#459 How To Create An Adult Beverage Business; Organic Honey To Money w/ Spirited Hive's Jack Espy
Jack Espy is the CEO and founder of Spirited Hive, a ready-to-drink, craft cocktails made with quality spirits, all-natural ingredients and real honey
Jack dives deep into the story of how he stirred up Spirited Hive in the midst of the pandemic, sweetening the deal with organic honey as his brand's unique buzz-worthy selling point. Soak up some golden nuggets of wisdom as Jack navigates you through the sticky web of state alcohol regulations. He also spills the beans on his secret sauce - sourcing ingredients like honey and streamlining logistics and shipping.
Espy also serves up some heady strategies for marketing through partnerships, focusing on buzzing markets like Nashville and walking the tightrope between growth and profitability. Whether you're new to the beverage landscape or looking to expand your existing brand, you're about to gain some invaluable insights on steering your company from a mere concept to distribution. Cheers!
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Eric Readinger 0:00
Ah, are you gonna stop doing that? Are we going, okay, yeah, we're going, but are you gonna stop doing that? I
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 0:06
thought you're gonna give me a Waynes World, like, 543, yeah. Okay. Go sweat equity podcast and streaming show, the number one business comedy podcast on in the world, on the world should be on the world. I'll give a that's fair. Listen to him. Listen to us on iTunes, Apple podcast, by the way, June 28, June 30. And if you're a Tampa resident, Tampa Bay area resident, the real Bay Area, I'll include Sarasota DMA in there. Yeah. Uh huh. Uh huh. The metro area.
Eric Readinger 0:40
Thanks for the DMA.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 0:41
I am shooting a comedy special Eric is directing, and it's at the gimmick in Ybor City, in Tampa, Florida, in the United States of America, earth, these colors don't bleed, all right. This episode is brought to you by Zapier, Z, u, p, y, a, k, get off of Jasper. Get off of these other copy AI, all these other kind of droning ones, zuppiac.com, it'll write it, but it won't write it where it looks like chat, GPT and some kind of foreign exchange student wrote it. It really writes it, and it doesn't start every article with, welcome to the Paul the blog post. Welcome to this episode of whatever it doesn't do that. It's the first AI search optimized AI writer for SEO all that stuff, Z, u, p, y, a, k.com, ziack, promo code sweat and also flow desk, email marketing. I just started using it. This is really just a referral code, you get 50% off if you use it in the episode description. Now, we gotta get our honey on. We gotta, we gotta get our honey honeybee, uh, talk on with not the creator of the ESPY Awards, but has the last name, espy, Jack espy of spirited hide. Jack espy.
Unknown Speaker 2:00
It's called sweat equity.
Unknown Speaker 2:20
You are listening to the sweat equity podcast.
Jack Espy 2:37
What is happening? What's up, man? Hey, how you guys doing
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 2:42
good? Um,
Eric Readinger 2:44
that's lost fault on the passcode.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 2:49
Wow. What a team player, what a team what a team player. Want to win. Bro, win what we don't.
Eric Readinger 2:55
Bro, I've been keeping track of all the points. I know who's winning all the points. Yeah,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 3:00
what points?
Eric Readinger 3:02
Oh, my God, you're gonna lose so bad Jack.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 3:04
We do something. We do a little lightning round for people who come on the first time, they gotta earn their plug to promote whatever they're coming on to do. So
Eric Readinger 3:15
first are we actually gonna deny somebody their plug? Shut up.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 3:19
You just took all the, all the, all the, like the the meat out of this jack.
Eric Readinger 3:26
Have you ever seen a UFO or a ghost, or had an experience?
Jack Espy 3:31
Never seen a UFO. I've seen a ghost, though, and I never thought I believed in ghosts I saw. I was like, No, I believe in ghosts. I do believe in UFOs too, though. Okay,
Eric Readinger 3:40
you can elaborate too, if you want. Because, I mean, he said lightning round, but you know, I could talk about it all day. Well, we'll
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 3:45
get to it. We can, we can circle back to it, like real back. Okay, is a hot dog a sandwich.
Jack Espy 3:53
Is a hot dog. A sandwich. Now
Eric Readinger 3:56
you got one? Oh, I'm writing down ghost. So we could circle
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 3:59
back. We're gonna watch that movie after this. Oh yeah, and do the renew it? Yeah, what's your what do you got?
Eric Readinger 4:08
Is there a god
Jack Espy 4:11
I believe? So, yeah,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 4:12
what's your go to karaoke song?
Jack Espy 4:18
Watermelon, sugar. Interesting. Who
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 4:21
sings that? Who does that song? Harry
Jack Espy 4:23
Styles. People hate on Harry Styles, but it's a great song. Really,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 4:29
I'm proud I didn't know that. Let's see. What's your spirit? Animal.
