September 2, 2024 • 33 mins
Today Eric is joined by his business partner Brad Parkes as they share the origin story of Palm Republic. We also learn why this partnership works so well. Who is more calm, who is more neurotic, and who can text faster. Eric and Brad cover everything from what it takes to be an entrepreneur to what your new favourite rum cocktail will be. You wanted to know more about Palm Republic, so here you go!!!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is he said a Yavi ho with Eric Winter
and Rosalind Fantev.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome back to another she said aado.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
This is the last, he said by himself for a
little while. My beautiful wife will be back here very soon.
She's flying back tonight from a successful trip doing her movie.
We are so excited. We really are to have her back.
It's been a long road.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Being on my own.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
I mean, I have great help my mom and nanny,
but being on my own, it's a lot at the house.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
You know.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
I'm happy to have her home.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
But until then, we are going to do another episode
with an awesome guest, a great friend of mine, Brad Parks,
who is also my business partner with Palm Republic. We
thot'd be fun to do an episode talking about entrepreneurship,
you know, just our brand, working together, how we met
building up Palm Republic here in the infancy few months
(00:58):
as we've launched now and sharing our knowledge and journey
what we have with you listeners, just because it might
be fun. Who knows what everybody could gain from this.
It's new to me. I can tell you starting something
from the ground up, and I've learned a ton, so
I'm excited to jump in just talk about this in
general and Brad's experience and mine and share because the
(01:21):
fan support has been incredible. So thank you everybody when
it comes to Palm Republic for being by my side
for this launch and lifting me up.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
It means the world. Everybody.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Welcome Brad Parks, who's my business partner friend. As we've here,
you know, gone on to build and launch Palm Republic,
thought this would be a fun episode to share our
journey a little bit for the listeners out there who
might be looking to start something on their own, but
also Brad has been down this path already before. Brad,
why don't you go. I'll do a little bit of introduction.
(01:51):
But you know, Brad comes from for people who don't
know about spirits, beer wine, all of that. It's been
a totally new world for me. Diving into Brad's third generation.
Now his family has a distribution arm, a relationship I
should say, right isue? Is that a distribution style of your.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Company with beer wine distribut that's right.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Beer wine distribution.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
So he had some knowledge in that space, but he's
gone on his own to branch out and started his
own company called Masked Hard tease erba mate healthier version
of in RTD or ready to drink if you're going
to have something with some liquor in it. It's also
got some health elements as well in it. And he
he launched that and it's doing, it's doing very well.
So he knows about entrepreneurship. But Brad Goodin, tell us
(02:37):
a little bit more about you your background. You know,
it was your dream always to be an entrepreneur and
et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I'd love to hear that.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, well, I'll give you the the extended version. I guess,
so what you know, like you mentioned, and you did
a nice job in covering it. But my family's been
in the beer and wine business since back to my grandfather,
my grandfather's second job. It has been my dad's only job.
So grew up in the beer and wine industry. You know,
it was the only thing that I knew, so always
that entrepreneurial spirit was there. It was all of you know,
(03:07):
all around me, all all around our family. So at
some you know point, I definitely knew I wanted to
go into that. It wasn't always beer and wine, so
I started my career actually an insurance and financial services
on the agency side, which is a you know, you're
ten ninety nine contractor. You own your own business, hire
your own employees, do your own marketing. So that was
(03:30):
kind of really my first dive into the entrepreneurial space,
and I loved it. You know, met my wife through insurance.
Her and I started two agencies together and you know,
grew them to a point where she eventually said, hey,
this is my deal. It's time for you to, uh
to find something else to do what That's not exactly
how it happened, but but anyway, it was around that
(03:52):
time when our distributorships were going through some acquisitions and
some transitions, and it was a good time for me
to come back to that piece it, to that side
of the business. And you know, being in this business
every day you see all the new items that come out,
you see all the market data, you see what does well,
what doesn't do so well, the reason behind you know,
brands launching new items. So you know, her and I,
(04:15):
my wife and I got together and we thought, you know, hey,
there was a niche in the market with all these
seltzers and alternative beverages coming out, you know, to be
a health forward product. So we launched mask Fusions, which
there's a harder of a mate and a hard coconut water.
And our whole target market that we wanted to capture
was that you know, Seltzer drinker, but we wanted to
add organic, good for you ingredients to the product. So
(04:38):
that's been out, you know, over three years. Now we're
in fifteen sixteen states, about five thousand retailers. And then
from a spirits perspective, always been a rum fan. I
was rum and coke in college and then obviously when
you grow up a little bit, you're drinking. Habits and
venues change, so you're at you know, events and dinners
and not not necessarily dance clubs and bars are still
(05:00):
last call, so you know, ordering rum and coke and
a nice, nice dinner. Yeah, it wasn't receive is great. So,
you know, went to Bourbon and Whiskey a little bit.
I love the character behind it, kind of the history
behind it, all of the different taste notes, you know,
and always in the back of my mind, I couldn't
figure out why there wasn't more nice RUMs like bourbon
and whiskey. So started down that journey and obviously that's
(05:23):
how you know, you and I came together and that's
why we're here.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Absolutely, And you know what I like buying for listeners
to hear is you know, in general, being an entrepreneur
is not something you have to be thinking your whole
life like, that's the path I'm going to take. But
what I do like is if you have a little
bit of that spirit inside of you that you want
to start something, you want to build something, which you did.
You know, you go to college, you come out, you
(05:46):
started a business with your wife, and you guys built
something up and then decided, Okay, now's we're gonna pivot
and you can continue to build more things, which is
what you see all the time on shows like Shark
Tank and these things that I love so much, as
people are always finding a way to evolve and build
and grow as entrepreneurs, whether something works, doesn't work, or
you just want to send something off on its way
because it's doing so well and I want to start
(06:07):
something else now. And that's something my dad always sort
of instilled in me as well, which is why I've
always had that entrepreneurial spirit, even though I ended up
going down this path of being an actor, which is
very different because I.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Have no control of my career.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Like I could study and work hard every single day
to be the best I can be, and it can
translate to zero income, you know what I mean. There's
so many other factors that go into having a successful
career where I come, you know, from my standpoint, whereas
you know, you're not always going to hit it as
an entrepreneur, but if you you do know, if you
work hard and you're grinding every day, you're destined to
(06:45):
be better off than you were the day before. And
that's why I think is great about that path, which
is always excited me. And you know, like you said,
we came together because of Rum, but I had been
down this road on my own a bit before we merge,
you know, just be in Palm Republic together. I was
wanting to start something, wanted to be involved and build
something on my own, and I had fell in love
(07:06):
with rum, as we've talked about before, because my wife's
Puerto Rican and that's when I was first introduced to it.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
I wasn't a.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Rum drinker, became a rum drinker and appreciated, you know,
what characteristics had had as a spirit and so it's
something I wanted to go out and dive into more
and try to start and Brad had been starting down
this road with Palm Republic. We were introduced through another
mutual sort of colleague, and we realized, you know, look,
we both have the same mission. We want to make
(07:32):
rum modern, a fresh new take on rum. We want
to make it hip and cool again, versus what people
grew up drinking, the Captain and cokes and the sugary
RUMs spiced.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
And all that we wanted.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
I mean, look at spirits aren't necessarily help forward, but
if you're going to have a spirit, we wanted to clean.
