Welcome to our live show!

Drink up, welcome up. Hey, we had to pivot this morning, uh, uh, with our show, but before I get going, actually, we're gonna start to call out our, um, our, uh, our supporters, our advertisers, our— what do you go— sponsors, I guess, trying to get the right word. But, uh, Alias Advising is now a sponsor of Drink Up, so thank you Alias Advising for doing that, as well as Bev Assets. We're in the beverage business and we help brands Uh, you know, get to market. And, uh, if they want to, you know, test it, build it, scale it, or sell it, we're here, uh, to do that. Uh, by the way, Caress, I think we can be now found on Instagram. Is that correct?

Yes, yes, yes.

So we are now on Instagram. So maybe we can type in into the show, Adam, uh, the how to get it, or Caress, how you can— I can show you how to do that. But basically, we'll screen it on the The screen, and then when we actually post this, we'll show you where to find us. And after this weekend, gonna find us on Facebook too. Is that true?

Yes, yes.

Wow.

Yes, there will be a link there, so you'll be able to, uh, to find us in a number of different places.

Oh, so that's great. So I think you mentioned TikTok and everything else, right? So this podcast has a purpose. You know, that is our—

oh, we've got wheels.

And we got Will. So today we actually, uh, our, our producer, uh, Caress, who just took on this, uh, this great role to actually help Adam and I really figure out what we're doing and help us figure out our purpose, we're going to talk about, you know, podcasts and broadcasting. This is your background, right, Caress?

Broadcasting has been my background for 35 years, and along with that, uh, podcasting has kind of Segued into that industry in the last, I would say, 5 to 6 years, really.

Oh, that's, that's amazing. So first of all, welcome. So you're our guest today as well as our producer. So maybe you can just put your guest hat on and put your producer hat down. Maybe tell everybody a little bit about you, who you are, you know, where you're at currently in the journey, where it is you want to go, and then we can get into this like podcasting with a purpose. Does that work?

That works. Um, my background is radio.

Hello, Bristol.

I currently live in Des Moines, Iowa. I have been here for 23 years. Um, I was at one radio station for 23 years. I'm currently, um, about to take off on another adventure, and I'm not sure exactly what that will be. Um, kind of looking at different areas. Uh, right now it seems to be the podcast world. Um, but I'm a music fan, a hardcore music fan, and that has always been my path. Anything that has to do with music and intersecting, uh, in my career seems to be what fascinates me.

Sounds great.

So mom of one, um, living in West Des Moines, and I met Adam in my journey, and that's how we kind of Uh, clicked.

That's what's amazing is you're both from Iowa. All the correct people from Iowa.

I was gonna say we're both from elsewhere. We ended up in Iowa is, uh, oh yeah.

I'm from South Dakota and ended up in Iowa, but I love it here. This is kind of my adopted hometown.

That's okay. I assumed, Adam, you were an Iowan. I'm sorry about that, but no, you're good, man.

You, I claim Iowa for sure. I will, I will call Iowa home. I was, uh, I was born in Vegas. And then we moved when I was 3. We moved to Iowa before my sister was born and went to school there. I met my wife and I actually met the summer. We met working together at a radio internship in the summer of 2011. Yeah, '11. Summer of 2011. And, uh, I had been there the summer before, so Caress and I and some of the other DJs already knew each other. Um, it was a new intern class, and there was a weekly— I don't think they— do they still do Nightfall? They don't, do they?

No, they don't.

There was a— so if you're, if you're ever in Des Moines, um, there's a, there's a Simon Estes Amphitheater. I'm sure it's still there, the amphitheater itself, because it's It's really pretty. It's this amphitheater down on the water. It floods every summer, so you got to go before it floods. But they would do a concert series and what, Train and Modest Yahoo and God.

Some big names came through there.

Yeah, I mean, I mean, it was really, but it was a really intimate spot. And so, God, I haven't thought about this in a long time.

I got it. First of all, I got to call out Jay Bird. He, uh, he showed up and I was texting him this morning. He's getting ready to get on a plane. So, uh, Jay, thanks for, uh, thanks for popping in. That's our other sponsor, even though he doesn't know it. You are, you're sponsoring our show. But I told him this morning, I said, you keep up, keep, keep on coming up on all my conversations. This happening again today. And I was actually on a live stream on, um, uh, Substack actually with my friend Michael. We're starting to do a live stream at least once or twice a week. just to talk about random stuff. And, and we talked about, uh, actually, uh, Jay Williams, and he just wanted to say, music question mark, Freebird is a good— is good music. About to jump on a plane, have a great show.

So anyway, that's awesome.

Well, we always love it when—

yeah, Freebird.

Yeah, we always love it when people pop in the chat. So those of you that are—

Yes.

Happen to follow us, pop in the chat and ask us questions. I think that's what makes this show so fun. is that it is, um, it is real, right? So people can talk about it. So the two of you met in Iowa and you were, you were disc jockeys.

So, so—

I was Adam's boss at times. And so Adam and his wife at one point would do a local concert series with me. And his wife at that time would sit with me at the tent and we would send Adam to go put bumper stickers on cars and then we would talk about him.

Oh, so you would dump— you put bumper stickers on cars, like actual stickers you had put on them?

So like, I'd, uh, uh, like window clings, like easily removable, you know, like I'm not putting, not putting like super hard adhesive. But yeah, it was, uh, stickers on cars or like stickers on light poles for the concerts and stuff. Oh yeah, I did all the grunt work. Uh, which was fine, which was, A, it was my job, and B, you know, the two of them got to sit there and look pretty.

And they did.

We need to get some bumper stickers for Drink Up. Adam, you're gonna go out there and place them on cars so we can get some followers. This is part of our plan.

So I have to—

You will, right?

So while I, while I have you, Caress and Sam, I'm gonna apologize. It's the most down the rabbit hole I'll get. Do you remember, uh, the concert? It was People's Court. When it was still People's Court and it was JJ Gray and MoFro.

Yeah.