Jack Espy 4:39
Spirit animal, maybe a wolf. Throw a wolf on there.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 4:44
Wolf is, I feel like they'll default go to, what about that one? You want that one? Which one the middle one? Can you read? No, I
Eric Readinger 4:53
don't like that one.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 4:54
I love this one. Yeah. What's the ask? What's the first time you ever French kissed you? I was
Jack Espy 5:03
like, six, 6/7, grade, sixth or seventh grade.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 5:06
Mm, hmm, did you listen to the show before coming on?
Jack Espy 5:12
I did. I did so you knew
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 5:14
this was maybe happening. I knew this was coming. Okay, I knew this was coming. And what advice would you give your 13 year old self, that one you should have known, because we ask everybody that for sure.
Jack Espy 5:26
Yeah, that one's that one's a tough one. I mean, I would probably say it's going to be kind of cliche. But, you know, if I had known I was going to be a founder, you know, I would say, just go for it. Go for your dreams. Go after it and get it
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 5:43
all right. You've earned the plug. I'll put some I'll put some fun music under this. You won't I have been doing it, have you? Yep, no idea, yeah, I know you've been checked out by check right on out Jack. You've earned yourself a plug. Where can people find spirited hive and anything else you want to promote,
Jack Espy 6:03
yeah. So if you want to follow us@spiritedhive.com on Instagram, if you want to follow me Jack espy on Instagram, ask me any questions, and then you can buy spirited hive online@spiritedhive.com, we're selling in 40 different states right now. And then, if you guys live in if any of you live in Tennessee, Texas, Florida and Michigan. You can find us in
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 6:22
stores. What store in Florida? We're in Tampa, uh,
Jack Espy 6:25
we're in almost all total wines in that area, damn it.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 6:28
Almost went there, right? I was a minute late getting to the pod because I went on a quick run.
Eric Readinger 6:33
I mean that. Oh, you almost went to the store. I saw, I thought you were you almost went to like that as your answer,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 6:40
no, I saw Total Wine and more. And I was like, Oh, I don't think I have time to run in. And
Eric Readinger 6:44
no, you didn't have time for that. You didn't have time for where you went. I made it.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 6:51
I didn't give the passcode to the zoom on purpose to buy me some time. It's all part of my plan. This is, I'm playing three a couple of minutes, and then, so you can ask all your ghosts,
Eric Readinger 7:05
and you saw a ghost. So where were you? What happened? Did you see, actually see something, or do you see something move? What happened?
Jack Espy 7:15
Oh, I saw, like a legit ghost, really. I was in Northern California, near, like, Mount Shasta.
Eric Readinger 7:22
Dude. I was gonna say Mount Shasta is, like, known for crazy and UFOs, actually,
Jack Espy 7:27
yeah, it's spooky. Like, the Lemurians, lemarians, I think they're called, they're like, the UFOs, those are, like, the aliens that are supposed to be in Mount Shasta. But I was not too far from there, staying at this, like, old house, and the caretaker say that there's, like, a woman in a white dress that, like, is a ghost there. And I was kind of like, Yeah, sure. Like, whatever. And like, by the third or fourth night came on, which night it was I was sleeping, and literally, in the room was the woman in the white dress, like, looking at me. Do you ever get that feeling when you're, like, sleeping the room? I had that feeling, and I woke up, and in the corner of the room was this woman in the white dress. And I was scared shitless, but I was always, never believed in ghosts until that happened. And I was like, Okay, now I'm like, a full fledged believer.
Eric Readinger 8:15
Yes, it's weird. Like, there's always it says a lady in a white dress, but everybody always, there's always fear. They always get that, like, sense of dread. And I'm just gonna keep asking this until you Quit being such a hater on all this stuff. Oh, it's
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 8:29
never like, it's the ghost. Is never like a CPA. It's never, it's always like a creepy kid or someone that got murdered, or, if it's a woman. It's gotta
Eric Readinger 8:41
go to a haunted CPA office. I'm
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 8:43
just saying like other places, old houses and stuff. That's what they're gonna look like. Hear me on this. It's never a ghost or never actuaries. They're never like the most boring thing, it's so it's got some weird macabre to it. It can't just be, hey, I had someone killed me here, and I'm just hanging out. Well, yeah, there
Eric Readinger 9:02
you go. That's the thing is, a lot of people believe that it's like unfinished business. Either you were murdered or you were a murderer, or something crazy, unexpected happened. You get caught in this loop.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 9:13
I want to believe in these things. I just don't. It's like that that smells like confirmation bias. They said, Hey, there's a ghost here. You're gonna stay in this creepy house, and then you had the vision of it. Who knows?
