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- There's a story inside every smoke shop
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with every cigar and with every person.
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Come be a part of the cigar lifestyle at Boveda.
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This is "Box Press".
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(cheerful jazz music)
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- Welcome everyone to another episode of "Box Press".
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I'm your host, Rob Gagner.
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Nirka. Did I say it right? - Yes.
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Welcome to "Box Press".
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- Thank you so much. Thank you for having me here.
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- Congratulations to you and your husband.
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- We're newlyweds still, so...
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- I know, like, how many months is it?
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- A year and six months.
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- Okay, so it was 2020
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that you got-- - Yes.
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we had a pandemic wedding.
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We were one of those.
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- You had a dumps, dumpster,
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what are they called?
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2020 Dumpster Fire or something like that.
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I have no idea. - Oh yeah.
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- But the thing is that we didn't wanna wait, you know.
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It's like we, - No.
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- we wanna make a big celebration
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afterwards because people like Charlie
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from halfwheel, - Right.
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- he was, like,
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he was talking from,
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since my engagement that I was gonna have probably
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a 2,000 people wedding - Right.
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- in the D R.
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And I was like, we can have a party later on.
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- Right. - But like,
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we just wanna get married.
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Like, it doesn't matter if it's a big or small gathering,
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it's, it's just--
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- To you guys it didn't matter.
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- No. - But did it matter
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to the rest of the family?
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- Well, the family was there, so...
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- I know, but like, my mom wanted me to have a big wedding.
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- Oh, but my dad knows for sure
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that we're making another one.
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- Okay, so you, you already are married.
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It's been a year and a half out.
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- Wait, we, so we said five years.
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On our, on our fifth-year anniversary,
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we're gonna have another wedding.
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- Can I come to it?
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- Yes. My dad makes the greatest parties ever.
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He's a--
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- I'm just, it's gonna be the first time in history
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that somebody invites themselves to a wedding.
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- Would you like to come to my wedding, Rob?
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- Nirka, I would absolutely love to come to your wedding.
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I am so honored that you invited me.
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That makes me feel super special
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and I can't thank you enough already.
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I'll be there.
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In what year will that be? 2025.
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- Five, 2025. Exactly.
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- Abbey, clear our schedule.
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We're going to the Dominican Republic in 2025.
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What month and what day?
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- Well, I have to see if it actually fits the same day,
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but it would be probably the last weekend of November.
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So Thanksgiving time.
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- Oh yeah, I'll totally do Thanksgiving in the D R.,
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especially with your family because it's gonna feel
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like I'm just at a family reunion.
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- Yeah and you know what?
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My dad makes the most amazing deep fried turkey.
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He's famous for that.
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- No way.
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- He's super famous for that.
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- Okay so, in the deep fried turkey world and realm,
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it's a firefighter's nightmare
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- I know. - because there's a lot
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of people who don't know what the heck they're doing.
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Has your father ever gotten to the point where he's been
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like, this shit is getting out of control?
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- Not at all.
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- And I've gotta call somebody.
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- No, not at all.
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He always has his thermometers.
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It's all, it's all very controlled.
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He's an excellent cook, my dad.
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I don't know if, you know, they say that you kind
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of marry someone that resembles your dad.
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I married a chef, so...
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- Oh yeah. I married my mother, in my wife.
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It's really scary sometimes.
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- I don't think exactly like my dad,
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but in that way they both love food.
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So the moment they met each other they were just like,
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they forgot about me.
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They forgot I existed.
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- Yeah, it's not important anymore.
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- Yeah. - Because now it's
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just him and I. - Yeah, yeah.
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- You gotta build a relationship without you in it--
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- And they cook together all the time.
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- And food was that catalyst.
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- Yeah, exactly.
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- For me and my father-in-law, it was real estate.
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He's a real estate salesperson and so am I.
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So immediately my wife went,
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you guys are talking about real estate.
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Okay, I'm, I'll, I'll see you later.
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- I'll be, I'll go to the spa, I'll go shopping.
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- Yeah. - And you're gonna still,
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you're still gonna be talking, right?
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- Oh yeah. Yeah.
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- I know that feeling.
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I was like, to my dad's wife, Mónika let's get out of here.
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We're not needed. We're not needed right now.
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- No, no.
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It's not personal.
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It's actually a really good thing.
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(laughing)
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- I love people to see real life.
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Have you ever entered a like
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La Caya's
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office? - Right.
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- There's ash everywhere. We're super messy with our ashes.
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- So my keyboard on my old Mac computer doesn't really work
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with the O and the space bar.
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And I swear to God it's because of the amount of ash
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that is inside that keyboard right now.
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(chuckling)
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I'm not kidding.
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They actually bought me a new Mac this year
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and I was very thankful.
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Because-- - I can imagine.
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- My just, when I would type,
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I'm like-- - Yeah because you're typing
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with your cigar in your hand-- - that is not what I typed.
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This keyboard is possessed.
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And then right now when you said that,
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it just sparked like,
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there's just so much ash in there that, like--
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- I use an additional keyboard just not to damage
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the one on my Mac.
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- Yes. - That's--
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I, I, I also got the wireless keyboard.
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- Yeah, that's, that's the trick.
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- So that I don't screw,
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because it's much easier to replace the wireless one
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- That's a trick.
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- than it is the one inside the laptop.
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- And then I have like on one of the drawer in my desk,
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you know, something that I can actually,
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- The vacuum? - That I, yeah,
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that I can actually take it off.
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- Do you vacuum or brush?
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- No, brush, I brush.
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- Okay so, back in the day at Boveda,
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we called it the Salt Mine Days.
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We were underneath a gas station that had no windows.
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So we called it the salt mine because we deal in salt
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and that's what makes our products so powerful
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and it's underground, so it was kind of like a mine.
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- That's amazing.
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- And back in those days we were able to enjoy fine cigars
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while we worked.
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I probably shouldn't say that on air,
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but we're probably gonna edit that out.
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(chuckling)
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But we literally went on Amazon
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and bought vacuums specifically for,
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handheld vacuums, specifically for vacuuming up the ash
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that we would create.
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Sean, Tim, myself.
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Everyone had one inside their office to use
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at their disposal whenever shit would hit the desk.
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- I have one of those,
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those handheld ones in different places of my home
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because we have a German Shepherd
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and whoever owns a German Shepherd knows they shed
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a lot of hair. - Yeah.
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- Every single day.
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And when they're actually changing,
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their, their fur, it's, it's horrible.
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So I'm, I'm constantly doing that.
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- Did you ever watch "Friends"?
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- Of course.
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- That I've, I, I know it's a dumb question,
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but every once in a while I have to check
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because "Friends" is running probably
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- I know.
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- on its 30th anniversary since the last time it aired.
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And I just have to know if I'm dating myself or not.
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But it's the Monica vacuum
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and when Monica cleaned the big vacuum
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with the smaller vacuum, she said,
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"I wish there was another little vacuum to clean this one."
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It's kinda like the perpetual rabbit hole of like,
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how far can this go?
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- Yeah, yeah, totally.
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- You like the floundering, you like the flubs,
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you like the ashing because it's real life.
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- Yeah, it's, you know,
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sometimes in this industry and many industries,
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people just, just,
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they know you from what they see
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and sometimes on social media and so on,
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and sometimes that it's not very realistic in a way.
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- Sometimes it's like,
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I think it's like, 90% of the time it's not realistic.
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- Yeah. - Because it's so edible.
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- Exactly. - Like you can edit it
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so well to the point where you've cleaned
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and scrubbed the entire, like, identity out of it
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to make a new identity.
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- But like, I don't know if it was two or three weeks ago,
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I was in the traditional company from my family,
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which is where we grow tobacco
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and that, that is the one in charge
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of growing tobacco processing and so on,
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and I was there super early and I was like,
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you know what, I'm not wearing makeup.
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I had kind of one of these seed thoughts and I was like,
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I'm gonna film myself doing what I do with my cell phone
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here on a, not like, on a, not a daily basis,
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but whenever I come.
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And I just did it with my phone.
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I was like, I want people to see what the real me does
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without the editing of the marketing team and so on,
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because I want people to actually see the work
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behind the glamour of, of what marketing teams
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sometimes want to show.
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- I think that's a really smart move.
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And I think that's also something, too, that I really focus
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on this is I can ask you all sorts of different questions
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and you probably already have a canned response for me.
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So it's my job to try to ask you the questions
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and have the conversations we're having
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now, so that it's more interesting,
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because if you just hear about your success
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and how polished you are and how good the cigars are,
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at the end of the day,
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it's not relatable to the customer
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and it's in an un-,
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you can't obtain that level of connection
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- Of course. - as a regular human being.
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So it's my job to try to make sure that the really holy veil
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or the big veil of, like,
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this is so grand is slightly removed.
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- But you know, the, the,
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I don't wanna say the cool thing,
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but something very different from us is
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that actually we don't have a marketing approach to cigars.
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And I think that's why I'm able to connect with people
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because I tell the story of how things happened
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and I think slow,
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like, very slowly,
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but that's what, what has made us get known in a way.
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Because we don't launch cigars every year.
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We don't do things by the book,
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but when we're telling people, we're just telling our story.
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There's nothing written in a way that sounds
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like a marketing approach
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because we're just telling how things happened.
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And, and I, I see that what you're doing is the same way
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because at the end of the day it's,
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it's an industry based on connections.
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- Right. - This is one
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of the industries that you actually go to a cigar lounge
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and you can connect with anyone
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and you don't know their background,
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you don't know anything about them,
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but then you connect because you enjoy the same thing.
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- Right. - And I've never seen
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that in any other industry.
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- That's so true.
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I've actually tried to figure
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out if there's another industry or another product
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that connects polar opposite of people
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and kind of disarms that divide.
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- Yeah and I've never seen it.
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Cigars only.
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- I think it's been said before,
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but I'm sure there's a lot of people
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that might say it would be really great for politicians
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to sit down over cigars.
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- I totally agree.
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- Or like, leaders of worlds.
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- Yes and powerful organizations that change regulations.
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- Do you think it would be, like, a cool project
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for us to see if behind closed doors we could take diplomats
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and put them inside a meeting room and hand them,
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00:11:44
like, you know, Saga Blend No. 7,
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teach them how to light it,
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00:11:49
start smoking it and say, okay,
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00:11:52
the meeting can begin now and just see what happens.
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00:11:56
- That would be a cool experiment,
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but I don't know if it happens the same way
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if you're not eager to know about it,
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if you're not passionate.
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Because I think that the connections,
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you get them because you're actually eager to know
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about the industry or you're passionate about it in a way.
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- I'm going from the standpoint
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of how the conversation's gonna go
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- Okay. - with you and I,
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because I'm assuming that, like, when two world leaders get
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into a room that the tension might be kind of high
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and I'm hoping that you and I could be the fumbling idiots
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that come in and light cigars and make them go, oh,
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this is different. - Yeah.
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- Only because of the cigar,
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00:12:38
not because we want to know anything about it.
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- Exactly. - But only
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because the cigar is in the room.
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- If you put in the room people like you
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and I who actually know this,
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we have this lifestyle,
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I think it would be a complete game changer.
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- As a newlywed, what things have come up that you thought,
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oh crap, nobody told me marriage had this in store for me.
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- You know what?
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00:13:05
Nothing that we've, that has come to happen.
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It's not something that I was in a way sort
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of prepared for it because I'm a bookworm,
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like, the biggest bookworm we've ever heard.
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00:13:18
I already have, I've, I've already read,
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00:13:20
like, this year, like 70 books.
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- Wow. - So...
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I read a lot of marriage, couple books before,
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during the relationship,
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during the engagement,
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while we were married.
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So, and we, we did, you know, one of these classes,
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couple classes, that the church makes you do.
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- Yeah. - And since it was pandemic,
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we took it, like, for four months.
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00:13:47
So there was a lot of talking before getting married
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00:13:50
that we were actually really prepared for it, like--
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- Yeah. - So it went very smoothly.
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00:13:56
It's, it's been very smoothly - That's awesome.
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- and we knew that certain topics like kids
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or money are kind of things that get people
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into a weird spot.
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But we talk it on those classes and it,
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and it's been amazing.
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- That's awesome.
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I had the exact same experience from a level of comfort
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00:14:18
because both Abbey and I knew what we wanted
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00:14:21
and had those intense good conversations.
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- Conversations before.
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00:14:24
- Exactly, so during the marriage counseling class,
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00:14:28
they gave us a financial worksheet book,
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00:14:30
- Yes. - Basically.
Speaker:
00:14:32
And I said, we've already talked about all this.
Speaker:
00:14:34
We already are doing half of this stuff.
Speaker:
00:14:36
- That's amazing. - So let's go
Speaker:
00:14:37
ahead and change question nine.
Speaker:
00:14:40
Instead of talking about savings, let's talk about savings,
Speaker:
00:14:45
monetary savings from the level of how much we're willing
Speaker:
00:14:49
to spend on our pets should they need emergency surgery.
Speaker:
00:14:55
My wife started getting teary-eyed and right
Speaker:
00:14:57
from that moment I knew I struck a chord
Speaker:
00:15:00
that we're gonna have to face and we faced it right
Speaker:
00:15:03
in that moment. - Yeah.
Speaker:
00:15:04
- And now when it reared its ugly head later on in my life,
Speaker:
00:15:08
I wasn't fighting the battle of trying to understand her
Speaker:
00:15:11
in a time that was intensely emotional for her
Speaker:
00:15:14
and instead I got to lean on her and say,
Speaker:
00:15:17
whatever you wanna do, Hon, I support you.
Speaker:
00:15:20
- Because you already knew it was important
Speaker:
00:15:21
for her. - Exactly.
Speaker:
00:15:24
And it sounds like you had that kind of insight
Speaker:
00:15:26
into everything that you were doing to get ready
Speaker:
00:15:29
to be married. - Yes.
Speaker:
00:15:30
- Which is so powerful because as we know,
Speaker:
00:15:33
since you're a business owner
Speaker:
00:15:34
and I have to orchestrate these interviews,
Speaker:
00:15:37
the more planned you are and the better you are at doing
Speaker:
00:15:40
that one specific thing, the easier that it gets.
Speaker:
00:15:44
- It is. It is.
Speaker:
00:15:45
And, and I, I truly believe
Speaker:
00:15:46
that people sometimes have the situations
Speaker:
00:15:49
because they don't plan,
Speaker:
00:15:51
they don't talk and they don't really take the time
Speaker:
00:15:54
to prepare.
Speaker:
00:15:56
Marriage is, is, I don't wanna say business,
Speaker:
00:15:59
but it's an important decision in life if,
Speaker:
00:16:01
like, if you want to actually get married,
Speaker:
00:16:04
there's things you have to do.
Speaker:
00:16:05
- Takes preparation,
Speaker:
00:16:06
- It takes preparation.
Speaker:
00:16:07
- It takes preparation.
Speaker:
00:16:09
We could totally pull a Vegas classic taken right
Speaker:
00:16:14
out of "Friends" just like Rachel and Ross,
Speaker:
00:16:18
(chuckling)
Speaker:
00:16:19
but that would be very, very detrimental.
Speaker:
00:16:21
- Yeah. - And thus,
Speaker:
00:16:23
not be a successful marriage.
Speaker:
00:16:26
And I or, or anyone else who'd be asking for an annulment
Speaker:
00:16:30
from that whole situation.
Speaker:
00:16:32
Because you really just wish there was a forget me pill
Speaker:
00:16:36
- Yes. - that you could take
Speaker:
00:16:37
sometimes after a Vegas night.
Speaker:
00:16:39
(chuckling)
Speaker:
00:16:40
- I agree. I agree.
Speaker:
00:16:42
- I've never really done anything so bad
Speaker:
00:16:45
that I've regretted doing it to the point
Speaker:
00:16:48
of it restricting me from moving on.
Speaker:
00:16:54
Has there ever been something that you,
Speaker:
00:16:57
you regretted that you actually found out later
Speaker:
00:17:00
on that it really held you back from growth?
Speaker:
00:17:04
- No...no.
Speaker:
00:17:06
I'm, I'm a very strong believer that everything happens
Speaker:
00:17:11
for a reason.
Speaker:
00:17:12
So even the hard things that,
Speaker:
00:17:17
that I've experienced in life,
Speaker:
00:17:19
when I, when I see it, you know, after it has happened,
Speaker:
00:17:24
I can see that it made me either stronger
Speaker:
00:17:26
because I actually take the time
Speaker:
00:17:28
to analyze why is this happening to me,
Speaker:
00:17:30
and, and don't become a victim of the situation.
Speaker:
00:17:34
Just like, why is this happening to me?
Speaker:
00:17:37
- Right. - And, and, and I don't know
Speaker:
00:17:40
if it's a woman thing.
Speaker:
00:17:41
I think that it might be a woman thing,
Speaker:
00:17:42
but we're very harsh with ourselves,
Speaker:
00:17:44
- Yes. - so I overanalyze everything
Speaker:
00:17:46
a lot and, and I, I always try to take lessons
Speaker:
00:17:50
from what happens to me.
Speaker:
00:17:51
So I, I don't regret anything.
Speaker:
00:17:53
I don't regret decisions and,
Speaker:
00:17:54
and I've made a lot of bad ones.
Speaker:
00:17:57
- We all have. - I've made great ones,
Speaker:
00:17:58
I've made great ones as well.