And, and Rhi had something come up and you had to leave and somebody else had to announce them. So, so it was downtown Des Moines, and for anybody that's from the Des Moines area, you'll remember People's Court used to sit at the top of a 3-story building. It was a cool, cool concert venue, and we were doing a promo thing out front. So again, spinning the wheel on bumper stickers, right? Like, we're doing the whole 9. And then we were supposed to go up, and usually what happened was the interns would get to go enjoy the show, and Caress would do her thing. She'd announce the band, and she'd, you know, be up there and kind of, you know, working while the rest of us fucked off, right? And, uh, and something happened with, uh, with her daughter, and she was like, shit, I can't— I have to go. I can't announce the band. Who can do it? It's like, I got it. Now bear in mind, at the time, right, I was probably 50 pounds lighter. I had hair down to here, right? I was not exactly camera ready. as it were. Um, but I was the only one, right? My wife's incredibly shy. She was sure as shit not getting up on stage, right? And, uh, hi baby.

And, uh, you can join, just have her vlog.

Yeah, so I did, I did. I went up there and I had no idea. The part that got me was I knew it was JJ Gray and Mofro, which if you've not heard of them, they're a good band, right? Uh, but I get up there and I'm like, what am I supposed to say? Like verbatim, what does it need to be? And they were like, you have to say, now please welcome Alligator Records recording artists JJ Gray and MoFro, which is a fucking mouthful to this day, right? Well, you did well. Right. And I got it, but I was so nervous that I was gonna spit this out wrong. And then of course I get off stage and they're like, you were supposed to say presented by Fat Tire Beer. I'm like, guys, first timer. First timer, right? Anyway, just a trip down memory lane I had to take while I had you. But yes, that's, that's Foresta's background, and it's where we met. She was the officiant at Brianna's wedding. Uh, dear, dear friend.

Wow. So we're so fortunate to have you, um, uh, with us. This is so exciting where we go.

Thank you.

So, so you're exploring things, you're on your journey, and I'm so glad you landed with us. Let's, uh, you know, thank you.

Wherever—

ready for all the fun.

Yeah, wherever your next role takes, uh, takes you, hopefully you'll stick with us too as like this side hobby to help us move forward. And I had no idea that, uh, Adam— I guess I didn't— I mean, I knew you were in public PR and like a DJ, and now you're in beverages, which is just interesting that you both would land here with me because I have no background in radio, TV, or broadcasting. Um, other than I tried out for a movie once, by the way, and I didn't get very far, but I did try out for a movie for an extra, right?

And so if you, uh, if you want to— Hollywood, I was gonna say, if you want a fun question, uh, I would say probably 60% of the people I talked to in this business at some point had, uh, aspirations, I'll put it that way, of being in film, television, music, Some sort of creative endeavor. It comes up, it comes up constantly.

You know what's funny though, is all the TV and, uh, producers and movie stars that I've met over the last couple years, they all want to come into our industry and ask our friend Anne and Jody at Art Rev. I know, I'll just give them a little shout out. This is, uh, Art Rev, a little brand that we represent and work with, but they're, they're, uh, 2 people that come from that world, and I ask them, why the heck do you want to come into beverage world? And they're like, oh man, you don't want to go to Hollywood. So they all want to come here.

Do you, do you know how many musicians have stepped into either wine, um, spirits, or coffee?

Well, we had— Correct.

There are a lot that have started their own.

You're reading my mind, you're going to talk about them.

I was gonna talk about him. It was right before I called you a few weeks ago to ask if you wanted to do this with us, Chris. Uh, do you know, do you know by name who Paul Cullen is?

Paul who?

Paul Cullen.

What? The name sounds familiar. Familiar.

Bassist for Bad Company.

Oh, okay. Yeah.

Yeah.

Has his own winery. He was on the show with Sam. I missed, I missed that when I was out of town. He was on the show with Sam.

He's, uh, our, uh, Brandon Crockett, who, uh, owns Rogan Rye. Uh, was the co-host at that time. Adam couldn't make it. But yeah, Paul is the, the bass guitarist. Like, he— like, like, for 10 years with Bad Company. Like, during the Bad— when Bad Company was the thing, you know. I mean, it was— that's when he was, uh, there. So Paul, if you captured this, captured this episode, uh, we loved having you. But yeah, there's so many people. I would love to know that.

Oh yeah.

We should probably get that stat.

You know, I know.

Sorry, go ahead.

Train has their own wine line.

Oh, that's right. I forgot about that.

Oh, maybe Train will find us here, Caress, as we start to promote ourselves, and they can come.

They also have chocolate. They also have a chocolate line.

I didn't know that.

We had a chocolatier on, by the way.

Oh, did you? That is fascinating.

Yeah, really, really, really fascinating. Very, very nice.

One of the members of Aerosmith has a coffee line, has a roasting company.

I mean, beverages are cool, right?

You know, well, I'm just thinking of it's a great way to funnel their money into something else that is going to. make a profit. I mean, if you want to go down the path of Sammy Hagar.

You know what the failure rate is in beverages, by the way, Tress? Do you know that?

I don't.

It's 95% according to BevNet. At least when I was in Del Mar last year, that's the number they threw out on the stage. And it's a failure rate because they lack strategy, knowledge, and resources. And that's why really Adam and I exist, to try to actually give them a path to market from the beginning to the end, right? And I talk about those 4 things, right? Test it, build it, scale it, and sell it. And there's a lot of things that happen in between those 4 things, right? And so let's get into the podcast and maybe how podcasts— and there's so many people, I have so many friends actually. Joy, if you capture this episode, looking forward to talking to you in a couple of weeks. She's actually going to come on. And she's a— I hate to use the word broker, but she's a sales agent out of Miami and she works across the country and has built a lot of great brands. And she's going to come on the show, but she has her own podcast as well. Okay. And it seems like everybody's getting into podcasting. And so—

Do you know where my suspicion is it all started? I think the boom really happened during COVID Ah, when COVID hit, a lot of podcasts really blossomed. as a way for people, um, to connect with one another. I mean, we were—

Well, the technology obviously pushed us here, right? I mean—

Exactly. And a lot of people were connecting, um, with each other through podcasts. And I'll just— some reality stars that I watched, they started a podcast to connect with their fans because you weren't shooting TV shows anymore. You weren't doing scripted or reality shows anymore, and everything was really shut down. And so to stay in touch with their fans, they started a podcast and it was called Pillows and Beer, and it's 2 guys from Southern Charm. And that's how they stayed in touch with their fans to keep things going.

