Strategies for Success in Importing

Beginning, or just say we're back.

Good.

We're. We're back and it's the beginning. How about that? This is a Saturday Drink Up. Uh, we're, we're a few minutes late. We had some technical difficulties, but, uh, we have Chelsea Andriozzi here from First Call Imports. Welcome, Chelsea. We have Sam Anderson, Sam and Alicia of Bev Assets. Uh, we had a little bit of a hiccup on the technical side, but we're here and we're gonna have a super interesting conversation about international business and imports and the things that Chelsea and her company do. Let's see. Jay Williams with Freebird. Hello and good morning, and thank you for being a sponsor. Sam and Alicia at Bev Assets, obviously, as our obligatory Freebird can. Myself and Aliates Advising. And then last but not least, Ryan and On the Rocks Advisors. New website, new cost estimator tool, both for our services as advisors and the other people in the group, and for the unit cost yourself for what you might be looking to make. So please go check out the website, rocksbev.com. Go break the calculator, tell us things we need to add or change or feedback. We're open to all of it. With that, Chelsea, you were telling us before about how you'd started bartending at a young age, and then you were managing bars, and then you went to an importer and kind of just knocked on the door, literally and figuratively, and said, hey, I wanna learn, please may I have some job? And they were like, let's go.

Yeah.

And that's where we are now.

Yes, they were down and I'm thankful for that.

So please take it from there.

Yeah.

So, uh, I've always had a love of sharing the actual spirit of, or, or, and/or wine and beer, uh, learning how it was produced and what it holds for that culture, right? So that's why I went on the import side because I really enjoy, enjoy that lens and wanted to go out on my own. So I got best wishes from the importer that I used to work with and I did it. And so here, 3 years later, I'm supporting foreign suppliers and foreign producers to ensure that they can get their product to the U.S. They understand the costings, refunds, how to ship, where to store, things like that. I walk them through and I also support U.S. importers and distributors that have import licenses that need to, need to clean up their processes or need to, need someone to run all their refunds for them because there are a lot of tariff refunds and, and tax refunds that are applicable nowadays. That are, can be completely confusing. There's way too many different portals to go and manage.

100%. Well, so, so you were talking as we were getting cut off about sometimes you'll even go so far as to have a, maybe a bulk raw material brought to the States, have a, a process or a production application done on it here, and then have that liquid or item of some sort then shipped back overseas for the sale of the finished good. Which is insane, but it leads me to several questions. The first of which is, do new customer, like we all get asked as, as people who are kind of entrepreneurial in this space, you know, where does new business or new leads come to you from? Right. And so for you, is it, is it just, you know, person A goes, hey, importing is a son of a bitch. Chelsea was super helpful. Person B, call her. Or like, where do you find these people? I imagine everybody across the world needs help doing this, right?

Yes. So the 2 biggest ways people find me is exactly what you said, the former of I've over the years have developed really great, strong relationships with big producers overseas, big names that bring in bulk, that bottle product here in the US, that if they have a new customer that comes to them and says, we want to source 62 drums of your 21-year-old rum. We need to bring that in because we're gonna, we're gonna do some bottling here in the US. They say, okay, well, are you set up to actually receive it? The customer usually says no. And they say, here's Chelsea. So that's, that's a, a great way that I have been introduced to people and have been a part of some really great projects that I've just been honored to be in the room and, and chat through. The other way is. Customs brokers.

Is business partners?

If they have a new importer, customs brokers.

Sure, sure, sure.

Yeah, yeah.

They are, they are just so pinnacle to the import world, obviously. But if they're dealing with an alcohol importer who has no idea what they're doing and they're asking certain questions of this importer and the importer's like, what? They'll say, talk to Chelsea. So I've had people connect me that way and I say, okay, let's get you organized. So, you know, it's not a disaster at the port of the border for you because I've come in where it's been later and they have a truck held up in Mexico or they have a container on the port and there's just charges racking up. So let's, let's fix this and then let's put a process in place so it's smooth moving forward for you. So those, those are 2 of the big, and then third is thankfully clients recommending people they've met. That's been, I've been really thankful for that.

