From Dietitian to Entrepreneur: The Kul Mocks Journey

Good morning, everybody. We're here. I think we're a little late. I apologize. Happy Saturday. We got our good friend Danielle Goss here today on Drink Up Live. Hello, Danielle. We're so, so excited that you joined Adam, my co-host here on Drink Up, and we're looking forward to learning about you, your journey. And you're talking about the 30 Days of Dry January, so we can certainly talk about that, but I'd love you to want to introduce yourself, tell a little bit about yourself, who you are, and what it is you're trying to accomplish in the NA space. So welcome, Danielle.

Thank you. Thanks for having me, and good to see you, Sam and Adam. I guess a little bit about me. I'm Danielle. I'm a mom of three that lives in a relatively small town in. Wisconsin. My LinkedIn profile says like Minneapolis Twin Cities, but that's because no one knows where River Falls, Wisconsin is. And, you know, I finished my college degree. I went and did my internship program at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. I graduated with a degree in dietetics. My internship was basically the bridge to becoming a registered dietitian. You I was able to pass through the program and then I finished my boards. So becoming a registered dietitian, I guess my mission as career goals would be to just help people live their best lives. And so there's been a bit of a journey in terms of, you know, what that was going to look like for me as I got started. At first it was, you know, working in you know, more traditional RD roles. I was at Lifetime Fitness. I then worked in more of like the corporate dining setting under the Compass Group umbrella as a general manager and senior wellness coordinator out of Blue Cross Blue Shield in Minnesota's corporate campus. You know, just in those experiences, you know, my drive to want to help people live their best lives just, you know, kind of evolved. I learned, like a lot of people do, right, fresh out of college, like, what the heck do I really want this to all turn into? And, you know, I've always just had that entrepreneurial spirit of wanting to do something on my own. And so as I was in that corporate dietitian role, I started a wellness consulting business called Driven Wellness back in 2016, I believe. Tried that out, basically doing it after I got done with work for about 6 months, right? Like, what's this all about? You know, would finish my job, go over to another employer's, do, you know, wellness coaching sessions, like fun health things, cooking events, etc. I did it for 6 months and I was like, I'm going to go all in. This is what I want to do. So, I left that job. I, you know, became self-employed and I really just ran with that business for about 4 or 5 years. And, you know, in that time I got engaged, I got married to my now husband, Nate Goss. And in the spring of 2019, we found out we were expecting our first child. And like many people, a very special time in your lives. We're in the Midwest. It's a very social, drinking culture filled place, right? And I didn't want alcohol, but I wanted something that was fun and social that I could enjoy. That also wasn't filled with sugar, filled with calories, but that you know truly fit the bill for being alcohol free. At the time, you know there was O'Doul's on the shelf, a splash of Athletic Brewing Company, and you know just nothing that I wanted. So that summer I crafted my own mocktails from my kitchen. You know continued to dig in and do a lot of market research. Learned about what was happening over in the UK in terms of the adult non-alcohol bev. growth really and was convinced enough to know that it was a lot more than just pregnant women looking for great-tasting NA drinks. So, at 7 months pregnant that fall, we jumped in, started building the Coolmox brand. We welcomed our first little girl in December of 2020.

There's a trend, by the way, because you have 3 kids and you started this journey pregnant. And then, I mean, a nutritionist, Life Time, Mayo Clinic. Yeah, I'm pregnant now and I want to get something for— so, there's something there. I think you've shared it. So, there are pregnant women looking for an alternative, right? Is that— there's a little bit of that or not?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, that is the genesis of the story, right? But ultimately, what was convincing and the threshold for us to say this is something we're going to bet on and go all in on is that it was so much more. You know, we looked at my initial pitch decks, all the research and data backing up why we were doing what we were doing was looking at the like growth statements of NA beverage across all the big conglomerates in the industry, right? Everybody from AB InBev to Heineken, they all had a goal of growing their NA portfolios. And that Combined with what we were seeing happen over in the UK, it just, you know, it was a no-brainer, right? And for us, it was convincing enough, like I said, to jump in and I guess, or be crazy enough to do it while I, you know, was in my third trimester of my pregnancy.

Jumped into this industry, this industry, and can you share the story, like how you got started, like who you contacted, who gave you information? I think I know the individual, one of the individuals. And then also, I mean, probably a question, Adam, probably talk about like, you know, you shared with me how you kind of pieced this whole thing together. Like you learned the whole, from soup to nuts, operations all the way through sales, the whole bit. You literally knew how to test it, build it. And you're, I believe you're in the scaling phase now of your company, but can you just kind of share like, how did you like, so yeah, I know you went out there and built it, but who helped you?

Yeah, I mean, the short answer is so many, so many people, so many vendor partners, strategic connections. I learn something new every day, still being, you know, over 5 years into building this brand. And for us to really dilute it into the simplest, like, what was the first switch was my husband and I were at our family cabin and we had gotten to this conclusion of we need to like take the first step. So he went to work and I went to work on my laptop and was like, what do I need to do? And I set up a meeting with BevSource, which Adam and I do have synergy there with BevSource. And that, that was a very important initial partnership for us in our business, for us to be able to get the brand not only built but off the ground in terms of the liquid in the can and bringing the brand to life. Because as you said, Sam, I mean, yes, I know a lot today. I know every single piece of our operations, but that when you have zero experience in this industry, that is, you know, it is a lot, right? So there is a reason why these, you know, amazing organizations exist. I think that, you know, your perspective on all of that changes as you grow as a business. And, you know, that's Really how we got started.

