Who is LLance Kezner

Hey everyone, we're live! I've got a cold, not feeling as great as I— I was thinking of wearing my sunglasses, but that just looked weird. And today, who is brave, bold, bald— there may be a little hair there and it could just be blonde and I can't see it— but Double L Lance Ketzner is in the house! So Lance, first of all, tell us about the Double L's. What is the story behind your name?

Um, okay, so my dad was an out-of-the-box thinker, um, like big time, uh, and numbers were his thing. Like, numbers were very significant to him. His lucky number was 6. And so he loved the name Lance, but it didn't have enough letters, so he just added an extra L.

Is he still alive?

No, he's not. He's no longer with us. But, um, but, and then it ended up being my first, middle, and last name all had the same number of letters. So, you know, it's a, it's a lucky number.

I absolutely love that. What is your middle name?

Harold.

Oh, I love that. Oh my gosh. I love it. I love it. Okay. So I started off, Lance, I have a cold and I meant to go to the store to make myself some chicken soup. And of course I forgot all about it when I got to the store. So tell us who you are and what you do and how you can help me.

Yeah. So my name is Lance Kesner. I live in Bellevue, Washington. I have a couple of boys and a wife and a dog, and my wife and I created a food business a little while ago and decided to create innovative ideas that nobody's ever thought of before. And we created Millie's Sipping Broth, which is broth in a tea bag. And yeah, that's, that's, you know, our claim to fame. Adrian, you're on mute.

Silly me. The other day I was thinking of, of like, oh, I would love a bouillon cube. And then I was like, wait, Adrian, that was like the worst things ever. They were filled with salt. They weren't good for you. I loved them. And sipping broth, this is with a tea bag.

That's exactly how it came about. So my wife Lori is a teacher, and so she, in the afternoons in between classes, she wanted something— some— she wanted a snack that wasn't all the leftover cookies and cakes in the, in the break room that the teachers would bring. So she used to bring a bouillon cube because she didn't want coffee, she didn't want caffeine, she didn't want sugar, she didn't want tea. So she would bring the bouillon cube to drink, and One day I said, let me make something healthier for you because that's just filled with all kinds of really bad stuff. So I, I took dehydrated vegetables and seasoning and we worked together on the flavor and then put it in a mug. And she said, it's all over the place. Put it in a tea bag so that I can just drink the, the broth that comes out of it. We made about 10 of them. We took Lipton tea bags, ripped them open. Put the concoction inside. She took them to work, and, uh, after she came back after class and they were all gone, and we decided, oh, we have something here.

Oh my gosh. Hey everyone, I, I, I can't wait. I'm going to use my— I'm going to share my screen. So if you are listening on Spotify, hop on YouTube, and I'm going to— we have to look at your website. You have pictures of this on your website?

Uh, yeah, at sippingbroth.com.

Okay, we— I, I can't, I can't not do this right now. It's, it's so, it's so cool. So let me go like this. Let me get rid of this really quickly. And so Sipping Broth, I'm just gonna Google it, see if it comes up this way. Sipping Broth. And then it's not that one. So just sippingbroth.com.

No, no, no, go, go back up. I think that was a— the official—

is it Millie?

Yeah, Millie's.

Yeah. Oh, your wife is Millie? Oh, it pops up right now.

No, no, my wife is Lori. Millie was our, our, uh, Lori was Millie was Lori's mom, and we— so we named it after her.

Oh my gosh. All right, so everyone should see right now that I am sharing Millie's Sipping Broth. This is crazy. Oh my God, it's okay. So you see little packets like tea packets, and then— so what are these right here? What are, what are these?

Yeah, so those are the flavors. We have, uh, Delight Pho We have tomato basil, spicy tortilla, and Thai lemongrass. They're all vegan, kosher, gluten-free. They're just vegetables, herbs, and seasoning. They're real ingredients. They're not sprayed, uh, flavor. We don't use natural flavors or anything like that.

