Thirsty Thursdays @3PM EST
I'm a 20+ year veteran in the wine and spirits industry who loves innovation. I'm interviewing those who are creating it from agriculture to glass. We will deep dive into their journey and provide insights to help yours.
We will discuss their major industry pain points and outlook for the future. If my guest has an item to drink or eat we will try it throughout the podcast. Come on the journey with us!
Now On YouTube!! https://www.youtube.com/@ThirstyThursdaysat3PMEST
Thirsty Thursdays @3PM EST
Patricia Vasconcelos
📢I talk🎙️with Patricia Vasconcelos Founder-The Paire Agency- Crafting Brand Stories and Execution for Taste and Space. Wine and Spirits. 👏🍷 🎇 🎉 ✨ 👏 🥂 😁
From Jack Daniel’s in NYC to $167K luxury spirits, Patricia Vasconcelos spills the 🍸 on nightlife, brand building, & global travel. Must-watch for F&B pros!
Watch here on YouTube! @ThirstyThursdaysat3PMEST
In this episode of Thirsty Thursdays, Jessie Ott sits down with industry powerhouse Patricia Vasconcelos, founder of The Paire Agency. Patricia shares her incredible journey from launching Corralejo Tequila at 27, to shaping luxury spirits portfolios at LVMH and William Grant.
📍 Key Takeaways:
🇸🇻 From El Salvador to Philly to global brand building
🥃 Sold her first spirits brand at 27
💃 Why Miami’s AM dance parties are changing nightlife
💼 Jack Daniel’s, Corralejo, LVMH, and launching her own agency
🎯 Her mission to merge sales, marketing, & hospitality
🔥 The rise of non-traditional distribution and the mid-tier brand opportunity
👩💼 The importance of mentorship, especially for women in bev-alc
👀 Expect stories, strategies, and laughs — from dodging gunshots on her first day of alcohol sales to clocking 2M airline miles for brand launches.
NOW ON YOUTUBE!!! Thank you for Listening! Join us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter!
Host Jessie Ott's Profile on LinkedIn
Jessie Ott (00:28)
Hello everybody. Welcome to Thursday Thursdays. My name is Jessie Ott and I have an awesome guest here today. Patricia Vasconcelos. Did I do it? Okay.
Patricia Vasconcelos (00:39)
There you go.
You did it. And with accent, appropriate accent at all.
Jessie Ott (00:44)
Way to start. Way to
start, Jessie. Patricia is the Founder of The Paire Agency and she's been in the industry like me for over 20 years. But unlike me, she is amazing in her first start. Yeah, because who, who sells their first brand at 27 and you sold it to kilo. That's pretty amazing stuff. Pretty outstanding.
Patricia Vasconcelos (01:00)
No, don't say that.
Yeah, was,
thank you. It was before Instagram, so I couldn't brag about it. So I'm, I'm going to brag about it now because I can now.
Jessie Ott (01:17)
Good. This is where you're
supposed to do it. Where are you calling from?
Patricia Vasconcelos (01:23)
calling from Miami, the one and only after Miami Music Week. So I think I've put myself together and hopefully I could answer coherently what a weekend it was.
Jessie Ott (01:37)
did you have a lot of events?
Patricia Vasconcelos (01:38)
Yeah, we did. We had a lot of events. My husband's a musician too. And so we, everybody was in town from, you know, globally. So we had a lot of meetings, events, dance parties. I went to a dance party that started at 10 a.m. and it was done by 2.30 p.m. And that was my kind of dance party. It was awesome. This guy named Austin Miller, DJ, closed it out and it was just, just so memorable. And,
Jessie Ott (01:44)
Nice.
Patricia Vasconcelos (02:07)
We just need to do more of those, like more events that end at 2.30 PM so you can be cooking dinner by five and asleep by nine. Yeah.
Jessie Ott (02:14)
Yes! Yes, I love it.
Yeah. Did you say 10.30 p.m. the night before? You're saying in the morning.
Patricia Vasconcelos (02:23)
No, no, like you sleep all night,
10, 10, 10.30 in the morning. So like, it's like a four or five hour dance party here and you got, got your thing. They had coffee, they had tequila, they had breakfast burritos. They had incredible music, great sound system and a dance party. They even had Krispy Kreme donuts. I was like this.
Jessie Ott (02:29)
until 2.30.
Yes!
Yeah.
Yeah, you can.
Patricia Vasconcelos (02:52)
Again, more of this. It's actually
called AM Radio. It's been kind of started out of LA where they have dance parties at coffee places. yeah, so that was kind of like the highlight of my weekend and everything else was late, but my husband did most of that. was like, I'm good. I'm good at till 1 AM probably, but.
Jessie Ott (03:02)
I love it.
I love to dance. It's so fun.
Patricia Vasconcelos (03:16)
But the whole city was alive and thriving, fireworks, music, tents. It was pretty awesome. Yeah.
Jessie Ott (03:16)
Yeah.
⁓ that's awesome.
Yeah, I would say if it was 10 a.m. to 2 30 p. 10 10 30 p.m. till 2 30 a.m. the next day, that would be memorable in itself because I would just be in a wake. I made it. Yeah.
Patricia Vasconcelos (03:30)
Yeah, no.
I'm
Well, mean, that's space. That's space. You could do that. You can go to space.
My girlfriend, who is sober actually, she does and takes a bunch of sober, like people that want to just go dance and they do, they sleep all night. They go at seven or eight AM and then they stay till it closes. And they're totally like nothing doing, just.
They're there for the music and the dancing. And it's been cool and they have like a little food as well. And so it's kind of like, it's a movement now, like really, which is cool because it provides, you know, alternative dance parties for those that just don't want to be out there at 4 a.m. in the wild at night.
Jessie Ott (04:10)
Yeah.
Yeah.
I really like that because I've been seeing or hearing about trends where the nightlife isn't so much anymore. So it's our age that's doing it, isn't it?
Patricia Vasconcelos (04:31)
Yeah, you know, it's actually very unfortunate. I love
the nightlife and I think that every 20 something year old should really enjoy it to its fullest in the way that it should be enjoyed. so, I mean, honestly, like Miami and Vegas to me, just, you know, I have.
Jessie Ott (04:44)
Yeah.
Patricia Vasconcelos (04:52)
pretty extensive experience like in nightlife and then working in brands in nightlife. And it's just, sometimes you just gotta dance all night. just, sometimes you just need to do it and have it in you. But I'm glad that there are other alternatives, but I never wanna take away from, there's a lot of companies, brands that build, you know.
Jessie Ott (05:03)
Yeah.
Patricia Vasconcelos (05:17)
the foundation of just like some of the best times that I've ever had at night. And they work really hard on it. So I want it to be enjoyed, you know, with everybody, everybody should enjoy it if that's what they want to do. So.
Jessie Ott (05:22)
Yeah.
Yeah. Sounds like you and your husband are the perfect couple. Like you really enjoy
that lifestyle and you, you can't keep up with it.
Patricia Vasconcelos (05:37)
Honestly,
I know they're saying nightlife maybe is not the same, but you wouldn't know that, you know, based on this weekend and Miami Music Week and the thousands of people, you know, there was, there's ultra and then there was like all these other, you know, satellite activations everywhere and they were all packed. So I don't know. They're not, they're not, it's not happening here in Miami. And I've been calling it kind of like,
Jessie Ott (05:47)
Good.
Yay.
Patricia Vasconcelos (06:06)
post COVID the center of the world because there's so much happening here. Growth, real estate, tech, still nightlife. And if you do still wanna be out till four, five, six, seven, eight a.m., you can do it in Miami. The Miami's not going anywhere.
Jessie Ott (06:20)
That's great.
That's good. Some things just should never change.
Patricia Vasconcelos (06:27)
No, you know what, it's something
for everyone if you want to, you know, have low elk, no elk, whatever, you can do that as well. And I think like the music is really what keeps everybody moving and existing and sharing. And I think that that lasts forever. Right. So and so, yes, my husband is part of that. And so that's why I get to see it and feel it, too. So we are.
