Elevator Talk Ep. 19: Spicegrove, On The Rocks Cocktails, RX Water, Wild Willett Food, reBLEND

Ray I'm Ray [00:16] Hey, folks, thanks for tuning in to another episode of Bevnet's Elevator Talk live stream. I'm Ray I'm Ray Lateef. Actually, I don't know who I am. I'm Ray Latif, the editor and producer of Bevnet's Taste Radio podcast, the number one podcast for the food and beverage industry. Once again, Elevator Talk live stream features entrepreneurs representing the most innovative and disruptive brands from across our industry. We're excited to hear about their news and new products related to their brands. Joining me as a co-host for this episode is Vanessa Walker, who's the founder of Millennial Brands Consulting. Vanessa, how are you?

Speaker 2 [00:48] I'm doing great. How are you?

Ray I'm Ray [00:50] Pretty good. That's the first time I've flubbed my name in, I think like anything I've done, so that's a new one for me.

Speaker 2 [00:55] I was going to cover it for you. If you, if you couldn't get there, I was going to jump in.

Ray I'm Ray [01:00] I appreciate that, Vanessa, and I appreciate it because you've been a trusted colleague of mine for many years. Uh, I remember you from back in the LaCroix days, and, uh, you know, for folks who aren't familiar with you and what you do, can you tell us a bit about your background and what you do with Millennial Brands Consulting?

Speaker 2 [01:17] Sure. So, um, I'm old at this point. I'm getting old. I feel old, but, uh, I've been in, uh, CPG and, and really beverages for over 25 years now. And most recently I was at Celsius, and that was a brand that was around for probably 10 years, helped to turn the positioning around. Prior to Celsius, I was at LaCroix in the early days when it was just a very small regional brand, and I re-envisioned, reimagined that brand. Um, I was there for 8 years leading the brand. 2008 to 2016. I also did a children's beverage startup and then earlier on in my career, I was a Target stores regional buyer for beverages and foods, and prior to that, I was in the stores for four years, kind of working in retail. And that's, that's about it. That's an abridged version.

Ray I'm Ray [02:07] Well, that abridged version is pretty impressive. Uh, retail, marketing, branding, uh, what don't you do? Um, so, Millennial Brands Consulting, you know, I'm familiar with the company and the firm. Um, you know, you've worked with a lot of early stage and emerging brands to scale and develop in this really competitive market. Um, you know, what are some of the priorities that you see for young brands in getting to where they need to go to be successful?

Speaker 2 [02:35] Yeah, it is such an important thing to understand your position, really stand for something. Sometimes we see these brands, the, the founder has a lot of passion, the package looks awesome, but it doesn't necessarily communicate any one specific thing. And when you, when you find someone and you ask them. They share their backstory, they're passionate, but to me, guiding someone through what segment of the industry are you falling into? Who are you competing against? Where ultimately do you expect the consumer to find you on the shelf? Those are all critical components of a strong foundation. And really millennial brands, my, myself, my role, uh, colleagues at Millennial Brands, really what I see as guiding employees of other companies is really asking them. You know, aside from what you'd hoped it would be, what are the mechanics of what you're gonna find here? Are you really getting it done or are you missing? Are you clicking on all cylinders or almost getting there?

Ray I'm Ray [03:35] Well, uh, you know, that's a lot to, uh, that's a lot to take in and it's a lot to strategize around. Um, but I have a feeling that you have some great advice and thoughts and tips for the brands and entrepreneurs you're gonna be speaking with today on how to get there. So thank you so much for joining us today. Once again, if you're just tuning in, this is Bevnet's Elevator Talk live stream. We're going to be chatting with 5 entrepreneurs representing innovative Disruptive brands from across the country. Joining me as a co-host for this episode is Vanessa Walker from Millennial Brands Consulting. Vanessa, are you ready to get to our first

Speaker 2 [04:05] guest? I

Ray I'm Ray [04:06] am. Fantastic. That first guest is Audrey Powell, who's the founder and CEO of Spice Grove. Audrey, how are you?

Speaker 3 [04:13] Hi guys, how are you? Thanks for having me on.

Ray I'm Ray [04:16] Thank you so much for being with us. Spicegrove. Love the name. What do you guys do?

Speaker 3 [04:21] So I create a hibiscus beverage. Um, it's a Sweetened and unsweetened flavor, um, which is pretty much all natural, made with all natural ingredients. Um, it has 5 ingredients, which is the hibiscus petals, ginger, uh, cinnamon, lime peel, and allspice, and it's brewed and bottled and we have a shelf life of 2 years um in this beverage with no preservatives.

Ray I'm Ray [04:48] Very cool. How long have you been on the market?

Speaker 3 [04:50] I've been on the market. I launched this product two years ago, um, April of 2018, um, in the Brooklyn, New York area. I'm currently in the Maplewood, New Jersey area, but still the New York, New Jersey area. So two years ago, I started, um, officially on the commercial market.

Ray I'm Ray [05:07] And I, I've been to your website and it looks like you do, uh, quite a bit of direct to consumer, but where is your product sold otherwise? Uh, you know, what's your retail footprint look like?

Speaker 3 [05:17] Yeah, so currently we're in some dialed-in retailers in the New York, New Jersey area and other places, smaller shops around the country. So um we're in Brooklyn, we're in Manhattan here in several places in New Jersey, a few places down in the Boston area as well, um, as well as even in the Bahamas, believe it or not, um, and Florida and North Carolina.

Ray I'm Ray [05:41] Fantastic. A spicy hibiscus drink is how uh it's positioned on your label, um. You know, Vanessa, I'm curious as to your thoughts about the branding, the positioning of this product, particularly within a pretty competitive environment for super fruit drink beverages. Or superfruit-based beverages, that is.

Speaker 2 [06:04] Yeah, so first of all, congratulations. Uh, the brand looks beautiful and I see it's in glass, which is great.

Speaker 3 [06:12] Thank you.

Speaker 2 [06:13] Well, you know, I, I guess a question I would have, uh, it's so natural and there's so many exciting things, um, and components about the brand. It's shelf stable. Um, how are you, what, what is making it shelf stable?

Speaker 3 [06:27] So uh hibiscus, um, is extremely high acidic food. And it has a very low pH balance. So because of those components, um, the shelf life on the product is extremely long. So we have a 2-year shelf life unopened. Um, Once opened, of course, we ask that you put it in the refrigerator, um, and it will stay in the refrigerator for another 34 months.

Speaker 2 [06:53] Great. So, a question, a, a burning question I have here when I look at this, and I know it's shelf stable, you know, I've always believed that placement is the most educational aspect of growing your brand and explaining to the consumer who you are, why they're trying, what, what can they expect when they purchase your item? So being shelf stable, who do you consider your competitors? And if they are refrigerated, and I expect that you're going to say some that are refrigerated, how are you going to get close to them because you'll be placed in another unrefrigerated area?