We wanted no sugar added, no added colors, no flavors,
just as it's intended to be sipped on. And I
think because we had those same visions, it's not always
easy when two people are going down separate paths to
(08:05):
try to build something and then they try to come
together and say, hey, can we actually work together, which
you know, for people listening, we had a little bit
of a feeling out process.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
You know, I did not know Brad at all before
we I got involved in Paul Republic. He did not
know me.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
There goes a lot of trust and building in that
sort of relationship of how we're going to try to
launch a company. And we've been in this now for
over a year and it's been great. I think we've
grown a lot together and understand things together. Brad's the
calm one in the relationship. I'm the more neurotic, you know,
freak out all the time person in the relationship. So
(08:42):
we balance each other well, cance his beach background, Yeah,
which I think is important when you're building a business
like to have. It's like a marriage, right, You got
to have those characteristics that are going to balance each
other out while you're trying to grow a company.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Yeah. You know, that's been great because you and I
from day one shared the same vision of where we
wanted the brand to go, what we wanted to do.
You mentioned the you know additives clean spirit, but also
the you know, upscale premium image that we wanted to bring,
so we just did. We didn't want to just create
a new liquid. We wanted to elevate the entire category
and make it you know cool again, to order rum
on the rocks at a bar acceptable again, and really
(09:18):
take that mainstream to where you know, bourbon whiskey tequila
is now those are all seen now as upscale spirits,
and that's where we wanted to go. So that's been
you know since day one, you and I have been
on the same page there. And I think the other thing,
you know, in any business relationship, obviously, communication is so important.
And you know you and I communicate a lot the
same way. Yeah, you know, quick, quick, detect back, quick
(09:39):
to call back. You know now in the days of
zoom and email. I mean, it's nothing for somebody to
either not email back, and you've seen this a ton,
you know recently, not email back, or just to not call.
And you and I always say, like, how do you
just let that sit there? How's that email just sit
in your inbox?
Speaker 2 (09:55):
I'd tell you right there, like in dating it would
be a deal breaker, and in.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Busines it's a deal breaker. You can't text me back. Yeah,
I'm out, Like, thank god. Brad and I are very
very similar. I mean neurotic to a degree like Brad
and I. I mean we we respond to each other
on everything almost instantly.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
And I think it is again it goes back to communication.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
It's so important to know that you can, you know,
lean on your partner or reach your partner in an
instant if you need to. I think it's it's important
for the success of anything relationship wise to grow, especially
business for sure.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Yeah, and I think that's some of the you know,
tough part for us as a small brand right now
is yes, typically that would be a deal breaker, but
there's these you know, relationships that we need so right,
so we reach out to somebody, they don't email back.
Typically we'd say, all right, we're done with you, but
we may need them. We may need to email or
this distributor. So it's it's kind of a you know,
it'll uh test your patients, I.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Guess one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
I think building a company definitely test your patients because
you it's like raising You care so much about your kid,
but nobody else cares about your kids as much as
you care about your kid, and so like, Palm Republic
is like our baby, right, we care so much about
this brand that will do anything it takes to nourish
it and help it grow, whereas everybody on the outside
(11:15):
it's like, oh yay, I'll get to it.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
I'll get to it.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
It's it's not their priority by any means. So you
have to grind and hustle. Let's talk a little bit
about how we, you know, brought Palm Republic together, because
there's been a lot of questions that, you know, did
we have a mixologist work with us, or we did
(11:42):
have a master distiller work with us, for example, and
coming up with the Age blend and the Silver blend,
both of them, but coming up and finding those perfect
notes and how much sampling you know, it took to
get to that place of finding the RUMs from the
regions that we were gonna blend with.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
You want to talk a little bit about about that process.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yeah, So it's it's just that it's a process. And
you know, luckily, like you said, both our master mixologists
as well as a lot of other people in the
industry have been you know, so helpful for us. And
you're tasting and giving feedback in opinions, and you know,
it takes a ton of sampling. And obviously our product
is a blend, So our age is a blend of
three RUMs from three different countries, and then our silver
(12:23):
is a blend of two RUMs from two different countries.
So you know, number one, just you know, the vision,
where do we want to go? What do we want
to taste profile to be like, and then from there
narrowing it down to how do we get there with
these blends, you know, and just the tweaking. You know,
let's turn up the brown sugar, let's turn down the
you know, sweetness whatnot. So a ton of tasting, you know,
(12:43):
the good thing there is you're tasting rum, so it
can only.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Be and when you say turn up the brown sugar,
that we're not adding brown sugar, So it's turning up
the notes that that particular rum brought in like those characters.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
That's right, yep, So nothing added, no flavors, no no sweetness,
no colors. So just there's certain flavor notes based on
the different blends, because.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
That's something that people may or may not even understand.
For example, like our Panamanian rum comes column distilled right,
and just like I always explain it, like with grapes,
if you've grow in a different region, a grape is
a grape, but it's going to take on the characteristics
of the soils, the environment and everything that goes into it.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
So sugarcane, same thing.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
A sugar cane from Panama is going to produce a
little bit different of a flavor than a sugar cane
from Jamaica. Not to mention the distilling product process in
Jamaica is a kettle still or a pot still versus
the column still. So it's going to also add different characteristics.
So when we got all these blends and we bring
them to the master distiller and we go through the
tasting process, it's like, oh, punch up a little bit
(13:46):
more of the note that came out of that rum
into the blend and punching up, and it's a chemistry project,
that's right.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Yeah. And from the outside looking in, you know, you
think you just taste RUMs until you get what you like.
But there's such science behind it. And you know, some
of these people, especially are our distiller that we've worked with,
and these people in the industry are so adept at
what they're looking for in these flavor notes. I can
taste from and tell you maybe where it came from
and if I like it or not. But and again, Eric,
(14:15):
you've seen we've worked with these guys for the last year.
It's incredible what they can pull out from just the
flavor notes.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, you know, it's it's a true art,
it really is.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
And their palettes are unique.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
It's just like a small a in wine, right, Like
they study these things and they know the ins and
outs of what they're sipping on well.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
And one of the I guess, going back to picking
out our blends, one of the things that we did
interestingly with our age is we up the proof on it.
So typical spirits, you'll see them around eighty proof, which
is forty percent alcohol. We went up to forty six
percent or ninety two proof in the aged and that
was a recommendation given to us. And when we did that,
it really brought out all those really robust, rich flavors.
