Brewsers #396- Dan with Shake Up Cocktails

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Welcome to Bruisers, a podcast about beer, coffee, booze, and Bruisers.
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I'm your host, Ray John, and today we talk to
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Dan with Shake Up Cocktails. We talk about how Shake
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Up got started, the Indiana State Fair, and so much more.
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Shake Up Cocktails is an absolutely fantastic take on the
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Lemon Shake Up, which you will hear all about if
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you are not from the Indiana area of the country.
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So you don't want to hear from me, you want
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to hear from him. So without further ado, here is
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Dan with Shake Up Cocktails. I would like to welcome
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the show, Dan with Shake Up Cocktails. How are you
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doing today, sir?
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I'm doing great. Thanks for having me, John. I'm pumped
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to be here.
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Well, I'm glad you're here also. Well, so also I
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guess you're part of High and Mighty Distilling as well.
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Yeah, correct. Shake Up is a product that we made
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at our distillery based in Indiana at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.
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So we can get into the story, but Shake Up
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is kind of like the High and Mighty Distillery, the
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parent company, and Shake Up is our baby, I guess
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you could say.
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I will, babe. Well, for those listening, kind of paint
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us a word picture. Where are you at and what's
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going on around you?
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Sure. So let's see. Just focusing on ShakeUp. I mean...
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the brand is based in Indiana at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.
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We've got a really fun story that I look forward
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to sharing here about how we got started and the
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roots of the business in county fair culture here in
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the Midwest, which is pretty fun. But ultimately, we built
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a distillery inside the Indiana State Fairgrounds. So we're inside
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of the fair, which is kind of a wacky setup.
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But honestly, it's a really great location because we get
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access to like I don't know, almost a million people
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a year through the Indiana state fair. And so that's
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kind of where we started the business. And then we've
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expanded over the last few years, most recently into Ohio
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and Kentucky and the Cincinnati market. But ultimately we've got
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a really fun, ready to drink can cocktail called the
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lemon shake up, which is based on a classic County
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fair carnival lemonade, like the big gaudy cups that you
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can get at the carnival or at the, at the
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fair and, um, in the Midwest that's called 11 shakeup. And, uh,
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I'll be happy to share the story, um, in a
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little bit, but, uh, that, that's kind of where we've
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been and where we're at.
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Well, let's go all the way back in time real fast.
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What is your earliest memory of alcohol?
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Oh man.
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I think my, the first beer that I ever had
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was in a dive bar in Wisconsin. I was probably
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16 years old, but I was with my dad. We
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were whitewater rafting and, uh, You know, this is like
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either before or after, like, you know, the evening before
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or after the rafting experience. In Wisconsin, it's legal to
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go into a bar and to be served as long
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as you're with your parents.
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I think Texas has a similar law as well, but
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I'm not sure.
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Yeah, Indiana is very much not like that. So, yeah,
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it's pretty wild, pretty fun. Like, it was just a cool, like,
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coming of age feeling, I should say. And I'm sure
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it was like, I think it was like a Lime
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and Kugel's like classic beer.
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You know?
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Nice. Yeah.
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The Shandy's would have been dangerous for you at 16,
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I imagine.
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Yeah.
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I mean, I think that was like right before the
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Shandy's got super popular, but yeah, here we are.
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Well, let's go into it then. How did High and
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Mighty Distilling begin?
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Sure. So let's see. I mean, the actual beginning of
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it started in 2019. My wife and I, we have
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four kiddos. Wow. We'd been married. Yeah. We'd been married
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10 years at the time in 2019. And we took
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a little vacation to Maine and got to dream a
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little bit for the first time in a while. Four
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of our kids, you know, or sorry, two of them
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are twins. So we had a BOGO.
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Whoa.
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And life got pretty wild for a minute there. And
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this is the first time I feel like we'd, you know,
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been able to catch our breath or come up for
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air and, So we got to dream a little bit
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and decided that we wanted to go into business together.
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I think most people decide to do the opposite, but yeah,
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here we are. Uh, it's gone awesome to be honest. Um, anyway,
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and I think our goal was to find something that,
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you know, could allow us to create community. And, and
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at the time the concept was like a place, like
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not necessarily a bar, but we probably would have started
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a brewery if it were maybe 10 years prior. Um,
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and anyway, craft distilling was on the rise at the time.
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And so I thought, well, maybe that's an opportunity. And
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so we started looking into creating a place, uh, a distillery.
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The idea was like a bar restaurant tap room kind
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of situation. And we ended up partnering with the Indiana
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State Fairgrounds, the state fair. It's right in the middle
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of Indianapolis, which is, you know, a decent sized city.
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I mean, we're maybe about a million people, roughly something
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like that, maybe more like 750, 800,000 people. And anyway,
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it's right in the middle of the city. There are
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events there like literally every weekend. It's a huge venue.
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So We thought, well, maybe this is a good opportunity.
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We don't need to, you know, do as much on
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the marketing side to kind of capture some of the
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foot traffic at these events. We had like a cool
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green space, a cool historic building that we were able to,
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you know, build out. And so that was the plan.
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And then, you know, we started launching some products and
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the first of which was a canned cocktail, the Lemon Shake-Up,
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which maybe you'll show. At some point, it looks a
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little bit like this. We thought, hey, let's do a
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lemon shake up for the fair amongst our bottled spirits.
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We launched it at the Indiana State Fair in 2022. Again,
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as I said, it gave us access to 800,000 people
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over the course of three weeks. It just took off immediately.
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People were asking for it. We were selling out of
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stock at all the retailers that carried it that whole summer.
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We I thought there's probably something here. Right. And, um,
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you know, we weren't prepared for that kind of demand. So, um, yeah, ultimately,
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you know, it was maybe the right place, right time,
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you know, with a fun product, with a real story.
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And the backstory is that my wife grew up selling
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barbecue at County fairs in Indiana with her dad and, uh,
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drinking lemon shakeups at the time. And so, you know,
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there's really some fun fair routes there. And that's kind
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of where we got the idea for it. Um, So anyway,
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you know, a lot of fun, like, you know, connect
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the dots moments in the business at that point. And ultimately,
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the Lemon Shake Up just became our entire business. So
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we actually rebranded or we spun out Shake Up as
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its own brand. And we ultimately kind of built, we
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redesigned the business completely from the ground up in 2025.
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So we launched the Shake Up brand. We changed our
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distribution model from the Spirits Network over to the Beer Network. And,
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you know, we really hit the ground running with, you know,
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we had a little bit of cash from a recent fundraise.
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And so we were able to, you know, put the
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brand out there and the feedback has been awesome. So,
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you know, now here we are expanding. So that's the story.
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It's a fun story. I love to tell it. But,
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you know, it's not without its bumps and bruises of
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which there are just, you know, infinity amount.
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Of course, you're yeah, you're an entrepreneur. Of course, there's
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going to be bumps in the road. If everything goes smooth, then,
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you know, you should expect something big to happen at
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some point, because that's just not how that works.
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Absolutely.
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How did you guys get with the fair? Because the
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fairgrounds alone, like I can't imagine. I mean, I'm not
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saying it wouldn't happen here in Texas, but like it's
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just you don't imagine the fairs really leaning into the
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alcohol side, especially like like, yeah, use our grounds to
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have a distillery, you know. I mean, because obviously they're
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not using it for most of the year, I imagine,
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because the fair only starts in August and what ends
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in October.
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Yep. Well, it's really only three. It's in three weeks
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in August. So it's a very condensed period of time.
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Yeah.