Yeah.

Well, it's very cheap to do a podcast, and if you want to connect with your friends or connect with strangers, You can do a podcast, and businesses can do that as well. If they're shut down, you can still do a podcast about what's in your store. You can sell things online with a podcast. Oh no, that's how a company like LuLaRoe started doing podcasts, selling their clothes through podcasts.

So we can actually start— we can start saying, we can say, hey, you know, today, if you actually put your order in, I actually have a discount code for you on Even. By the way, get 10% and this is where you go. So possibly we could explore that. And hey, Derek, if you're listening to this, I always promote you here on the show, or our friends over at Remix. Anyway, it's funny, it's live social selling.

It was a really, it was a really good way not only to stay connected but to sell things, to show new things, new technology, new clothes. You know, it was a great way to do that. Right. And I think that's kind of how podcasts took off.

It's the technology had to push us here because I remember when we went into lockdown and I was working for Breakthrough Beverage Group here in Minnesota and we were able to maintain, right? But then we started this, like this new technology with it. I know it was like a year after, about 6 months, all of a sudden we started doing these virtual calls. And then because we were nowhere near this, we'd have these like, you know, 10-hour meetings and the whole bit. But I think the technology, I mean, we can be anywhere in the world, the 3 of us right now. And with this technology called Riverside, the way it feeds, it feeds off your computer, you know, to satellite, right? And then it dumps it back into 4K. And it's so incredibly easy just to have these discussions a little bit. But let me ask you a question. So podcast, that's how we got here, right? But it seems like they seem so curated and they seem so scripted and not real. Do you see that, or is that just me?

I don't see it that way, and maybe that's coming from my background because, um, I was doing interviews in a podcast setting. So, you know, concerts stopped for a very long time And I was doing interviews with artists having no idea what they wanted to talk about, just knowing they were going to be up in the middle of the night and we were going to connect through a Zoom call. And they were coming up, they're tired.

Right.

I'm going to broadcast it at noon my time and we're connecting. And so I've got, I'll say, Lewis Capaldi in Scotland. I have no idea what frame of mind he's in. He could be you know, 3 sheets to the wind. And I'm having a conversation with him and it is off the tracks, but it's, it's a great question. He doesn't know the questions I'm gonna ask. I have no idea what his answers are gonna be. But that was how we stayed connected with artists, is we started doing a lot of interviews with artists that were in the UK.

Yeah.

Artists that were, you know, in Long Island, and we're having conversations with listeners on the side of the screen saying, ask them why they never play this song. And I asked the question, they break into a song they've never played live while I'm on the phone, and their listeners are pouring in watching it at the same time. To me, there's no way that can be scripted.

Yeah, and that's what I love about it. And I like— that's why we went this transition in the last year or so to this live broadcast versus just doing a curated podcast. And certainly both have its, you know, I guess a position in the world in terms of how you want to go about it. But what I like about the realness of this is just us having a conversation, right?

Right.

I was talking to one of our folks that are going to come on in a couple of weeks, and she was really nervous. And so I talked to her for about an hour. And I said, we just talk just like we're talking now, right? Where the conversation goes, I don't know where that conversation is going to go. So, there's no planned questions. We do have one question we always ask. And I guess I'm going to ask you now. I'm going to take the question this week, Adam.

Please.

But we ask— there's one consistent question we ask. And maybe as we get into this, we maybe add a couple more. But the one we do ask everybody is, what is the difference between success You know, my answer to this has changed so much over the years.

Um, success to me now is being happy at the end of the day, and failure is coming home in tears.

That's so—

that's it.

Success is being happier than the day, and failure is coming home in tears. So I won't say the names of the people I talked to this week, but I literally talked to 2 women this week, and bless both of them, they happened to check us out here, but they both lost their husbands. One lost her husband to colon cancer, and the other one lost her husband to COVID. And it's deeply, deeply, deeply personal. And I don't know if it was, you know, a greater being or God or whatever you believe in, but it was speaking to me through them, right? To say, wake up, man, and find your joy, right? Because that is— if you're not joyous, that's failure, right? If you're not happy with what you're doing, that's failure. So I love that, actually. That really resonates with me on so many levels. So let's talk about beverages.

Thank you.

I'm sorry, go ahead, go ahead.

Can I go back one moment, Sam? Do you see how that changes as you age? Like, 5 years ago, that would not have been my answer.

Yeah.

But now you just get into, you have to be happy.

Yeah, that's— so, Adam, so think about in 5 years, you'll find happiness and be there.

So I, I, uh, sorry. No, you're— it's, it's as the, you know, As the, uh, not the elder statesman on this call, right? As the young buck here. That's for you, Sam. That's for you. Yeah. Um, um, I'll even, you know, I'll turn— I turn 36 in 4 days. Next Wednesday is my birthday. I know, right? Uh-huh. That was for you guys. Uh, And it's, it's funny, I, I, there's only been a few jobs and, and they're quickly fading into the mist memory-wise that I've truly not enjoyed. Um, but, you know, Bree and I have mentioned it before, you know, she's going to school to get her master's to become a therapist. And, and, you know, I've, I've really enjoyed being in beverage ever since I got into it. I even enjoyed retail minus the schedule. Right, like minus working Black Fridays and being up at all hours in the morning. Like, and so even at 36, and you know, Bree's obviously very close to my age, and so when she was kind of going through her, her review of things, I'll call it that, a couple years ago and was like, well, what do I do with my life? I'm like, not what you're doing now. Like, I don't know what to tell you to do, but you're clearly fucking miserable right now and We're, you know, it's one thing if you're 20 and you've got bills to pay, but like, we're closer to 40 than we'll ever be to 18 again, and I ain't got time for this shit, right? And you shouldn't either. And she was like, fuck it, I'm gonna go back to school. Okay, right? Um, so I, I mean, I completely agree. I think there's a lot to be said for all the answers that we get to that question. But yeah, I mean, not that you're not gonna have some days where, I mean, even loving what I do, and you guys both will, you know, understand this, like There's some days I'm like, nothing bad's gonna happen today and I'm gonna enjoy a lot of what I do. I just don't fucking wanna. I'm tired. I'd rather go for a bike ride. I'd rather go play guitar. Most of the time I get to the end of my day, I'm like, that was fun. And that to me is success, right?