Speaker:
00:18:00
But it, it has shaped me into the woman that I am today.
Speaker:
00:18:03
And every year that passes I like myself even more.
Speaker:
00:18:06
So I feel my, more comfortable in my own skin
Speaker:
00:18:09
and it's because of all that insight that I do with myself,
Speaker:
00:18:13
that I go in and, and ask myself,
Speaker:
00:18:15
of every single situation, good and bad,
Speaker:
00:18:17
I ask myself, you know, what am I learning?
Speaker:
00:18:20
Is it making me grow?
Speaker:
00:18:22
And I analyze whatever decisions that, that I'm taking.
Speaker:
00:18:26
Like, is this actually gonna be helpful or not?
Speaker:
00:18:28
Like, the older that I'm getting,
Speaker:
00:18:31
I'm actually getting rid of all the things
Speaker:
00:18:33
that you actually do because you feel
Speaker:
00:18:35
like you have to do them
Speaker:
00:18:36
and I'm doing more of the things that I actually wanna do
Speaker:
00:18:40
and that I believe that will take me into the future
Speaker:
00:18:45
that I've been constantly dreaming.
Speaker:
00:18:47
So every step that I take or most of the steps that I take,
Speaker:
00:18:52
it's towards that.
Speaker:
00:18:53
I'm consciously, it's a very conscious approach.
Speaker:
00:18:57
I have a very conscious approach to life.
Speaker:
00:18:59
- It sounds like you take a very active approach
Speaker:
00:19:02
to trying to build up your bank
Speaker:
00:19:05
of wisdom. - Yes.
Speaker:
00:19:08
From reading, from experience, from analyzing myself.
Speaker:
00:19:12
I don't, I, not even on the cigar industry, yeah.
Speaker:
00:19:15
I don't, I don't compare myself to other people.
Speaker:
00:19:18
I just, I wanna be the best version of myself and,
Speaker:
00:19:21
and that dream that I say is just,
Speaker:
00:19:24
I wanna have a happy life.
Speaker:
00:19:26
That's, that's me.
Speaker:
00:19:28
My family has this very different approach to life
Speaker:
00:19:31
of being, like, good hosts, very helpful,
Speaker:
00:19:36
like, giving, giving a lot because we're very blessed
Speaker:
00:19:39
and even when we were, we are not very blessed,
Speaker:
00:19:42
it's just something that, it's ingrained in us.
Speaker:
00:19:45
That's our approach to life,
Speaker:
00:19:47
that we can always make a difference.
Speaker:
00:19:49
- I call it being a servant, so--
Speaker:
00:19:52
- Yes, exactly.
Speaker:
00:19:53
- Like, it's like, you know,
Speaker:
00:19:54
the term is, like, "Servant Leadership".
Speaker:
00:19:57
- Oh, I love that book.
Speaker:
00:19:58
- Yeah. - I love that book.
Speaker:
00:20:00
That book is amazing.
Speaker:
00:20:03
- Right. - I think it's
Speaker:
00:20:04
the only leadership book that I actually recommend.
Speaker:
00:20:07
- Because really anything other than that is either stuck
Speaker:
00:20:11
inside the paradigm of power
Speaker:
00:20:13
- Yes. - and dictatorship.
Speaker:
00:20:14
- Exactly. Exactly.
Speaker:
00:20:17
You gain, you gain much more by actually serving people
Speaker:
00:20:23
that actually just, like, dropping it
Speaker:
00:20:26
because you have the position or the power level to do so.
Speaker:
00:20:30
- So we know you as Nirka Reyes.
Speaker:
00:20:35
You are the sixth generation
Speaker:
00:20:38
of a tobacco growing family. - Exactly.
Speaker:
00:20:43
- Now what most people may or may not know,
Speaker:
00:20:45
depending upon what level of cigar smoker you are,
Speaker:
00:20:49
as a cigar maker and grower and processor,
Speaker:
00:20:54
you have the choice to either make cigars for other people
Speaker:
00:20:57
- Yes. - or make your own cigar.
Speaker:
00:20:59
- Yes. - And some people do both.
Speaker:
00:21:02
But what's really interesting about your story is
Speaker:
00:21:05
that you decided to start out making cigars
Speaker:
00:21:08
for everyone else,
Speaker:
00:21:10
never releasing a name brand that you put your name on.
Speaker:
00:21:14
And then all of a sudden
Speaker:
00:21:17
outta nowhere you stop producing cigars for everyone else
Speaker:
00:21:21
and only the majority of what you do
Speaker:
00:21:24
now is produce your own Saga cigars.
Speaker:
00:21:28
That decision is not a light decision to make
Speaker:
00:21:31
because it has financial implications.
Speaker:
00:21:35
- Yes. - It
Speaker:
00:21:36
has identity crisis implications,
Speaker:
00:21:39
and it has a strong need to be led
Speaker:
00:21:43
by a sense of authenticity.
Speaker:
00:21:46
How and why and how did you make that decision?
Speaker:
00:21:51
- Well, the thing is,
Speaker:
00:21:53
De Los Reyes Cigars is my family's six generation growers,
Speaker:
00:21:57
I'm a second generation cigar maker.
Speaker:
00:22:02
Since starting making cigars was my dad's dream.
Speaker:
00:22:06
De Los Reyes Cigars is, is the beginning of a dream.
Speaker:
00:22:10
And I saw the passion that my dad had for the industry,
Speaker:
00:22:13
but I didn't see it on the cigars we were making.
Speaker:
00:22:16
They were soulless products.
Speaker:
00:22:19
So I was like, this is not what we should be doing.
Speaker:
00:22:23
It's not.
Speaker:
00:22:24
And since he told me to take over,
Speaker:
00:22:27
I was like, this is what I, what I wanna do.
Speaker:
00:22:29
I want just to stop making all these cigars,
Speaker:
00:22:32
all these million cigars for,
Speaker:
00:22:34
a lot of them were for private labels, mail order companies,
Speaker:
00:22:38
and I just wanna stay,
Speaker:
00:22:39
because we stayed with some private lines,
Speaker:
00:22:41
but just the ones who I believed had the same philosophy
Speaker:
00:22:47
as us, that they,
Speaker:
00:22:49
they truly believe and had the passion
Speaker:
00:22:51
that the cigars were art craft, not just mere products.
Speaker:
00:22:55
And those are the ones that I stayed with.
Speaker:
00:22:57
And then started also developing our own cigars.
Speaker:
00:23:02
So it was a very hectic process.
Speaker:
00:23:06
It took, it wasn't just like a, a year change.
Speaker:
00:23:08
It took us a lot of time to actually get the factory
Speaker:
00:23:12
to a level that people understood what we were doing.
Speaker:
00:23:17
But it's just, I do things from the heart
Speaker:
00:23:23
and I couldn't do things just because of a cash flow
Speaker:
00:23:27
or a profit.
Speaker:
00:23:28
And my family said, because we do have a family board,
Speaker:
00:23:31
and my family said,
Speaker:
00:23:32
okay, we're gonna, we're gonna follow your gut.
Speaker:
00:23:36
Let's see how it, how it goes.
Speaker:
00:23:38
And it was difficult at the beginning
Speaker:
00:23:39
because I did cut the cash flow.
Speaker:
00:23:43
We were making millions of cigars.
Speaker:
00:23:44
I, I believe it was around 13, 14 millions of cigars.
Speaker:
00:23:48
- Yeah. - And then I drop it to two.
Speaker:
00:23:50
- Oh my God.
Speaker:
00:23:51
- It was a very radical change.
Speaker:
00:23:54
It was a very strong change.
Speaker:
00:23:57
And then having everyone that we stayed
Speaker:
00:24:00
with focusing more on quality...quality.
Speaker:
00:24:07
I don't need you to make 700 cigars today.
Speaker:
00:24:10
I just want you to make the best cigars you can make.
Speaker:
00:24:14
And some people couldn't stay on that train
Speaker:
00:24:17
because they didn't understand it and they left.
Speaker:
00:24:20
But the ones that stayed with us, they love it.
Speaker:
00:24:23
And, and, and,
Speaker:
00:24:25
and it's something magical to everyone
Speaker:
00:24:27
that visits our factory now.
Speaker:
00:24:29
The feeling that you get when you visit it is,
Speaker:
00:24:32
it's such a magic vibe that you feel
Speaker:
00:24:34
and the, the family environment that you feel in it.
Speaker:
00:24:38
And every single other private label that we've,
Speaker:
00:24:42
that we've started after that, has that same feeling.
Speaker:
00:24:49
It has to be someone or a group of people
Speaker:
00:24:51
that are very passionate about the cigar industry
Speaker:
00:24:54
and committed.
Speaker:
00:24:56
Like, I don't blend cigars for someone that says,
Speaker:
00:24:58
I just wanna have a, a private line.
Speaker:
00:25:00
I wouldn't do it.
Speaker:
00:25:01
Like, you have to come, I have to sit down.
Speaker:
00:25:03
You have to come to the factory, you have to meet our,
Speaker:
00:25:05
our employees, you have to sit down with them.
Speaker:
00:25:08
You have to know our production manager.
Speaker:
00:25:11
You have to know him on a, on a name basis.
Speaker:
00:25:13
They have to know you.
Speaker:
00:25:14
You have to sit down and blend with us.
Speaker:
00:25:16
And you have to pick your blend.
Speaker:
00:25:18
I'm not picking it for you.
Speaker:
00:25:19
Like this is,
Speaker:
00:25:20
this is the way that we do things
Speaker:
00:25:22
because otherwise how are you gonna sell it
Speaker:
00:25:27
if you're not involved in it?
Speaker:
00:25:29
Like, I don't believe,
Speaker:
00:25:31
like, I truly believe that to be in this industry,
Speaker:
00:25:34
you have to be a little bit crazy and love it and,
Speaker:
00:25:36
and be passionate about it.
Speaker:
00:25:37
Otherwise it's, it's just empty.
Speaker:
00:25:41
- I totally agree with all that that you said.
Speaker:
00:25:45
And it reminds me of the music world where my favorite band,
Speaker:
00:25:49
Dave Matthews, hired a producer to come
Speaker:
00:25:52
out and make an album and he later on went and said,
Speaker:
00:25:56
the album really should have been named after the producer
Speaker:
00:26:00
because it wasn't the Dave Matthews Band.
Speaker:
00:26:03
And that's kind of like what you're saying.
Speaker:
00:26:06
If the cigar is blended by you and then I put my name on it,
Speaker:
00:26:10
it's really not my cigar.
Speaker:
00:26:12
- It's not. It's not.
Speaker:
00:26:14
- It takes a lot of wisdom and a lot of core identity
Speaker:
00:26:18
and a lot of authenticity to be able to run a business
Speaker:
00:26:23
from that level.
Speaker:
00:26:24
- And I have a great team.
Speaker:
00:26:26
I have a great family.
Speaker:
00:26:28
De Los Reyes Cigars.
Speaker:
00:26:30
I, my general manager, Jean-Michel Louis is a Belgian.
Speaker:
00:26:32
He says that he comes to work and it's
Speaker:
00:26:34
like Disneyland every day.
Speaker:
00:26:35
Like, it's our, it's our dream world.
Speaker:
00:26:38
We have fun and there's, there's always something to solve.
Speaker:
00:26:43
That's why I say that we have to be sometimes crazy
Speaker:
00:26:45
because tobacco is a natural thing and it changes.
Speaker:
00:26:48
But it's so great and so fun that,
Speaker:
00:26:52
you know, we really enjoy it every day.
Speaker:
00:26:54
- I can just see it.
Speaker:
00:26:55
- Yeah. - It's like,
Speaker:
00:26:56
I can feel it almost across the room here.
Speaker:
00:27:00
- Some people have said, like, when they visit us,
Speaker:
00:27:03
like, hey, you have to do a reality show
Speaker:
00:27:06
about your day-to-day because it's,
Speaker:
00:27:09
it's so raw and fun because we're very into it.
Speaker:
00:27:14
Like, we go to this place and then we do another thing
Speaker:
00:27:16
and then we're on the blending room,
Speaker:
00:27:17
but then we go to the rolling to the galera,
Speaker:
00:27:20
to the galera area and we're, like, talking
Speaker:
00:27:22
with the rollers and the bunchers and, like,
Speaker:
00:27:26
I want you to try what I'm doing today.
Speaker:
00:27:27
That this is the type of relationship that we have.
Speaker:
00:27:30
Like, they want us to try what they're doing right
Speaker:
00:27:33
from the table.
Speaker:
00:27:33
This is the type of relationship that we have with everyone.
Speaker:
00:27:37
- And, and if you had more of a relationship
Speaker:
00:27:40
that was like a, a power dynamic,
Speaker:
00:27:43
like I'm the owner and I'm, I demand good quality,
Speaker:
00:27:47
you wouldn't have your rollers offering you cigars right
Speaker:
00:27:50
from their table because there's a level of trust
Speaker:
00:27:53
that they have to have in you
Speaker:
00:27:55
that when they hand it to you that you don't put them down
Speaker:
00:27:58
if it didn't hit the mark.
Speaker:
00:28:00
- Hey, the other day we're doing,
Speaker:
00:28:02
like, a photo shoot with different collaborators
Speaker:
00:28:05
and so on and I was laughing because we were talking
Speaker:
00:28:11
and one of the oldest couples that we have
Speaker:
00:28:14
there from buncher and roller,
Speaker:
00:28:16
I was saying, you see this,
Speaker:
00:28:18
it wasn't always like this.
Speaker:
00:28:19
At the beginning when I came into la galera,
Speaker:
00:28:21
they were like, ah, he come,
Speaker:
00:28:23
here comes the little girl.
Speaker:
00:28:24
Because that moment that you were describing,
Speaker:
00:28:27
I was 22 years old. Just 22.
Speaker:
00:28:31
And they were like, my father went
Speaker:
00:28:34
away and now it's a little girl playing with us.
Speaker:
00:28:37
They didn't believe that I could smoke
Speaker:
00:28:39
or that I had a palate
Speaker:
00:28:41
and I actually had to gain their trust.
Speaker:
00:28:44
And after a while what the, the one that I was talking to,
Speaker:
00:28:47
that girl, they were like, oh look.
Speaker:
00:28:49
She actually can smoke because I was smoking one
Speaker:
00:28:51
of the cigars from the table.
Speaker:
00:28:53
That it was a ligero cigar.
Speaker:
00:28:55
And it was like, oh, you know,
Speaker:
00:28:57
like, there's something there.
Speaker:
00:28:58
She can handle it.
Speaker:
00:28:59
And little by little and the way that I,
Speaker:
00:29:03
that, that I build the relationship with them,
Speaker:
00:29:05
it, it paid off.
Speaker:
00:29:06
- How can you, the young one,
Speaker:
00:29:09
be wise enough to help run the ship
Speaker:
00:29:13
when really what you're saying is I'm not running the ship.
Speaker:
00:29:16
We all are. - Exactly.
Speaker:
00:29:17
- And all I'm trying to do is play project manager,
Speaker:
00:29:21
so that the ship is functioning at its most efficient.
Speaker:
00:29:25
- And the good thing is that we're very hands-on
Speaker:
00:29:27
in a way that if something's happening with a shipment
Speaker:
00:29:31
and we have to stay late hours,
Speaker:
00:29:33
it's not just like the, you know,
Speaker:
00:29:35
like, the people from packaging.
Speaker:
00:29:37
Managers sometimes have to stay.
Speaker:
00:29:39
We have to stay.
Speaker:
00:29:40
At the beginning, I even slept sometimes on the couch
Speaker:
00:29:42
in my office just to get things through and, and I,
Speaker:
00:29:45
and that level of companionship and not being, you know,
Speaker:
00:29:49
the jefe as we say in, in Spanish,
Speaker:
00:29:51
it's, it's what gives us that, that environment.
Speaker:
00:29:56
- That's a huge edge to your brand, to your identity.
Speaker:
00:30:01
That is the only thing that the consumer needs
Speaker:
00:30:05
to know in order to connect with your brand.
Speaker:
00:30:10
- I've never thought about it,
Speaker:
00:30:11
but that's, that's how we roll at De Los Reyes.
Speaker:
00:30:14
- As much as you've said probably that you don't want
Speaker:
00:30:16
to have like a marketing thing that pegs you,
Speaker:
00:30:20
I think what you need to have is just an authentic voice
Speaker:
00:30:24
to your identity.
Speaker:
00:30:28
- That's why I just speak my truth.
Speaker:
00:30:30
- Because that's how customers connect.
Speaker:
00:30:33
- Yeah. - They connect.
Speaker:
00:30:34
I, when I worked in retail,
Speaker:
00:30:36
I connected when the brand owner came
Speaker:
00:30:38
in and I got to see their character as a human.
Speaker:
00:30:45
It did, it, it amplifies my enjoyment
Speaker:
00:30:48
then of all the hard work that they put into this.
Speaker:
00:30:52
Because let's be honest.
Speaker:
00:30:53
Just like anything, we can kind of take it for granted.
Speaker:
00:30:57
- No...that's,
Speaker:
00:30:59
that's one of the reasons why I like that people come
Speaker:
00:31:01
and visit us or come to the Pro Cigar Festival,
Speaker:
00:31:04
for example, that I'm one of the members,
Speaker:
00:31:06
because they can actually see the behind the scene
Speaker:
00:31:09
and the effort that it takes to make just one stick,
Speaker:
00:31:13
just one cigar.