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So again, they're not using it probably for most of
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the other time. So it makes sense to use it
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for that. But alcohol is not one that you normally
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would imagine a state fair getting behind.
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Yeah, you're right. And that's been... a source of maybe
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some controversy, but ultimately it went like this. Uh, when
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we were looking for a building, because we knew we
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wanted to, you know, have that space, that community space
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I was describing, uh, there were a handful around town
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that I knew were available that were already zoned commercially. And, uh,
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the state fairgrounds is really close to our house. We
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live like four blocks from there. Um, so something we're
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familiar with, we take our kids, like three of our
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kids at birthdays during the fair every year. So, We
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always go to the fair. It's fun. Anyway, so very
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familiar with the layout. And they were coming off of COVID,
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which there was not a state fair. They didn't have
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any events for an entire year, essentially. And so that
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was like a zero revenue year. And they were looking to,
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I think the board was pushing them to diversify their
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revenue streams. They realized, hey, we've got some underutilized buildings
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that could be assets for us. And we came knocking
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at the right time. And The guy who we were
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working with there that was the COO at the time
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was just a pretty thoughtful, progressive person in terms of
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business strategy. And so there was just immediate interest. So
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from day one, there were not any roadblocks to getting
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us lined up as a tenant. There came roadblocks later,
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and there still are some because it's just an untraditional
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landlord situation.
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Oh, yeah. Yeah.
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But I mean, you know, like in the grand scheme
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of things, they've been a phenomenal, you know, landlord and
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we're grateful to be there. Yeah.
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Well, so for people who haven't had the shake up before,
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just the regular drink, like I had to look it
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up because obviously I was like, this is a lemonade, right?
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And it's like, no, the way that's made is definitely
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not just lemonade. So for those who have not had
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the lemon shake up before, kind of describe to us
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what it is.
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Sure. Yeah. It's not just a lemonade, although it is lemonade.
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So yeah.
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It was created in the Midwest. Couldn't tell you where exactly,
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but you know, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, something like that.
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In the 1970s, the idea was how can we sell
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more lemonade? And so some bright concessionaire came up with
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the idea of shaking the lemonade as kind of like
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a spectacle. So the way that it works is that
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you have these big gaudy, like bright cups and they're,
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they're pretty darn fun. And you see people carrying them
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around at the carnivore at the fair and, what is
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that right um so anyway you take and you uh
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you fill the bottom with granulated sugar so actually like
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you know rocaine sugar squeeze fresh lemon in there and
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actually put the lemon uh the like the lemon rind
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or um rinds up but you know the whole lemon
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you just put it in there fill it with water
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and then you actually shake it up so you're creating
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a real natural lemonade um you know just right there
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in the cup which is pretty cool and so yeah
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the idea was like spectacle, like fun. And so then
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it became known as the lemon shake up and it,
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you know, grew in popularity across the Midwest. I don't
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know that it's become as, I don't know that it's
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become a thing or well-known outside of the Midwest necessarily,
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but it is.
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Here in Texas. I don't, well, I'm not saying it
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hasn't hit Texas. I haven't seen it, but I also
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haven't been to our fair in a number of years.
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So there could be one.
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There you go.
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Yeah.
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Yeah. Yep. So that's what it is. And it's one
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of those things that the name or the, The identity
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of the beverage like kind of precedes our brand. So
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we're lucky in that we get to, you know, utilize
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that fun concept. And so across the Midwest, as we
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share it with people, they're like, oh, a lemon shake up.
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They know what it is. And that's really, you know,
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very helpful.
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00:12:30.389 --> 00:12:35.340
Oh, without a doubt. Well, when you first started, obviously
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you wanted to keep the name. Well, how did the
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lemon shake up not, or I guess you guys made
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it just shake up cocktail, which made more sense because
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00:12:41.519 --> 00:12:45.019
obviously I imagine they own lemon shake up. Or somebody does.
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00:12:45.840 --> 00:12:48.279
But how did... Was there any roadblock getting that name
252
00:12:48.419 --> 00:12:49.940
or considering what you guys were putting out?
253
00:12:50.740 --> 00:12:54.529
Thankfully, no. There's no trademark on Lemon Shake-Up. In fact,
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00:12:54.629 --> 00:12:58.590
we own the trademark for Lemon Shake-Up in the alcohol space.
255
00:12:59.230 --> 00:13:03.190
So I did trademark that. But yeah, no, there wasn't any...
256
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No trademark for it, surprisingly. Mostly because there's no consumer
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product based around the Lemon Shake-Up that you can get
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in retail stores. It's just... these concessionaires at the fair. Uh, so,
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00:13:16.139 --> 00:13:19.379
you know, I don't know, maybe we're lucky in that way, but, um, yeah,
260
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it just, I don't know. It all kind of came
261
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together in the right way.
262
00:13:22.740 --> 00:13:27.639
Well, how many different, uh, how many different ways did
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00:13:27.659 --> 00:13:31.029
you guys go about it to where taste wise you
264
00:13:31.049 --> 00:13:33.610
finally nailed it in like number 10 or 11 or
265
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whatever it was?
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Yeah.
267
00:13:35.110 --> 00:13:36.870
Oh, good question. I mean, it took us a whole
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year actually, which sounds kind of crazy, but We make
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everything that we do in-house. However, for this product, being
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new to the space in general, my background isn't in alcohol.
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It's not in beverage. My background is in marketing and brand.
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I have a business partner. My wife is my business partner,
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but then also we have a business partner who's a
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longtime friend of ours, Nick Traeger, who is a chef
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by trade. He's really good with flavor profiles. He had
276
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a vision for this product, but we didn't believe that
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we had the the tools or the hearsay in-house, it
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felt like, hey, if we're going to make something that's
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truly great, we should probably hire somebody who knows what
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they're doing. So we did work with a third party. But,
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you know, I mean, the vision, the flavor profile is
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very much was ours, but it did take us an
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entire year to dial it in. And I'm so glad
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that we took the time to do that because in
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this space of ready to drink cocktails, there's so many.
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And our theory at the time was like, they're not,
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most of them aren't good. Right. And I would still
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say that's probably the case. Right. Yeah. And I mean,
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there's reasons why, like, you know, I mean, obviously a
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lot of the brands are going on, like the wellness,
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00:14:50.720 --> 00:14:53.139
wellness trends are like, you know, one of the biggest factors.
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Right.
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00:14:53.460 --> 00:14:55.379
So they want to keep it under a hundred calories,
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your sugar, whatever it is. And so, I mean, but,
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00:14:58.539 --> 00:15:00.379
but our premise was like, you know, people aren't going
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to the fair and Brad to have a zero sugar product.
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They're going all in. Right. So we wanted to, yeah.
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Cause almost like half the things that are fried and
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then they're on sticks or whatever.
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Yeah, exactly. So now that doesn't mean that our product
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is like, you know, high, super high calorie. It's actually
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about 150 calories, but we use all real ingredients. And
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00:15:20.110 --> 00:15:21.629
so that was the key was like, okay, how do
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we make this with all real ingredients? And how do
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we make it taste awesome to the point where when,
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when somebody tries it, they're just like, oh yeah, no brainer.
307
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I'll grab this off the shelf. So it did take
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00:15:32.710 --> 00:15:35.789
us a long time. So, you know, but I'm so
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glad that we took the time to do that. And
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that really informed the whole strategy around our brand and business,
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which is like flavor. We say like real flavor, real
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fun is one of our.
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Taglines, if you will.
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But like, that's the thing is like, let's have fun. Let's,
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you know, have a real flavorful beverage.
