Speaker 1: This is he said a Yavi ho with Eric Winter
Speaker 1: and Rosalind Fantev.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to another she said aado.
Speaker 3: This is the last, he said by himself for a
Speaker 3: little while. My beautiful wife will be back here very soon.
Speaker 3: She's flying back tonight from a successful trip doing her movie.
Speaker 3: We are so excited. We really are to have her back.
Speaker 3: It's been a long road.
Speaker 2: Being on my own.
Speaker 3: I mean, I have great help my mom and nanny,
Speaker 3: but being on my own, it's a lot at the house.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I'm happy to have her home.
Speaker 3: But until then, we are going to do another episode
Speaker 3: with an awesome guest, a great friend of mine, Brad Parks,
Speaker 3: who is also my business partner with Palm Republic. We
Speaker 3: thot'd be fun to do an episode talking about entrepreneurship,
Speaker 3: you know, just our brand, working together, how we met
Speaker 3: building up Palm Republic here in the infancy few months
Speaker 3: as we've launched now and sharing our knowledge and journey
Speaker 3: what we have with you listeners, just because it might
Speaker 3: be fun. Who knows what everybody could gain from this.
Speaker 3: It's new to me. I can tell you starting something
Speaker 3: from the ground up, and I've learned a ton, so
Speaker 3: I'm excited to jump in just talk about this in
Speaker 3: general and Brad's experience and mine and share because the
Speaker 3: fan support has been incredible. So thank you everybody when
Speaker 3: it comes to Palm Republic for being by my side
Speaker 3: for this launch and lifting me up.
Speaker 2: It means the world. Everybody.
Speaker 3: Welcome Brad Parks, who's my business partner friend. As we've here,
Speaker 3: you know, gone on to build and launch Palm Republic,
Speaker 3: thought this would be a fun episode to share our
Speaker 3: journey a little bit for the listeners out there who
Speaker 3: might be looking to start something on their own, but
Speaker 3: also Brad has been down this path already before. Brad,
Speaker 3: why don't you go. I'll do a little bit of introduction.
Speaker 3: But you know, Brad comes from for people who don't
Speaker 3: know about spirits, beer wine, all of that. It's been
Speaker 3: a totally new world for me. Diving into Brad's third generation.
Speaker 3: Now his family has a distribution arm, a relationship I
Speaker 3: should say, right isue? Is that a distribution style of your.
Speaker 1: Company with beer wine distribut that's right.
Speaker 2: Beer wine distribution.
Speaker 3: So he had some knowledge in that space, but he's
Speaker 3: gone on his own to branch out and started his
Speaker 3: own company called Masked Hard tease erba mate healthier version
Speaker 3: of in RTD or ready to drink if you're going
Speaker 3: to have something with some liquor in it. It's also
Speaker 3: got some health elements as well in it. And he
Speaker 3: he launched that and it's doing, it's doing very well.
Speaker 3: So he knows about entrepreneurship. But Brad Goodin, tell us
Speaker 3: a little bit more about you your background. You know,
Speaker 3: it was your dream always to be an entrepreneur and
Speaker 3: et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 2: I'd love to hear that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I'll give you the the extended version. I guess,
Speaker 1: so what you know, like you mentioned, and you did
Speaker 1: a nice job in covering it. But my family's been
Speaker 1: in the beer and wine business since back to my grandfather,
Speaker 1: my grandfather's second job. It has been my dad's only job.
Speaker 1: So grew up in the beer and wine industry. You know,
Speaker 1: it was the only thing that I knew, so always
Speaker 1: that entrepreneurial spirit was there. It was all of you know,
Speaker 1: all around me, all all around our family. So at
Speaker 1: some you know point, I definitely knew I wanted to
Speaker 1: go into that. It wasn't always beer and wine, so
Speaker 1: I started my career actually an insurance and financial services
Speaker 1: on the agency side, which is a you know, you're
Speaker 1: ten ninety nine contractor. You own your own business, hire
Speaker 1: your own employees, do your own marketing. So that was
Speaker 1: kind of really my first dive into the entrepreneurial space,
Speaker 1: and I loved it. You know, met my wife through insurance.
Speaker 1: Her and I started two agencies together and you know,
Speaker 1: grew them to a point where she eventually said, hey,
Speaker 1: this is my deal. It's time for you to, uh
Speaker 1: to find something else to do what That's not exactly
Speaker 1: how it happened, but but anyway, it was around that
Speaker 1: time when our distributorships were going through some acquisitions and
Speaker 1: some transitions, and it was a good time for me
Speaker 1: to come back to that piece it, to that side
Speaker 1: of the business. And you know, being in this business
Speaker 1: every day you see all the new items that come out,
Speaker 1: you see all the market data, you see what does well,
Speaker 1: what doesn't do so well, the reason behind you know,
Speaker 1: brands launching new items. So you know, her and I,
Speaker 1: my wife and I got together and we thought, you know, hey,
Speaker 1: there was a niche in the market with all these
Speaker 1: seltzers and alternative beverages coming out, you know, to be
Speaker 1: a health forward product. So we launched mask Fusions, which
Speaker 1: there's a harder of a mate and a hard coconut water.