Speaker:
00:31:16
How much goes to create one good cigar.
Speaker:
00:31:20
And not just making a good cigar.
Speaker:
00:31:22
That's the easy part.
Speaker:
00:31:23
But continue to make that cigar and the crop after crop,
Speaker:
00:31:28
you can have that same level of a stimulation
Speaker:
00:31:31
on your palate.
Speaker:
00:31:32
That's the tricky part.
Speaker:
00:31:33
- Amen to that.
Speaker:
00:31:35
That is not an easy feat.
Speaker:
00:31:37
- I need your lighter.
Speaker:
00:31:39
(chuckling)
Speaker:
00:31:40
- My-- - Wow,
Speaker:
00:31:41
we didn't have a lighter for you.
Speaker:
00:31:42
My bad as a host. I apologize.
Speaker:
00:31:46
- Thank you.
Speaker:
00:31:48
- You're welcome.
Speaker:
00:31:49
And you can keep that over there.
Speaker:
00:31:51
- Thank you.
Speaker:
00:31:51
- That's the one cool thing about being the host,
Speaker:
00:31:54
is that I have more time to actually smoke the cigar
Speaker:
00:31:58
that you bring me.
Speaker:
00:31:59
And I've gotten to a point now where I'm not so nervous
Speaker:
00:32:03
about the interview that I actually can enjoy the cigar.
Speaker:
00:32:06
When I first started doing this,
Speaker:
00:32:08
people would ask me, like,
Speaker:
00:32:10
oh wow, you smoked the Karl Malone cigar.
Speaker:
00:32:12
How was it?
Speaker:
00:32:13
And I'd go, I have no idea.
Speaker:
00:32:16
The whole time I was worried
Speaker:
00:32:18
about what question I was gonna ask Karl Malone next.
Speaker:
00:32:22
Do you know who Karl Malone is?
Speaker:
00:32:23
- Of course I do.
Speaker:
00:32:24
- I didn't. - You didn't?
Speaker:
00:32:26
- No. I come from a very ignorant sports mindset.
Speaker:
00:32:33
- I grew up among guys.
Speaker:
00:32:36
I had to know all sports.
Speaker:
00:32:37
- You live among all guys.
Speaker:
00:32:39
- Like, I, I only had brothers growing up.
Speaker:
00:32:41
- Oh, sure, like your siblings
Speaker:
00:32:43
- Yes, yes. - were just brothers.
Speaker:
00:32:44
So sports was like this, like, constant current
Speaker:
00:32:48
- Exactly. - of knowledge
Speaker:
00:32:49
that was coming into your ethos.
Speaker:
00:32:52
- Yes and aside from that, he,
Speaker:
00:32:54
he parties very hard at every Pro Cigar Festival.
Speaker:
00:32:58
So he's a very well, well known figure in Pro Cigar.
Speaker:
00:33:01
- Karl. - Yeah.
Speaker:
00:33:02
- You're talking about Karl.
Speaker:
00:33:03
- Yes. I'm talking about Karl.
Speaker:
00:33:04
He comes to the parties.
Speaker:
00:33:05
- He's a partier.
Speaker:
00:33:06
- He's a partier. - I know.
Speaker:
00:33:08
- He even took his shirt off,
Speaker:
00:33:09
I think one of this, oh, an all white party.
Speaker:
00:33:12
Yeah, he did.
Speaker:
00:33:13
- I love it.
Speaker:
00:33:15
The guy, I remember when his daughter launched,
Speaker:
00:33:18
sorry, him and his daughter both opened
Speaker:
00:33:21
up Legends Cigar Lounge.
Speaker:
00:33:23
- Yeah. - And I remember seeing
Speaker:
00:33:26
on Instagram, the all-white party that he brought
Speaker:
00:33:29
to the cigar lounge probably inspired by the,
Speaker:
00:33:32
by that Pro Cigar event.
Speaker:
00:33:33
- White party. Yeah.
Speaker:
00:33:34
- Where it's an all-white linen party
Speaker:
00:33:36
and I could totally see the vibe that he was jiving
Speaker:
00:33:40
in and I can totally, in my head--
Speaker:
00:33:42
- It's his favorite, it's his favorite party.
Speaker:
00:33:43
- See him taking his shirt off,
Speaker:
00:33:45
whether it be at that event or at Pro Cigar Live.
Speaker:
00:33:49
- Yes, yes. - Yeah.
Speaker:
00:33:51
- I've seen it.
Speaker:
00:33:52
(chuckling)
Speaker:
00:33:53
- I love the fact that you gave me just a little bit
Speaker:
00:33:55
of a secret about Karl Malone that probably not a lot
Speaker:
00:33:57
of people know.
Speaker:
00:33:59
- Oh no, there's, there's videos about it.
Speaker:
00:34:02
- Yeah. - I'm sure.
Speaker:
00:34:03
- But not, like, it's not circulated enough.
Speaker:
00:34:05
- It's not, yeah. It's not spread wide enough.
Speaker:
00:34:06
- Yeah, it's kind of like that hidden Easter egg
Speaker:
00:34:08
that's lying out there somewhere.
Speaker:
00:34:09
- Yeah. - But if you're
Speaker:
00:34:10
that much of a sneaker head,
Speaker:
00:34:12
you might find out about.
Speaker:
00:34:15
Are there other little tidbits about maybe some
Speaker:
00:34:17
of the people we see inside the industry that hey,
Speaker:
00:34:21
you have a little Easter egg about them
Speaker:
00:34:24
that you can spill the beans on live on "Box Press"?
Speaker:
00:34:29
And it's no judgment.
Speaker:
00:34:30
It's all coming out of pure love and respect.
Speaker:
00:34:32
- No, no, no, yeah.
Speaker:
00:34:33
But something, like something cool that I can say
Speaker:
00:34:35
about the, the cigar world,
Speaker:
00:34:38
but in the Dominican side is that in a way we're kind
Speaker:
00:34:43
of related even though we don't share the same blood,
Speaker:
00:34:47
but we've known each other so long
Speaker:
00:34:49
that it's a very familiar vibe.
Speaker:
00:34:51
For example, you talk about Karl Malone, his cigars.
Speaker:
00:34:54
La Aurora makes it, right.
Speaker:
00:34:56
- Sorry, what was the name?
Speaker:
00:34:57
- Karl Malone Cigars.
Speaker:
00:34:58
- Yes. - La Aurora makes the cigars,
Speaker:
00:34:59
right? - Yes.
Speaker:
00:35:00
So Guillermo León, - Yep.
Speaker:
00:35:02
- is my oldest brother's godfather,
Speaker:
00:35:04
just to give you an idea, okay.
Speaker:
00:35:08
Or I think it was like two months ago,
Speaker:
00:35:10
I was in Liana Fuente's wedding
Speaker:
00:35:13
and she's one of my dearest and most amazing peers,
Speaker:
00:35:17
friends and one of the most amazing persons
Speaker:
00:35:19
that I know in my life.
Speaker:
00:35:20
She's a great friend and she's from the Fuente family,
Speaker:
00:35:22
Liana Fuente.
Speaker:
00:35:24
And my dad is married to Mónika Kelner,
Speaker:
00:35:27
which is from the Kelner family from Davidoff.
Speaker:
00:35:30
So you see, in a way--
Speaker:
00:35:32
- It's like a cigar royalty happening right now.
Speaker:
00:35:35
It's like a true dynasty that's just, like,
Speaker:
00:35:38
you know, the, the, the, the royal bloodline is not breaking
Speaker:
00:35:42
as we speak.
Speaker:
00:35:44
We're keeping the bloodline true to its heart.
Speaker:
00:35:46
- Aw, come on, no.
Speaker:
00:35:47
It's, it's just that at the end of the day,
Speaker:
00:35:50
what I was saying, it's connection.
Speaker:
00:35:52
Like, we grew up together.
Speaker:
00:35:54
It's, it's like a family thing.
Speaker:
00:35:56
We, we connect because of this and,
Speaker:
00:35:58
and we all support each other, which is very weird.
Speaker:
00:36:01
I don't know if it happens in all the countries,
Speaker:
00:36:03
but if one of the members of Pro Cigar needs some molds
Speaker:
00:36:07
to make the cigar because they had to increase production
Speaker:
00:36:09
and the order of the molds is not there,
Speaker:
00:36:12
we lend each other things.
Speaker:
00:36:13
- That is one.
Speaker:
00:36:15
So everyone out there listen hard and fast
Speaker:
00:36:18
because there's one reoccurring theme that I see
Speaker:
00:36:23
in the cigar world is exactly what you just said.
Speaker:
00:36:27
When you're in the D.R.,
Speaker:
00:36:29
it's like you're inside "Cheers".
Speaker:
00:36:30
Everybody's family and everyone's
Speaker:
00:36:32
there to help you have a good time.
Speaker:
00:36:34
- Yes, yes. - Any other country,
Speaker:
00:36:36
possibly, if you skip over to another country,
Speaker:
00:36:39
you're not gonna be in "Cheers" anymore.
Speaker:
00:36:41
You might be in a, a rougher bar
Speaker:
00:36:44
or you might be in a really swanky hotel
Speaker:
00:36:47
and guess what?
Speaker:
00:36:48
You forgot the sport coat, so you're not welcome.
Speaker:
00:36:51
- Yeah, and, and like,
Speaker:
00:36:52
my dad made a restaurant in Santiago.
Speaker:
00:36:56
It's named the same way as the cigars.
Speaker:
00:36:57
It's Saga.
Speaker:
00:36:59
Any given day, you go to our restaurant,
Speaker:
00:37:02
you'll find a cigar maker.
Speaker:
00:37:05
Any given day.
Speaker:
00:37:06
- That restaurant or a restaurant.
Speaker:
00:37:08
- This restaurant. - That restaurant.
Speaker:
00:37:09
The Saga Restaurant.
Speaker:
00:37:10
- If you, if I go to the D.R.--
Speaker:
00:37:13
- And you go to Saga.
Speaker:
00:37:13
- Gotta go to Saga Restaurant in what city?
Speaker:
00:37:16
- At evening in Santiago.
Speaker:
00:37:17
- In Santiago.
Speaker:
00:37:18
- If you go to Saga Restaurant in the evening,
Speaker:
00:37:21
you're gonna find a cigar maker there.
Speaker:
00:37:23
- Let's talk a little bit about how you even got your job
Speaker:
00:37:26
because it was not handed to you and it was not easy.
Speaker:
00:37:30
You went ahead and asked your dad,
Speaker:
00:37:32
can I go ahead and start taking over the business?
Speaker:
00:37:35
And he said, "no."
Speaker:
00:37:36
And you had to go out behind his back and apply
Speaker:
00:37:41
to the HR Department of the Saga brand.
Speaker:
00:37:45
Tell us how and why you even decided to do that.
Speaker:
00:37:48
Because that's a,
Speaker:
00:37:49
a risky and bold move to go against your dad's wishes.
Speaker:
00:37:53
- First of all, the Saga brand is mine.
Speaker:
00:37:56
Mine, my baby.
Speaker:
00:37:58
It was De Los Reyes, it was actually at that time, the,
Speaker:
00:38:00
the, the company was called Corporación Cigar Export.
Speaker:
00:38:03
I changed it back to De Los Reyes Cigars,
Speaker:
00:38:05
which is the original name.
Speaker:
00:38:07
And my dad just, it's not that he don't wanted me to work.
Speaker:
00:38:10
he just wanted me to focus on, on studying,
Speaker:
00:38:13
because I just got back from Switzerland.
Speaker:
00:38:15
That's where I learned, learned my German
Speaker:
00:38:18
and I started in college and he was, like,
Speaker:
00:38:23
You can work later on, so on and so on.
Speaker:
00:38:25
I was like, no, I wanna, I wanna get to know it.
Speaker:
00:38:27
And since he said no,
Speaker:
00:38:29
he always told me and I think that his,
Speaker:
00:38:35
his teaching backfired at him,
Speaker:
00:38:37
that a no is just a way to negotiate a yes.
Speaker:
00:38:41
- I love it.
Speaker:
00:38:43
- A no is just a way to negotiate a yes.
Speaker:
00:38:45
So I just went to human resources and, and I applied.
Speaker:
00:38:48
And then the, the human resources lady, she was like, okay,
Speaker:
00:38:52
so we're gonna start, like, a peripheral training.
Speaker:
00:38:54
You're gonna work with every single department.
Speaker:
00:38:57
And then at the end of all that,
Speaker:
00:38:59
I ended up being my dad's assistant.
Speaker:
00:39:03
- Was he shocked the day that you be,
Speaker:
00:39:05
came in to be his assistant?
Speaker:
00:39:08
- No. - No.
Speaker:
00:39:10
- He knows I'm strong-willed.
Speaker:
00:39:12
He, he says it all the time,
Speaker:
00:39:15
that when I have my mind in something,
Speaker:
00:39:17
there's no one that can take me off that road.
Speaker:
00:39:19
He says this all, he says all the time.
Speaker:
00:39:23
- I love it.
Speaker:
00:39:24
(chuckling)
Speaker:
00:39:25
So good.
Speaker:
00:39:26
- And in a way,
Speaker:
00:39:28
because my older brother also worked in the industry,
Speaker:
00:39:30
Augusto, he's named also like my father,
Speaker:
00:39:33
he worked in the industry on the premium side
Speaker:
00:39:35
and, but my father, my siblings,
Speaker:
00:39:42
when it was the decision to, to have the transition
Speaker:
00:39:45
for De Los Reyes cigars,
Speaker:
00:39:47
they were like,
Speaker:
00:39:48
Nirka is the one for the job
Speaker:
00:39:49
because it doesn't matter how good of a business man,
Speaker:
00:39:53
woman you are,
Speaker:
00:39:54
you really have to be the most passionate person
Speaker:
00:39:57
for the job and I was.
Speaker:
00:39:59
And, and they, they're like hands on,
Speaker:
00:40:01
like, you are the one.
Speaker:
00:40:02
Like, none of us can do it.
Speaker:
00:40:04
And that's, that for me is like one of my pillars,
Speaker:
00:40:07
that they believe in me.
Speaker:
00:40:09
- And your right hand is Jean-Michel.
Speaker:
00:40:12
- Yes. - Tell us
Speaker:
00:40:13
a little bit of how that right hand got developed
Speaker:
00:40:16
and why it's so important to your physical identity.
Speaker:
00:40:21
- Well, Jean-Michel and I,
Speaker:
00:40:24
because one thing,
Speaker:
00:40:25
when I did that peripheral training
Speaker:
00:40:27
and ended up being my dad's assistant,
Speaker:
00:40:29
I actually left the factory after that.
Speaker:
00:40:32
- You what?
Speaker:
00:40:32
- I left the factory.
Speaker:
00:40:33
I stopped working at the factory for a period of time
Speaker:
00:40:36
and I did banking.
Speaker:
00:40:38
- Oh. - I did banking.
Speaker:
00:40:40
And then my dad started developing other businesses
Speaker:
00:40:43
in Dominican Republic and he was like, I need you.
Speaker:
00:40:47
I need you to help me with, with the factory again.
Speaker:
00:40:49
And I went back.
Speaker:
00:40:51
So in that moment, like,
Speaker:
00:40:52
I don't know if it was like four months
Speaker:
00:40:54
after Jean-Michel came into the picture.
Speaker:
00:40:58
So we kind of started that journey together.
Speaker:
00:41:02
We had another general manager back then.
Speaker:
00:41:04
Jean-Michel was just the marketing manager.
Speaker:
00:41:09
But we, we went in together.
Speaker:
00:41:10
So there's been,
Speaker:
00:41:12
like, he lived the transition with me
Speaker:
00:41:14
of changing the factory.
Speaker:
00:41:16
He thought it was the right decision.
Speaker:
00:41:18
Like, we were the Three Musketeers.
Speaker:
00:41:20
The other, the, the general manager's name is Pedro.
Speaker:
00:41:24
He's not with us anymore,
Speaker:
00:41:25
but he still comes to a factory, I think,
Speaker:
00:41:26
every single day. - Nice.
Speaker:
00:41:31
- But we've built a relationship
Speaker:
00:41:33
where we are very different, age wise.
Speaker:
00:41:35
He's Belgian. I'm from Dominican Republic.
Speaker:
00:41:38
We have very different ideas.
Speaker:
00:41:42
And I think there's such a richness in it
Speaker:
00:41:46
because when we can come into an agreement,
Speaker:
00:41:48
it means that usually it's the best decision
Speaker:
00:41:51
because of that difference.
Speaker:
00:41:53
And also because of the strong passion that we both have
Speaker:
00:41:57
of doing things right about the tobacco industry,
Speaker:
00:42:00
about the art craft and making things
Speaker:
00:42:03
that leave a footprint.
Speaker:
00:42:05
- Right. - We say
Speaker:
00:42:06
that we don't make cigars.
Speaker:
00:42:08
We make reasons to enjoy life.
Speaker:
00:42:10
- You don't make cigars.
Speaker:
00:42:12
- We create reasons to enjoy life.
Speaker:
00:42:14
- You create reasons to enjoy life.
Speaker:
00:42:16
- To enjoy life, yes.
Speaker:
00:42:18
- If there's ever a great tagline to put next
Speaker:
00:42:21
to the Saga brand, it's that one right there.
