Lessons from Maverick Brand Builder of Luc Belaire | Brett Berish

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 What's up guys? Welcome to right about now. I'm Ryan all for your host and you know
 We like to we used to have a little moniker said if it's radical we cover it. Well, you know what?
 I don't know too many brands and too many people
 Doing more radical things
 Then I get from Brett bearish. He is the president and CEO of sovereign brands
 And if you're watching the YouTube, which you should be
 You would see the lineup of beauties here on the desk
 Brett, what's up brother? All right, Ryan. Thanks for having me on yeah, man my pleasure and just real quick on the radical side
 You made me think of my brother who I work with
 He says
 What you'll get you fired at any other company will get you hired by mine
 So that's how
 It's funny. I own a digital agency called radical and our show used to call the radcast now
 We have the radcast network for multiple shows. We didn't want confusion
 But I literally when I have meetings with my team and my end I need to get a knowledge from here like I go in there
 I go
 Our name is fucking radical
 We need you have the license to live up to this name every day and our clients hired an agency name radical
 So you know what that means? It means they can't call me and go what the hell were you thinking you and I'll go you hired an agency name radical
 It works
 It's you say the quiet part out loud you this is what you expect to expect that
 Exactly
 What's up Brett? I mean, you know snapping next cash and checks, you know, what do I love what you're doing man
 I love anyone
 This got bravado and doing things a little different and
 understands marketing and you got all that in spades
 Pun intended for me
 It's with with my brands right and it's all based on making mistakes and kind of learning
 So if if I'm
 veering off in my own direction
 It's because a long time ago I realized I have to stop being like everybody else in my industry because
 I can't be them. I can't be de-agio. I can't be McCarty. I can't be Jack Daniels
 And every time I try to do things the way they do I fail miserably
 So I started leaning in down. What do I like? What oh who am I?
 What do I want to be and that's when it started working? Why spirits, you know, like what got you into spirits?
 so um
 I like most people ended up following what my dad did for a living
 So if you my dad spent 45 years in the liquor business um
 In some ways he loved he loved it loved it loved it and lived it at the same time
 He hated it for me because
 Like and I realized this is apparent myself you want your kids to do something that you perceive as being easier
 You know you perceive as being just something more simple something that's got more benefit
 He really wanted me to do finance something in money, which I started out doing
 But I veered back into this and I have never looked back. Yeah. Well, I think it's turned out all right for you
 Yeah
 It's funny Ryan and I tell this to people. I think there's
 You know, there's one type of person who knows exactly what they want to do
 In life and god bless that's the that's they're the luckiest people in the world
 Um, and there was somebody like me who I I had lots of ideas and I was the worst one where I never
 picked anything
 Because I was always scared that the one idea I'm going to do is not the right idea or I run out of ideas
 Therefore, I'm just in kind of nowhere land
 So it's stock for 10 12 years until I picked something and I picked this industry and stuck with it
 It's been a fast-aying industry because you know, you've got the tiered system right in the US without alcohol
 And I know enough to be dangerous. You can enlighten us further than my brain can probably do it
 You know, the inability forever to not be able to do D to C
 Uh, and you know having to go through the tiered system distributors and all that stuff
 I mean, I'd love you know, just the business of liquor
 You know, give us a little bit of like the evolution
 You know from where things started of where it is today
 Money it hasn't changed since prohibition
 Exactly
 Literally it's got a little better right we can write ads about it
 I'll give you one example because it'll be it'll come home to you in South Carolina
 Yeah, industry hasn't changed
 It's been a three-tier system and a three-tier system for those of you who don't know what that means is
 I'm a supplier. I own the brands and I sell to distributor and the distributor sells to bars and restaurants
 Is a supplier the owner can't sell direct and then every state's a new distributor
 And then you have some states that are franchise states like the state of Georgia
 Whereas if you give you the brand to a distributor you can never get it back
 Um, and or a state like Pennsylvania where the government is the distributor
 In fact, they're probably the single biggest retailer in the United States and it's still owned by the state
 Um, so it's it's fucked up
 But it works, but I'll give you one change. It's happened in the past 20 years of South Carolina
 And if you're old enough to remember in South Carolina on premise bars and restaurants
 We're only able to serve the customer mini bottles airplane bottles
 By law and so you had billions and billions and billions of mini bottles in bars
 Because it was the only way to control serve and you get a perfect serve
 You couldn't get any more or any less because it was straight out of the mini bottle. Oh, yeah
 I South Carolina. I remember it. I came up. I was in college when mini bottles were still
 You know a thing in South Carolina and look that made a pretty strong straight drink
 You know like a mini bottle is a lot
 But it was so funny because people would come into town and like what is that behind the bar?