Jack Espy 9:27
Maybe my mind was just racing and I was dreaming about it. It's kind of one of those, like, in between reality dreams. Who knows, but I'm guessing you've never seen a ghost, no,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 9:37
not that I know of. I don't really dead this whole time I don't really dream. Yeah, are you real? It's one of those things where I don't dream really anymore. I don't know if that happens just as you become a man. No, I know why. Just like an old, crusty man, I don't dream anymore.
Eric Readinger 9:57
I daydreaming. Feel feelings. I. I
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 10:00
daydream like the best of them. I can, I can. I can sit around and kind of illustrate something in my head. But I got feelings. I'm emo. I listen to My Chemical Romance still. It's or 30 Seconds to Mars, whatever you want. Doesn't mean you have feelings. Do you have alien questions for them? I mean, the I'm just more perturbed you're like, you're deep in the Reddit, dad, fat dad, whole of subreddits of alien stuff.
Eric Readinger 10:25
Oh, you're perturbed by it. Now, interesting. Okay, why I'm not annoyed? Because I'm trying to challenge your life view on what's real, what's not. And you're just being stubborn,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 10:36
don't we promise not to argue in front No, we're arguing.
Eric Readinger 10:39
Sorry, Jack, you're the host. You get to see how the sausage is made. It makes
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 10:44
them feel awkward, enjoying I'm kidding. This is a comedy podcast, comedy business podcast. We're the number one comedy business podcast. Hey, what's so getting into the beverage market seems daunting, especially alcoholic beverages, because my understanding with kind of like you might have a good idea. Can I pitch you an idea that I had like, 15 years ago? I kind of see it almost done in stores the John Daly, no, no, no. First off, it's the mayor Rob Ford, and that is a John Daly. Wait, no. A John Daly is an Arnold Palmer with vodka in it. The mayor Rob Ford is vodka with sugar free, Canada Dry, ginger ale, lemonade combo. It is ever vested. Try it out. Figure out the formula, make it your own. Send them a check, and it's, yeah, I'll just take a creator kind of service, small royalty. Promise you try it out. It's everybody. I've even gotten our fanciest gay friend, or an old gay who's very fancy, let's say fanciest, fanciest and oldest gay friend, and he is tough to He's tough to impress. And he was like, this is actually really good.
Eric Readinger 12:09
I've got friends that are older and gayer. Oh yeah,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 12:12
gayer. Big time prove it.
Eric Readinger 12:16
So by the way, real quick, something got named after Rob Ford recently, something the City of Toronto was like, we're naming it after
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 12:23
this guy. Yeah, the Canadian mayor that, like, did crack and stuff. He was awesome. Yeah, no, he
Eric Readinger 12:27
was like, Chris fart, named after him. Anyway, sorry, my bad it. I
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 12:31
had to give it some kind of Canadian flair. He's blonde. It's a little blonde color. It works, except all women. I've told this to call it the Tom Ford. It just their brain autocorrect
Jack Espy 12:43
straight to Tom Ford, yeah, I
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 12:45
could see it, yeah, yeah. But we need to, we his legacy needs to live on. You die twice. You die the real death, and then when your name stops being said around, yeah, you know,
Jack Espy 12:56
life with a drink.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 12:57
Maybe he'll be a ghost. Y'all, maybe he'll be my ghost. Um, that would be so awesome. Here was the idea that I had a long time ago, and I actually did try to kind of work on it with a friend that does like design, how you would do it. It's Mimosa on the go. I called it tegosa. You know that? You know it's pretty good dude. Well, they have those, like, I don't get them. I've never seen anybody buy those. Like, you're at a, like, a gas station, like, one of those ones that has, like, 20 pumps, and it's got a huge convenience and beer cave and all that stuff. And then they have the impulse aisle near, near the counter to have those balls,
Jack Espy 13:39
like, right on the counter. Yeah, it's,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 13:42
it's right up there with pickled egg jar. I've never seen anybody buy it, but somehow it's ubiquitous at bad gas stations. Um, to go pretty
Eric Readinger 13:50
much just naming cocktails that could be sold in stores. It's, it's
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 13:54
about the delivery system. It's not really about the the product as much as it is. It's a tegosa.
Jack Espy 14:00
It's, it's all about at the end of the day. It's like, you're saying delivery system, the branding, the marketing and the brand name behind it at the end of the day, is kind of what sells those type of products, like drinks that already kind of exist, is that's exactly how you sell those. It's all the marketing behind it.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 14:17
Yeah, it's total impulse buy. It's total you're at Total Wine and more, and you're like, it's near the wacky near the counter, like, preparing
Eric Readinger 14:24
for a party later in the afternoon. You're like, oh, man, I want to start
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 14:29
drinking, yeah, but you don't have to go get the It's already ready. You know, it's so cumbersome to get.
Eric Readinger 14:36
I was just being the person who was already sold on it. Your tone is, I don't like how much of a salesman you are buying it now.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 14:44
Yeah, your tone was negative.