Speaker 3 [07:31] Well, that's a very good question, Vanessa. Um, based on my experience with the dialed-in retailers that's carrying the product right now, they are placed in the refrigerator. Um, so they're next to that, you know, uh, green tea or iced tea or other, um, drink as such as hibiscus ginger drinks. So they are placed, um, in the refrigerator section. Um, however, you know, in terms of grab and go, the idea also is that you could buy a six pack of these products just like you would, um, let's say seltzer, a 6 pack of seltzer and put it in your cupboard, right? So, I mean it could definitely be in different um areas of a supermarket and if someone wants to grab and go and have something right away, it's there, but also you can have it stored on a shelf and put it in your cupboard or pantry.

Ray I'm Ray [08:35] How do you explain the product, Audrey, to folks who aren't familiar with hibiscus or, you know, as it's positioned on the front of your product as Rolle? Um,

Speaker 3 [08:44] so Rozelle, um, culturally hibiscus is called different names, right? So some, when you think of hibiscus, people think it's the hibiscus in their garden, and there's over 2. 250 species of hibiscus and probably 10,000 hybrids. So this, this roselle, um, the scientific name for it is Sabadifra, but culturally it's called different things. I'm from Jamaica in the Caribbean, we call it sorrel. It's also known as Roselle, which is what I named the product. Um, different parts of the world, for example, the Middle East, they call it cacaey. It's also known as Aguajamica. It's the same species of hibiscus. Um, this product is extremely functional, so I like to say this is a very functional beverage because you can have it as is, or you could add it to your seltzer, you could make popsicles, add it to your smoothies. It makes a great mixer whether it's For cocktails or mocktails. So it's an extremely functional beverage and the, the, the spicy ginger taste where it says a spicy hibiscus drink, it's a very warm taste, so it's not a spicy hot, like a pepper hot, it's more of a warm taste. So if you tend to like ginger, this is a very appeal, appealing drink, it's very balanced um and as I, as I said before, very functional.

Ray I'm Ray [10:12] Sounds like there's a lot to love. I'm wondering what the price point is and how accessible these functional attributes are to the average consumer.

Speaker 3 [10:20] So the price point for this drink is $6 it's retails for $6 and it's a 10 ounce bottle, so you can definitely get some good use out of it, um, in terms of mixing it with, you know, whether you're mixing it with seltzer or something else, so you can definitely get a good use out of it. Um, in terms of, um, you know, how consumer, I guess, can get this, I mean, it's, it's definitely Accessible for if you, you know, order online or, you know, if you're in the New York area as well, you can always pick this up at some of the top dialed-in um stores around town.

Ray I'm Ray [11:00] Vanessa, we have about a minute left. Um, you know, $6 is a relatively premium price point for a juice beverage. Um, you know, do you think that this is something where, you know, the price has to come down before a lot of people start, you know, getting more interested in the brand, or is the price point OK for its current positioning?

Speaker 2 [11:21] Yeah, so I think we really need to nail down on this brand where this brand would sit on the shelf. If you're sitting next to someone else whose brand is also 5 $499.05 dollars, you're still about 1 buck a head. But if you're sitting on an ambient shelf and some of the brands are, you know, $329 299 dollars on a single serve, you're gonna be way north in terms of price point. So I think you need to nail down, you mentioned mixer, got a lot of use out of the 10 ounce bottle. If you're marketing it as a multi-serve or a multi-pour, then maybe $6 isn't too steep, but I'd like to see you try to work on your cogs and get that pricing in line a bit more. Um, I think that it probably needs to come down just to sco.

Speaker 3 [12:07] OK. Thank you.

Ray I'm Ray [12:09] Well, Audrey, it was so great speaking with you, and I love, as I mentioned, the name of your brand. Your packaging looks great, and I look forward to trying it soon. If you have an opportunity, please send some to our office. I'd love to sip on some Spicegrove.

Speaker 3 [12:23] Thank you so much. Thanks for having me, guys. Thank you

Ray I'm Ray [12:26] so much. Awesome. Thank you. All right. Uh, that was Audrey Powell, who's the founder and CEO of Spice Grove. Uh, you know, Vanessa, you mentioned that you were formerly, uh, working at, you formerly worked at Target, uh, and you were talking about trying to, you know, find your best place on the shelf, but it's not really up to you, right? Like where your, where your product is placed on the shelf. A lot of times that's the buyer's decision, if you, if you even get into the store. So, you know, how do you convince a buyer to merchandise your product and your brand in a way that you see it being most successful in the store?

Speaker 2 [13:03] You know, that, that's very tough because um you have to go in and I would say you're not only selling your brand, you're really selling the category. You're selling how your brand fits into the buyer's picture of what their category is doing and how you can assist them to drive the performance in sales and margin and volume of that category. So that's key to know and if you don't know which category you're in, And you're not sure and you could play in many categories, you need to pick the category that you have the best chance to win, to be number 12, or 3 based on attributes, size of your package, retail price points, um. You know, whether or not the, the category is a high volume category, but you're right, Ray, you don't have, you won't be able to just dictate which category you're in.

Ray I'm Ray [13:53] How about if you bring the buyer chocolates or flowers or things like that?

Speaker 2 [13:58] You could try that.

Ray I'm Ray [14:01] OK. Uh, let's move on to our next guest for the, this episode of Elevated Talk Live stream. That's Andrew Gill and Rocco Milano, the co-founders of On the Rocks Cocktails. Gentlemen, how are you? Doing well, thank you. Thank you so much for joining us. Uh, you know, I had some of your product, uh, when was that? A couple of weeks ago, I wanna say. Um, what was it? It was a lavender. It was a lavender, uh, colored aviation. It was the aviation. Yes, I'm so embarrassed that I forgot cocktail. Yes. Despite my inability to remember the name of the cocktail, I do remember how delicious it was. I was sipping it on a Friday afternoon. It was like the greatest Friday afternoon I've had in a long time. OK, so that's my intro to your brand. If you guys could offer an intro to what on the cocktail on the rocks does and what you're all about, that would be great.