Jessie Ott (06:46)
Yeah.
Yeah. From
a different perspective than most people. Yeah, for sure. So are you from Miami?
Patricia Vasconcelos (06:55)
Very interesting. Absolutely.
No gosh, I was born in El Salvador. Soy salvadoreña, as they would say. And I moved here when, like right after, as the war was going, I don't wanna get all deep and depressing, but, and my mom got remarried to an American young man, time, and he moved us.
He moved us to right outside of Philadelphia. And I was, you we lived there, but I would go back and forth till I was about 16, even during the war. I always joke that my mom won't like go up to the, go up the New Jersey Turnpike, but she will take all her three kids to a war-torn country and just kind of let us hang out.
Jessie Ott (07:44)
Well, she must have known where you're going was safe.
Patricia Vasconcelos (07:47)
Yeah, I'm like, okay. I mean, we were, it was not safe sometimes, but I think I was too young to know at that point. I was just following my mom and she wanted to see her mom and she would find like windows of time where it wasn't so crazy. And she would come and take all our kids and we would stay there. And then I would, when it got better,
I would go for like a month or so at a time to hang out with my grandmother and I was a teenager and I really enjoyed that. It gave me a lot of perspective. And then yeah, and then really grew up outside of Philadelphia. Go Eagles. Sorry. I'm sorry. I had to put that in there.
Jessie Ott (08:17)
Yeah.
Oh man, another one.
Well, I'm a Chiefs fan, but my mom is from there. So from Kansas City. No, no, no. My mom is from Kansas City. Going back to the Superbowl. It's I think now, well, I just wish like, you know, they've been there a few times and like almost half the time they go, they get smacked. mean, like, come on, you had, were healthy.
Patricia Vasconcelos (08:31)
from philly ⁓ okay sorry all right yeah no i know i'm i'm sorry about that by the way
Yep.
I know.
I know I still want you to like me post this podcast, so I'm just going to keep it to myself. I'm a diehard Eagles playing fan.
Jessie Ott (08:52)
But.
yeah.
I do not
hold it against you. It's just, I'm not, it's not my favorite team, but I also live in Dallas. So there's that. Yeah, exactly. No, it's funny is, um, 10%, I'm going I'm going to get a guess, but 10 % of the people that are interviewed on this podcast have some affiliation with Philly.
Patricia Vasconcelos (09:06)
Yeah, yeah, we just hate Dallas in general, so we'll find that common ground.
Yes, it's a great town.
Jessie Ott (09:25)
It's crazy.
I don't know what's the entrepreneurial blood going on in there, the water or the food or the system or I don't know what it is. It is incredible.
Patricia Vasconcelos (09:31)
It's a little bit of everything. Honestly, I
think Philly's extremely underrated. It's always been a foodie town. It's just maybe, think people are very authentic. And so maybe they were just kind of like worried about the craft or really that was like front and center. And it wasn't so much about like posting about it or talking about it. And...
And so I think that it just kind of wasn't like shining like New York was or even DC. And so now it's probably just coming around, not now, but like the last, I would say five, five to 10 years, but coming around on just how special it really is. And obviously like it gets a bad rap because of the sports fans, but it's always been very interesting from a culinary standpoint. It's always been very interesting from a cocktail standpoint.
you know, when cocktail culture first came to the United States and obviously like New York was very much taking, taking that, I would say like it took it over first in the US, not for LA too, but I didn't think Pennsylvania was far behind, it just wasn't in mass, right? But it's always had really special places that I adorned. Yeah, and lots of history.
Jessie Ott (10:34)
Yeah.
Just a little bit of history.
Patricia Vasconcelos (10:48)
Um,
well, in general, lots of history. And I think that, um, it's just a great town. really, I really miss living there just for its people, right? Like, the food. We were, yeah, yeah, I was there two weeks ago. Um, I threw my mom a surprise birthday party and we went to Reading Terminal and we had not eaten for 24 hours before that because we wanted to go to like every, like,
Jessie Ott (10:52)
Yeah.
Do you get back very often?
Patricia Vasconcelos (11:17)
huge like reading terminals and just kind of eat our way through the reading terminal. And then we had dinner and then we had the party. So we basically gained like anywhere from six to eight pounds the last week. But we danced all this weekend. So we're good. Now we're back to normal. Yeah, I do go back a lot. I went to Penn State. Like I'm just
Jessie Ott (11:17)
Did it work?
It was worth every bit of it. There you go. Balance. There you go.
Okay.
Patricia Vasconcelos (11:43)
Again, I'm a big, just football, like big sports.
Jessie Ott (11:47)
Do you remember Iowa's
first game at Penn State?
Patricia Vasconcelos (11:52)
Uh, I don't. I mean, I don't know what year was that. I don't know.
Jessie Ott (11:57)
1996,
97.
Patricia Vasconcelos (12:00)
Ah, was I? Yeah,
yeah. Okay, I mean, that was a long time ago. I don't remember that one. Were you there? Oh my God. Amazing.
Jessie Ott (12:07)
Well, yeah. So I went, yeah, it was 96,
I guess, because it was the election year and I was, I was working on Capitol Hill. Well, actually I was working in the state department. Ended up dating an older guy, ended up meeting on the bus to that, to that game. Cause I went to the Hawkeye club and we took a bus and, and Michael Linder, who's a little younger than, than me. He was actually, he went to Iowa and was actually helped the team.
Patricia Vasconcelos (12:23)
You
So cool.
Jessie Ott (12:37)
Like he gave would give him water and I don't remember all the things, but he was part of the Iowa Hawkeye team. And I'm like, Hey Mike, and it rained on us and all this kind of frappy, we had a really good time. And, you know, that was the first game because he just joined the conference back then. And now it's like, don't know whose conference it is, but.
Patricia Vasconcelos (12:39)
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah
Ugh.
Yeah. Well, they're still Big Ten, no? Or no? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jessie Ott (13:02)
Yeah. Yeah. Penn State is, but the big 10 is
like the big 25 or 30 now or something. I don't know.
Patricia Vasconcelos (13:07)
Yeah. What were you doing
in DC? I feel like we have a similar trajectory because I was supposed to work in DC after college. And some gentleman by the name of Mike, and worked at Gallo, like, met me at a career fair. And he was like, don't you dare go to Washington, DC to work.
Jessie Ott (13:29)
Why?
Patricia Vasconcelos (13:31)
He's like,
you're gonna be bored most of your life.
He's like, you need to be in the alcohol industry. And literally that's how I got my start.
Jessie Ott (13:38)
Well, he wasn't wrong about that. I mean, you do like the nightlife. Everything shuts down pretty early in DC.
Patricia Vasconcelos (13:40)
Hahaha!
Yeah, no, he was more like, what your work, he's like, unless you really want to help the world. It was just being very sarcastic at the time, but also I feel like it was a recruiting tactic that really worked. And he was like, why would you want to do that? He goes, come and sell wine with me. And we'll like, you can go travel, you'll taste, you know, you'll be able to taste. This is like such a wonderful company.
and hook line and sinker that's I was like, okay, sounds good. Right out of college. No, God, no, no. That's the little part that he failed to mention, which was, by the way, you need to go to New Hampshire and be there by yourself and work at like Shaw's and
Jessie Ott (14:13)
So you started working for Gallo right out of college in Philly?
Ha
Patricia Vasconcelos (14:33)
So the good news was, you know, and I look at everything, obviously like a huge learning experience, but I had, I lived in Derry, New Hampshire. I don't know if you're familiar with New Hampshire and honestly, it's quite beautiful, but Derry, New Hampshire, New Hampshire is definitely not like the place for a 21 year old that is totally kind of like a city girl. Um, but the good news was that yeah, I, if you skied, which I did, that was fun, but
Jessie Ott (14:53)
No, not an outdoor skier.