Sure. It makes total sense. And I, I, it's. Everybody we talk to is interesting, but there's certain folks, you will, you are now one of them that I'm like, God, I would love to just spend a day watching you work. 'Cause I can't imagine the conversations, right? Like, and what I mean is years and years and years ago, and I tell people this story all the time when they ask me as the ops guy, what experience I have with importing. And I'm like, won't touch it with a 10-foot pole. And they go, why not? And I said, well, A, to your point, There's a myriad of regulations and governing bodies and people and processes, and every country's different, blah, blah, blah. But the real story is several years ago when I was at BevSource and I was working with Joyous Spirit, canned cocktail brand, still around, shout out to Joyous Spirit, Johnson Brothers, Bob Safford, Carlton, all those guys, good people. They had a soda brand at the time that they were trying to do one final production on before they closed down the soda line of the business. And that production was happening just over the border in Canada. And so we had to get raw materials to your earlier point from the US into Canada, get product made, and then get product back from Canada in the US. And I've never hated my work more. I wanted nothing to fucking do with any of that process. And I tripped over myself for 6 months before it finally got done. And I never want to do it again. And that was Canada. That was somewhere I'm like, I could physically drive there and go get it myself. And it's this difficult.

Canada has a lot of odd— what was the base? Was it spirit-based, wine-based?

No, that's the thing. This was their non-alkaline. It was a juice-based soda.

Oh, that's right. You said that. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That was the part that killed me. I'm just like, there's nothing untoward about this at all. Right. The worst, the worst thing about the whole thing was glass bottles. It was 12-ounce glass bottles. I was like, that's the most dangerous part of this whole fucking process. And it's taking this long. It was insane.

So I guess I'm, I, I, I'm a masochist because I love it. I love figuring it out. It's like, it's, there's, it's, it's a language that everyone needs to speak, but not many people know it. Sure. So it's an import language. It's hard.

Well, so what are you— I would have done with, um, a mutual client, Alex, we were talking about earlier. You know, he could do a lot of research himself, but the reality is he's not an expert in this space and he doesn't know where the landmines are. You were saying each country, like Canada is different Mexico versus Australia, and then all the factors surrounding that, you know, that information to at least, you know, protect them, right? So talking to someone like you with expertise in the space, I mean, allows to minimize the exposure that this brand has or brands and maximizes their opportunity for sure. I mean, we're at the point where After talking to you, we basically, I went to ASC. He's like, well, give me the port address in Los Angeles. Right. So I got all the ASC, which I know you're familiar with those guys, all their addresses. And then he was able to get quotes. I guess you gotta get the actual address where it's going to actually get the actual quote. Right. So now we're taking everything you've given us and saying, okay, after all this exposure we have to pay the ocean freight, The duty. I mean, I'm gonna get all this wrong, but you know, we have to pay the port fees, all this stuff. Is it viable to even bring the product into the US after all that to be able to compete with, you know, the product that they want to go after?

Exactly. And something, Alex, the one thing I love about this is that you're always going to learn something new. And I think it's great to share that with people. Like on the call with Alex, what I was learning was exactly how high the rate for their excise tax in Australia was for spirits? I had no idea. It's crazy. And then adding that into, of course he's gonna wanna go abroad because it saves him so much money because of the export tax they have to pay. I'm sorry, the excise tax they have to pay in Australia for spirits was, it was almost $80 a bottle. You, AUD. That's crazy. It's crazy. That's, that's 5 times more than what US is. It's like stuff like that. You're always learning. And, and I love it. I love it.

And what do you see, not to go political here, and it's not the, but the effect of war in the Strait of Hormuz. And what is, what do you see currently happening? What do you see happening in the future? And what can people do to help, you know, reduce the pain? Because it doesn't seem like this war is going to stop anytime soon. And oil, I saw like on the news, oil pricing is shooting up, which means to me, I'm like, oh my gosh. First thing I thought is rates going to go up.

Already has, already has. I mean, I, I just pulled a container from LA and put it on rail to go to Kentucky this week. One container and they quoted me $8,000. It's never ever been that much. Now it is bulk. We're getting up to hazardous classifications, so it is going to be pricier, but not that pricey. It's crazy.

Put that, put that in perspective. So container, $8,000. What was it before the war?

Which should have, it should be for what they're pulling, the weight and the hazard classification should be $4,000, $5,000 max. So we're almost, we're almost at double.

People are gonna have to take, like, here's the deal. People are gonna have to take price increases. I'm thinking about it too. I'm like, like, there's just no way. I mean, you just have to just increase the price to the consumer.

Yep. I mean, I have, so right now to, to go back to the actual region of trying in the Strait of Hormuz or anywhere in the Middle East, if you're trying to ship anything out, it's ridiculous. So not only price increases are gonna happen, but time timelines. Are going to have to be lengthened because you have a lot of blank sailings happening where they're canceling ships because ships aren't making certain port calls, so they just have to forego it and keep and keep sailing. So I mean, I've had I had stuff sit in Scotland two weeks longer than it should have. Scotland because you have everything is a domino effect, right? I unfortunately have a project between Lebanon and. Um, in the south of Israel where these 2 people are trying to produce something together and we can't get it moved.

Oh, 'cause you have to go through the Strait of Hormuz or what?