Speaker 4 [14:50] Absolutely. Well, Ray, I'm going to start off by saying you suggested candy and flowers. May I throw out there? Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker. So please, um, you know, deliver some booze. It really goes a long way. On the Rocks cocktails were an all-natural cane sugar sweetened and preservative-free bottled cocktail that all you have to do is pop and pour. I was a bartender for 15 years. I've worked everywhere from the beach in New Jersey to a biker bar in California to a casino in Oklahoma down to Guatemala and, you know, all points in between to a five-star hotel here in Dallas where I'm currently sitting. And what we wanted to do was come up with how we're going to recreate that bar experience for where that bartender isn't. So one of the things that we really stressed initially is those types of places where people wanted a cocktail but couldn't necessarily get one. So we started with airlines and We started with uh Virgin America that originally reached out to us and said, Hey, could you put together an in-flight cocktail menu for Virgin? One of our partners said, Well, what if instead of just putting together a menu, what if we find a way to bottle them and actually sell them to you that way? So, We started with airlines that quickly grew into hotels and then stadiums, event centers, places where you didn't necessarily have, you know, that carefully trained bartender and how to execute drinks. Now, obviously at a hotel, you have that. So what I would always say there is, well, maybe not for the bar, but let's talk in-room dining. Let's talk VIP amenities. At the end of the day, let's Create innovation in what's traditionally a pretty straightforward category. You know, if I'm hosting my wedding there, you're going to send me a bottle of red, white, or sparkling. Well, why not send something a little bit cooler, a little bit more create that more of a differential between you and some of your competitors and do something fun and do something exciting. We've now expanded that beyond just kind of those focuses to retailers, where we're seeing tremendous growth with partners like Whole Foods, Target, grocery, just liquor stores kind of around the US. As people are wanting drinks delivered to them, we're seeing tremendous growth there, as well as honestly, even restaurant space. So even my initial statement of, well, we're for where the bartender is not, well, sometimes, you know, you want to just have food delivered to you now. We're fulfilling that need as well.

Ray I'm Ray [17:07] Outstanding. You know, one of the most interesting things about your brand is that uh you partner with established brands, liquor brands for each of the cocktails. So for your old fashioned, you partner with Knob Creek, for your Mai Tai with Cruising rum. Uh, that doesn't sound like the easiest thing to do to convince uh a legacy brand that they should not only be uh incorporated into your product, but have their brand logo right on the front of your bottle. How did that happen?

Speaker 4 [17:36] Um, that was definitely a fun journey. A lot has to do with the fact that we were playing in such a different space. You know, a lot of established brands don't want to compete against themselves. So what's happening in the airline space? Well, people need a cocktail there, so we were able to solve that. Once we, we started having some of the conversations with some of the big players out there, hey, we're looking to be able to tell our guests what spirit is in there and really differentiate ourselves from anyone else by saying, hey, there's this premium quality spirit in there. Be checked all those boxes. They had every spirit category covered. They were an incredibly engaged partner and their production standards were just incredible. And I'll go into detail. You know, one day, you and I will meet up for an aviation and I'll actually go through what's actually involved in Centauri production standards, but it's food grade. I mean, for a distillery in the US to need to operate at that level was just crazy. So they had kind of the thought process and the focus that we did, kind of the passion behind it of how we execute. Again, not being a guy in a lab coat that's never made a cocktail, but by someone who does this day in and day out, knows what these drinks look like, what they should taste like, how they should hit the palate, how they should finish, etc. We wanted to be authentic to that, and Bean was on board, and the quality of the spirits that they were willing to put up was just phenomenal. I mean, who doesn't know Knob Creek, to your point, that was just an absolutely stellar partnership. Everything in that box medal at the San Francisco wine and spirits competition, a fact that we're tremendously proud of. We have 2 golds, 3 silvers, and a bronze in that, that flight of 6 cocktails that we make.

Ray I'm Ray [19:18] You know, Vanessa, pre-mixed cocktails, packaged cocktails, now more relevant than ever. You know, I'm curious as to your experience with this emerging segment of the cocktail category and the liquor category, and what you think of sort of the approach that On the Rocks has in comparison to other brands that are out there on the market.

Speaker 2 [19:40] Well, I feel like, Ray, with this new normal, I feel like people are having, probably having cocktails more so during the workday, uh, than, than we even know, right? Um, I was blown away by this brand, uh, in just doing research prior to this call. This brand, man, they are I'm, I'm going to take notes from them. They're, they're clicking on all cylinders, OK? Not only did I love the website, the Instagram page, the brand on the rocks, the name. The fact that, as, as you said, right, I mean, not only was it amazing, but the lineup, it's like an all-star lineup of cocktails. It's like the supermodels of cocktails, the Mai Tai, the Cosmo, they had everything that you'd want, and then they doubled down and got the branded liquors in there. Unbelievable. Packaging looks great. I really like what you said about the let's go places where the bartender isn't, where you don't have someone that is a professional caliber to mix the drinks. And I really think that the sky is the limit for you. I think, uh, direct to consumer, I'd want to know how are you handling DTC, which is kind of this new normal, and I think what Ray was originally asking me, but I blew by that because I'm just so excited about this, this brand. Um, how are you going to get to people who wanna, quite frankly, drink on the job? They want a cocktail in the middle of the day, morning, afternoon, evening, and night. How are you getting?

Ray I'm Ray [21:04] I can chime in with a little bit of the direct to consumer. We, you know, as a liquor brand, we can't do e-commerce. There's amazing delivery partners out there, but it's not equal across the board for everyone's geography. So as a company, we take a lot of pride in our creative, and we've got this amazing opportunity to create these social experiences. Everything from casual to kind of pushing the envelope and weird artistic stuff, and we do that because we want to reach our consumer. We want to communicate with our consumer, and so we've found a lot of success by being able to get in touch with the consumer through the social channels and then be able to actually tell that person where they can find product or assist with any questions they have.

Speaker 2 [21:48] Awesome. I mean, you're, to me, your company is what being in the beverage industry is honestly all about. It's uh two or three exciting people coming together. I like the fact that you tried not to burn down your garage, the backstory, the passion that, that's come across, the way you've approached it with the seriousness and professionalism, and you've innovated or seemingly innovated. I don't know, you know, there's other brands out there, but somehow you're doing it better to me. Um, and, and just your approach to the marketplace. I'm, I'm just blown away. This is a phenomenal brand.

Ray I'm Ray [22:24] High praise from someone who knows a good brand. Uh, I have, we have about 30 seconds left, and I don't know if you can explain this in 30 seconds, but, you know, Vanessa mentioned your, um, and Andrew, you mentioned this as well, you know, your, your social presence. You guys have 23.7,000 followers on Instagram. That's not necessarily easy to do. Um, what's been your approach to social media and not only adding followers, but finding engaged followers? Yeah, our approach is to been constantly to continue creating cool content um from a range, you know, spectrum and not just running with the same, you know, the same visuals, but really kind of getting fun with it. And so we're able to use social media to kind of play some targeted ads. Um, and just fully use that platform to engage with the consumer. And I think just the expanse of our creative has kind of drawn its own following to kind of see what we're going to post next. Fantastic. Well, um, I hope. That um you can send samples, uh, at least to Vanessa, even though you can't necessarily ship, uh, you know, for sale because it sounds like she is going to be a big fan or already is a big fan of your brand and be one of those people that's, uh, speaking the word, so to speak, about on the rocks. Uh, gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us, uh, on the Elevator Talk live stream. Good luck with everything going forward and please stay in touch. Thank

Speaker 4 [23:52] you. It was a pleasure to be here.