Patricia Vasconcelos (15:01)
But what I did learn was like very quickly, wholesalers, I had everything. So I had state stores, I had market baskets. So I had like chains, I had small mom and pop. So it was really like thrown into the fire. Work in every channel possible. Yes. And I was 21 and I didn't know anybody. So all I did was work.
Jessie Ott (15:02)
Okay.
thrown into the fire. Trial by fire.
Patricia Vasconcelos (15:27)
and they got everything they needed out of me. They were like, okay, yes. But honestly, was awesome training. I still use it to this day. They're very diligent on their training and I was someone that went through the system. And honestly, I always say I wouldn't do it again, but I wouldn't give it up for the world because it really...
Jessie Ott (15:30)
Hahaha!
I've heard that, yeah.
Patricia Vasconcelos (15:50)
gave me a wonderful foundation for the rest of my career in beverage alcohol. So thank you, Mike.
Jessie Ott (15:55)
Yeah. That's awesome.
So then what happened?
Patricia Vasconcelos (16:01)
So then I moved to New York and I got really sick actually. I got Lyme disease and I got it in New Hampshire, but I didn't know and it took two years for me to get properly diagnosed. And I went to like, I don't know, like the same story you always hear from people that either get like Lyme disease or lupus, which is, you you went to like a dozen doctors and you couldn't figure out what was going on.
Jessie Ott (16:12)
Ugh.
Patricia Vasconcelos (16:26)
you were just trying to figure it out and well, there is. But back then, which was 20 years ago, they just weren't looking out for it. It obviously was around, but it wasn't as prominent as it is now. And I just kept on going to doctors and being like, something's wrong with me, something's wrong with me. And they're like, here's some happy pills. And I'm like, no, no, it's not that, it's something else.
Jessie Ott (16:27)
There's no test for it?
Yeah.
Patricia Vasconcelos (16:51)
I'll have to tell you, like, I didn't even get diagnosed by a doctor. I got diagnosed by one of my friend's dads. And I was kind of like giving her my laundry list of like all of the things that was going on. And, you know, he's cleaning out his car. We're on the stoop and we're talking. And I'm just like, I just, don't know what to do. I can't figure it out. No one can figure it out. And I was, yeah. I was like early, early.
Jessie Ott (17:13)
And you were really young too.
Patricia Vasconcelos (17:17)
early twenties, like just barely. And he, as cool as a cucumber, as this Italian guy, he goes, hey Pat, sounds like you got Lyme disease. And I'm like, huh? And he's like, yeah. And he hunts and he would hunt a lot in like, on talk or, you know, and so I guess like, you know, obviously he was privy to like all of the symptoms and I was just rattling them off.
left and right. And so once I got to the infectious disease doctor, I was like, can you test me for Lyme? And sure enough, that's what it was. But yeah, so I actually had to stop working in the industry for about a year because I was like not in good shape. And once, you know, I got through it, but I've had to have three joint replacements, all sorts of medication.
Jessie Ott (17:55)
Ugh.
No.
Patricia Vasconcelos (18:12)
and I, now I'm through it, meaning like I just kind of live with it, ⁓ and I just manage it. But, I had to stop working because I was working for the distributor in New Jersey, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. And,
Jessie Ott (18:17)
Yeah.
Patricia Vasconcelos (18:26)
I stopped and then once I could finally kind of get back on my feet again, I really wasn't sure if I was going back in the industry and I had, I spent a little time in fashion. So I worked,
and volunteered for production companies. And I did like two seasons at the tents in Bryant Park and I loved it. And it was great. And that's kind of where my production hat started and all my career as well, which has been side by side in the beverage industry in production because I just loved, I was back of house. I loved like putting all of the, know, helping to put the looks together, getting the models out.
timing, creative, and I really worked with some of the best for a few seasons and I loved it. And then someone called me, I would say probably almost a year after and said, hey, do wanna get back in the industry? And she's like, Jack Daniels is looking for a multicultural specialist and this is a long time ago, so.
you know, kudos to Jack Daniels because they've been doing kind of like the multicultural consumer really actively and authentically talking to them for a very long time. And so I became the market manager for Jack Daniels in New York. And let me tell you, that was one of the best jobs I've ever had. was feeling better. I don't know, I was walking in like six inch heels, like up and down New York.
Jessie Ott (19:30)
Mm-hmm.
I bet.
Patricia Vasconcelos (19:52)
uptown, downtown. I don't know how I was doing it. I was on the six, like constantly just, you I was whatever, 23, four, so I could do anything. But my first day on the job was really funny. I was in Washington Heights and I was like, I had my, you know,
Jessie Ott (19:53)
⁓ boy.
You
Yep.
Patricia Vasconcelos (20:18)
whatever I could afford at the time, but it was all new. was like going to the first day of school. I had my cute little briefcase. I was like, hi, my name's Patricia. I'm here for Jack Daniels. I cover the off-premise. think I was saying it in Spanish at the time. And he's like, grabs me, literally grabs me from like the back of my jacket and pulls me down. And all you hear are like three shots outside. No lie.
It like someone got shot, like someone was shooting someone outside. And he was witnessing all of this happening outside. And he just grabs me, takes me behind like where the register is and pulls me down. And he's like, stay down, stay down. Like that was my first day of experience in alcohol sales in New York City. Yep.
Jessie Ott (21:04)
boy.
Sorry about that.
Patricia Vasconcelos (21:09)
And then I'm like, so then the cops come.
And then I leave, like, like I am shell shocked. I'm like, I remember calling my boss and being like, can I go home today? Like, and it's funny now, but it was really, really, really scary because New York has evolved as you know. And yeah, but that was my first day on the job at Jack Daniel's.
Jessie Ott (21:16)
Right.
And so how long did you
stay with them?
Patricia Vasconcelos (21:33)
I was there for about five years. I loved it. We did some really cool things, like not only for the culture, for the brand, we were really doing some, there was a lot of like rock and Espanol, there was a lot of art, there was a lot of great music at the time. So we aligned ourselves authentically with a lot of musicians and we sold a lot of cases and really.
brought the brand to life in a place where it had not previously really lived that much. That was great. And then about five years later, I got a call and the call went like this. It was like, can I interest you in international travel and tequila? That was literally the call, the first sentence. And again, I was like, what, 24, 25.
Jessie Ott (22:16)
Traveling tequila? Done!
Patricia Vasconcelos (22:27)
I was living in the East Village. didn't have a boyfriend. I had nothing tying me to New York. I loved it so much. He's like, the only kicker is that you gotta move to California because at the time tequila was not consumed like it is now. And it was really like California was the main lead state and Texas, Nevada probably were the three.
Jessie Ott (22:43)
Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
Patricia Vasconcelos (22:52)
So everything that we were doing had to be based out of California. And plus obviously we needed to be close to the distillery. So I was like, yeah, hell yeah, I'm going. So I rented this little beach bungalow in Laguna Beach because I didn't move to LA yet because I didn't know anybody. And our offices were in Corona Del Mar. And that began like...
Jessie Ott (23:08)
Hmm
Patricia Vasconcelos (23:17)
Basically, honestly, it didn't really even matter where I lived, even though I really loved my little bungalow in Beach Haven, because I spent probably every day, except for maybe two weeks in the air on American Airlines, launching Corralejo in 41 markets in two years and going to any and all distributor meetings, anybody that would meet me.
Jessie Ott (23:39)
Mm.
Patricia Vasconcelos (23:44)
anybody that would talk to me, I would be right there presenting and tasting. And that was also a hell of a time. It was super fun.
Jessie Ott (23:51)
Yeah. So you're
executive or you're Gold for life.
Patricia Vasconcelos (23:56)
I'm Gold for life. When I hit a million, I
was like, where's George Clooney? Where are my balloons? Where is, did you ever see that movie Up in the Air? So yeah, I'm gold for life. I'm just, yeah, two million miles flown, blah, But now I'm just like, oh, I can't fly anything else just because of like the status and you know.
Jessie Ott (24:02)
Yeah! Yeah!
But, yep.