Speaker:
00:42:26
- And so he's been,
Speaker:
00:42:29
I don't know, it's like the way that we,
Speaker:
00:42:33
it's when you have a stronger relationship
Speaker:
00:42:36
with someone like that, it's like,
Speaker:
00:42:38
kind of like what we were describing.
Speaker:
00:42:39
That level of companionship, like in a marriage,
Speaker:
00:42:42
We just know.
Speaker:
00:42:43
- Right. - Like we, we,
Speaker:
00:42:44
we look at each other when we're blending
Speaker:
00:42:46
and we know it's the right one, it's not the right one.
Speaker:
00:42:50
And, and it has come with 11 years of working side-by-side
Speaker:
00:42:55
of doing the same projects of, of working side-by-side.
Speaker:
00:42:58
Because as I said, I don't believe
Speaker:
00:43:00
in, in roles. - Right.
Speaker:
00:43:02
- And, and he's, I believe,
Speaker:
00:43:05
one of my biggest supporters
Speaker:
00:43:07
because I get sometimes crazy ideas
Speaker:
00:43:10
and he is like,
Speaker:
00:43:11
I don't know how we're gonna do it,
Speaker:
00:43:12
but let's see how can we make it happen.
Speaker:
00:43:15
So that's, that's why he's,
Speaker:
00:43:18
I think he's the best person for the job
Speaker:
00:43:20
and I wouldn't have dreamt
Speaker:
00:43:23
of someone better than Jean-Michel.
Speaker:
00:43:26
- That's so cool.
Speaker:
00:43:27
- He's amazing. We've become friends.
Speaker:
00:43:31
It's, it's, we've traveled the world together.
Speaker:
00:43:36
A lot of stuff has happened that we get lost
Speaker:
00:43:39
in weird roads in Europe driving.
Speaker:
00:43:42
It's, it's been an amazing journey and,
Speaker:
00:43:44
and seeing all the effort that we've put
Speaker:
00:43:47
on changing the status quo and what we did
Speaker:
00:43:49
and seeing how things are going now,
Speaker:
00:43:52
seeing that we made the right choice
Speaker:
00:43:54
and how people are recognizing more and more the work
Speaker:
00:43:57
that we do without even advertising it.
Speaker:
00:43:59
It's just a mouth-to-mouth thing.
Speaker:
00:44:02
It's, it's very, it's very empowering.
Speaker:
00:44:04
- I know you don't advertise.
Speaker:
00:44:06
I...I don't see the brand in,
Speaker:
00:44:09
in any of the publications.
Speaker:
00:44:12
None of that.
Speaker:
00:44:13
And why is that?
Speaker:
00:44:16
- Because we don't take a marketing approach to,
Speaker:
00:44:19
to making cigars.
Speaker:
00:44:21
We just want--
Speaker:
00:44:22
- Is a marketing approach not the right approach to take?
Speaker:
00:44:27
- Not for our company.
Speaker:
00:44:29
I, I won't say it's not the right approach,
Speaker:
00:44:30
but for our company it definitely isn't.
Speaker:
00:44:33
Because when I'm telling you that I'm not making cigars,
Speaker:
00:44:37
that what we're making is reasons to enjoy life,
Speaker:
00:44:41
we wanna be that rare gem that you discover
Speaker:
00:44:44
and you fall in love with.
Speaker:
00:44:49
- Like-- - So if we're,
Speaker:
00:44:50
like, everywhere and you're seeing us everywhere.
Speaker:
00:44:55
- I like it. I like it.
Speaker:
00:44:56
- You don't get to have that experience
Speaker:
00:44:57
of actually hearing a friend say, hey,
Speaker:
00:45:00
have you tried this Saga cigar?
Speaker:
00:45:02
I really, or I saw this packaging and I really love it.
Speaker:
00:45:05
Have you seen it? It's so cool.
Speaker:
00:45:08
- So on that level then,
Speaker:
00:45:11
everyone out there that's probably watching this,
Speaker:
00:45:15
they all like to hunt for that boutique cigar.
Speaker:
00:45:18
And boutique is such a crazy word that just
Speaker:
00:45:22
like the word love has lots of different meanings.
Speaker:
00:45:25
- Yes, it does.
Speaker:
00:45:26
- So let's go ahead and just throw them a little bone.
Speaker:
00:45:30
- Okay. - If you like to hunt
Speaker:
00:45:33
for that cigar that maybe isn't on everyone's radar,
Speaker:
00:45:38
you just got woke to the Saga cigar
Speaker:
00:45:47
and now you have a reason to seek it out.
Speaker:
00:45:52
- Yes. - Because it's
Speaker:
00:45:53
an opportunity to enjoy life,
Speaker:
00:45:56
have good in it, have a good experience.
Speaker:
00:46:00
- Totally, my dad,
Speaker:
00:46:01
and my dad has another, another one of those quotes.
Speaker:
00:46:04
He says that an ordinary day can become
Speaker:
00:46:08
or have an extraordinary moment with the right cigar.
Speaker:
00:46:13
It can change. It can change it with a cigar,
Speaker:
00:46:17
it can be changed.
Speaker:
00:46:18
- It's, that's so true
Speaker:
00:46:21
because half the time when you ask somebody
Speaker:
00:46:22
what was your favorite cigar,
Speaker:
00:46:24
it was wrapped around an experience
Speaker:
00:46:26
that was so outside of the cigar
Speaker:
00:46:29
that it had nothing to do
Speaker:
00:46:30
with how the cigar was blended or constructed.
Speaker:
00:46:34
- It's like that.
Speaker:
00:46:35
- You have multiple senses as human beings
Speaker:
00:46:38
and so when, when more of them get fired up,
Speaker:
00:46:42
then the experience just tends to get more intense.
Speaker:
00:46:44
- Yes. Yes. - And more memorable.
Speaker:
00:46:48
I love it.
Speaker:
00:46:49
- But there's also something very unique.
Speaker:
00:46:55
So that alone time when you're smoking your cigar
Speaker:
00:46:59
by yourself and you're actually taking your time
Speaker:
00:47:02
to listen what the cigar is telling you,
Speaker:
00:47:05
it's like that meditative moment that you have,
Speaker:
00:47:07
just you and your cigar.
Speaker:
00:47:10
I strongly recommend that one, too.
Speaker:
00:47:14
- That is super wise wisdom.
Speaker:
00:47:17
And I think there's no better way
Speaker:
00:47:19
to end this whole series than on that note.
Speaker:
00:47:23
So Nirka, I wanna say it's been a pleasure sitting
Speaker:
00:47:26
down talking to you and getting to know you
Speaker:
00:47:28
for the first time.
Speaker:
00:47:30
And I have to say, this goes down in my book
Speaker:
00:47:32
as the first time I've met somebody
Speaker:
00:47:34
and been formally invited to their wedding in 2025.
Speaker:
00:47:37
(chuckling)
Speaker:
00:47:39
- It's been such an amazing time that I've had with you.
Speaker:
00:47:42
It's been a pleasure, so thank you for having me.
Speaker:
00:47:45
And you'll get the invite,
Speaker:
00:47:47
the formal invite once the date comes closer.
Speaker:
00:47:51
- Appreciate that. - And it's been,
Speaker:
00:47:51
it's been, it's been a wonderful,
Speaker:
00:47:53
like, I feel, like, so relaxed now.
Speaker:
00:47:56
Like, I don't even feel that I'm on a trade show right now.
Speaker:
00:47:59
- I love that. I love that.
Speaker:
00:48:01
And just a tidbit here,
Speaker:
00:48:02
because you said that you were a bookworm.
Speaker:
00:48:06
- Yes. - And you opened up that way
Speaker:
00:48:08
and I appreciate you telling me your identity.
Speaker:
00:48:11
But I want you to show off to the camera
Speaker:
00:48:14
that your identity is wrapped up in the packaging
Speaker:
00:48:17
that you chose to release some of your cigars in.
Speaker:
00:48:20
- Yes. - It's not just a box
Speaker:
00:48:23
and they're not just cigars
Speaker:
00:48:24
because remember what's the tagline?
Speaker:
00:48:28
We create what?
Speaker:
00:48:29
- We don't make cigars.
Speaker:
00:48:31
We create reasons to enjoy life.
Speaker:
00:48:34
- This is such a good tagline.
Speaker:
00:48:36
- So this is the Saga Short Tales.
Speaker:
00:48:37
It puts together two of my loves, are books and cigars.
Speaker:
00:48:41
- It literally has pages.
Speaker:
00:48:43
Okay, I'm being actually blown away right now.
Speaker:
00:48:45
- It literally has pages.
Speaker:
00:48:46
Each book is a different cigar, a different blend,
Speaker:
00:48:49
a different story, a different size.
Speaker:
00:48:51
So the pages tell you the story about cigars.
Speaker:
00:48:54
About the cigars.
Speaker:
00:48:55
- Oh my God.
Speaker:
00:48:56
So you just said that you don't like to have marketing,
Speaker:
00:49:00
yet you have marketing inside your books.
Speaker:
00:49:04
- It's stories.
Speaker:
00:49:05
It's just people like to have more knowledge
Speaker:
00:49:07
about the things they like and we wanna give it to them.
Speaker:
00:49:10
- Okay, I'm gonna reframe the word marketing for you
Speaker:
00:49:13
because it's getting like the word love.
Speaker:
00:49:16
I think what we're looking for is giving people a connection
Speaker:
00:49:20
- Yes. Yes. - to what you're doing.
Speaker:
00:49:22
And that's what I love to do.
Speaker:
00:49:24
- And give them something different.
Speaker:
00:49:26
- Exactly, what you're saying is you don't want to connect
Speaker:
00:49:30
with the people that enjoy your cigars the same way.
Speaker:
00:49:34
- Exactly. - You wanna do it
Speaker:
00:49:35
in your authentic voice.
Speaker:
00:49:37
- Exactly. - And I think
Speaker:
00:49:38
there's nothing more powerful than
Speaker:
00:49:39
that because you have a true identity.
Speaker:
00:49:43
- Thank you.
Speaker:
00:49:44
- And so you have the big one
Speaker:
00:49:45
and you also have a smaller one.
Speaker:
00:49:48
- Oh yeah. - And all of them have pages
Speaker:
00:49:50
in which it's an actual real book
Speaker:
00:49:53
that then also has the morsels of cigars
Speaker:
00:49:56
inside of it for you to enjoy.
Speaker:
00:49:58
- Oh, this is the pocket book.
Speaker:
00:49:58
This is the pocket book.
Speaker:
00:49:59
It's actually the smaller version.
Speaker:
00:50:01
- That's the Gideons Bible, right?
Speaker:
00:50:04
(chuckling)
Speaker:
00:50:04
- Of the third book,
Speaker:
00:50:05
so it doesn't actually have pages here.
Speaker:
00:50:07
So what we did is on the back,
Speaker:
00:50:09
we actually put this story.
Speaker:
00:50:10
- I love it.
Speaker:
00:50:11
- It's for the small purses,
Speaker:
00:50:13
for the pockets of the gentleman.
Speaker:
00:50:15
- And what a cool way,
Speaker:
00:50:17
because packaging does matter,
Speaker:
00:50:19
in making it feel special. - Yes.
Speaker:
00:50:21
- That when you handed somebody a, a cigar,
Speaker:
00:50:24
you're not just handing it to them.
Speaker:
00:50:26
You're presenting it to them in a manner
Speaker:
00:50:27
- Exactly. - for them
Speaker:
00:50:28
to have a cool experience.
Speaker:
00:50:30
- This is the best presentation that we can have.
Speaker:
00:50:32
I don't need cards.
Speaker:
00:50:33
- No. - This is it.
Speaker:
00:50:35
- I think, too,
Speaker:
00:50:36
the other thing that gets said and overlooked a lot,
Speaker:
00:50:38
especially because we deal in humidity,
Speaker:
00:50:40
is there's no other easier way to humidify a cigar than
Speaker:
00:50:44
to put it in an airtight container like a Tupperware.
Speaker:
00:50:47
But guess what,
Speaker:
00:50:48
when you have a wood humidor and you go
Speaker:
00:50:50
and crack the lid and you feel the heaviness
Speaker:
00:50:54
of the wood. - Yes.
Speaker:
00:50:55
- And you hear the creak of the hinges
Speaker:
00:50:59
and you go ahead and you get a rush of,
Speaker:
00:51:02
of aroma, of some cedar, some tobacco,
Speaker:
00:51:07
some kind of barnyard area,
Speaker:
00:51:10
you know, fermented leaves,
Speaker:
00:51:13
- Yes. - You already start
Speaker:
00:51:14
the smoking process that cannot be replaced.
Speaker:
00:51:17
- The sense of--
Speaker:
00:51:19
- Or ever duplicated by anything that is not a wood humidor.
Speaker:
00:51:23
- It is.
Speaker:
00:51:24
I agree.
Speaker:
00:51:25
- So for all of you
Speaker:
00:51:26
out there that don't think the wood humidor is worth it,
Speaker:
00:51:29
I say that's just another opportunity.
Speaker:
00:51:32
What did you say about a no?
Speaker:
00:51:34
It's a, it's just another opportunity to negotiate a yes.
Speaker:
00:51:38
- A yes, yes.
Speaker:
00:51:39
- A no to a wood humidor is just another opportunity
Speaker:
00:51:42
for you to actually be able to grow in your cigar hobby.
Speaker:
00:51:45
- And try it and be convinced that it's the right change.
Speaker:
00:51:49
- It, and there you get,
Speaker:
00:51:51
you went and said a definite, which is the right change.
Speaker:
00:51:56
Just like science, it's fact.
Speaker:
00:51:58
- It is.
Speaker:
00:51:59
- But it just may not be where you are at in your journey.
Speaker:
00:52:01
So that's okay.
Speaker:
00:52:02
- And that's fine, too.
Speaker:
00:52:03
- That's totally okay.
Speaker:
00:52:04
But in our eyes it's the right path
Speaker:
00:52:07
and it's the path that we're gonna keep going on.
Speaker:
00:52:09
So Nirka, I can't thank you enough
Speaker:
00:52:12
for this unique interview experience that I just had.
Speaker:
00:52:16
- Likewise. I can't thank you enough.
Speaker:
00:52:19
It's been the greatest time.
Speaker:
00:52:20
- I, amen to that.
Speaker:
00:52:23
That's another episode of "Box Press".
Speaker:
00:52:24
You heard it here live, right here at PCA 2022.
Speaker:
00:52:29
It's the fun times that we get to have.
Speaker:
00:52:31
It's like a family reunion.
Speaker:
00:52:33
Even though we didn't even know each other,
Speaker:
00:52:36
we're gonna be at the same wedding together.
Speaker:
00:52:38
So if you like it,
Speaker:
00:52:40
go ahead and like it and subscribe it
Speaker:
00:52:42
because these stories are only getting better
Speaker:
00:52:45
and you're gonna miss out on a really cool experience.
Speaker:
00:52:48
Peace and enjoy.
00:00:00
- There's a story inside every smoke shop
Speaker:
00:00:02
with every cigar and with every person.
Speaker:
00:00:06
Come be a part of the cigar lifestyle at Boveda.
Speaker:
00:00:09
This is "Box Press".
Speaker:
00:00:11
(cheerful jazz music)
Speaker:
00:00:18
- Welcome everyone to another episode of "Box Press".
Speaker:
00:00:20
I'm your host, Rob Gagner.
Speaker:
00:00:21
Nirka. Did I say it right? - Yes.
Speaker:
00:00:25
Welcome to "Box Press".
Speaker:
00:00:27
- Thank you so much. Thank you for having me here.
Speaker:
00:00:29
- Congratulations to you and your husband.
Speaker:
00:00:31
- We're newlyweds still, so...
Speaker:
00:00:34
- I know, like, how many months is it?
Speaker:
00:00:36
- A year and six months.
Speaker:
00:00:38
- Okay, so it was 2020
Speaker:
00:00:42
that you got-- - Yes.
Speaker:
00:00:42
we had a pandemic wedding.
Speaker:
00:00:43
We were one of those.
Speaker:
00:00:45
- You had a dumps, dumpster,
Speaker:
00:00:46
what are they called?
Speaker:
00:00:47
2020 Dumpster Fire or something like that.
Speaker:
00:00:50
I have no idea. - Oh yeah.
Speaker:
00:00:50
- But the thing is that we didn't wanna wait, you know.
Speaker:
00:00:54
It's like we, - No.
Speaker:
00:00:56
- we wanna make a big celebration
Speaker:
00:00:57
afterwards because people like Charlie
Speaker:
00:00:59
from halfwheel, - Right.
Speaker:
00:01:00
- he was, like,
Speaker:
00:01:01
he was talking from,
Speaker:
00:01:02
since my engagement that I was gonna have probably
Speaker:
00:01:04
a 2,000 people wedding - Right.
Speaker:
00:01:07
- in the D R.
Speaker:
00:01:08
And I was like, we can have a party later on.
Speaker:
00:01:09
- Right. - But like,
Speaker:
00:01:11
we just wanna get married.
Speaker:
00:01:12
Like, it doesn't matter if it's a big or small gathering,
Speaker:
00:01:15
it's, it's just--
Speaker:
00:01:16
- To you guys it didn't matter.
Speaker:
00:01:18
- No. - But did it matter
Speaker:
00:01:18
to the rest of the family?