Speaker 1: And our whole target market that we wanted to capture
Speaker 1: was that you know, Seltzer drinker, but we wanted to
Speaker 1: add organic, good for you ingredients to the product. So
Speaker 1: that's been out, you know, over three years. Now we're
Speaker 1: in fifteen sixteen states, about five thousand retailers. And then
Speaker 1: from a spirits perspective, always been a rum fan. I
Speaker 1: was rum and coke in college and then obviously when
Speaker 1: you grow up a little bit, you're drinking. Habits and
Speaker 1: venues change, so you're at you know, events and dinners
Speaker 1: and not not necessarily dance clubs and bars are still
Speaker 1: last call, so you know, ordering rum and coke and
Speaker 1: a nice, nice dinner. Yeah, it wasn't receive is great. So,
Speaker 1: you know, went to Bourbon and Whiskey a little bit.
Speaker 1: I love the character behind it, kind of the history
Speaker 1: behind it, all of the different taste notes, you know,
Speaker 1: and always in the back of my mind, I couldn't
Speaker 1: figure out why there wasn't more nice RUMs like bourbon
Speaker 1: and whiskey. So started down that journey and obviously that's
Speaker 1: how you know, you and I came together and that's
Speaker 1: why we're here.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, And you know what I like buying for listeners
Speaker 3: to hear is you know, in general, being an entrepreneur
Speaker 3: is not something you have to be thinking your whole
Speaker 3: life like, that's the path I'm going to take. But
Speaker 3: what I do like is if you have a little
Speaker 3: bit of that spirit inside of you that you want
Speaker 3: to start something, you want to build something, which you did.
Speaker 3: You know, you go to college, you come out, you
Speaker 3: started a business with your wife, and you guys built
Speaker 3: something up and then decided, Okay, now's we're gonna pivot
Speaker 3: and you can continue to build more things, which is
Speaker 3: what you see all the time on shows like Shark
Speaker 3: Tank and these things that I love so much, as
Speaker 3: people are always finding a way to evolve and build
Speaker 3: and grow as entrepreneurs, whether something works, doesn't work, or
Speaker 3: you just want to send something off on its way
Speaker 3: because it's doing so well and I want to start
Speaker 3: something else now. And that's something my dad always sort
Speaker 3: of instilled in me as well, which is why I've
Speaker 3: always had that entrepreneurial spirit, even though I ended up
Speaker 3: going down this path of being an actor, which is
Speaker 3: very different because I.
Speaker 2: Have no control of my career.
Speaker 3: Like I could study and work hard every single day
Speaker 3: to be the best I can be, and it can
Speaker 3: translate to zero income, you know what I mean. There's
Speaker 3: so many other factors that go into having a successful
Speaker 3: career where I come, you know, from my standpoint, whereas
Speaker 3: you know, you're not always going to hit it as
Speaker 3: an entrepreneur, but if you you do know, if you
Speaker 3: work hard and you're grinding every day, you're destined to
Speaker 3: be better off than you were the day before. And
Speaker 3: that's why I think is great about that path, which
Speaker 3: is always excited me. And you know, like you said,
Speaker 3: we came together because of Rum, but I had been
Speaker 3: down this road on my own a bit before we merge,
Speaker 3: you know, just be in Palm Republic together. I was
Speaker 3: wanting to start something, wanted to be involved and build
Speaker 3: something on my own, and I had fell in love
Speaker 3: with rum, as we've talked about before, because my wife's
Speaker 3: Puerto Rican and that's when I was first introduced to it.
Speaker 2: I wasn't a.
Speaker 3: Rum drinker, became a rum drinker and appreciated, you know,
Speaker 3: what characteristics had had as a spirit and so it's
Speaker 3: something I wanted to go out and dive into more
Speaker 3: and try to start and Brad had been starting down
Speaker 3: this road with Palm Republic. We were introduced through another
Speaker 3: mutual sort of colleague, and we realized, you know, look,
Speaker 3: we both have the same mission. We want to make
Speaker 3: rum modern, a fresh new take on rum. We want
Speaker 3: to make it hip and cool again, versus what people
Speaker 3: grew up drinking, the Captain and cokes and the sugary
Speaker 3: RUMs spiced.
Speaker 2: And all that we wanted.
Speaker 3: I mean, look at spirits aren't necessarily help forward, but
Speaker 3: if you're going to have a spirit, we wanted to clean.
Speaker 3: We wanted no sugar added, no added colors, no flavors,
Speaker 3: just as it's intended to be sipped on. And I
Speaker 3: think because we had those same visions, it's not always
Speaker 3: easy when two people are going down separate paths to
Speaker 3: try to build something and then they try to come
Speaker 3: together and say, hey, can we actually work together, which
Speaker 3: you know, for people listening, we had a little bit
Speaker 3: of a feeling out process.
Speaker 2: You know, I did not know Brad at all before
Speaker 2: we I got involved in Paul Republic. He did not
Speaker 2: know me.
Speaker 3: There goes a lot of trust and building in that
Speaker 3: sort of relationship of how we're going to try to
Speaker 3: launch a company. And we've been in this now for
Speaker 3: over a year and it's been great. I think we've
Speaker 3: grown a lot together and understand things together. Brad's the
Speaker 3: calm one in the relationship. I'm the more neurotic, you know,
Speaker 3: freak out all the time person in the relationship. So
Speaker 3: we balance each other well, cance his beach background, Yeah,
Speaker 3: which I think is important when you're building a business
Speaker 3: like to have. It's like a marriage, right, You got
Speaker 3: to have those characteristics that are going to balance each
Speaker 3: other out while you're trying to grow a company.
Speaker 1: Yeah. You know, that's been great because you and I
Speaker 1: from day one shared the same vision of where we
Speaker 1: wanted the brand to go, what we wanted to do.