Patricia Vasconcelos (24:22)
I really like Delta, but now I'm too far gone, I'm too far in. So yeah, we worked on kind of like the rebrand of Corralejo. We launched it in the UK, kind of randomly. We saw that there was just an extensive cocktail culture that was happening in London before it happened anywhere in the United States. And so we...
Jessie Ott (24:27)
You're too far in.
Patricia Vasconcelos (24:45)
We're like, let's go get some of those cocktail placements. And we made so many great friends, friends I still have today, that were also starting out in their careers and now, you know, they're owners of multiple hotels, brands. And so it was just, it's been special. This business is special. my, yeah, yep, yep.
Jessie Ott (25:00)
Yeah.
Yeah. Are you still in touch with them? Are you serious?
Well, I'm trying to build business over there. Maybe we could, you could connect me to some, some people cause we have a whole big portfolio that we're trying to export. just had a call with an importer, this morning or today on, he doesn't sell, but he'll import and handle all the DTC and build out all the Amazon marketplace stuff for us.
Patricia Vasconcelos (25:15)
Yeah, of course.
great. Yeah. Let's get on a call.
Jessie Ott (25:36)
So we just need to get some,
yeah, we just need to get demand on a couple of products and just start with one container and see how it goes. And yeah.
Patricia Vasconcelos (25:43)
See how it goes. Yep,
I am. You it was a group of us. It was like the clique. know, Lab was thriving at the time. And you know, so many great people, individuals, operations, ops people came out of that establishment and so many others opened up their wonderful businesses, consultancies.
Jessie Ott (25:51)
That sounds so much fun.
Patricia Vasconcelos (26:13)
hotels. So again, it was kind of like, I mean, a crystallized of a special time and place. so I traveled to London a lot. And then I remember I'm in the parking lot of a store in Laguna Beach. And my business partner called me and he said, so we just got an offer on Corralejo. And I was like,
Jessie Ott (26:14)
That's awesome.
Yeah.
Patricia Vasconcelos (26:37)
What? was like, we're two years in on this thing. We're two years in on this thing. you know, it was kind of like bittersweet, you know, because we had been working on it so hard for two years and we had no intention of ever like exiting or letting it go. And poof, it just kind of happened. And we got an offer. really...
Jessie Ott (26:37)
Why would you do that?
Patricia Vasconcelos (27:01)
You know, he couldn't refuse and it really set us up to expand on other brands, other categories. Yeah, and then the crash happened and then, well, everything went away. So, yeah, no, it's again, it's been a wild ride. Honestly, if somebody would have told me when I was, you know, talking to
Jessie Ott (27:15)
Yeah.
Patricia Vasconcelos (27:27)
the recruiter at Penn State, like this is all the things that are gonna happen to you in the next 20 years, I would have told them they were nuts. Absolutely nuts. Yeah. So yeah, so the brand got sold to Infinium Spirits. I think they still have it. And you know, at the time, pardon?
Jessie Ott (27:36)
That's so cool.
Do ever buy it?
Do you ever buy it? Yeah. Yeah.
Patricia Vasconcelos (27:48)
Yeah. yeah.
Honestly, you know, I know that it's like kind of talking about one, you know, one of my children or something, but like for the price. this is, remember that like, there was no such thing. Patron was like the only thing out there at the time. And it's like,
Jessie Ott (27:57)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Patricia Vasconcelos (28:09)
really for premiumness, everybody was drinking vodka, vodka, vodka, vodka, vodka. Nobody was, not nobody, people were drinking tequila, but not like it is now or the last 10 years.
Jessie Ott (28:13)
Yeah.
Patricia Vasconcelos (28:21)
It was slim pickings, right?
Jessie Ott (28:23)
Yeah, well, it wasn't the quality
really that we're so used to now, you know?
Patricia Vasconcelos (28:27)
Yeah, I mean now
I'm like, I'm not drinking bad tequila. I'm sorry. I'm just not. It's like there's no reason to. And it just gets better and better and got in and it's something for everybody. Like if you're in the mood for like a highland or it's not actually a lowland because I'm always in the mood for a highland, but.
Jessie Ott (28:33)
Yeah, there's no reason to.
Patricia Vasconcelos (28:48)
lowland tequila or just different characteristics of earth and you can just really go to something very specific and you know it's like picking out wine.
Jessie Ott (28:54)
Yep.
Have you tried? Have
you tried Raicilla
Patricia Vasconcelos (29:01)
I haven't, So good.
Jessie Ott (29:05)
When you're talking about terroir and you're talking about earthiness, there's only 16 areas in Mexico that you can, where tequila is all over and it has to grow wild. And it can be several different types of agave, but the main one that this company that I was talking to, La Reina the queen, the queen. So the
Patricia Vasconcelos (29:09)
Mm.
Yeah.
Yes.
Jessie Ott (29:28)
They arranged it with the Mexican government. Because she's so fun and was just passionate about Raicilla from her village. And they're like, give, fine, tequila can be king, but Raicilla needs to be queen. Yeah. And, you know, they carve out wood devices to...
Patricia Vasconcelos (29:33)
yeah.
that's so cool. What a cool story.
Jessie Ott (29:48)
process it and use no electricity and they use the hills to like, yeah, no, it's like, you want an earthy type of Raicilla de Reina Atenguilllo I can't, I can't pronounce it, but, but it's, I had them on the podcast. It's a husband and wife and they are just precious. And
Patricia Vasconcelos (29:52)
Get out.
You got this.
⁓ that's awesome.
Jessie Ott (30:07)
so amazing and they kind of tied it into fashion. So they've got a whole thing going on for them. But I would absolutely recommend it. was a game changer for me to try it because it was like nothing I'd ever tried before.
Patricia Vasconcelos (30:14)
I haven't tried it yet.
Yep. I'm really like, I just a snob and about it now. And honestly, like, because I'm not, I'm not, I'm still drinking. I still enjoy spirits. I'm just obviously not as often as I did in my twenties, like, like most people.
Jessie Ott (30:29)
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah.
Patricia Vasconcelos (30:44)
so really I'm very particular about what it is, you know, even like even vodka, for the last two months, I've been drinking lots of martinis and I'm like, where, where did this come from? You know, like, and it's, I'm, I'm so, but, but I had before, and, know, I just, I really love that, you know, you can go in and out of categories. And I was.
Jessie Ott (30:55)
You evolve!
Patricia Vasconcelos (31:08)
finding the best, you know, when I first moved to Miami, like my whole goal was like, let me find the best daiquiri in this town. And oddly enough, I didn't find many of them, which is weird. I'm like, it's three ingredients, come on. And now it's different. Now you could find great daiquiris everywhere. But you know, I I was on a mission and I just really love.
Jessie Ott (31:18)
You
It's the beach. Yeah, for sure.
Patricia Vasconcelos (31:34)
the cocktail culture and I love how creative all of the individuals, you know, and like I said, obviously my backyard is now like the center of the universe in Miami that like there's just so many places that are just delivering and like hit it out of the park every time. So now I know like, okay, cool, I'm gonna go out, I'm gonna have a great cocktail and that's all. And I'm excited about that.
Jessie Ott (31:55)
Yeah. Good. That's
awesome.
Patricia Vasconcelos (32:00)
Yeah, so
then let's see after that, I traveled all over the United States and for about a month or so and while I was in Savannah, Georgia, also another good town, by the way, I got a call from LVMH and they were looking for kind of like a multicultural cross like marketing slash commercial kind of a little bit of both like commercial programming and marketing. And so
I really didn't think I would be there for a decade, but I was. And I just loved it. was the first six years was incredible. And I got to travel all over the world with them. I met so many talented, you know, winemakers, distillers, just, it was really, really cool. And I worked in LA.
did a little bit of everything, chains on, off, multicultural, general market, and really just kind of honed in on the commercial side of things while also executing some of the marketing programs. So that was really great. And then I ended up in Miami because we wanted to get closer to our families. And my husband is French.
Jessie Ott (32:58)
That's cool.