 They thought it was a novelty
 And I'm like no, that's them. That's how you order drinks here. I still share it
 You know, it says we saw globally in 80 countries. I share that story
 Be good can't comprehend the fact that bars and restaurants sold the little airplane bottles
 Uh fit them out. So it's just the industry has not changed except that's been a change
 But so we still cannot and I think I know the answer but leading the witness
 So we cannot like these beauties on my table here everything that you're making and branding you can't sell direct
 No cannot I cannot sell direct to a bar or restaurant to retailer
 I have to go through distributor and they're the ones so in the state of South Carolina we have a distributor
 Empires our distributor in that state great distributor and they take on the delivery the sales and we have
 Call it somebody in the market
 Who supports them and goes out and visit accounts and sells my brands bel air bum bum queen deacon our brands
 Wow
 But but they're all in the I mean, I should say you know, it's convoluted. It's it's it's it's strange
 It's crazy, but it works and the key to anybody's business and whatever industry
 And as you got to figure out how to make it work for you
 And that's what we've done is how do you make it work for you? You know, I think that's should be kind of your statement
 How you've made it work for you
 You know along with self-made taste better, which we'll get to shortly shortly
 I'm like I love taglines so
 I've been the business the uh but Brett talk about
 It's you know, it's such a hoity-toity champagne market some of these you know stuff is just so I don't know they take themselves
 Maybe too seriously. There's like this fine line of taking yourself taking your brand seriously and having a stake in the ground versus
 Some of maybe the irreferent
 Non-traditional ways that you've gone at it. I mean like what gave you the confidence to go there again
 It's the way I looked at everything as I look back. It's
 It's learning from my mistakes
 I think I realize I've got lots of sayings I live by you know
 One of them which is a strange one is sometimes not having a plan is a great plan
 And what that's taught me is you know if you stick to your plan for a year or two
 You're going to be wrong and you're wrong. You're wrong for the next year or two and the key is to be really flexible
 And that that's what I've been leading into that's one example of
 You know the way we build our business. It's leaning into what works
 And being very you know nimble and and that's how I built the business
 And it's empowering people
 It's you know everyone we've hired we have a few hundred people in the company
 You know we're hiring based on hiring people who are
 Our self-starters who are leaders who if they're waiting for me to tell them what to do
 They're too late. That's not the person for us
 So it's lots of things like that all coming together
 That's made my success. That's huge and I'm going to circle that for our audience
 We have a lot of you know budding entrepreneurs people wanting to start their thing or maybe already in their thing
 Though if you have the wrong plan and you don't pivot
 Then you can get stuck somewhere spinning your wheels for a lot longer than you should have you don't and aren't
 Flexible to what's happening around you that is huge 100% and it's it's an interesting
 I have a story that I use I think building businesses is like improv in a comedian
 You know when a comedian goes on stage and tells a joke they get the audience's reaction and then they tweak it for the next time
 And then they tweak it again and again and again and it could be 20 30 times before they're tweaking that same
 Joke and it nails it by the end and to me that's business
 You got to constantly learn from your audience and what's working and what doesn't work?