316
00:15:52.519 --> 00:15:55.460
So how many flavors did you have starting out? Was
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it just the original one?
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00:15:57.690 --> 00:16:00.070
Yes, we launched the Lemon Shake Up. We actually created
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00:16:00.129 --> 00:16:03.149
a fall version that we called the Spiced Apple Sidekick.
320
00:16:03.409 --> 00:16:07.200
And that was in 2022. It was like a spiced
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apple with brandy and cinnamon. I mean, it is dynamite.
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00:16:12.059 --> 00:16:15.879
But what I didn't really factor in was that fall
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is like two weeks here in Indiana. So we kind
324
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of whiffed it on the marketing aspect there. That was
325
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a big lesson there. You know, because there are a
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lot of people that say, hey, that's your best flavor.
327
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I agree. You know, I think it could be. Absolutely.
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But unfortunately, we just didn't nail it on the marketing side.
329
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And so, you know, anyway, that's kind of where we started.
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And then once we decided to lean into shake up,
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we created different variations of it. Like if you go
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to the county fair or the carnival, oftentimes you're going
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to see like strawberry lemon shake up or strawberry lemonade
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00:16:51.029 --> 00:16:53.289
or whatever it is. So we did. We have a cherry.
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00:16:53.340 --> 00:16:55.799
We have a peach. We have a blueberry shakeup. Um,
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we have all, you know, they all use all real flavors.
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00:16:58.919 --> 00:17:02.039
So real peach, we have a real wild blueberry. It's
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just dynamite. But then, um, last year for the fair
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00:17:06.099 --> 00:17:10.849
in 2025, we decided, Hey, let's do an exclusive flavor
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that you can only get at the fair. And that
341
00:17:12.930 --> 00:17:15.609
could be a really fun way to drive some PR
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00:17:15.650 --> 00:17:17.470
for us, but like, I don't know, just to have
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00:17:17.509 --> 00:17:20.509
some fun. Right. And so we created a flavor called
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00:17:20.549 --> 00:17:24.589
the pineapple whip. which people might be familiar with Dole Whip.
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00:17:24.670 --> 00:17:26.950
So we kind of tried to, you know, whatever, capture
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lightning in a bottle twice here. The Lemon Shake-Up is
347
00:17:29.130 --> 00:17:33.490
like a classic fair flavor. Dole Whip is a fair flavor.
348
00:17:33.549 --> 00:17:35.289
You can get it at Disney World. That's where it's
349
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most popular. It's actually a non-dairy pineapple ice cream, but
350
00:17:39.619 --> 00:17:43.799
it is dynamite. And they use real pineapple. They use
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coconut milk and.
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A sugar, of course, it's not, you know, I mean,
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it's maybe a little healthier than a traditional ice cream,
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00:17:51.589 --> 00:17:55.099
but all that to say it's called Dole Whip. However,
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00:17:55.690 --> 00:17:59.220
most of the concessionaires that sell it outside of Disney
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World don't use the Dole name. They just call it
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Pineapple Whip. So anyway, that's what we call it. we tried,
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00:18:06.279 --> 00:18:09.309
we did the same thing, real pineapple, real coconut, it's dynamite.
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00:18:09.789 --> 00:18:11.529
And it just went nuts. And people were like, where
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00:18:11.549 --> 00:18:12.849
can I get this? Where can I get this? So
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00:18:12.869 --> 00:18:16.450
we started rolling that out across retail this spring. So
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00:18:16.470 --> 00:18:18.910
that was a really fun, exciting thing. And that product
363
00:18:18.930 --> 00:18:20.940
has a lot of legs still that we haven't quite captured.
364
00:18:21.000 --> 00:18:22.700
But you know, we're working on it.
365
00:18:23.259 --> 00:18:25.940
And I see you now have a iced tea and
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00:18:26.200 --> 00:18:26.980
lemonade one as well.
367
00:18:27.799 --> 00:18:29.619
Yes, correct. Yeah, we try to do like a half
368
00:18:29.640 --> 00:18:33.069
and half kind of thing, you know, Arnold Palmer aspect,
369
00:18:33.130 --> 00:18:36.630
if you will. And The Dynamite product. There's a lot
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00:18:36.650 --> 00:18:40.009
of ICT RTDs out there. So I wouldn't say that
371
00:18:40.589 --> 00:18:44.529
that one has reached its potential. We found pretty quickly
372
00:18:44.589 --> 00:18:47.009
from buyers that they're like, you know, if I'm going
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00:18:47.049 --> 00:18:49.490
to go with ICT, I'm going to go with the
374
00:18:49.539 --> 00:18:52.799
product that, you know, that's what they're known for. So,
375
00:18:53.150 --> 00:18:55.539
you know, that was a good lesson too, to just
376
00:18:55.579 --> 00:19:00.059
kind of focus on our core, if you will. But yeah, yeah,
377
00:19:00.660 --> 00:19:01.700
it's a great fun flavor.
378
00:19:02.440 --> 00:19:05.180
So when did you decide that you guys want to
379
00:19:05.240 --> 00:19:07.900
do this, sell it outside the fair? Because obviously, yes,
380
00:19:07.920 --> 00:19:09.500
people were, like you said, coming up and be like,
381
00:19:09.519 --> 00:19:11.609
where can I get this? Where can I get this? Obviously,
382
00:19:11.740 --> 00:19:15.549
besides right there. But after what time was it that
383
00:19:15.569 --> 00:19:17.789
you were like, you know what, let's actually, you know,
384
00:19:17.809 --> 00:19:19.890
because I imagine you guys also sold it at the
385
00:19:19.910 --> 00:19:22.970
distillery as well. But going outside of that is a
386
00:19:22.990 --> 00:19:26.990
whole other situation because distribution could be a gigantic pain.
387
00:19:27.309 --> 00:19:29.480
Plus a lot of these stores are, especially the mom
388
00:19:29.539 --> 00:19:32.240
and pop places, they only have limited room when it
389
00:19:32.279 --> 00:19:34.640
comes to their shelves. And the RTD section is getting
390
00:19:34.680 --> 00:19:36.079
so big. Yeah.
391
00:19:36.319 --> 00:19:36.559
Great.
392
00:19:36.599 --> 00:19:39.079
And then also you really want it cold because you
393
00:19:39.119 --> 00:19:41.470
don't want to just buy room temperature and then have
394
00:19:41.490 --> 00:19:43.849
to throw it in the freezer for 15 minutes and
395
00:19:43.869 --> 00:19:47.029
then you're fine. But you'd rather just get it cold, start,
396
00:19:47.190 --> 00:19:48.569
you know, especially if you're going to the golf course
397
00:19:48.630 --> 00:19:51.259
or the lake or whatever it is. So how did
398
00:19:51.440 --> 00:19:52.779
you guys have to work through all that?
399
00:19:53.460 --> 00:19:57.549
Yeah, great question. I mean, honestly, for whatever reason, we
400
00:19:57.589 --> 00:20:02.490
decided to do it right away. The idea was like, okay,
401
00:20:02.549 --> 00:20:06.509
there's so much demand for this. Like we couldn't possibly...