Patricia Vasconcelos (33:15)
And for some reason, just can't get away from the French and so. Oh, you did. Oh, it's just so beautiful. And.
Jessie Ott (33:19)
I always thought I'd marry one, but I didn't. I went to grad school in France for a year. I've wanted to move there so bad. just couldn't get there.
Patricia Vasconcelos (33:31)
And really like we met in LA, but we wanted to my my mom is obviously like on the East Coast and Philly and his parents are in Nice. And so we wanted to just be closer because those 12, 13 hour flights from from from Nice are quite brutal. And then I started working for William Grant and I was the director of luxury for North America. So my team had a team of seven and we
managed pretty much anything over $200 a bottle to up to $167,000, 170,000 and any of, you know, limited releases or really played in the ultra high net worth individual space and
Jessie Ott (34:16)
Yeah, I was going to say
those are places with sellers and private everything. Yeah. That's interesting.
Patricia Vasconcelos (34:19)
Yeah, private everything. It's
very interesting. It's a whole nother world. Yeah. I mean, you're navigating sales still, obviously, it's deep rooted in sales, it's, they're long leads. It is solely about, which I loved, to me,
Jessie Ott (34:28)
Completely different, yeah.
Patricia Vasconcelos (34:47)
which is two things, customer service and hospitality. And I see it coming back, like hospitality was like a dying breed. And I just, especially within the beverage industry space, I think like things are like automated and everything looks the same or tends to look the same now because everybody's really, you know, just trying to get their ROI. And so
in this very specific space of like high net worth, ultra high net worth. It's just another, it's another ball game and I'm happy that I really can experience it, got to experience it really lovely. Just see how it works, how it's so different.
Jessie Ott (35:29)
understand how it works because it's not completely different
than any traditional avenue I would imagine.
Patricia Vasconcelos (35:37)
It is. And some of it's the same meaning, like if you get to a certain mark, you know, anything probably under 21 year old, it's similar. But your creativity needs to be different in terms of like how you sell, what the programming might look like, how you speak to your customers, because your customers...
isn't necessarily, it is also like the venue, it is the five star hotel, it is, but ultimately where you're most successful is like, how can I think for your consumer first and then provide you, know, Ritz Carlton Four Seasons with something that is equally authentically our brand, but also
Jessie Ott (36:10)
Yep.
Patricia Vasconcelos (36:29)
managed through you and all of your values, hotel, and then delivered exceptionally to the end consumer, right? And you had to think through all those levels of like, what does that look like? How does that get entertained? How does that taste? Will it taste okay? I mean, we're charging $65 for a cocktail.
Jessie Ott (36:52)
Mm-hmm.
Patricia Vasconcelos (36:57)
You know, it's another cool, fun way to be very creative and get the same outcome, is the sale, excuse me, but it's just a different way to do it. And then there's, you know, the usual like the privacy, the like, you know, you have to be, because it's another level of, they would like to be private, some of our clients. so, you know.
Jessie Ott (36:57)
Yeah.
Patricia Vasconcelos (37:24)
There's also that, you know, of like just doing things kind of like quietly, quiet luxury type of thing. yeah.
Jessie Ott (37:31)
Right. So is
that something where you as a supplier make your relationships or is that some, is there someone at the distributor in local markets that kind of manage that?
Patricia Vasconcelos (37:41)
it's very individual leave run. So, for my team, we would get like some leads out of the distributor sometimes. so it's not to say like they didn't do that at all, but really it was like your entire network where you played me, me or my team, the connections they made,
again, like you were a little, you wore a lot of hats. You, you know, you were a concierge, you were, you know, sometimes even a babysitter, you know, something like, here, I got to run out. So it's just different. It's a different level of hospitality and customer services is all I can really say. But mostly it would come from us.
Jessie Ott (38:16)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Patricia Vasconcelos (38:32)
Like we would actively go out and try to garner new relationships and foster them.
Jessie Ott (38:39)
Interesting. Fascinating, actually.
Patricia Vasconcelos (38:40)
Yeah, yeah it is. you know, sometimes
like you, you know, you really, it's never like this, you get the sale, you're like, great. Like now you're like embedded in people's homes or events or, and you know, and that's, if you're good at your job, they call you first and they say,
I want to do this. How do you think that we can integrate the brand? And I want it to be special. And honestly, it's a very specific job and there's only a select group of people in the United States that are doing and around the globe, to be honest, and doing it really, really well. And you probably don't know about them that much and they work, you know, quietly.
Jessie Ott (39:28)
Nope. I've been in the industry
20 some years and I have no idea what this world is like. None whatsoever.
Patricia Vasconcelos (39:35)
Yeah, it's special. Like I said, it's taken me to like really beautiful meetings, places, things, homes. But you you have to hold that very sacred because yes, you're there for the brand. But really, you're like
Jessie Ott (39:47)
Yep.
Patricia Vasconcelos (39:56)
now very much immersed in someone's like lifestyle and livelihood. And so you have to be very specific with what you do and how you do it and what information you share or you don't, you sometimes they don't mind or they're like, Hey, introduce me to, you know, and so, so it's been very cool. And then, so the pair really to get us to the pair, which is,
Jessie Ott (40:01)
Yeah.
Yep. Yep.
Yeah.
Patricia Vasconcelos (40:21)
I wanted to, I was, you know, I've always been at the center of like marketing and sales and I wanted to lead an agency that was at the forefront of hospitality, customer service and beverage alcohol because I really am like holding the flag for those three things to work in tandem for commercial success.
And I just saw it dwindling a little bit too much for my comfort and or sadly, I think some of our agencies that we've had are great and wonderful and they could do large scale things. And but like really where you differentiate like great to, you know, the best.
there are these little, little details that are really coming from a place of hospitality, authenticity, brand DNA, and like knowing your consumer and your customer so well and matching all those things together. And that's what I wanted to develop and a boutique agency with, you know, the clients, some of the clients that I have now. And that's what I'm doing, which is very cool. Yeah.
Jessie Ott (41:28)
Nice.
I love it. Yeah,
that's awesome. That smile is huge over there. You look like you're in your element.
Patricia Vasconcelos (41:37)
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think I was a
little bit of both like entrepreneur and then corporate and then, you know, back here and it gives me a little bit more flexibility. I had been witnessing, you know, some high level executives and women that really like that are moms.
that or have ailing parents that are a little older and in what is happening with the industry right now, feel like those sometimes are the positions that are the first to go. But also on our end, I don't know that we want to go sometimes back fully to corporate America and want to have that option. so there are so many right now, which is great for brands.
so many highly skilled individuals that are out there looking for jobs. you know, go get them because I don't think they'll last that long, but there's just so many talented people out there that know this, that like kind of think similar to me and have built brands, have been moving the chess pieces for decades.
or a decade or several decades and those individuals really still, they do still want to work. Some of them don't want to go back to corporate America and if they don't want to go back to corporate America, then I kind of look for projects in which we can do those together depending on their skill set. For the agency. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We try.
Jessie Ott (43:07)
that's really nice. Yeah. Okay. Awesome. That's really
cool. Yeah.
Patricia Vasconcelos (43:14)
Yeah, yeah,
it's been great. I just had a great call yesterday with one of my closest and I was like, do you want to do this with me? And she's like, hell yeah. Hell yeah. She's like, where do we start? I was like, all right, I'll send you everything over tomorrow. Yeah. And it's like, they're all 1099s. They're not, you know, I,
Jessie Ott (43:23)
Not just okay. Hell yeah.
That's cool.
Patricia Vasconcelos (43:37)
I really am realistic. I'm not there in terms of like the whole getting all of the things together for it to have employees, which I think is project base is really good. And really we can just pick up where a brand has left off or if they have holes because they've laid off all these people, then they're like, man, who's going to do that? like, because we've been in the industry forever and really understand from a commercial, you know,
Jessie Ott (43:49)
Yep.
There's that.