Oh my God. So, so if you have a friend and you know the friend's not feeling well, so this is exactly— okay, I'm gonna stop sharing for a minute. This, this is crazy because I cannot believe— let me go back and find where you are for a second. Where's— are you still there?

I'm here.

Oh, good. I don't, I don't know where you are, but there you are. So I'm, I'm the person that would have bought it. So I'm thinking I want to make some chicken soup, but not everyone wants chicken soup today. I'm not really in the mood. It's like still got warm here in Florida, and I would have loved this. So I'm going to order it right away. And Sam, my son, I'm going to just shout out to him. I got to order this for you. This is an amazing Well, I can't believe it. So how do you even pick the flavors? You have 4 flavors and none of them are like chicken, chicken broth.

No, no. So, you know, early on we decided that we were going to focus on flavor and the proteins that are normally in, you know, like chicken soup or in bone broth and all that kind of stuff. It didn't add any flavor to what we were doing. And Lori's a vegetarian, so we wanted to just focus on You know, when was the last time you had a vegetable soup that tastes, or a vegetable broth that tasted really good? They're all, they were all terrible at the time. And so we just focused on pure flavor, uh, what was popular, what appealed to us, and what we saw were global, kind of global trends. And, um, our number 1 flavor is the pho. Number 2 is the Thai lemongrass, you know, and, and Everyone's got their favorites, and we're just delighted that everyone has a favorite.

I just, I can't even believe this. What about for consumption for doggies?

You know, so there are ingredients in there that are not good for dogs. Onions and garlic, no bueno for dogs. So yeah, we wouldn't recommend that for that. But if you're on a wellness, any kind of wellness program, Weight Watchers, keto, gluten-free, intermittent fasting, this fits. I mean, even if you're on GLP-1 drugs, you know, like Wegovy or Mounjaro, I'll tell you, if you have nausea, the broth is really an excellent way to do that. Plus, because you can take this with you anywhere— let's say you go to, you know, you meet someone at a cafe or at a restaurant or something like that— you can be social and drink broth. You don't have to order, you know, a meal that you're not going to eat. But you're going to have an amazing broth that you just, you know, rip open the tea bag or rip open the bag and just, you know, add 8 ounces of hot water into your mug and there you go.

Okay, I want to have a little fun. All right, let's do this. I'll say who it's good for, you say who it's good for, we'll go back and forth. Okay, so like, this is amazing for pregnant women.

This is amazing for anyone going to get a colonoscopy.

This is amazing for mothers and fathers, parents who want to have their stuff— their children can't eat, they have to eat very lightly, so get a broth for your child.

This is amazing for people who travel and, and are in a hotel room and want something at night that is not the coffee or tea.

This is amazing for my husband who has leukemia and sometimes does have trouble with cramps and feeling not well. So perfect for him.

And this is amazing for people who are on chemo treatments who are— have nausea and can't keep anything down and maybe want to add a little bit of CBD to it.

Oh, this is perfect for if you have a grandparent or parent that's in an assisted living center. Bring, bring a box, bring the whole box, and then share some with the nurses so they can try it too.

And this is perfect for the employee who's going into the break room at 3 o'clock in the afternoon and just wants something, and instead of reaching for a bag of Cheetos, they reach for a broth instead.

Yo, yo, yo, truck drivers out there, you're driving in the cold, it's so cold, get a hot water bottle with thermos and bring some tea bags with you, and now you got something that's going to keep you warm and not get you caffeinated at all, energized, and will get— let's give you a good night's sleep.

Absolutely. And you're on your next flight and the beverage cart comes down the aisle. Wouldn't it be amazing if they said, would you like coffee, tea, or broth? What do you think people would pick?

I had to stop the game for a second. Wait a second. Don't give up on that idea. Definitely reach out because that is fantastic because it's also good for prisoners who are in prison who want something different. That they could buy bulk from you, the broth packets.