No, it's just people don't even wanna approach some of those ports there. And it's not even because it's going, right? 'Cause the Strait of Hormuz is around on the other side. So you can avoid it, but it doesn't—

It's awfully high on those boats because you get bombed or whatever, which is just amazing. The impact, I don't think people realize the impact of what's happening. It's, uh, really, it's, you know, so how, how do you solve for that then? So we're, so what can brands do from your perspective to prepare, like to work through it? I mean, this is your expertise, right? So I'm, I wanna get in the US, but I have all these external circumstances that I can't control. So what can they do?

So definitely there has to be a willingness to be creative. There's 3 things that I, off the top, that I try to advise people on. Source an air freight quote just to source it. Doesn't mean you have to go that way. But if you're not doing a full container, if you're just doing a couple pallets because you're doing an R&D run or something in the US, or you're just bringing a first round in to see how it's, how it's gonna go, try air freight. Air freight traditionally is always going to be more expensive, but it's also really fast.

What's it called again? I, you're kind of drowned out.

I'm sorry. Air freight.

Air freight.

Try it out.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just, just check it out, um, and see what that rate's gonna be, uh, because those timelines are sturdier at the moment. So if you're trying to definitely get product there, and if it's not a, a lot of pallets, you know, not multiple containers worth, not a full container worth, check it out. The other option is you're really, what I'm seeing is that LCLs, so consolidated containers, are taking longer to fill and to leave. So if you know a bunch of producers in the area that are trying to get product out, or if you know a bigger producer. Maybe see if you can piggyback on their shipment because there's going to be, you know, paths made for these bigger producers that are still trying to get product in. So see if you can, you know, like a, like a Ramona shark on a big shark, see if you can, you can hitch a ride.

So this is a time to be creative, I guess.

Yes. The other thing is, is what I was speaking with a producer in Italy who was having trouble trying to get out of some ports. They trucked it. They trucked it up to France and we got it out of a France port.

Interesting. So Italy's kind of locked down, but you could move it up to France and you could get out of there.

Yes, they had some mitigating circumstances, but that was all domino effect of the war that's going on over there. But yeah, you gotta get creative.

I mean, it's just, uh, but that's what you do. You're discussing with us what you do. Go ahead. I'm Adam.

Sorry.

Well, I was just going to say, if you had to put a number to it, which I know there's a bunch of variables to this question. If somebody was trying to, to import a thing, whatever that thing is, from elsewhere to the States, if you had to guess, how long would it take them to do it on their own if they'd never done it before versus how long would it take them to do it if they worked with you? Because I imagine that's a pretty stark contrast.

Yeah. I mean, I've had people who have come to me that they've already been in the process of trying to get something picked up and shipped and 4 months in when I was like, this, this is a month tops.

Right.

I mean, I've, I've had people call me and, and the truck's lost, you know, it's gone. So we gotta, we gotta, we gotta start from square one and, and you gotta write, you gotta call your insurance company for that truck. So.

Jesus.

Yeah.

Wow. How many languages do you speak?

None. I don't even speak English well. No, I, I can, I am a good listener. I can hear languages, but when it comes to me audibly speaking it, I'm awful. But I can understand Spanish, Spanish and English. But sure, I know the keywords for Italian and French now when it comes into the shipping world.

So how do you, when you're communicating around the world, how do you communicate? Is English the universal language? Basically?

A lot. It's, I run into a lot of English. If not, like, I just say, speak to me, let me figure it out. And we, we, we, we get someone in the room who does, who is usually bilingual. Like I said though, there are a lot of key terms that I've learned over the years in Italian, French, Spanish. I'm good. I can speak in Spanish and English. Yeah, that's it. I would love to be stronger in languages. I'm really good at numbers. So, and numbers are universal. I'm good with that.

Sure, sure.

So what's the number one thing a brand needs to watch out for when they're importing in the US? What's the number one thing?

Yes. Tariffs right now. Tariffs right now.

So they're not, I thought those were going away. I thought the Supreme Court said that we can't do tariffs anymore.

There's still some that are applying there. I mean, it's a forever changing landscape. It's not stable at the moment. So that's why I say beware and make sure you understand what's coming in. Also understand what taxes you're going to have to pay upfront. People don't always know that alcohol is the highest taxed commodity here in the US, more so than firearms, more so than, than prescription medication.

When, when is the FET due? Is that the FET you're talking about? Federal excise tax?

Exactly.

So when is that due? Is that due upon arrival?

Upon arrival, unless you're bringing it in bond, but you're, you're gonna have to pay it the moment that's bottled and leaving. So tariffs, you gotta pay on arrival no matter what. Nothing's getting you outta that, that check.