Yeah, I bring your name up when I talk to founders and they're starting. I'm like, you should call Danielle. I hope that's okay.

As long as it doesn't go through my spam filter, you know, like we were talking about earlier.

You should call Danielle because she knows what she's doing. If you're really gonna, you're serious about it. Because I think there's, it's interesting. I was talking to someone the other day in the cannabis industry and the NA space. It seems like all the founders in this particular space really genuinely want to help one another.

Yeah. I mean, I, I can't speak to the cannabis space in general because I just don't talk with those founders. Not because I don't want to, it's just we don't really mingle in the same spaces. But, um, I think Marcos and what he's built with the Adult Non-Alcoholic Beverage Association, like from, I guess, what was that, 2021 when he pulled that all together with the founding members? Uh, of the association. Like just that piece alone offered a funnel for brands like Coolmox to be able to come together with a similar proposition in terms of what we wanted to bring to the world. Maybe all the brands' missions in terms of like what a, how they can connect with consumers and who their target audience is might differ. But I think that collective effort offered a great environment for us to have really cool conversations. Like, you know, if I could give one quick example, and I think you're exactly right, like everybody, it's like a raising tides type of scenario, helping each other out. But I was lucky enough to get into a pitch competition at the California CGA Strategic Conference. And Pauline from Mocktail Club was also in that event. And It like came down to the like nitty-gritty of pitching and we were just about to do it.

Pauline were going head to head.

Yeah. Yeah. But at the same time they were like, okay, well, it would probably be nice if you had someone helping you pour the beverages for the judges. And we looked at each other and we were like, well, we can do this for each other, you know? And it was just, it's little things like that. Everything from that to trade shows. Covering each other's booths. I mean, yes, at the end of the day, we're all putting number one first. Like, I, if someone tells you they're not, like, they're just lying to you because we all have a business to grow. We're putting number one first. But I think collectively we all have a goal and maybe there's a small percentage that feels differently, but we want to, at Cool Mock specifically, help everyone feel part of that social drinking experience. That's our mission to our core, being a part of that adult beverage ecosystem as a non-alcoholic beverage offering is, you know, I think what a lot of us non-alcoholic brands have.

Yeah.

I had the privilege of meeting Marco too. So my friend Megan Costner Anderson, a dear friend, and she was kind enough to get me to, I think it was when you were on the call, it was like a NICIQ call or something and I participated. And so definitely those of you out there, if you're not part of that organization, you should be. That's a good place to start. Heck, I was watching TV one night and the guy was on TED Talk. Do you know he's on TED Talk? That Marco gave a TED Talk?

I'm not surprised. You know, he has a solid track record beyond just the ANBA.

Right, right. But this is not about him. I obviously go off on tangents the whole bit. Can you bring your product up or do you have anything you want to share? You can share the screen tour, just share, you know, like a little bit about Cool Mox, what it is.

Yeah.

Where can you get it? The whole bit, or just, you know, talk about it a little bit.

Sure.

I mean, I'm happy to bring up some slides, but let's just talk about it here because it's simple and easy. So here is an example of one of our products. It's a little bit shiny there, but our brand is Cool Mocks Craft Mocktails. We are a ready-to-drink craft mocktail brand infused with spirit notes to give that classic cocktail experience. Our blackberry lime mojito that I'm holding here has rum flavor infusion with garden fresh mint. lime. Um, and in our recent innovation, we added coconut water to all of our recipes. Um, so really, it's, it's, uh, brought now our line of all 6 craft mocktails down to 3 grams of sugar and only 20 to 25—

Why coconut water? The health benefit of it, or the electrolytes, or what's going on there?

Yeah, you know, there are a few reasons that really drove that. So if you think about when our brand launched, it was in 2020, like I said before, the category was practically existing. And at that time, our focus was still very much better for you. But the mocktails that were on bar menus, or, you know, not on them and just served to you, were 50 grams of sugar, like total sugar bombs, 300 calories. Nobody wants that. So for us, in our market research at the time, having full flavor, 10 grams or less of sugar, 50 calories or less. Those are the parameters we set. And we, you know, we're really bullish on sticking in that category because our core customer was someone who, you know, was very wellness-focused. And, you know, as the category has grown and as we've matured as a brand, we've had the opportunity to talk with our customers more, hear their feedback, and really focus on betterment in a number of ways, from the liquid in the cans to the packaging and design. So when it comes to the coconut water, addition. A lot of that is fueled by it gave us the ability to pull back the amount of cane sugar we used, but still allowing that full flavor sweetness in our beverages. So when we added the coconut water, we pulled back our cane sugar. Now we only have 3 grams of sugar in our beverages because of that. And then also because most of our consumers still drink alcohol or they just, you know, care about their health and wellbeing, Having that nice electrolyte coconut water piece of it, whether they're, you know, pacing themselves deeper straight.