So we were very lucky to come up with— I mean, look at all these ideas you and I just came up with back and forth, right? And it's very unusual for a product like this to have such wide applicability. And that's why we decided to run after it. And, you know, we've been very, very fortunate. It's taken— it's taken about 10 years for us to get to a certain level. Yeah, I mean, manufacturing it, getting distribution. But, you know, as you— as you— you know, as we're just kind of playing back and forth, you can use it for so many things. I mean, ripping it open, putting it on your avocado toast. I mean, there's a million different things you can use it for.

Oh, you mean like a— like spicy spice?

As a spice packet? Yeah.

Okay, so let's talk business now because I absolutely love this. I love that you guys had this feeling, this this idea. So your wife found a problem, got the solution for the problem, probably tested it, which she did, right, with the other teachers. And then now you're ready to take it, you go to market. First you have a business plan, right? So what were some of the, like, the weaknesses that you were worried about, or some of the challenges you thought you'd face before you really even started?

So, so, Adrian, you, you, you mentioned the word business plan. That was our biggest weakness. We didn't have one. We, we basically thought, okay, let's, let's do everything we possibly can to get this to people who will buy it. And, you know, that's it. All we focused on was the flavor, uh, getting it into its initial packaging. We made— we started in our kitchen, um, and where can we get this to people? And, uh, we're here in Seattle. The Pike Place Market, which is world famous, where they throw fish at you. We set up a tent across the street from the first Starbucks, and we sold broth during the summer in 90-degree days, and people actually gave us money for our product. The, the, the, the best thing that happened is that we literally had to give a 5 or 10-second pitch to thousands of people that were going by to get them to either buy or not. And so we were constantly adjusting what we were saying, how, how we were relating it to people. And that was very— that was pretty much, you know, all we did for the first couple of years, selling it directly to consumers, getting feedback. We had to change the name because we had a competitor come out about 6 months after us, copied all of our flavors. You know, we had to do, you know, we had to do a couple things, but, but basically, you know, we kept building it up little by little by little, but, you know, but now we're in 3,000 stores around the country.

Oh my gosh. So on your website, you have all your locations?

Yes, there's a store finder there. It's a map, and you just, you know, zero in to where you are and find find the closest store.

Is this part of— in Florida we call it the cottage industry. Is this— was it— do they have the cottage industry?

And so they have that concept in this, in this state, but we didn't do it that way. We, we started in our kitchen and quickly found a company that could make this for us. It was very difficult, and actually we've had to— we've grown out of several of those companies. But those companies are professional manufacturers, and that was really, you know, critical in our development.

Amazing. So, of course, everyone wants to know the challenges that you face. And do you have one in front of you? I see that. Can we look at a—

Well, yeah, this is, this is the— I just want to point out, this is the Broth Sloth. He's our mascot, and he just wants you to sip slow and stay cozy. But yeah, so here's, here's the, the, um, the, the— so the original tea bag, you know, this is it. I mean, it's just a tea bag. Um, we don't have a string and tag because we don't want people to confuse it with tea. It's not tea, it's broth. Just because it comes in a tea bag, you know, that's the only thing that's similar to it. But it's wrapped, you know, these are— it's foil, foil wrapped, and then it comes in a box. Comes in a box like this. And at, you know, at your— in the soup aisle of Walmart, it's right there next to the broth at eye level, just, just across, just next to Campbell's Soup. All 4 flavors are there. But, you know, the biggest challenge, I think, Adrian, was that the companies we went to to help us make it didn't— they didn't understand the complexity around it. We thought it was a really simple idea, right? It's a simple idea. Just put broth in a tea bag. Um, how hard can it be? Well, none of the equipment is made for these kinds of ingredients, and so we ran into all kinds of problems. We still run into problems. There are, you know, every day there are challenges, and they're good challenges, and there are challenges that you dread. But, but, you know, the only thing that got us through all of this was that Lori and I were not professionals. We still don't consider ourselves professionals in the, in the packaged food business. And that allows us to make mistakes and also to be really creative in solving problems.

