Joe Quattrone 00:36
Welcome back to the fuzzy ish podcast. I’m your host, Joe Quattron. And of course with me, we’ve got JMG, the illustrious JM How are we doing today?

JM Guthrie 00:47
I’m doing great to be here we’ve

Joe Quattrone 00:50
got so you’ve got an interesting guest today. His name is Jimmy Cedric, man, he just launched a really cool brand called Brella Drops based out of Chicago, they position themselves as zero proof cocktail. And I’m starting to see them pop up all over the web as kind of like the next big thing for millennial consumption when it comes to marketing. What do you think about that concept? What do you think we have in store for us, Jimmy? Yeah, I

JM Guthrie 01:17
I mean, I love Jimmy, I think he’s got such a cool perspective. And he’s also way beyond his years on this planet in regards to sort of his wisdom, but I think he’s really into something with Brella. I think there’s lots of ways to execute something in that format. There’s the ability to obviously if you’re alcohol free drink something like a mocktail without paying 20 bucks for it at a restaurant. There’s a way to sort of fill the gap between drinks with something like that zero proof. And then there’s obviously you can if you wanted to add booze to something like that. It’s a small format to bring to your friend’s house if you want to make the cocktails that they offer. So I’m actually really bullish on Brella and excited to watch their journey.

Joe Quattrone 01:57
Great. So let’s go ahead and bring on Jimmy RIGHT NOW. And welcome back to the FUZZEE’ish podcast. I’m your host Joe Q and with me is my co-host JMG and we’ve got the man, the myth and the legend Jimmy Semrick. From Brella drops Jimmy How you doing?

Jimmy Semrick 02:19
Good. Happy to be here. Good to see you.

Joe Quattrone 02:21
Good to see it’s here. You’ve lost a little hair since the last time we chatted but it looks good, man. Like that. Fresh cuts. I’ve gotten the same kind of deal going on at the rear. Yeah, it’s

JM Guthrie 02:31
gonna say I feel left out here man could carry on here. It’d be three out of four to be really screwed.

Joe Quattrone 02:37
Yeah, man. So I feel like I did a very similar chop to you like a misplaced haircut just like figured hey, let’s get this all out of here. Let’s stop worrying about this thing. And he also got last let me talk to you. I never saw the arm tats like I think it’s a pretty solid looking

Jimmy Semrick 02:54
Jimmy one. So I’m gonna go there , but I thought this was gonna be lower mainland. So now I’ve got a buzzer every four days or so. So

JM Guthrie 03:03
hold on before we jump in. It’s caught on the hair real quick. So you guys work off of this. And Joe, since you’ve done it for a long time, is it a? Is it a buzz and then shave thing? Is it to keep it low enough that you can just shave it? Is it dependent on sort of what you’re going for lengthwise? What’s the preferred method so far? Jimmy?

Jimmy Semrick 03:23
I gotta keep it pretty short. So as soon as it starts looking fuzzy, no pun intended. I gotta get rid of it. It starts looking a little peach fuzz so it’s probably like every three or four days saying I haven’t gotten a full Vic razor yet but I’m sure that’s coming.

JM Guthrie 03:39
Okay, Joe, are you a big like, do you go like that?

Joe Quattrone 03:43
I work hard with you. I don’t go that hard at all. I’m a once a week guy. And I still have some. I have a patch on the top and I stayed on the sides, the pandemic. We have a lot of indoor time during COVID So I found myself a few things including how to get myself a bed. So I still hang in there. But that you know, I keep it really short. It’s like on a number one it’s like a half setting it and mainly it’s I’m trying to like blend into this bald spot going on back here. So if I keep it superduper short it’s hard to get until I have a bald spot but if it grows out a little bit then man it’s just noticeable and I didn’t have to go full hat on for like a couple days or whatever. So I think I look alright with a hat on but I’m not convinced that it’s my best look. So I like to have a fresh stay about once a week. What would

JM Guthrie 04:33
Darvin from Delos park have to say about your feet Garvin with

Joe Quattrone 04:37
a big stand myself cutting techniques naturally getting a bad portfolio but right so

JM Guthrie 04:45
maybe we all we all grew up together in a part of a new part of Virginia where there was this barber shop that everybody went and pulled like a deli ticket and you waited and the next in line but most people waited for a few of the guys there so you could be there for a minute but the guy that everybody went to where everybody wanted to go to was Darvan that he could line you up or feed you up the way that you the way you were looking for. So anyways, all right, good haircut diversion here joke you Sorry about that. But let’s move into it.