So is Coolmox, are people putting alcohol in Coolmox? Are you behaving as a mixer and a product or what's your—

That's a good question. We don't market it that way. They're made to be, you know, enjoyed straight from the can or over ice, but we are a Wisconsin-based brand. That question is not unfamiliar to us and we've tried it ourselves and I think it was actually a really important piece to the formulation in all of our recipes is can we make sure it still tastes great if you add a shot of rum to the mojito? Because some people are having an alcoholic beverage and then a non-alc. So there is that flexibility, but we've learned that our customer is, you know, we gotta give them credit. People are smart. They'll add it if they want. And if they pick up a 4-pack, they can have that flexibility.

Man, for a diabetic, by the way, cuz my wife has diabetes too, right? So for a diabetic, and then also insulin levels can spike, right, depending what you drink or eat, uh, this is a great alternative based on the sugar levels, calorie count. Yeah, I mean, it's crazy, right? That's a really— that's a— it's an alternative for them, correct? Low sugar, low calorie for folks.

Yeah, it's, it's, uh, it's definitely for us in our brand journey, it's, it's the best option we put on the market yet. I see Adam's grinning. I'm sure he has plenty of, uh—

He's the thinker. There's questions coming, by the way, so he— let me Like, and his eyes go up and he's thinking like, okay, what's the next question?

Well, um, so 2 things before I ask it, because you're right, I do. But I remember, was it Tyler Goodrich, Danielle?

No.

Damn it.

Okay, I'm gonna— that's gonna bug me all day.

It's gonna bug me too.

I bet about a person they know and they've forgotten, right? Need to drink some Cool Mox to wake up the mind, because Cool Mox does wake up your mind, right?

You know, So there was that. And then Sam made the comment about, you know, you've, you started with one kid. The number of children you have has obviously increased. The brand has grown. Well, I had to laugh because I'm like, okay, 10 years down the road, you have 10 children and the brand is 10 times larger, right? Like with every kid, the brand grows, right?

Now it totally makes sense.

It's like, it's like baseball players. They don't cut their hair when they're on a win streak. You got to just keep having children. It seems to be working. Right?

We get to be uncles then, right? You're gonna let us adopt some of your kids?

That was the thought I had. I was like, if she's superstitious, she has to keep having kids.

Okay. Yeah, I appreciate you bringing that up.

Where's her husband in this?

He might want to come along. No, I am done. We are done having children. I'm very blessed that we have 3, but you have no idea how excited I am to Have a full year of business not being pregnant.

Oh, I can only imagine.

While doing this.

I can only imagine. Well, and so my, my, you know, my question based on what you were just talking about, you know, funny, funny prefaces aside, I talked to a lot of brands who— I talked to a group yesterday who they have their, their kind of core 4, you know, initial products. And not everyone does this, but it happens often enough that it's worth asking. Because I really want to hear your take on this as someone who has stayed true to their core product and found success. But I talked to so many brand owners who are like, oh, I have my core 4 products. And then in a year, 6 months, 18 months, a really short timeline, they're like, oh, and I want to expand into adding caffeine, adding THC, adding whatever. And I'm going, every time I'm going, that's fine. And we can talk about that and I can help you through that. Or there's groups like BevSource. But also, no one knows who you are. So you're going to dilute the message from jump. It just doesn't make sense to me. Right. And so I'm curious, like, you have done a great job, it would seem from an outsider's perspective, of staying true to the message of the brand, of staying true to the value of the brand, but still expanding and scaling. And I'm sure you have to have gotten people going, oh, you should do this, you should do that. And how do you and your husband and your team push those voices aside and stay true to who you are? Because obviously it's been successful.

I think those are all really good questions and there's, there's a lot to share back. I think the very top of the list response for me is if you are set on being in this business and growing it to Stay alive. Like if I'm really being straight up with you, you need to chill on the SKU proliferation and focus on your core products. And because cash flow is king. And I mean, I'm coming from the perspective of we're not VC backed. I don't have huge funding. You know, that is my story. So I think there are other layers to the conversation that maybe just I don't have experience from. But we've always stuck with that. Core customer that has not wavered since the very beginning. So that's allowed us to stay within our lanes. I think, you know, yes, we now have 6 craft mocktails and we leaned into variety packs, which, you know, made sense because of the new category and offering up opportunity for engaging trial. But I would just, you know, I would really make sure, and this goes for any decision, you make in business. You need to make sure you're maybe talking with some seasoned people in the industry or have some advisors in your corner so you can make educated decisions on when you're really thinking about doing that. Because although it may seem like, oh yeah, we can spend a few months or 6 months or however long to figure out what a new SKU could be, that decision is so much more than just Coming up with an amazing new product. And I'm sure there are so many amazing new products. And to your point, of course we've heard them all. Imagine the amount of mocktails that we could, we could crush out into our portfolio of, of cool mocks. I, I see that, you know, there's opportunity for that down the road. But yeah, you've, you've gotta learn the data too. Like what's selling, what are your home run products? And there's just a lot more to that. But the financial piece stands out to me more than anything in that.

I lived it, as you know, and I won't say the name out of respect, but I was with a brand, an NA beer, and great story, great taglines, as you know, Danielle. But when the customer would come to pick up the order, they couldn't fill it.

Yeah. Well, I think that's, you know, and this leads me to question B, which, you know, you gave me a great lead-in for, Danielle, is, Some of the brands I talked to, you know, you mentioned VC-backed or investment-backed, right? Like the cautionary tale that I always give brands is, you know, if you go out and get, you may be the greatest salesperson in the world and you may be able to go get $3 million of investment in the first 6 months. But if you go get $3 million, you're going to find a way to spend $3 million. You shouldn't. You have no business spending that much money that quickly. Right. But you're gonna do it if you have it, right? Whereas if you stay, I mean, I've got a gentleman I'm working with now whose initial kind of friends and family round, he was able to drum up like $100 grand. And I'm thinking, perfect.