Speaker:
00:01:21
- Well, the family was there, so...
Speaker:
00:01:23
- I know, but like, my mom wanted me to have a big wedding.
Speaker:
00:01:26
- Oh, but my dad knows for sure
Speaker:
00:01:29
that we're making another one.
Speaker:
00:01:31
- Okay, so you, you already are married.
Speaker:
00:01:34
It's been a year and a half out.
Speaker:
00:01:36
- Wait, we, so we said five years.
Speaker:
00:01:38
On our, on our fifth-year anniversary,
Speaker:
00:01:40
we're gonna have another wedding.
Speaker:
00:01:42
- Can I come to it?
Speaker:
00:01:43
- Yes. My dad makes the greatest parties ever.
Speaker:
00:01:47
He's a--
Speaker:
00:01:47
- I'm just, it's gonna be the first time in history
Speaker:
00:01:50
that somebody invites themselves to a wedding.
Speaker:
00:01:53
- Would you like to come to my wedding, Rob?
Speaker:
00:01:55
- Nirka, I would absolutely love to come to your wedding.
Speaker:
00:01:59
I am so honored that you invited me.
Speaker:
00:02:02
That makes me feel super special
Speaker:
00:02:05
and I can't thank you enough already.
Speaker:
00:02:08
I'll be there.
Speaker:
00:02:09
In what year will that be? 2025.
Speaker:
00:02:13
- Five, 2025. Exactly.
Speaker:
00:02:17
- Abbey, clear our schedule.
Speaker:
00:02:19
We're going to the Dominican Republic in 2025.
Speaker:
00:02:22
What month and what day?
Speaker:
00:02:25
- Well, I have to see if it actually fits the same day,
Speaker:
00:02:28
but it would be probably the last weekend of November.
Speaker:
00:02:32
So Thanksgiving time.
Speaker:
00:02:34
- Oh yeah, I'll totally do Thanksgiving in the D R.,
Speaker:
00:02:38
especially with your family because it's gonna feel
Speaker:
00:02:40
like I'm just at a family reunion.
Speaker:
00:02:42
- Yeah and you know what?
Speaker:
00:02:43
My dad makes the most amazing deep fried turkey.
Speaker:
00:02:49
He's famous for that.
Speaker:
00:02:50
- No way.
Speaker:
00:02:50
- He's super famous for that.
Speaker:
00:02:52
- Okay so, in the deep fried turkey world and realm,
Speaker:
00:02:56
it's a firefighter's nightmare
Speaker:
00:02:59
- I know. - because there's a lot
Speaker:
00:02:59
of people who don't know what the heck they're doing.
Speaker:
00:03:02
Has your father ever gotten to the point where he's been
Speaker:
00:03:05
like, this shit is getting out of control?
Speaker:
00:03:08
- Not at all.
Speaker:
00:03:09
- And I've gotta call somebody.
Speaker:
00:03:10
- No, not at all.
Speaker:
00:03:11
He always has his thermometers.
Speaker:
00:03:14
It's all, it's all very controlled.
Speaker:
00:03:17
He's an excellent cook, my dad.
Speaker:
00:03:19
I don't know if, you know, they say that you kind
Speaker:
00:03:21
of marry someone that resembles your dad.
Speaker:
00:03:23
I married a chef, so...
Speaker:
00:03:25
- Oh yeah. I married my mother, in my wife.
Speaker:
00:03:30
It's really scary sometimes.
Speaker:
00:03:34
- I don't think exactly like my dad,
Speaker:
00:03:35
but in that way they both love food.
Speaker:
00:03:38
So the moment they met each other they were just like,
Speaker:
00:03:41
they forgot about me.
Speaker:
00:03:42
They forgot I existed.
Speaker:
00:03:43
- Yeah, it's not important anymore.
Speaker:
00:03:45
- Yeah. - Because now it's
Speaker:
00:03:46
just him and I. - Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:
00:03:48
- You gotta build a relationship without you in it--
Speaker:
00:03:50
- And they cook together all the time.
Speaker:
00:03:52
- And food was that catalyst.
Speaker:
00:03:53
- Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:
00:03:54
- For me and my father-in-law, it was real estate.
Speaker:
00:03:57
He's a real estate salesperson and so am I.
Speaker:
00:04:01
So immediately my wife went,
Speaker:
00:04:04
you guys are talking about real estate.
Speaker:
00:04:05
Okay, I'm, I'll, I'll see you later.
Speaker:
00:04:08
- I'll be, I'll go to the spa, I'll go shopping.
Speaker:
00:04:10
- Yeah. - And you're gonna still,
Speaker:
00:04:12
you're still gonna be talking, right?
Speaker:
00:04:14
- Oh yeah. Yeah.
Speaker:
00:04:15
- I know that feeling.
Speaker:
00:04:17
I was like, to my dad's wife, Mónika let's get out of here.
Speaker:
00:04:21
We're not needed. We're not needed right now.
Speaker:
00:04:23
- No, no.
Speaker:
00:04:25
It's not personal.
Speaker:
00:04:27
It's actually a really good thing.
Speaker:
00:04:30
(laughing)
Speaker:
00:04:31
- I love people to see real life.
Speaker:
00:04:33
Have you ever entered a like
Speaker:
00:04:36
La Caya's
Speaker:
00:04:37
office? - Right.
Speaker:
00:04:38
- There's ash everywhere. We're super messy with our ashes.
Speaker:
00:04:42
- So my keyboard on my old Mac computer doesn't really work
Speaker:
00:04:46
with the O and the space bar.
Speaker:
00:04:49
And I swear to God it's because of the amount of ash
Speaker:
00:04:53
that is inside that keyboard right now.
Speaker:
00:04:56
(chuckling)
Speaker:
00:04:57
I'm not kidding.
Speaker:
00:04:58
They actually bought me a new Mac this year
Speaker:
00:05:00
and I was very thankful.
Speaker:
00:05:02
Because-- - I can imagine.
Speaker:
00:05:04
- My just, when I would type,
Speaker:
00:05:06
I'm like-- - Yeah because you're typing
Speaker:
00:05:07
with your cigar in your hand-- - that is not what I typed.
Speaker:
00:05:09
This keyboard is possessed.
Speaker:
00:05:11
And then right now when you said that,
Speaker:
00:05:14
it just sparked like,
Speaker:
00:05:15
there's just so much ash in there that, like--
Speaker:
00:05:17
- I use an additional keyboard just not to damage
Speaker:
00:05:20
the one on my Mac.
Speaker:
00:05:22
- Yes. - That's--
Speaker:
00:05:23
I, I, I also got the wireless keyboard.
Speaker:
00:05:26
- Yeah, that's, that's the trick.
Speaker:
00:05:27
- So that I don't screw,
Speaker:
00:05:28
because it's much easier to replace the wireless one
Speaker:
00:05:31
- That's a trick.
Speaker:
00:05:32
- than it is the one inside the laptop.
Speaker:
00:05:34
- And then I have like on one of the drawer in my desk,
Speaker:
00:05:37
you know, something that I can actually,
Speaker:
00:05:38
- The vacuum? - That I, yeah,
Speaker:
00:05:40
that I can actually take it off.
Speaker:
00:05:40
- Do you vacuum or brush?
Speaker:
00:05:42
- No, brush, I brush.
Speaker:
00:05:44
- Okay so, back in the day at Boveda,
Speaker:
00:05:47
we called it the Salt Mine Days.
Speaker:
00:05:49
We were underneath a gas station that had no windows.
Speaker:
00:05:53
So we called it the salt mine because we deal in salt
Speaker:
00:05:56
and that's what makes our products so powerful
Speaker:
00:05:59
and it's underground, so it was kind of like a mine.
Speaker:
00:06:02
- That's amazing.
Speaker:
00:06:03
- And back in those days we were able to enjoy fine cigars
Speaker:
00:06:06
while we worked.
Speaker:
00:06:07
I probably shouldn't say that on air,
Speaker:
00:06:09
but we're probably gonna edit that out.
Speaker:
00:06:11
(chuckling)
Speaker:
00:06:12
But we literally went on Amazon
Speaker:
00:06:15
and bought vacuums specifically for,
Speaker:
00:06:20
handheld vacuums, specifically for vacuuming up the ash
Speaker:
00:06:24
that we would create.
Speaker:
00:06:25
Sean, Tim, myself.
Speaker:
00:06:28
Everyone had one inside their office to use
Speaker:
00:06:30
at their disposal whenever shit would hit the desk.
Speaker:
00:06:35
- I have one of those,
Speaker:
00:06:36
those handheld ones in different places of my home
Speaker:
00:06:40
because we have a German Shepherd
Speaker:
00:06:43
and whoever owns a German Shepherd knows they shed
Speaker:
00:06:46
a lot of hair. - Yeah.
Speaker:
00:06:49
- Every single day.
Speaker:
00:06:51
And when they're actually changing,
Speaker:
00:06:54
their, their fur, it's, it's horrible.
Speaker:
00:06:56
So I'm, I'm constantly doing that.
Speaker:
00:06:59
- Did you ever watch "Friends"?
Speaker:
00:07:01
- Of course.
Speaker:
00:07:02
- That I've, I, I know it's a dumb question,
Speaker:
00:07:04
but every once in a while I have to check
Speaker:
00:07:06
because "Friends" is running probably
Speaker:
00:07:08
- I know.
Speaker:
00:07:09
- on its 30th anniversary since the last time it aired.
Speaker:
00:07:12
And I just have to know if I'm dating myself or not.
Speaker:
00:07:15
But it's the Monica vacuum
Speaker:
00:07:19
and when Monica cleaned the big vacuum
Speaker:
00:07:22
with the smaller vacuum, she said,
Speaker:
00:07:23
"I wish there was another little vacuum to clean this one."
Speaker:
00:07:28
It's kinda like the perpetual rabbit hole of like,
Speaker:
00:07:30
how far can this go?
Speaker:
00:07:32
- Yeah, yeah, totally.
Speaker:
00:07:34
- You like the floundering, you like the flubs,
Speaker:
00:07:36
you like the ashing because it's real life.
Speaker:
00:07:38
- Yeah, it's, you know,
Speaker:
00:07:40
sometimes in this industry and many industries,
Speaker:
00:07:44
people just, just,
Speaker:
00:07:46
they know you from what they see
Speaker:
00:07:48
and sometimes on social media and so on,
Speaker:
00:07:50
and sometimes that it's not very realistic in a way.
Speaker:
00:07:54
- Sometimes it's like,
Speaker:
00:07:56
I think it's like, 90% of the time it's not realistic.
Speaker:
00:08:00
- Yeah. - Because it's so edible.
Speaker:
00:08:03
- Exactly. - Like you can edit it
Speaker:
00:08:03
so well to the point where you've cleaned
Speaker:
00:08:06
and scrubbed the entire, like, identity out of it
Speaker:
00:08:10
to make a new identity.
Speaker:
00:08:12
- But like, I don't know if it was two or three weeks ago,
Speaker:
00:08:15
I was in the traditional company from my family,
Speaker:
00:08:19
which is where we grow tobacco
Speaker:
00:08:21
and that, that is the one in charge
Speaker:
00:08:23
of growing tobacco processing and so on,
Speaker:
00:08:25
and I was there super early and I was like,
Speaker:
00:08:27
you know what, I'm not wearing makeup.
Speaker:
00:08:30
I had kind of one of these seed thoughts and I was like,
Speaker:
00:08:33
I'm gonna film myself doing what I do with my cell phone
Speaker:
00:08:37
here on a, not like, on a, not a daily basis,
Speaker:
00:08:40
but whenever I come.
Speaker:
00:08:41
And I just did it with my phone.
Speaker:
00:08:43
I was like, I want people to see what the real me does
Speaker:
00:08:46
without the editing of the marketing team and so on,
Speaker:
00:08:49
because I want people to actually see the work
Speaker:
00:08:52
behind the glamour of, of what marketing teams
Speaker:
00:08:55
sometimes want to show.
Speaker:
00:08:58
- I think that's a really smart move.
Speaker:
00:09:00
And I think that's also something, too, that I really focus
Speaker:
00:09:03
on this is I can ask you all sorts of different questions
Speaker:
00:09:08
and you probably already have a canned response for me.
Speaker:
00:09:13
So it's my job to try to ask you the questions
Speaker:
00:09:16
and have the conversations we're having
Speaker:
00:09:17
now, so that it's more interesting,
Speaker:
00:09:20
because if you just hear about your success
Speaker:
00:09:23
and how polished you are and how good the cigars are,
Speaker:
00:09:26
at the end of the day,
Speaker:
00:09:27
it's not relatable to the customer
Speaker:
00:09:29
and it's in an un-,
Speaker:
00:09:30
you can't obtain that level of connection
Speaker:
00:09:34
- Of course. - as a regular human being.
Speaker:
00:09:36
So it's my job to try to make sure that the really holy veil
Speaker:
00:09:42
or the big veil of, like,
Speaker:
00:09:44
this is so grand is slightly removed.
Speaker:
00:09:46
- But you know, the, the,
Speaker:
00:09:48
I don't wanna say the cool thing,
Speaker:
00:09:49
but something very different from us is
Speaker:
00:09:52
that actually we don't have a marketing approach to cigars.
Speaker:
00:09:56
And I think that's why I'm able to connect with people
Speaker:
00:09:59
because I tell the story of how things happened
Speaker:
00:10:03
and I think slow,
Speaker:
00:10:04
like, very slowly,
Speaker:
00:10:05
but that's what, what has made us get known in a way.
Speaker:
00:10:10
Because we don't launch cigars every year.
Speaker:
00:10:13
We don't do things by the book,
Speaker:
00:10:15
but when we're telling people, we're just telling our story.
Speaker:
00:10:18
There's nothing written in a way that sounds
Speaker:
00:10:21
like a marketing approach
Speaker:
00:10:22
because we're just telling how things happened.
Speaker:
00:10:24
And, and I, I see that what you're doing is the same way
Speaker:
00:10:29
because at the end of the day it's,
Speaker:
00:10:30
it's an industry based on connections.
Speaker:
00:10:32
- Right. - This is one
Speaker:
00:10:33
of the industries that you actually go to a cigar lounge
Speaker:
00:10:36
and you can connect with anyone
Speaker:
00:10:38
and you don't know their background,
Speaker:
00:10:40
you don't know anything about them,
Speaker:
00:10:42
but then you connect because you enjoy the same thing.
Speaker:
00:10:45
- Right. - And I've never seen
Speaker:
00:10:46
that in any other industry.
Speaker:
00:10:48
- That's so true.
Speaker:
00:10:50
I've actually tried to figure
Speaker:
00:10:52
out if there's another industry or another product
Speaker:
00:10:55
that connects polar opposite of people
Speaker:
00:11:00
and kind of disarms that divide.
Speaker:
00:11:03
- Yeah and I've never seen it.
Speaker:
00:11:05
Cigars only.
Speaker:
00:11:08
- I think it's been said before,
Speaker:
00:11:10
but I'm sure there's a lot of people
Speaker:
00:11:12
that might say it would be really great for politicians
Speaker:
00:11:15
to sit down over cigars.
Speaker:
00:11:18
- I totally agree.
Speaker:
00:11:20
- Or like, leaders of worlds.
Speaker:
00:11:24
- Yes and powerful organizations that change regulations.
Speaker:
00:11:30
- Do you think it would be, like, a cool project
Speaker:
00:11:35
for us to see if behind closed doors we could take diplomats
Speaker:
00:11:40
and put them inside a meeting room and hand them,
Speaker:
00:11:44
like, you know, Saga Blend No. 7,
Speaker:
00:11:47
teach them how to light it,
Speaker:
00:11:49
start smoking it and say, okay,
Speaker:
00:11:52
the meeting can begin now and just see what happens.
Speaker:
00:11:56
- That would be a cool experiment,
Speaker:
00:11:58
but I don't know if it happens the same way
Speaker:
00:12:03
if you're not eager to know about it,
Speaker:
00:12:05
if you're not passionate.
Speaker:
00:12:06
Because I think that the connections,
Speaker:
00:12:08
you get them because you're actually eager to know
Speaker:
00:12:11
about the industry or you're passionate about it in a way.
Speaker:
00:12:14
- I'm going from the standpoint
Speaker:
00:12:16
of how the conversation's gonna go
Speaker:
00:12:19
- Okay. - with you and I,
Speaker:
00:12:20
because I'm assuming that, like, when two world leaders get
Speaker:
00:12:24
into a room that the tension might be kind of high
Speaker:
00:12:27
and I'm hoping that you and I could be the fumbling idiots
Speaker:
00:12:30
that come in and light cigars and make them go, oh,
Speaker:
00:12:35
this is different. - Yeah.
Speaker:
00:12:37
- Only because of the cigar,
Speaker:
00:12:38
not because we want to know anything about it.
Speaker:
00:12:40
- Exactly. - But only
Speaker:
00:12:41
because the cigar is in the room.
Speaker:
00:12:43
- If you put in the room people like you
Speaker:
00:12:46
and I who actually know this,
Speaker:
00:12:49
we have this lifestyle,
Speaker:
00:12:50
I think it would be a complete game changer.
Speaker:
00:12:53
- As a newlywed, what things have come up that you thought,
Speaker:
00:12:56
oh crap, nobody told me marriage had this in store for me.
Speaker:
00:13:04
- You know what?