Speaker 1: You mentioned the you know additives clean spirit, but also
Speaker 1: the you know, upscale premium image that we wanted to bring,
Speaker 1: so we just did. We didn't want to just create
Speaker 1: a new liquid. We wanted to elevate the entire category
Speaker 1: and make it you know cool again, to order rum
Speaker 1: on the rocks at a bar acceptable again, and really
Speaker 1: take that mainstream to where you know, bourbon whiskey tequila
Speaker 1: is now those are all seen now as upscale spirits,
Speaker 1: and that's where we wanted to go. So that's been
Speaker 1: you know since day one, you and I have been
Speaker 1: on the same page there. And I think the other thing,
Speaker 1: you know, in any business relationship, obviously, communication is so important.
Speaker 1: And you know you and I communicate a lot the
Speaker 1: same way. Yeah, you know, quick, quick, detect back, quick
Speaker 1: to call back. You know now in the days of
Speaker 1: zoom and email. I mean, it's nothing for somebody to
Speaker 1: either not email back, and you've seen this a ton,
Speaker 1: you know recently, not email back, or just to not call.
Speaker 1: And you and I always say, like, how do you
Speaker 1: just let that sit there? How's that email just sit
Speaker 1: in your inbox?
Speaker 2: I'd tell you right there, like in dating it would
Speaker 2: be a deal breaker, and in.
Speaker 3: Busines it's a deal breaker. You can't text me back. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm out, Like, thank god. Brad and I are very
Speaker 3: very similar. I mean neurotic to a degree like Brad
Speaker 3: and I. I mean we we respond to each other
Speaker 3: on everything almost instantly.
Speaker 2: And I think it is again it goes back to communication.
Speaker 3: It's so important to know that you can, you know,
Speaker 3: lean on your partner or reach your partner in an
Speaker 3: instant if you need to. I think it's it's important
Speaker 3: for the success of anything relationship wise to grow, especially
Speaker 3: business for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think that's some of the you know,
Speaker 1: tough part for us as a small brand right now
Speaker 1: is yes, typically that would be a deal breaker, but
Speaker 1: there's these you know, relationships that we need so right,
Speaker 1: so we reach out to somebody, they don't email back.
Speaker 1: Typically we'd say, all right, we're done with you, but
Speaker 1: we may need them. We may need to email or
Speaker 1: this distributor. So it's it's kind of a you know,
Speaker 1: it'll uh test your patients, I.
Speaker 2: Guess one hundred percent.
Speaker 3: I think building a company definitely test your patients because
Speaker 3: you it's like raising You care so much about your kid,
Speaker 3: but nobody else cares about your kids as much as
Speaker 3: you care about your kid, and so like, Palm Republic
Speaker 3: is like our baby, right, we care so much about
Speaker 3: this brand that will do anything it takes to nourish
Speaker 3: it and help it grow, whereas everybody on the outside
Speaker 3: it's like, oh yay, I'll get to it.
Speaker 2: I'll get to it.
Speaker 3: It's it's not their priority by any means. So you
Speaker 3: have to grind and hustle. Let's talk a little bit
Speaker 3: about how we, you know, brought Palm Republic together, because
Speaker 3: there's been a lot of questions that, you know, did
Speaker 3: we have a mixologist work with us, or we did
Speaker 3: have a master distiller work with us, for example, and
Speaker 3: coming up with the Age blend and the Silver blend,
Speaker 3: both of them, but coming up and finding those perfect
Speaker 3: notes and how much sampling you know, it took to
Speaker 3: get to that place of finding the RUMs from the
Speaker 3: regions that we were gonna blend with.
Speaker 2: You want to talk a little bit about about that process.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So it's it's just that it's a process. And
Speaker 1: you know, luckily, like you said, both our master mixologists
Speaker 1: as well as a lot of other people in the
Speaker 1: industry have been you know, so helpful for us. And
Speaker 1: you're tasting and giving feedback in opinions, and you know,
Speaker 1: it takes a ton of sampling. And obviously our product
Speaker 1: is a blend, So our age is a blend of
Speaker 1: three RUMs from three different countries, and then our silver
Speaker 1: is a blend of two RUMs from two different countries.
Speaker 1: So you know, number one, just you know, the vision,
Speaker 1: where do we want to go? What do we want
Speaker 1: to taste profile to be like, and then from there
Speaker 1: narrowing it down to how do we get there with
Speaker 1: these blends, you know, and just the tweaking. You know,
Speaker 1: let's turn up the brown sugar, let's turn down the
Speaker 1: you know, sweetness whatnot. So a ton of tasting, you know,
Speaker 1: the good thing there is you're tasting rum, so it
Speaker 1: can only.
Speaker 3: Be and when you say turn up the brown sugar,
Speaker 3: that we're not adding brown sugar, So it's turning up
Speaker 3: the notes that that particular rum brought in like those characters.
Speaker 1: That's right, yep, So nothing added, no flavors, no no sweetness,
Speaker 1: no colors. So just there's certain flavor notes based on
Speaker 1: the different blends, because.
Speaker 3: That's something that people may or may not even understand.
Speaker 3: For example, like our Panamanian rum comes column distilled right,
Speaker 3: and just like I always explain it, like with grapes,
Speaker 3: if you've grow in a different region, a grape is
Speaker 3: a grape, but it's going to take on the characteristics
Speaker 3: of the soils, the environment and everything that goes into it.