It's funny you say that. It's like, you know, there's always going to be bad, but all bad always turns into good. And I always— I did this post about Even Steven from Seinfeld. You lose a 20 and gain a 20. I can't tell you how many 20s I lost this week, but you know what the good news is? I got a lot of 20s on the table coming. So my partner Alicia hears that, which I know she is. She actually says good morning, Karras. So she actually— shout out to you and the whole bit. But this is, uh, so this podcast thing, it's just really interesting to me. I, you know, can I tell you how I started this? Do you both know this, Adam? Maybe you do, but DeCrest, do you know how I started this thing?

No.

I know, I heard the story. I couldn't tell you.

I, I had no idea what I was doing, and I was listening to podcasts to learn how to sell insurance because I'm a fully licensed insurance agent. Okay, so when I lost my job at Breakthrough, you know, my dad sold insurance, so I'm like, I'm gonna get my insurance license and I'm gonna go sell insurance because you know what, I'm not scared to pick up the phone and call people, right? So I started this journey. So I'm listening to all these podcasts, how to sell like health and life and annuities and, you know, life insurance and, you know, medical, the whole bit, right? And preparing for my test. But there was a lady, and I— and forgive me for not remembering who she was, but she was like on some type of like Riverside, because Riverside was something called something before it was called Riverside. But it was a— I was just listening to these podcasts. I'm like, man, I could do that. I, you know, I could Talk about like beverages, right? So I, I shit you not, and sorry for the cussing, but you can actually find the original podcast on Spotify, and it's about Jack Daniel's and the price worth goods charged. And I scripted it out, I put everything on a piece of paper, and it's like 6 minutes long, and I'm nervous and I'm reading the whole thing. But that's where it all began. And then I did my next podcast. And I said, I'm gonna make them like 2 or 3 minutes long and the whole bit. So then kind of fast forward like a couple months or whatever, I see this guy pop up on the screen. Gonna get emotional a little bit, but he pops on the screen and it's my friend Adam, and he's talking about shit I don't know about. I've been in the beverage business for, I don't know, um, 40 years, right? Or 37 years at the time. And this guy is like talking about like how to like, you know, what's in the formalization of the product and how you go about all these steps. So I reach out to Adam and I'm like, hey, I'm Sam Anderson. I know Janet. I interviewed you guys a long time ago. It didn't work out, but I like what you're bringing.

Right.

And then he ended up coming on the podcast probably about like a half year or a year after I kind of started this journey, right? And then we started doing it again, right? And we had no idea what we were doing. It was just Adam and Sam just talking about stuff, right? And now you fast forward to now, we have a producer, we have this podcast, we've had incredible people come on, and it just— it's just— it's just been a great journey. I don't know why I went so deep, but it's just really—

we're here. It brings you joy.

Yeah.

Yeah. I also didn't know, uh, Uh, I didn't know it started with you listening to podcasts to try and sell insurance. That's funny. Uh, I do remember that though. Fucking lab learnings. Shout out to the, the, you know, minute-long lab learnings I used to do. I haven't thought about them.

They weren't a minute long, Adam. Those were like 10 or 15 minutes long.

I tried to keep them to a minute. We all know how I run my mouth.

It was, it was—

I'm not good at editing that either.

You were a full-on professor, man. Hey, real quick, I got a call. I can make sure we do a good job at this, Adam. So why don't you take Alicia's comment?

Yeah. Yeah. She said, uh, if you spend most hours that you are awake at a job, you need to be passionate about what you do. Uh, which is completely true. Couldn't agree more. Also, Mr. Bachman. So Ryan Bachman had a couple comments. He said, some of my favorite people in the industry have been musicians for 20+ years. Don't forget about, uh, Punk Bunny Coffee by Green Day. Um, which also shout out to Ryan. We need to get you on at some point, but, uh, he, uh, he just had hip replacement surgery. 3 days ago.

Uh, Ryan Botman, the master formulator, the guy that created Even and the whole bit, the formulation behind it?

Oh yes, yes, just had hip replacement surgery and is doing fine. Things are going well, but he's clearly fucking in recovery.

Holy cow.

Yeah, so know what types of drugs he's on, uh, but hey, bring on the questions, Ryan. Uh, we'd love to, love to hear them while you're actually, um, exposed a little bit. We would, uh, we would love Love that for sure. Anybody else out there in the land of comments?

I don't think so. Let me refresh again. It usually takes a second. Um, Chris, I'm curious because again, this is not my, not my forte by any stretch, but, uh, I'm curious like from your perspective, so from a broadcaster's perspective on, you know, even, even from a consumer's standpoint of view, like You see these podcasts and then you see, um, the little clips on like the Instagram and the TikTok. So I guess from your perspective, like, how does, how does a long-form medium like podcasting or like radio interviews or whatever translate in terms of engagement, I guess, to an Instagram or a TikTok or a place where obviously, I mean, you're going from like an hour or a 30-minute conversation to A 30-second or 60-second clip.

Yeah. Hey, by the way, you click the button, it's making some weird noise, by the way, to let you know.

Let me see if I mute myself.

Yeah, that's right. It's always— this is when we go live, raw, and real. I apologize.

Where it goes, um, how it translates is you would want to take like a question you might have for an artist, like adding— like asking, um, Ed Sheeran, what would success be to you? Like, what, what thing would mean success to you? And taking that answer, clipping it into a minute, a minute and a half, putting that out on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram with the, hey, you want to know more? Go here and have the entire interview at a website. And you could trickle a few of those out on different social media. Platforms, and that engages the listener to want to know more. Uh, yeah, it's like that's how you do that.