 What the consumers reacting how the trades reacting and it's constantly evolving so it does it
 It's not a presentation. It's kind of a presentation is going to live and that's what we're doing
 What do you consider if there's like a thread
 With sovereign brands and what you guys are doing you know across the bottles here and the other brands
 What's the thread like what's the
 What's the common brand denominator for like all all of them have their own unique this
 I've been fast and I've been I spent more time breath with these bottles like when they came and so thank me
 Red so generous sent me like some of his best things. I was been staring at them
 I was gonna I've been wanting to taste them, but I didn't want them to like not look good on camera. So
 But it what's the thread for sovereign brands and kind of how you bring any bottle brand to life
 It's it always always always and it sounds can but it's the taste
 That's going to dictate everything because if it doesn't taste good Ryan, they're never going to come back again
 And what what what my brother and I decided a long time ago is
 um
 If we think it you know, we don't have tasting groups and some liais and all that goes with that
 If you were in our office on the day the tasting I'd have you taste with us and tell me what you think and my goal is
 In the category we're in. It's got a taste better than the competition
 So if if if you taste it bamboo, which is the rum with the x on the front there
 It tastes better than any other rum in the category and that's why the brand today is the number one premium rum in the world
 Sticks years ago we launched it. It's the one thing Ryan all my brands haven't common is no one believed in them
 No one no one believed in them
 And no one thought they would work. They're in sleepy old categories, which I love
 But it's the taste because if it tastes great people are going to talk and you're going to build something from there
 So it's always that you know what I love it when the gas goes like absolutely
 I didn't it wasn't I didn't think you were going to go there because all your stuff
 Believe me my friends have told me how great some of these things tasted. I haven't tasted like bread
 Bread's coming on yeah, you know
 Such as the best thing I've ever had
 But let me because I was going to ask you, you know, you guys lean in
 To the influencers the spokespersons the celebrity atmosphere. So I was going to say
 You know if and I'm not saying I know you've got names, but let's you know if post Malone says
 bamboo tastes great. Does it matter if it does taste great or not? You know like I was going to ask you, you know like what the interplay
 of that
 brand
 I don't know recognition and leverage that you get from those celebrity endorsements versus the product itself. It's
 If you want to use the example stick to the artist if the artist has a shitty song. It's a shitty song
 Doesn't matter who the artist is
 You know, there's a reason why you know if you're trying to pick an artist
 You know, he's got 10 great songs and that's it and that's that's hard to do in itself
 um
 But if you can be the single greatest artist, but if the song's not good, it won't play
 Um, and to me it gets back to the taste if the taste isn't good no matter how big this celebrity is it's not going to work
 But all the other stuff don't get me wrong
 Package is an example in your marketing guy means everything especially especially at my level
 I can't spend the way of Bacardi does and build a brand
 I I think my packages in the design or the name or the story girl with it
 Matters to because I want to consider the consumer hopefully will see us in the shelf
 Well, they recognize us and pull it and then taste it and then they'll come back again
 But if they don't like the look, they're never going to try it so they work hand in hand. Yep, similar to wine bottles
 You know
 Consumer packaging is critical
 They bring to me at least
 You know, I have to believe in what I'm putting out there
 I have to look in the eye and say Ryan you you're going to taste the best fricking whiskey in the whole world
 And there's nothing else like it and I can look at the eye and tell you why and tell you stories behind it
 And you're going to taste you're going to love and you're going to love the stories to go with it. Who's your favorite baby?