Speaker 2: So sugarcane, same thing.
Speaker 3: A sugar cane from Panama is going to produce a
Speaker 3: little bit different of a flavor than a sugar cane
Speaker 3: from Jamaica. Not to mention the distilling product process in
Speaker 3: Jamaica is a kettle still or a pot still versus
Speaker 3: the column still. So it's going to also add different characteristics.
Speaker 3: So when we got all these blends and we bring
Speaker 3: them to the master distiller and we go through the
Speaker 3: tasting process, it's like, oh, punch up a little bit
Speaker 3: more of the note that came out of that rum
Speaker 3: into the blend and punching up, and it's a chemistry project,
Speaker 3: that's right.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And from the outside looking in, you know, you
Speaker 1: think you just taste RUMs until you get what you like.
Speaker 1: But there's such science behind it. And you know, some
Speaker 1: of these people, especially are our distiller that we've worked with,
Speaker 1: and these people in the industry are so adept at
Speaker 1: what they're looking for in these flavor notes. I can
Speaker 1: taste from and tell you maybe where it came from
Speaker 1: and if I like it or not. But and again, Eric,
Speaker 1: you've seen we've worked with these guys for the last year.
Speaker 1: It's incredible what they can pull out from just the
Speaker 1: flavor notes.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, oh yeah, you know, it's it's a true art,
Speaker 3: it really is.
Speaker 2: And their palettes are unique.
Speaker 3: It's just like a small a in wine, right, Like
Speaker 3: they study these things and they know the ins and
Speaker 3: outs of what they're sipping on well.
Speaker 1: And one of the I guess, going back to picking
Speaker 1: out our blends, one of the things that we did
Speaker 1: interestingly with our age is we up the proof on it.
Speaker 1: So typical spirits, you'll see them around eighty proof, which
Speaker 1: is forty percent alcohol. We went up to forty six
Speaker 1: percent or ninety two proof in the aged and that
Speaker 1: was a recommendation given to us. And when we did that,
Speaker 1: it really brought out all those really robust, rich flavors.
Speaker 1: Obviously it's got a little bit more alcohol, a little
Speaker 1: bit more punch, but when we started circulating that around
Speaker 1: our circles, we got incredible feedback and you know, oh
Speaker 1: my god, this is so good. It doesn't taste like
Speaker 1: a ninety two proof, but these flavors are so rich
Speaker 1: and so intense, So just little tweaks like that, you know,
Speaker 1: make all the difference in the world.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I'll add to that, Like what I started
Speaker 3: learning as I was going through the tasting process with
Speaker 3: friends and colleagues and just even strangers. I would say
Speaker 3: to people, how do you normally drink. Because if someone
Speaker 3: drinks peanut cladas every time they drink, or if someone
Speaker 3: drinks a cocktail every time they drink, drinking something neat,
Speaker 3: totally different experience will blow your mind in any any spirit,
Speaker 3: by the way, because it's you're getting.
Speaker 2: The purest form.
Speaker 3: It's going to be stronger, it's not watered down. It's
Speaker 3: not you know, there's no ida. You know those sugars
Speaker 3: because you're making a cocktail. And I think it's important
Speaker 3: that people know that. So when you go buy Palm
Speaker 3: Republic or any spirit for that matter, it's important to
Speaker 3: know what.
Speaker 2: You're getting into.
Speaker 3: So if we have a ninety two that we think
Speaker 3: is we know, we love it because when you're making
Speaker 3: a cocktail with it, you can actually taste a bit
Speaker 3: of what you're drinking. Versus some times you pay thirty
Speaker 3: dollars or twenty five dollars at a borrow restaurant, you're like,
Speaker 3: I don't even taste the alcohol.
Speaker 2: Did they put anything in this?
Speaker 3: And that drives me crazy because I just spent a
Speaker 3: ton of money on this drink. So at least with
Speaker 3: Palm Republic, you know you're gonna be able to taste
Speaker 3: your alcohol a bit. You're gonna enjoy it, and it
Speaker 3: does in fact bring up the flavor notes. But like
Speaker 3: you said, there's gonna be a little bit more of
Speaker 3: a kick because it has a higher alcohol percent to it.
Speaker 3: But I think that's the balance and also part of
Speaker 3: what I think makes us unique. And you can't you
Speaker 3: can't proof something up down the road. But if somebody
Speaker 3: goes like, oh it might be a little strong for me, neat, okay,
Speaker 3: put it on a rock. Now you immediately have opened
Speaker 3: it up and you're gonna help it be a little
Speaker 3: bit more simpable for you. And if you need beyond that,
Speaker 3: you can add a splash of water to it. And
Speaker 3: that's something you can do to bring it down, which
Speaker 3: you can't bring, like I said, bring it back up.
Speaker 3: So that's why we thought it made more sense to
Speaker 3: go out to the market a little different in that space.
Speaker 1: That's right, Yeah, and along you know kind of those
Speaker 1: lines as well. All of our cocktails that we high
Speaker 1: light on our website and a lot of the ones
Speaker 1: that we recommend to people, you know, I call them
Speaker 1: simple cocktails. There are two three ingredients. It's you know,
Speaker 1: for example, our dakery, we had so many people say, oh,
Speaker 1: this makes a great dakery, and early on we're like,
Speaker 1: why is this person making a dakri with it? Because
Speaker 1: common consumer thinks, you know, dakri that comes out of
Speaker 1: the freeze machine, it's a strawberry dacrie. But a simple
Speaker 1: dacker is simple syrup, rum and uh and lime squeeze lime.