(14:54):
Obviously it's got a little bit more alcohol, a little
bit more punch, but when we started circulating that around
our circles, we got incredible feedback and you know, oh
my god, this is so good. It doesn't taste like
a ninety two proof, but these flavors are so rich
and so intense, So just little tweaks like that, you know,
make all the difference in the world.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Yeah, and I'll add to that, Like what I started
learning as I was going through the tasting process with
friends and colleagues and just even strangers. I would say
to people, how do you normally drink. Because if someone
drinks peanut cladas every time they drink, or if someone
drinks a cocktail every time they drink, drinking something neat,
totally different experience will blow your mind in any any spirit,
(15:33):
by the way, because it's you're getting.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
The purest form.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
It's going to be stronger, it's not watered down. It's
not you know, there's no ida. You know those sugars
because you're making a cocktail. And I think it's important
that people know that. So when you go buy Palm
Republic or any spirit for that matter, it's important to
know what.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
You're getting into.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
So if we have a ninety two that we think
is we know, we love it because when you're making
a cocktail with it, you can actually taste a bit
of what you're drinking. Versus some times you pay thirty
dollars or twenty five dollars at a borrow restaurant, you're like,
I don't even taste the alcohol.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Did they put anything in this?
Speaker 3 (16:06):
And that drives me crazy because I just spent a
ton of money on this drink. So at least with
Palm Republic, you know you're gonna be able to taste
your alcohol a bit. You're gonna enjoy it, and it
does in fact bring up the flavor notes. But like
you said, there's gonna be a little bit more of
a kick because it has a higher alcohol percent to it.
But I think that's the balance and also part of
(16:26):
what I think makes us unique. And you can't you
can't proof something up down the road. But if somebody
goes like, oh it might be a little strong for me, neat, okay,
put it on a rock. Now you immediately have opened
it up and you're gonna help it be a little
bit more simpable for you. And if you need beyond that,
you can add a splash of water to it. And
(16:47):
that's something you can do to bring it down, which
you can't bring, like I said, bring it back up.
So that's why we thought it made more sense to
go out to the market a little different in that space.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
That's right, Yeah, and along you know kind of those
lines as well. All of our cocktails that we high
light on our website and a lot of the ones
that we recommend to people, you know, I call them
simple cocktails. There are two three ingredients. It's you know,
for example, our dakery, we had so many people say, oh,
this makes a great dakery, and early on we're like,
why is this person making a dakri with it? Because
common consumer thinks, you know, dakri that comes out of
(17:16):
the freeze machine, it's a strawberry dacrie. But a simple
dacker is simple syrup, rum and uh and lime squeeze lime.
So you can still really get a lot of the
notes of the rum. And it's a great cocktail. It's
you know, relative, I mean, there's sugar in it because
of the simple syrup, but it's relatively clean. It doesn't
have a ton of syrup, it's not thick. So we
really try to highlight and feature those simple cocktails so
(17:38):
you can appreciate the rum totally.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Now, one thing I want to talk about that people
may not know, and I had no idea, but why
to me?
Speaker 2 (17:45):
I mean, you can explain it better.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Why is the alcohol business so different than any other
business ventures that could be started out there? Because I
didn't realize it's a bit I don't want to say
the wild West, but it still has its old sort
of prohibition kind of.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Like this interesting mark on it.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
You have to go follow certain patterns with distributors there's
a path to everything. Some states are control states where
you have to you know, be you know, stuck with
a distributor for forever. Essentially, you know, it's paid to
play a lot of times to get in places.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
It's not standard business. And why is that just the
times have never changed with alcohol.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Yeah, so totally different, right, totally different industry and especially
now when the ease of doing business and a lot
of industries is there. So you create a cool product,
put it on Amazon and you you know bank however
much a month alcohol is still, like you said, is
very very old school and it was a lot of
those things were put in place after prohibition the safeguard
the consumers. So for example, we were considered a supplier.
(18:45):
We make our product, in order to get it to
a consumer, it's got to go through a distributor in
that state, then to a retailer, whether it's a store, bar, restaurant,
and then to the end consumer. So it it layers.
You know, it's called a three tier system. So there's
three tiers of distribution. And obviously, you know there's some
pros and cons with that. Cons is it costs more
(19:05):
to the end consumer. Right. The pros are working with
really good distributors, which we've got a handful that we're
working with now. You know, they can increase our reach
and they can get us in these corner bars and
restaurants that you and I on a you know, a
week visit to Florida, you know, probably are not going
to hit all of these. So it is a you know,
it's some of it is changing a little bit for
(19:26):
the good, but a lot of those safeguards again are
in place for the for the consumer, which is a
good thing too. But it is a very old school business.
It's very relationship driven. Still. It's a you know, I'm
gonna say it's a big fraternity because somebody will leave
a company, whether it be an Anhydro, Busch, Miller, Cores,
and two months later they'll pop up in your email
and they're with another company. So they may leave the company,
(19:46):
but not a lot of people leave the industry, so
you really have to be careful about the relationships you
develop and the relationships you you know, you don't want
to burn any bridges in the industry because these people
continue to surface and to pop up. So, you know,
again it's a little bit old school, but there's a
lot of good things about that.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Also, like me, what I've even learned? It like it
feels mobstery in a way.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
It's like, you know, you want to be on the
menu at like the hottest nightclub in Miami. Okay, well
the head of that nightclub might ask you for fifty
grand in a rolex.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
That's just the way it is, which is a meeting
we had a week ago. Right, Yeah, that's a good example.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
It's like, I want you want to be on my menu? Okay,
give me some cash and I want a nice watch.
I'll put you on my menu. It's not because we
want to because I like you, because I want to
hook you up. I mean maybe if you're really tight
with that person, they can help you out. But even
the biggest brands are spending thousands of dollars so that
when you look at your cocktail menu, it says, oh, I.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Want I want a rum. I want to I want
to what'd you say, decree?
Speaker 3 (20:47):
But the rum that's going to be in that decree
paid twenty thousand dollars to have its name be the
rum that they're going to pour every single time you
want to drink. So you have to be aware if
you want to try something different, you want to try
something specially you. He asked to see their rum list,
see what else they have, or look at their back bar,
see what they're carrying, because you're going to get what
they're going to give you based on who's paying them.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
And I had no idea. It was like that. I
mean even your favorite margarita. I was like looking at a.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Place and they said, oh no, this big company pays
us fifty grand to have them be the name on
the menu. So it's a big cash business to make dents,
to make ways through it all.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
And I think.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Relationships, like you said, are key in anything, but in
this business even more so in some ways.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Indeed, you know, the different legalities and intricacies from state
to state is wild as well. So it's totally some
state's totally black and white. You know, some states obviously
that we do business in that we're on calls every
day with it is like the wild West. You can
do whatever you want. You can pay it for shelf placement,
you can pay for this. Other states you can't do that.
So it is it's a very interesting business, to say
(21:56):
the least.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Let's talk a little bit about you know, we get
so many comp and I have to say, I mean,
the support has been incredible out the gate, but on
our bottle, on the look, let's talk a little bit
about that process. I mean, how many first of all,
the idea of the bottle, how many passes?