 On the table here or in general
 Well, I have so I'll say it differently. I have six kids in my in my house
 Um, and if he asked me who's my favorite every day of the week. I got a favorite
 And that's just around I love them all
 But someone kind of stands up today and it's like oh she or he is so cute or oh, this is the best right now
 It's the deacon. It's my whiskey and wearing my shirt that says the deacon. Yes, it's it's
 If you like bourbon if you like whiskey if you like Irish if you like
 Anything are this thing is smoky. It's sweet. It's peed. It's
 It holds up in any cocktails
 You can still taste it which you can't do with any other whiskey and it just gets me excited
 And I'm probably also saying that Ryan because it's the new one. It's the newest one. So the newest one always gets more love
 I love it Brett and I'm going to tell you this. I worked with apple for quite a bit
 And the way apple does one thing is the way they do everything and this to details that matter
 Especially in packaging and design and let me tell you folks again watch the YouTube video um
 The feel of this bottle the textures
 The design I immediately when I was the first thing I pulled out of the box
 I'll just say that right now because the copper kind of look grab my attention
 and
 I'm telling you a brand experience happens like the moment you touch it like like well for apple like how easy it is to open the box
 You know like that's the first thing but for you it's like I felt this and like okay must have and
 I love the attention to detail and in just the overall bottle and everything
 But it is true and that softness of apple packaging, you know, it's
 It's it's nothing expensive, but it feels it. It feels a little more expensive
 But it's true and you look at that Deacon bottle, you know, there's a white axe in the background behind that character
 That's the Scottish flag there's little a divots all over the bottle which are actually x's that has to do with Scotland
 It says aquavites in the in the on the main label and then deboss in the back and that has to do with the aquavite is Latin for the
 The spirit of life
 The face has meaning it has to do with the plague and plague doctors the goggles have a meaning the name in Scotland
 Means if you're the best of what you do if you're the best podcaster for the best
 Economist you're the best barber you're the Deacon
 Everything has meaning to me and I need it to live and breathe in the brand. I need to believe it
 Well, I think it's showing through and I think our audience definitely just heard it and look
 Let me tell you that's if you're listening there's details matter like you know, it's called you know
 You know in web design. It's like cx like consumer experience like it's the similar same thing with consumer packaging
 You know like that shit matters and people pick up on and and that's the beauty is
 I'm always I always look at it. I never if you ask me who's my target audience. This is a funny one
 I don't believe in demographics. I don't believe in channels. I don't believe in on premise
 Which is bars restaurants off premise, which is retail. I don't believe in cities or states
 I believe in selling to everybody everybody
 Because the consumer who likes it is the consumer. You don't know what you have until you let it go
 And do you put it out there? So I want to sell to everybody and that to me is how you build a brand. It is
 Ding ding ding the uh
 I say riches in the niches and I've always I thought that my whole career a little bit
 You know like you certainly have to have some amount of like focus
 But you want mass appeal and you want you know
 People talk something makes people talk, you know, it's like that's what it gets
 That word of mouth is like the most powerful thing in marketing still 100% and and what it's what it's I learned from
 Everything around me and if I use again music, which I'm a big fan of as an example if you he asked any artist
 What their number one hit was and did they think that song was going to be successful?
 They'll all say no. They didn't like it. They didn't think they should put it out
 They didn't think it was going to be a hit and lo and behold it is and that tells me you got to try shit
 And for me if I use bamboo again as my as an example
 Our biggest single market in the world outside the US is Canada known for my companies ever been there
 You know, we crush it in places like Latvia, Romania, Poland where rum isn't the thing
 But they love bamboo if I didn't let it breathe we would never have known it would be like this
 My favorite drink on earth is if you go down to the British Virgin Islands
 West stayed down there. I've spent a lot of time in Tortola and if you go to
 The sandy the soggy bottom dollar bar and you have a painkiller
 It's got raw minute and it needs to have this rumbu in it
 100%
 Thank you. Look it up your bartender won't be able to make it. You're gonna have to go down to the you know
 BVI to get the best one. I agree
 Better if you're in the if you're in Tortola. Yes
 sailing
 What
 Brett you're a personal brand. I mean
 You're carrying the brand of the company yourself
 wind it
 I think since you've always had this personality and this this sort of gravitas that goes with you in the brand and what you're doing
 But when did that light bulb maybe go on that
 You are part of the brand and part of the story. It's a great question. It happened
 for me
 Maybe a year before COVID
 So not long not that long ago and the reason is I was
 I my brother and I if you ever asked us we've always said it's not about us
 We don't want to make it about us. It's never about us. It's about the brand. We don't matter who cares about who I am
 And it wasn't until I started doing
 That an interview series called self-made where I wanted to hear people's stories