Speaker 1: So you can still really get a lot of the
Speaker 1: notes of the rum. And it's a great cocktail. It's
Speaker 1: you know, relative, I mean, there's sugar in it because
Speaker 1: of the simple syrup, but it's relatively clean. It doesn't
Speaker 1: have a ton of syrup, it's not thick. So we
Speaker 1: really try to highlight and feature those simple cocktails so
Speaker 1: you can appreciate the rum totally.
Speaker 3: Now, one thing I want to talk about that people
Speaker 3: may not know, and I had no idea, but why
Speaker 3: to me?
Speaker 2: I mean, you can explain it better.
Speaker 3: Why is the alcohol business so different than any other
Speaker 3: business ventures that could be started out there? Because I
Speaker 3: didn't realize it's a bit I don't want to say
Speaker 3: the wild West, but it still has its old sort
Speaker 3: of prohibition kind of.
Speaker 2: Like this interesting mark on it.
Speaker 3: You have to go follow certain patterns with distributors there's
Speaker 3: a path to everything. Some states are control states where
Speaker 3: you have to you know, be you know, stuck with
Speaker 3: a distributor for forever. Essentially, you know, it's paid to
Speaker 3: play a lot of times to get in places.
Speaker 2: It's not standard business. And why is that just the
Speaker 2: times have never changed with alcohol.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so totally different, right, totally different industry and especially
Speaker 1: now when the ease of doing business and a lot
Speaker 1: of industries is there. So you create a cool product,
Speaker 1: put it on Amazon and you you know bank however
Speaker 1: much a month alcohol is still, like you said, is
Speaker 1: very very old school and it was a lot of
Speaker 1: those things were put in place after prohibition the safeguard
Speaker 1: the consumers. So for example, we were considered a supplier.
Speaker 1: We make our product, in order to get it to
Speaker 1: a consumer, it's got to go through a distributor in
Speaker 1: that state, then to a retailer, whether it's a store, bar, restaurant,
Speaker 1: and then to the end consumer. So it it layers.
Speaker 1: You know, it's called a three tier system. So there's
Speaker 1: three tiers of distribution. And obviously, you know there's some
Speaker 1: pros and cons with that. Cons is it costs more
Speaker 1: to the end consumer. Right. The pros are working with
Speaker 1: really good distributors, which we've got a handful that we're
Speaker 1: working with now. You know, they can increase our reach
Speaker 1: and they can get us in these corner bars and
Speaker 1: restaurants that you and I on a you know, a
Speaker 1: week visit to Florida, you know, probably are not going
Speaker 1: to hit all of these. So it is a you know,
Speaker 1: it's some of it is changing a little bit for
Speaker 1: the good, but a lot of those safeguards again are
Speaker 1: in place for the for the consumer, which is a
Speaker 1: good thing too. But it is a very old school business.
Speaker 1: It's very relationship driven. Still. It's a you know, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say it's a big fraternity because somebody will leave
Speaker 1: a company, whether it be an Anhydro, Busch, Miller, Cores,
Speaker 1: and two months later they'll pop up in your email
Speaker 1: and they're with another company. So they may leave the company,
Speaker 1: but not a lot of people leave the industry, so
Speaker 1: you really have to be careful about the relationships you
Speaker 1: develop and the relationships you you know, you don't want
Speaker 1: to burn any bridges in the industry because these people
Speaker 1: continue to surface and to pop up. So, you know,
Speaker 1: again it's a little bit old school, but there's a
Speaker 1: lot of good things about that.
Speaker 2: Also, like me, what I've even learned? It like it
Speaker 2: feels mobstery in a way.
Speaker 3: It's like, you know, you want to be on the
Speaker 3: menu at like the hottest nightclub in Miami. Okay, well
Speaker 3: the head of that nightclub might ask you for fifty
Speaker 3: grand in a rolex.
Speaker 1: That's just the way it is, which is a meeting
Speaker 1: we had a week ago. Right, Yeah, that's a good example.
Speaker 3: It's like, I want you want to be on my menu? Okay,
Speaker 3: give me some cash and I want a nice watch.
Speaker 3: I'll put you on my menu. It's not because we
Speaker 3: want to because I like you, because I want to
Speaker 3: hook you up. I mean maybe if you're really tight
Speaker 3: with that person, they can help you out. But even
Speaker 3: the biggest brands are spending thousands of dollars so that
Speaker 3: when you look at your cocktail menu, it says, oh, I.
Speaker 2: Want I want a rum. I want to I want
Speaker 2: to what'd you say, decree?
Speaker 3: But the rum that's going to be in that decree
Speaker 3: paid twenty thousand dollars to have its name be the
Speaker 3: rum that they're going to pour every single time you
Speaker 3: want to drink. So you have to be aware if
Speaker 3: you want to try something different, you want to try
Speaker 3: something specially you. He asked to see their rum list,
Speaker 3: see what else they have, or look at their back bar,
Speaker 3: see what they're carrying, because you're going to get what
Speaker 3: they're going to give you based on who's paying them.
Speaker 2: And I had no idea. It was like that. I
Speaker 2: mean even your favorite margarita. I was like looking at a.
Speaker 3: Place and they said, oh no, this big company pays
Speaker 3: us fifty grand to have them be the name on
Speaker 3: the menu. So it's a big cash business to make dents,
Speaker 3: to make ways through it all.
Speaker 2: And I think.