Yeah, like the hook. I know, I think you lose people within a minute. Um, I think there are people who are— is it swipe left, swipe right? I mean, swipe down, up. I think people are moving really quick because media is coming at them in a lot of different, uh, ways for sure. That's where we're excited to have you involved with us because I believe what we bring here is of great value. That's why we— it's become that, is people ask, why would you have someone that, you know, from a technology company? Because all the companies we touch can use that technology to help drive their business.

Absolutely.

At the end of the day.

And that's why you just want that hook. And if someone's an Ed Sheeran fan, they'll go there. If someone listens to that hook and they're like, really, that's what he's about? He's all about family. I, I wasn't a fan, but now I might want to know what else he has to say.

Yeah, I mean, there's no difference between us.

They want to engage more.

There's no difference between us or Joe— Joey, or Joey— sorry, Joey. But people have a podcast, go do the podcast and then promote your podcast. That's one of the things we haven't done. So that's something why we're actually working with you is to help us actually get this organized and actually to bring the value that people can use From listening to podcasts like this. So maybe the story is, you know, the podcast started in COVID, right? And now people have evolved. The technologies help us involved. And now, now that you have a podcast, what are you doing to actually get people to know that you have a podcast and how you can help them, right?

I thought last week when we spoke with Sean, I thought that was fascinating. Sean's stories and how. he told the story was just— I was at the edge of my seat. And when you find someone who's a great storyteller, you want to share that with everybody. And I thought he was fascinating. People shouldn't miss out on that type of storytelling, even if you don't drink tequila, even if, you know, G4 you know nothing about.

This guy was selling pasta in Chicago as a marketer, and now he's selling G4 Tequila and Mezcal, one of the hottest brands in the category right now. Think about that. It was a very interesting story. It's often—

But even if you don't like— yeah, even if you don't like tequila, even if you don't like mezcal, right?

But it's a story, right? It's like— and you take tequila out of it and insert services, take services out and insert, you know, whatever you may— you do, you know, it's like you know, broadcasting or getting into music like you're exploring, Chris, whatever it may be, is just find your passion. It was clearly that he had passion with purpose, and he showed up on our podcast, you know. And, uh, and, and that's—

you'll learn so much about yourself, right? You'll learn so much about yourself just by listening to this guy.

Yeah. So what— so, so you've been watching us, you got a chance to visit with us, see what we do. So give us some feedback. Tell us what we're doing wrong and what do we need to do in terms of make things right and where is it that we need to go with the podcast. And I'm sure all you other podcasters out there are brand builders. Let's listen to the expert here and let her tell us.

Not the expert, but I always have strong opinions like—

You are, look, you are Adam Paul. You are obviously an expert.

So come on, we need to bring awareness. Okay, that's, that's what we need to do. People need to know you guys are out here and doing this because I think what, what you're doing is great. I think the interviews are great, the, um, the guests are great. Just we need to bring more awareness to the podcast, and we're gonna do that.

Yeah, and that's anybody that has a podcast. Yeah, good.

We've got a goal and we're going to tackle it. So, you know, we've, we've got the right guests, we've got the right host, we just need to tackle it.

I'm curious, kind of going back to the, the, you know, and I hate to beat a dead horse with like a TikTok and things like that, but, but when it comes in, part of the reason, obviously, like when I called you, part of the reason was like, hey, we're not taking advantage of these little clips or these questions or these hooks.

Right? Mm-hmm.

I guess my, you know, although yes, it maybe was a different industry, you still had, you know, long-form interviews and these hooks and you'd post, you know. I think about like, um, you've mentioned a few artists, or I think about, uh, uh, Andy Hall and his relationship with Metallica and those, you know, types of interviews, or, or, you know, um, gosh, who else? Uh, just all of it, right? Like when we used to do the, the, you know, Susie and Sam would do the, the, um, Laserfest interviews behind the stage, you know, and they'd have the little clips, right?

Right.

When it's— I guess my question is, for platforms like that, I guess I don't have enough of an understanding for me of like— music's one of those things where, oh, somebody's talking to an artist I like, I'll listen, and then I find it interesting, and then I'll go listen to the long-form one. Like, I've been trying to get really into figuring out how to use things like this to get in front of people who maybe don't know that beverage or CPG is something that interests them until they see a clip from us, right? Because I was that person. Like, I knew I wanted to be in beverage. I had no idea what commercial beverage was until I started looking at like the BevSource job postings and seeing You know, okay, well, here, you know, watching shows like How It's Made, you know, like that was my like, oh, the door's open. I can, I'm poking through the keyhole, you know? And so how do you, or I guess what's your perspective on finding the right ways to pick out those hooks and get them in front of people who maybe otherwise wouldn't care or wouldn't know to find them, right?

Well, we've like listening to Sean last week, we had several clips. That we can use. It took a while for me to get accustomed to using Riverside, so I had to get up and running with Riverside. Um, but we had clips last week that we could use from Sean, um, and we'll do the same. We will clip the piece we want to use, and I think Sam's right, a minute is about all we want to use for a clip.

Sure.

We'll clip a piece of content, we'll brand it at the beginning and at the end. And we'll use text saying for more, and the whole interview will be housed at the website.

Sure.

Yeah, to hear more from this interview, go here, right?

Yeah, I know one thing we're trying to figure out too for everybody is— and Chris, we're talking about this— is how do we have like the pre-podcast and the post-podcast?

Because we—

a lot goes on before this, even we come on the So if you're a brand or a podcaster, a lot goes on before this actually happens, believe it or not. And those are things that would be really fun to share with folks, right?

So, Adam, you still look confused. Did we— did I answer your question right?

Or not confused. It's, it's a, um, you'll get used to that just being my face, um, as Sam has. Um, it's just, uh, like So I'll— I don't know, I'm just, I'm excited to see it in action. So like, I'll give you a different example. So I made a few phone calls.

No pressure.