 I
 People started coming to me and thinking I have always been successful and my response is no that's not true
 I went through shit, you know, I lost my house side the iris we went bank account
 I lost everything in this business and I started realizing I want people to know that side
 Because that's the side that motivates me and I want to hear that side from other people
 And then I started realizing boy, I think I can help
 I think I can help my brand at the same time Ryan. I realize I can help people
 I wish there was somebody like me when I was 19 18 17 16
 Where they're telling shitty stories about failure
 And look at me now because I think that's very important
 That's the that's the most important story to tell if you're successful. Yeah
 Talked with the bread bearish
 He's a badass and he's the president CEO sovereign brands
 Brett, I mean, I get all that but you know you brought post Malone on for episode one. That's not fair, dude
 Ryan what's cool about that is and again it gets back to
 Well, how we think and breathe, you know
 There's no question. It's awesome to talk to a whiz califa or a little Wayne or Rick Ross
 But post wasn't post back then. He was still up and coming. He had one song. Why did I ever sin? Yeah
 To me, I love that's my favorite part if you if you give me Ed Sheeran great. I'd love to talk to him
 But I love talking to the guy who's about to become huge or maybe we can help and become huge and kind of hear that story
 I was as much fluid. I've ever heard post like like he like you were a great conversation with him
 Like I know it was short, but like the part I was like an even a clip
 but
 That was the most I don't know
 transparent and I don't know he's gotten so ethereal or something like I mean, he's such an artist like I respect the hell out of my love
 His music, but I don't know. I feel like it was just there was some clarity in y'all's discussion that I haven't heard
 elsewhere and sometimes it's honesty when you're young, right?
 You know, I remember I interviewed
 Uh
 Was it a boogie a boogie with the hoodie and
 We weren't Houston together and he had a show his first time on tour and before we did the interview
 We had called down to the the manager of the venue because he didn't think he could fill up
 2000 people in the in the audience and he didn't mean anybody knew who the hell he was
 Like there's something special about that. There's something truly special about talking to people
 Before they get huge because there's just honesty. There's transparency. There's more transparency there
 That makes sense. I think I think when you get them when they're old to get them when they're young
 Yes, because they don't care. Exactly
 How do you
 You make these plays you you understand personal branding you understand the power of branding you're doing
 non-traditional things with marketing. So
 How caught up do you get on
 Lattering back to like ROI like did you go how you know like
 How often does your CFO go bread is this you know, what's this doing like I think that's what people hear these things they go
 Well, Brett can do that, you know with sovereign brands, but you know is it how do you ladder back up?
 Do you worry about that? Do you know it's working, you know, it's the it's the hardest thing in the world
 When it comes to quote unquote advertising and are you getting a return?
 So I try to
 I think of myself in two ways one. I'm an old-school brand builder and that what that means is I want to get in front of the account
 I want to talk to the account. I want to taste customers. I want to have retail tasting in stores
 To me, I can quantify that
 somewhat quantify that because I can see what we're selling
 It's an expensive way to do it meaning tastings and things
 But I but at least it's at a location where they're going to keep coming back
 And they're going to keep coming back and I could build something
 Um, I use you know when my first brand as a spades we didn't have
 It became the most successful new champagne in a hundred years and this is before social media
 We didn't have you know, Instagram. We didn't have we had blogs maybe at best, but it was old school traditional media
 And now with Instagram. I love it because it tells me if I'm connecting to the consumer
 Um, by not you said it by not forcing it on them by
 I would have mouth and if you look at our social media, Bumble or Bel Air
 Bumble has more followers than Captain Morgan and Bacardi and they're spending hundreds and millions in advertising and we're not
 So that tells me we are connecting we are it's in a different way. That's my barometer
 I don't I I'm I must be doing something right because I'm building an audience
 Being go because if you're building an audience some they're buying something somewhere along the line
 They're telling someone correct and I think I think that's the hard part is if you're buying your customers
 That's not that's not really a customer. That's not real and I don't want that and that's why you know
 I love I love seeing what the reactions of the consumer and I can learn from them and they're they're you know
 It's to me it's the equivalent of again, I go back to music. It's an artist in his fans
 Like I think we have our brands have fans now. I got to support my fans 100%
 Brett what is
 It's a fine line with like rarity like versus you know like
 How all difficult or how rare you know how it's all your stuff looks like okay
 Where am I going to be able to find this you know, but like
 Does the scarcity factor of the rarity factor like you know, you think about
 Luxury brands Lou Vuitton and those kind of things like they're not necessarily scarce
 But there's somewhat of a rarity factor to them. Does that play into any of your stuff?