Jack Espy 14:46
Well, have you guys seen no like the app to check out those things called bug balls. That's
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 14:50
what I'm talking about. Bug balls. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Yeah,
Jack Espy 14:53
no, you're saying crazy. Is that they just sold to Diageo. I think it was Diageo, like, two weeks ago.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 14:59
Yeah. What, how much, how much we talking? It
Jack Espy 15:02
wasn't disclosed. But I think they were doing like couple I think it was like, I think, don't quote me, but I think they're doing like 10 to 15 million in sales a year.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 15:11
Maybe they've been around 1015 years. What
Jack Espy 15:15
is it? They've been around for a while, but, like, you
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 15:17
probably walk by them all the time. It's these little balls that are, that are alcoholic drinks, and they're like, kind of fruity balls, right? So you can sell them in gas stations. Yeah? Interesting. That's like, truly in like, a bunch of these seltzers are really malt liquor. Yeah? It's just rebranding, yeah, I like my Coke, like
Jack Espy 15:41
fireball. You know, the fireball is not even whiskey, and some, some of the accounts are whiskey. But that's why you see fireball gas stations, because it's actually malt whiskey.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 15:50
Yeah, anytime you're really feeling and you see liquor at a gas station that doesn't sell liquor, really anything else, it just has the little bottles. It's not high potency, or it's like, it's, they somehow squeeze it under the radar, or whatever, the minimum nerf
Eric Readinger 16:06
somehow, yeah, those
Jack Espy 16:07
are the ones that you want to stay away from.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 16:10
Well, I mean, fireballs, like, that's come and gone. I think that's you're really down in the dumps if you're chugging that. I think,
Jack Espy 16:16
yeah, I mean, that's the fault, especially the vault one out of gas. You must be not, you must not be dreaming anymore, you know what I mean, right?
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 16:24
So to go, Sis, do do what you will with that. It was more about the name you can have that. Yeah, that's yours. No problem. Look, I come up with a great idea you can brand the out of that. Because, just like those, what are they called? The Bunsen burner balls, yeah, like that, that you've, I guarantee you've walked by 1000 times and never really noticed it. You might see it now. Reticular activation theory, you will see it more and more now, but it's one of those things that you know, those dumb kind of you're like, who buys these how companies profitable
Jack Espy 17:04
So, yeah, no, it's crazy. So, I mean, like, like, Monaco is another brand like that Monaco cocktail, you probably have seen it. You're probably like, who's buying that? But they're doing, like, I don't even know how many in sales a year. It's crazy because it's like, those impulse buys that you see, and they sell them in one cans instead of four packs. So it's like, oh, it's one can, right? You know, that's like nothing for
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 17:23
teachers getting right at 315 you know, for 430 but whatever. And any, yeah, any, any police getting off work, security guards, they handle the one, the singles, I feel I wonder if,
Eric Readinger 17:38
like, alcoholic beverage branding is like, one of the most targeted. Like, I feel like there's more of an attachment to who you are by what you drink, sure, than anything. I wonder if that's like,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 17:53
you don't care around food as much at a party, right? You know, or talking having social media. Like,
Eric Readinger 17:58
what do you what's your what's your poison? You know, everybody's got their drink that they'll drink, you know, all night, and they'll feel all right, whatever. I
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 18:06
got a tall boy High Noon, because I just wanted you all to think I'm cool in a
Eric Readinger 18:09
bro, right?
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 18:13
But it's one of those things, all right. Now, I got another idea. I'm just gonna pitch ideas the whole time. No, I got another idea. I wanted to hear this was thoughts on he's gonna get lightning in a bottle. You know how it goes, Man, sometimes you got something great, all right, you gotta share. You just gotta share. Think at a gas station, just thinking of that market, thinking of you are, what you drink, kind of theory. Why not you get with the lottery companies get a scratch off on one of these malt liquor kind of cans. Boom,
Eric Readinger 18:46
oh, directly on stuff on the can. Yeah, glass bottle might work better. But okay,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 18:52
Jack's giving me, like, the not so bad face a couple. I
Eric Readinger 18:56
don't think it's terrible idea, because you're definitely playing to the same audience. I
Jack Espy 18:59
mean, yeah, I think it could work. I mean, the only thing that I see as an issue with that is there's gotta be something with like drinking. And
Eric Readinger 19:08
I was gonna say, let's think of the two most pain in the government, regulation, right? Try and overcome here, gambling and drinking.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 19:16
But if there's anybody that do it, Jack, can make it happen. I'm just the ideas guy, man, you put me in a room
Eric Readinger 19:23
Jack wants to try and make it happen. Why would you he's
Jack Espy 19:26
already got a legal fees might go up a little bit with that one. Yeah, exactly,
Eric Readinger 19:29
insurances and
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 19:31
whatnot, yeah. But who wants to buy two things when you can buy one? That's true,
Eric Readinger 19:37
save time at the checkout. We
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 19:38
call it a bundle, like a cable company, you know,
Jack Espy 19:43
all right, so, oh, you're pretty much flow from whatever that intern, yeah.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 19:50
What's so getting when you do a startup beverage, and it's different in beer than it is, what is y'all category considered? I. Yeah.