Speaker:
00:13:05
Nothing that we've, that has come to happen.
Speaker:
00:13:10
It's not something that I was in a way sort
Speaker:
00:13:12
of prepared for it because I'm a bookworm,
Speaker:
00:13:15
like, the biggest bookworm we've ever heard.
Speaker:
00:13:18
I already have, I've, I've already read,
Speaker:
00:13:20
like, this year, like 70 books.
Speaker:
00:13:23
- Wow. - So...
Speaker:
00:13:25
I read a lot of marriage, couple books before,
Speaker:
00:13:31
during the relationship,
Speaker:
00:13:33
during the engagement,
Speaker:
00:13:34
while we were married.
Speaker:
00:13:36
So, and we, we did, you know, one of these classes,
Speaker:
00:13:40
couple classes, that the church makes you do.
Speaker:
00:13:43
- Yeah. - And since it was pandemic,
Speaker:
00:13:45
we took it, like, for four months.
Speaker:
00:13:47
So there was a lot of talking before getting married
Speaker:
00:13:50
that we were actually really prepared for it, like--
Speaker:
00:13:53
- Yeah. - So it went very smoothly.
Speaker:
00:13:56
It's, it's been very smoothly - That's awesome.
Speaker:
00:13:58
- and we knew that certain topics like kids
Speaker:
00:14:01
or money are kind of things that get people
Speaker:
00:14:06
into a weird spot.
Speaker:
00:14:07
But we talk it on those classes and it,
Speaker:
00:14:10
and it's been amazing.
Speaker:
00:14:12
- That's awesome.
Speaker:
00:14:13
I had the exact same experience from a level of comfort
Speaker:
00:14:18
because both Abbey and I knew what we wanted
Speaker:
00:14:21
and had those intense good conversations.
Speaker:
00:14:23
- Conversations before.
Speaker:
00:14:24
- Exactly, so during the marriage counseling class,
Speaker:
00:14:28
they gave us a financial worksheet book,
Speaker:
00:14:30
- Yes. - Basically.
Speaker:
00:14:32
And I said, we've already talked about all this.
Speaker:
00:14:34
We already are doing half of this stuff.
Speaker:
00:14:36
- That's amazing. - So let's go
Speaker:
00:14:37
ahead and change question nine.
Speaker:
00:14:40
Instead of talking about savings, let's talk about savings,
Speaker:
00:14:45
monetary savings from the level of how much we're willing
Speaker:
00:14:49
to spend on our pets should they need emergency surgery.
Speaker:
00:14:55
My wife started getting teary-eyed and right
Speaker:
00:14:57
from that moment I knew I struck a chord
Speaker:
00:15:00
that we're gonna have to face and we faced it right
Speaker:
00:15:03
in that moment. - Yeah.
Speaker:
00:15:04
- And now when it reared its ugly head later on in my life,
Speaker:
00:15:08
I wasn't fighting the battle of trying to understand her
Speaker:
00:15:11
in a time that was intensely emotional for her
Speaker:
00:15:14
and instead I got to lean on her and say,
Speaker:
00:15:17
whatever you wanna do, Hon, I support you.
Speaker:
00:15:20
- Because you already knew it was important
Speaker:
00:15:21
for her. - Exactly.
Speaker:
00:15:24
And it sounds like you had that kind of insight
Speaker:
00:15:26
into everything that you were doing to get ready
Speaker:
00:15:29
to be married. - Yes.
Speaker:
00:15:30
- Which is so powerful because as we know,
Speaker:
00:15:33
since you're a business owner
Speaker:
00:15:34
and I have to orchestrate these interviews,
Speaker:
00:15:37
the more planned you are and the better you are at doing
Speaker:
00:15:40
that one specific thing, the easier that it gets.
Speaker:
00:15:44
- It is. It is.
Speaker:
00:15:45
And, and I, I truly believe
Speaker:
00:15:46
that people sometimes have the situations
Speaker:
00:15:49
because they don't plan,
Speaker:
00:15:51
they don't talk and they don't really take the time
Speaker:
00:15:54
to prepare.
Speaker:
00:15:56
Marriage is, is, I don't wanna say business,
Speaker:
00:15:59
but it's an important decision in life if,
Speaker:
00:16:01
like, if you want to actually get married,
Speaker:
00:16:04
there's things you have to do.
Speaker:
00:16:05
- Takes preparation,
Speaker:
00:16:06
- It takes preparation.
Speaker:
00:16:07
- It takes preparation.
Speaker:
00:16:09
We could totally pull a Vegas classic taken right
Speaker:
00:16:14
out of "Friends" just like Rachel and Ross,
Speaker:
00:16:18
(chuckling)
Speaker:
00:16:19
but that would be very, very detrimental.
Speaker:
00:16:21
- Yeah. - And thus,
Speaker:
00:16:23
not be a successful marriage.
Speaker:
00:16:26
And I or, or anyone else who'd be asking for an annulment
Speaker:
00:16:30
from that whole situation.
Speaker:
00:16:32
Because you really just wish there was a forget me pill
Speaker:
00:16:36
- Yes. - that you could take
Speaker:
00:16:37
sometimes after a Vegas night.
Speaker:
00:16:39
(chuckling)
Speaker:
00:16:40
- I agree. I agree.
Speaker:
00:16:42
- I've never really done anything so bad
Speaker:
00:16:45
that I've regretted doing it to the point
Speaker:
00:16:48
of it restricting me from moving on.
Speaker:
00:16:54
Has there ever been something that you,
Speaker:
00:16:57
you regretted that you actually found out later
Speaker:
00:17:00
on that it really held you back from growth?
Speaker:
00:17:04
- No...no.
Speaker:
00:17:06
I'm, I'm a very strong believer that everything happens
Speaker:
00:17:11
for a reason.
Speaker:
00:17:12
So even the hard things that,
Speaker:
00:17:17
that I've experienced in life,
Speaker:
00:17:19
when I, when I see it, you know, after it has happened,
Speaker:
00:17:24
I can see that it made me either stronger
Speaker:
00:17:26
because I actually take the time
Speaker:
00:17:28
to analyze why is this happening to me,
Speaker:
00:17:30
and, and don't become a victim of the situation.
Speaker:
00:17:34
Just like, why is this happening to me?
Speaker:
00:17:37
- Right. - And, and, and I don't know
Speaker:
00:17:40
if it's a woman thing.
Speaker:
00:17:41
I think that it might be a woman thing,
Speaker:
00:17:42
but we're very harsh with ourselves,
Speaker:
00:17:44
- Yes. - so I overanalyze everything
Speaker:
00:17:46
a lot and, and I, I always try to take lessons
Speaker:
00:17:50
from what happens to me.
Speaker:
00:17:51
So I, I don't regret anything.
Speaker:
00:17:53
I don't regret decisions and,
Speaker:
00:17:54
and I've made a lot of bad ones.
Speaker:
00:17:57
- We all have. - I've made great ones,
Speaker:
00:17:58
I've made great ones as well.
Speaker:
00:18:00
But it, it has shaped me into the woman that I am today.
Speaker:
00:18:03
And every year that passes I like myself even more.
Speaker:
00:18:06
So I feel my, more comfortable in my own skin
Speaker:
00:18:09
and it's because of all that insight that I do with myself,
Speaker:
00:18:13
that I go in and, and ask myself,
Speaker:
00:18:15
of every single situation, good and bad,
Speaker:
00:18:17
I ask myself, you know, what am I learning?
Speaker:
00:18:20
Is it making me grow?
Speaker:
00:18:22
And I analyze whatever decisions that, that I'm taking.
Speaker:
00:18:26
Like, is this actually gonna be helpful or not?
Speaker:
00:18:28
Like, the older that I'm getting,
Speaker:
00:18:31
I'm actually getting rid of all the things
Speaker:
00:18:33
that you actually do because you feel
Speaker:
00:18:35
like you have to do them
Speaker:
00:18:36
and I'm doing more of the things that I actually wanna do
Speaker:
00:18:40
and that I believe that will take me into the future
Speaker:
00:18:45
that I've been constantly dreaming.
Speaker:
00:18:47
So every step that I take or most of the steps that I take,
Speaker:
00:18:52
it's towards that.
Speaker:
00:18:53
I'm consciously, it's a very conscious approach.
Speaker:
00:18:57
I have a very conscious approach to life.
Speaker:
00:18:59
- It sounds like you take a very active approach
Speaker:
00:19:02
to trying to build up your bank
Speaker:
00:19:05
of wisdom. - Yes.
Speaker:
00:19:08
From reading, from experience, from analyzing myself.
Speaker:
00:19:12
I don't, I, not even on the cigar industry, yeah.
Speaker:
00:19:15
I don't, I don't compare myself to other people.
Speaker:
00:19:18
I just, I wanna be the best version of myself and,
Speaker:
00:19:21
and that dream that I say is just,
Speaker:
00:19:24
I wanna have a happy life.
Speaker:
00:19:26
That's, that's me.
Speaker:
00:19:28
My family has this very different approach to life
Speaker:
00:19:31
of being, like, good hosts, very helpful,
Speaker:
00:19:36
like, giving, giving a lot because we're very blessed
Speaker:
00:19:39
and even when we were, we are not very blessed,
Speaker:
00:19:42
it's just something that, it's ingrained in us.
Speaker:
00:19:45
That's our approach to life,
Speaker:
00:19:47
that we can always make a difference.
Speaker:
00:19:49
- I call it being a servant, so--
Speaker:
00:19:52
- Yes, exactly.
Speaker:
00:19:53
- Like, it's like, you know,
Speaker:
00:19:54
the term is, like, "Servant Leadership".
Speaker:
00:19:57
- Oh, I love that book.
Speaker:
00:19:58
- Yeah. - I love that book.
Speaker:
00:20:00
That book is amazing.
Speaker:
00:20:03
- Right. - I think it's
Speaker:
00:20:04
the only leadership book that I actually recommend.
Speaker:
00:20:07
- Because really anything other than that is either stuck
Speaker:
00:20:11
inside the paradigm of power
Speaker:
00:20:13
- Yes. - and dictatorship.
Speaker:
00:20:14
- Exactly. Exactly.
Speaker:
00:20:17
You gain, you gain much more by actually serving people
Speaker:
00:20:23
that actually just, like, dropping it
Speaker:
00:20:26
because you have the position or the power level to do so.
Speaker:
00:20:30
- So we know you as Nirka Reyes.
Speaker:
00:20:35
You are the sixth generation
Speaker:
00:20:38
of a tobacco growing family. - Exactly.
Speaker:
00:20:43
- Now what most people may or may not know,
Speaker:
00:20:45
depending upon what level of cigar smoker you are,
Speaker:
00:20:49
as a cigar maker and grower and processor,
Speaker:
00:20:54
you have the choice to either make cigars for other people
Speaker:
00:20:57
- Yes. - or make your own cigar.
Speaker:
00:20:59
- Yes. - And some people do both.
Speaker:
00:21:02
But what's really interesting about your story is
Speaker:
00:21:05
that you decided to start out making cigars
Speaker:
00:21:08
for everyone else,
Speaker:
00:21:10
never releasing a name brand that you put your name on.
Speaker:
00:21:14
And then all of a sudden
Speaker:
00:21:17
outta nowhere you stop producing cigars for everyone else
Speaker:
00:21:21
and only the majority of what you do
Speaker:
00:21:24
now is produce your own Saga cigars.
Speaker:
00:21:28
That decision is not a light decision to make
Speaker:
00:21:31
because it has financial implications.
Speaker:
00:21:35
- Yes. - It
Speaker:
00:21:36
has identity crisis implications,
Speaker:
00:21:39
and it has a strong need to be led
Speaker:
00:21:43
by a sense of authenticity.
Speaker:
00:21:46
How and why and how did you make that decision?
Speaker:
00:21:51
- Well, the thing is,
Speaker:
00:21:53
De Los Reyes Cigars is my family's six generation growers,
Speaker:
00:21:57
I'm a second generation cigar maker.
Speaker:
00:22:02
Since starting making cigars was my dad's dream.
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00:22:06
De Los Reyes Cigars is, is the beginning of a dream.
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00:22:10
And I saw the passion that my dad had for the industry,
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00:22:13
but I didn't see it on the cigars we were making.
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00:22:16
They were soulless products.
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00:22:19
So I was like, this is not what we should be doing.
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00:22:23
It's not.
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00:22:24
And since he told me to take over,
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00:22:27
I was like, this is what I, what I wanna do.
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00:22:29
I want just to stop making all these cigars,
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00:22:32
all these million cigars for,
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00:22:34
a lot of them were for private labels, mail order companies,
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00:22:38
and I just wanna stay,
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00:22:39
because we stayed with some private lines,
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00:22:41
but just the ones who I believed had the same philosophy
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00:22:47
as us, that they,
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00:22:49
they truly believe and had the passion
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00:22:51
that the cigars were art craft, not just mere products.
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00:22:55
And those are the ones that I stayed with.
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00:22:57
And then started also developing our own cigars.
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00:23:02
So it was a very hectic process.
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00:23:06
It took, it wasn't just like a, a year change.
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00:23:08
It took us a lot of time to actually get the factory
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00:23:12
to a level that people understood what we were doing.
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00:23:17
But it's just, I do things from the heart
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00:23:23
and I couldn't do things just because of a cash flow
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00:23:27
or a profit.
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00:23:28
And my family said, because we do have a family board,
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00:23:31
and my family said,
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00:23:32
okay, we're gonna, we're gonna follow your gut.
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00:23:36
Let's see how it, how it goes.
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00:23:38
And it was difficult at the beginning
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00:23:39
because I did cut the cash flow.
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00:23:43
We were making millions of cigars.
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00:23:44
I, I believe it was around 13, 14 millions of cigars.
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00:23:48
- Yeah. - And then I drop it to two.
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00:23:50
- Oh my God.
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00:23:51
- It was a very radical change.
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00:23:54
It was a very strong change.
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00:23:57
And then having everyone that we stayed
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00:24:00
with focusing more on quality...quality.
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00:24:07
I don't need you to make 700 cigars today.
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00:24:10
I just want you to make the best cigars you can make.
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00:24:14
And some people couldn't stay on that train
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00:24:17
because they didn't understand it and they left.
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00:24:20
But the ones that stayed with us, they love it.
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00:24:23
And, and, and,
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00:24:25
and it's something magical to everyone
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00:24:27
that visits our factory now.
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00:24:29
The feeling that you get when you visit it is,
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00:24:32
it's such a magic vibe that you feel
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00:24:34
and the, the family environment that you feel in it.
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00:24:38
And every single other private label that we've,
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00:24:42
that we've started after that, has that same feeling.
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00:24:49
It has to be someone or a group of people
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00:24:51
that are very passionate about the cigar industry
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00:24:54
and committed.
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00:24:56
Like, I don't blend cigars for someone that says,
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00:24:58
I just wanna have a, a private line.
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00:25:00
I wouldn't do it.
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00:25:01
Like, you have to come, I have to sit down.
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00:25:03
You have to come to the factory, you have to meet our,
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00:25:05
our employees, you have to sit down with them.
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00:25:08
You have to know our production manager.
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00:25:11
You have to know him on a, on a name basis.
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00:25:13
They have to know you.
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00:25:14
You have to sit down and blend with us.
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00:25:16
And you have to pick your blend.
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00:25:18
I'm not picking it for you.
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00:25:19
Like this is,
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00:25:20
this is the way that we do things
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00:25:22
because otherwise how are you gonna sell it
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00:25:27
if you're not involved in it?
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00:25:29
Like, I don't believe,
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00:25:31
like, I truly believe that to be in this industry,
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00:25:34
you have to be a little bit crazy and love it and,
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00:25:36
and be passionate about it.
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00:25:37
Otherwise it's, it's just empty.
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00:25:41
- I totally agree with all that that you said.
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00:25:45
And it reminds me of the music world where my favorite band,
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00:25:49
Dave Matthews, hired a producer to come
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00:25:52
out and make an album and he later on went and said,
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00:25:56
the album really should have been named after the producer
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00:26:00
because it wasn't the Dave Matthews Band.
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00:26:03
And that's kind of like what you're saying.
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00:26:06
If the cigar is blended by you and then I put my name on it,
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00:26:10
it's really not my cigar.
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00:26:12
- It's not. It's not.
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00:26:14
- It takes a lot of wisdom and a lot of core identity
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00:26:18
and a lot of authenticity to be able to run a business
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00:26:23
from that level.
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00:26:24
- And I have a great team.
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00:26:26
I have a great family.
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00:26:28
De Los Reyes Cigars.
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00:26:30
I, my general manager, Jean-Michel Louis is a Belgian.
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00:26:32
He says that he comes to work and it's
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00:26:34
like Disneyland every day.
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00:26:35
Like, it's our, it's our dream world.
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00:26:38
We have fun and there's, there's always something to solve.
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00:26:43
That's why I say that we have to be sometimes crazy
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00:26:45
because tobacco is a natural thing and it changes.
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00:26:48
But it's so great and so fun that,
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00:26:52
you know, we really enjoy it every day.
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00:26:54
- I can just see it.
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00:26:55
- Yeah. - It's like,
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00:26:56
I can feel it almost across the room here.
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00:27:00
- Some people have said, like, when they visit us,
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00:27:03
like, hey, you have to do a reality show
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00:27:06
about your day-to-day because it's,
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00:27:09
it's so raw and fun because we're very into it.