Patricia Vasconcelos (44:04)
perspective, what needs to get done, we'll just jump in there quick and be like, okay, let me get you through this time or maybe until you figure out what you want to do, brand or not, or you know, or it's just, it's a project base and we do exceptional work and then we'll be out. We'll be on to the next project.
Jessie Ott (44:25)
that's really cool. Gets you exposure to a lot of things and a lot of brands. You get a depth of experience from, you know, A to Z, like you've done it all, you know, so, you know, you could really add a lot of value.
Patricia Vasconcelos (44:29)
It does.
Yeah.
I definitely have.
Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. I think, you know, what I think is very cool now is that I see, you know, a lot of the medium sized brands, they're doing really cool stuff, right? Like, you know, when you don't have a ton of money and even the bigger brands that sometimes do have a lot of money, but if you don't have all the resources, you get very creative very quickly. And
That's where the good stuff is that I'm seeing, you know, just in, you know, the short time that I've had the agency is just like really great. A lot of resilience, exceptional entrepreneurs, really good brands that have like a good foundation going and they want to scale. and, and they're doing just cool things that they're following the consumer. And I think that also was missed a little bit where.
Sometimes you just get in your head and you're a brand and you're this brand and you're only going this way and you forget your consumer. so I'm glad that that's happening and it has to be happening now because the industry is obviously going through its challenges.
Jessie Ott (45:37)
Yeah.
Yeah. So with that, let's shift over to any mentors. Do you have any mentors that you'd like to talk about?
Patricia Vasconcelos (45:55)
⁓ mentors.
So you know, so I had two and one of them was my boss for five years at Jack Daniel's and he was also like my boss and my brother. And God I think I was the biggest pain in the butt for him because he was
Jessie Ott (46:16)
Yeah.
Patricia Vasconcelos (46:18)
He would
flat out tell me. And we love, we just, you know, I always say there's a few dream teams in your career. And I've had three dream teams in my career, which I believe is probably two more than what most people have. We're like, everybody's clicking on all cylinders. Everybody has.
Jessie Ott (46:20)
he loved it.
Nice.
Patricia Vasconcelos (46:41)
goal in mind, you're all working towards that goal together and you're having the best time ever. And this was my first dream team. was my mentor, his name's Rich. And he really taught me kind of like the brass tactics of sales, all the real hardcore math behind it, as opposed to kind of like where I...
Jessie Ott (46:46)
Yeah.
Patricia Vasconcelos (47:03)
Thrive normally, which is like the storytelling and all of like the romanticism and he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's like, we don't care about that. You got to do this. And he's like, here's your pricing. Here's your deals. can make a lot. And yeah, while you, don't care. He's like, I don't like, yeah, but it's going to look so cool if it's shaved ice. And he's like, I don't care about that. And so.
Jessie Ott (47:06)
Right.
Yep. Pricing, pricing and deals. There you go. It's a volume. It's number of accounts.
Patricia Vasconcelos (47:32)
he, he, and he, even to this day, like I talk to him now, we have kept in touch. anything major comes up, I call him. and he really just taught me like the deep foundation of sales and numbers. and then really like the only.
And it's unfortunate because I really wish I had more like female mentors and just didn't really happen for me. And that sucks because I really wish there's, you know, women that helped guide me along the way a little bit, but like it was very fleeting. But I just to kind of spin this, then I really took it upon myself to be that person for many people.
Jessie Ott (47:56)
I know. Yeah.
Patricia Vasconcelos (48:16)
And I said to, when my job at William Grant, I was like, I want to be because I was, you know, director level. I had seven people working for me and every week we'd have call every Tuesday. And often I would say like, I am doing this because I have a laundry list of things that I wish someone would have done for me that
No one did. And I really want to do this for you. And, you know, I will go to the grave with that too. Now I still, even now I'm not there, but I talk to them often. They're like, what do you think about this? How would you approach that? And I pick up the phone and, and, or on text and we do, when we go, we get, get through it, right? Because I really wish, pardon?
Jessie Ott (49:01)
Nice.
And then you just, you bill him for it.
And then you bill him for it. Just kidding. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding.
Patricia Vasconcelos (49:11)
Yeah, no,
God, I really, wanna, one of my crazy ideas was like this like app Ask PV, which are my initials. And I wanted to like, you can ask me anything at any time. Just, I'm gonna send you like a little invoice, you know, anything. It's nominal, $1, $10.
Jessie Ott (49:25)
Yeah
Yep. Can't do anything for free.
Pack a gum.
Patricia Vasconcelos (49:38)
But I'm not kidding, I would probably make
$1,000 in a week. People call me about everything. I mean it. It's very funny.
Jessie Ott (49:45)
Oh, you should,
you should have an app. Just ask the app. I'll give you the answer. It's a great idea.
Patricia Vasconcelos (49:49)
Ask TV.
I don't know if I told you, I got a call. was probably, I don't know. Yeah, so it was like eight or nine o'clock here. They're like, I'm in London. I'm standing on such and such a street. What bar do I go to? I'm like, huh?
Jessie Ott (50:08)
my gosh,
what? goodness.
Patricia Vasconcelos (50:11)
But of course,
I text my friend. I'm like, hey, my friend's at the, where should she go? And so sent them on their way.
Jessie Ott (50:19)
There's these things, they're called phones. They have ratings on those phones. Okay. You're a net worker. That would be amazing. And you can actually get people to subscribe because they'd want to hear all this great advice.
Patricia Vasconcelos (50:22)
I know they didn't know each other though. So yeah, I'm the conduit they say, but that's why my app would be so amazing. Yeah. You can ask me food,
hotels. Obviously there are tons of apps and companies that do that now, but like you need like real time. Cause no, honestly, like unless you're like
Jessie Ott (50:45)
Yeah.
Patricia Vasconcelos (50:50)
really deeply a planner. Like how many times have you been like, damn, I really wish I knew where to go right now, this second. It happens to everybody all the time and like you want a really good answer where you know you're going to have a great time and eat great food. So somebody's going to do all this I'm sure, or already have.
Jessie Ott (50:56)
Yes. Yes, happens all the time. Yeah, for sure. Yeah.
Exactly. ⁓ it's,
yeah, it's called pair P it's called pair P a P a I R E. Yeah. I think that's, I think that's what it's called. I had them on the podcast, but they've since switched their name and they have, you can create your own list and it's, it was just to say the,
Patricia Vasconcelos (51:17)
It's called what?
I-R-E. It is.
Jessie Ott (51:34)
You know how reviews, a lot of competing restaurants will go on and give them bad reviews. So this is like, you build your own list of restaurants and you can build your own list per in each city, or you can follow different people that build their own list per city. you can actually, like you would build your own global, whatever, and people could follow you and then they just know where to go. You just put all your spots on there. Yeah.
Patricia Vasconcelos (51:38)
Yeah.
Yeah.
right. That's cool. And do you like,
can you invite friends? Like what happens?
Jessie Ott (52:03)
I think so.
Yeah, I think so. I haven't been on it in a minute, but it's kind of cool because it's like, oh, you can create a list of things you want, places you want to go, you know, or your jazz clubs or your Mexican places or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty cool. So what? Yeah, check it out.
Patricia Vasconcelos (52:17)
That's very cool.
I'm checking that out. And we have that like,
we have that with our friend group. It's literally on WhatsApp and like, it's like, you know, a few friends where everybody trusts like their tastes and you know, one's in New York, I'm here. The other one's in LA, the other one's in Dallas. So like, obviously that's the friend group, but like, you know, something more financially.
Alluring would be fun and very cool. Give me money. But yeah.
Jessie Ott (52:49)
Yes.
Yeah, you could be an influencer.
Patricia Vasconcelos (52:53)
I mean, I've been influencing for a long time. I just don't have a million followers.
Jessie Ott (52:58)
Yeah, that's cash money right there.
Patricia Vasconcelos (53:00)
So I've been doing that
for so long. But yeah, I just haven't figured it out. Honestly, I'm up in the digital space, meaning I understand how it works. It's my job to really understand it and visually understand it too from a brand standpoint. I just like making reels all the time.