Speaker 2 (22:14):
How many things do you think we saw?
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Even with logos, working with a great company obviously in
everybody's eye, and you know, trying to come up with
the right decision to make, which is very scary because
once you commit, you're like, well, we think this is
it and you put it out there.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Talk about that process a bit too.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Yeah, So we worked with a great design company out
of Chicago, and you know, now everything from the bottle
to the name, to the label to the liquid, everything
has to fit in and go hand in hand.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
It's all.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
It all has to make sense. So you know, it's
not just I like this label in this bottle. Let's
put them together, right, Everything's got to fit and it's
got to be you know, the brand's got to speak
together essentially. So again, work with a great company out
of Chicago, looked at, you know, hundreds and hundreds of
bottles and pictures and hey, we like this one kind
of like this one. We like the neck on this,
but not the body on this, and really are our
(23:05):
you know, entire goal with the packaging processes, we wanted
to deviate from the current Rum category. So if you
go to the liquor store you look at a rumshelf,
ninety nine percent of it is they're dark bottles, you know,
their old pictures. It's got maps, compasses, pirates, and we
really wanted to go away from that. We wanted to
keep the spirit of Rum, which is fun, it's lively,
(23:25):
it's outdoors, but we didn't want to go down that
heritage route. So you know, when somebody sees our bottle,
it's a custom bottle. It's got our palm tree logo
emblazed in the side of it. The corks, I think
are probably the best feature of it. It's a large
corp that cor cork that has the palm tree in it.
And then we have bright, lively colors, but it's still elegant.
(23:46):
You know, it's not over the top neon colors where
you know it's in your face. It's an elegant, sexy bottle,
but it's upscale.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Even our font go with our deco.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Like a lot of people like I were surprised that
we went with that font, but in a good way.
They're like, wow, this really stands out. I would have
thought of that, and it speaks very old Miami. It
brings back, you know what I love about it. It
ties in the notion of rum and that old nature
with the old Art Deco sort of vibe. But then
it's really modern. So exactly it's blending the two.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
It has elements of both, which is and again, you know,
you think of Miami in the eighties or whatnot, you
do think of rum and dake ease and things like that.
So I think it's kind of a throwback to that easier,
simpler time maybe, but again, like you said, still modern,
still really upscale.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
And I also have some questions about people saying, you know,
was the rum arguing in barrels from somewhere when we,
you know, started we started this process or did we
start from scratch? And yes, the rum was in barrels
because a lot of these distilleries that were approaching and
going to and tasting, they've been aging their their rum
for years, right, and they can be I think what
people may or may not understand is these distilleries all
over the world for different products, whether it's tequila, which
(25:02):
is only in Mexico, theo's.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Agave, and the distillers are all there.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
They will make all of the tequilas you're tasting are
coming from five different distilleries roughly or something in Mexico
for tequila, and with rum, all these different RUMs you're tasting,
they're all coming relatively from the same distilleries in those regions.
So if it's a Panamanian rum, most likely there's a
couple of different Panamanian distillers out there that have that
(25:28):
those different RUMs.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
It's how they.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Formulate it to make it special coming out of that
distillery each right.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
So same with Tequiee.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
So if you had two big brands, they could both
be coming from that same distillery. Each one's just getting
their own attention to detail to make it a little
bit more unique.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
And the same thing with our rum.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
That's why we liked the blend idea because we felt
like we were taking the best from these different regions
and putting it together to make it something new.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Yeah, and you know there's a lot of blends out there.
There's wine blends, there's spirit blends, and a lot of
blends are done to help costs. They blend them down.
So here's a really nice liquid is you know, fifteen
years old. We love it, but it's very expensive, so
let's blend it with something cheaper so we can keep
our costs under control. And that's you know, I think
one of the great unique things about Palm Republic is
(26:14):
it's all really quality rum that complements each other, and
it's brought together in a way that you know, the
flavor notes work together, and it's not just, hey, here's
a great rum that we like some of the features
of let's blend it down so we can we can
make it cheaper. It's not that. So yeah, the you know,
the rum has been in our age, has been in
Beryl's sherry casts for eight years. So, like you said,
there's and wins the same way. You know, there's a
(26:37):
handful of distilleries that produce rum and sell it to consumers.
When you see bourbon and whiskeys come out and they're
fifteen years most likely that company didn't start fifteen years
ago with liquid and a barrel, right, they purchased that
from somewhere and it's been aging for fifteen years.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Absolutely, Now what do you think so far? This is
one thing I like about where spirits is going is
that they're nothing is staying in its lane, meaning, you know,
it's not just Okay, I'm gonna have a margarita, so
it's got to be a tequila. I'm gonna have a rum,
so it's it has to be a pinicolada, I'm gonna
have a I'm gonna have a whatever, gins or that
has to be gen and tonic, you know whatever. This
(27:12):
this sake is everybody's mixing and matching. And what I
like about that is we're able to try all these
different cocktails, exploring with different spirits. So for example, my
favorite cocktail that Palm Republic does with.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
The Age, and I've said it time and time again,
is an old fashion.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
It is the most killer old fashion and everybody I've
told about it, I'm like, it's gonna change the way
you think about about rum because everybody, you know, bourbon whiskey,
they're like old fashion, amazing drink. People love it all
the time. And and I still love it with bourbon
and whiskey as well. Don't don't get me wrong, I
still love it that way. But what I like is
that palm. Republic truly brings a different sort of hint
(27:54):
of a note that's just a different flavor because it's
a rum. But also our notes are so have a
consistency with like a bourbon or whiskey too in a
lot of ways.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
You know. And it's so you know, Paul Republic's so versatile, right,
It's great on the rocks, it's great neat. You know,
if you're a bourbon whiskey person and you drink eat,
our age is great neat. But it's so versatile in cocktails,
and like you said, that allows us to bring a
lot of people to the rum category that may not
drink from right now. So you know, I've had new
or dozens and dozens of people when we started they say,
(28:24):
you know, I don't I don't really drink rum. What
do you drink? I drink bourbon in old fashioned perfect
Try it with our age and they're like, oh wow,
this is rum. And I think I told you the
story my dad, who's been in the you know, beer
and wine business forever, when I first gave him our
first round of samples, and he said, this isn't rum,
this is this is bourbon. You know, this is bourbon whiskey,
and I said, no, this is age drum. And he said,
now rum's got that, you know, cinnamon, it's a little
(28:45):
bit more spiced. I said, no, that's not good rum.
I said, this is this is quality rum. So you know,
it is so versatile, and you can make a rum martini.
Now you can make a rum old fashion, you know.
And then again it just allows us to bring people
who normally wouldn't drink rum over into the category and
kind of open their eyes because again, the common consumer
when they think rum, they don't think of palm, republic
age room. They think of something that's overly sweet, has
(29:07):
a cinnamon bite to it, and they probably got sick
off of it at one point one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Even like a friend of ours, who are just a
friend of mine, I said, it just posted something on palm.