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00:27:14
Like, we go to this place and then we do another thing
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00:27:16
and then we're on the blending room,
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00:27:17
but then we go to the rolling to the galera,
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00:27:20
to the galera area and we're, like, talking
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00:27:22
with the rollers and the bunchers and, like,
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00:27:26
I want you to try what I'm doing today.
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00:27:27
That this is the type of relationship that we have.
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00:27:30
Like, they want us to try what they're doing right
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00:27:33
from the table.
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00:27:33
This is the type of relationship that we have with everyone.
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00:27:37
- And, and if you had more of a relationship
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00:27:40
that was like a, a power dynamic,
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00:27:43
like I'm the owner and I'm, I demand good quality,
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00:27:47
you wouldn't have your rollers offering you cigars right
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00:27:50
from their table because there's a level of trust
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00:27:53
that they have to have in you
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00:27:55
that when they hand it to you that you don't put them down
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00:27:58
if it didn't hit the mark.
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00:28:00
- Hey, the other day we're doing,
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00:28:02
like, a photo shoot with different collaborators
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00:28:05
and so on and I was laughing because we were talking
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00:28:11
and one of the oldest couples that we have
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00:28:14
there from buncher and roller,
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00:28:16
I was saying, you see this,
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00:28:18
it wasn't always like this.
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00:28:19
At the beginning when I came into la galera,
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00:28:21
they were like, ah, he come,
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00:28:23
here comes the little girl.
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00:28:24
Because that moment that you were describing,
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00:28:27
I was 22 years old. Just 22.
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00:28:31
And they were like, my father went
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00:28:34
away and now it's a little girl playing with us.
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00:28:37
They didn't believe that I could smoke
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00:28:39
or that I had a palate
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00:28:41
and I actually had to gain their trust.
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00:28:44
And after a while what the, the one that I was talking to,
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00:28:47
that girl, they were like, oh look.
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00:28:49
She actually can smoke because I was smoking one
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00:28:51
of the cigars from the table.
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00:28:53
That it was a ligero cigar.
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00:28:55
And it was like, oh, you know,
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00:28:57
like, there's something there.
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00:28:58
She can handle it.
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00:28:59
And little by little and the way that I,
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00:29:03
that, that I build the relationship with them,
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00:29:05
it, it paid off.
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00:29:06
- How can you, the young one,
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00:29:09
be wise enough to help run the ship
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00:29:13
when really what you're saying is I'm not running the ship.
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00:29:16
We all are. - Exactly.
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00:29:17
- And all I'm trying to do is play project manager,
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00:29:21
so that the ship is functioning at its most efficient.
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00:29:25
- And the good thing is that we're very hands-on
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00:29:27
in a way that if something's happening with a shipment
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00:29:31
and we have to stay late hours,
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00:29:33
it's not just like the, you know,
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00:29:35
like, the people from packaging.
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00:29:37
Managers sometimes have to stay.
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00:29:39
We have to stay.
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00:29:40
At the beginning, I even slept sometimes on the couch
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00:29:42
in my office just to get things through and, and I,
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00:29:45
and that level of companionship and not being, you know,
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00:29:49
the jefe as we say in, in Spanish,
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00:29:51
it's, it's what gives us that, that environment.
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00:29:56
- That's a huge edge to your brand, to your identity.
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00:30:01
That is the only thing that the consumer needs
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00:30:05
to know in order to connect with your brand.
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00:30:10
- I've never thought about it,
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00:30:11
but that's, that's how we roll at De Los Reyes.
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00:30:14
- As much as you've said probably that you don't want
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00:30:16
to have like a marketing thing that pegs you,
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00:30:20
I think what you need to have is just an authentic voice
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00:30:24
to your identity.
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00:30:28
- That's why I just speak my truth.
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00:30:30
- Because that's how customers connect.
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00:30:33
- Yeah. - They connect.
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00:30:34
I, when I worked in retail,
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00:30:36
I connected when the brand owner came
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00:30:38
in and I got to see their character as a human.
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00:30:45
It did, it, it amplifies my enjoyment
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00:30:48
then of all the hard work that they put into this.
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00:30:52
Because let's be honest.
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00:30:53
Just like anything, we can kind of take it for granted.
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00:30:57
- No...that's,
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00:30:59
that's one of the reasons why I like that people come
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00:31:01
and visit us or come to the Pro Cigar Festival,
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00:31:04
for example, that I'm one of the members,
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00:31:06
because they can actually see the behind the scene
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00:31:09
and the effort that it takes to make just one stick,
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00:31:13
just one cigar.
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00:31:16
How much goes to create one good cigar.
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00:31:20
And not just making a good cigar.
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00:31:22
That's the easy part.
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00:31:23
But continue to make that cigar and the crop after crop,
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00:31:28
you can have that same level of a stimulation
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00:31:31
on your palate.
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00:31:32
That's the tricky part.
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00:31:33
- Amen to that.
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00:31:35
That is not an easy feat.
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00:31:37
- I need your lighter.
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00:31:39
(chuckling)
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00:31:40
- My-- - Wow,
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00:31:41
we didn't have a lighter for you.
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00:31:42
My bad as a host. I apologize.
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00:31:46
- Thank you.
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00:31:48
- You're welcome.
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00:31:49
And you can keep that over there.
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00:31:51
- Thank you.
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00:31:51
- That's the one cool thing about being the host,
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00:31:54
is that I have more time to actually smoke the cigar
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00:31:58
that you bring me.
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00:31:59
And I've gotten to a point now where I'm not so nervous
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00:32:03
about the interview that I actually can enjoy the cigar.
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00:32:06
When I first started doing this,
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00:32:08
people would ask me, like,
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00:32:10
oh wow, you smoked the Karl Malone cigar.
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00:32:12
How was it?
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00:32:13
And I'd go, I have no idea.
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00:32:16
The whole time I was worried
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00:32:18
about what question I was gonna ask Karl Malone next.
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00:32:22
Do you know who Karl Malone is?
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00:32:23
- Of course I do.
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00:32:24
- I didn't. - You didn't?
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00:32:26
- No. I come from a very ignorant sports mindset.
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00:32:33
- I grew up among guys.
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00:32:36
I had to know all sports.
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00:32:37
- You live among all guys.
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00:32:39
- Like, I, I only had brothers growing up.
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00:32:41
- Oh, sure, like your siblings
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00:32:43
- Yes, yes. - were just brothers.
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00:32:44
So sports was like this, like, constant current
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00:32:48
- Exactly. - of knowledge
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00:32:49
that was coming into your ethos.
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00:32:52
- Yes and aside from that, he,
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00:32:54
he parties very hard at every Pro Cigar Festival.
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00:32:58
So he's a very well, well known figure in Pro Cigar.
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00:33:01
- Karl. - Yeah.
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00:33:02
- You're talking about Karl.
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00:33:03
- Yes. I'm talking about Karl.
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00:33:04
He comes to the parties.
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00:33:05
- He's a partier.
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00:33:06
- He's a partier. - I know.
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00:33:08
- He even took his shirt off,
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00:33:09
I think one of this, oh, an all white party.
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00:33:12
Yeah, he did.
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00:33:13
- I love it.
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00:33:15
The guy, I remember when his daughter launched,
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00:33:18
sorry, him and his daughter both opened
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00:33:21
up Legends Cigar Lounge.
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00:33:23
- Yeah. - And I remember seeing
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00:33:26
on Instagram, the all-white party that he brought
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00:33:29
to the cigar lounge probably inspired by the,
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00:33:32
by that Pro Cigar event.
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00:33:33
- White party. Yeah.
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00:33:34
- Where it's an all-white linen party
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00:33:36
and I could totally see the vibe that he was jiving
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00:33:40
in and I can totally, in my head--
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00:33:42
- It's his favorite, it's his favorite party.
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00:33:43
- See him taking his shirt off,
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00:33:45
whether it be at that event or at Pro Cigar Live.
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00:33:49
- Yes, yes. - Yeah.
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00:33:51
- I've seen it.
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00:33:52
(chuckling)
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00:33:53
- I love the fact that you gave me just a little bit
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00:33:55
of a secret about Karl Malone that probably not a lot
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00:33:57
of people know.
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00:33:59
- Oh no, there's, there's videos about it.
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00:34:02
- Yeah. - I'm sure.
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00:34:03
- But not, like, it's not circulated enough.
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00:34:05
- It's not, yeah. It's not spread wide enough.
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00:34:06
- Yeah, it's kind of like that hidden Easter egg
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00:34:08
that's lying out there somewhere.
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00:34:09
- Yeah. - But if you're
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00:34:10
that much of a sneaker head,
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00:34:12
you might find out about.
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00:34:15
Are there other little tidbits about maybe some
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00:34:17
of the people we see inside the industry that hey,
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00:34:21
you have a little Easter egg about them
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00:34:24
that you can spill the beans on live on "Box Press"?
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00:34:29
And it's no judgment.
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00:34:30
It's all coming out of pure love and respect.
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00:34:32
- No, no, no, yeah.
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00:34:33
But something, like something cool that I can say
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00:34:35
about the, the cigar world,
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00:34:38
but in the Dominican side is that in a way we're kind
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00:34:43
of related even though we don't share the same blood,
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00:34:47
but we've known each other so long
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00:34:49
that it's a very familiar vibe.
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00:34:51
For example, you talk about Karl Malone, his cigars.
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00:34:54
La Aurora makes it, right.
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00:34:56
- Sorry, what was the name?
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00:34:57
- Karl Malone Cigars.
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00:34:58
- Yes. - La Aurora makes the cigars,
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00:34:59
right? - Yes.
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00:35:00
So Guillermo León, - Yep.
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00:35:02
- is my oldest brother's godfather,
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00:35:04
just to give you an idea, okay.
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00:35:08
Or I think it was like two months ago,
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00:35:10
I was in Liana Fuente's wedding
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00:35:13
and she's one of my dearest and most amazing peers,
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00:35:17
friends and one of the most amazing persons
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00:35:19
that I know in my life.
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00:35:20
She's a great friend and she's from the Fuente family,
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00:35:22
Liana Fuente.
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00:35:24
And my dad is married to Mónika Kelner,
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00:35:27
which is from the Kelner family from Davidoff.
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00:35:30
So you see, in a way--
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00:35:32
- It's like a cigar royalty happening right now.
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00:35:35
It's like a true dynasty that's just, like,
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00:35:38
you know, the, the, the, the royal bloodline is not breaking
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00:35:42
as we speak.
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00:35:44
We're keeping the bloodline true to its heart.
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00:35:46
- Aw, come on, no.
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00:35:47
It's, it's just that at the end of the day,
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00:35:50
what I was saying, it's connection.
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00:35:52
Like, we grew up together.
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00:35:54
It's, it's like a family thing.
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00:35:56
We, we connect because of this and,
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00:35:58
and we all support each other, which is very weird.
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00:36:01
I don't know if it happens in all the countries,
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00:36:03
but if one of the members of Pro Cigar needs some molds
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00:36:07
to make the cigar because they had to increase production
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00:36:09
and the order of the molds is not there,
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00:36:12
we lend each other things.
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00:36:13
- That is one.
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00:36:15
So everyone out there listen hard and fast
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00:36:18
because there's one reoccurring theme that I see
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00:36:23
in the cigar world is exactly what you just said.
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00:36:27
When you're in the D.R.,
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00:36:29
it's like you're inside "Cheers".
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00:36:30
Everybody's family and everyone's
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00:36:32
there to help you have a good time.
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00:36:34
- Yes, yes. - Any other country,
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00:36:36
possibly, if you skip over to another country,
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00:36:39
you're not gonna be in "Cheers" anymore.
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00:36:41
You might be in a, a rougher bar
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00:36:44
or you might be in a really swanky hotel
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00:36:47
and guess what?
Speaker:
00:36:48
You forgot the sport coat, so you're not welcome.
Speaker:
00:36:51
- Yeah, and, and like,
Speaker:
00:36:52
my dad made a restaurant in Santiago.
Speaker:
00:36:56
It's named the same way as the cigars.
Speaker:
00:36:57
It's Saga.
Speaker:
00:36:59
Any given day, you go to our restaurant,
Speaker:
00:37:02
you'll find a cigar maker.
Speaker:
00:37:05
Any given day.
Speaker:
00:37:06
- That restaurant or a restaurant.
Speaker:
00:37:08
- This restaurant. - That restaurant.
Speaker:
00:37:09
The Saga Restaurant.
Speaker:
00:37:10
- If you, if I go to the D.R.--
Speaker:
00:37:13
- And you go to Saga.
Speaker:
00:37:13
- Gotta go to Saga Restaurant in what city?
Speaker:
00:37:16
- At evening in Santiago.
Speaker:
00:37:17
- In Santiago.
Speaker:
00:37:18
- If you go to Saga Restaurant in the evening,
Speaker:
00:37:21
you're gonna find a cigar maker there.
Speaker:
00:37:23
- Let's talk a little bit about how you even got your job
Speaker:
00:37:26
because it was not handed to you and it was not easy.
Speaker:
00:37:30
You went ahead and asked your dad,
Speaker:
00:37:32
can I go ahead and start taking over the business?
Speaker:
00:37:35
And he said, "no."
Speaker:
00:37:36
And you had to go out behind his back and apply
Speaker:
00:37:41
to the HR Department of the Saga brand.
Speaker:
00:37:45
Tell us how and why you even decided to do that.
Speaker:
00:37:48
Because that's a,
Speaker:
00:37:49
a risky and bold move to go against your dad's wishes.
Speaker:
00:37:53
- First of all, the Saga brand is mine.
Speaker:
00:37:56
Mine, my baby.
Speaker:
00:37:58
It was De Los Reyes, it was actually at that time, the,
Speaker:
00:38:00
the, the company was called Corporación Cigar Export.
Speaker:
00:38:03
I changed it back to De Los Reyes Cigars,
Speaker:
00:38:05
which is the original name.
Speaker:
00:38:07
And my dad just, it's not that he don't wanted me to work.
Speaker:
00:38:10
he just wanted me to focus on, on studying,
Speaker:
00:38:13
because I just got back from Switzerland.
Speaker:
00:38:15
That's where I learned, learned my German
Speaker:
00:38:18
and I started in college and he was, like,
Speaker:
00:38:23
You can work later on, so on and so on.
Speaker:
00:38:25
I was like, no, I wanna, I wanna get to know it.
Speaker:
00:38:27
And since he said no,
Speaker:
00:38:29
he always told me and I think that his,
Speaker:
00:38:35
his teaching backfired at him,
Speaker:
00:38:37
that a no is just a way to negotiate a yes.
Speaker:
00:38:41
- I love it.
Speaker:
00:38:43
- A no is just a way to negotiate a yes.
Speaker:
00:38:45
So I just went to human resources and, and I applied.
Speaker:
00:38:48
And then the, the human resources lady, she was like, okay,
Speaker:
00:38:52
so we're gonna start, like, a peripheral training.
Speaker:
00:38:54
You're gonna work with every single department.
Speaker:
00:38:57
And then at the end of all that,
Speaker:
00:38:59
I ended up being my dad's assistant.
Speaker:
00:39:03
- Was he shocked the day that you be,
Speaker:
00:39:05
came in to be his assistant?
Speaker:
00:39:08
- No. - No.
Speaker:
00:39:10
- He knows I'm strong-willed.
Speaker:
00:39:12
He, he says it all the time,
Speaker:
00:39:15
that when I have my mind in something,
Speaker:
00:39:17
there's no one that can take me off that road.
Speaker:
00:39:19
He says this all, he says all the time.
Speaker:
00:39:23
- I love it.
Speaker:
00:39:24
(chuckling)
Speaker:
00:39:25
So good.
Speaker:
00:39:26
- And in a way,
Speaker:
00:39:28
because my older brother also worked in the industry,
Speaker:
00:39:30
Augusto, he's named also like my father,
Speaker:
00:39:33
he worked in the industry on the premium side
Speaker:
00:39:35
and, but my father, my siblings,
Speaker:
00:39:42
when it was the decision to, to have the transition
Speaker:
00:39:45
for De Los Reyes cigars,
Speaker:
00:39:47
they were like,
Speaker:
00:39:48
Nirka is the one for the job
Speaker:
00:39:49
because it doesn't matter how good of a business man,
Speaker:
00:39:53
woman you are,
Speaker:
00:39:54
you really have to be the most passionate person
Speaker:
00:39:57
for the job and I was.
Speaker:
00:39:59
And, and they, they're like hands on,
Speaker:
00:40:01
like, you are the one.
Speaker:
00:40:02
Like, none of us can do it.
Speaker:
00:40:04
And that's, that for me is like one of my pillars,
Speaker:
00:40:07
that they believe in me.
Speaker:
00:40:09
- And your right hand is Jean-Michel.
Speaker:
00:40:12
- Yes. - Tell us
Speaker:
00:40:13
a little bit of how that right hand got developed
Speaker:
00:40:16
and why it's so important to your physical identity.
Speaker:
00:40:21
- Well, Jean-Michel and I,
Speaker:
00:40:24
because one thing,
Speaker:
00:40:25
when I did that peripheral training
Speaker:
00:40:27
and ended up being my dad's assistant,
Speaker:
00:40:29
I actually left the factory after that.
Speaker:
00:40:32
- You what?