Speaker 3: Relationships, like you said, are key in anything, but in
Speaker 3: this business even more so in some ways.
Speaker 1: Indeed, you know, the different legalities and intricacies from state
Speaker 1: to state is wild as well. So it's totally some
Speaker 1: state's totally black and white. You know, some states obviously
Speaker 1: that we do business in that we're on calls every
Speaker 1: day with it is like the wild West. You can
Speaker 1: do whatever you want. You can pay it for shelf placement,
Speaker 1: you can pay for this. Other states you can't do that.
Speaker 1: So it is it's a very interesting business, to say
Speaker 1: the least.
Speaker 3: Let's talk a little bit about you know, we get
Speaker 3: so many comp and I have to say, I mean,
Speaker 3: the support has been incredible out the gate, but on
Speaker 3: our bottle, on the look, let's talk a little bit
Speaker 3: about that process. I mean, how many first of all,
Speaker 3: the idea of the bottle, how many passes?
Speaker 2: How many things do you think we saw?
Speaker 3: Even with logos, working with a great company obviously in
Speaker 3: everybody's eye, and you know, trying to come up with
Speaker 3: the right decision to make, which is very scary because
Speaker 3: once you commit, you're like, well, we think this is
Speaker 3: it and you put it out there.
Speaker 2: Talk about that process a bit too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So we worked with a great design company out
Speaker 1: of Chicago, and you know, now everything from the bottle
Speaker 1: to the name, to the label to the liquid, everything
Speaker 1: has to fit in and go hand in hand.
Speaker 2: It's all.
Speaker 1: It all has to make sense. So you know, it's
Speaker 1: not just I like this label in this bottle. Let's
Speaker 1: put them together, right, Everything's got to fit and it's
Speaker 1: got to be you know, the brand's got to speak
Speaker 1: together essentially. So again, work with a great company out
Speaker 1: of Chicago, looked at, you know, hundreds and hundreds of
Speaker 1: bottles and pictures and hey, we like this one kind
Speaker 1: of like this one. We like the neck on this,
Speaker 1: but not the body on this, and really are our
Speaker 1: you know, entire goal with the packaging processes, we wanted
Speaker 1: to deviate from the current Rum category. So if you
Speaker 1: go to the liquor store you look at a rumshelf,
Speaker 1: ninety nine percent of it is they're dark bottles, you know,
Speaker 1: their old pictures. It's got maps, compasses, pirates, and we
Speaker 1: really wanted to go away from that. We wanted to
Speaker 1: keep the spirit of Rum, which is fun, it's lively,
Speaker 1: it's outdoors, but we didn't want to go down that
Speaker 1: heritage route. So you know, when somebody sees our bottle,
Speaker 1: it's a custom bottle. It's got our palm tree logo
Speaker 1: emblazed in the side of it. The corks, I think
Speaker 1: are probably the best feature of it. It's a large
Speaker 1: corp that cor cork that has the palm tree in it.
Speaker 1: And then we have bright, lively colors, but it's still elegant.
Speaker 1: You know, it's not over the top neon colors where
Speaker 1: you know it's in your face. It's an elegant, sexy bottle,
Speaker 1: but it's upscale.
Speaker 2: Even our font go with our deco.
Speaker 3: Like a lot of people like I were surprised that
Speaker 3: we went with that font, but in a good way.
Speaker 3: They're like, wow, this really stands out. I would have
Speaker 3: thought of that, and it speaks very old Miami. It
Speaker 3: brings back, you know what I love about it. It
Speaker 3: ties in the notion of rum and that old nature
Speaker 3: with the old Art Deco sort of vibe. But then
Speaker 3: it's really modern. So exactly it's blending the two.
Speaker 1: It has elements of both, which is and again, you know,
Speaker 1: you think of Miami in the eighties or whatnot, you
Speaker 1: do think of rum and dake ease and things like that.
Speaker 1: So I think it's kind of a throwback to that easier,
Speaker 1: simpler time maybe, but again, like you said, still modern,
Speaker 1: still really upscale.
Speaker 3: And I also have some questions about people saying, you know,
Speaker 3: was the rum arguing in barrels from somewhere when we,
Speaker 3: you know, started we started this process or did we
Speaker 3: start from scratch? And yes, the rum was in barrels
Speaker 3: because a lot of these distilleries that were approaching and
Speaker 3: going to and tasting, they've been aging their their rum
Speaker 3: for years, right, and they can be I think what
Speaker 3: people may or may not understand is these distilleries all
Speaker 3: over the world for different products, whether it's tequila, which
Speaker 3: is only in Mexico, theo's.
Speaker 2: Agave, and the distillers are all there.
Speaker 3: They will make all of the tequilas you're tasting are
Speaker 3: coming from five different distilleries roughly or something in Mexico
Speaker 3: for tequila, and with rum, all these different RUMs you're tasting,
Speaker 3: they're all coming relatively from the same distilleries in those regions.
Speaker 3: So if it's a Panamanian rum, most likely there's a
Speaker 3: couple of different Panamanian distillers out there that have that
Speaker 3: those different RUMs.
Speaker 2: It's how they.
Speaker 3: Formulate it to make it special coming out of that
Speaker 3: distillery each right.
Speaker 2: So same with Tequiee.
Speaker 3: So if you had two big brands, they could both
Speaker 3: be coming from that same distillery. Each one's just getting
Speaker 3: their own attention to detail to make it a little
Speaker 3: bit more unique.
Speaker 2: And the same thing with our rum.