Jack Espy 20:00
So we're technically, like, the RTD category, which is, like, ready to drink category, and we're in the spirit space, so we're very similar to, like, a high noon. I mean, they're kind of a little bit more on, like, the seltzer side, and we're more on the canned cocktail side, like a legit cocktail, since we're 7% ADB using organic honey, you know, other ingredients, such as, you know, juices, etc, to make the drink. So it's more of a cocktail and high noon, and like all those other brands like that, are more like seltzers,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 20:28
yeah, the organic honey is interesting too, because I was thinking about that. As far as, like, supplying that, is that a difficult measure? Are you guys sourcing this? I'm sure this is part of the branding of, of the the beverage, of, like, you know, you're using organic honey. I think I saw on the site, right?
Jack Espy 20:48
Yep, yeah. So that's, like, one of our biggest kind of niches behind the brand is, you know, that's kind of what started everything. I wanted to create a better for you can cocktail that was only using honey and no additional sugars, no additives, etcetera, no artificial sugars. And, yeah, it's, you know, it's, it is hard to source that, because organic honey is very expensive, and we need a lot of it. So we use and source from a couple of different, you know, suppliers and local areas here in Tennessee. And that's always changing, because, you know, they don't always have the same amount of honey. It depends year to year, depending on what the bees can actually produce. And so that's very tough, and it's very cumbersome, and it's very expensive. Um, but that was something from the beginning. I was like, I'm never going to waver from that. I'm always going to use organic honey, because that's, like, pretty much the main pillar behind, behind the whole brand,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 21:38
yeah, that seems like the added value and honey and bees have, like, this weird magic, no, no. Like the bee community and people that make honey, it's like a strange kind of segment of people, I don't know how to say this correctly, like they're very passionate about it, and you don't think your average person would give a about bees or honey, very much. But like, you go to a farmer's market, there's usually one guy that has his own jars of stuff. And you're like, that's he loves it, like he loves getting the honey and being able to provide it. I'm guessing you're working with bigger people than that, but I
Eric Readinger 22:16
mean in terms of stuff that the Earth produces just on its own. There's honey and there's weed and mushrooms and what else that you can just stripe from the, you know, from the teat of the earth. It's ready to go nitrogen. You know that? I'm sure oxygen, I guess,
Jack Espy 22:35
yeah, no. I mean, atmosphere is mostly nitrogen, yeah. And it's crazy, because, like, those people who are very passionate about it, like, it's really cool to see, because we use actual, like, real honey. And there's, I don't know if you've heard of like, the dark, you know, the dark side of honey where no, like, no, no, no. So a lot of honey that you see in grocery stores, and, like, usually the ones that are in, like, the plastic bears, isn't even honey. It's like, 50% honey, and the rest is all synthetically made in China. Um, so that's, ooh,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 23:11
Chinese honey. It's like Chinese drywall dude. Um, it's
Jack Espy 23:15
pretty much like corn syrup and all. It's like, not good for you at all. Whereas, like, we try to source, like, actual, real raw honey, which makes it more expensive. We could easily go on the route of, like, sourcing honey from China or whatever, and it would be like a fraction of the cost. But, you know, we're just not going to do that. And we want to try to be as transparent with our consumers as possible. But, yeah, I mean, it's really it's really tough, because it's also super viscous. You know, it's so thick that working with a substance that thick, takes a lot more time, money and effort to actually put it into a can. So the
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 23:49
I never understood the bear as a delivery system, as a bottle anyway, right? It's not,
Eric Readinger 23:55
are we squeezing the honey out of a dead bear who
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 23:57
already ate the honey? Bears love honey. Yeah, the bear. Are
Eric Readinger 24:00
we fighting the bear for the honey? Is this a game, willingly, right? What are the overtones to the situation? We gotta address that too. Yeah,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 24:08
there's a lot. There's a lot to think about. And never really thought about it until you just brought it up that. I was like, Oh yeah, it's in a bear. It should be a bee. It should be a cute bee. But
Eric Readinger 24:18
that's the problem. Bees aren't cute.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 24:19
The other thing with beverages scare, you have to worry about logistics of shipping and the bottle, actual design of it, and how much you can fit into a certain amount of pallet that fits into trucks and everything is that. Was that an issue? I updated a gal that worked for Coca Cola, and she broke it all down for me. And I was, I was, like, most people find this very boring, but I find it exciting. Because, like, if you make the can a little bit different, like, if you make it taller, you can't ship as much. And if you make it there's an optimal size for everything. And then you have alcohol, which is a little bit tougher to ship, because you got to make sure it doesn't get messed up or skunked or. Whatever, right?