Joe Quattrone 05:13
Let’s get into it. So Jimmy, let’s first and foremost, like let the audience know a little bit about your brand. One of the reasons that I reached out to you, to have you on the show was that obviously, we’re into this whole movement called knee total, which is kind of like taking a kitten care of yourself taking care of your life outside of alcohol, Brella drops, zero proof cocktails. That’s kind of what you’re positioning it as, but give the audience a little bit of a sense of like, what is Brelade raps? How’d you come up with the idea?

Jimmy Semrick 05:41
Yeah, so you know, I’m a non drinker myself, and when going out to bars, restaurants, etc, it can be pretty disappointing for someone that’s not imbibing traditionally. So it was kind of just bound to the order of love Soda with lime over and over and over again. And it was getting pretty boring. When I thought to myself, I’m not really interested in using a, like a crystal light or a fruit punch, to concentrate on my drink. But if there was a concentrated cocktail counsel, like the concentrated cocktail drop, I would use it everywhere that I went, rather than spending 14 bucks on a mock sale or, or just being down to like, Hey, can I get an apple juice, please? You know? So, I set out to do that, you know, we rolled out in January of this year, we kind of like good three months under our belt, and it’s been a blast.

JM Guthrie 06:36
Tell us about your success. So far. We’ve seen some placements around like, obviously, you’re in the wild at this point. It’s not just stealth. How’s it going so far? Give us your laps in the world three months in any learnings of the Wii U and super excited about it?

Jimmy Semrick 06:51
Yeah, we’re already on bash three. So Soda bash a month, which is quite a few bottles. And we successfully kind of had a pretty nationwide sprawl in all of the zero group and non alcoholic bottle shops. Basically, nationwide, there’s missing links there. But I’m getting an enormous amount of support. Our reorder rate from retailers was over 75%. They were just flying off the shelves. In DC. Actually, we have a store that went through five cases in a month and a half. That’s umbrella dried drinks. That’s Alexandria. Yep. Yeah. Yep. Great. Patient flew through the product.

Joe Quattrone 07:28
Alexandria, Alexandria, Virginia, or what? Alexandria? We’re

JM Guthrie 07:32
talking about it? Yes. Energy, Virginia. Yep. I’m aware of that store. Yeah, it was wild to us, like, even since we’ve started to have this conversation for the last, let’s say, several months. And as we’ve been thinking about our walk alcohol free, but we’re more particularly sort of in the community or in a social setting. Without alcohol, you know, not drinking and what our options are, there’s so many more now. But what’s been even more interesting is to your point, there’s so many more retail locations, or even places online that are pushing at least as sort of low ABV sort of hybrid between alcohol and non alcohol or alcohol free options. That’s super cool. So if you’ve been trying to go direct to the retailers, how have you focused on those sorts of distribution with those kinds of stores, yet, we’d

Jimmy Semrick 08:18
have a platform called fair that we used to sell directly to retailers. And so we just shipped directly to them. Unfortunately, like 24 Pack, the umbrella is 3.6 pounds, so I can ship anywhere in the country for a really cheap and fast area with one distributor in Arkansas, and launching with another year in the Chicago area in May. So you kind of have a multi channel approach.

Joe Quattrone 08:43
So you said that you’re alcohol free. I know you’re a pretty young guy and you look like you can’t be more than 25. That means, I think me and Jay had probably had 17. Was that a pretty easy choice then kind of getting away from alcohol? Or was that like something that you labored over had to go through? Like a tremendous amount of trials and tribulations over?

Jimmy Semrick 09:05
It was just not really for me? No, give it a try. I also came from the booze business. So you know, I started my career with MillerCoors in a Walmart headquarters territory, given their distribution, and then, you know, Chicago to run sales for distillery, so I was just selling vodka and gin all day. And I kind of got that, that concentrated experimentation versus a long haste out like early 20s experience. I had that real quick. And it just came to a point where I was like, Okay, what do I really want out of life? I mean, if running a business is such a great example of it, I still have things fall through the cracks. I could not imagine if I was sitting there fighting and hanging over trying to type emails. Oh, it would be brutal. Right?

