries and done that and all the things, but I've never gone through the process of what you have with actually doing it right and going through that whole process of discovering and figuring out all the ingredients and and all that. So when you start your own company, like what you've done, you're, you're learning literally everything from A to Z about the industry.

00:54:19:06 - 00:54:39:04
Jessie Ott
So there is a lot to learn. And, you know, from what I've seen so far, you're, you're hitting the mark on on all the things between, you know, the, the consumer mind, the gap in the market, the product you're delivering, the bottle tells a story, you know, a message in a bottle, right? And you're hitting on all the things.

00:54:39:04 - 00:54:51:10
Jessie Ott
So, so bravo. And congratulations, you know, for, for for what you're doing. So how is there any, any other resources that you want to mention that you haven't talked about?

00:54:51:12 - 00:55:25:23
Mara Smith
Yes. No. And thank you. I appreciate that. And and part of that is honestly, a lot of it you would like as a woman coming back in and a little bit of like or a lot of imposter syndrome feeling like, how is anyone going to take me seriously? I better do a lot of homework. Yeah. I think perhaps, maybe someone who's been in the industry or maybe if if I, you know, was a man coming in with a new product, they would not feel like I had to do, like, you know, scour the earth and and look at everything and be so overt, right?

00:55:26:05 - 00:55:54:01
Mara Smith
Prepared. But he really thought it was been very difficult to have anyone like, you know, really take me seriously as a mom of three coming in with a teal company. So that is a lot of why I did a ton of work before I even said peep about about starting a product, a tequila company. So I think part of that was my own kind of like mindset coming in, why I did that.

00:55:54:03 - 00:56:19:02
Mara Smith
I think becoming involved in some industry organizations is helpful, too. So reaching out. So I looked at this like when I started out, you know, I joined a lot of like larger women's groups, women's networks, to get connected, just meet other founders, like get the lay of the land a little bit. Right. And I also went a little closer into like consumer product groups, like just CPG groups where I, like, meet other founders, see how they're doing things.

00:56:19:03 - 00:56:45:23
Mara Smith
I think some of them are doing things that are maybe more innovative than within the spirits industry. So I like CPG, but then I also had to like, build some community within the actual industry. So I became, you know, pretty involved in women in the wine and spirits. Yep. Met a lot of good over there. I made a really, conscious effort to, meet other women with brands.

00:56:46:01 - 00:57:08:20
Mara Smith
I really I'm a believer that we're all to, like, elevate and lift each other up. I mean, we might post today on Instagram was a woman owned by our post and and tagging all these women owned brands, asking people to share it, to try and put them on the radar. Because most of these brands are small, scrappy, great female founders, but don't have a ton of visibility.

00:57:08:22 - 00:57:22:00
Mara Smith
So I, I wanted to connect with other women in the industry because there are not that many of us, especially at the founder level, I think less than 5% of brands are owned by women.

00:57:22:02 - 00:57:25:19
Jessie Ott
Yeah, probably. Most likely. You know more than I do.

00:57:25:21 - 00:57:49:10
Mara Smith
You know, I got active and became active in discus. I applied to, like, the, executive leadership program that DISCUS offers through Women of the Vine and Spirits. So I could, like, learn even more. I just graduated from that, like a couple months ago. And then I allowed me to meet industry people who are part of bigger suppliers and kind of like, understand that world.

00:57:49:12 - 00:58:16:04
Mara Smith
One of the first things I did, I actually became involved in WSWA and I applied for the pitch competition. So two years ago I submitted, and this is really when I felt like kind of brought me about like I had made welcome to the industry because I that's awesome. I applied, went through all the different, you know, the stages to become, one of the competitors in the tequila mezcal category.

00:58:16:04 - 00:58:25:09
Mara Smith
And I won the tequila mezcal category. Well, then I pitched live at SWA in front of, like, the entire all the wholesalers, like, in the country. Wow.

00:58:25:09 - 00:58:27:01
Jessie Ott
That's that's incredible.