They were all cognac drinkers. And remember cognac comes from
like a pot still in the way that they make it,
so often that element of what the Jamaican rum brings
can have a bit of a cognac sort of you know, feel.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Profile to it.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
So these guys all sipped on palm for a big
fantasy football draft and they're like, oh my god, this
is the best rum we've ever had.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
This is unbelievable. It really does sit more.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
Like a Cognac Bourbon in that range for the age,
and I think so to me, that's my favorite cocktail,
the old fashion.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
You got to try it if you if you by
the age.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
And also with the silver, So many my tequila friends
who are drinking, you know, the silver tequilas, and that's
their focus, not going to the najos and all that
I said say in Yeho, I pronounced that very poorly.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
My wife would be pit it's good the silver.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
A lot of my tequila friends are like, wow, I
could totally sip on this silver rum with a lime
instead of a vodka or on the rocks, just like
I would my my tequila.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
And it's got.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Sure, it has a different flavor profile, but it SIPs
so smooth and it tastes so good that it's a
great alternative or something you just want to mix a
match with.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Well, and we say it all the time, you know,
we kind of see the rum categories where tequila was
ten or twelve years ago, where obviously people were familiar
with tequila, you know, but it was it was cheaper liquid.
It was not as good. People have bad experiences.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
People forget about that because of the craze of tequila. Now,
like when I started drinking tequila, I got so sick
off of tequila that I to this day, I'm not
a tequila drinker.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
I'll have a margarita. I do like those, but I
don't like tequila neat on the rocks. I can't do it.
It gives me horrible memories.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
And that's where it was ten or twelve years ago. Yeah,
and Run's kind of the same way. And we see
where tequila went. I mean, now tequila is seen as premium, upscale.
Go into any liquor store and there's one hundred hundred
and fifty two hundred dollars bottles of tequila, you know.
And again, I think that the nice thing about Rum,
and the unique piece about Rum is it's so approachable. Right,
It's a little bit sweeter at the end, so it's
it's you know, approachable. It's it doesn't have an acquired
(31:14):
taste like tequila, it doesn't have burn like berber and whiskey,
but it still has a lot of those characteristics.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
Yeah, and look as we go on to launch. I
just want to say to the listeners I've said it before,
the support has been incredible. It means a lot to
us because we take this very serious and I've said
it before, it's not this was never my intention as
a celebrity play on a brand. I've been very passionate
about this category, very passionate about building something on my own.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
I have a great partner, we have great investors and a.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
Great team, and to see that support and the people
show up has meant the world to us. You know,
we were a few months in now launching our babies,
sending them off, you know, and then the walking steps
right the stages of their lives. And we really see
this as a brand that would become a staple in
the Rum market, and that will build and people when
(32:05):
they think of Rum will start thinking Palm Republic. That's
our goal. So we invite you to spread the word,
share it, try it if you haven't tried it, just
as we say, join the Republic, be part of our
mission to change the narrative on Rum and lift it
up and just enjoy enjoy new experiences with the Rum family.
(32:27):
So that's where we're at, that's where we're headed. Brad,
thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I
thought it'd be fun to share our story a bit,
talk a little bit of business, talk about our relationship,
and I think the listeners will get a kick out
of this.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
Great, thanks for having me. Appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Awesome, take care of men.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
Thanks to all right, Well, everybody, thank you for listening
as always, and I hope this was insightful just to
learn a bit about where my mind is at with
the company and the business and how much it means
to me and my partner. You got to see it
face to face now, so again I appreciate you. I
hope you have a chance to enjoy Palm republic. Give
(33:05):
us a follow at Palm republic rum on Instagram, Palm
republic Rum on TikTok, Twitter or x I should say Facebook,
that's that's everywhere.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
And also go to our website. Check it out.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
It's the same thing, palmrepublic rum dot com. Get the
latest news, check out the merch and buy yourself a bottle.
Try it all right, everybody, thank you for listening. If
you have something you want to talk to us about,
send it to our DMS at he said Ado or
email us at Ericanroz at iHeartRadio dot com and Roz
will be back for the next one.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Take care, bye, thanks for listening. Don't forget to write
us a review and tell us what you think.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
If you want to follow us on Instagram, check us
out at the said a ens at email, Eric and
Ross at iHeartRadio dot com. He said. AB is part
of iHeartRadio's Mike Wilutap podcast network.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
See you next time. Bye,
This is he said a Yavi ho with Eric Winter
and Rosalind Fantev.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Welcome back to another she said aado.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
This is the last, he said by himself for a
little while. My beautiful wife will be back here very soon.
She's flying back tonight from a successful trip doing her movie.
We are so excited. We really are to have her back.
It's been a long road.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Being on my own.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
I mean, I have great help my mom and nanny,
but being on my own, it's a lot at the house.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
You know.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
I'm happy to have her home.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
But until then, we are going to do another episode
with an awesome guest, a great friend of mine, Brad Parks,
who is also my business partner with Palm Republic. We
thot'd be fun to do an episode talking about entrepreneurship,
you know, just our brand, working together, how we met
building up Palm Republic here in the infancy few months
(00:58):
as we've launched now and sharing our knowledge and journey
what we have with you listeners, just because it might
be fun. Who knows what everybody could gain from this.
It's new to me. I can tell you starting something
from the ground up, and I've learned a ton, so
I'm excited to jump in just talk about this in
general and Brad's experience and mine and share because the
(01:21):
fan support has been incredible. So thank you everybody when
it comes to Palm Republic for being by my side
for this launch and lifting me up.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
It means the world. Everybody.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Welcome Brad Parks, who's my business partner friend. As we've here,
you know, gone on to build and launch Palm Republic,
thought this would be a fun episode to share our
journey a little bit for the listeners out there who
might be looking to start something on their own, but
also Brad has been down this path already before. Brad,
why don't you go. I'll do a little bit of introduction.
(01:51):
But you know, Brad comes from for people who don't
know about spirits, beer wine, all of that. It's been
a totally new world for me. Diving into Brad's third generation.
Now his family has a distribution arm, a relationship I
should say, right isue? Is that a distribution style of your.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Company with beer wine distribut that's right.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Beer wine distribution.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
So he had some knowledge in that space, but he's
gone on his own to branch out and started his
own company called Masked Hard tease erba mate healthier version
of in RTD or ready to drink if you're going
to have something with some liquor in it. It's also
got some health elements as well in it. And he
he launched that and it's doing, it's doing very well.
So he knows about entrepreneurship. But Brad Goodin, tell us
(02:37):
a little bit more about you your background. You know,
it was your dream always to be an entrepreneur and
et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I'd love to hear that.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, well, I'll give you the the extended version. I guess,
so what you know, like you mentioned, and you did
a nice job in covering it. But my family's been
in the beer and wine business since back to my grandfather,
my grandfather's second job. It has been my dad's only job.