Jack Espy 25:00
Yeah, there's, there's so much that goes into freight and shipping and moving, you know, alcohol across state lines, and, you know, the taxes behind all of that, and then on the shipping side, it's just super expensive because, you know, obviously, when you have a can of product and you're shipping a whole pallet, you know, it's really expensive, and if you're only and the cool thing is, is we're growing, so now we can do closer to, like, full truck size, sizes. So like, when we're shipping product to a distributor, we'll pile it up and we'll save a ton on cost. But like in the beginning, you know, super expensive on shipping. And, yeah, you make another point too. There. It's like, how we structure everything, because we're in 12 ounce sleet cans. That's much different than shipping like the squat cans, etc. And it's like, wider versus slimmer. And like, luckily, now we've got it down to a science. But in the beginning I was like, trying to figure it out. I was like, I have no idea. And I was like, literally throwing spaghetti at a wall. Like, I guess we'll do, you know, 24 cans per case and 104 cases per pallet. That sounds right. Why not? Let's do it. So, you know, now we've got it down to a science, and I have a whole ops team that kind of handles all that, so I don't really look at that too much day to day, but it's definitely fascinating how we move products, pretty much all over the country. Tell us
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 26:15
about the growth of it. So you had the idea we've we kind of skipped over that. How did this? What's the origin story of this?
Jack Espy 26:22
Yeah, so I was in college at USC in LA and graduated into the pandemic. Sorry
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 26:29
about OJ rip. He was a good guy,
Jack Espy 26:33
rip. RIP, but I graduated pandemic, and I was about to accept a job in LA and, you know, capital markets and real estate finance, and that fell through because of covid. And like everyone else at this point in time, I was mixing up one too many quarantine cocktails. And kind of landed on this idea while making drinks with some friends, I was making up Moscow Mules and Mexican mules for my buddies, which are, you know, my two favorite drinks. And I was making all these drinks, and my buddy was like, Damn Jack. Like, these drinks are really good. You should can them, because I was kind of right at the beginning of whole can cocktail, boom, like, High Noon came out the year before that, and there's all these popping up, like, literally every other week. And I was like, Yeah, you know, that'd be kind of a fun passion project to kind of pursue until we knew what was going on with covid. Because I thought covid was going to end within like, a couple of weeks. I mean, no one really knew what was going on. Um, so I was like, Yeah, I'll take a stab at it. So we're all thinking about different names. And I was like, What about the name mint B? And they're like, first off, that is the stupidest name I've ever heard of B, and they're like, it doesn't make any sense. I was like, Well, you know, because there's mint and a Moscow Mule, a Mexican mule, and B because they're sweetened with honey, and they're like, Dude, you're an idiot. Like, honey is on those drinks. Like, what are you talking about? And I love honey. I put honey on, like, my coffee and my yogurt, I put it on everything. So I just so happened to be sweetening it with honey. And then, you know, I was like, Well, what if I took that idea and, you know, made up better for you can cocktail that wasn't using synthetic sugars. It was using honey as a sweetener. So we started, or I started with the, you know, our take on a Mexican mule, and was bringing that to parties over the pandemic. And then, you know, my bourbon loving buddies were like, hey, does this idea work with bourbon? So then I made a bourbon one, and then all my friends of our girls were like, you know, does it work with vodka? Then I made a vodka, and then a gin. And then it kind of,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 28:21
you made this wrong. I used to get that a lot when I was a bartender. You made this Manhattan wrong. I'm like, that's, it's gross. It's a Manhattan Martini anyway. Go ahead.
Jack Espy 28:30
But um, it kind of snowballed into this whole idea of, like, you know, who's your hive, who's your community, who are the people that you love to drink with? It could be your work friends, your close friends, really, anyone in your hive, and not everyone in your hive like the same alcohol base. Everyone has different preferences. So that's kind of what we came up with, is like anyone in your hive, if they like the idea of a better futan cocktail, we've got a gin, a Vaca, bourbon and a tequila for anyone in your hive friend group. So that's kind of when I, you know, developed that over multiple different years, multiple years. And then I launched it in May of 2022 here in Nashville, and built it as a national brand, and have been slowly growing into, you know, new states, hiring new people, developing new, you know, flavors and all those kind of good things. So it's been a long process over the past 40 years. But you know, it's, it's excellent to see the growth that we've had over the past couple of years, and we're continuing to grow and continue to hire new people.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 29:27
Do you have a product integration worked in in Nashville with the bachelor party bicycle bar thing?