00:58:27:01 - 00:58:51:18
Mara Smith
So this is me coming in as a complete outsider, but that I think then people saw that I had, you know, come really prepared, done my research, and I felt like that was the first time I felt like, oh, I was like kind of like brought in and, you know, didn't feel like the outsider anymore. But I felt like I was kind of, like, welcomed into the industry and got to know people and other founders.

00:58:51:18 - 00:59:13:16
Mara Smith
And I have like, amazing, great founders, both men and women, that like, we talk all the time and share learnings and insights and I'll be like, hey, who did your gift box? I love it. And you know, I'll get a get a lead or things like that. So. Right. It just takes a listen. Just took a research and effort, like following up, taking the time, doing that.

00:59:13:18 - 00:59:30:15
Mara Smith
And I hope I also give that guidance to someone else. I'm not that far along, but if someone reaches out to me like, hey, I'm coming with this product, I'm starting, are you willing to talk? And I had recently a woman during an RTD. So like, you know, I know you don't have time is super busy. I'm like, no one has time, no founder has time.

00:59:30:15 - 00:59:40:14
Mara Smith
But I make 30 minutes. Yes, because I'm appreciative when someone you know does that for me and that's what I'm going to give back.

00:59:40:16 - 00:59:58:20
Jessie Ott
Yeah, I think hopefully you've seen that in the industry. Now once you once you get in front of WSWA, that's huge. And what a smart way to go about it. There's not a lot of people that have that I know of that have gone that route. But what a what a brilliant idea to that that's going big.

00:59:58:22 - 01:00:05:15
Jessie Ott
You went big and you gambled and you won, which is. That's pretty huge. That's huge.

01:00:05:20 - 01:00:08:05
Mara Smith
I was very nervous for that pitch. Like, I.

01:00:08:05 - 01:00:09:05
Jessie Ott
Would have been to.

01:00:09:06 - 01:00:16:14
Mara Smith
Like I as everyone came out from her live pitch, I was giving them a shot of tequila. Like, as I came off stage.

01:00:16:15 - 01:00:29:13
Jessie Ott
So, What what kind of came from that? Did you mean? You made a lot of relationships. You met a lot of founders. Was there distributors that you talked to that kind of were interested in saying, hey, this is a good fit for my market?

01:00:29:15 - 01:00:55:07
Mara Smith
Yeah, we got distributor partners from that, people that were my judges and, you know, kind of final either final category, pitch for the Temescal or that were there, live. It was great. We, you know, we exhibited, we just met a ton of people. And listen, that's a huge hurdle for most emerging brands.

01:00:55:07 - 01:01:16:11
Mara Smith
The first major hurdle is like, how do you get distribution? Yeah. So the fact that we had people who were interested in us and wanted us and these, you know, a small brand, it's hard to get any attention or share mine. So that's kind of how, why maybe our, you know, kind of how we're scaling doesn't mean doesn't make sense to everybody.

01:01:16:11 - 01:01:32:08
Mara Smith
Like, wait, why aren't you just in the West, or why are you new in the Midwest and then going East, you know, but like, we're a little bit scattered about. But that's just we just got really fortunate. Found, like, amazing distributor partners who wanted us in those markets. And those markets made sense in what we could do in those markets made sense.

01:01:32:08 - 01:01:48:11
Mara Smith
And it's a mix of some smaller markets but some larger. We know we can't you know, we can't support like I couldn't go into like form major huge markets at the same time. So we were really strategic about like which ones and finding great partners.

01:01:48:14 - 01:02:13:00
Jessie Ott
Partners. Yep. Yeah. No that's that's incredible. I heard another brand that I didn't know actually went on Shark Tank right when they got started. So those are, those are things that are so smart to think about to, to go big because you know, if you don't that people are going to they're not going to see you.

01:02:13:02 - 01:02:22:21
Jessie Ott
Right. Or they're not going to hear you or hear, you know, you get to know who you are. So I think that's, that's that's really cool that you did that.

01:02:22:23 - 01:02:42:12
Mara Smith
Thanks. Shark Tank. Even scarier, Shark Tank would totally my my 12 year old where like religious, religious, shark tank watchers in my house like I watched every single episode and he does too. Like I quiz them. I'm like, yes. Calculate the valuations as quickly as possible based on like their ask and what they're saying. The first two they're asking for.