402
00:20:06.619 --> 00:20:09.660
meet it by ourselves also we're a really small team
403
00:20:09.720 --> 00:20:13.549
and actually at the time we weren't even you know
404
00:20:13.890 --> 00:20:16.309
full-time in the business we were just you know kind
405
00:20:16.349 --> 00:20:19.410
of doing this on the side so it was like
406
00:20:19.670 --> 00:20:23.690
let's let's you know let's figure out this distribution thing
407
00:20:24.009 --> 00:20:26.230
quickly and we did and i wouldn't say i mean
408
00:20:26.299 --> 00:20:28.319
you know so much to learn i feel like i'm
409
00:20:28.380 --> 00:20:32.019
still just like a baby um you know just learning
410
00:20:32.140 --> 00:20:34.660
fumbling my way through the distribution world i've learned a
411
00:20:34.700 --> 00:20:37.740
lot but Uh, yeah, it was pretty quick. So we,
412
00:20:37.839 --> 00:20:42.609
we launched a distribution in 2022. However, you know, like,
413
00:20:42.710 --> 00:20:47.509
as I said, we, we really did re, uh, establish,
414
00:20:47.569 --> 00:20:51.930
or I don't know, we relaunched at wholesale in 2025, um,
415
00:20:53.250 --> 00:20:56.710
working with, uh, beer distributors across the state, which is
416
00:20:56.789 --> 00:20:59.339
a little different. There's two different types of distribution. If
417
00:20:59.660 --> 00:21:02.740
your audience or you aren't familiar, there's the wine and
418
00:21:02.789 --> 00:21:06.130
spirits folks, and then the beer folks. And now they're
419
00:21:06.269 --> 00:21:08.789
in 2026, there's a little bit of crossover starting to happen.
420
00:21:08.809 --> 00:21:10.269
There's a lot of crossover happening.
421
00:21:10.410 --> 00:21:10.829
Yeah.
422
00:21:10.869 --> 00:21:11.109
Yeah.
423
00:21:11.170 --> 00:21:11.750
Texas too.
424
00:21:11.769 --> 00:21:16.490
So. Yes, absolutely. Um, so, uh, what we learned was
425
00:21:16.549 --> 00:21:20.609
that the beer folks are really good at selling canned flavor. Right.
426
00:21:20.789 --> 00:21:24.150
And the spirits folks are, the model is totally different.
427
00:21:24.170 --> 00:21:26.710
I mean, they're great at, at bottles. They're really great
428
00:21:26.869 --> 00:21:29.490
on premise. Um, but you know, it's just a totally
429
00:21:29.529 --> 00:21:32.880
different model. So, um, So, you know, all that to say,
430
00:21:32.900 --> 00:21:35.369
you know, the question was about distribution. We started pretty quickly,
431
00:21:35.450 --> 00:21:37.849
but I would say that we didn't really kind of
432
00:21:38.750 --> 00:21:42.769
hit the ground running in the way that we could
433
00:21:42.809 --> 00:21:46.720
have until like last year, essentially. So we really relaunched
434
00:21:46.740 --> 00:21:47.400
the business then.
435
00:21:48.359 --> 00:21:50.400
When, I mean, obviously when you're building a brand, you
436
00:21:50.420 --> 00:21:52.279
got to figure out what the name is, what the
437
00:21:52.619 --> 00:21:55.569
logos look like, what the packaging's all look like. how
438
00:21:55.650 --> 00:21:57.109
are you going to package it? Like all of that.
439
00:21:57.450 --> 00:21:59.730
I mean, like you said, you came from a marketing background.
440
00:21:59.769 --> 00:22:01.990
So I imagine a lot of that you probably obviously
441
00:22:02.029 --> 00:22:04.309
kept in house, but how did kind of some of
442
00:22:04.329 --> 00:22:06.410
the other stuff, like what size can were you going
443
00:22:06.430 --> 00:22:08.160
to use? What size were the packs going to be?
444
00:22:08.279 --> 00:22:11.019
What is the shippers going to look like? All these
445
00:22:11.059 --> 00:22:14.380
things that, you know, you weren't from an alcohol background.
446
00:22:14.420 --> 00:22:16.859
So a lot of stuff can be like, oh crap,
447
00:22:17.099 --> 00:22:19.220
we got to put what on what label and how
448
00:22:19.259 --> 00:22:21.509
much of this stuff and what state. And, you know,
449
00:22:21.529 --> 00:22:24.049
cause every state's different, which is stupid. Cause we all,
450
00:22:24.380 --> 00:22:26.180
consume alcohol the same.
451
00:22:26.200 --> 00:22:27.279
That's so true. Yeah.
452
00:22:27.400 --> 00:22:30.509
It's all money grabs really. So how did, how did
453
00:22:30.549 --> 00:22:31.910
all that kind of come together for you guys?
454
00:22:33.390 --> 00:22:35.410
Oh, well, we had to learn a lot the hard way,
455
00:22:35.450 --> 00:22:38.049
I suppose. But you know, there are, there are some
456
00:22:38.109 --> 00:22:40.890
folks that we worked with, we partnered with along the way.
457
00:22:40.950 --> 00:22:43.569
I would say one thing that we intentionally decided very
458
00:22:43.650 --> 00:22:46.369
early on is that we are very clearly not experts
459
00:22:46.410 --> 00:22:48.650
in this industry. I don't want to pretend that I'm
460
00:22:48.670 --> 00:22:51.519
going to like become an expert overnight. So like, let's
461
00:22:51.559 --> 00:22:55.059
partner with people that, you know, our experience that we
462
00:22:55.099 --> 00:22:58.599
trust that we know that, you know, can really help us.
463
00:22:58.660 --> 00:23:01.019
And the first was with our brand agency, who is
464
00:23:01.059 --> 00:23:04.160
actually a husband and wife here in Indiana. They've done
465
00:23:04.180 --> 00:23:07.200
some really dynamite brands, and I've known them for years,
466
00:23:07.940 --> 00:23:09.970
used to compete with them at a different agency back
467
00:23:09.990 --> 00:23:15.309
in my agency days. And it's always respected their, their,
468
00:23:15.329 --> 00:23:19.009
you know, approach their, their work. And so partnering with
469
00:23:19.049 --> 00:23:21.279
them on the brand, and that was not it took
470
00:23:21.339 --> 00:23:25.000
us probably nine months maybe to figure out a lot
471
00:23:25.019 --> 00:23:29.880
of iteration on the shakeup brand. But as far as
472
00:23:29.900 --> 00:23:31.720
the other stuff goes, the decisions, I mean, yeah, I
473
00:23:31.720 --> 00:23:34.480
mean really just finding what I would recommend to anybody
474
00:23:34.539 --> 00:23:38.619
is like, just find folks that know what they're doing, that,
475
00:23:38.900 --> 00:23:43.640
you know, you have some value alignment with values alignment
476
00:23:43.680 --> 00:23:46.789
with that, that can guide you because like, you know,
477
00:23:47.630 --> 00:23:49.730
you're going to pay for it either way, right? Like
478
00:23:49.769 --> 00:23:53.349
whether you're paying upfront and you're paying consulting fees or
479
00:23:53.390 --> 00:23:55.670
you're paying on the backend because you made a mistake and,
480
00:23:56.250 --> 00:23:59.720
you know, ship the wrong size of whatever to the
481
00:23:59.779 --> 00:24:03.819
wrong retailer. I mean, you're inevitably, you're going to pay
482
00:24:03.880 --> 00:24:05.619
for it. The question is when you want to pay
483
00:24:05.660 --> 00:24:07.920
for it. And my whole thought is like, let's pay
484
00:24:07.960 --> 00:24:11.319
for it upfront as best we can. Right. And eliminate surprises.
485
00:24:12.059 --> 00:24:16.690
Of course, there's been a billion surprises anyway, but, That's it.