Joe Quattrone 09:50
That’s a good point. Yeah, me and Jan, we often talk about how much else we got going on and how much we have to live for that kind of thing, being one of the big underlying motivating factors to living a Mito lifestyle. I mean, it’s no surprise. We’ve talked about ad nauseam. I’ve got three kids. I’ve got another one on the way. James got a racket. And yeah, when you get up into your 40s, your body doesn’t react the same way to alcohol as it did when you’re in your 20s. So we’re definitely, we definitely steal that quite a bit.

JM Guthrie 10:21
Yeah. But the interesting thing that you said about not having things fall through the cracks I’ve been trying to, I’m probably close to yours in August is 600 days or something like that now without alcohol. And we always talk about that thanks, man. Like the minutes, the hours, even the complete days that you just lose when you don’t feel good from the day before, or you’re drinking and not able to be productive on whatever you’re working on. And when you start to quantify that, for somebody like me, that did it pretty hard from 20 to 40. It’s like days of time that we just basically missed. And so as you get to our age, you start to think about shit. Now I’m taking all that time back. And I remember the other thing is, we talked about this all the time, they think about your memory, like you remember everything now, right? I mean, you have the there’s not these moments of like there’s a scene about last night, and what was that? Or what did I say?

Jimmy Semrick 11:15
Right? Have you seen those trackers like the tracker apps, they have like time saved, money saved,

JM Guthrie 11:22
Actually, I am sober is the app on my phone. And it’s several $1,000 Money saved calories is crazy, tells me how many days it also pumps me up and motivates me when I need it. But it’s so neat, as you get a lot further along. You don’t need that motivation anymore. Your body is like, I feel so much better. I was in Las Vegas this week, and surrounded by people just drinking from early in the day through all night. And I didn’t even feel an inclination to drink. And it was the first time I had been there, where I wasn’t still fighting that, oh, man, a drink would be a good thing. So Jimmy, let’s talk about when you go into a setting. And maybe because of your product, it’s easier to tell your story. But when you’re going into a setting, and there’s people that are drinking, and obviously you’re alcohol free. What’s sort of your response to somebody who’s like, oh, my gosh, dude, you’re sober. Like, my goodness, like immediately with the stigma immediately wondering like, how bad you ruined your life at some point to get to this point? What’s usually your kind of response? And how do you pivot into that conversation?

Jimmy Semrick 12:26
I was told something really early on when I first quit drinking, that was really interesting to me, where this woman told me, if they have a problem with what’s in your cup, they probably have a problem with what’s in theirs. Mm hmm. From their heart, it’s kind of like, you know, I was able to, you know, now at this point, it’s been a little bit and I noticed that the people that I want to be around, go, Okay, can we get some sparkling water for the table? You know, they just blow right past? Like, that’s it. Cool. It’s a really great filter for who I want to meet. I think. And I think that goes for most people, it’s like, what I’m doing is none of your business. So I think that’s my take on it. My attitude around it, you know,

JM Guthrie 13:10
what would you say to somebody that’s probably that person that if they had they do have a problem? Because they have a problem, right? What would you say to where we have a lot of listeners that are in that exact moment of looking for? Not necessarily counsel, but support in a community of people that have been in a similar spot? What do you say to that person that hasn’t had the, you know, had the ability to sort of put it down, or to really take a break, to see what an alcohol free life looks like, or me total lifestyle, like we like to talk about,

Jimmy Semrick 13:41
say that you’re not ever going to be growing, if you’re not uncomfortable. So it’s kind of like, if people are giving you a hard time, which is really good practice right there. You know, it’s good practice. And it’s it’s growth, if we can kind of recognize people you don’t want to be around, you kind of just need to find your tribe, find new people that you actually want to be around because those people probably aren’t very good for you in other capacities, not just drinking alcohol. So after,