01:02:42:14 - 01:02:48:12
Mara Smith
But that one is terrifying. They don't like beverage and they really don't like alcohol.

01:02:48:14 - 01:02:49:19
Jessie Ott
So they don't.

01:02:49:23 - 01:02:54:08
Mara Smith
Like, it's that one really would scare me.

01:02:54:10 - 01:03:14:23
Jessie Ott
Yeah, that'd be hard. What about mentors? Is there any significant people that have really kind of, you know, either showed you some, some different things within the industry or helped you get, you know, break through some some walls in the industry that you want to kind of talk about.

01:03:15:01 - 01:03:39:13
Mara Smith
Okay. You know, I've been fortunate. I feel like I've a, a number of, like, informal mentors, like people that I reach out to talk to, mostly peer to peer mentoring like that is, I have to say, learn the most from other founders in all honesty. Like that's huge. Yeah. Because we're the ones who are like in, in actually like right in it and and sharing.

01:03:39:13 - 01:04:01:10
Mara Smith
So we connect all the time. I have like a whole group, like I'll text people, hey, what are you doing here? Or can we do a shared resource or we want to do tastings together like so. I have a great community, a founders mentor wise. You know, there's a number of things. One, my head of sales, she has been in the industry for really long time, so she has a lot of industry experience.

01:04:01:10 - 01:04:23:21
Mara Smith
So like, I have her, like, teaching me along the way. I also apply for so many, accelerators and things like that. And every, everything there is to apply for, I do it, I've spent my Sundays usually filling out like application forms for events, pitch competitions, accelerators. One of them that I got early on met you with the mentor.

01:04:23:21 - 01:04:42:22
Mara Smith
And I get I was very fortunate. So at the, she's Chief Business Officer for Uncle Nearest has been like my mentor and, and her every month. So I've been really lucky. Like, she's, you know, she's already built this there like, so far ahead.

01:04:42:22 - 01:04:46:14
Jessie Ott
And so. Yeah. Just having is that Catherine that you're talking about.

01:04:46:16 - 01:04:47:12
Mara Smith
It is.

01:04:47:12 - 01:04:48:15
Jessie Ott
Yeah.

01:04:48:17 - 01:04:49:16
Mara Smith
Kate's awesome.

01:04:49:16 - 01:05:07:12
Jessie Ott
Yeah. I've, I've got I've emailed with her just a little obviously trying to get those guys on the, the podcast, but she, she's been really nice. She, I mean, so far, trying to get her on to hopefully she can. I know it's busy time now.

01:05:07:12 - 01:05:09:23
Mara Smith
I'll make an intro out there, you know?

01:05:10:01 - 01:05:42:18
Jessie Ott
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, I see she's like, well, do you want me to Victoria and and I'm like, well, I have a thought. I saw a picture of the four of them. Right. The gym, the Jack Daniel's, is her name Chrissy? Who, who often met as a real estate agent that sold, the property. And then Victoria, who's a distiller, and then then Kate or Catherine, that that that's a powerhouse to me because I'm like, have you ever done a podcast together?

01:05:42:18 - 01:05:49:02
Jessie Ott
Because that would be really cool. I know it's a really big ask, but I had to ask. But,

01:05:49:04 - 01:05:50:15
Mara Smith
You never know if you don't ask.

01:05:50:17 - 01:05:51:22
Jessie Ott
Yeah. That's right. For. Yeah.

01:05:51:23 - 01:06:06:11
Mara Smith
I mean, there's like a dream collab I wanted. I literally just sent the LinkedIn message from like, hey, I would like this. And you never know. This person got back to me. Sometimes they don't get back to me. But like, if you don't ask, you never know.

01:06:06:13 - 01:06:12:07
Jessie Ott
That's right. You don't ask. You don't know. I mean, you miss all the the, shots you didn't take, right?

01:06:12:09 - 01:06:14:17
Mara Smith
Totally.

01:06:14:19 - 01:06:32:20
Jessie Ott
That's cool. Yeah, that's that's. Well, That's awesome. Yes. There they are. Powerhouse team. And you're going to. I can't wait to just learn from her to just and talking with her. That's that's. I'm so glad that you're connected with her. That's the dream team right there.