Ray I'm Ray [23:53] Pleasure. Thank you, Ray. Thank you. We ran out of time and I'm going to ask Rocco about this offline. I don't know how he's got two helmets behind him. One's a one's a Cowboys helmet, one's a Patriots' helmet. That's a story for another day, I'm sure. All right. Let's move on to our next guest for this episode. And that is Harry Ensche, who is the founder and CEO of RX Water. Harry, how are you?

Speaker 5 [24:18] Good, very good. I'd first like to thank the, the Bevnet platform, Sarah, Ryan, uh, Andrew Brainow and, uh, Diego, and of course, yourself, Ray, uh, for your time and, and what you guys do during this, uh, uh, this new, uh, unfortunate, uh, time that we're in. So you really are innovators and we thank you for the time in advance.

Ray I'm Ray [24:44] Well, Harry, I sincerely appreciate those words. Thank you so much. Um. You know, it's, it's, it's not only fun and exciting to see. You know, innovative brands, but here are the stories behind those brands, and that's exactly what we're trying to do here. Um, what's the story behind RX Water? Tell us about the development of your company.

Speaker 5 [25:03] Yeah, RX Water is just an amazing story, right? Like, as I'm sure all the other brands out there, it was really found on about 3 years ago, a group of scuba diver buddies, including myself, uh, and these, you know, everyone in the group are physicians, everything ranging from plastic surgeon. Uh, uh, urologists, cardiologists, as well as, uh, dentists, and together under the leadership of, of one of the doctors for many years, they've been doing, uh, philanthropic work, almost like a grassroots, uh, uh, Doctors Without Borders, uh, globally. On one particular trip, uh, I was honestly angered, uh, by what was going on in Flint. Uh, and obviously the group got behind me and I really had, uh, you know, passion for really tackling and not being the brand or, you know, like other companies that just donate cases and pallets. I wanted to make a real change. So my partner David Nazar out in New York and, and I, um, uh, In California, uh, docked, backed by the physicians, we, we, uh, basically came up with a protocol for a mayor and council to basically have the 5 gallon pet jug for every single household, the way that you guys get recycling bins or whatnot. And basically came up with the idea of putting a reverse osmosis RO system at the firehouse, which would essentially bring first responders in the community in rather than, you know, donating a case and then what? So we kind of, you know, uh, started that. We're really excited because RX. So the idea and concept, I should say, of RX was born. So we needed to create a, a, a brand and to basically shelter what our true giveback uh causes. Um, so RX was born. Uh, it's our trademark is medical-grade hydration. We're 9.5H plus BPA PEP1 bottle. With no fluoride, no sodium. Uh, we are backed by this, uh, the WBC, which we're very proud of, the World Boxing Council. That's the green belt that has basically decorated everyone from Muhammad Ali all the way up to the Mayweather and the Tysons of the world. It's a coveted belt. It's a great international organization. We're very proud of. And, uh, basically, our doctors also work with the WBC for hydration protocol because of the high dehydration in that sport, uh, with regards to weight cutting and everything else. So, honestly, we're really proud, um, whoever has been on this RX, uh, protocol, uh, we're basically 40-0, uh, throughout all the fighters that, that have been basically hydrating, uh, properly. Uh, with the protocol set forth by our, our doctor. Um, our product line runs from 8 ounce. Uh, we have a 16 ounce aluminum that we're a little bit ahead of the curve being from California and the change, uh, that certain people are starting to move away from plastics, but we have a 24 ounce. We have a 1 L, as well as a 1 gallon with the current Kroger's deal. Since The 3 years and the blessings of God, and, and the support of what I like to call the RX revolution or our followers and supporters. We were basically in about 2,000+ stores ranging from the five boroughs in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, all the way down south to Roanoke, Virginia. We have RX Midwest, which covers basically Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indianapolis, uh, 500 locations of 7-Eleven and growing up to 2000, um, which we're really proud of, uh, recently. Uh, on the West Coast, we're in about, uh, 500 locations, uh, covering everything from Apple Valley, Coachella Valley, now a radius of Santa Monica. And we're now segueing into the Vegas market with our new product, uh, a B12 boost that we have to infuse in our family, uh, to about 33,500 rooms at the resorts World Casino, uh, which we're very proud of. Um. With the premise of what we were founded and our give back, uh, basically, we're about to announce in Flint with the mayor and council, our whole program and protocol with the Clarissa Shields fight, who's the greatest woman, uh, heavyweight, uh, known, uh, and she's Stems from Flint and we had 150 children, uh, that we were going to, you know, from the community that we were going to bring into the match and make the announcement of what we're doing. And unfortunately, that was supposed to be back in May and COVID, uh, put a little pebble in our shoes, so to say. Uh, but the trajectory and the momentum of the brand is epic. Uh, and I'm really proud of what our team has done.

Ray I'm Ray [30:15] Well, Harry, I, I love your backstory and I love hearing about the cause-based approach that RX Water is taking. Uh, excuse me, RX Drinks, well, is it, is it RX Drinks or RX Water because I see it's RX Water. RX Water, OK, um, you know, from someone who knows a thing or two about water brands, Vanessa, um, You know, RX bar in terms, in terms of its positioning, you know, you can go to the website and see a lot of information focused on its alkalinity. You know, Harry talked a lot about the cause-based approach. What is, what is the right way to market a beverage like this or a product like this? Yeah,

Speaker 2 [30:50] you know, this is tricky, and I didn't. get a sense whatever I looked on Google and saw and I clicked on, I didn't get as much of the backstory as you're telling me now. So I feel like more of the backstory. I didn't know why it was called medical hydration, and when you just explained that all these doctors were there, I, I almost wonder if there's visually a bit more that can be done here. And I think maybe that alone, you know, we're, we're in such a new normal now where people are paying attention to supplements and vitamins and what they're putting into their body and their immune system. You know, is there a reason why this is 9.5 pH plus and there's no fluoride and no, you know, is there another reason? Are you taking us to another level of uncharted waters?

Speaker 5 [31:35] Yeah, no, no pun intended.

Speaker 2 [31:37] Explain that to us a bit more because it is an ultra competitive category, but if it came from the backing of real doctors with something that was a differentiated proposition. As a consumer, I would want to know that, and I think that's your key point of difference, but it needs to be discussed even more on your packaging and marketing.