 I mean obviously your mass market, but like is that even run through your your mind?
 Um
 Yes, and no I don't think I think it's
 Really hard to create scarcity and and build a business and
 And sustain a financial business model. You can't have it both ways. Yeah, you're looking for rarity
 Boy, you better have deep pockets because it's not going to pay the bills
 and two
 If you don't have the money, well, you need to make sales in order to survive to the next day
 Um, so I think it's a tough one for me
 being small
 It's going to be rare no matter what because I can't force it everywhere overnight
 I can't make it go into Wal-Mart and and Walgreens and you know
 You know, the total lines of the world overnight. It's never going to happen
 So rarity scarcity rarity comes with
 I got to build my distribution over time and it's going to happen with every brand being a
 exclusivity can happen without having scarcity
 How about that?
 100% and that's what we're talking about. You can't this is why I come back to
 You know whoever whoever wants your brand is the buyer is the consumer and if you're saying you know in in
 Uh, you know for whatever reason and I use bamboo again as an example
 bamboo in North Carolina is hugely successful. Who knew
 So you got to feed that fire and what it does is creates a it creates a bond with the consumer
 If you don't feed it, it's going to die out and the consumer won't want you anymore. So you can't you
 You know, you can't have it both ways. I think it's really hard. You guys evaluate
 Partnerships, you know, like we talked about it with whether it's with people
 Is it just gut reaction like
 If it seems like the right audience. I mean is it
 You know, how much thought process and meeting and planning goes into
 You know, whether it's influencers celebrities etc
 What's the process there? I
 It's a great question Ryan the way I look at it and again, it's based on making mistakes is
 I want to work with people we know
 I want to work with people that we already have built a relationship with I think it's like
 I think brand building is the equivalent especially that level is the equivalent of marriage
 Marriage you don't you don't just get married after the first day. You got to get to know somebody
 And my goal is if I'm going to work with somebody and take Rick Ross
 We've been working together for 12 15 years. That's the goal. It shouldn't end
 It's not supposed to be a finite period that goes away and you're done
 You just figured it out you just figured out like
 Both sides is you know bad sides and both sides is good side now. You know how to work each other and it ended
 So to me it's supposed to be long-term. It's supposed to last a long time
 So I want to meet the people first. I want to be a relationship. I want them to love our brands
 Called authentic it authenticity buddy. That's what you're doing
 You know, that's an authentic way to build partnerships and you know
 I've heard a lot of answers that question and it's never
 As thoughtful as you just made it's it's it's definitely slower. There's a slower way to get there
 But I think it's
 Here's my analogy. I think it's like somebody saying
 My idea is going to go viral
 I know it's no notes. So it's the same thing with influencers and or or anything
 You don't know what's going to work. You don't know and you got to try a bunch of shit
 What's the culture of spirits these days? You know like
 I feel like all these brands have such different life. So it's probably a broad statement to make
 But you've got the champagne lifestyle. You've got you know these the beautiful Rome and like like
 There's a culture. I feel like that that belongs
 With each one of your brands under this. I mean it am I right there? It feels like there's almost like a subculture for everyone
 No 100% they have meaning it's supposed to there's a reason why
 People are picking up the bottle and holding it and taking a picture of
 It's it's no different than a Rolex or
 Or Balenciaga or a car. It means something you're you've got to be proud of it at our price point
 You know we're premium. We're prestige. We're super premium
 So they have to have meaning it has to have authentic and has to have a feeling
 I get an email today from somebody in Austria who's an intern at our importer saying
 I love what your brands represent. I want to work for you
 I see how people react to him
 That's what brands are. It's supposed to be a badge of honor. It's supposed to feel like a tattoo
 You know, it's something I remember and it's not even my brand Ryan
 But I remember you know 30 years ago being at a club in Miami and
 It was a bachelor party and someone ordered a bottle of kettle one
 And I just thought I didn't order it
 But I remember boy, that's the coolest brand I've ever seen. That's now my brand
 You know, it's those moments where's this connectivity to a brand and that's what I want with mine
 You kind of went there. I mean, what's been your proudest moment?