So grew up in the beer and wine industry. You know,
it was the only thing that I knew, so always
that entrepreneurial spirit was there. It was all of you know,
(03:07):
all around me, all all around our family. So at
some you know point, I definitely knew I wanted to
go into that. It wasn't always beer and wine, so
I started my career actually an insurance and financial services
on the agency side, which is a you know, you're
ten ninety nine contractor. You own your own business, hire
your own employees, do your own marketing. So that was
(03:30):
kind of really my first dive into the entrepreneurial space,
and I loved it. You know, met my wife through insurance.
Her and I started two agencies together and you know,
grew them to a point where she eventually said, hey,
this is my deal. It's time for you to, uh
to find something else to do what That's not exactly
how it happened, but but anyway, it was around that
(03:52):
time when our distributorships were going through some acquisitions and
some transitions, and it was a good time for me
to come back to that piece it, to that side
of the business. And you know, being in this business
every day you see all the new items that come out,
you see all the market data, you see what does well,
what doesn't do so well, the reason behind you know,
brands launching new items. So you know, her and I,
(04:15):
my wife and I got together and we thought, you know, hey,
there was a niche in the market with all these
seltzers and alternative beverages coming out, you know, to be
a health forward product. So we launched mask Fusions, which
there's a harder of a mate and a hard coconut water.
And our whole target market that we wanted to capture
was that you know, Seltzer drinker, but we wanted to
add organic, good for you ingredients to the product. So
(04:38):
that's been out, you know, over three years. Now we're
in fifteen sixteen states, about five thousand retailers. And then
from a spirits perspective, always been a rum fan. I
was rum and coke in college and then obviously when
you grow up a little bit, you're drinking. Habits and
venues change, so you're at you know, events and dinners
and not not necessarily dance clubs and bars are still
(05:00):
last call, so you know, ordering rum and coke and
a nice, nice dinner. Yeah, it wasn't receive is great. So,
you know, went to Bourbon and Whiskey a little bit.
I love the character behind it, kind of the history
behind it, all of the different taste notes, you know,
and always in the back of my mind, I couldn't
figure out why there wasn't more nice RUMs like bourbon
and whiskey. So started down that journey and obviously that's
(05:23):
how you know, you and I came together and that's
why we're here.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Absolutely, And you know what I like buying for listeners
to hear is you know, in general, being an entrepreneur
is not something you have to be thinking your whole
life like, that's the path I'm going to take. But
what I do like is if you have a little
bit of that spirit inside of you that you want
to start something, you want to build something, which you did.
You know, you go to college, you come out, you
(05:46):
started a business with your wife, and you guys built
something up and then decided, Okay, now's we're gonna pivot
and you can continue to build more things, which is
what you see all the time on shows like Shark
Tank and these things that I love so much, as
people are always finding a way to evolve and build
and grow as entrepreneurs, whether something works, doesn't work, or
you just want to send something off on its way
because it's doing so well and I want to start
(06:07):
something else now. And that's something my dad always sort
of instilled in me as well, which is why I've
always had that entrepreneurial spirit, even though I ended up
going down this path of being an actor, which is
very different because I.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Have no control of my career.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Like I could study and work hard every single day
to be the best I can be, and it can
translate to zero income, you know what I mean. There's
so many other factors that go into having a successful
career where I come, you know, from my standpoint, whereas
you know, you're not always going to hit it as
an entrepreneur, but if you you do know, if you
work hard and you're grinding every day, you're destined to
(06:45):
be better off than you were the day before. And
that's why I think is great about that path, which
is always excited me. And you know, like you said,
we came together because of Rum, but I had been
down this road on my own a bit before we merge,
you know, just be in Palm Republic together. I was
wanting to start something, wanted to be involved and build
something on my own, and I had fell in love
(07:06):
with rum, as we've talked about before, because my wife's
Puerto Rican and that's when I was first introduced to it.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
I wasn't a.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Rum drinker, became a rum drinker and appreciated, you know,
what characteristics had had as a spirit and so it's
something I wanted to go out and dive into more
and try to start and Brad had been starting down
this road with Palm Republic. We were introduced through another
mutual sort of colleague, and we realized, you know, look,
we both have the same mission. We want to make
(07:32):
rum modern, a fresh new take on rum. We want
to make it hip and cool again, versus what people
grew up drinking, the Captain and cokes and the sugary
RUMs spiced.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
And all that we wanted.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
I mean, look at spirits aren't necessarily help forward, but
if you're going to have a spirit, we wanted to clean.
We wanted no sugar added, no added colors, no flavors,
just as it's intended to be sipped on. And I
think because we had those same visions, it's not always
easy when two people are going down separate paths to
(08:05):
try to build something and then they try to come
together and say, hey, can we actually work together, which
you know, for people listening, we had a little bit
of a feeling out process.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
You know, I did not know Brad at all before
we I got involved in Paul Republic. He did not
know me.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
There goes a lot of trust and building in that
sort of relationship of how we're going to try to
launch a company. And we've been in this now for
over a year and it's been great. I think we've
grown a lot together and understand things together. Brad's the
calm one in the relationship. I'm the more neurotic, you know,
freak out all the time person in the relationship. So
(08:42):
we balance each other well, cance his beach background, Yeah,
which I think is important when you're building a business
like to have. It's like a marriage, right, You got
to have those characteristics that are going to balance each
other out while you're trying to grow a company.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Yeah. You know, that's been great because you and I
from day one shared the same vision of where we
wanted the brand to go, what we wanted to do.
You mentioned the you know additives clean spirit, but also
the you know, upscale premium image that we wanted to bring,
so we just did. We didn't want to just create
a new liquid. We wanted to elevate the entire category
and make it you know cool again, to order rum
on the rocks at a bar acceptable again, and really
(09:18):
take that mainstream to where you know, bourbon whiskey tequila
is now those are all seen now as upscale spirits,
and that's where we wanted to go. So that's been
you know since day one, you and I have been
on the same page there. And I think the other thing,
you know, in any business relationship, obviously, communication is so important.
And you know you and I communicate a lot the
same way. Yeah, you know, quick, quick, detect back, quick
(09:39):
to call back. You know now in the days of
zoom and email. I mean, it's nothing for somebody to
either not email back, and you've seen this a ton,
you know recently, not email back, or just to not call.
And you and I always say, like, how do you
just let that sit there? How's that email just sit
in your inbox?
Speaker 2 (09:55):
I'd tell you right there, like in dating it would
be a deal breaker, and in.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Busines it's a deal breaker. You can't text me back. Yeah,
I'm out, Like, thank god. Brad and I are very
very similar. I mean neurotic to a degree like Brad
and I. I mean we we respond to each other
on everything almost instantly.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
And I think it is again it goes back to communication.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
It's so important to know that you can, you know,
lean on your partner or reach your partner in an
instant if you need to. I think it's it's important
for the success of anything relationship wise to grow, especially
business for sure.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Yeah, and I think that's some of the you know,
tough part for us as a small brand right now
is yes, typically that would be a deal breaker, but
there's these you know, relationships that we need so right,
so we reach out to somebody, they don't email back.