Speaker 3: That's why we liked the blend idea because we felt
Speaker 3: like we were taking the best from these different regions
Speaker 3: and putting it together to make it something new.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know there's a lot of blends out there.
Speaker 1: There's wine blends, there's spirit blends, and a lot of
Speaker 1: blends are done to help costs. They blend them down.
Speaker 1: So here's a really nice liquid is you know, fifteen
Speaker 1: years old. We love it, but it's very expensive, so
Speaker 1: let's blend it with something cheaper so we can keep
Speaker 1: our costs under control. And that's you know, I think
Speaker 1: one of the great unique things about Palm Republic is
Speaker 1: it's all really quality rum that complements each other, and
Speaker 1: it's brought together in a way that you know, the
Speaker 1: flavor notes work together, and it's not just, hey, here's
Speaker 1: a great rum that we like some of the features
Speaker 1: of let's blend it down so we can we can
Speaker 1: make it cheaper. It's not that. So yeah, the you know,
Speaker 1: the rum has been in our age, has been in
Speaker 1: Beryl's sherry casts for eight years. So, like you said,
Speaker 1: there's and wins the same way. You know, there's a
Speaker 1: handful of distilleries that produce rum and sell it to consumers.
Speaker 1: When you see bourbon and whiskeys come out and they're
Speaker 1: fifteen years most likely that company didn't start fifteen years
Speaker 1: ago with liquid and a barrel, right, they purchased that
Speaker 1: from somewhere and it's been aging for fifteen years.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, Now what do you think so far? This is
Speaker 3: one thing I like about where spirits is going is
Speaker 3: that they're nothing is staying in its lane, meaning, you know,
Speaker 3: it's not just Okay, I'm gonna have a margarita, so
Speaker 3: it's got to be a tequila. I'm gonna have a rum,
Speaker 3: so it's it has to be a pinicolada, I'm gonna
Speaker 3: have a I'm gonna have a whatever, gins or that
Speaker 3: has to be gen and tonic, you know whatever. This
Speaker 3: this sake is everybody's mixing and matching. And what I
Speaker 3: like about that is we're able to try all these
Speaker 3: different cocktails, exploring with different spirits. So for example, my
Speaker 3: favorite cocktail that Palm Republic does with.
Speaker 2: The Age, and I've said it time and time again,
Speaker 2: is an old fashion.
Speaker 3: It is the most killer old fashion and everybody I've
Speaker 3: told about it, I'm like, it's gonna change the way
Speaker 3: you think about about rum because everybody, you know, bourbon whiskey,
Speaker 3: they're like old fashion, amazing drink. People love it all
Speaker 3: the time. And and I still love it with bourbon
Speaker 3: and whiskey as well. Don't don't get me wrong, I
Speaker 3: still love it that way. But what I like is
Speaker 3: that palm. Republic truly brings a different sort of hint
Speaker 3: of a note that's just a different flavor because it's
Speaker 3: a rum. But also our notes are so have a
Speaker 3: consistency with like a bourbon or whiskey too in a
Speaker 3: lot of ways.
Speaker 1: You know. And it's so you know, Paul Republic's so versatile, right,
Speaker 1: It's great on the rocks, it's great neat. You know,
Speaker 1: if you're a bourbon whiskey person and you drink eat,
Speaker 1: our age is great neat. But it's so versatile in cocktails,
Speaker 1: and like you said, that allows us to bring a
Speaker 1: lot of people to the rum category that may not
Speaker 1: drink from right now. So you know, I've had new
Speaker 1: or dozens and dozens of people when we started they say,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't I don't really drink rum. What
Speaker 1: do you drink? I drink bourbon in old fashioned perfect
Speaker 1: Try it with our age and they're like, oh wow,
Speaker 1: this is rum. And I think I told you the
Speaker 1: story my dad, who's been in the you know, beer
Speaker 1: and wine business forever, when I first gave him our
Speaker 1: first round of samples, and he said, this isn't rum,
Speaker 1: this is this is bourbon. You know, this is bourbon whiskey,
Speaker 1: and I said, no, this is age drum. And he said,
Speaker 1: now rum's got that, you know, cinnamon, it's a little
Speaker 1: bit more spiced. I said, no, that's not good rum.
Speaker 1: I said, this is this is quality rum. So you know,
Speaker 1: it is so versatile, and you can make a rum martini.
Speaker 1: Now you can make a rum old fashion, you know.
Speaker 1: And then again it just allows us to bring people
Speaker 1: who normally wouldn't drink rum over into the category and
Speaker 1: kind of open their eyes because again, the common consumer
Speaker 1: when they think rum, they don't think of palm, republic
Speaker 1: age room. They think of something that's overly sweet, has
Speaker 1: a cinnamon bite to it, and they probably got sick
Speaker 1: off of it at one point one hundred percent.
Speaker 3: Even like a friend of ours, who are just a
Speaker 3: friend of mine, I said, it just posted something on palm.
Speaker 3: They were all cognac drinkers. And remember cognac comes from
Speaker 3: like a pot still in the way that they make it,
Speaker 3: so often that element of what the Jamaican rum brings
Speaker 3: can have a bit of a cognac sort of you know, feel.
Speaker 2: Profile to it.
Speaker 3: So these guys all sipped on palm for a big
Speaker 3: fantasy football draft and they're like, oh my god, this
Speaker 3: is the best rum we've ever had.
Speaker 2: This is unbelievable. It really does sit more.