Right. Uh, uh, I made a few phone calls a couple weeks ago to, uh, like local schools, like just that are physically close to me, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

And said— and of course it's summer, so like getting people to actually answer was a bit of a bear. I did not pick the right time. Um, so we'll try them again here in a few weeks. But, um, I called and I was just like, hey, this is gonna sound really random. Um, this is who I am. This is the industry I work in. I don't know if you have like a career growth person or like a, you know, like a counselor for career choices, or like if there's any value in me talking about what I do, just because again, like speaking for myself, when I was in high school, when I was in college, like And yeah, I had delusions of grandeur and working in the music industry, but like, I never knew that, that CPG or this world existed, let alone if I was interested in it, right?

Right.

And so I'll just be— the look on my face is just, um, curious to see that as, you know, now we have you helping us out, as we have these smaller clips and we have more of a presence on these other communities, like, do we get, you know, people from the music industry, people from TV and film, people from the accounting world, you know, like whatever other realm of the world that's like, oh, I never even considered that. Now I want to talk to you guys. I want to learn more. Maybe I want to do something on my own, or maybe I can help. Right. Just that's the, the, the, you know, it's the face of like, all right, I wonder how that's, you know, like, I wonder what's going to happen.

They're wondering if what we did in music is going to translate to beverage.

Yeah, right? I mean, like, because when I— so for example, right, the whole like Sean, I'll pick on Sean from last week. So like he was doing pasta and now he's doing tequila. To me, that's fascinating, right? But if we, if we took that out as a 30-second—

Does that resonate with anyone else?

Yes. Does that resonate with other people enough to make them want to learn more?

Well, maybe ask a question and do a poll. Like you say, hey, look, uh, from pasta to tequila, does this interest you? If so, Come watch us on Spotify.

Let me ask you this. If you heard a clip, um, this company used to be owned by a criminal and now, you know, it's owned by a family, does that interest you at all? I mean, it depends on what—

The investor got ripped off, right? And I've heard that story from so many brands, by the way. There's some bad behavior going on or something in the beverage business from some people. So be careful, folks out there.

No, I think you're, I think you're, you're picking up what I'm very poorly trying to put down, Caress. And that is like, you know, true crime is a very popular way to get people's attention. You know, you're looking for a new podcast. It's like, oh, you know, even if it's not like murder, even if it's just business crime, if it's fraud, if it like, that's a really common hook, right? Um, uh, you know, the origin stories of, you know, the How It's Made or the, the How I Built This, the Guy Raz podcast, like, again, a very common hook. And so I'm just, I don't know, I guess I'm, I'm just kind of waxing poetic about like, well, I wonder what we will discover our useful hook to be of as we talk to these people. This is the common theme and this is what people outside the industry resonate with, right?

Well, I can tell you something.

Yeah. And it's all about the hooks. And Sean, you know, one of the hooks that I thought was in there was, you know, Sean saying, I found my purpose in tequila and supporting these people in this small town who, you know, now this is their, their generational purpose.

Right.

Just the way he put it so eloquently, it just made me stop and think. Yeah.

I think what we bring here is that—

So, are they your purpose? The way he put that was so beautiful, and it made me think, how do we want to go back and listen?

Yeah, yeah.

It's just that you have to find the right clip.

Yeah, I think what we bring here—

Or otherwise we're just going to play musical clips.

Yeah.

Can you guys hear me? I don't know, maybe— can you hear me?

Hello? Can you hear me?

Yeah, no, we got you.

Yes, I can.

Sorry. I, uh, I think what we bring here is, uh, we bring incredible value to brands in our business and founders that don't know where to go or what resources they have at their exposure to make, you know, to help drive their business. And we were just talking about before we recorded is we've had like tastemakers, you know, and on which they actually go do intercept work, you know, out and, you know, maybe it could be out like at a park and they actually have people come in and actually answer questions about brands. And we're talking about Adam. Calanine, which, you know, he actually has like a SaaS company that actually helps, you know, aggregate and bring those finances together. He was on Shark Tank. Or Merchandise on Demand, which basically you could go out and actually have fans create their own art, and then you have the— once they do it, then you have that art you can use in your campaigns at a very inexpensive price. Or Vidlo, China Morgan, where you can actually do 30-second clips And then once you get those clips, they've already opted in. You can use those clips in your marketing and building your brand. You know, Lisa Fagan at Promolytics, which basically brands get emails all the time and they don't do anything with it. So the things I've learned here, I'm hoping people that show up here actually say, holy cow, I can go talk to Mod, Promolytics, VidLo, you know, Adam's company to help drive my business without breaking my bank. That's what's been resonating with me. Now, I don't know how to convey that. I don't, Chris, I don't know how to— I don't know how to convey that. But do you?

I think, I think our guests need to know that this is a safe space and that this is, um, there's no reason to be nervous. You know, you're just, you're chatting with some friends, you're asking some questions. Uh, maybe they're posing questions to the both of you about what is the best way for me to go about this. Or maybe they're telling their story, how they got into something. Um, you know, it's really— if it's easier for them to think about it, they're just talking to the 3 of us, the 2 of you, and there's no reason to be nervous. Throw the nerves out the window. You know, they're just talking, chit-chatting. It's easy.

Yeah.

But the people that want to find Drink Up, the reason you come up to Drink Up is because you're going to come to a space and you're going to be able to sit back, grab your favorite beverage, and learn about maybe some things that you didn't know existed. I had no idea that Promalytics and MOD and Vidlo and, um, you know, existed. You know, it's these things.

I mean, that's the, that's the, um, I mean, again, I'm beating a dead horse, but I think that's the, um, I don't know.

Pick your packer, right? Pick your packer. Remember that guy?

Uh, Gabe? Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, you can literally go to Gabe's website and you can find a co-packer anywhere in the US, I believe. Is that correct, Adam?

Yeah, yeah, it's, um, again, it's why I talked about like reaching out to the schools, whatever, like I, I I was talking to somebody the other day, and I'm getting a little bit off topic, but about— is a company I'm close with that they're required to be in office, right?

Yeah.