So So you're hitting it with an FET and you're getting hit with a tariff before you even leave the port. Like that's to get out of the port.

Yeah. And if you, if you're in the, in, in spirits, I mean, I've seen people who've paid $30,000 in tariffs, not even federal, not even in the tax that's, that's due.

So that's why when they arrive to someone like me, Adam, they're like, yeah, I'm the sales guy. I have a, I work on a retainer. Like, hey, we, we work on commission. And I'm like, no, because they've just paid $30,000 in tariffs and FET. And they're like, well, I got to pay the distributor and then I got to give the retailer margins. So will you work for free? I mean, that's reality. I mean, it's reality when I'm not really being facetious, I'm being truthful.

Right. Absolutely. Absolutely.

And I was going to say, what have you seen a large shift in, like, based on that, based on obviously, I mean, alcohol has always got its, its You know, some federal government's putting its, you know, hands in the cookie jar, but have you seen a shift in the types of alcohol that are being imported or exported, or has alcohol, you know, like we hear all the time in the US anyway, like drinking is down. So has imports on alcohol gone down overall? And now, you know, like we were talking about like corn or fruit or coffee or what it's like, has that gone up exponentially because other things have gone down? What sort of shifts have you seen in the last couple of years?

I have seen a lot of amaros, liqueurs have really shot off and people wanting to bring something different to the market. So like what you said, like the coffee, right?

Mm-hmm.

People wanting to bring in to blend and make a, a coffee amaro, just for example, or a coffee RTD with, with a, with a, with a bev, with a, um, spirit or wine base, right? Agave. I've seen a lot of coffee and agave spirit blending trying to happen right now.

Hmm.

But that's a whole That's a whole nother conversation.

Sure.

But I've, I've seen a lot of people come to me and say, okay, I have this proprietary botanical blend that I'm bringing in from Italy and I wanna blend it with a, you know, neutral grain spirit because I wanna make a, an Aperol competitor, if you will.

Mm-hmm.

Okay. That's a lot of work.

Mm-hmm.

'Cause you're dealing with even more of the government agencies, what I call alphabet soup, right? The FDA, USDA. TTB and then CBT. Like you're, you're dealing with all of these different people, but when you start bringing in very layered type of products, and when I say layered, you have these, these different blends and these different, uh, who one time, oh my gosh, one of the, one of the biggest battles, hardest thing I've ever brought in my entire life was something from Scotland and it was a gin with a type of moss.

Hmm.

And the US was like, yeah, no, we're not gonna allow this. this moss, peat moss essentially, to be in this product. It's not considered grass, generally regarded as safe for consumption. Right. And we're like, well, the Scots are drinking it left and right and they're all cool and fine. So I think we can bring this in, but like, just, I'm on a tangent, but what I am seeing is a lot of crazy different botanicals being brought in and it's cool.

There's a lot of work. So we, so again, I told you Sam and I have a friend in France who's got a distillery and it's this product, uh, shout out to Marius. And Verdaccor, if you're listening, so this stuff, I forget what it's got in it. Forget what the botanical was, but he had the same issue. There was a, there's a botanical in this that gives it its beautiful blue color. And it's not the butterfly pea flower. It's something else. He also has that in there, but it was something else. And he was like, the US won't accept it. And so I have to reformulate without that. So that makes total sense. Another thing I want to ask you about is I hear from people who work internationally all the time, meaning I don't obviously do a lot of work internationally, but every now and again, I catch somebody who does.

Yeah.

That tell me that products from the US are highly valued overseas in certain parts of the world. Would you, is that still true given all the tariff and other implications? Are people still clamoring for US-made products?

Oh, yes. I mean, the resale market overseas in some countries is absolutely insane and crazy.

So, so Levi's is still big?

Yeah. Yeah.

Now I'm really aging myself.

No, no, no. I mean, even, um, I, I've spent a significant amount of time in Southeast Asia over the last 20 years and the resale market there is crazy. Even from other EU countries.

Really?

You know what you're paying for? Oh yeah. What you're paying for.

I know Alicia's been talking about exporting to a lot of our clients.

Mm-hmm.

Do you export too? Do you do that?

I will work in tangent with exporting, and what I mean by that is I'm not always up to date on every receiving country, right? But I know the language. So if the client can bring to me someone who is experienced in bringing in product over there, a broker of some kind, I can work with that person. I'm fine. But I need someone on the ground in that country. And I, and I usually need to, I need that client to connect me with that person. But yes, I will do export.

What's the big thing you're seeing right now with brands coming into the U.S.? You kind of talked about the one thing they need to do, but you kind of talked about Some of the hot brands, but what else are you seeing other than the war, which we talked about, which is very impactful, is probably the number one thing, and the tariffs she talked about, and then not being prepared about, we're a very high tax country. It's not the easiest path forward, but anything else you're seeing in the market right now that people need to be aware of?