 You know like a bunch moments like with all this stuff the successes
 I know you've had the ups and downs and you've told that story
 I didn't want to tell a story you've already told you've you've picked yourself up off the ground
 but like but what's the what's the proudest
 Moments, you know or bottle or like experience that you can reflect on. Oh, it's a good question
 Was there like a dream you had like what you started rolling? Did you have like these
 You know, I don't know
 Tick list that you're hitting off like
 There's strange moments. I think it's you know, I remember pretending
 My office was in my apartment in New York and we were pretending it was an office
 But actually it's where I lived and I remember I won employee and
 Scott looks at me and it was still with me and he says Brett
 We had no air conditioning and he says Brett come on man. It's too hot here. We need air conditioning
 And I spent $1,500 on two air conditioners two 5,000 BT air conditioners
 And that's a huge moments huge. I remember
 You know back then I take checks to the bank and deposit of on on print streets and
 And West Broadway at the chase and every time I took into the teller she never looked up here
 She never looked up at me never looked up like it was not a lot of money one day
 I walked in with like $700,000 in checks that I wanted to deposit she still didn't look up
 Like like I remember I remember all the moments
 Where are people who said no it couldn't be done or where we've
 We it's fun to prove people wrong or or to see them change and become fans, you know
 That's that's what I love if I can make a believer out of somebody that's a that's an fantastic moment
 Like I look at these balls like I'm not a champagne guy
 But as soon as I pulled them out the champagne the blue I was like bits of these are best sellers like immediately like blue champion
 champagne come on
 Yes, give me that stuff right now if I go to party I'm breaking the blue champion that champagne damn it
 But what's great Ryan is what when we launch that one of two things is going to happen
 It was going to fail miserably or was going to succeed fantastic
 No, it was going
 Amazing and then on top of that which is just just amazing to me is
 In France, which is the most sophisticated champagne market in the world the most competitive champagne market in the world
 Belair blue is the number one QV
 They can't get enough and it's a again. It comes back to it's a great tasting product and if it tastes great people will try it
 They will love it and that's that's my goal with all the brands. I love tasting people. I love it
 Worst of business headed man like where like where are you
 Where's this playing headed to I mean you're headed somewhere right um
 My brother and I had the same view 20 some years ago is
 If we and the goal was if we have an idea in a category and we come up with a better product in the competition
 We want to try it and we keep doing it. So I don't want it to stop. I love what I'm doing decons our latest in the whiskey category
 We got something in gin with McQueen. We've got something in the cognac look pure category with the own
 We've got Belair, which is just killing it in 80 countries in champagne
 And then we got bamboo which is now then and again, which is crazy five years ago. Everyone said don't do rum
 It's not a category that's growing
 Today bamboo is the cat only thing in the category that's growing and it's because of bamboo. What are mix and villain
 With what am I next on this guy with?