486
00:24:17.529 --> 00:24:20.339
You know, and I think one of the other things
487
00:24:20.359 --> 00:24:23.339
that we learned too, is like, even on the investor side,
488
00:24:23.440 --> 00:24:26.660
like we have a few investors at this point who,
489
00:24:26.900 --> 00:24:29.799
you know, jumped in with us over the last two years, essentially.
490
00:24:29.839 --> 00:24:33.039
And ideally, you know, you're, you're wanting to partner with
491
00:24:33.920 --> 00:24:36.759
folks who, you know, either, you know, and trust or
492
00:24:37.380 --> 00:24:41.190
like the friends and family route, or also ideally it's like,
493
00:24:41.869 --> 00:24:44.970
industry veterans you know who can really guide you and
494
00:24:45.029 --> 00:24:47.329
so we got pretty lucky in that respect.
495
00:24:47.029 --> 00:24:50.109
Too that's huge yeah because a lot of times getting
496
00:24:50.130 --> 00:24:52.049
especially getting in the industry you don't know anything about
497
00:24:52.450 --> 00:24:56.049
and alcohol has so many different people that you know
498
00:24:56.069 --> 00:24:58.549
i mean there's there's dodgy people in every industry so
499
00:24:58.589 --> 00:25:01.630
there's gonna be something like alcohol there's still those people
500
00:25:01.710 --> 00:25:04.039
lingering around that like yeah i'll help you out and
501
00:25:04.059 --> 00:25:05.339
they take your money and you never hear from them
502
00:25:05.380 --> 00:25:06.700
again so yep.
503
00:25:06.700 --> 00:25:09.519
Yep absolutely yeah and there's been some of that but
504
00:25:09.859 --> 00:25:12.910
um And thankfully, I think we found some really great
505
00:25:12.950 --> 00:25:15.130
folks that we continue to work with closely.
506
00:25:15.569 --> 00:25:19.369
That's awesome. Well, getting in the alcohol world, like you said,
507
00:25:19.390 --> 00:25:21.240
from the marketing world, you don't know anything about it,
508
00:25:21.250 --> 00:25:24.130
especially getting into packaged beverage and all that fun stuff.
509
00:25:24.369 --> 00:25:26.990
What has been some things that have really kind of
510
00:25:27.009 --> 00:25:29.390
fascinated you? And then also some stuff that was just like,
511
00:25:29.690 --> 00:25:31.609
I will never understand all of this.
512
00:25:33.230 --> 00:25:36.500
Yeah, good question. I mean, the things that are exciting
513
00:25:36.559 --> 00:25:39.839
and the fascination, I would say like, Again, my background
514
00:25:39.859 --> 00:25:43.609
being in brand and marketing, like getting the packaging right.
515
00:25:43.670 --> 00:25:48.869
And like the shelf, like, you know, placement and, um,
516
00:25:49.470 --> 00:25:52.490
like creating campaigns and even like down to social media,
517
00:25:52.539 --> 00:25:55.799
like we work with influencers a lot, like, and just
518
00:25:55.900 --> 00:25:58.640
connecting with people. So we're kind of able to create
519
00:25:58.839 --> 00:26:02.380
community or at least be part of a community that
520
00:26:02.420 --> 00:26:05.460
I didn't really anticipate. even though, you know, now at
521
00:26:05.500 --> 00:26:08.140
this point, our distillery tasting room is not like, we
522
00:26:08.160 --> 00:26:11.559
haven't opened to the public. So we're just doing all distribution.
523
00:26:12.319 --> 00:26:14.809
And we do some packaging for other brands. So, you know,
524
00:26:14.829 --> 00:26:17.460
if you have folks that are listening to this that
525
00:26:17.640 --> 00:26:20.769
are either thinking about getting into RTDs or who are
526
00:26:20.789 --> 00:26:23.269
looking for a co-packer, you know, we can absolutely help
527
00:26:23.589 --> 00:26:26.069
here in Indiana. But I don't know. I think the
528
00:26:26.109 --> 00:26:28.690
fascinating part, the exciting part is the marketing and like,
529
00:26:29.829 --> 00:26:33.329
you know, like connecting with people, like sharing information, the
530
00:26:33.390 --> 00:26:38.210
idea of like sharing joy through not necessarily a beverage,
531
00:26:38.289 --> 00:26:42.259
but through like, you know, the, the, like the aspect
532
00:26:42.299 --> 00:26:46.099
of cheers and like, you know, like that, that, that
533
00:26:46.200 --> 00:26:50.400
like social occasion, that's like the most fun, exciting part.
534
00:26:50.480 --> 00:26:53.079
And I imagine that most people feel that way in
535
00:26:53.099 --> 00:26:58.930
this space. The challenging part has been, Um, honestly, the, the,
536
00:26:59.269 --> 00:27:02.250
like the ins and outs of the distribution world, it's just,
537
00:27:02.329 --> 00:27:06.990
it's so complex. Right. And, uh, just when I thought
538
00:27:07.049 --> 00:27:09.509
that I kind of started to understand it, we, you know,
539
00:27:09.569 --> 00:27:12.380
changed distribution networks and then now I'm just learning a
540
00:27:12.380 --> 00:27:15.960
whole new language. It feels like, right. Um, so, you know,
541
00:27:16.000 --> 00:27:19.339
the motion, the rhythms of that part are just like,
542
00:27:19.500 --> 00:27:23.579
you know, can be, can be pretty intense, complex, uh,
543
00:27:23.660 --> 00:27:26.789
but you know, if you, if you just buckle in
544
00:27:26.809 --> 00:27:29.559
and figure it out, like, you know, that's as a founder,
545
00:27:29.619 --> 00:27:31.380
your back's up against the wall, you figure it out.
546
00:27:31.519 --> 00:27:33.640
And so here we are grateful to say that.
547
00:27:34.539 --> 00:27:36.660
How old is your oldest, your oldest kids?
548
00:27:37.660 --> 00:27:40.740
Uh, oldest is 14 now. So he just started high
549
00:27:40.799 --> 00:27:45.509
school with four boys party around our house. Yeah. Um,
550
00:27:45.789 --> 00:27:49.869
like rowdy. Yeah. Oh yeah. It's rowdy. We, the best thing,
551
00:27:49.950 --> 00:27:52.089
the best investment we ever had was like, we bought
552
00:27:52.109 --> 00:27:56.769
a trampoline and like, February of 2020, right before COVID.
553
00:27:56.809 --> 00:27:59.789
And like, you know, like that's where they go to
554
00:27:59.829 --> 00:28:03.000
get rowdy now, unless they're in the basement of which,
555
00:28:03.200 --> 00:28:04.559
you know, they just put a couple of holes in
556
00:28:04.579 --> 00:28:08.099
the wall. So you got that, but. fun uh yes
557
00:28:08.220 --> 00:28:10.589
yeah yeah yeah anyway but i mean the kids they
558
00:28:10.829 --> 00:28:12.430
they think it's cool um.
559
00:28:12.349 --> 00:28:14.390
I was gonna say are you the coolest parents because
560
00:28:14.410 --> 00:28:15.769
you have the alcohol.
561
00:28:15.829 --> 00:28:18.769
Maybe not necessarily even because it's alcohol i think that
562
00:28:18.829 --> 00:28:21.690
they think it's cool just because like it's a brand
563
00:28:21.809 --> 00:28:25.059
that is associated with something bigger than us you know
564
00:28:25.119 --> 00:28:28.519
like the fair the the fair like to us like
565
00:28:28.559 --> 00:28:30.279
whenever we started high and mighty the whole goal was
566
00:28:30.319 --> 00:28:34.180
like celebration was the brand promise it was like.