Speaker 3: Like a Cognac Bourbon in that range for the age,
Speaker 3: and I think so to me, that's my favorite cocktail,
Speaker 3: the old fashion.
Speaker 2: You got to try it if you if you by
Speaker 2: the age.
Speaker 3: And also with the silver, So many my tequila friends
Speaker 3: who are drinking, you know, the silver tequilas, and that's
Speaker 3: their focus, not going to the najos and all that
Speaker 3: I said say in Yeho, I pronounced that very poorly.
Speaker 2: My wife would be pit it's good the silver.
Speaker 3: A lot of my tequila friends are like, wow, I
Speaker 3: could totally sip on this silver rum with a lime
Speaker 3: instead of a vodka or on the rocks, just like
Speaker 3: I would my my tequila.
Speaker 2: And it's got.
Speaker 3: Sure, it has a different flavor profile, but it SIPs
Speaker 3: so smooth and it tastes so good that it's a
Speaker 3: great alternative or something you just want to mix a
Speaker 3: match with.
Speaker 1: Well, and we say it all the time, you know,
Speaker 1: we kind of see the rum categories where tequila was
Speaker 1: ten or twelve years ago, where obviously people were familiar
Speaker 1: with tequila, you know, but it was it was cheaper liquid.
Speaker 1: It was not as good. People have bad experiences.
Speaker 3: People forget about that because of the craze of tequila. Now,
Speaker 3: like when I started drinking tequila, I got so sick
Speaker 3: off of tequila that I to this day, I'm not
Speaker 3: a tequila drinker.
Speaker 2: I'll have a margarita. I do like those, but I
Speaker 2: don't like tequila neat on the rocks. I can't do it.
Speaker 2: It gives me horrible memories.
Speaker 1: And that's where it was ten or twelve years ago. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and Run's kind of the same way. And we see
Speaker 1: where tequila went. I mean, now tequila is seen as premium, upscale.
Speaker 1: Go into any liquor store and there's one hundred hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty two hundred dollars bottles of tequila, you know.
Speaker 1: And again, I think that the nice thing about Rum,
Speaker 1: and the unique piece about Rum is it's so approachable. Right,
Speaker 1: It's a little bit sweeter at the end, so it's
Speaker 1: it's you know, approachable. It's it doesn't have an acquired
Speaker 1: taste like tequila, it doesn't have burn like berber and whiskey,
Speaker 1: but it still has a lot of those characteristics.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and look as we go on to launch. I
Speaker 3: just want to say to the listeners I've said it before,
Speaker 3: the support has been incredible. It means a lot to
Speaker 3: us because we take this very serious and I've said
Speaker 3: it before, it's not this was never my intention as
Speaker 3: a celebrity play on a brand. I've been very passionate
Speaker 3: about this category, very passionate about building something on my own.
Speaker 2: I have a great partner, we have great investors and a.
Speaker 3: Great team, and to see that support and the people
Speaker 3: show up has meant the world to us. You know,
Speaker 3: we were a few months in now launching our babies,
Speaker 3: sending them off, you know, and then the walking steps
Speaker 3: right the stages of their lives. And we really see
Speaker 3: this as a brand that would become a staple in
Speaker 3: the Rum market, and that will build and people when
Speaker 3: they think of Rum will start thinking Palm Republic. That's
Speaker 3: our goal. So we invite you to spread the word,
Speaker 3: share it, try it if you haven't tried it, just
Speaker 3: as we say, join the Republic, be part of our
Speaker 3: mission to change the narrative on Rum and lift it
Speaker 3: up and just enjoy enjoy new experiences with the Rum family.
Speaker 3: So that's where we're at, that's where we're headed. Brad,
Speaker 3: thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I
Speaker 3: thought it'd be fun to share our story a bit,
Speaker 3: talk a little bit of business, talk about our relationship,
Speaker 3: and I think the listeners will get a kick out
Speaker 3: of this.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Great, thanks for having me. Appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Awesome, take care of men.
Speaker 3: Thanks to all right, Well, everybody, thank you for listening
Speaker 3: as always, and I hope this was insightful just to
Speaker 3: learn a bit about where my mind is at with
Speaker 3: the company and the business and how much it means
Speaker 3: to me and my partner. You got to see it
Speaker 3: face to face now, so again I appreciate you. I
Speaker 3: hope you have a chance to enjoy Palm republic. Give
Speaker 3: us a follow at Palm republic rum on Instagram, Palm
Speaker 3: republic Rum on TikTok, Twitter or x I should say Facebook,
Speaker 3: that's that's everywhere.
Speaker 2: And also go to our website. Check it out.
Speaker 3: It's the same thing, palmrepublic rum dot com. Get the
Speaker 3: latest news, check out the merch and buy yourself a bottle.
Speaker 3: Try it all right, everybody, thank you for listening. If
Speaker 3: you have something you want to talk to us about,
Speaker 3: send it to our DMS at he said Ado or
Speaker 3: email us at Ericanroz at iHeartRadio dot com and Roz
Speaker 3: will be back for the next one.
Speaker 2: Take care, bye, thanks for listening. Don't forget to write
Speaker 2: us a review and tell us what you think.
Speaker 4: If you want to follow us on Instagram, check us
Speaker 4: out at the said a ens at email, Eric and
Speaker 4: Ross at iHeartRadio dot com. He said. AB is part
Speaker 4: of iHeartRadio's Mike Wilutap podcast network.
Speaker 2: See you next time. Bye,