Jessie Ott (53:06)
Yep.
Yeah, I know. I do it. But that brings me to how we met.
Patricia Vasconcelos (53:27)
Definitely a thing.
Yes! Yes!
Jessie Ott (53:34)
Right?
So I was, I realized that I needed more personal touch on my, on my like album cover, whatever you call those things for the podcast. Yeah. And so, I had thrown out an idea and just said, Hey world, please help. Cause I'm not quite there yet. And I had a lot going on and.
Patricia Vasconcelos (53:46)
Creative, you're creative.
Jessie Ott (53:58)
that I had some images that I've used throughout different websites that I liked and, you know, images or whatever the case may be. And so you actually took the time to give me advice on what to do. And I really appreciated that because I think you helped me make it a lot better and cleaned it up. You're like, there's too many colors, there's too many fonts. You need to do this, this, this, and this, and then do whatever you want with that. And I'm like, okay, all right.
Patricia Vasconcelos (54:18)
Hahaha!
Hahaha!
Jessie Ott (54:26)
We got this.
So eight versions later is what's out there.
Patricia Vasconcelos (54:30)
I am glad
that you took my advice, solicited or not. You're probably like, cause the thing is like, if people are going to ask that I was like, okay, again, I am married to a French person, as you know. So some of it's rubbed off on me on like being very blunt and being very like, yeah, yeah.
Jessie Ott (54:34)
Yeah.
⁓ that's great. I did it.
It was helpful. It didn't hurt my feelings or anything. It was great. yeah, no.
Patricia Vasconcelos (54:54)
Okay, good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I mean, I'm tactful, but it
was like, this is a lot of colors. She really needs to streamline it. But this looks really nice. And so I'm glad you took my advice. And I'm glad I answered, to be honest, because, you know, sometimes I hesitate. Like, I usually like if people ask me stuff all the time, I'm just there. I'm always willing.
Jessie Ott (55:07)
I did. Me too.
Patricia Vasconcelos (55:18)
to help to a certain degree, right? Like some stuff I'm like, no, like people pay me to do that. So no, I'm not gonna tell you that. like, you know, I really feel like we all need to help each other out. We are one community. Like I feel like there's a lot going on in life and whatever politics, which I'm not getting into, but like, and just, feel like if as a humanity, we're just there for one another.
Jessie Ott (55:30)
Yeah.
Patricia Vasconcelos (55:44)
then it will come back tenfold and even if it doesn't, you still feel good about it, like as a person, you know? Yeah, that's where I am with this.
Jessie Ott (55:51)
Yep. Yep. 100%.
What about resources? there any kind of, you know, podcasts or books or web pages that you find that have helped you throughout your career, whether it be learning branding or, you know, Donald Miller's the brand story or whatever the case may be.
Patricia Vasconcelos (56:08)
Yeah.
so I, few resources that I love and I know, you know, specifically for women, I think that women of the vine are, is an exceptional group. And, if you, there's a lot of things that they do that it's actually free. there's other stuff that you pay for, and I just feel like they hold such a great space for women in this industry.
that I have found. I was at the first event that they had in Napa, and it's just evolved so much since that time. And I just really appreciate the space she's been holding for everyone and all the advocates that are also very important to the group.
Jessie Ott (56:39)
First meeting.
And that, but yeah.
Patricia Vasconcelos (56:58)
all the male advocates that are important to the group. so that is always a huge resource to me. And my answer to this is also a little bit unconventional per usual, is I really, where I learn is within brand stories. And so what I do all the time is I will go down extreme rabbit holes on
online videos on any of the brands that I'm interested in on how they got to where they got to. Especially the brands that have really stood the test of time. Brands that have, you know, been huge, failed, come back. And it could be any, it doesn't need to be in the beverage space. Although, you know, obviously look at
Jessie Ott (57:35)
Mm-hmm.
Patricia Vasconcelos (57:47)
those more, but really like anything that I love, fashion, home restoration, like any of your hobbies. And I just deep dive into brands and I'm like, give me a story. I'll find someone on LinkedIn that works for them. And I'm like, can you give me some tidbits? Like, I want to know about you. And I feel like that makes you a more well-rounded marketer and you can see things from different angles.
And also not just like obviously what the brands telling you on their websites, but like stories about the brands or stories about Ferrari or the movie about Ferrari or the stories about, you know, like right now I'm deep in automotive, like, you know, Porsche and how they got started or Gucci or, you know, and again, it doesn't need to be these big brands. can be like a little brand.
Jessie Ott (58:25)
Thank
Patricia Vasconcelos (58:39)
a smaller brand that's up and coming. because at the foundation of that story is their emotional connection to where they want the consumer to, what they want the consumer to feel about them, right? And really if you tap into that, then that's like the most important part of how your marketing can thrive and live and grow. So.
Yeah, it really depends. You know, there's always online everything. Sometimes I'm too overwhelmed by it all. So I try to like make it more poignant by following one brand specifically and then go, you know, kind of go down the rabbit holes of all the things that they provide or third parties. I really like YouTube where
Jessie Ott (59:08)
Yeah.
Patricia Vasconcelos (59:26)
if I want to find out really about a brand, like I get all sorts of angles and insights from YouTube. And, you know, any third parties like talking about, you know, tequilas or that always fascinates me. Yeah.
Jessie Ott (59:31)
That's awesome. Yeah.
Nice.
What about pain points? there anything, I mean, I know the tariffs are looming over us and there's this kind of change in our resetting of our industry. Is there anything in particular that you've been experiencing or experienced that you want to talk about?
Patricia Vasconcelos (59:51)
Good for you.
Yeah.
wow, that probably requires another hour. But you gave me seven minutes, no, just kidding. I alluded to it earlier, which is because of the streamlining of so many brands.
Jessie Ott (1:00:10)
I know, just briefly.
Patricia Vasconcelos (1:00:24)
I think the individuals that have been really at the forefront of brand growth and brand building have gone away. Or where maybe you get someone that's not, I don't want to equate it just to money, but anyone that's over $200,000 or maybe they're up.
making 180 because they've earned it and they've deserved it and all that. And like maybe they've put that, taken that person away, obviously because it doesn't make financial sense because all the different reasons why you need to get rid of them. And then like somebody that maybe doesn't have that much, that as much experience and they're like 120, 115, 90.
trying to create the same magic, I guess. And I think the brands suffer in the end. And, you know, I'm not just talking, I just see, I've seen it happen so much in the last year, last year and a half. And I'm like, my goodness, like,
Jessie Ott (1:01:24)
Yeah.
Patricia Vasconcelos (1:01:39)
What is that brand? And then what happens, think, is the brands, because they don't necessarily all want to do something to rock the boat or they need an immediate ROI, then I feel like the lively, the emotional connection, the storytelling gets sucked out of and then everything looks the same and nobody's there to be like, no, let's fight for something.
to really have that emotional connection with your consumer because the consumer is asking for it. Pardon? Yes. Like you mean the drink? Yeah. And...
Jessie Ott (1:02:09)
Like Poppi.
Like Poppi
Pretty cool brand. Yeah. Yeah. I went in Target
the other day and there's their section.
Patricia Vasconcelos (1:02:21)
Yeah, well, because now it's going to it's owned by Pepsi, but I think initially that was honestly, they did incredible work initially to get to the right consumer. And that's, think, a really good understanding of who your consumer is and just going after it and going after it. But I'm just I'm mostly talking about like spirits brands where I feel like the industry is just like we're just going to like.
Jessie Ott (1:02:23)
you
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah
Patricia Vasconcelos (1:02:47)
carpet bomb things and like whoever survives great. And then whoever stays, know, also they're doing like five or six jobs. And I think it's a detriment and it will hurt the brands in the long run. And that's sad. That makes me sad. As you couldn't tell, like I really have such a love for this industry.
Jessie Ott (1:02:50)
Everybody, yeah, they just want to be a millionaire overnight. You know, they don't want to put in the work.