JM Guthrie 14:14
What are your thoughts about our tribe that we’re building? Right? So you know, our thesis was, there’s lots of people like that who are on the fence. And there’s the basically the 12 step program, folks that you can go and get, like, the religion of not drinking and the steps that you can take to really gain control from that very structured, 12 STEP program that you have like the x’s on the hands, people like, we don’t drink, we’re straight edge, we’re better than you like, if you drink we don’t want to talk to you, those people. There’s not really anything in the middle. And so as we started to talk about this and came around tee-totalism, and abstaining from alcohol, and then talked about relationships, and how you can’t truly make a connection One with another person or another human, unless you’re good with who you are, or at least who you’re trying to be or try aspiring to be. So we came up with this meat play off of tee-totalism. To me-totalism. And really me totally. What are your thoughts just generally about our thesis and where we think this sort of tribe or community can go specific to this world of alcohol free?

Jimmy Semrick 15:25
I think it’s great. I mean, I don’t think that you need to be a rock bottom alcoholic in order to stop drinking or to cut back on drinking or take a look at their consumption. I mean, nobody’s really giving a like, you know, diet person fit for their decision, you know, I don’t know if I’m allowed right here.

JM Guthrie 15:47
No, please curse. Oh, okay. Oh, decK is my favorite word.

Jimmy Semrick 15:51
So I mean, it’s like, you know, no one’s giving anybody else any strife over their consumption habits. And I don’t think that you need to fall under a specific category. And honestly, you know, I do an extensive amount of market research, consumer research, I do a survey series every week. And most of the people that are in our target demographic are not completely sober, they might just be using a look at it, they might be saying, hey, you know, I would like to session these drinks with my other drinks, so they’re not getting shit canned. And a lot of people want to use Brella and do use Brella with alcohol. But they also say I can, I can very quickly toggle back and forth, you know, and there’s a really wide spectrum of people. There’s the kana or what is it Cali sober guy, so a broader array of that, I think he’s like, nine goes into the shops, and some of them have kratom, and kava and all these different things. Some people would be like, Whoa, that’s not for me. But for other people. So I’m like, I still am Joe, before we hopped on live, but like, I’m not anti anything, you know, I’m just pro a commendation for whatever you want to do. Whatever you decide is right for you. Because I’ve seen people that can drink in what I consider relatively healthy fashion, like my wife, she has half a glass of wine and goes, Oh, my face is washing? I think I’m done.

JM Guthrie 17:16
Yes. Exactly. Right. Exactly. Yeah, it takes one to know and I have the exact same thing at home. And I think what you said about being inclusive is really our entire mantra here, what we want is for there to be a comfortable place to talk about even the consideration of our you know, moderating alcohol, abstaining from alcohol, not drinking, whatever, don’t care if we can just be a world and an outlet where people can, can come and be supported in the decisioning that they’re making. And to your point, and I love just a lot of what you’ve said, not be judged about those decisions, and actually just be completely supported. Because the reality and this is something I was talking to somebody about yesterday in a totally different context, none of us can tell somebody how they should handle their relationship with alcohol. We can certainly encourage them due to the constraints that they’re putting around themselves specific to those decisions. But ultimately, it comes down to yourself. And you know, everybody always says you can’t stop drinking unless you actually commit to it yourself. And that’s certainly true. But you also have to have the right path that fits for that decision. And that’s not the same for everybody that’s actually different for every single person. And so to be inclusive and supportive, and allowing folks to really kind of voice or vet their decisioning while not being judged. So this is all about, really what we’re here for.

Jimmy Semrick 18:48
And I think that that sort of positioning really makes accommodation easier. Because if for example, I saw these non alcoholic whiskey brands, and that’s they’re throwing little hang tags on their bottles, say hey, you can make a lower proof old fashioned, put half of your bourbon that you were going to use and put half of ours. There’s no issue with that and ultimately know the more that these options are accepted and purchased and supported by bankers as well, they’re going to be around for the nominee, or the person that’s trying to design it just makes it

Joe Quattrone 19:25
in the beer industry also, in Jimmy you’re absolutely right. When we used to look at Australia who had a big problem with alcohol back in the 90s, they really clamped down on alcohol laws and how much alcohol you could put in your beverages because it was leading to all kinds of drunk driving accidents and stuff like that. And now the alcoholic drinks that are most popular in that country are the low, the low ABV, beers, the low proof alcohols and stuff like that because people are able to session them for longer, kind of be around them. reds in half scholarship for longer without getting as drunk. And that’s made a huge difference in that country. So I totally agree like the more people can kind of understand the effects and hands and not go too indulgent in what they’re doing is I think it’s still kind of seeding into this lifestyle that we’re trying to create, right, just as long as you’re in control, as long as you understand what the effect is. And if you’re somebody that winds up, you know, maybe you have too much of an addictive personality, then maybe that’s some reason why you want to go completely off of it. But I think that’s a great insight.