Oh my gosh, I love that. So is that why then you have 4 flavors when you probably could have like 20 different flavors?

We did, we did at one time, we had 7 flavors and we scaled it back. A lot of it was trial and error, you know, trying to see what, what resonated with people. But what we realized is that if we were going to grow, we really needed to scale back and focus on the core, the core flavors that were doing really well. But I'll tell you, we still get requests for a couple of the old flavors. When are you going to bring it back? When you get, you know, one of the old flavors that we'll probably bring back pretty soon was a curry flavor. And people ask every week, when are you going to bring it back? When are you going to bring it back? And we're, we're going to, we just have to do it in a very thoughtful way.

Oh my gosh. I absolutely love this whole entire concept, the story, the fact that it makes a great gift. Like now I'm thinking about it. How wonderful is it to give someone the broth? Okay, so what is your tagline? Because you mentioned about sipping and cozy. What is your official tagline? Is that it?

Well, our official tagline is comfort food in a broth. Um, the Broth Sloth, though— the Broth Sloth wants you to remember to sip slow and stay cozy, right? That's the whole thing about the sloth. That's why the sloth is our mascot, because they're slow and methodical, you know, they're very and they're cozy, right? You just imagine being hugged by, by a sloth. And we created the, the broth sloth out of— we were going to a trade show, and our booth was literally between multi-billion-dollar brands. And we needed to stand out. And so I said to Lori, I said, "We got to figure out, we got to figure out some kind of experience that people will have when they come to the booth." So we made a life-size— actually bigger than life-size— sloth with these huge arms as a backdrop. And so we put a seat behind— in front of the sloth and had— we grabbed people, brought them in, and had them sit down and had the arms around them. And then I grabbed their phone and took a picture. The next day we had a line of people waiting, and when we— before we got to the booth, waiting for pictures with the broth sloth. So we knew that we had like, we kind of struck a nerve with, you know, this idea. And the broth sloth is, is, he's a lot of fun.

Brilliant, brilliant. And then you handed out a tea, you handed out tea.

We handed out samples. Yeah, it was awesome because I would grab people out of the aisle. They didn't even know what we did. I just said, hey, the broth sloth has been waiting all day to take a picture with you. And they're looking at me like, what are you talking about? And then, and then they come in, they sit down, I take their phone from them and give and hand them a sample package. They didn't even know what we did. By the time they're done with the photo, I'd given them the, our 5 or 10-second pitch, and they walked away with samples. And I, I have to tell you, one of our largest opportunities ever came from that. And you just never know, you know. I think people are really looking for an authentic experience. Lori and I, our names are on, you know, every, every one of these. It says, you know, we know you'll, you'll like it, Lance and Lori. You see us, we're on videos, you see us making stuff, you know, we're just real people. And we're delighted that people, you know, took our idea, our crazy idea from our kitchen, and And give us, you know, Adrian, one of the things that keeps us going even with all the hard, you know, knocks and stuff like that is when people go out of their way to call us or email us and say, you know, I love your stuff so much, it's part of my daily routine, or I bought it because my grandmother was going through chemo treatment, it was the only thing that she could— those things make, make it all the work worth it.

Amazing, amazing. Okay, I have a couple more questions. Um, Lori, we might as well give her double L too because this is all made with double L love. I absolutely love it. Is Lori still working as a teacher?