That's great.

Be creative with that and you will go immensely farther. So I'm curious for you, the question that comes from that is, you know, and Sam asked kind of where you started and obviously there's the BevSource piece, but Kind of, you know, and I know it's a long answer, so shorten it as needed, but if you wouldn't mind talking us through how were you able to be kind of iterative and start small and kind of grow incrementally from there? Meaning, for example, things like, you know, how big was your first run? How long was it from the first run to the second run? Things like that, that people think, oh, I have to be producing monthly. No, you don't. Right?

Can I answer one thing though? Because I have to share a story when I met Danielle and Danielle, you'll appreciate this. We were talking about this last night. The first time I met Danielle, we were doing a virtual call, right? And she asked me a question, you know, because I'm like, wow, this is like, this is blowing up, this huge brand. And I don't know, it's like, has this been almost 2 years? It's been a while, but I've known you for at least 24 months or so. But anyway, she goes, how many people do you think I have on my team? And there's like this little grin. I said, 20. She goes, 1. So, that's one thing I think she's done very well, that she built this business, right?

That she didn't spend all that cash.

So she was very frugal about how she approached it. I'm sorry, Danielle, I'm answering some of your questions, but that's not about the operations. But that enabled you to do a lot more. Is that correct? Because I was really impressed with that because so many people end up hiring a CEO, CFO, they hire all these people and all their cash is gone overnight.

Yeah, I think the answer is probably it depends in that it's situational. For us in our situation, you know, I, Adam, you were talking about like the frequency and production runs and like what, what those expectations need to be. I think the, the pivotal point in our business, and this is part of, I guess you start to learn, you, you get in the thick of it and you're like, okay, wow. Right? Like constantly learning all the time.

Yeah.

But the biggest, I guess, pivot and best part of our journey, like really taking off, like, and, and we have never moved backwards in our business. So that's, that's great. And I'm—

Congratulations. That's awesome.

Absolutely. Congratulations. Yeah.

But because of making the right connections, finding the right advisors, and ultimately there were a number of steps that happened Like it's this network of advisors and people that I was able, you know, to meet along the way. Now, one of our investors who happens to be on our board, she, her name is Tara Johnson. She was the founder of Tara's Way. She is incredible. You know, just brings this incredible knowledge into understanding your numbers and building out pro formas and really dialing in your cost of goods.

Sure.

And I mean all of this with the best intentions to each vendor partner and person we've worked with along the way, because I think there's a time and place for each of those. For us, as we got started with BevSource, we couldn't— like, I didn't know any of those things to start with. So I'm very grateful that we had them during that time we got started, right, with the business. One of the downfalls, I guess, is in As we started to grow, was if you have a third party involved, it it gives you a little bit of blinders in terms of full transparency into your business, and just at least having all the levers in your hands, right? You're not working through people, blah blah blah. So when I started working with a number of key advisors, including Tara. It allowed me to look at our business differently. Quite frankly, understand how our cost of goods were on a consistent basis. I mean, I had so much to learn, like we just needed to be better, right? Like, and, and if you want to stay alive in this business, cash flow is king. So there was this like culmination of all these factors that Just under a couple years in, like these conversations had to happen. And then ultimately there was you know a lot of learning. But from that we were I was able to dive in, learn a lot, and because of that we you know made new co-manufacturing partnerships. I built out direct relationships with pretty much anyone and everyone I talked to. Started like Sam said picking up the phone more than I ever had, and you know. As soon as you can get to that point where your brand is, I guess at the same time our brand was performing, continuing to perform right as the category was evolving. And then I'm in a situation where I'm like, okay, I don't know all of the strategic part of how to build this brand, but I've got these amazing advisors. I have someone on my board as a fractional CFO helping me build out this path to success. If, you know, what we believe to be true in our projections can happen. And over the last 2 to 3 years now, we've done exactly that. Last year, I guess, as we finished 2023, although it was, you know, another celebratory growth year for the brand, my biggest achievement was our improvement in our cost of goods That took so much hard work. And in the last 4 and a half years, we have been with 7 co-manufacturers. So this is a learning journey. And with, you know, with going from having zero education as like a dietitian jumping into CPG, I think having that, you know, person with the financial lens who's been there, done that, built a CPG brand. And also had a successful exit along with other advisors. That was a game changer for me. And like, I, I, to this day—

Do you have someone that manages operations for you? Are you doing that? Sales, marketing? Are you doing everything across the board with your advisors?

I, I still do it all, Sam. I, I cringe because, you know, Adam said earlier, what did you say, Adam? Something about all the different roles that are important in a business. I, I, I'm in a really cool spot now where we have budgeted for certain roles in 2025. Now I'm trying to create space to actually figure out how to hire these people. So I know I'm doing some of that to myself. Like as I was, obviously I told you I was sick the other day. I'm like trying to arrange freight while I'm going like, oh man, it was just a rough day. Um, being sick with the flu and trying to schedule shipments when it's going to freeze in 2 days.