JM Guthrie 20:33
So Jimmy, I have a question. So obviously, now you’re gonna say you live a total life, and you’re gonna help us really grow the vision of our community through the channels that you have, like, I appreciate you doing that. But up till now, up till now, when somebody asks, Do you have a definition for your lifestyle? You mentioned some of the others, you know, we go through those often on this show. How do you sort of share the life that you’re living today, when somebody you know, asked if it’s in context to drinking or context, maybe something else? Do you have a definition of that from a lifestyle perspective?

Jimmy Semrick 21:08
I usually keep it pretty brief and just say, I don’t drink. Yeah, when I’m, when I’m asked about it, I think ultimately, like, I just strive to be a decent person and businessman, so I do the things that allow me to do that. So you know, I had a we say, you know, I try to show up my wife, I try to show my family, my grandma, etc. Um, and for me, that’s what does that. I think it’s more so around the man that I want to be. And so that’s where that kind of reserved value,

JM Guthrie 21:43
is there value. Is there value in being able to capture that in something like army total movement, right? Oh, I like yeah, no value to be able to say like, oh, I’m living, you know, I live in my total lifestyle, which is allowing me all of the things that you just said, yeah, I really like there’s value in that. Yeah, teetotaller

Jimmy Semrick 22:01
teetotallers are kind of like 60s races. When you decided to play.

Joe Quattrone 22:09
It’s like a 19th century race. It was originally Yeah, as a pre

JM Guthrie 22:12
prohibition. Yeah. And now still lives in like really evangelical sects of Christianity and Judaism and a couple other places, too. There’s still significant numbers of people that define themselves as teetotallers. And it’s, but it’s really like, what’s the axes on the hands? To some degree, right? It’s said with a level of assertion, and I’m better than you because I don’t drink. Yeah. And that turns me off every time. That’s why I don’t like to use the word sober. Because as soon as you say sober, the stigma goes to the 12 steps, like we’ve talked about. And the stigma also goes to like, Oh, you’re sober, good for you. Like, what are you trying to kind of talk down to me to some degree?

Joe Quattrone 22:50
I think that we’re I don’t know, for me, you know, what I pulled out of it was really the Temperance part of it, you know, like Temperance is what? excellence through Temperance is what I’m really all about, like, how

JM Guthrie 23:00
Do you make your life better? Not

Jimmy Semrick 23:01
worse. I definitely, like always like to put it out there that like, again, I’m not anti anything. I’m not anti alcohol, anti cannabis, I just really want people to have options. And so like, Jay, I’m what you said around the kind of snootiness around, like, Oh, I’m better than you because I don’t drink. It’s not something that I align myself with in the slightest, because a lot of people seem to have it figured out. So more power to them.

JM Guthrie 23:33
Right, exactly. The thing that we keep talking about, and why we love having you on the show is that we like to share the stories of success, right. And it’s less about the health related aspects or the addiction related aspects, it’s the benefit that showing up for your wife, it’s showing up for your friends, it’s showing up for your family, it’s being present with this neuron that you’re trying to explode into this worldwide global phenomenon specific to a cocktail and a small drop. Those are the things that really get us excited, because there’s lots of stories like that in a variety of different directions that really prove the thesis of if you’re able to find this excellence through temporary edits, there’s so much more to this life that you don’t even realize existed. And the ends, obviously, you’re able to

Jimmy Semrick 24:19
so little time, you know, like, right, between the time that I spend with my wife, the time I spend building this company, you know, the time that I spend on hobbies and just friends and family and trying to keep up. Holy Hell, I could not sit at a bar stool for three hours, because I haven’t, I don’t have, I don’t have time for the people that I really, really like. I definitely don’t have time for strangers. So yeah,

JM Guthrie 24:45
Yeah, we appreciate you taking the time with us. Oh, no, you had some kids too if you decide to add kids to that scenario, or that equation, man, the plates that you’re spinning to be able to show up for all those people becomes even more important right? These are dependent. Yeah, you have all these, you have these people that are now depending on you for that, right? That it’s just another amount of showing up.