And, uh, don't get me wrong, there's a lot of benefits to working remote. That said, one of the drawbacks is like, I don't— like doing this, I assume, I assume everybody I talk to, and most of the time that's true, especially professionally, Wants to know, you know, would love to take 3 hours and deep dive with everyone they talk to on how stuff's going with their business and how that's impacting their personal life and how they grew it and how they started. And like, because that's how me and all the people I talk to is just how our brains operate. But for the, for the, you know, younger person or for the person who's earlier in their career or for the person who's just got a fucking rent bill due, you know, like What do they care about? What do they want to know? What helps their day? Right. And again, maybe that's the stuff we're talking about and maybe it's not, but I guess that's where my curiosity falls is like, how does, how does what we're discussing translate to even that level? Right. And I think, yeah, I, again, I'm, I'm just excited to see where it goes. I think it'll be super fun. But, uh, that's the, that's the question that keep, you know, people always ask, what's the question that keeps you up at night? And it's that, right?

Yeah. I think if you want to slow down. You know, go for a walk. I mean, every time I do these podcasts, by the way, maybe you know this, I actually will leave my house, put my iPod in, and I'll actually go and listen to what we just talked about. And it's so incredible, by the way, the things that are said during the discussion that I go back and go, wow, I didn't realize that was said, or that was a new learning for me personally. So I think this is a space, a safe space. Like you said, Chris, you can come in and just let your hair down and just have a conversation with us. And it's real that people can show up here and they can, they can share and learn. And that's—

And it doesn't cost you $50 to get into the room.

Yeah, it's free, by the way. And then it's funny you say that. I could go down a rabbit hole. As Adam says, I can talk about LinkedIn and all these people like, hey, join my cohort for $3,000. Exactly.

I can't tell you how many people I talk to a week.

I probably talk to 3 or 4 people a week. They're struggling, they're trying to find a job. I'm like, look, I'm gonna give you $2,000 worth of knowledge that I paid for for free. And they're like, why? Because I shouldn't have paid $2,000 for it, number one. But 2 is I like you and I want to see you be successful. And that's, at the end of the day, that's why I believe Drink Up is here, is to actually give that knowledge You know, for free. And if you want to come sip along with us and enjoy the ride, and hell, come on the podcast yourself, reach out to us. I think you, you should do that. So, you know, we have, we have about 10 more minutes or so, uh, Caressa. So I'm gonna really give the floor to you to talk about this, like, where are we at in this discussion in your estimation, and where do we want to take the next 12 minutes or so?

Well, anyone who is listening, I encourage you to share this with your friends, your coworkers, people you know who would be interested in this podcast. So first of all, share this podcast. We have all of the podcasts up on Spotify. So go to Spotify and listen to the rest of the The podcasts that are posted. You're gonna find some great information. They've been referring all morning to podcasts that you may have missed out on. Go back and listen to the podcasts that are posted. There are some nuggets in there that are going to give you information, that are going to make you smile, that are going to make you kind of scratch your head and think, wow, I didn't know that. But that's great. Great, that's wonderful information. I know somebody who's going to benefit from that. So go back, listen to all of the podcasts, share them with your friends, and then get ready, buckle up, because we've got some amazing guests that are already booked that I want you to look forward to. Because we've got wheels under us, we're ready to run. And if you want to be on the podcast, reach out, let us know, because we are booking more and more guests. And if you want to be a part, join us now, reach out, and don't be nervous. This is just chatting with friends. Share your story. Doesn't cost anything to join us. Just be ready to grab your coffee and have some fun. That's what I have to say.

It reminds me, as you were talking, uh, and you see it on, on LinkedIn, either from LinkedIn directly or you know, somebody else every now and again of like the number of people, like the stats. If you ever look at this, I find this fascinating because I'm a nerd. Uh, if you find the stats on like the number of people who get on LinkedIn, read content, but don't engage or post themselves, right? It's a massive number. Like it's a huge ratio. Like the number of people that will get on and, you know, watch stuff like this or read posts.

90% of the people never engage.

Exactly right. So like I'll have people, I met somebody at trade show this past week who was like, oh, I love your content. I'm like, I don't—

What content?

Well, right, and like, I know that we're connected and I think sometimes I see you like it, but she's like, oh, I read every one. I'm like, hmm, okay. Which again, like, super thrilled that she does so, very appreciative. I'm not saying you have to interact with it in a certain way, but to Caressa's point, it's like Okay, I want to hear what you have to say too, right? Like, I do this because I want to hear stories from other people. So for the love of God, say something, write a comment, join the podcast, like, come, come hang out, right?

Yeah. Can someone—

I think at a certain age people get, um, afraid to engage.

Yeah, I mean—

Do you think that's just a fear that comes over us, or—

Well, maybe, I don't know. Like, you know, as I get older, I'm not afraid to do anything, right? I've jumped off the the high dive. And I'm more— I'm less risk-averse now than I've ever been, quite frankly. Before I forget, I have to call one of our visitors. Alicia says, I always take away tangible new inspiration from your guests. There is always nuggets to walk away with. That's the magic of listening to— and I am biased, Saving this Drink Up podcast. So Alicia, man, thank you so much for for saying that, and thank you for coming up here every week. You got to come back on, by the way. She did. She's camera shy, but she did ride the wave with us and did a fantastic job, by the way. So that is an episode, by the way. You have to you have to give that a listen. That was with my partner that helps. drive our business and brings great value to everybody every, every, every tool.