Well, you gotta invest and get the right people on your team. If you're gonna actually scale the business, I mean, that's just the reality. You as the founder have to make those decisions, but you're at a critical juncture in your business, right? You're blowing up. You're in 48 states because of the relationship with Walmart. You just got into Publix down in Florida. I mean, it seems like everywhere I see on the internet, it's like Coolmox is everywhere. So congratulations on that. But one person at some point, as you scale it, you do have to make those decisions. So I'm happy to hear you have you budgeted. For some opportunities.

Yeah. And just over a year ago, we welcomed— I mean, we have beer distributors in the Midwest, and I just knew that there's so much more that could be done because I just, I wasn't doing as much. I just couldn't, right? Like, a part of it as a beverage startup owner, I feel like, is admitting you can't do all the things. And I'm constantly trying to tell myself, because we've been so scrappy of like, figure it out, everything's figureoutable. But at some point it's like, no, you need to hire someone and get help.

Well, to that end, Danielle, and I hate to cut you off, but I'm curious. You mentioned, I'm going to draw a connection here and you tell me if I'm making shit up or if this is real. You mentioned being a dietitian and having that as your background and coming in and not knowing beverage. And kind of being 2 separate worlds. But I have to think, and you see it all the time online or in the health and fitness community if you want to call it that, if you want to look at it through that lens of the— when people are looking to get healthy, there's no magic pill. It's just simple things done consistently over a long enough time period, generally speaking. I have to imagine, but again, you tell me if I'm wrong, that, that sort of ethos or knowing that as a dietitian helped you in having the right attitude toward building a brand, right? Like there's no one co-packer that's going to make all your problems go away. There's no one way of producing it that's going to suddenly make the work not have to get done, right? Like it's just simple things done consistently working with the right people. Does that, does that make sense?

Oh yeah. I think that's an interesting like line to draw. I think, I think I'm sure there's, I'm sure there's a connection there. I think that is true probably in building any business that you have to be willing to put in the reps even on the hard days. And I mean, I had, I've had 3 kids throughout building this brand in the last 4 and a half, 5 years. And there have been a lot of really hard days. Like I, I won't sugarcoat it. Um, and, and knowing that I've said in my, in my words to my husband, I'm just putting in the reps on the really hard days. And that's, that's what you have to be willing to do, you know? And, and I'm, I'm speaking from like 4 or 5 years in, right? Like I'm not, I'm not somebody at this hyper massive company, right? But I'm just on the journey and this is what I've gotten to be right here, but especially as someone who's been building a family while building, uh, this company, there, there have been a lot of really challenging days. And I think entrepreneurship in general is like navigating the roller coaster of—

Man, you're my beacon. I told you that, right? Because I've been doing this for 24 months, so I'm really new at it. I have no, you know, it's funny, everybody asks me, well, how do you know what to do? I said, I have no idea what I'm doing, but the key is you gotta start and do it. You just got to jump in. Yeah. Now, you know, you know, obviously you have to plan and work your plan and do those things. But I literally just jumped in here into this world, right? And I had our friend Jackie say, hey, do you want to be part of this brand and purchase it? And, you know, I talked about that. I'm like, I don't know if I want to go down that path or not because I'd have to call you and Adam because I have no idea where to start in that world, right? I'm a sales and marketing guy. I'm like, I know how to go call on Kroger and And go call a distributor and lay out a plan. But when you talk about like brand development and operations and all that, but Danielle, you're my beacon because this motto is, if Danielle can do it, I can do it. So thank you for that. I mean, it's just, it's just so, it's so refreshing. So tell me a little bit about your first hire. I just, this is just bright light.

Yeah, I'd love to talk about her. She is probably just hitting Madison, Wisconsin right now. You know, we're still in the thick of dry January, right? We've got an event in Madison and in Chicago today. Um, I ironically, I met— I, I posted a Midwest market manager position on LinkedIn. In 2 days I had over 200 applicants. And then on the 3rd day I met Jenny in Vegas. Very like interesting. Random?

Like a random, like, wow.

It's, uh, it wasn't random necessarily. But we, we were on a 40th birthday party trip and she happened to be on the trip. So she's from where I'm from pretty much. We always say it's, you know, when people ask like, oh, where'd you find Jenny? And I say, I found her in Vegas.

That's where I got married, by the way. So that's a good place.

Oh really? There we go. You know, because of the way we've operated since we started, it's always been very much like That mindset of everything's figureoutable, scrappy type mindset. We just happened to be on the trip and her husband was like, "Oh man, you've got to talk to my wife. I bet she would love this." And we talked, and I guess a couple weeks after that, you know, I definitely interviewed people that had a lot more experience that could have, you know, probably helped in some ways that. I didn't personally even understand yet, right? And just, it just seemed right. You know, I was, I was wanting to hire someone because I was going to be going through, I was pregnant again for the third time. I'm like, I need help. And so she, you know, she just was like, yeah, I don't know a ton about the category. She had worked for a chocolate company prior to, knew a little bit about CPG and she just is The most wonderful addition to the team I could have asked for. She's, she's learning all the time, just like I do myself. And, you know, someone that— like, something as simple as when I was about to have our third child, she was like, hey, you need anything? I'll come over and mow your, mow your grass lawn at your house. You just let me know, I'll be there. You know, like, That is her mindset. And I'm so thankful to have found someone like that to help us grow our brand. And so that is, like I said, I'm planning to, you know, bring more people into the team as we grow here. And those are really the type of people that I'm looking to continue to work with.