Uh, no, she, uh, you know, part of, you know, people say, what, what is some of your advice when you're starting a business? And we say never quit your day job, uh, until it's extremely difficult. And so yeah, we had to make that transition about 5 years ago where it became very, very difficult. But actually, she's just getting ready right now to go do some volunteering at the Boys and Girls Club. But yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, that is so beautiful. My dad was honored at the Boys and Girls Club of Broward County, Fort Lauderdale. Okay, so another question now. Now let's talk COVID, because I'm thinking COVID could have been really strong for you? Like, was—

what, like, where were you in the sales during COVID Yeah, so before COVID you know, our focus was direct-to-consumer sales, uh, our website, Amazon, uh, making sure the quality of the product was, was the best. Um, we didn't focus too much on, you know, fancy packaging or anything like that. We really wanted to focus on making sure that People had a great experience with the product. Um, we got discovered right before COVID by a little company called Weight Watchers, Weight Watchers International. Um, they, uh, Lori's leaving. Um, Weight Watchers International wanted to partner with us and put us on, on their website and sell us to their 4.5 million subscribers. They gave us a zero-point rating, which is the best rating you can get for, uh, yeah. And, um, so we were on their site, then COVID hit, right? Every rule, every rule about retail, e-commerce, manufacturing, everything was thrown out the window. The only thing that we knew was that everyone was trying to, uh, lose the weight that they were gaining. While they were sitting at home doing nothing. And that's when we went viral and we became the best-selling vegetable broth on Amazon. And right after that, we decided to go out to retail and start to, you know, expand into retail.

I'm just so in love with this whole concept and with you. I wish I could have met Lori. Okay. I grew up in the logo merchandise business, the promotional products. I absolutely could see this with a cup, right? So like, just like you have your sloth cup and you're probably selling your cup with a— but why couldn't I, with my logo on it, sell it too? So if you ever want an introduction into the promotional products association industry or the advertising specialty industry, I'm happy to align you with the right people. Uh, that would be where the suppliers would actually purchase it and like package it together with the customer.

That would be awesome. It's perfect for gift baskets. For, you know, get well kits, uh, colonoscopy, uh, you know, gifts.

I love it. Okay. The other thing is, and I'm not sure if this still— I did work for the American Cancer Society, and at one point, this was pre-COVID, they had like partners on their website so you could call, kind of share that information, and then, you know, they're not like selling it for you, but they want to help their clients. Who actually do suffer from nausea would love something like this. So have you thought of that or contacted the ACS?

Well, we, you know, we're actually working with some hospitals and some hospital systems. So, you know, hopefully we'll cover, you know, the same kind of demographic with that, but I haven't reached out to them. But, you know, imagine if you're recovering in the hospital or you're going through some kind of treatment, instead of the, you know, the, the terrible salt water they give you as, as broth, you were able to make, you know, a fresh cup of Thai lemongrass broth. Imagine how, how much better it would make you feel in your recovery.

Amazing, amazing. I actually do recall there was a point of time where there was a promo company that was doing like the soup and the mug together. The problem was it was so heavy. The soup was about a pound And the mug was— so now you've got 2 pounds that you're shipping, and this is before the shipping has gone so sky up. So another thing is that's lightweight, so it doesn't— it's not going to add anything to your, to your shipping weight. I am in love with this. I'm so glad that, you know, I wasn't feeling good, but then I took this. So I said, no, I want to, I want to meet Lance. And I'm so glad because I— so I'm here in Daytona Beach, so you tell me how— what I could do to help you. Um, I could definitely see the, uh, the the nutritional stores. Like, we don't have a Whole Foods here, or we don't have— we have like, um, family-owned, like, love, like, different stores, but they're not a name brand.

So just those are the best. I'll tell you, the specialty stores, they love our stuff. Um, and the people that shop there are not necessarily the same people that shop, let's say, at a Walmart or a Kroger or something like that. Um, So, you know, just letting them know about us. And I'll tell you, I think what we've learned also— I mean, we're here in Seattle, right? Um, we created a product that is consumed all over the country. It's not just a regional thing. But what we didn't realize is that in the Southwest, in the Southeast, broth was a big deal during the Depression and has really, um, uh, been part of the, the culture in the Southeast, you know, during the Depression, the people would take all their leftovers, put them on, put them in a pot, let them, you know, boil. They didn't leave anything to, to waste. And so we hear time and again how people, their grandmothers, great-grandmothers, you know, grew up with, with broth. They gave them, um, you know, made them feel better, or it was just part of, you know, the meal, you know, for, for the week. So we, you know, we just appreciate being, I just appreciate being on your show and talking to you and getting the word out about what we're doing and, and kind of having people think about this, you know, in their break room, you know, traveling with them, or just, you know, instead of coffee or tea in the afternoon where, you know, that's just not going to, you know, make it work for them. So, you know, we just appreciate that.