Yes, I think at the risk of sounding like a broken record, you would be surprised at the amount of people that I speak with that don't understand And aren't taking advantage of the CBMA program, the tax, the FET refund program, not taking advantage of it at all, not understanding it. And that's no one's fault. It's a very convoluted setup. It's not straightforward. They, I, they do that on purpose, right? That, you know, they don't want to write checks back to people, IRS, right? Everybody wants to keep their money.

The— What is CBMA?

The CBMA, it's Craft Beverage Modernization Act. It was originally enacted. As a domestic program here in the US back in 2017 to give FET tax breaks to producers here in the US so they could get ahead of some of the bigger producers when this big craft boom was happening, right? Right around the time you get a bunch of these distilleries coming out with some really great, you know, 5, 10-year expressions of aging. So it was really beneficial for them. It also got applied to the importer world, so small importers, Small foreign suppliers were able to take great advantage of significant tax cuts from $13.50 per proof gallon of product being brought in to $2, right? Significant tax break.

So can you, so, so, so like, okay, so I have a bottle and I'm selling the bottle for $14 and the bottle costs me $8. Like what's the, like to put in perspective, what percentage of savings is that? I mean, I mean, it could be rough. I'm not going to hold you to it, but what's—

Yeah. Yeah. If we're, if we're talking spirits, it's a, it's an 80% refund. So if you're paying roughly a 40 ABV bottle, $7.50 of tequila, right? You're paying out of that COG. You're, you're including your FET in your COG. You should be your landed price, your COG and the landed price. I'm sorry. Misspoke. Roughly $2, $2.14 is going To taxes of that bottle. So of that case. So if you're doing a 3-bottle case, so $2.14 divided by 6—

apologies—

you have almost, what is that? You're looking at 30, 40 cents a bottle. That's, that's a lot for your lane of good, a lot for your case. So if you're able to get back 80% of that, let's do it and let's do it in a timely fashion so you can get—

Yeah, that's, that is, you have a calculator in your spreadsheet that you provide too, right?

On that. Yes. Yes. I have those tools that I provide to my clients who meet with me either on strategic calls where we can just shoot and dive deep an hour based, which is what I've been doing with some of our shared clients. Sam has been really beneficial for them. And I, yeah, we walk through those calculators.

That's funny. I know Ramsey was like talking about, he said your name like 10 times. He's the one in Lebanon with the, uh, Amaro he's coming out with. I mean, uh, yeah, it's sick.

Great gentleman. What a— his brain works in a beautiful way. Like, just watching him speak and how he thinks about production, it was crazy.

Did he go through all the spreadsheets with you yet? He's like—

Oh yeah. And, uh, you know, on a personal anecdote, I was one time when I was on the phone, uh, on a Zoom with him, I was assaulted by a spider and like just went nuts. And he was like, are you okay? No. He was so kind.

Yeah.

It's, uh, Adam, he's gotta be part of the rant.

What's that?

I would say that's gonna be part of it too, right? Like you have to keep odd hours, I would assume.

Hmm. At times, yes.

Yeah, it was like 7 o'clock at night. We're talking to the guy in Australia.

Yeah.

Yeah. No, it, it works really well for me actually. I'm, I'm a new mother and they're asleep.

Congratulations.

Or so it, thank you. It's been working really well.

That's fantastic. Yeah, we, so Alex, he seems like meeting starts at like 6:15, you know, Central Standard Time. And we're talking to him and I think you're in the East, right, Chelsea?

Yes. Philadelphia.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. So it was even later for her, but I mean, it's 8 o'clock in the morning for him.

So, it's okay for me. Like, I, I, you're, you're super focused during those hours, right? You don't have a lot of the, the other alerts that are going on. Customs is, is shut for the night. Like I can just, let's talk about numbers. Let's talk about your numbers.

Sure. So when you're, when you're talking to, you know, it's a new referral, it's a new you know, brand partner, client, whatever, you know, the relationship is, but you're talking to somebody new, like, where do you start? Because obviously there's a lot of everything to be gone over, right? And, you know, for example, with Sam and I, one of the first, I mean, the first 2 questions I ask everybody, like, how much time do you have to dedicate to this of your own personal time? Not how quickly do you want to launch? That's a different question, but how much time do you have to dedicate? And how much money do you have not to pay me, not to pay that person, In total, because we gotta make sure that everybody's got the right size pie section of the pie, right? So where do you start the conversation with people that want to import something?

Yeah. Uh, I usually give 'em a questionnaire that I've developed and I, it basically starts with like, what scares you the most?