She's such a bright light. And I tell you, 70% of your gut's always right. I think I did a post on that, but really, you got to follow your gut. If it feels right, it usually is. You know, good rider indifferent. But she, you know, I got the pleasure of meeting her, and it just, you know, we were trying to do some things at one of the facilities I was helping manage. But she was so wonderful, and I'm glad to hear that you're looking to expand because there's a lot of people out there, Danielle, that are looking for roles that are qualified, you know, that can really help build your business. Like, let's talk about what's what's next for Coolmax? What's next for you? What do you what do you what are we looking for at 225? Obviously, maybe get into the 30 days of dry January. So it's day. number 18. You missed a couple of days, but you called yourself out on it and you caught up, right? So, but yeah, so keep going on that because I, I'm looking for that motivation every day. So thank you for that. But, uh, so what's like, what's, what's next? What's happened in Dry January and what's next? What's in 2025 for the brand?

So Coolmax is— this has been our biggest Dry January yet. I mean, by numbers for the category and for us as a brand, you know, lots of events have Of course, but if we look at the year overall, it's it's going to be our biggest growth year yet. Very much mindful growth in terms of who we're choosing to partner with. I mean, you had mentioned yes, we have presence in 48 states, but that's that's through our our Walmart network and opportunity, and and they've been great to work with. But in terms of true market saturation, we have key markets that we are targeting right now. Of course, like I said, we have our Midwest home market with our beer distributors. And such. But beyond that, you know, Publix chains, other, other chains that are really leaning into this non-alcohol category. We're doing a ton of stuff in Florida right now. We just came off of a huge Miami event. We have a lot of things up our sleeve. It's such a big question. And I gotta be honest too, like I'm still drinking my electrolytes here, Sam, from being sick 2 days ago. So if my brain is like a little bit hazy, you're gonna get it here, but at least I showed up.

Hey, to that end, and, and Sam, that was one of the questions I wanted to ask, but Danielle, I'm, I'm, and Sam said it already, I'm gonna echo his point and beat, you know, beat a dead horse. But every entrepreneur that, that finds success, every entrepreneur period, right? Like we all know the grind, it's all impressive and we're all in inspired by one another. But I think I speak for myself and Sam and everybody that knows you specific to your story of just looking at it and going, holy hell, like managing a marriage, the addition of 3 children, the start of a brand, and in addition to all the other housekeeping things that we all do on a regular basis, making sure the bills are paid, the mortgage, so on and so forth. So like—

She knows how to make taco salad, by the way.

It's truly just this, I mean, mountain is too small of a word of stuff that you just look at, oh, Danielle Goss from Coolmox, you go, oh my God. So, my question with all that is if you had to kind of maybe I'll say top 3 it to put a point on the question, but what are the things that you do to keep yourself level? Obviously, you have a dietitian's background, so it's eating right. Is it gym time? Is it carving out like, hey, come hell or high water, I spend 2 hours with the family every day. Come hell or high water, I journal every day. I do my Like, do you have kind of a top 3 of like, if I do these things, I can keep this all balanced? Does that make sense?

Yeah. Yeah, of course. I, I have a business coach. Um, his name is Jeff Redman with Breakthrough Impact Group. He, he's been really helpful in just doing some of the CEO roundtables over the last 3 years, has helped me just kind of build out like that resilience mindset.

Yeah.

you know, trying to have— be in a position to navigate all this, right, Adam?

Yeah.

But, you know, ultimately at the end of the day, it's you as the individual who determines how to handle that, right? You can have as— you can read as many books or articles online as you want. For me, I mean, number one is my faith. I can't do anything without that. That leads me, you know, number two is My husband. I couldn't have done this entire journey without him. He has a full-time job, so he is more involved in like the high-level conversations at the dinner table and such.

Sure.

And then, uh, number 3 is, I mean, what is his name? He's the new CEO of Unbun.

Mark Samuel.

Mark Samuel. He is a huge advocate for health and, and like taking care of yourself, right?

Yeah, I follow him on LinkedIn actually. Yeah.

Yeah. I think he's shared before something about like how you have to take care of yourself. And that is, although it's, you know, it is a high priority, right? It's my number 3. If I am not taking care of myself, I cannot do any of these things. I hope that as I grow this business long-term, I'm able to You know, at some point, whether it's now or down the road, help other women who are building businesses and brands who want to build families at the same time. If they dive into that madness, that I can be a resource to help them navigate. Personally, it's taken me 3 pregnancies to be able to admit this, but I've had postpartum depression every single time.

Sure.

And it is It's a very hard thing to talk about. It is a very hard thing to go through. And on top of it, to just, you know, be running a company, there's a lot of it. And the thing is, my story is not unique. It's just not talked about enough. And I think that knowing your people, having your village, and like, like really just keeping your head down. And, you know, that's, that's what's gotten me to where I am today.

That's so wonderful.

That's cool.

Your purpose, you said this to me the other day, is you really want to help women that want to get in, you know, start a business. And then you're the rawness of your being so authentic about where you're at is really appreciative because there's so many people that aren't real that they don't, they're not willing to talk about it. So thank you for willing to talk about it because people are going to gravitate to you, Danielle, because they could use someone like you just to have a conversation Right. So thank you for sharing that.