I love this. I cannot even tell you. So, okay, so the Thai lemongrass, is that kind of like a creamy— like, because I think a Thai, I think of like the coconut milk.

So this is— they're all clear, all the broths are clear. So the, the lemongrass one is kind of like a savory citrusy flavor, and it's really, really nice. There's, there's no, you know, peppers or anything like that. The pho is more complicated, but it's got a little kick to it. So if you like a little spice, that one's really, really good too. The tomato basil, very, you know, uh, very straightforward. It's tomato and basil. Um, that one, you know, is kind of a crowd pleaser. And then the spicy tortilla, it tastes like taco soup. It's really, really— yeah, it's really, really good. Um, and again, you can, you can, you can rip these bags open and use them as spice packets. So, you know, you can put— you can sprinkle this on your sandwich, you can put it in noodles, you can put it on eggs, you know, if you're grilling meats. We have all kinds of recipes on our website that go through different— some of them are crazy. We're doing— I just ordered from Amazon some edible glitter. We're going to be doing some glitter-infused broth videos later today.

Oh, crazy stuff.

Crazy stuff. You know, but it's all just fun. You know, it's all fun.

I, I love it. By the way, you are just such a likable person. It's just, it's amazing. Okay. I would say for the tomato basil, would I be correct in thinking I could whip myself up a quick grilled cheese and have a cup of tomato basil broth?

Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. You're going to, yeah. It's a clear, it's a clear broth. So It's not like, you know, Campbell's Soup. It's not like a condensed soup kind of thing where it's, you know, thick. It's very— it's, you know, it's a broth, but, uh, you know, you're— it's only 10 calories. You know, you're, you're— and it's, uh, one— it's like 75% less sodium than a bouillon cube. So you're, you know, it's a little bit easier. And, you know, even if you drink it in the afternoon, maybe without the grilled cheese, if you're going to drink it instead of, you know, grabbing a bag of Cheetos, that savoriness really helps you kind of diffuse your snacking urge. And that's what we found out. It's not, you know, Lori, she, she wanted it to have as a snack, but what we found out is that people, they're looking for ways to like, you know, get rid of that snacking urge that they don't want to go after the, you know, the bad stuff. And so that's what this really, really does is that, that flavor, the savoriness is just enough to make you feel like you had something and it gets you in between meals.

I love it. I love it. And I keep thinking of the bullion cubes and how bad they are and how— and, and just peeling them off. And if they got a little bit of wet or someone put something, like, it got sticky. I don't even know if they sell it anymore. And I don't know— bullion, bullion, bullion— for all you, like, younger kids who are like, bullion, what is— is that a— is that a Bitcoin? What could that be, right? Like, they wouldn't know because it wasn't— it was nothing good about it, like, to me. I'm sorry, but like If my mom said, do you want it? I was like, oh no, thank you, I'd rather just drink the, uh, the, the whatever, the juices of something. All right, I am loving you, I'm loving this. Well, everyone, everyone, can we get— buy this on Amazon?

Absolutely, you can buy it on Amazon. And one, one of the points I want to make out is, you know, you were talking about that, that bouillon. Anything that disappears after you add hot water to it is not real. Um, we use real herbs, vegetables, and seasoning, so it's all dehydrated. That's why it's in a tea bag. So if you rip open the tea bag after you've poured the water in it, you could eat it. You could eat all of that stuff because it's real. Anything like any of that other bouillon, it disappears because it's not real. It's just sprayed dextrose. It's not real. So ours is all real, just real ingredients.