Typically we'd say, all right, we're done with you, but
we may need them. We may need to email or
this distributor. So it's it's kind of a you know,
it'll uh test your patients, I.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Guess one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
I think building a company definitely test your patients because
you it's like raising You care so much about your kid,
but nobody else cares about your kids as much as
you care about your kid, and so like, Palm Republic
is like our baby, right, we care so much about
this brand that will do anything it takes to nourish
it and help it grow, whereas everybody on the outside
(11:15):
it's like, oh yay, I'll get to it.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
I'll get to it.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
It's it's not their priority by any means. So you
have to grind and hustle. Let's talk a little bit
about how we, you know, brought Palm Republic together, because
there's been a lot of questions that, you know, did
we have a mixologist work with us, or we did
(11:42):
have a master distiller work with us, for example, and
coming up with the Age blend and the Silver blend,
both of them, but coming up and finding those perfect
notes and how much sampling you know, it took to
get to that place of finding the RUMs from the
regions that we were gonna blend with.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
You want to talk a little bit about about that process.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Yeah, So it's it's just that it's a process. And
you know, luckily, like you said, both our master mixologists
as well as a lot of other people in the
industry have been you know, so helpful for us. And
you're tasting and giving feedback in opinions, and you know,
it takes a ton of sampling. And obviously our product
is a blend, So our age is a blend of
three RUMs from three different countries, and then our silver
(12:23):
is a blend of two RUMs from two different countries.
So you know, number one, just you know, the vision,
where do we want to go? What do we want
to taste profile to be like, and then from there
narrowing it down to how do we get there with
these blends, you know, and just the tweaking. You know,
let's turn up the brown sugar, let's turn down the
you know, sweetness whatnot. So a ton of tasting, you know,
(12:43):
the good thing there is you're tasting rum, so it
can only.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Be and when you say turn up the brown sugar,
that we're not adding brown sugar, So it's turning up
the notes that that particular rum brought in like those characters.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
That's right, yep, So nothing added, no flavors, no no sweetness,
no colors. So just there's certain flavor notes based on
the different blends, because.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
That's something that people may or may not even understand.
For example, like our Panamanian rum comes column distilled right,
and just like I always explain it, like with grapes,
if you've grow in a different region, a grape is
a grape, but it's going to take on the characteristics
of the soils, the environment and everything that goes into it.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
So sugarcane, same thing.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
A sugar cane from Panama is going to produce a
little bit different of a flavor than a sugar cane
from Jamaica. Not to mention the distilling product process in
Jamaica is a kettle still or a pot still versus
the column still. So it's going to also add different characteristics.
So when we got all these blends and we bring
them to the master distiller and we go through the
tasting process, it's like, oh, punch up a little bit
(13:46):
more of the note that came out of that rum
into the blend and punching up, and it's a chemistry project,
that's right.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Yeah. And from the outside looking in, you know, you
think you just taste RUMs until you get what you like.
But there's such science behind it. And you know, some
of these people, especially are our distiller that we've worked with,
and these people in the industry are so adept at
what they're looking for in these flavor notes. I can
taste from and tell you maybe where it came from
and if I like it or not. But and again, Eric,
(14:15):
you've seen we've worked with these guys for the last year.
It's incredible what they can pull out from just the
flavor notes.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, you know, it's it's a true art,
it really is.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
And their palettes are unique.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
It's just like a small a in wine, right, Like
they study these things and they know the ins and
outs of what they're sipping on well.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
And one of the I guess, going back to picking
out our blends, one of the things that we did
interestingly with our age is we up the proof on it.
So typical spirits, you'll see them around eighty proof, which
is forty percent alcohol. We went up to forty six
percent or ninety two proof in the aged and that
was a recommendation given to us. And when we did that,
it really brought out all those really robust, rich flavors.
(14:54):
Obviously it's got a little bit more alcohol, a little
bit more punch, but when we started circulating that around
our circles, we got incredible feedback and you know, oh
my god, this is so good. It doesn't taste like
a ninety two proof, but these flavors are so rich
and so intense, So just little tweaks like that, you know,
make all the difference in the world.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Yeah, and I'll add to that, Like what I started
learning as I was going through the tasting process with
friends and colleagues and just even strangers. I would say
to people, how do you normally drink. Because if someone
drinks peanut cladas every time they drink, or if someone
drinks a cocktail every time they drink, drinking something neat,
totally different experience will blow your mind in any any spirit,
(15:33):
by the way, because it's you're getting.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
The purest form.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
It's going to be stronger, it's not watered down. It's
not you know, there's no ida. You know those sugars
because you're making a cocktail. And I think it's important
that people know that. So when you go buy Palm
Republic or any spirit for that matter, it's important to
know what.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
You're getting into.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
So if we have a ninety two that we think
is we know, we love it because when you're making
a cocktail with it, you can actually taste a bit
of what you're drinking. Versus some times you pay thirty
dollars or twenty five dollars at a borrow restaurant, you're like,
I don't even taste the alcohol.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
Did they put anything in this?
Speaker 3 (16:06):
And that drives me crazy because I just spent a
ton of money on this drink. So at least with
Palm Republic, you know you're gonna be able to taste
your alcohol a bit. You're gonna enjoy it, and it
does in fact bring up the flavor notes. But like
you said, there's gonna be a little bit more of
a kick because it has a higher alcohol percent to it.
But I think that's the balance and also part of
(16:26):
what I think makes us unique. And you can't you
can't proof something up down the road. But if somebody
goes like, oh it might be a little strong for me, neat, okay,
put it on a rock. Now you immediately have opened
it up and you're gonna help it be a little
bit more simpable for you. And if you need beyond that,
you can add a splash of water to it. And
(16:47):
that's something you can do to bring it down, which
you can't bring, like I said, bring it back up.
So that's why we thought it made more sense to
go out to the market a little different in that space.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
That's right, Yeah, and along you know kind of those
lines as well. All of our cocktails that we high
light on our website and a lot of the ones
that we recommend to people, you know, I call them
simple cocktails. There are two three ingredients. It's you know,
for example, our dakery, we had so many people say, oh,
this makes a great dakery, and early on we're like,
why is this person making a dakri with it? Because
common consumer thinks, you know, dakri that comes out of
(17:16):
the freeze machine, it's a strawberry dacrie. But a simple
dacker is simple syrup, rum and uh and lime squeeze lime.
So you can still really get a lot of the
notes of the rum. And it's a great cocktail. It's
you know, relative, I mean, there's sugar in it because
of the simple syrup, but it's relatively clean. It doesn't
have a ton of syrup, it's not thick. So we
really try to highlight and feature those simple cocktails so
(17:38):
you can appreciate the rum totally.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Now, one thing I want to talk about that people
may not know, and I had no idea, but why
to me?