Yeah, yeah, of course. You know, I read something the other day that one in, you know, obviously the amount of women-owned businesses is high as it's ever been now. And one in 3 of those businesses is ran by working moms, right? So like I said, my story isn't unique. It's just the reality that isn't talked about a lot. But yeah, it is hard, but that doesn't mean that we can't do great things. I have Post-its and like fun words, sayings all over my office of, you can do it all, you just can't do it all at once. From, you know, the classic, nobody cares, work harder, right? So you just gotta find your grind, what gets you going.

Sure.

And that's—

Because I always, when I talk to people on this, I always look in the background, by the way, what's there just to see, right? So, but I love that. Love Maybe share your sayings. Um, you know, I'd love to drive people to Coolmox. So where can they find— where can they find your product? Where can they find it? I think you can find it online, right? You're on Amazon, right?

Yeah. Yep. So you can find, um, Coolmox on Amazon. You can find us at coolmox.com. We have a store locator. We are in retail across the country, but like key retailers include Publix, Walmart, Mums on the East Coast, Giant Food on the East Coast, Stater Brothers in California. In the Midwest, we're in a number of chains, you know, everything from some of the Hy-Vees to Festival Foods, Woodman's.

Where do you find your brand when you go into Woodman's? Or, you know, is it in a section? Are you in the spirit section? Like, if I'm going to walk in a store, where do I find you? Like, where do I go look?

Yeah, the other one is Total Wine. Of course, you can't—

are you Total Wine nationwide too?

Um, that's, that's a work in progress. No, not yet.

Okay.

But we're, we're working on that.

Well, hopefully the Total people are watching this. You need to bring in Cool Mocks nationwide. Yeah.

Well, we gotta keep bringing the heat and the muscle behind the sampling. So we're working on that. But the places where you can find us, a little bit dependent on the retailer. So at a place like Total Wine, you're gonna go right to that like non-alcoholic beverage set that has everything from the beers, mocktails, wines, et cetera. If you're, you're walking into, say, like a Hy-Vee, for example, you'd go into the liquor store, and they have a better for you section that has a whole bunch of options that are not better for you.

Yeah.

And this is an evolving conversation, right? Like, we're in thick of reset season. Like, the last 5 years have been people like me, Danielle, working with category buyers trying to figure out what the heck to do as they like change their stores and people like me offer great products, right? So it, it's not a one-size-fits-all. But what I will say is it's everything from having like a full-on built-out non-alc set in a liquor store combined with maybe a cold box if you're lucky with NA beers. And then if you're in grocery, Sometimes they have an NA set or it's a part of the mixer set.

My, my, uh, my Hy-Vees, they have an NA section. You go in there, it's just, it's built by like the mixer section and you walk in there and you can see it there. And I certainly have seen Coolmox in Minnesota at Total Wine and More because I walked the sets to, uh, see it. Is there any data that you want to share about the category? Like anything that, like where's the But where's this category going in terms of the consumer? Because, you know, I cross wine, spirits, and beer, and I love all the categories, THC, hemp-based. But I'll tell you, wine's had a tough time, down 25%. You know, spirits is relatively like down about 5%. Now, just rough numbers here. So if anybody wants to call me out, please do. But, but, you know, this whole category is just like spiking. I saw that it's not going to change and this whole designated driver is going to determine the trip. Like, what are you seeing? What's the data telling you?

Yeah, I mean, it's not slowing down, right? Like, without spitting numbers out, it's driven by people who are moderating their consumption. They're looking for alternatives to, like we say here at Coolmox, keep the party going, enjoy life's occasions. And, you know, obviously a lot of chatter after the Surgeon General's announcement. At the beginning of January, I've talked with both you know distributors, brand owners, etc. And you know that announcement alone took a hit on purchasing and alcohol. Without it, without without that though, brands like Coolmax present a unique opportunity to add value. To adult alcohol portfolios, right?

I just posted this. I said that it actually— to all the retailers, on-premise operators, put it on the menu, put it on the shelf, because it's going to drive your ticket ring and your basket ring, because the people going in there looking for alternatives. So if I'm having a party tonight, right, I'm going to go into Total Wine and More and I'm going to buy some stuff for my mindful drinkers, my designated drivers, my friends that don't drink. Right? Or for myself, maybe I'm not feeling well and I'm doing electrolytes like you today, so I need an alternative. I don't want to put alcohol. Or maybe through the course of the evening, I might start with a martini and then go to a Cool Mocks, uh, you know, in terms of how I want to manage myself. I think it will drive basket ring for sure. We should try to find some data and share with people here that it will definitely drive.

Well, Sam, I was thinking about a year and a half ago, and Danielle, I'm sure you've been, and if you haven't, I'm politely giving unsolicited advice. The National Beer Wholesalers Association, their conference in— I don't know if they do it every year in Vegas, but it's October, October Vegas.

It goes from San Diego, Vegas, NBWA. Yep.

Yeah. Um, so I was there a year and a half ago for my last company.

I saw you there, brother.

You did? Yes. And, uh, they were— I will echo that point. And I think maybe, Sam, we should look at getting somebody maybe from that organization on here just because, I mean, it seemed like anyway everybody I talked to— and I'm not saying that was everybody at the show, but But they were very much on board with that of like, we get that this will drive overall basket size because it, you know, for the longest time, and I'm sure Danielle, you can speak to this, like, I think the prevailing thought was, oh, it's either or someone's either going to buy a fifth of vodka or a hard seltzer or they're going to buy a non-alc. Not true. They're going, it's an and conversation.