Yeah, go ahead. No, I was gonna ask you about the mug and how much is the mug and what do you get with it, like a box of the bouillon?

I mean, well, the box that we haven't You know what, we're just about to release the mug. Um, it's coming very shortly. We just today released something very special called a broth robe, which is a blanket robe that you wear when you're drinking broth. And we have a very limited quantity of those. And then the mug's going to come out, uh, next. And we're going to do all kinds of fun stuff with the broth sloth because, um, You know, people love him.

Oh, I love that you're doing limited editions. That's brilliant marketing too, to have that. And actually, you know, it's funny, just growing up in the logo merchandise business, you know, Kentucky Fried Chicken had at one point like, you know, clothing where you could have like the fried chicken on it, sneakers, Taco Bell. So it's so smart. And then when you say limited, are we talking like a couple hundred?

Very limited, very limited, very limited.

Oh, we have to get that. Everyone, I want you to go.

I want to— I hope I hope it sells out very quickly. We just literally, we just sent an email out right before I started talking to you, so it may be, they may be sold out by the end of the day. I don't know.

Oh my God, with your fans, I am a new fan. I can't wait to get it. All right everyone, if you can't travel or whatever, just go to Amazon, order it, and then let's come back and tell me what you think so that we can have a little fun with this. I am so excited, Lance. I think that we will get this out for next week. I'm pretty sure that I could, um, have I have, I am a podcast producer and I have a podcast producer, so weird, but, uh, that's how you do it. I absolutely, whatever I could do to help you, please reach out because I love what you're doing. I can't wait to order it. I should have it tomorrow because Amazon's so fast. And, uh, and by the way, that's tricky. That is really tricky. You could just write a book about your getting into Amazon. That wasn't an easy feat, was it?

Still, it's still tricky. I mean, Amazon changes things almost on a daily basis, and, um, you think you're, you think you're on top of it, and then all of a sudden you're not, and it changes things. Um, so yeah, we're— let's put it this way, there are daily challenges, and, uh, sometimes, sometimes you feel up, sometimes you're not feeling so great. I gotta tell you, today talking to you makes me feel fantastic because You know, we had a couple of challenges pop up in the last 2 days. And but, you know, the fact that people are still excited about what we're doing and, and it's innovative, you know, makes, makes, makes it all worth it.

Yeah. Keep right down all of your challenges so you have them in a book. And obviously you should probably have a book just because I love the story and it's a great story. I'm glad that you are available for podcasts. So my podcast friends, Talk to me and I'll get you Lance's name so that he can be on your show too, because we need to share this with the world. I love it. And I love— I know that you don't have the broth for the dogs, but I love the fact that even that bone broth seemed to come out in the past 4 years. So just that term broth has made, uh, like a new— I can't even think of my words because of my cold, but a new category.

I mean, you know, with us, we actually created a Bone broth is literally, you know, just, um, broth with collagen in it. There's no— they say there's protein in it, but there's no— there aren't complete proteins in it. So it's not like you could supplement that with, you know, with instead of eating steak or something. But what we've done is created a sipping broth, which is a whole new category, and the retailers like it because we're not cannibalizing any of their other sales. It's all incremental revenue for them. And so, yeah, it's a category. This is basically what you're saying.

Amazing. Yeah, trying to say. And is there like a patent on this? Do you— how do you protect yourself?

We do have a patent pending on, on, you know, parts of this. And it is very special. We've had a couple of companies try to compete with us on, you know, on a couple of these things. And it's very difficult to make. And luckily we figured that out early, early on. But, you know, listen, if no one else tried to compete with us, then we would, you know, there would be no market. We didn't think we were onto a good thing. Lori always says, why are they doing that? You know, what's going on with them? And I always say, look, it's a form of flattery. I mean, if they're trying to copy us, if they're trying to copy not only our flavors, but literally copying and pasting, you know, off our website, what we're saying, It's flattery. It's okay.