567
00:28:34.720 --> 00:28:36.519
You know, that's like the goal and that's one of
568
00:28:36.559 --> 00:28:38.259
our family values. So that's where we kind of got
569
00:28:38.279 --> 00:28:41.619
it from. But, you know, the fair for us is
570
00:28:41.660 --> 00:28:43.869
like the ultimate celebration. It's like going to the theme
571
00:28:43.880 --> 00:28:46.789
park or the carnival or whatever it is, like the
572
00:28:46.849 --> 00:28:51.670
lights at night, the magic of that kind of that
573
00:28:51.730 --> 00:28:57.299
experience to them. That's really big and special. Right. And
574
00:28:57.339 --> 00:28:59.579
so the fact that we're associated in some way with
575
00:28:59.640 --> 00:29:01.700
that and that we built the brand, I think that's
576
00:29:01.720 --> 00:29:02.420
what I think is cool.
577
00:29:02.880 --> 00:29:03.440
That's awesome.
578
00:29:04.259 --> 00:29:04.420
Yeah.
579
00:29:04.900 --> 00:29:07.960
Obviously, you're working with your wife on a very daily basis,
580
00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:10.599
and then you also have to manage four kids at
581
00:29:10.619 --> 00:29:13.759
the house. Is there like a safe word y'all use
582
00:29:13.799 --> 00:29:15.880
so you don't talk about work all the time, or
583
00:29:15.940 --> 00:29:17.740
is it still trying to find that balance?
584
00:29:19.529 --> 00:29:22.470
That's a good question. At this point, we have kind
585
00:29:22.490 --> 00:29:26.990
of like an unspoken rule that we typically don't talk
586
00:29:27.029 --> 00:29:31.019
about work after work. traditional work hours okay that's good
587
00:29:31.059 --> 00:29:33.680
which sounds yeah i mean obviously we break that every
588
00:29:33.740 --> 00:29:35.319
once in a while but it'll be like like last
589
00:29:35.380 --> 00:29:37.690
night we went on a walk and jamie my wife
590
00:29:37.750 --> 00:29:41.319
was like not to talk about work but i have
591
00:29:41.579 --> 00:29:44.039
one thing that would be like we need to so
592
00:29:44.420 --> 00:29:45.980
like you know we can kind of give each other
593
00:29:46.039 --> 00:29:48.960
but i the thing is like i learned early on
594
00:29:49.019 --> 00:29:50.619
like i can be a bit of a stress ball
595
00:29:51.029 --> 00:29:53.390
um or i can just like kind of hold stress
596
00:29:53.750 --> 00:29:56.680
and uh you know, I have to have that, the
597
00:29:56.720 --> 00:29:59.579
ability to wind down. And that's not always, it's not
598
00:29:59.599 --> 00:30:01.980
always simple. And like, there are times like during the
599
00:30:02.000 --> 00:30:06.160
state fair or like during the spring when, um, like
600
00:30:06.180 --> 00:30:10.390
for instance, in may, the Indy 500, the Indianapolis 500
601
00:30:10.390 --> 00:30:12.670
is the largest sporting event in the country. I don't
602
00:30:12.690 --> 00:30:14.490
know if anybody knows that.
603
00:30:14.309 --> 00:30:17.529
Until this year and how many massive amount of people.
604
00:30:17.609 --> 00:30:20.549
And then obviously the, the infield is where the big
605
00:30:20.569 --> 00:30:21.309
party is at, but yeah.
606
00:30:21.769 --> 00:30:23.490
Yep, yep, yep.
607
00:30:23.490 --> 00:30:23.809
350,000 people.
608
00:30:23.869 --> 00:30:26.430
And so during that time period, you know, it's like, it's,
609
00:30:26.769 --> 00:30:29.549
you know, it's buckle up, it's nuts. So it's not
610
00:30:29.589 --> 00:30:31.890
always simple, but we try to kind of abide by
611
00:30:31.930 --> 00:30:32.309
that rule.
612
00:30:32.829 --> 00:30:36.210
That's awesome. Well, what does, I mean, you guys have
613
00:30:36.349 --> 00:30:39.490
kept rolling out different flavors. What is the next thing
614
00:30:39.519 --> 00:30:41.480
that people can kind of look forward to? Because obviously
615
00:30:41.500 --> 00:30:45.049
the fair just wrapped up for you guys. And so... Yeah,
616
00:30:45.069 --> 00:30:45.450
I did.
617
00:30:45.690 --> 00:30:47.869
Um, well, a couple of things, uh, number one, we
618
00:30:47.890 --> 00:30:50.670
did another exclusive flavor this year with the Indiana state
619
00:30:50.710 --> 00:30:53.579
fair and it's a pickle lemon shake up. So pickle lemonade,
620
00:30:54.119 --> 00:30:56.279
we're trying to, you know, it's wacky, right. But pickle
621
00:30:56.299 --> 00:31:00.039
beer is a big thing. So, um, yeah, we thought maybe,
622
00:31:00.240 --> 00:31:02.259
maybe we can throw our hat in the ring and
623
00:31:02.740 --> 00:31:04.480
honestly it was a hit. The only problem was that
624
00:31:04.519 --> 00:31:06.720
the state fair got rained out. There was this historic
625
00:31:06.759 --> 00:31:12.670
flooding that happened in India, Indianapolis, uh, two weeks ago, unfortunately. Now,
626
00:31:12.769 --> 00:31:14.190
I mean, it wasn't the whole fair, but you know,
627
00:31:14.329 --> 00:31:16.130
not enough people got to try it. So the goal is,
628
00:31:16.230 --> 00:31:19.779
you know, let's, let's introduce that. But we also are
629
00:31:19.799 --> 00:31:22.119
going to do like kind of like a fall holiday flavor,
630
00:31:22.579 --> 00:31:25.640
which is a cranberry ginger shake up and it is done.
631
00:31:25.680 --> 00:31:29.099
We're shipping out the first cases today to our distributor.
632
00:31:29.720 --> 00:31:34.059
It is dynamite. It's, it's so good. So I'm super
633
00:31:34.099 --> 00:31:37.500
pumped to share that. So new flavors, certainly. But then
634
00:31:37.619 --> 00:31:39.579
even like, you know, this holiday season, we're going to
635
00:31:39.619 --> 00:31:43.200
try to wrap a campaign around that. We're going to
636
00:31:43.220 --> 00:31:46.829
call making spirits bright. And the idea is like the
637
00:31:46.869 --> 00:31:50.609
connective tissue between the fair and the holidays is like
638
00:31:50.650 --> 00:31:53.430
the lights, like the magic of Christmas lights, the magic
639
00:31:53.529 --> 00:31:57.529
of the lights at the Midway or, you know, you know,
640
00:31:57.549 --> 00:32:00.509
and in the evening at the at the theme park,
641
00:32:00.549 --> 00:32:03.150
you know, that that magic is really special. And that's
642
00:32:03.170 --> 00:32:05.579
something that people carry with them. their entire lives. And
643
00:32:05.619 --> 00:32:07.920
so we're going to try and connect the dots there
644
00:32:08.079 --> 00:32:08.940
this holiday season.
645
00:32:09.700 --> 00:32:11.579
Now I noticed some of these flavors you've mentioned, especially
646
00:32:11.599 --> 00:32:13.859
the exclusive ones are definitely not available on your website.
647
00:32:13.940 --> 00:32:16.819
Is there, so you have to be in wherever the
648
00:32:16.839 --> 00:32:17.519
store finder is?