Yeah. And I think depending on who you talk to, that has been the case, right, Adam? I think from the very start. We've always had that mindset of it's, it's the same person. And when it comes to gathering some of that data, it's available. We can definitely get it because it's there. Like it isn't even a question at this point. That is a fact. It increases the overall check average. Same with on-premise, by the way. So don't forget about those guys, but they're a little bit, you know, behind in the conversation.

Well, you have to go through a lot of gatekeepers, right? So you obviously, you know, with being an NA brand, you don't necessarily have to, but the gatekeepers help you with logistics, getting that product on the shelf, the whole bit. But you got to get past the distributor, then you got to go to the retailer. I mean, the beautiful thing about being an NA brand, there's different paths to market, right? The e-commerce channels, you don't, you're not held to a lot of the laws of the 3-tier system, but you choose to So, you know, in closing, we have 5 minutes left here. Is there anything you just want to, you know, so you shared a lot about your journey. You know, I'm so, I mean, I know a little bit more about your journey, which is awesome, but the Mayo Clinic to, you know, to being a nutritionist, you know, certified, you're a certified nutritionist or you're a—

Registered dietitian.

Registered dietitian. So, so I want to make sure I get that right. So any closing thoughts that you just want to leave? I mean, obviously you want to help women in their journey, but anything you just want to share that's really important for people to know?

Well, you mentioned me being able to share my screen. Is that still on?

Yes, 100%. Yes, please come on and share.

Okay. I'm—

See the little share button there? It says screen on the bottom. In the middle, so you see like the stop, or do you see like?

Ah, there it is. There it is. Okay. No. So everybody can get the full picture of what we're up to. Let me know when you can see this full screen here.

Yeah, we gotcha.

All right. So you know I shared with you that what our blackberry lime mojito looked like earlier, but this is. our full lineup of ready-to-drink craft mocktails where we're, you know, really all about the experience, skipping the hangover in the process. As I said, everything can be enjoyed, you know, ice cold from the can or poured over ice in your favorite cocktail glass. And all of our original 3 craft mocktails that we launched initially are Strawberry Margarita, the Blackberry Lime Mojito, and the Moscow Mule. We're upgraded to our coconut water recipes in spring of 2024. And in our upcoming February production, our gin and tonic, the peach hibiscus cider, and the classic margarita will all be transitioning to our coconut water recipes as well. So, um, again, like I said earlier, cash flow is king. Some of these changes, you know, you can't just flip on all at once. And for us, that was the right strategy to take. So. So, we're pretty pumped to be entering then like the coming spring season with, you know, the whole lineup of this better-for-you offering with Coolmax.

That's, that's so awesome. Are you gonna— so you're a bit of a celebrity too, by the way. Are you going to be on ABC, CBS, any upcoming engagements? Because they talk about Dry January. You're out there on the circuit talking about, uh, Dry January. Anybody, anything coming up?

I mean, right now I'm— I met with a number of news stations, especially locally here in Midwest. But like I said, I try to be scrappy as heck. And you know what, with my LinkedIn efforts, um, and not a huge marketing budget, I'll do whatever it takes. So if people want to chat with me, my door is always open, as long as, you know, I don't have a sick kid like yesterday. That was a little, a little extra challenging.

But I gotta ask, so I'm looking at your shelf behind you. You pulled the— is that a 4-pack or 6-pack? 4-pack? This is a So you come in 4-packs. What are the gold medals? I see gold medals up above on the top shelf.

Oh, sure. So those are when we did some competitions with the Proof Awards in Vegas.

Okay.

We did those for about 3 years straight and then kind of pumped the brakes on doing competitions for certain reasons. But we obviously are very proud that people have liked them a lot.

Well, I noticed the gold medals. Adam, any questions or thoughts in closing yourself, brother?

Thank you. No, just a couple. Hey, Danielle, thank you so much for your time. We both know you're busy and we can't tell you enough how much we appreciate you being on. Also, thank you for being vulnerable. As somebody who doesn't have kids myself, but obviously I know mothers and husbands and sisters and people that are, whether they're starting their own business or not, raising children comes with all the things. And so thank you for being vulnerable and sharing your experience. To that end, Again, no knock to the folks like myself who don't have children, but specific to, you know, I think of my, my sister-in-law, she's a chemist with the FDA, and clearly they're having a moment right now with all the work they're doing, both in food and beverage and other things. She's also got 2 kids who have been home from school because of weather and sickness and a working husband. It'd be fun to have her on.

Yeah.

Long story short, thank you for everything you've shared. And, I think for anybody out there who's As Danielle pointed out, maybe juggling just as many things, but whose story isn't being shared. You know, we would love for this to be a platform. So, if you're hearing us and you're interested, please reach out. We'd love to have you on and share more stories like Danielle's.

And that's what I got. Oh, 100%. Thank you again, Danielle. Thank you, everybody, for joining Drink Up this morning. I know everybody's Saturdays and weekends are really precious. So, for those of you that took the time to stop by and say hello, Great. This will actually be rebroadcasted on Drink Up, our actual podcast, and played against all social media channels. So thank you again, Danielle, and happy Saturday. And that is a wrap.