Speaker:
00:40:32
- I left the factory.
Speaker:
00:40:33
I stopped working at the factory for a period of time
Speaker:
00:40:36
and I did banking.
Speaker:
00:40:38
- Oh. - I did banking.
Speaker:
00:40:40
And then my dad started developing other businesses
Speaker:
00:40:43
in Dominican Republic and he was like, I need you.
Speaker:
00:40:47
I need you to help me with, with the factory again.
Speaker:
00:40:49
And I went back.
Speaker:
00:40:51
So in that moment, like,
Speaker:
00:40:52
I don't know if it was like four months
Speaker:
00:40:54
after Jean-Michel came into the picture.
Speaker:
00:40:58
So we kind of started that journey together.
Speaker:
00:41:02
We had another general manager back then.
Speaker:
00:41:04
Jean-Michel was just the marketing manager.
Speaker:
00:41:09
But we, we went in together.
Speaker:
00:41:10
So there's been,
Speaker:
00:41:12
like, he lived the transition with me
Speaker:
00:41:14
of changing the factory.
Speaker:
00:41:16
He thought it was the right decision.
Speaker:
00:41:18
Like, we were the Three Musketeers.
Speaker:
00:41:20
The other, the, the general manager's name is Pedro.
Speaker:
00:41:24
He's not with us anymore,
Speaker:
00:41:25
but he still comes to a factory, I think,
Speaker:
00:41:26
every single day. - Nice.
Speaker:
00:41:31
- But we've built a relationship
Speaker:
00:41:33
where we are very different, age wise.
Speaker:
00:41:35
He's Belgian. I'm from Dominican Republic.
Speaker:
00:41:38
We have very different ideas.
Speaker:
00:41:42
And I think there's such a richness in it
Speaker:
00:41:46
because when we can come into an agreement,
Speaker:
00:41:48
it means that usually it's the best decision
Speaker:
00:41:51
because of that difference.
Speaker:
00:41:53
And also because of the strong passion that we both have
Speaker:
00:41:57
of doing things right about the tobacco industry,
Speaker:
00:42:00
about the art craft and making things
Speaker:
00:42:03
that leave a footprint.
Speaker:
00:42:05
- Right. - We say
Speaker:
00:42:06
that we don't make cigars.
Speaker:
00:42:08
We make reasons to enjoy life.
Speaker:
00:42:10
- You don't make cigars.
Speaker:
00:42:12
- We create reasons to enjoy life.
Speaker:
00:42:14
- You create reasons to enjoy life.
Speaker:
00:42:16
- To enjoy life, yes.
Speaker:
00:42:18
- If there's ever a great tagline to put next
Speaker:
00:42:21
to the Saga brand, it's that one right there.
Speaker:
00:42:26
- And so he's been,
Speaker:
00:42:29
I don't know, it's like the way that we,
Speaker:
00:42:33
it's when you have a stronger relationship
Speaker:
00:42:36
with someone like that, it's like,
Speaker:
00:42:38
kind of like what we were describing.
Speaker:
00:42:39
That level of companionship, like in a marriage,
Speaker:
00:42:42
We just know.
Speaker:
00:42:43
- Right. - Like we, we,
Speaker:
00:42:44
we look at each other when we're blending
Speaker:
00:42:46
and we know it's the right one, it's not the right one.
Speaker:
00:42:50
And, and it has come with 11 years of working side-by-side
Speaker:
00:42:55
of doing the same projects of, of working side-by-side.
Speaker:
00:42:58
Because as I said, I don't believe
Speaker:
00:43:00
in, in roles. - Right.
Speaker:
00:43:02
- And, and he's, I believe,
Speaker:
00:43:05
one of my biggest supporters
Speaker:
00:43:07
because I get sometimes crazy ideas
Speaker:
00:43:10
and he is like,
Speaker:
00:43:11
I don't know how we're gonna do it,
Speaker:
00:43:12
but let's see how can we make it happen.
Speaker:
00:43:15
So that's, that's why he's,
Speaker:
00:43:18
I think he's the best person for the job
Speaker:
00:43:20
and I wouldn't have dreamt
Speaker:
00:43:23
of someone better than Jean-Michel.
Speaker:
00:43:26
- That's so cool.
Speaker:
00:43:27
- He's amazing. We've become friends.
Speaker:
00:43:31
It's, it's, we've traveled the world together.
Speaker:
00:43:36
A lot of stuff has happened that we get lost
Speaker:
00:43:39
in weird roads in Europe driving.
Speaker:
00:43:42
It's, it's been an amazing journey and,
Speaker:
00:43:44
and seeing all the effort that we've put
Speaker:
00:43:47
on changing the status quo and what we did
Speaker:
00:43:49
and seeing how things are going now,
Speaker:
00:43:52
seeing that we made the right choice
Speaker:
00:43:54
and how people are recognizing more and more the work
Speaker:
00:43:57
that we do without even advertising it.
Speaker:
00:43:59
It's just a mouth-to-mouth thing.
Speaker:
00:44:02
It's, it's very, it's very empowering.
Speaker:
00:44:04
- I know you don't advertise.
Speaker:
00:44:06
I...I don't see the brand in,
Speaker:
00:44:09
in any of the publications.
Speaker:
00:44:12
None of that.
Speaker:
00:44:13
And why is that?
Speaker:
00:44:16
- Because we don't take a marketing approach to,
Speaker:
00:44:19
to making cigars.
Speaker:
00:44:21
We just want--
Speaker:
00:44:22
- Is a marketing approach not the right approach to take?
Speaker:
00:44:27
- Not for our company.
Speaker:
00:44:29
I, I won't say it's not the right approach,
Speaker:
00:44:30
but for our company it definitely isn't.
Speaker:
00:44:33
Because when I'm telling you that I'm not making cigars,
Speaker:
00:44:37
that what we're making is reasons to enjoy life,
Speaker:
00:44:41
we wanna be that rare gem that you discover
Speaker:
00:44:44
and you fall in love with.
Speaker:
00:44:49
- Like-- - So if we're,
Speaker:
00:44:50
like, everywhere and you're seeing us everywhere.
Speaker:
00:44:55
- I like it. I like it.
Speaker:
00:44:56
- You don't get to have that experience
Speaker:
00:44:57
of actually hearing a friend say, hey,
Speaker:
00:45:00
have you tried this Saga cigar?
Speaker:
00:45:02
I really, or I saw this packaging and I really love it.
Speaker:
00:45:05
Have you seen it? It's so cool.
Speaker:
00:45:08
- So on that level then,
Speaker:
00:45:11
everyone out there that's probably watching this,
Speaker:
00:45:15
they all like to hunt for that boutique cigar.
Speaker:
00:45:18
And boutique is such a crazy word that just
Speaker:
00:45:22
like the word love has lots of different meanings.
Speaker:
00:45:25
- Yes, it does.
Speaker:
00:45:26
- So let's go ahead and just throw them a little bone.
Speaker:
00:45:30
- Okay. - If you like to hunt
Speaker:
00:45:33
for that cigar that maybe isn't on everyone's radar,
Speaker:
00:45:38
you just got woke to the Saga cigar
Speaker:
00:45:47
and now you have a reason to seek it out.
Speaker:
00:45:52
- Yes. - Because it's
Speaker:
00:45:53
an opportunity to enjoy life,
Speaker:
00:45:56
have good in it, have a good experience.
Speaker:
00:46:00
- Totally, my dad,
Speaker:
00:46:01
and my dad has another, another one of those quotes.
Speaker:
00:46:04
He says that an ordinary day can become
Speaker:
00:46:08
or have an extraordinary moment with the right cigar.
Speaker:
00:46:13
It can change. It can change it with a cigar,
Speaker:
00:46:17
it can be changed.
Speaker:
00:46:18
- It's, that's so true
Speaker:
00:46:21
because half the time when you ask somebody
Speaker:
00:46:22
what was your favorite cigar,
Speaker:
00:46:24
it was wrapped around an experience
Speaker:
00:46:26
that was so outside of the cigar
Speaker:
00:46:29
that it had nothing to do
Speaker:
00:46:30
with how the cigar was blended or constructed.
Speaker:
00:46:34
- It's like that.
Speaker:
00:46:35
- You have multiple senses as human beings
Speaker:
00:46:38
and so when, when more of them get fired up,
Speaker:
00:46:42
then the experience just tends to get more intense.
Speaker:
00:46:44
- Yes. Yes. - And more memorable.
Speaker:
00:46:48
I love it.
Speaker:
00:46:49
- But there's also something very unique.
Speaker:
00:46:55
So that alone time when you're smoking your cigar
Speaker:
00:46:59
by yourself and you're actually taking your time
Speaker:
00:47:02
to listen what the cigar is telling you,
Speaker:
00:47:05
it's like that meditative moment that you have,
Speaker:
00:47:07
just you and your cigar.
Speaker:
00:47:10
I strongly recommend that one, too.
Speaker:
00:47:14
- That is super wise wisdom.
Speaker:
00:47:17
And I think there's no better way
Speaker:
00:47:19
to end this whole series than on that note.
Speaker:
00:47:23
So Nirka, I wanna say it's been a pleasure sitting
Speaker:
00:47:26
down talking to you and getting to know you
Speaker:
00:47:28
for the first time.
Speaker:
00:47:30
And I have to say, this goes down in my book
Speaker:
00:47:32
as the first time I've met somebody
Speaker:
00:47:34
and been formally invited to their wedding in 2025.
Speaker:
00:47:37
(chuckling)
Speaker:
00:47:39
- It's been such an amazing time that I've had with you.
Speaker:
00:47:42
It's been a pleasure, so thank you for having me.
Speaker:
00:47:45
And you'll get the invite,
Speaker:
00:47:47
the formal invite once the date comes closer.
Speaker:
00:47:51
- Appreciate that. - And it's been,
Speaker:
00:47:51
it's been, it's been a wonderful,
Speaker:
00:47:53
like, I feel, like, so relaxed now.
Speaker:
00:47:56
Like, I don't even feel that I'm on a trade show right now.
Speaker:
00:47:59
- I love that. I love that.
Speaker:
00:48:01
And just a tidbit here,
Speaker:
00:48:02
because you said that you were a bookworm.
Speaker:
00:48:06
- Yes. - And you opened up that way
Speaker:
00:48:08
and I appreciate you telling me your identity.
Speaker:
00:48:11
But I want you to show off to the camera
Speaker:
00:48:14
that your identity is wrapped up in the packaging
Speaker:
00:48:17
that you chose to release some of your cigars in.
Speaker:
00:48:20
- Yes. - It's not just a box
Speaker:
00:48:23
and they're not just cigars
Speaker:
00:48:24
because remember what's the tagline?
Speaker:
00:48:28
We create what?
Speaker:
00:48:29
- We don't make cigars.
Speaker:
00:48:31
We create reasons to enjoy life.
Speaker:
00:48:34
- This is such a good tagline.
Speaker:
00:48:36
- So this is the Saga Short Tales.
Speaker:
00:48:37
It puts together two of my loves, are books and cigars.
Speaker:
00:48:41
- It literally has pages.
Speaker:
00:48:43
Okay, I'm being actually blown away right now.
Speaker:
00:48:45
- It literally has pages.
Speaker:
00:48:46
Each book is a different cigar, a different blend,
Speaker:
00:48:49
a different story, a different size.
Speaker:
00:48:51
So the pages tell you the story about cigars.
Speaker:
00:48:54
About the cigars.
Speaker:
00:48:55
- Oh my God.
Speaker:
00:48:56
So you just said that you don't like to have marketing,
Speaker:
00:49:00
yet you have marketing inside your books.
Speaker:
00:49:04
- It's stories.
Speaker:
00:49:05
It's just people like to have more knowledge
Speaker:
00:49:07
about the things they like and we wanna give it to them.
Speaker:
00:49:10
- Okay, I'm gonna reframe the word marketing for you
Speaker:
00:49:13
because it's getting like the word love.
Speaker:
00:49:16
I think what we're looking for is giving people a connection
Speaker:
00:49:20
- Yes. Yes. - to what you're doing.
Speaker:
00:49:22
And that's what I love to do.
Speaker:
00:49:24
- And give them something different.
Speaker:
00:49:26
- Exactly, what you're saying is you don't want to connect
Speaker:
00:49:30
with the people that enjoy your cigars the same way.
Speaker:
00:49:34
- Exactly. - You wanna do it
Speaker:
00:49:35
in your authentic voice.
Speaker:
00:49:37
- Exactly. - And I think
Speaker:
00:49:38
there's nothing more powerful than
Speaker:
00:49:39
that because you have a true identity.
Speaker:
00:49:43
- Thank you.
Speaker:
00:49:44
- And so you have the big one
Speaker:
00:49:45
and you also have a smaller one.
Speaker:
00:49:48
- Oh yeah. - And all of them have pages
Speaker:
00:49:50
in which it's an actual real book
Speaker:
00:49:53
that then also has the morsels of cigars
Speaker:
00:49:56
inside of it for you to enjoy.
Speaker:
00:49:58
- Oh, this is the pocket book.
Speaker:
00:49:58
This is the pocket book.
Speaker:
00:49:59
It's actually the smaller version.
Speaker:
00:50:01
- That's the Gideons Bible, right?
Speaker:
00:50:04
(chuckling)
Speaker:
00:50:04
- Of the third book,
Speaker:
00:50:05
so it doesn't actually have pages here.
Speaker:
00:50:07
So what we did is on the back,
Speaker:
00:50:09
we actually put this story.
Speaker:
00:50:10
- I love it.
Speaker:
00:50:11
- It's for the small purses,
Speaker:
00:50:13
for the pockets of the gentleman.
Speaker:
00:50:15
- And what a cool way,
Speaker:
00:50:17
because packaging does matter,
Speaker:
00:50:19
in making it feel special. - Yes.
Speaker:
00:50:21
- That when you handed somebody a, a cigar,
Speaker:
00:50:24
you're not just handing it to them.
Speaker:
00:50:26
You're presenting it to them in a manner
Speaker:
00:50:27
- Exactly. - for them
Speaker:
00:50:28
to have a cool experience.
Speaker:
00:50:30
- This is the best presentation that we can have.
Speaker:
00:50:32
I don't need cards.
Speaker:
00:50:33
- No. - This is it.
Speaker:
00:50:35
- I think, too,
Speaker:
00:50:36
the other thing that gets said and overlooked a lot,
Speaker:
00:50:38
especially because we deal in humidity,
Speaker:
00:50:40
is there's no other easier way to humidify a cigar than
Speaker:
00:50:44
to put it in an airtight container like a Tupperware.
Speaker:
00:50:47
But guess what,
Speaker:
00:50:48
when you have a wood humidor and you go
Speaker:
00:50:50
and crack the lid and you feel the heaviness
Speaker:
00:50:54
of the wood. - Yes.
Speaker:
00:50:55
- And you hear the creak of the hinges
Speaker:
00:50:59
and you go ahead and you get a rush of,
Speaker:
00:51:02
of aroma, of some cedar, some tobacco,
Speaker:
00:51:07
some kind of barnyard area,
Speaker:
00:51:10
you know, fermented leaves,
Speaker:
00:51:13
- Yes. - You already start
Speaker:
00:51:14
the smoking process that cannot be replaced.
Speaker:
00:51:17
- The sense of--
Speaker:
00:51:19
- Or ever duplicated by anything that is not a wood humidor.
Speaker:
00:51:23
- It is.
Speaker:
00:51:24
I agree.
Speaker:
00:51:25
- So for all of you
Speaker:
00:51:26
out there that don't think the wood humidor is worth it,
Speaker:
00:51:29
I say that's just another opportunity.
Speaker:
00:51:32
What did you say about a no?
Speaker:
00:51:34
It's a, it's just another opportunity to negotiate a yes.
Speaker:
00:51:38
- A yes, yes.
Speaker:
00:51:39
- A no to a wood humidor is just another opportunity
Speaker:
00:51:42
for you to actually be able to grow in your cigar hobby.
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00:51:45
- And try it and be convinced that it's the right change.
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00:51:49
- It, and there you get,
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00:51:51
you went and said a definite, which is the right change.
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00:51:56
Just like science, it's fact.
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00:51:58
- It is.
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00:51:59
- But it just may not be where you are at in your journey.
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00:52:01
So that's okay.
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00:52:02
- And that's fine, too.
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00:52:03
- That's totally okay.
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00:52:04
But in our eyes it's the right path
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00:52:07
and it's the path that we're gonna keep going on.
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00:52:09
So Nirka, I can't thank you enough
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00:52:12
for this unique interview experience that I just had.
Speaker:
00:52:16
- Likewise. I can't thank you enough.
Speaker:
00:52:19
It's been the greatest time.
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00:52:20
- I, amen to that.
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00:52:23
That's another episode of "Box Press".
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00:52:24
You heard it here live, right here at PCA 2022.
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00:52:29
It's the fun times that we get to have.
Speaker:
00:52:31
It's like a family reunion.
Speaker:
00:52:33
Even though we didn't even know each other,
Speaker:
00:52:36
we're gonna be at the same wedding together.
Speaker:
00:52:38
So if you like it,
Speaker:
00:52:40
go ahead and like it and subscribe it
Speaker:
00:52:42
because these stories are only getting better
Speaker:
00:52:45
and you're gonna miss out on a really cool experience.
Speaker:
00:52:48
Peace and enjoy.