01:06:32:20 - 01:06:33:15
Mara Smith
Totally.

01:06:33:17 - 01:06:33:23
Jessie Ott


01:06:33:23 - 01:06:36:00
Mara Smith
So cool. Thank you.

01:06:36:02 - 01:06:53:15
Jessie Ott
What about, is there any. I know we talked about distribution as kind of a pain point because it's so important. But is there other pain points as founders that that you want to kind of talk about that we haven't really there already? I know, I know, it's kind of a hard question.

01:06:53:17 - 01:07:07:11
Mara Smith
Fundraising is always a pain point. Most women own brands I know are pretty underfunded. It's hard. It's hard categories hard. Being a woman, you had all these different things, layers on top of it and to to hard. And as you know, expensive endeavor and.

01:07:07:16 - 01:07:07:23
Jessie Ott


01:07:08:03 - 01:07:18:22
Mara Smith
And marketing and trade support and all the things in you need funding. So I think that's a whole. Yeah, that's a whole nother podcast.

01:07:19:00 - 01:07:43:00
Jessie Ott
Yeah. I, I, I don't remember what podcast I was listening to, but this woman was not so much in the beverage beverage industry, but she, she's behind raising money in capital for for entrepreneurs. And she's like, yeah, women get like 1.8% or something like that. And she's like, just don't do it. Just do a go Fund Me page or whatever.

01:07:43:00 - 01:07:58:12
Jessie Ott
Because it was just such. It was it's such a hard thing to do, which is unfortunate. And I hopefully that's changing because I think there's more and more small businesses, more and more women. Yeah. You know, coming forward with more businesses that.

01:07:58:14 - 01:07:59:17
Mara Smith
We're not there yet.

01:07:59:19 - 01:08:04:21
Jessie Ott
We're not there yet, but we should be. I have a whole lot of reasons to back that up, but again.

01:08:04:22 - 01:08:09:16
Mara Smith
Another finance.

01:08:09:18 - 01:08:22:21
Jessie Ott
What about the outlook? What do you seen as the market? You know, as it fluctuates and comes and goes, are you, are you are you optimistic about, you know, finishing 24 strong in 2025?

01:08:22:22 - 01:08:45:20
Mara Smith
I think 2025 is going to hopefully, you know, be like better in general for that. I think this just a tough year for spirits. I think you you have the big suppliers having tough years when, you know big suppliers. I think it's it's going to trickle down to yeah, smaller craft brands especially because it's very hard to get a distributor who's has like a ton of pressure from the big suppliers right now.

01:08:45:22 - 01:09:01:09
Mara Smith
Do you. But I think 2025, I think, you know, there's probably some correction that was going on from Covid. I'm not going to be I'm not doomsday where I'm like, oh, no one's going to be doing anything or they're not gonna be drinking. I think there's this concept of like, you know, maybe drinking last, but better.

01:09:01:09 - 01:09:24:01
Mara Smith
So I think still staying in like a craft quality, you know, premium sector. I think I, I don't see it were like, no one's going to drink again. I, you know, like 222 year olds and they drink in their friends to still drink. And maybe it's maybe not as much, but they still drink. So I don't see that totally going away.

01:09:24:03 - 01:09:39:20
Mara Smith
Maybe there's this concept of maturation and shifting and changing how you drink through the night. But I think there's just maybe a little bit of a course correction that hopefully is going to look brighter in 2025.

01:09:39:22 - 01:09:47:13
Jessie Ott
Yeah, I think so too. So, yeah. Is that are they working on the washer.

01:09:47:14 - 01:09:52:22
Mara Smith
You know, the washers going I don't know what's going on. I'm going to have someone running in from school very soon, so okay.

01:09:52:22 - 01:10:18:04
Jessie Ott
Yeah. No worries. I mean, I think we're, we're pretty much kind of wrapped up and I can I could try and eliminate that noise, especially because you're, you're talking there, but, is there any, any passions that that you do I mean, you know, you you have you still have a kid at home, but like, is there do you ever get to take time for yourself and just, you know, go bike riding or, go to the movies or shopping or.