Yeah. Yeah.
Patricia Vasconcelos (1:03:12)
I have done a lot, I've seen it all. I haven't seen this, what's been happening in the last year. And so, I don't know, the brands are gonna be around, they're gonna thrive, and this is just kind of like a rocky road, but it's been tough to witness.
Jessie Ott (1:03:27)
Yeah.
Yeah. Well, can you expand a little bit on that and talk about your outlook?
Patricia Vasconcelos (1:03:35)
Yes, the shake up is going to be real. It's already happening. think that different suppliers choosing to go to non-traditional distribution systems is really the...
Jessie Ott (1:03:40)
Yep.
Patricia Vasconcelos (1:03:50)
you know, byproduct of frustration for a very long time. And, you know, I've had exceptional relationships with our distributors. And, you know, I've had not so great relationships with our distributors. And I know that they're doing what they can in a very volatile environment, too. And I think that just in the next six to eight months, people are
excuse me, brands are just going to have to do what they need to do in order for their brand to be seen and to be distributed, be sold, be talked about. And again, some of these like mid-tier brands that don't have, you know, as many resources, they're just like, we need to make one big move, right? And we're going to put our stake in the ground and we're going to do what we can to
Jessie Ott (1:04:23)
Mm-hmm.
Patricia Vasconcelos (1:04:40)
like make it happen because we need sales. A lot of the wine brands too, know, the wine brands are probably, probably needing the most help. And so my projection is that there's gonna be even more shakeup. You know, obviously what just happened in the last three months of this year has been like with Tito's reforming, like, and I think
Jessie Ott (1:05:01)
Moving to
Reyes distributing in California is what she's referring to. Yep.
Patricia Vasconcelos (1:05:02)
Yes. Yeah,
yeah. Moving to Reyes. But good for Reyes, man. You got your shot, you know? Go do it. Yeah, right? And that's what I'm saying. You have to be under, to make a move like that and to be bold like that one way or the other. And now I think, which is great, everyone's gonna have to recalibrate and quickly.
Jessie Ott (1:05:08)
Yeah. Do it. Make it rain.
Yeah.
Yep.
Yep. Yep. For sure.
Patricia Vasconcelos (1:05:29)
⁓ so
I, the outlook is positive. You know, I, I had, saw a post today and it was so specific about like, you know, all the doom and gloom. knew that like when that was at the New York times article came out that alcohol so bad, like, I don't know, causes cancer, all the things. And that was in January. was like, whoo everybody.
Jessie Ott (1:05:46)
Mmm.
All the things.
Patricia Vasconcelos (1:05:55)
Put your seat belts on because it's gonna be a crazy road. And again, all the bigger brands and all the brands I think come from a very responsible place and a voice of responsibility, but it's still alcohol or low alcohol or whatever. So everybody just has their say. But I think the outlook will be...
Jessie Ott (1:06:07)
Yeah.
Patricia Vasconcelos (1:06:19)
will be positive ultimately once everything really does shake out and hopefully people get rehired and you know yeah.
Jessie Ott (1:06:28)
They'll just be doing something a little different.
It's going to be those mid tier brands that are going to start picking up some of these amazing talented people and really helping them accelerate. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Patricia Vasconcelos (1:06:33)
Yep.
Yep. And help them accelerate. And that's the word is accelerate, accelerate and to on every level, really.
I think the big brands can accelerate and, you know, they're going through a time now and, you know, they're, they're like, what do we do? How do we shift? And they're going to be need to make bold moves too. So it's everybody really, I think maybe they're just, it's a time of
intense pressure to move in one direction or the other, but you got to move and move like with pace, with, you know, be bold, be different, understand your consumer. So, but I have optimism. Yeah, I do. Let's end with optimism.
Jessie Ott (1:07:09)
Yep, you gotta move. Yep.
Nice. Well, I'm going to, you have to go. Good. Optimism moving forward. Okay. Okay. Optimism
is the key word, but I want to ask you three really fast, rapid fire questions. Cause I know you have to go pick up your daughter. If you were a cocktail, what would you be?
Patricia Vasconcelos (1:07:33)
Yes.
gosh. A corpse reviver number two.
Jessie Ott (1:07:41)
I don't even know what that means.
Patricia Vasconcelos (1:07:42)
It's an Absinthe drink that was a classic. No, honestly, that's my witty answer. I would be like full on, and don't judge me because I love me a slightly dirty martini. And I know that if you over shake it, it won't taste the same, but I really love the ice chips on the
Jessie Ott (1:07:45)
⁓
There's no judgement here.
same. I love it. No, I love an ice cold dirty martini shaking. I make them at home for, you know, once in a while. We love martinis here. We, we, we, it's just kind of fun to do once in a while, you know?
Patricia Vasconcelos (1:08:12)
good.
I just
like the chips. like watching them. And then I know it kind of gets watered down too fast, but it's okay. Yeah, okay. Okay. I drink vodka martinis, even though I really I love gin martinis. It's it's all it's all but it's everything and all but yeah.
Jessie Ott (1:08:24)
Don't care. It's okay. It's pure vodka or gin. It's all right.
What's your
favorite movie?
Patricia Vasconcelos (1:08:40)
What's my favorite movie? Let's see. God, there's lots.
Can't Buy Me Love, I know I'm showing my age.
Jessie Ott (1:08:48)
That's okay. What's your favorite city?
Patricia Vasconcelos (1:08:50)
Ooh, tough.
Jessie Ott (1:08:53)
in Miami?
Patricia Vasconcelos (1:08:55)
No,
There's this strip of little towns called Cinque Terre in the Italian Riviera and all five of them are so special and awesome.
Jessie Ott (1:09:02)
I know that area. Ugh.
We were supposed to stay there and then COVID hit.
Patricia Vasconcelos (1:09:08)
So my favorite meal of all time, all time, out of all the places I've been in the world was in Cinque Terre. And I don't even think it was like a place. It was like, she had a kitchen. It was on top of like, you know, the little in Rio Maggiore. And like, she's like, what do you want? You know, it was like this little.
Jessie Ott (1:09:09)
coast.
Really? That's awesome.
Ha ha.
you
Patricia Vasconcelos (1:09:34)
like
little old lady and her family. And again, I haven't been there in a minute. So I don't even know if it was like an actual restaurant. I just walked in and they were serving food and I was like, okay, I'm gonna eat here. Best meal of my life.
Jessie Ott (1:09:45)
Great. That's amazing.
I feel like we could have a podcast just talking about all your travels all over the world.
Patricia Vasconcelos (1:09:50)
my
God, I know I was gonna write a book. It was called Life in Seat 11B. Because that was where my seat always was for some reason on American Airlines. And I was going to talk about all my travels. Yeah, thank you. This was so fun. Thank you. I know my daughter is gonna be like, why didn't you pick me up?
Jessie Ott (1:09:56)
Yeah, you should.
I love it. Yep. Do it. Well, I'll let you go. It was fun. I don't want your daughter to not like me before I get to meet her.
She can't be that cool, Come get me.
Patricia Vasconcelos (1:10:18)
I was like, I have a podcast.
You're going to stay in aftercare. She's like, just don't come at five. I gotta go. Thank you very much.
Jessie Ott (1:10:26)
Okay. All right. Well, we're in the clear. We're in the clear. Okay. Well, it so nice
to meet you, you know, in in-depth and way. Congratulations on such an amazing career. You've really succeeded at everything, you know, you've done and I can't wait to see you grow with your new agency. And it sounds like you're off to a good start. So all the best.
Patricia Vasconcelos (1:10:38)
Thank you.
Thank you to
you as well. Thank you for giving me this opportunity. really appreciate you. Seriously. And please call me and we need to get in touch because I need to give you some names and stuff and you're okay. Bye. Please. Bye. Ciao.
Jessie Ott (1:10:54)
Yeah, my pleasure.
Yeah. Yeah. We can help each other out. All right. We'll do. Okay. Bye.