Sure.

Of this pro— of this process.

Yeah.

And I see, I see how much they list and then I go, all right, let's, let's, I usually hold a 20-minute call and I can, Assess pretty much of like, okay, these are the areas that they need set up. So let's start. I basically, let's start with an hour call and do a di— a deep dive into what's really irking you. What's, what's, what do we need to set up? And from those calls, I can really discern, oh, they need actually ongoing support to get this up and running. So I'm gonna need to work with you for a minimum of 6 months to get this up and going.

Mm-hmm.

So you can get the product here to the US to who the people you need to get it to. So there's, there's people I work with ongoing. And then how many—

Does it take to get a product into the US?

Oh, it depends. It depends on what, like, are we dealing with proprietary blends that we need to get approved? Are we, is the product bottled and ready to go already commercialized in the U— in the UK and is ready for sale on US market? But there's very different Well, and the thing is too, is I don't want to be, I don't want to be in the wings for, for a client where, okay, you need to work on making sure your recipe's done. Like, I don't need to be there for that. I don't need to be involved with that. Like, just give me a call when you're ready. I'm not going to be hanging around in the kitchen, not prepping. Right. So, so yeah, I am very flexible in how I work with people, either on an hourly rate or—

I've been talking to Ramsey since 2025. Right. And I think his goal is to get the product here by 2027. And he also said that you were saying you need to change your ocean freight. He's like, well, I'm gonna leave it like it is because I don't know what's gonna happen with the straits. So he's gaming, right? But he didn't, he should update it with the current pricing to see what his, I think the downside is. But he's like, this has been like, it's gonna be 3 years, you know, with everything he's going through. And a big part of it is you're a big part of that, trying to figure out how to get it here from point A to point B.

Yeah.

And everything in between that.

Yeah.

Which people don't realize. They just think, I'm just gonna make a product, I'm gonna ship it to the US and that's all good.

Yeah.

No, he's putting a lot of work in. Once you, uh, let me ask you this. So, okay, so new brand, you go through, you know, 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, however long it is to get something over here. Then does it, is there any, any amount of like, hey, we did it once, we're all on the same page now. The customs broker knows what's up. The TTB knows what's up. Like, The second time, the third time, the 10th time is easier, or is it the same, roughly the same amount of work every time?

No, it gets easier. If the product isn't changing, it gets easier and easier and easier. So like what I've done with clients is like, oh, I'll do the first 3 passes with you because that's what they felt they needed. Right? Sure. And they'll see themselves how much easier it's getting. And then I train them. I say, this is all right. Here, go, go, grow up, go out of the nest, right? Um, but they have my contacts. So if, if they're expanding their, their, who they're working with, if it's an importer, if there's different points of pickup they need to, to get underway, I might come back and say, okay, I can work with you another 3 months or another 3 months.

Well, I gotta believe that there's this, like, I mean, I saw, and you have to correct me on this, both of you, but I saw something like there's 10,000 TTB Applications a year. Maybe it's more. Someone told me it was more than that, but, but how many brands are trying to come in the US?

Yeah. Yeah. And, and well, that's not even indicative of just the imported because the TTB is also regulating domestic entity too. So yeah. What, what's the, the amount of imported colas that have been made? Do you mean like, like the colas, the brands themselves, or like the actual entity?

Like how many, like the, how many brands are trying to come in the US? I guess this would be the entity that, I don't know, that could be a, I'm not, I'm sure I understand your question. I'm like, how many people are trying to come in the US and need your services. Like, it has to be thousands of people.

Absolutely. Absolutely. And to me, so we've been reading articles for years, right? Of, of the trending of the drinking is, is less and less. You read these articles a lot. To me, I say, okay, yes, it might be less, but it's also kind of, people might be honing in on what they want to drink. Right? There's more educated drinkers out there. There's really good product being made nowadays. So you have this kind of premium pinnacle that's happening, but drinking's never gonna go away. It's the oldest industry in the world, right? I mean, you, it's, it's never gonna go away. And for me, what I think is great is to see this really cool evolve of people working together, people wanting to bring in, you know, that blend or that coffee from, from France, right? To, to help make their product here in the US or make their product in Mexico. You're, you're, you're getting this kind of global pouring that's happening, global blending. It's not slowing down. It's not slowing down what I see.

Alicia did make it to the public chat within Riverside. We're not streaming live on LinkedIn, but actually I'm going to move you up in line. We're going to post you this afternoon with our newsletter and do the whole thing, Chelsea. So I will do that immediately after the call. So I feel bad that we didn't stream live, but we are streaming live on YouTube. Facebook and actually Riverside. But Alicia says, glorious good morning, Chelsea, brilliant woman, First Call Imports. Which, speaking of which, uh, I don't know if we, did we say your name of your company at the beginning and it's First Call Imports?