Speaker 5 [31:56] I, well, I really appreciate that, Vanessa, and uh yeah, we do have medical grade hydration.com. Uh, we, uh, basically, where the doctors speak more of the product, and we're in R&D research and development, uh, in our aluminum, we've partnered up with another, uh, company that we're doing an immune defense, uh, uh, uh, product. Uh, with the base of our, uh, 9.5 pH, but 100%, and that really will be the forefront, uh, once basically I like to say the family of products all, uh, infused and come together. Uh, but absolutely noted your subject matter expertise is definitely, uh, uh, appreciated. And that is definitely on our horizon. We were hoping more to do that launch in tandem with what was happening in Flint with our coming out, so to say, uh, but obviously, you know, there's some delays, but definitely on the horizon.

Ray I'm Ray [32:59] One other quick thing, uh, you know, Harry talked about the new, it's a B12 shot, right, Harry? Yeah, yeah, this B12 shot that they're launching, um. You know, if you're evolving into a platform brand where you have more than one beverage in your brand or that represents your brand, I'm wondering, Vanessa, if you have any thoughts on how you do that in a, in an efficient way, in a way that's going to resonate not only with your current consumer base, but the, the consumers that are new and interested in your brand either from the water or from the shot perspective.

Speaker 2 [33:33] Yeah, so we have to decide here what's the core brand, and I guess it would be the water, and then the, the way that someone would become more introduced to or interested in your shot, there has to be a core brand, the mothership, and then you're transferring the equity. Into the other item in the portfolio. So I recognize the RX. I understand it came from medical doctors. It's even better for me. It's taking us to a new level in water. Ah, this RX shot must be driving at the same things produced by medical doctors. You have me at hello when you say medical doctors and you're telling me a B12 shot as a boost. So I think understanding and really communicating that core value that has to be translated in the first product and then it can emanate and resonate through line extensions, which is really what you're talking about there.

Speaker 5 [34:24] 100%. Uh, basically, yeah, an exact, exactly with that, it is really tough, obviously fighting for fridge space in certain sectors when we first rolled out, uh, then obviously, once we caught more traction, it became a lot easier, uh, but with RX boost, we didn't. Have to really fight for the space. And it actually became more recognizable, we noticed, because you're, you know, after you go to the fridge, now it's like, wait a minute, I saw that there and, oh, they're here too, uh, uh, upon checkout. So it kind of helped a lot with a lot of our, um, uh, you know, uh, basically convenience store angle and, uh, accounts that we've built.

Ray I'm Ray [35:06] Outstanding. Harry, thank you so much. I'm sorry, Vanessa, did you want to say one more thing?

Speaker 2 [35:10] That's what I was going to say. It's almost with the power of the doctors, he may find it easier to launch the brand with that item first and then backtrack it into the waters because water is so competitive. If you've got a point of difference that lines up to tell your story better, take that as the lead off and almost get the water in there as a buy this, get that free as an introduction.

Speaker 5 [35:34] Bunch of blocks,

Ray I'm Ray [35:35] noted. Excellent advice. Uh, Harry, thank you so much for joining us on the live stream. Uh, really appreciate your support and, uh, please let us know if you need any help with anything. Uh, we are here to help. And, uh, once again, thanks so much for joining us. I'm

Speaker 5 [35:50] humbled. Thank you. All

Speaker 2 [35:52] right, to meet you. Nice see you.

Ray I'm Ray [35:55] Vanessa, you've given some great advice and great feedback. Uh, you know, if someone wants to get in touch with you directly, what's the best way to do so?

Speaker 2 [36:02] I mean, you can always find me on LinkedIn. Um, I'm on LinkedIn, um, and also there's the Millennial Brands, uh, LinkedIn as well, Millennial Brands Consulting.

Ray I'm Ray [36:13] Fantastic. All right, uh, if you're just tuning in, this is Bevnet Elevator Talk Livestream. I'm Ray Latif joined by Vanessa Walker, the founder of Millennial Brands Consulting, on to our fourth guest of this episode, and that's Catherine, uh, Catherine Nguyen, who is the founder and CEO of Wild Willett Food. Catherine, how are you?

Speaker 2 [36:31] I'm well, Ray. Thank you. How are you?

Ray I'm Ray [36:33] I'm doing pretty good, pretty good indeed. Wild Willett. Uh, it's great. I, I, I love the name of your brand. We have our, our, um, creative director. I think that's his title. Um, his last name is Aaron Willett. His first name is Aaron, his last name is Willett. Uh, so I automatically love the brand because I love Aaron. Um, but I'm not too familiar with it. Can you tell us a bit about it?

Speaker 2 [36:55] Sure, we originally launched in April 2019 as a healthy jerky brand for kids. And we learned a lot after being in the market for 6 months. One of the most important things we learned was that moms, mothers, women really liked our jerky, possibly more than our kids, their kids. So we were inspired by that and went back to the drawing board and shifted the direction of our brand. We relaunched 2 weeks ago as a healthy, high protein snack company for women.

Ray I'm Ray [37:29] Very cool. Going to your website, you have some pretty interesting flavors for your beef jerky. Could you tell us a bit of those?

Speaker 2 [37:36] Sure, we launched with three fruit flavored jerkies strawberry, orange, and pineapple. If you've tasted our jerky, it's a jerky that tastes like a treat. So think like if you, we've heard time and time again that our strawberry jerky tastes like a Twizzler or a jelly doughnut, but it is a protein snack. So our nutritionals are really great. We have at least 19 g of protein, very little sugar, no added sugar, very low in carb. It's a great on the go snack that's an innovative twist on your classic jerky.

Ray I'm Ray [38:12] You created a beef jerky that tastes like a Twizzler or a jelly doughnut. OK, that's just like a dream come true for probably, I don't know, millions of people in this world because, you know, as we all know, and no offense to the people who make Twizzlers and jelly doughnuts, there's really not a lot of nutritional value in any of those. So to have created something that actually has a lot of protein, tastes like one of those products. Well, Catherine, thank you very much on behalf of the millions that want something like that. Why is it called Wild Willet?

Speaker 2 [38:42] It's so the company was inspired and was created because of my three kids, Scarlett, Lily, and Will, and the reason the fruit flavored jerky came to life is because my son, who was 3 at the time, loved fruit snacks, and he wanted something that tasted like a fruit snack, which is why I made the strawberry jerky. But Wild Willet is an homage to them. Willet is a mashup of their names. And they're definitely a wild crew.

Ray I'm Ray [39:09] Uh, Vanessa, your thoughts on Wild Willett and sort of this repositioning as a jerky brand for women?