Jack Espy 29:36
Yeah, so we were working so the whole place is those. It's just how those work is they don't have liquor license themselves. But
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 29:45
I didn't think it was for real. Gonna answer. I was kidding, but
Eric Readinger 29:50
he's a good business, man. He's already thought of your the things you're coming up with, he's already thought of, no, I
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 29:55
just, I hear, it's like, it's got, there's so many in Nashville. It's like, insane. It's like, it's cartoonish. How many are just driving around? Oh, and also,
Jack Espy 30:03
there's some. It's not even just one brand. There's multiple different companies that do it, but they all stop at this one liquor store here called frugal McDougal. And that's, it's really hard to get the product into that store. And we finally got product in there about two months ago. So now those beverage and then we did it mainly, you know, it's a big account here in Nashville, but the main reason is, is that all those pedal tavern things go there, so now we have product there. So we've been seeing our velocity go up in that account due to the pedal taverns buying
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 30:34
the product. So frugal. Mcdougal's their hive.
Jack Espy 30:37
Yeah, there you go. There you go. Don't
Eric Readinger 30:39
encourage him. Don't encourage the that. I mean, that's cool, though. Like those people, most of those people are from out of town. They come check that out in Nashville. They go, you know, process,
Jack Espy 30:51
you know why we launch it here is because it's a destination city, not only for the bachelorettes, but, you know, country music to you know, we're one of the best sporting cities here, because you got national soccer club predators and the Titans, and we might be getting a major league baseball team here soon, too. So all very close. So people come in see the product, they're like, Oh, what's this high thing? Go back to wherever and be like, hey, you know, do you have spirited hive? And then that's when we start to get the snowball rolling around. Hey, let's open up new states, because multiple people are asking for it, which is another strategic way why we opened up Nashville, Blue
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 31:30
City and red state, that I think those are the best kind of towns in America to be in. You know, are you vertically integrating? Are you looking into acquiring farms or beat what are they called? B, haleys, B, B, what is it? Apiary? Apiary? Yeah,
Eric Readinger 31:49
I like be,
Jack Espy 31:50
I think once we get to the size like, with that, it's like, like, it's a too much overhead for us right now, like owning land and hiring people to operate the apiaries. I mean, something that we could do is lease out land and do that. It's definitely something that we've been looking at. We actually are looking at doing that potentially, either here in Tennessee or South Carolina. That was something that we're looking at, but it probably would be like 2026 2027 until we got to that size. Yeah. I
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 32:16
mean, you're, I mean, you're, it sounds like you've been growing at a rapid pace, if you're already getting distribution in 40 states, and you came up with this. This is a pandemic baby. So you're, it sounds like you're on your way.
Jack Espy 32:27
So we have distribution in from D to C, so direct to consumer sales online through 40 states. We sell typically, like if you went into a liquor store in Texas, Florida, Michigan, Tennessee, and then soon to be Georgia in July. So it'd be like, five, six states, yeah,
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 32:44
but that ain't nothing. That ain't nothing because, I mean, just getting distribution anywhere, apparently, it's very weird and, like, insular. That's
Eric Readinger 32:51
what I'm saying. Like, the red tape is ridiculous, especially
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 32:55
for booze. Slap a scratch if
Eric Readinger 32:57
you want to distribute eggs throughout the United you know, it's a pain in the booze,
Jack Espy 33:03
last, paperwork, yeah, because each state is so different, right? Differently. Axes are different. But then you have Alabama
Eric Readinger 33:12
doesn't. Bureaucracy is different there, you know, like, it's just all
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 33:15
I was doing the Birmingham STARDOME, and it's a Sunday, and I was like, it was 12, you know, 12 noon on a Sunday. I was like, I'm gonna get some beers and just watch the Bucks game, you know, from my hotel room, and you couldn't buy beer. And I was like, Oh, I forgot. Lord. They this happens. Still. I forgot this thing. They tried this in Tampa at one point, everyone, like, almost rioted. So there's dry counties, right? Yeah, yeah. Or, or you gotta buy from, like, a pakista, if you're in Massachusetts, that's owned by a government, or Pennsylvania
Eric Readinger 33:46
has state stores. Mm, hmm,
Jack Espy 33:49
yeah, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Wyoming, Montana, like North Carolina, yeah, it's and that's the thing. If each state is completely different, you have, like, franchise states and independent states like Tennessee, then you got chain states like Florida, Texas, California. You got dry states, you got it's all very, very different, and that's the thing. So you have to, like, navigate that. And then you also have to navigate distribution. And since now, the product that you're sitting right in front of high and in, they're taking over the world, it's really tough to get shelf space because, you know, like, just for an example, we'll
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 34:23
take one, we'll take free cases and drink it on on air every time we're doing this. So anytime you want to send us a pallet, by all means, one falls off the truck. That's fine. I
Eric Readinger 34:31
can wear a pallet jack. Yeah, no, I
Jack Espy 34:32
100 you guys try and drink on the podcast whenever, um, but, yeah, I knew. And it's crazy. They they have grown. I think, oh, you know they're going to do, I think 27 million cases this year, maybe even more, and it's like, it's insane, so it's really hard to compete with that. So, you know, for us, it's like trying to be strategic on, you know, how can we get in with these distributors and make it a partnership? Because a lot of these other brands out there, you know, think that their job is done. One. They land a distributor. But in hindsight, that's when your job really begins, because you have to support the accounts. You have to have. You have to get those velocities through. You actually have to get, like, the repeat buys, because once you land product on the shelf, like, that's the easy part. It's like, how do you deplete the product off the shelf? How do you merchandise? How do you do tastings? How do you get people to actually like the brand and buy for a second time? So that's the thing that's super hard with beverage alcohol, and it's very capital intensive. You know, you need a lot of money to be able to actually create a successful brand. Yeah, that
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 35:29
was my next question. I mean, are you looking to get acquired? Because we're in the age of acquisition of all startups and whatnot, and it's not icky or anything. It's just that's the plan for a lot of people is to have a startup and get acquired. It sounds like yours has been all within kind of growth. Is that fair to say? Like, you're not taking too much outside capital or VC firms, not like, here's a loader mode, just do what you need to do, kind of thing?