Joe Quattrone 25:10
On that note, we really appreciate you coming by Jimmy and we’re gonna, we’re gonna kind of wrap things up here with you. But before you go, you know, I’ve seen I feel like I’ve seen a whole new side of you this time around because you’ve got the fresh haircut and you’ve got the t-shirt attached. So I want to do something like an impromptu segment of feet heat, which is something that’d be a gf JLPT while we’re doing the impromptu session of feet heat with live audience guests. So in this segment, we just tried to ask what’s on everybody’s feet in the current environment, the current day, just to see how fire that kicks off. What got you on fire? Okay, there you go. I’m feeling

JM Guthrie 25:49
I like that jelly cube.

Joe Quattrone 25:52
Here my wife Boston wants me to buy a pair of fashion likes that he’s

JM Guthrie 25:56
getting. He’s getting the head of the DAG gear, head of the desk early in his life. And he’s early in his Jimmy just eight years, he

Joe Quattrone 26:04
shaved his head he kept I’ve got the 21 Ultra boosts. You know, a lot of people are afraid to buy the whites. But I’ll tell people, I’ll tell the audience that don’t shy away from the whites. Because this is the only shoe you can throw in the washing machine and it comes out dry. And it looks like that for at least three years. And they’re still sparkling do so

26:26
there’s still bling bling wear.

Joe Quattrone 26:29
Yeah, yeah. Jay, what do you have in your feet,

JM Guthrie 26:32
I got you for some heat. I have a collaboration with Nike.

26:39
There you go, dunk.

JM Guthrie 26:41
And it’s a collaboration with a cool store out in LA called union. And they did what’s interesting, the story about them is like they were kind of pushing, let’s just say non authentic Nike related products in God’s eyes of Nike and ended up getting into like a huge partnership with them. And so they’ve launched several Nike collabs around both the Jordan one and the dogs. And you could ask my life by I might have a few of the hairs of their collaboration. So they’re one of my favorites. A little bit different. Nice.

Joe Quattrone 27:18
Cool. Well, Jimmy, we appreciate you being on so well.

JM Guthrie 27:20
It’s a good segment of fidi man he became with the power of the new balance is new. I was expecting some slots. Yeah, I was expecting some slides or something. You know, something?

Jimmy Semrick 27:31
We’re in production today. So I gotta have clothes on my toes. I should probably have steel posts.

JM Guthrie 27:36
Yeah, they feel you. Well, dude had a quick update on our FUZZEE product that we’ve been working on. And we’re gonna officially signed an agreement with a vendor, it’s actually a friend of mine from college 20 plus years, and stars aligned. Some things fell through on the West Coast, some people that we weren’t necessarily really trying to be the partner to get this off the ground with and we’re not sort of in a pressured situation to do it. It’s more of a let’s do it. Right. So we’re launching in Missouri, which is a new rec legal state for cannabis. And we’re signing the agreements next week and hope to be live this summer. So I think that the cool thing is, there’s some really cool synergy between Brella and Fuzzee that I look forward to, you know, collaborating.

Joe Quattrone 28:23
we should do a launch party in St. Louis. If you can come down from Chicago. I’d love to do a little bit. Yeah.

Jimmy Semrick 28:30
So we were completely vertically integrated so I can pump out small batches. What’s your favorite cocktail?

Joe Quattrone 28:37
It’s a club Soda

JM Guthrie 28:39
line. I’m

Joe Quattrone 28:42
I was kind of a dark liquor guy. So maybe like Manhattan or an old

Jimmy Semrick 28:46
fashioned or something. Okay, all right. Think about what would best include a beverage and we’ll come up sometimes. Yeah, dude

JM Guthrie 28:55
umbrella powered by fuzzy in the future. There’s a lot of cool stuff. We’ve got some really interesting people on the side. from a capital perspective. That’s even cooler people on the side from a gist influence perspective in a bunch of different categories. So we’re we it’s taken us longer than we hoped to get to this point. But we feel like we’re in such a great spot to get it done. So appreciate the willingness to come back today. To comfort in the conversation. I loved a lot of what you said I’d love to stay in touch just on Oh yeah, so we bought the fuzzy Jordans the mid J ones I’ve sent all the people involved in fuzzy

Joe Quattrone 29:34
so that’s all where I’m in St. Louis. We have a lifeguard

Jimmy Semrick 29:36
Yeah, got anywhere to go I mean Yeah, exactly. Word drive.