Speaker 2 [39:15] Yeah, I thought this was incredibly innovative. I can't wrap my arms around what the strawberry jerky would taste like or pineapple jerky, but I had one word for you. Impossible, I guess it's two words, impossible meats. Uh, this almost begged to me to have a line extension of a meatless jerky. So you could almost be out there with the first ever fruit meatless jerky, um, you know, but there's a, there's a large audience for people that want to go meatless, maybe you take a page out of On the Rocks cocktails and you knock up. The door on um Impossible Meats and see if they'll do a co-branded partnership with you or something. I don't know. I thought it was an interesting way to go vegan on that. You're, you're obviously appealing to females. I liked your creative, liked your Instagram page. I think a pineapple, you know, I mean, I, I wanted to try it. I mean, I just said, what does this smell like? What does it taste like? And beef jerky, I, I've always been attracted as a female to the high protein of the snack and the lean, low carb nature of the snack, but it just leaves me too smoky, and I always feel like I've had a bag of barbecue in a way when I didn't necessarily want one. So if you can cure some of that and serve up a lean protein as a quick snack. In other flavors that could be really interesting for me. Thank you, Vanessa. We actually um spoke to someone this morning who mentioned that we should partner up with Impossible Meats. So that's funny that you said that, literally. Um, and then your comment about uh a different tasting jerky. We wanted to create something that wasn't too smoky, not too salty. Um, we've heard time and time again that our jerky tastes like a dessert, you know, and so we created a product that's bringing different consumers. We're not looking for the consumers that are currently in that category. We're looking for people that say we're not into jerky, but we love your jerky. And so one of our taglines is, you know, you don't have to like jerky to like our jerky. Um, so we're definitely trying to create our own new space, um, and yeah, thank you for your comments. Absolutely.

Ray I'm Ray [41:28] You know, as Vanessa mentioned, um, this is a product that you'd love to try. Um, you know, whether or not you think you'd like it or you think you'd hate it, it's something you've got to try. In the current world right now, it's pretty difficult to demo and sample. What is your approach to getting this in people's mouths?

Speaker 2 [41:46] That's a great question, Ray. Um, and we've been thinking a lot about that coming into the launch. We never thought we'd be launching during a pandemic, um, but we've done, we've done a pretty good job of building, um, starting to build a community online. Um, we're working with a lot of micro-influencers. We are, um, reaching out to just communities who are, um, active women, so different categories, um, and, and gifting them product and asking if they'll share their feedback. Online, but I think we're seeing the the results of that if you follow us on Instagram, you'll see on our stories, um, or we'll see both organic posters and partnerships um that we're working with. We, we have a really unique partnership with a health app called Paceline, um, you should look it up it's a health app that rewards you for your health fitness activity, so we're one of the rewards that's offered, um, we've seen a lot of growth there in our sales.

Ray I'm Ray [42:46] Um, you know, Vanessa, um, Owning a woman-owned business, uh, unfortunately, is already, you know, puts your company at a disadvantage in so many ways, in our food and beverage industry. We have a long way to go when it comes to supporting women-owned and minority-owned businesses. There are some advantages. There are some ways of, of getting that kind of support that's going to help you get off to a good start. Um, any suggestions on, you know, how Catherine can, um, You know, position her, her brand in a way that's going to really amplify the fact that it is woman-owned and for women.

Speaker 2 [43:23] Yeah, you know, this is going to sound like a shameless plug for Bevnet, um, and I don't mean it to sound like this at all, but you know, Bevnet is a family. If you, uh, network in through the Bevnet crowd and you attend your Bevnets and you see the same group of people, people look out for each other in this industry, and I think there's an opportunity to network through other women. Uh, the women are finding each other at events. I know that Bevnet did something, uh, in the fall of winter of 2018. We did, um, kind of a women in business forum. I was on stage myself, and I had so many people come up to me after that and congregate and just kind of connect to me and reach out that we've all stayed in touch with, uh, as friends, you know, I would suggest that we form, you know, even a larger group of a network of people. It's not easy. Um, but there are more retailers now than ever that want to hear from minority businesses, so you certainly have, you know, the, the tide has turned there. I think the traditional routes to market might be a little bit more difficult, but if you're not going DSD and you're, uh, not to say anything negative about DSD, but there are less women in DSD. Um, but I think the playing field is pretty even and pretty wide open today at retail to accept a female-owned business and to maybe even give you an opportunity to get in the door under, maybe they take a certain percentage. I know Southeast Grocers takes a certain percentage of minority-owned businesses every year, and you find those and knock on the door and get in through the right programs, and they will help shepherd you.

Ray I'm Ray [44:59] Excellent advice and thank you for that plug. I appreciate it. You know, as much as it is, uh, you know, promoting Batnet, it is true, um, you know, the community that we have in the community within our industry is really strong. It's just you've got to knock on the right doors and find the right people to network with. Um, and I think, you know, Vanessa hit the nail on the head when she said that um. We're a supportive industry. It's just about, you know, making those initial connections. Catherine, uh, thank you so much for sharing the story, uh, of Wild Will with us. Uh, good luck with everything going forward and I can't wait to try your brand or your products.

Speaker 2 [45:36] Thank you.

Ray I'm Ray [45:37] Thank you.

Speaker 2 [45:37] Call Impossible Meats. Good luck. Thanks, Vanessa.

Ray I'm Ray [45:43] All right, uh, you know, interesting stuff like the idea that a beef jerky could taste like a Twizzler is just so, uh, mind-blowing right now. I, I love that idea. I love Twizzlers, but I've sworn off Twizzlers. It's true.

Speaker 2 [45:56] Oh my gosh, and jelly donuts and jelly

Ray I'm Ray [45:59] donuts. Yes. Clearly we're, clearly we're, you know, candy and snack people, Vanessa. It's probably why we get along so well.

Speaker 2 [46:05] I know.

Ray I'm Ray [46:08] All right. On to our final guest for this episode of Bevnet's Elevator Talk Live stream. We have, all of a sudden I lost my, oh there it is, Catherine Barrel, who is the founder and CEO of Reblend. Catherine, how are you?

Speaker 6 [46:22] I'm doing well. How are you doing?

Ray I'm Ray [46:24] I'm doing great. Thank you so much for your patience. Uh, it, it's, uh, it's always, I'm sure, kind of difficult to sit and, you know, wait to, to speak about your brand, but, uh, I'm really interested to hear about Reblend. Uh, what do you guys do?