01:10:18:04 - 01:10:20:12
Jessie Ott
I know, I know, you like to eat.

01:10:20:14 - 01:10:40:19
Mara Smith
I know, I know, I, you know, I have to say, unfortunately, as a mom, I think I do, fall last on that priority list. Right? So it the amount of guilt I have when I'm focused and work and that kids and the kids come next. But there are few little things. Like I try and make a nice matcha every single morning.

01:10:40:19 - 01:10:54:18
Mara Smith
That's like my go to. I take like, five minutes to make, like actual my ceremonial grade and whiskeys and everything. So like that's my treat. I work out early in the morning for everyone, wakes up as soon as it's nice out here, whenever it's nice out to try and go for a walk. Like that's my happy place. Listening to podcast not long.

01:10:54:18 - 01:11:07:15
Mara Smith
Yes, yes, but I just made those think they're little like I am. I am meditating for 20 minutes and then doing cold plunges and all that like, no, if I can fit in little things, I will take that.

01:11:07:17 - 01:11:33:18
Jessie Ott
Yeah. No, 100% I, I need to meditate better and take take breaks. I think, I had a, I did a Lean In Group for a while, and I had a couple of ladies come in from from the Brain Health Institute. And I remember a couple of things that they said, and they're like, the difference between how a man thinks and a woman thinks is like this.

01:11:33:20 - 01:11:48:00
Jessie Ott
Men think from front to back and back to front. That's it. They're very linear, but women are front to back, back to front, side to side. It's like you're just we could do all the things, right? Or men are just some more like that's they can't help it. It's the way they're wired.

01:11:48:02 - 01:11:49:20
Mara Smith
Right. And multitask so much more.

01:11:50:01 - 01:12:13:14
Jessie Ott
Yes. And the second thing is you should be getting up for for five minutes, 4 to 5 times a day and take a break to set your timer and walk around. Because, your brain can't really handle all of it for sure. You know, a long length of time. And so, you know, get up there like get up, make some tea, walk around, go talk to somebody.

01:12:13:14 - 01:12:31:10
Jessie Ott
You know, I mean, I guess for us it'd be like, go make a phone call. Yeah. Watch a YouTube video or, you know, something like that. But, I don't do that. And, sometimes I think back to that and going, oh, man, maybe my memory would be better if I take my breaks.

01:12:31:11 - 01:12:35:15
Mara Smith
Take time, you know, or the information. Yes, I'm sure mine would be too.

01:12:35:17 - 01:12:55:02
Jessie Ott
Yeah. So I guess you just reminded me of that, you know, with with what you were talking about. So maybe, maybe, maybe we should. We'll both start doing that at least a couple times a day. Yeah, it's hard. It's hard to eat sometimes. You're like, oh, shit, I forgot to eat lunch.

01:12:55:04 - 01:12:58:21
Mara Smith
Hey, I totally, you know, run and put the wash in or whatever. So in between. There you go.

01:12:59:00 - 01:13:11:19
Jessie Ott
Exactly. There you go. That's a break. Well, that's a break total. And that's that's what you get from working at home, right? Oh, I mean, unload the dishwasher. Oh, the dog needs to go outside or we're going to go walk the dog or whatever. Yeah. So yeah.

01:13:11:21 - 01:13:19:01
Mara Smith
So all right I'm going to wrap this up though because I'm going to have my little person walking in very soon.

01:13:19:03 - 01:13:29:03
Jessie Ott
Okay. Well, it has been so much fun. Mara, I'm so glad you spent some time with me. And I got to learn more about, you know, how it all happened.

01:13:29:03 - 01:13:29:19
Mara Smith
Drink.

01:13:29:21 - 01:13:44:17
Jessie Ott
And I got to drink. I got to taste it. I'm so excited. Thank you. Thank you so much. Like, I'm super pumped. Like it's the congratulations again. And I appreciate it. And, looking forward to watching all your success. And if there's, there's anything I can do on my end to help, just let me know.

01:13:44:19 - 01:13:49:23
Mara Smith
Thank you. I appreciate it. All right. Fantastic. Thanks, Jesse. Bye.