649
00:32:18.700 --> 00:32:24.380
Unfortunately, yes. Um, the, the website, there's a, there's a
650
00:32:24.420 --> 00:32:28.099
challenge because we're not able to ship legally across, you know,
651
00:32:28.460 --> 00:32:31.339
or even in, in Indianapolis. So We use a third-party
652
00:32:31.400 --> 00:32:36.230
fulfillment service for that, and we have to send products
653
00:32:36.349 --> 00:32:40.890
to Washington, D.C., and it's pretty expensive to ship, like
654
00:32:40.910 --> 00:32:45.109
to freight. And so in order to do that, we
655
00:32:45.130 --> 00:32:47.640
have to do it by the pallet, basically, and there's
656
00:32:47.660 --> 00:32:50.859
just not quite enough demand online. So we'll get that
657
00:32:50.900 --> 00:32:55.059
going eventually, but for now, we've got the majority of
658
00:32:55.099 --> 00:32:56.940
our flavors on there. So yeah, if you're curious.
659
00:32:58.829 --> 00:33:01.750
Um you're not gonna regret trying a lemon shake up
660
00:33:01.890 --> 00:33:04.130
we've got all of our flavor you know a bunch
661
00:33:04.150 --> 00:33:07.329
of our flavors on there drinkshakeup.com and you know they
662
00:33:07.369 --> 00:33:08.549
ship real quick too.
663
00:33:08.750 --> 00:33:10.730
There you go well i have a segment on the
664
00:33:10.750 --> 00:33:12.470
show i call it the five counts just five random
665
00:33:12.490 --> 00:33:16.470
questions sure number one what do you what song do
666
00:33:16.490 --> 00:33:17.730
you car karaoke.
667
00:33:17.309 --> 00:33:21.630
To oh rich girl hollow notes there you.
668
00:33:21.549 --> 00:33:23.349
Go do the kids like hollow notes.
669
00:33:25.259 --> 00:33:28.329
Uh, no, not at all. I think it's cheesy.
670
00:33:28.380 --> 00:33:29.529
That seems accurate.
671
00:33:30.289 --> 00:33:31.319
It is. It is.
672
00:33:31.390 --> 00:33:35.269
It's great. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Uh, number two, if you
673
00:33:35.309 --> 00:33:37.549
were a pro wrestler, MMA fighter, what would your name be?
674
00:33:38.589 --> 00:33:42.579
Oh, interesting. I don't know. My, my running joke is, uh,
675
00:33:42.880 --> 00:33:44.859
I guess it would be paradise. My running joke. I
676
00:33:44.900 --> 00:33:47.130
don't have a middle name. And so, my friends would
677
00:33:47.150 --> 00:33:49.289
make fun of me and so i adopted the fake
678
00:33:49.329 --> 00:33:51.519
middle name of paradise just as kind of a joke
679
00:33:51.619 --> 00:33:54.900
right um based on uh on the road sal paradise
680
00:33:54.920 --> 00:33:57.980
if you're familiar with the book anyway uh.
681
00:33:58.259 --> 00:34:02.500
That's it yeah paradise it is yeah number three what
682
00:34:02.619 --> 00:34:03.920
are you nerding out on right now.
683
00:34:05.079 --> 00:34:10.280
Oh um a couple things uh Um, board games, my
684
00:34:10.340 --> 00:34:14.800
oldest loves board games. We play, um, all kinds of stuff. Um,
685
00:34:14.840 --> 00:34:17.409
he's really into Lorkana, which is like the Disney version
686
00:34:17.449 --> 00:34:20.710
of Pokemon cards. Oh, okay. But honestly, it's very fun
687
00:34:20.809 --> 00:34:22.809
as a two player game. So we've been into that
688
00:34:22.849 --> 00:34:24.889
and that's very nerdy. There's a game called blood on
689
00:34:24.929 --> 00:34:27.869
the clock tower, which is kind of like mafia, um,
690
00:34:27.929 --> 00:34:30.610
which I've been playing with some friends. So definitely nerding
691
00:34:30.630 --> 00:34:31.929
out about that board games.
692
00:34:32.570 --> 00:34:35.289
Love it. Number four, who or what inspires you?
693
00:34:36.630 --> 00:34:47.260
Oh, That's a good one. Can you come back to
694
00:34:47.280 --> 00:34:47.530
that one?
695
00:34:47.800 --> 00:34:50.469
Yeah, we'll let it up. We'll go to number five then.
696
00:34:51.369 --> 00:34:53.170
What would you tell your 17-year-old self?
697
00:34:54.750 --> 00:34:55.349
Oh, man.
698
00:34:56.409 --> 00:35:02.840
Probably figure out the work-life balance thing quickly because I
699
00:35:02.880 --> 00:35:06.079
just tended to... I was a bit of a workaholic
700
00:35:06.179 --> 00:35:10.670
and my early years and that became unsustainable. And so
701
00:35:10.690 --> 00:35:13.650
I've had to like really focus on the sustainability aspect
702
00:35:13.690 --> 00:35:15.179
of that. And I feel like I'm in a really
703
00:35:15.219 --> 00:35:18.480
good place now, but yeah, I could have done a
704
00:35:18.500 --> 00:35:19.119
lot better there.
705
00:35:19.940 --> 00:35:21.599
Well, then what is your, I'll give you a little
706
00:35:21.619 --> 00:35:24.719
more time for this inspired one. How do you find
707
00:35:24.820 --> 00:35:28.130
that work balance works well for you? Cause obviously everyone's
708
00:35:28.150 --> 00:35:30.909
different the way they can do it. And not everyone has,
709
00:35:31.010 --> 00:35:32.469
you know, four kids and a wife at home.
710
00:35:32.489 --> 00:35:33.789
So. Yeah.
711
00:35:33.909 --> 00:35:34.190
Yeah.
712
00:35:34.230 --> 00:35:38.380
I mean, I think that like, for me, like, well,
713
00:35:38.460 --> 00:35:42.780
like wellness as a whole is like maybe the foundational aspects.
714
00:35:42.820 --> 00:35:45.389
So like it all comes back to sleep. Like if
715
00:35:45.449 --> 00:35:48.730
I can sleep well, then I'm, you know, I'm going
716
00:35:48.750 --> 00:35:50.730
to be much more productive, I should say, but I'm
717
00:35:50.750 --> 00:35:52.269
just going to be a better person. Like I'm going
718
00:35:52.289 --> 00:35:56.519
to be a better husband, better dad, better coworker, whatever. Um,
719
00:35:56.800 --> 00:35:59.079
and so, you know, getting really good sleep is important,
720
00:35:59.099 --> 00:36:02.039
but like, you know, exercise eating well, all that kind
721
00:36:02.079 --> 00:36:05.809
of stuff. So, um, I would say that is, that
722
00:36:05.849 --> 00:36:06.630
is the key for me.
723
00:36:07.289 --> 00:36:10.030
Yeah. I think so too. Everyone needs to genuinely take
724
00:36:10.070 --> 00:36:12.400
care of their mental, their physical. Again, we don't need
725
00:36:12.420 --> 00:36:15.039
to all look like the rock. Just do something, get
726
00:36:15.079 --> 00:36:17.460
out there and move and get the, get some sweat
727
00:36:17.480 --> 00:36:19.659
going and get some stink in your armpits.
728
00:36:20.340 --> 00:36:22.539
Absolutely. Even just going for a walk, you know, like
729
00:36:22.599 --> 00:36:25.800
walk in the woods. If you can touch some grass. Right. Yeah.