Jack Espy 35:56
Yeah. I mean, it's, it's two things that you can kind of chase in this industry. It's either your Chase profitability, you chase growth. I think the times of chasing growth is kind of over. And you know that was kind of 2020 2021 beginning of 2022 like a lot of these beverage brands, were getting acquired left and right, because they were doing insane amount of cases right. But you look at their margin, and the margin was nothing on the premise of, oh, when we get acquired, these beverage acquirers can change that, drop our cost of goods, increase our economies of scale, and, you know, now our margins a lot higher because they have the ability to put, put us in their distribution pipeline, and we'll be good. That's kind of died off because, you know, of of the amount of products that are in the market now. So now it's like kind of a balancing act of, yes, still chasing cases, but in a smart way, where you're not your burn rate's not crazy, and you're trying to at least reach profitability. So we're trying to become profitable in the next two years, hopefully, which will be attractive for an acquirer to say, hey, they've actually proved that concept. They're doing well in an ex handful of markets, because we don't want to take the approach of like what high noon is doing, and it's nothing against what high noon is doing, because it's clearly working. But for such a small brand, we don't want to be in 50 states, because that would be super crazy. Yeah, it'd be too much like we want to own five to 10 states, maybe even five to eight states, and just own those states. Go as deep as we can really create that hive community in each state, each market that we're in, and get that pull through, get those velocity numbers up, and then hopefully become profitable. And at the end of the day, yes, I would like to get acquired. But also too, if I can build a sustainable brand that actually makes a good amount of money each year, I would also look at potentially keeping and growing it over the
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 37:41
years. Well, we'll send you this episode. You can repurpose it as needed without all my bad pitches and whatnot. Yeah, ghost talk. I
Eric Readinger 37:47
mean, you're filling a need, for sure, because I don't know about you buying high noons, like you feel douchey, like I feel like I still be like, Hey, I'm going to hang out with girls later. I'm sitting like, just me. I'm gonna, you know, a boat.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 38:01
I could see the mom. I could see the mom market, the young mom market. My point is, crush your drink. Well,
Eric Readinger 38:06
yeah, you know it's, it's nice to have an alternative to the high noons and the true leaves and all that, just because of what they become.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 38:15
Yeah. Is there anything else we didn't because we're we got to cut out in a second. Is there anything we didn't get to you wanted to kind of throw out there? No.
Jack Espy 38:24
I mean, I think it's just, it's great getting across, you know, our brand on what we're doing, and trying to create a better for you option in the space, and, like you're saying, a different option. You know, there's so many products out there, but there's not that many that are better for you options and sweetened with honey, you know, I think the other thing is, you know, we're launching new products and new flavors, and, you know, we're also launching new merch and everything. So we'd love to send you guys some hats and stuff like that.
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 38:48
We got some tank tops talking, yeah?
Eric Readinger 38:52
I mean, T shirts work. We make tank tops on our own, yeah?
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 38:54
I mean, we can cut the sleeves off, yeah? I tell my kids immediately the sleeves got scared and popped off. But, yeah, yeah, we can do whatever appreciate you coming on. We'll have to maybe a year from now, we'll have you on and see how everything's going. You know
Jack Espy 39:07
about that? All right, I appreciate you guys for having me on. Thank you guys. We'll
Law Smith Comedian Fractional CMO 39:10
keep in touch, man,
Jack Espy 39:12
see ya. All right. Good one. See you later. Peace.