JM Guthrie 29:44
Yeah, we see such a cool opportunity to make a brand around fuzzy with our you know, it’s a 12 ounce drink to start sort of a seltzer a tall can similar to the execution of the format of white claw in high noon, some of the others, but we see such a cool opportunity to make the brand And so much more than the actual drink itself. And to get into potentially alcohol free beers powered by fuzzy your drops powered by I mean, there’s a million ways that this could continue to extend and expand. And I think go into what you talked about also, which is all these new options that are supporting people that are not ready to necessarily make the decision to go alcohol free, but are looking to session, like you said, are looking to add something else into there. So the more things that are available, and the more options that you have when you go somewhere, for something alcohol free, the more people aren’t going to ask you about it. You know, it’s in Vegas, bringing Heineken zero and people don’t fucking ask because they just know, you know, freaking 00 for beers.

Joe Quattrone 30:47
All right, and it’s that part of the show where we are going to discuss some of the news and notes out there, what’s going on, our news and notes. So JM, I’ve got an article pulled up from the Charlotte Observer. And so the headline reads in a first for Charlotte, an alcohol free bar comes to Uptown it stays open till 4am subheading, we just wanted to create a bar-like experience without the alcohol. So I went on to read that this is alcohol. This is a bar that’s challenged by an elder that also has their foot in the bar space, I think Brooklyn, New York. So I think this plays into the larger trend that we see going on around the world, which is ever growing. I wouldn’t say fascination quite yet, but more of this ever growing movement towards people trying to figure out what else is out there for them, other than partaking in it by being in alcoholic beverages and spirits. What do you think about this idea? No, me and you’ve talked about before, we’ve actually talked about this very concept at the bar before. I know when we were watching the world cruise back in 2090. And when

JM Guthrie 31:54
LA, Santa Monica, are having their family couple days. Yeah,

Joe Quattrone 31:59
We were first talking about getting into that and walking with me totally back in the day. This was a reality that we definitely saw for ourselves. We’re gay not wanting to give up the lifestyle of meeting at a bar with your friend and hanging out but not having to worry about it. Yeah. What do you think about this? Yeah. Yeah, look, I

JM Guthrie 32:16
I mean, I think it’s really exciting. I think it’s something that we’re going to see more of, in, especially really urban environments like Charlotte, I think that there are definitely enough people out there that want to go have a social setting or a community where you can have the bar experience and whether it’s the TVs with the games on or the mocktails or a bunch of different alcohol free beers puree athlete, we like to call them that something like that will more than likely be successful. Will there be lots of those in the future? Like where you have competing alcohol free bars? I don’t know. Right? I think what’s more likely, and what we’re seeing already is the resurgence of alcohol free options across the board at any high end restaurant, QSR restaurant, bar pub dive, fancy place, whatever, whether it’s eight or nine different alcohol free beers. It’s some dive maybe a CBD execution of something maybe even THC Delta nine or something compliant, or the 1415 $20 cost mocktail that Jimmy mentioned, which is basically just some juices mixed together that people that like that sweeter execution of cocktail are here for and are necessarily is worried about the feeling that it gives them as much as the format that it’s presented, and the flavor. Cool.

Joe Quattrone 33:39
I’m going to drop a really quick idea in this podcast for any of our entrepreneur followers out there that want to execute in this retail kind of environment coming from a 44 year old who has seen their story and seen it before. I would love to see a sports bar that’s alcohol free, that also has a back room with a jungle gym and babysitters on staff. So please make the dream a reality so your boy can go watch for hours with Sunday football and leave my two year old back in the jungle gym with the BBC. That would be money then you can take all their money. Take all that money if you can. Just make sure that the first locations of Nashville, Tennessee.