730
00:36:25.840 --> 00:36:27.579
Get grounded. Genuinely take it.
731
00:36:27.820 --> 00:36:28.000
Yeah.
732
00:36:28.280 --> 00:36:29.780
Take your shoes and socks off. Get in that ground.
733
00:36:30.599 --> 00:36:30.900
Yeah. Yeah.
734
00:36:31.469 --> 00:36:32.610
Well, let's go back to number four.
735
00:36:32.909 --> 00:36:33.449
Okay. Yeah.
736
00:36:33.489 --> 00:36:33.730
Yeah.
737
00:36:33.809 --> 00:36:37.690
Inspiration. Um, boy, well, I would say that there's a
738
00:36:37.710 --> 00:36:43.409
lot that inspires me. Um, lately I have been inspired
739
00:36:43.469 --> 00:36:46.449
by some authors and like, I mean, some of the
740
00:36:46.489 --> 00:36:49.769
business books are pretty interesting. Like Phil Knight wrote a
741
00:36:49.889 --> 00:36:55.469
really killer, like a autobiography called shoe dog, which is dynamite.
742
00:36:55.510 --> 00:36:57.239
But I mean, I wouldn't say that that's the thing
743
00:36:57.280 --> 00:37:00.159
that inspires me that way. You know, I wake up to, right.
744
00:37:00.579 --> 00:37:05.340
I think it's, I mean, it's definitely family. And like, also,
745
00:37:05.360 --> 00:37:09.090
I would say that, like, our audience inspires me, like,
746
00:37:09.119 --> 00:37:11.489
what I try to do on the marketing side is like,
747
00:37:12.730 --> 00:37:16.650
make our customers, our audience, the hero of all the marketing,
748
00:37:16.690 --> 00:37:18.989
because like, at the end of the day, like, I
749
00:37:19.030 --> 00:37:21.349
do think we have a fun and interesting story that
750
00:37:21.429 --> 00:37:23.570
most RTDs don't, right? Like, if you think about the
751
00:37:23.610 --> 00:37:26.610
big RTDs, like High Noon and Sun Cruiser and Surfside,
752
00:37:26.650 --> 00:37:30.139
they're lifestyle brands. And that doesn't mean that they weren't
753
00:37:30.340 --> 00:37:33.519
created in an interesting way, but they don't have the
754
00:37:33.539 --> 00:37:37.340
background of like the selling barbecue at the County fair. Right.
755
00:37:37.460 --> 00:37:41.579
And the actual connection to the Indiana state fair, that's real.
756
00:37:42.019 --> 00:37:45.619
But regardless of all that, like, you know, at the
757
00:37:45.639 --> 00:37:48.840
end of the day, like our customers are like, what,
758
00:37:49.260 --> 00:37:51.920
you know, what works right. Like if they like the product,
759
00:37:51.940 --> 00:37:54.219
they're going to tell their friends. And so when somebody
760
00:37:54.260 --> 00:37:58.530
posts something about it on social, I'm like, Hey, let's collaborate. Like, let's, Like,
761
00:37:58.590 --> 00:38:01.289
and I repost and, you know, all that kind of stuff. And,
762
00:38:02.309 --> 00:38:05.260
you know, that really works. So, I mean, I think
763
00:38:05.539 --> 00:38:08.420
our audience and folks who are out there, like, honestly,
764
00:38:08.480 --> 00:38:10.460
just doing their best every day, which is the way
765
00:38:10.519 --> 00:38:14.980
I feel, that's inspiring, right? Like, let's just have fun
766
00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:16.900
the best way we can. Let's do our best, right?
767
00:38:17.260 --> 00:38:19.960
No, I love that so much. Well, if people wanted
768
00:38:20.019 --> 00:38:22.219
to find out more about y'all, follow you online, obviously
769
00:38:22.320 --> 00:38:24.539
buy Shake Up Cocktails, support you guys in any way,
770
00:38:24.579 --> 00:38:25.159
how can they do so?
771
00:38:25.880 --> 00:38:28.329
Yeah. Yeah. Drink Shakeup dot com is the easiest. And
772
00:38:28.349 --> 00:38:32.320
then on Instagram at Drink Shakeup, we got some really
773
00:38:32.360 --> 00:38:35.400
fun stuff we're doing over there. I've hired some comedians
774
00:38:35.460 --> 00:38:39.380
here in town who are helping us with video content.
775
00:38:39.739 --> 00:38:42.539
And people I've known for a long time actually met
776
00:38:42.559 --> 00:38:44.840
through a podcast. They ran a podcast for a long time.
777
00:38:44.900 --> 00:38:47.929
And so there's some pretty fun stuff. So I would
778
00:38:47.969 --> 00:38:48.829
say check that out.
779
00:38:49.369 --> 00:38:51.650
There we go. I look forward to that. Dan, I
780
00:38:51.690 --> 00:38:53.550
love this so much. I can't wait to get some
781
00:38:53.670 --> 00:38:56.269
shake-up cocktail myself. So this has been fun, and I
782
00:38:56.289 --> 00:38:57.679
can't wait to see where you guys end up in
783
00:38:57.699 --> 00:38:58.039
the future.
784
00:38:58.800 --> 00:39:00.099
Thanks, John. Cheers, y'all.
785
00:39:14.059 --> 00:39:15.739
Thank you so much to Dan for being on the show. Again,
786
00:39:16.239 --> 00:39:20.159
find yourself some shake-up cocktails. These things are delicious, and
787
00:39:20.199 --> 00:39:21.440
you are definitely going to want to get your hands
788
00:39:21.500 --> 00:39:24.210
on them. So if you are not in the states
789
00:39:24.230 --> 00:39:26.329
that they are distributing to, find out how you can
790
00:39:26.349 --> 00:39:29.889
get it there. Ask your local liquor store. Ask your local...
791
00:39:30.639 --> 00:39:33.840
grocery store. Whatever place you can find your cocktail drinks at,
792
00:39:34.239 --> 00:39:36.659
definitely ask them if they don't have shake-up cocktails, so
793
00:39:36.699 --> 00:39:38.760
that way they can get there. And if you do
794
00:39:38.800 --> 00:39:40.820
want to find them, obviously go on their social media
795
00:39:40.940 --> 00:39:42.980
and on their website, and you can find out more. Now,
796
00:39:43.000 --> 00:39:45.059
while you're doing that, go follow us on social media
797
00:39:45.199 --> 00:39:50.139
at BruisersPod, that is B-R-E-W-S-E-R-S-B-O-D, On the Instagram, the threads,
798
00:39:50.280 --> 00:39:52.619
and the Twitter. If you want to send us an email,
799
00:39:52.659 --> 00:39:55.480
it is bruiserspod.gmail.com. If you want to follow me directly,
800
00:39:55.559 --> 00:39:59.340
it is RodyJohn. That is R-O-D-I-E-J-O-N. RodyJohn is the name
801
00:39:59.530 --> 00:40:00.380
on the Twitter.
802
00:40:00.260 --> 00:40:00.840
And on untapped.
803
00:40:00.860 --> 00:40:02.090
In case you want to find out what I'm drinking,
804
00:40:02.289 --> 00:40:02.630
maybe we can.
805
00:40:02.590 --> 00:40:03.170
Have a beer together.
806
00:40:03.630 --> 00:40:04.869
If you want to follow me on the threads or
807
00:40:04.889 --> 00:40:07.510
the Instagram, it is OfficialRodyJohn. So until next time, make
808
00:40:07.550 --> 00:40:09.469
sure to enjoy life, drink local, and cheers.