 You can you can mix if you like
 Coke straight
 Lecure if you like cognac
 And you drink however you drink cognac you can do the same way of the own or just on the rocks. It's killer
 I make a cognac cream sauce
 It'll taste amazing, Ryan
 Yes
 Is there a is there an athlete a celebrity? I mean you know like
 Anyone on the radar any like things or plans or exciting things that we should know about
 The well the neat one for me. It's not in those categories, but in the music space
 We're we're in so the brands are global which I believe in because I think I think if Ryan if you're loving bamboo
 And you go to Paris tomorrow you want the same brand and if you go to Amsterdam the next day you want the same brand
 We're doing amazing business all over the world and I'm loving Africa right now and loving Afrobeats
 Ampiano music
 And so now we're leaning into that and we're we're going to put out an album together with some of the biggest artists in Africa
 With some of the big names like Rick Ross in the US all about promoting African artists
 So that's kind of a new project that we're working on
 But it feels right it leans into what we're good at
 And it's helping people and I love it. That's amazing
 And a way to spread the brand across the you know the pond and
 You know leaning into you know that African culture
 And it's a nice tie-in with stuff you guys have already done right and and on a personal note
 I like going where other people don't want to go um. I like smaller cities. I like smaller states. I like anything that's that's
 You know you got to show love to other everyone deserves a little bit. It's the 80-20 rule doesn't work for me
 I love it
 You give more than you expect to receive go figure
 Happens every time go somewhere where others aren't and you're gonna see what happens
 You're gonna get the attention you're gonna get the love people appreciate it
 What will that look like as an output as far as the music goes you guys have put a like a record together or something or
 You know with the solvent brands like as a sponsor or partner or like executive producer
 Well, how's how's all that tie together? We're putting the whole thing together. We're picking the songs. We're picking the beats
 We've got great people all involved in the music space
 um and
 You know
 Fortunately for me because the brands are so known. I could talk to anybody in the music space and
 Again for me, it's about shining light on Africa. I want to shed a light on African
 You know on Nigeria and Ghana and gola Kenya Tanzania South Africa
 um and those artists and
 Show the the US artists as an example of you show them love. They're gonna love you so much more
 So we're doing everything. We're gonna be recording videos in six or seven countries
 Just a lot of fun stuff like this and then based on how that goes
 We'll probably do another one
 But I want to do it in Europe and I want to do it in the Caribbean and keep doing it
 That's awesome. Do you tie it to one of the specific brands or just sovereign as a whole?
 It's a good question
 It's at the it'll be what brands are out there. So right now in Africa. It's bamboo and bell air
 So those two brands will be leading the album kind of you know, it's it's an album put out by those brands
 Yeah talking that's the full brand experience, you know, you've got the look you've got the taste
 You got the founder rock and enrol and you got the given back
 boom there it is
 And the beauty is you know
 I'm leaning on a pillow that my mother gave me and it says if the mood moves you move in move with it
 And that's what I'm doing if it feels right. I got to try it. Brett. I can't appreciate you enough for coming on the show
 Let's talk where everybody obviously got the distributors stuff
 But working people keep up with you the brands all you know learn more about everything you're up to and and where to get these delicious drinks
 Let's me on Instagram Brett Brett bearer CEO the brands Deakin whiskey
 Bumble original
 official bell air McQueen violet fog via owned France
 Um
 Hit us if you have questions if you want to be a brand ambassador be part of the art team just hit us
 That's what that's how it starts
 Uh, and if you're looking to do anything in business the key is don't rely on anyone. That's the key
 There you go
 Self-made taste better. That's right. Don't make anyone Brett. Thank you so much for coming on
 I really appreciate your wisdom your time and your gifts. Thank you so much for having Ryan
 Take care everybody. Hey guys you know to find us Ryan is right.com
 You'll find all the highlight clips from today links to all of Brett's brands and of course links to all of mine
 Thank you for making this number one this built real and number one because we are number one because you made us that way
 We'll see you next time. I'm right about now
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