Yep. Adam gave me a shout out.

And then how do people, how do people find you?

Yeah, so I'm all over LinkedIn. Just look up First Call, look up my name. I'm there. Um, I have First Call Imports Instagram feed, which we'll link to My website, my services page.

Which, so is it firstcallimports.com?

Yep. firstcallimports.com. You can, from there you can join my newsletter. I have a weekly newsletter that upfront has a trending item in the alcohol space. And then I get a little fun at the, at the bottom on what I call Last Call. And we talk about wine and spirits and anything hospitality because the bartender in me has never left. So let's, let's talk about Trending types of drinks or a deep dive into mezcal, something like that.

So you're, and then you can find, is it Chelsea Washburn on LinkedIn or is it Chelsea?

Chelsea Andreozzi. Yeah. I've, I've, I've dropped the maiden name and leaned into the full marriage name.

You just recently, you must've just recently done that.

Yes. Yes. Mm-hmm. I wanted to, uh, it took me a while to get the Andreozzi officially. On the, on the socials, just because so many people have known me in this industry as Chelsea Washburn. So it took me a moment.

Well, is there anything that like we discussed today and we have an important question that maybe I'll ask, um, that we ask everybody, but anything that we didn't cover off and I apologize, or both of us do, that's part of going live with Drink Up Podcast. That's the fun of it. Right.

Right.

You know, things crash and burn, but we always figure out a way to, to curate and bring it back. Is there things that That, that you want to discuss that we didn't get to today?

I guess just some sage advice of, you know, if you're thinking of importing and you are like, what the heck do I do? You don't have to do it alone. There are people out there. I am one of them. I will help you. And it's not impossible. It will be a headache the first time, no matter how many experts you have with you, you're gonna, you're gonna see how crazy it is, but it's doable. People do it every day. So that's, that's That's all I want to say. Like, if you have a crazy idea, what you call a crazy idea, because you want to bring something in from a different country and you think it would be really great to the US market, do it. Find the people.

And don't try to do it yourself from the beginning because, um, you're going to spend more money than you need to. And so many people, I think Adam talks about this all the time, is they'll talk to founders and they'll try to save a fast buck and they'll end up spending, uh, $10 when they could have just spent $2 to actually get the answer pretty quickly.

I agree.

I agree.

Yeah. And I think it's been a great conversation.

Well, thank you. I think that, tell me if this resonates, Chelsea, especially for my work, right? And I'm sure this resonates with Sam a little bit too, but when I tell people what I do, 'cause I'm not a chemist, I'm not a production facility, right? Like I don't own any warehousing, right? I tell them what I do and they go, well, I could do that. You could. It won't happen as quick as if I did it, right? Like it could, you, you are an intelligent person based on this conversation. You could figure it out. It will take you infinitely longer, especially the first time. If you have that kind of time, God bless. If you don't, here's what it costs to have you do it, right?

Right. If I'm, if I'm showing up to a battle, the first battle, I'm going to listen to my, my general tell me how to get through it, right? Like I'm not going to. Tried to leave the first time. So, yes, I completely agree, Adam.

So people have found us on Riverside, which is good. So Ryan said good morning as well.

Oh, good morning, Ryan.

It wasn't, it wasn't for naught. So here's the most important question of the day. Are you ready?

Nervous, yeah.

What is the difference between success and failure?

I think success is made up of failures. You learn more in the failures than you do the success. So I would say the difference is the failures. Well, I always love the saying, like, if you're knocked down 7 times, stand up 8. And success is just that last failure that you stood up from, I think, or any failure you stand up from, that's success. So I think there's not really a difference. I think failures are rolled up in success. Yeah.

So you said knock down 7, stand up 8. I love, I love that, uh, saying because It seems like we all get knocked in the teeth daily.

Goodness, yes.

At least I do. Uh, so what keeps you going? What, like, what gets you up out of bed? Like, what keeps you, just keeps the fire rolling?

I'm a curious person. I'm a puzzle solver. Like, I just, I like to experience problems and let's figure it out. So that, that keeps me Rolling. Um, something I really enjoy about this industry in particular, it's different every day. Sure, I'm, I might be sitting at my, the same desk, but what's crossing my desk is different down to the people's, uh, people I work with, their creativity behind their product. So cool, right? To the ownership or the C-level of the, of that company. They're gonna be all different personalities. I just, I love experiencing different cultures, different people, different problems. So that, that keeps me going, the unknown and, and how that's going to—

So you like the unpredictability?

I do. I really, really do. I think in another life, and this probably sounds cocky, I think in another life I would've loved being an ER doc, but that's not for me. That's not my life.