Speaker 6 [46:38] Yeah, Reblend is a line of frozen smoothie pops packed with impact. We are a smoothie shortcut that allows you to squeeze the good stuff in, and we work with, um, we work with farmers and manufacturers to offload unnecessarily discarded produce via our reharvest and Repurpose platform and encourage consumers to rethink the way they eat via our ability to work with nutritionists to craft functional blends that use high impact ingredients like baobab and kamu kamu and coconut water. Reblend began in my kitchen. I was tired of my kitchen turning into a war zone. Every single Morning I had ingredients all over my counter. I was tired of produce going bad, so I'm throwing it into the freezer. Every morning I'm opening up the freezer. Ingredients are falling on my feet, and I had this idea of taking a smoothie, distilling it, stripping out all the bulk, the fruit, the excess fruit, the water, all of the ice. And pack it into a super efficient, fun frozen pot and really Reeblend began selfishly as my own smoothie hack. I started to make them for myself. My friends started to see me eat them, asked me if I would make them some, offered to pay me to make them. Some and quickly I realized that I had something on my hands and that not only was I targeting my own desire to find an efficient way to get the good stuff in, but this could also be a really powerful platform to go after a lot of the inefficiencies I saw taking place within the food system. So year one. Graduated from school, moved the business to Colorado, found a co-packing facility that let me come during the off hours. I was working 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. I had bought my own equipment and I was hitting all of the local farmers' markets, mom and Pop shops, country clubs, all of which gave me the data to understand what was working, what wasn't working, where I needed to tweak the recipes and our packaging, and have made a relaunch with all that information and experience in hand.

Ray I'm Ray [49:01] Amazing stuff. Really innovative to create a smoothie shot. I think. Are you the only smoothie shot on the market?

Speaker 6 [49:09] To my knowledge, um, you know, there very well might be someone out there that I have yet to discover, but I've done a decent amount of combing and have found that we really are bringing a unique and innovative offering to the marketplace.

Ray I'm Ray [49:23] Uh, and, you know, innovative is certainly a way to describe your brand. Um, and I ask about others out there because, uh, what do they say it takes a, you know, rising tide, floats all boats, or, you know, it helps to have competitors in your category. If you have a category. Um, how is this product merchandis? I mean, how do you, how do you position it on shelves?

Speaker 6 [49:43] I mean, in terms of positioning it in when you think about the functionality, a really great proxy that I have found hits home with a lot of consumers is when you talk about a nutrient shot or a wellness shot where there is that high focus on efficiency of getting a lot in in a small pouch. In terms of where we show up, we've also always been really focused on Looking at sales platforms that can double as marketing platforms. So for example, we launched at Pure Bar Studios, knowing that, you know, it kind of sidebars that question around the traditional brick and mortar uh merchandizing, and additionally it gave us an opportunity to share our story and our brand in a way that we would never be able to buy that attention in a grocery store. Similarly, when you know we look to launch at country clubs on the golf course or hotels for their catering and events, we are consistently going after occasions where we're looking at captive audiences that are able to interact with our product, spend an extra 11, 2 minutes looking and understanding and reading on our packaging about who we are, and really the focus. for years 1 and 2 is outside of the traditional brick and mortar grocery store, knowing that there is a really big opportunity for us to drive our brand awareness and a lot of those velocities to make a transition into grocery a more successful one and to be able to deliver a lot more of the category answers that we know the buyers are going to be seeking out.

Ray I'm Ray [51:32] Vanessa, you know, um, Catherine talked about building awareness for the brand, uh, in non-traditional retail and scaling into brick and mortar from there. Um, what are the opportunities and the challenges in doing so?

Speaker 2 [51:48] Yeah, I, you know, I, I, I think that thinking outside the box like that is very helpful and realizing that if I can get to a place that's a marketing and sales opportunity, it's a great opportunity. I agree with that. Smart approach. Let me ask this, is your product frozen or is it refrigerated in terms of where it would sit in a grocery, a traditional grocery setting?

Speaker 6 [52:11] So the products ship ambient and are frozen on site. So if you were to think about a traditional brick and mortar grocery store, we would live in the frozen set. That's really the use is frozen, and that's really how we want to communicate via where we would show up, um, but from a transit and a freight and kind of a behind the scenes perspective, our product ships and moves ambient.

Speaker 2 [52:40] And does that movement, uh, the logistics ambiently, does that, um, affect the shelf life? In other words, could you be ambient until someone took, took you home and then froze you?

Speaker 6 [52:52] Absolutely, yeah, and the ambient has also been a really powerful way for us to get legs into sales channels that we might otherwise not be able to access. So for example, um, we just launched on Sunbasket, and by way of them being able to ship us Ambient, we're able to get inserted into their platform and their boxes and consumers can freeze us at home.

Ray I'm Ray [53:20] What is, what is the, I'm sorry, Vanessa, go

Speaker 2 [53:22] ahead. Well, I was just gonna say if you wanted to gain, let's say a main aisle display, you wouldn't really be able to do that in a grocery store, frozen. So if you have the ability to ship ambient and, um, you know, you could be ambient in stores and then frozen before serving at home or using at home. Given, I don't know what the logistics on that shelf life is. I don't know if there's some kind of time component there, but I would say that's your best bet. I mean, it, it might not be a bad idea to have, um, an area in frozen as well, but if I'm the frozen buyer and I might be able to do something outside of Frozen to attract people to come into the cold cabinets, that's a very powerful thing because I don't know of any other frozen brands that have that dual zone climate zone capability. And I would actually really think about that hard in terms of merchandizing and sales for this brand.

Speaker 6 [54:19] Thank you.

Ray I'm Ray [54:21] You know, I could take a guess at who your target consumer is, but it's probably just easier to ask you, who is your target consumer and what do they care most about. Is it the superfood component? Is it the upcycling component? Is it the fact that it can be on the go? You know, what are you, what are you sensing?

Speaker 6 [54:39] You know, the umbrella of who we go after is a consumer that understands the role that nutrition plays in achieving their primary goals. You know that's the high level in terms of who that looks like we have really focused on. Initially busy professionals that are time strapped are oftentimes finding themselves in captive environments like hotel conferences, post-workout gyms, the office break room where they don't readily have the ability to have a blender and all of their ingredients to get the good stuff in, in terms of kind of The way it continues to manifest and what we're seeing in market is we're seeing there is a broader response. We're seeing moms gravitate to reblends. We've heard quite a bit that kids are loving the pops and moms are thrilled that they're not having to fight with their kids to eat vegetables. And so there is a broader audience, but in terms of who we really focus on from ingredient and recipe formulation in terms of where we are trying to show up, our North Star really is that time-strapped consumer that recognizes the value of nutrition. To answer your other question of how do we begin to start piecing together a lot of the values that we bring to the table. One of the things that I knew in building this brand is that I really care a lot. I could talk for quite an extended period of time around my passion on tackling food waste, but I never fool myself into thinking that that will be the dominant reason that someone might make a purchasing decision. And so I knew from the very get-go that Function had to be the lead factor with how we merchandise and marketed the brand. Consumers need to know that there's a benefit to purchasing it. Um, the second is taste and that actual flavor experience. Now you can fool someone once to purchase your product. You're not going to get them to buy it again if they didn't enjoy the taste in that experience. And the third piece, you know, when you look at the hierarchy, is delivering on a mission that people are excited to talk about that they feel really good about making the purchase, you know, similar to a North Face versus Patagonia decision that someone might have, they might opt to choose the. Patagonia because they understand what that purchase means and really where that brand is investing their dollars and so that's how I look at syncing up all three of the different values and how I try to optimize our packaging and our messaging accordingly.