Yeah, I think that is wonderful. From, from, again, from my perspective, I, I can— I'm obviously prone to, again, running my mouth, but like, it's definitely something where the longer I'm in the industry, the, the more things I do, the more like Trying to eliminate the fear of being irrelevant, right? Like, I want to be involved in these conversations. I want to both, both because, you know, I have, I have stuff that I want people to know if it's useful, right? And I have things that I want to communicate, but also because I want to make sure that I stay informed. And whether it's, you know, the latest and greatest formulation technology or, you know, operational efficiencies or TikTok or AI or whatever it is, like, you know, I'm not to a point where I, you know, wake up every day sweating bullets, but it is something where I'm like, the world isn't moving incredibly quickly and things are changing constantly. And like stuff like this, I feel like, and, you know, very appreciative to Sam for inviting me on board several years ago, like helps me stay tuned in because otherwise, like, again, working remotely, it'd be really easy to just live in my own bubble and kind of get forgotten about or forget, you know, where things are going. And that makes me nervous. And so it's inviting people into— like, I always hate— it frustrates me to no end when I hear about people who, you know, 55, 60, 65, and it's like, well, they've been at the same company for years, and so now they can't leave and they're gonna have a hard time getting a job and blah, blah, blah. I hate that shit. I think it's stupid. I get it, it happens, but I think it's dumb. And stuff like this, I think, is one of the ways to prevent it from happening, right?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, this has kept me grounded in terms of, uh, the knowledge gained here, because sometimes, like, you think you know it all, right? I mean, I, I, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the smartest one in the room, and I don't know it all. And all these incredible guests that have come on with their knowledge And caress from the podcasting world and broadcasting and producing world. I, I'm here to learn. So wherever you want to help us take this to bring the knowledge to the folks and get people to show here, up here, either as a guest or just to participate in the chat, I would love to. We're excited what that the future is going to bring because I believe we have a purpose. Not that we didn't have one before, but I think we even have a greater purpose now. And discovering that. And I'm going to leave here today. I'm going to go put my, my AirPods in, and I'm going to probably go and listen to what is that purpose that we found. I think that we said it somewhere in here, uh, in the discussion.

Well, thank you for inviting me along. I'm very excited. Um, I've been in my bubble for too long and ready to, uh, ready to work, and I'm glad I get to work with the both of you. And I really think that there's so much people who are not in the beverage world can learn from the podcast. If you're, if you're not connected to the beverage world, I think there are a lot of nuggets that are going to translate to different industries and just to life in general.

Oh, 100%. Like, we're going to have a guest on, and I'm going to butcher their name, but they have a, they have a sparkling wine champagne out of Miami. And I was talking to her earlier this week, and the story that she's going to bring to this, this podcast, this in a couple weeks, is incredible. You don't want to miss that. But, you know, we got to do a better job of communicating it. A lot of times I'll do it like the day before. Here it is on LinkedIn. But we need to let people know about these folks that are coming on to talk to us because— and then the good news is we record it, right? And then we actually turn it into like fancy podcasts with the captions underneath and the cool, like, the things go back and forth in the moments and the whole bit. But, uh, nothing better than just joining us on a Saturday morning. And sometimes we will show up on a Wednesday or Thursday. I guess, Chris, you'll decide that for Adam and I from now on in terms of how we're gonna—

Absolutely.

We're gonna schedule this thing and figure this thing out. But any closing comments? So, uh, Cress, I'll give you a closing comment, Adam, and then I'll wrap up.

Closing comment for me, I'm just really excited about the guests that are coming up. Um, I think we've got some really great ones, uh, coming up. I'm looking forward to that, looking forward to having some people reach out after listening to the podcast today, and excited to have some That would be great.

And we have Adam.

Well, so before we go, Ryan, uh, Mr. Bachman's still hanging with us to the bitter end. He said, I'm guilty, uh, mine came from burnout of promoting music on Instagram and Facebook for years, which, Therese, I'm sure you can relate to. Um, I also have considered more recently if posting can be helpful to my immediate circle. Just recently started posting on LinkedIn. Sharing recipes. Would love to know how I can post to make it more useful for my colleagues and their businesses. Thanks for a great show today, guys. A, Ryan, thank you. B, Ryan has been posting food recipes and sharing photos. He's an amazing cook, and there's not many things in this world that will make me jealous or like. I love my wife's cooking. I'll put it that way. But when Ryan posts his recipes online, I'm like, Bree needs to step up.

So we're not going to meet at that whatever that food place we went to next time. I want to go meet and see the mad lab or whatever that he has. Yeah, we're gonna go. Ryan, we're coming over, so when you're ready, just know that I'm inviting myself over for the film.

Send me Ryan's information because I need to see this.

Yeah, we're gonna go to Ryan's house. It's, it's so good. Um, so I guess, yeah, I mean, my parting thought I think is, um, I'm just excited. I mean, obviously to be in a spot, you know, where I don't know, share the love, whatever you want to call it. Sam was kind enough to call me a few years ago and invite me to do this with him. And so to be able to do the same thing and call Caress and see if she's interested is super cool. And the fact that, you know, you are, and now that we have you to kind of be the— I think the ethos is still the same, but having you to be able to be here and be kind of the tip of the spear and help us be a little more focused and, you know, pointed in being able to connect with people is just It's super fun. I'm looking forward to it.

Yeah, well, first of all, Alicia, you'd appreciate Adam's comment on being focused and pointed because my partner always constantly is talking to me. Okay, let's, uh, let's focus here. This is what we're gonna do this week. This is what's in front of us right now. Uh, so that's one of the reasons that, uh, we made a decision to partner with you, Carissa. Thanks for coming on to actually organize it because I'll never I'll be the first to admit that, you know, I go a lot of different directions and I go really fast. Right. As a matter of fact, I did this exercise. Your old boss from BevSource, and she actually sent me— so she did a little exercise. She asked ChatGPT about her personality or trait or whatever, and then she sent it to me. She didn't send it, she didn't post, but she actually shared it with me. And then I automatically encouraged me to go do the same, and I shared it back with her. And what I discovered is I gotta stick with it. I'm always— I'm a big idea guy. I'm like, okay, let's go down that direction.

Great.

Okay, just stop here. Let's go over here. So I got to stick with it, right?

Yeah.

And, uh, that's something that I think having you involved with us to like lay out a clear plan of attack of how we're going to actually bring value, uh, to people here, and then how we communicate what we have to them so they know when to show up and actually take advantage of all these insights in these guests that we bring on every week. So incredibly excited. Again, just remind you, uh, we'll actually, uh, stream it, but we're on, uh, Instagram. We'll be on Facebook on Monday, soon to have our own website, and you can find us on Spotify. So thank you both for joining us this week, and thanks everybody. Have a great Saturday.

Thank you.