I equate, I equate, uh, what, uh, we do every week is like the Forrest Gump movie when he says life is like a box of chocolate. You don't know what you're gonna get. It seems like I wake up in the morning and I have, we have like Alicia and I have this, like, we're going to go do this. Who are we talking to today? Inevitably something goes haywire.

Mm-hmm.

But I think that's just part of the business that stuff goes haywire. And I think the key is how you solve for it. Right. And you don't let it bring you down. I think that happens in our personal lives. I think it happens in our business lives. So I really appreciate that. Get knocked down 7, stand up 8.

Yep. And listen, listen. I think like if you listen to the person too, of what they're, what they're explaining to you, truly listen, listen for those keywords. It can help a lot.

Yeah. I mean, I—

As I just cut you off. Sorry.

I mean, I always say, someone looks at me, 'cause I grew up playing tennis and I'm like, like failure tennis. They're like, what do you mean? You lose more than you win in tennis. You lose more points, believe it or not. Even if you win, you still lose more points than you gain points.

That's, that's a fantastic analogy, Sam.

It just comes down to this crucial point that you went, right? So knock down 7, stand up 8. And Adam, what do you think?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think my big takeaway was, was Ryan said, good morning, golf is worse. Uh, I think, I think my big takeaway is, is, you know, that kind of initial question you started with and it's, it's funny, you got, you got a different version of it. It's similar, but different on my questionnaire of kind of what scares you the most, right? Because I think every brand owner, I feel comfortable saying this, every brand owner I've ever talked to, to your point, right? Like, shit's going to happen that makes you go, fuck.

Mm-hmm.

But if you can't, I mean, if you're going to sit and stew in that, you're not going to last very long because that stuff's going to continue to come up. And so like, let's just start with, and I'll probably move that question up in my questionnaire, like, let's just start there and get over the fact that like, all right, it's, it will happen. It's going to, there's no amount of us working together that's going to make stuff perfect. So just let's swallow that pill now and then just proceed to plan. Right.

Hell, we did it. We did it this morning on the Drink Up podcast. We just swallowed the pill. LinkedIn blew us up for some reason. I'm not sure why, but, uh, the system went down, but you know what? We took the pill and we just, we moved forward.

Exactly. Exactly. LinkedIn couldn't handle us this morning, huh?

Yes. I mean, well, they knew that the big dogs were coming. We can't run with the big dogs down the porch is the old saying, right? So, you know what, we got out of the weeds, we got back on the porch and we moved forward. So you're forever a podcaster with us now on Drink Ups. You're a Drink Up alumni. So very much appreciate that. I think we had our closing thoughts. Any last closing thoughts, Chelsey?

I'm curious. I wanted to hear Adam's answer. Success versus failure. What's the difference?

There you go. Reversed it on Adam. There you go.

You know, the answer we always get, and I agree with it, is, is usually framed around persistence, right? And to your point, you know, the, we've heard a bunch of, and they're all valid, don't get me wrong, but a bunch of versions of that, you know, knock down 7, stand up 8. But I think for me, the angle I take on it In addition to that, not that it's entirely different, is the, is the whole, like, it takes a village, right? Like, even if I'm, and I tell people all the time, Sam's heard it, you'll hear me say it the more we get to know each other. Like, I'm good at what I do. I'm better at knowing who to call. And so, right? Like, success for me, even if I'm, and I talk to other consultants about this all the time, or other people that are thinking about getting into it, they're like, well, how do you How do you make sure that it works? I'm like, network your fucking ass off, right? Have friends, even if it, I mean, I tell people all the time, I'll message them on LinkedIn. They'll be like, I don't work in that world. I'm like, I'm aware. I still want to talk to you. And they're like, well, why? I'm like, because you don't understand that it might be a day. It might be a decade. Someone will ask me for help doing the thing you do. And I'll go, I know the person to call. Right. That to me, in addition to the persistence is success. Because even if I'm making money hand over fist, if I'm doing it in a silo, Like winter will come and it will be a pain in my ass. Right. So success is being able to do it in a community with people like you too, in addition to just being persistent and knowing that like whatever challenge it is, we'll get through it. So.

Exactly. Exactly. Don't force it up the middle. Take a step back, see the whole field. You'll make it work.

100%. 100%. So.

Awesome. Well, this has been great. Um, really appreciate you joining us today. And, uh, get to our Saturdays, I guess. Right. So I'm going to stop and say goodbye to everybody and stay on the line. So make sure we download and thanks for riding, uh, the craziness of this podcast going live.

It was a blast. Thank you. I'm so happy.

Thanks everybody. Thank you. Thank you, Chelsea. Have a good weekend, everyone.