Ray I'm Ray [57:32] Well, the, the function is, comes off uh loud and clear on the front of your package, very blow, very, very glow, rose, all day chill, tropical bliss recover, and my personal favorite, your daily detox, um, after the on the Rocks cocktail, little reblend, you know, of your daily detox, kinda, kinda the way I'm going with this. Um, you know, we're, we're out of time, but I have one important question to ask, and I'm sure this is a question that will, you know, resonate or uh relate to a lot of other entrepreneurs. Um, You said you went and bought your own equipment to help produce this product. Are you still producing it on your own, or do you have a co-packer, and Uh, you know, I haven't seen this packaging format in a, you know, in a lot of brands. So if you do have a co-pack, you know, how do you navigate that relationship?

Speaker 6 [58:19] Yeah, well, I will say the self-manufacturing journey, it was clunky. Like it was not a glamorous experience, you know. I have a history working in the food industry, so I did have enough confidence in my ability to execute on a food-safe product, but quickly found that the order. Sizes that we were getting in were far larger than anything I could spend, you know, my time being able to keep up with. And so we did make a transition to a co-packer, and that has been hands down one of the most daunting parts of the experience, you know. Not only as kind of a female entrepreneur breaking into a sector of the food industry that historically has been very male dominated. Additionally, it's, it's difficult to be a very firm advocate for your brand. I have a lot of guardrails around how the product is produced. There are a lot of, you know, Shortcuts that a lot of people have encouraged me to make along the way. We only use whole ingredients. I've been encouraged time and time again to just use concentrates or just to use, you know, flavoring for some of our ingredients, and I never will, and that's made this journey that much more daunting, but I think Having a very clear vision of what we are willing and not willing to do and being relentless and knocking on every single door, knocking on it multiple times, and being able to bring to the Table a consumer base that we know are really passionate about our products and to being able to bring to the table a lot of customers that want to purchase the products have given us a lot of the fuel to continue pushing on those relationships.

Ray I'm Ray [1:00:21] You know, I think you made Vanessa's day, uh, because she got more and more happy with each word that you were saying. I think, uh, Vanessa, any, any last thoughts on, on reblend and what Catherine was just talking about in terms of her passion and hustle for the brand?

Speaker 2 [1:00:35] Yeah, I mean, listen, you, you took on the whole world when you took on a complicated, uh, produce, frozen, you, you know, kudos and hats off to you and certainly walking into that co-packer on the midnight shift is seemingly daunting. Uh, I think you're gonna go far here. I think that logistics, if you've got that conquered, really look into the shelf stable aspect. I think that's, it's a great way to expand the brand and watch the financing, um, because I think a brand like this is gonna, you know, it's a great brand, and I don't want it to fall on the sword. I wanna make sure you've got the financing in play and as a female entrepreneur, sometimes that's also the next daunting thing, right? So good luck there and um I think you got a great brand. Thank you.

Speaker 3 [1:01:24] Thank you very much,

Ray I'm Ray [1:01:25] Catherine. Uh, so great, uh, talking to you today. Uh, please stay in touch, um, and You know, as I mentioned to one of the other entrepreneurs, if you need anything, please reach out. We're here to help in any way we can. Thank

Speaker 6 [1:01:37] you. Thank you very much. All

Ray I'm Ray [1:01:39] right. Well, that was a man, you know, every time we do one of these, I'm just more and more impressed by the entrepreneurs that we see and the diversity of the brands and products that we're, you know, seeing come to market and the ones that are already out there. You know, Vanessa, I'm curious as to your thoughts on, you know, what we heard and, and, and saw from entrepreneurs today and Just in general, what you think um they should really be focusing on. I know you talked about this at the top of the show, but you know, looking back on what we, what we just saw and heard, um, what do you really wanna drive home to those, uh, those entrepreneurs and the ones that are watching at home?

Speaker 2 [1:02:15] Yeah, so make sure that you understand exactly where you're gonna make your profit dollars. Understand where you're gonna be able to play to win. And what winning means to you. Who are your competitors, who is your target audience, and how do you communicate your true core value and proposition to them. A lot of passion out there, different levels of learning, different levels here on this call today of, um, you know, how far along the brands have progressed. I think we see some real, real winners here with opportunities to go very far, and uh wow, it is so competitive out there. Look at all these new great entrants, and I'm glad they found their way to the Bevnet platform so that we could chat with them today and a lot of things I need samples of. Apparently you've been dipping into the aviation a little over there. No wonder you forgot your name at the top of the show.

Ray I'm Ray [1:03:07] Oh boy. You know, Vanessa, I think you're, uh, you're probably 100% right about, uh, you know, cocktails during the day, during the work hour. Maybe I should be laying off that. No, in all seriousness, I don't do that. But I can understand why, uh, I might wanna have an aviation on the rocks. Perhaps, you know, perhaps this will become that kind of show where you like in the, you know, like in the old days when you can have a cock, like, you know, the Carson Show, The Tonight Show, you're having a cocktail while you're on the talk show. Now I'm like, I'm really going off the rails here. All right. Uh, you know, Vanessa, I sincerely appreciate you being able to join us today. You offer just such a wealth of wisdom. Feedback and advice to entrepreneurs. I hope folks get in touch with you, um, not only the ones that appear on the show, but the ones watching as well. Just once again, uh, LinkedIn is the best way to do it. Just LinkedIn.com/ Vanessa.

Speaker 2 [1:03:59] Welcome. Yeah, contact me on LinkedIn and also you could go to millennial Brands, Consulting.us. That's our website.

Ray I'm Ray [1:04:07] Fantastic,

Speaker 2 [1:04:08] me, Ray. Thank you as usual.

Ray I'm Ray [1:04:10] So great seeing you. I hope I get to see you in person soon, uh, but until then. Uh, it's so good to chat with you and hope we can do that again, uh, in the near future. You want to come back on the show,

Speaker 2 [1:04:20] right? I do,

Ray I'm Ray [1:04:21] of course. Fantastic. I'd love to have you back on the show.

Speaker 2 [1:04:24] Uh, well, my favorite.

Ray I'm Ray [1:04:26] Thank you all so much for watching and tuning in. Uh, we're on every Wednesday at 3 p.m. Eastern time, uh, signing off for a fantastic Vanessa Walker and our amazing team at Bevnet and Nosh. I'm Ray Latif. We'll talk to you next time.