It's beautiful. My dad coined the phrase, buy American, America's a good buy. If I'm correct, and correct me if I'm wrong, is this all American products?

All American. Yeah, all American. We, we actually won a Gold Sophie Award at the Fancy Food Show in New York for Outstanding Hot Beverage of the Year for this product. And everything is made in the United States. The reason we got into Walmart was because we were invited to be part of something called a Walmart Open Call, which is for United— products made in the United States that, you know, want to present themselves to Walmart. So absolutely everything is made here.

I love this. So my listeners out there, all one of you, please make sure that you place the order. And how best though, I'm really curious about this, do you want us to order on Amazon? Do you want us to order on your website? Like what Does it even matter?

I want it to be convenient for you. We would appreciate orders on our website. As you can imagine, that, you know, it costs less. Amazon does take a fee, but if it's more convenient for you, you know, we want you to go to Amazon. We want you to go into the store in Walmart. We want you to get it wherever you want to get it, and we want to— we want you to keep buying it. That's the most important thing. You know, we want you to implement this in part of your routine, um, and, uh, we'll— if you show us love, we'll show you love.

Oh, I, I absolutely love that. And tag. So you are— so let's talk about your socials right now. So Facebook? At—

yes, we're on every platform at Sipping Broths, plural, with an S. So Sipping Broth with an S at the and Sipping Broths. We're on every social, so, uh, we would love to see you do what we call it a mug shot. So show us your mug with Millie's, um, show us your mug with your, you know, your mug with your mug, uh, drinking Millie's, um, or just take a picture of your favorite mug with Millie's, um, but yeah, show us your mug shot. We call it a Millie's mug shot, and, um, we love sharing it with everybody.

Do I have it right here? Sipping Broths?

You do, you do.

Okay everyone, right now let's do it. Get on there, let's do it. And after you try it, give that 5-star review. Let's help Lance and Lori. Lori and Lance, I love it. What's your dog's name?

Bing. Oh, oh, he's the chief dog officer of our company.

Yes, yes, yes. When he barks, everyone listens. I love that. Oh yes. Thank you so much, Lance, for being with me today. I am so excited to spread the word and to just share this. So I love it, I love it, I love it. You know I'll be doing a picture with myself and the sipping broth. So, um, all right, so the blankets— what? Oh, I'm not on your email.

So it's a broth robe. Yeah, so if you have to go to our website, yeah, broth robe, and select all products, you'll see it there. It may be sold out by today, I don't know. We'll, we'll see.

I gotta go, I gotta do it now, I gotta go, I gotta go. All right. I'm serious. I want to go. Okay. Thank you so much for being brave, bold, beautiful. And bald. No, I'm just kidding.

Thank you.

Thank you. Yes.

Thank you, Adrienne. It's been, it's been amazing. You've been a highlight of my day. Absolutely.

You've been the highlight of mine. I mean, I literally don't feel good and I'm like smiling here. Nobody would know. Oh my gosh. Thank you so much. Wait, wait. One more thing. What is Laurie? What can you, can you share what she's doing for volunteer work?

Yeah. So, so she helps at the Boys and Girls Club. My youngest son, works there, and so she goes in once a week and helps in his class. And does— she's an artist, so she loves doing art projects with the kids. And today she's doing something with oobleck, you know, the stuff where you— it's like a moldy kind of colorful stuff, and They're, they're doing that project today. So, oh, there's, there's Bing.

I love the sound. This is also good for children that may have like, can't have sugar, can't have caffeine, that you could give them something warm. So I love that too. Oh my gosh, I am in love with this product. All right, I'll let you go. Thank you. Tell Lori she's a hero. I love it. Both of you are amazing. Have a great rest of the day. I gotta go because I gotta get on your website and order that blanket. I'm not kidding around.