Emily Pennington of the American Craft Spirits Association joins Sam Anderson to discuss craft distillers, tasting rooms, creating demand, distributor partnerships and building a business for the long term.

Season 5, Episode 25

American Craft Spirits Association | DrinkUp Podcast

Sam Anderson, Adam Smith and Chris Siconolfi discuss the true cost of launching a beverage brand, working capital, pricing, distribution, finding the right partners and building demand one account at a time.

Season 5, Episode 22

Pour Proof | Alias Advising | DrinkUp Podcast

Bryan Weisberg of Thousand Oaks Barrel Company joins Sam Anderson and Adam Smith to discuss small barrels, cocktail smokers and helping spirits brands earn a place behind the bar.

Season 5, Episode 26

Thousand Oaks Barrel Company | DrinkUp Podcast

Michael Fors spent twenty-six years hosting Thursday night wine nights in his backyard before a walk on the rocks in Gloucester turned into a patented decanter.

Sam Anderson talks with Michael, founder and inventor of Liquid Jazz Experience, about the idea behind the rocking decanter, building a prototype in two days, and turning a wine ritual into a business.

Liquid Jazz Experience: https://liquidjazzexperience.com/

DrinkUp Podcast: https://drinkuppodcast.com/

Chris Hicks of Strobe told us why a pre revenue RTD brand is skipping the retail shelf, why reorders beat first orders, and why he does not believe in a no win situation.

Everybody wants the splashy launch story.

The big party. The big raise. The shelf in every state.

Chris Hicks has a different one.

A box of nine shots built from art store plastic.

A decade of research.

And a brand name picked from 20,000 options.

Strob: https://strob.com/

DrinkUp Live Podcast: https://drinkuppodcast.com/

Frontline Beverage: https://frontlinebeverage.com/

BevAssets: https://liquorsalesanddistribution.com/

Steve Turner owns Solomon Turner PR in St. Louis. Threedecades of campaigns. Named a top St. Louis PR firm by Small Business Monthlyfor 17 straight years.

His client list reads like a personal development hall offame. Tony Robbins. Brian Tracy. Steve Forbes. Coldwell Banker. NorthwesternMutual.

He just published a book called PR That Works because hewent looking for one and could not find it.

Adam Smith joined us from Alias Advising, and he wentdeep on this one. Adam did PR and radio before beverage, so the two of themspoke the same language for an hour.

Dan Graves built Dirty Dill from a garage in Denver, then builtScaleaway to fix the exact problem that almost broke him: co-packers who wantsixteen thousand cases from a brand that hasn't sold one yet.

Everybody wants to hear the version where the brand takesoff.

Nobody wants to hear the version where you hand pumpshooters into bottles in a garage that was, in his words, embarrassing to showpeople.

That second version is the one that actually builtsomething.

Dan Graves lived both, and now he owns the facility thatdecides whether other founders have to.

Henry Matus built a menu intelligence platform that ranks bypalate instead of by brand size. If you make a small brand, this is the shelfmath you have been waiting for.

One of my clients walked me down her back bar last week.

Three hundred tequilas. Beautiful wall. Great lighting.

I asked her how many of them actually sell.

Five.

Three hundred SKUs. Five movers. And every one of theother 295 brands paid something to get up there.