Speaker 2 (17:45):
I mean, you can explain it better.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Why is the alcohol business so different than any other
business ventures that could be started out there? Because I
didn't realize it's a bit I don't want to say
the wild West, but it still has its old sort
of prohibition kind of.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Like this interesting mark on it.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
You have to go follow certain patterns with distributors there's
a path to everything. Some states are control states where
you have to you know, be you know, stuck with
a distributor for forever. Essentially, you know, it's paid to
play a lot of times to get in places.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
It's not standard business. And why is that just the
times have never changed with alcohol.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Yeah, so totally different, right, totally different industry and especially
now when the ease of doing business and a lot
of industries is there. So you create a cool product,
put it on Amazon and you you know bank however
much a month alcohol is still, like you said, is
very very old school and it was a lot of
those things were put in place after prohibition the safeguard
the consumers. So for example, we were considered a supplier.
(18:45):
We make our product, in order to get it to
a consumer, it's got to go through a distributor in
that state, then to a retailer, whether it's a store, bar, restaurant,
and then to the end consumer. So it it layers.
You know, it's called a three tier system. So there's
three tiers of distribution. And obviously, you know there's some
pros and cons with that. Cons is it costs more
(19:05):
to the end consumer. Right. The pros are working with
really good distributors, which we've got a handful that we're
working with now. You know, they can increase our reach
and they can get us in these corner bars and
restaurants that you and I on a you know, a
week visit to Florida, you know, probably are not going
to hit all of these. So it is a you know,
it's some of it is changing a little bit for
(19:26):
the good, but a lot of those safeguards again are
in place for the for the consumer, which is a
good thing too. But it is a very old school business.
It's very relationship driven. Still. It's a you know, I'm
gonna say it's a big fraternity because somebody will leave
a company, whether it be an Anhydro, Busch, Miller, Cores,
and two months later they'll pop up in your email
and they're with another company. So they may leave the company,
(19:46):
but not a lot of people leave the industry, so
you really have to be careful about the relationships you
develop and the relationships you you know, you don't want
to burn any bridges in the industry because these people
continue to surface and to pop up. So, you know,
again it's a little bit old school, but there's a
lot of good things about that.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Also, like me, what I've even learned? It like it
feels mobstery in a way.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
It's like, you know, you want to be on the
menu at like the hottest nightclub in Miami. Okay, well
the head of that nightclub might ask you for fifty
grand in a rolex.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
That's just the way it is, which is a meeting
we had a week ago. Right, Yeah, that's a good example.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
It's like, I want you want to be on my menu? Okay,
give me some cash and I want a nice watch.
I'll put you on my menu. It's not because we
want to because I like you, because I want to
hook you up. I mean maybe if you're really tight
with that person, they can help you out. But even
the biggest brands are spending thousands of dollars so that
when you look at your cocktail menu, it says, oh, I.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Want I want a rum. I want to I want
to what'd you say, decree?
Speaker 3 (20:47):
But the rum that's going to be in that decree
paid twenty thousand dollars to have its name be the
rum that they're going to pour every single time you
want to drink. So you have to be aware if
you want to try something different, you want to try
something specially you. He asked to see their rum list,
see what else they have, or look at their back bar,
see what they're carrying, because you're going to get what
they're going to give you based on who's paying them.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
And I had no idea. It was like that. I
mean even your favorite margarita. I was like looking at a.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Place and they said, oh no, this big company pays
us fifty grand to have them be the name on
the menu. So it's a big cash business to make dents,
to make ways through it all.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
And I think.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Relationships, like you said, are key in anything, but in
this business even more so in some ways.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Indeed, you know, the different legalities and intricacies from state
to state is wild as well. So it's totally some
state's totally black and white. You know, some states obviously
that we do business in that we're on calls every
day with it is like the wild West. You can
do whatever you want. You can pay it for shelf placement,
you can pay for this. Other states you can't do that.
So it is it's a very interesting business, to say
(21:56):
the least.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Let's talk a little bit about you know, we get
so many comp and I have to say, I mean,
the support has been incredible out the gate, but on
our bottle, on the look, let's talk a little bit
about that process. I mean, how many first of all,
the idea of the bottle, how many passes?
Speaker 2 (22:14):
How many things do you think we saw?
Speaker 3 (22:16):
Even with logos, working with a great company obviously in
everybody's eye, and you know, trying to come up with
the right decision to make, which is very scary because
once you commit, you're like, well, we think this is
it and you put it out there.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Talk about that process a bit too.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
Yeah, So we worked with a great design company out
of Chicago, and you know, now everything from the bottle
to the name, to the label to the liquid, everything
has to fit in and go hand in hand.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
It's all.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
It all has to make sense. So you know, it's
not just I like this label in this bottle. Let's
put them together, right, Everything's got to fit and it's
got to be you know, the brand's got to speak
together essentially. So again, work with a great company out
of Chicago, looked at, you know, hundreds and hundreds of
bottles and pictures and hey, we like this one kind
of like this one. We like the neck on this,
but not the body on this, and really are our
(23:05):
you know, entire goal with the packaging processes, we wanted
to deviate from the current Rum category. So if you
go to the liquor store you look at a rumshelf,
ninety nine percent of it is they're dark bottles, you know,
their old pictures. It's got maps, compasses, pirates, and we
really wanted to go away from that. We wanted to
keep the spirit of Rum, which is fun, it's lively,
(23:25):
it's outdoors, but we didn't want to go down that
heritage route. So you know, when somebody sees our bottle,
it's a custom bottle. It's got our palm tree logo
emblazed in the side of it. The corks, I think
are probably the best feature of it. It's a large
corp that cor cork that has the palm tree in it.
And then we have bright, lively colors, but it's still elegant.
(23:46):
You know, it's not over the top neon colors where
you know it's in your face. It's an elegant, sexy bottle,
but it's upscale.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Even our font go with our deco.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Like a lot of people like I were surprised that
we went with that font, but in a good way.
They're like, wow, this really stands out. I would have
thought of that, and it speaks very old Miami. It
brings back, you know what I love about it. It
ties in the notion of rum and that old nature
with the old Art Deco sort of vibe. But then
it's really modern. So exactly it's blending the two.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
It has elements of both, which is and again, you know,
you think of Miami in the eighties or whatnot, you
do think of rum and dake ease and things like that.
So I think it's kind of a throwback to that easier,
simpler time maybe, but again, like you said, still modern,
still really upscale.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
And I also have some questions about people saying, you know,
was the rum arguing in barrels from somewhere when we,
you know, started we started this process or did we
start from scratch? And yes, the rum was in barrels
because a lot of these distilleries that were approaching and
going to and tasting, they've been aging their their rum
for years, right, and they can be I think what
people may or may not understand is these distilleries all
over the world for different products, whether it's tequila, which
(25:02):
is only in Mexico, theo's.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Agave, and the distillers are all there.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
They will make all of the tequilas you're tasting are
coming from five different distilleries roughly or something in Mexico
for tequila, and with rum, all these different RUMs you're tasting,
they're all coming relatively from the same distilleries in those regions.
So if it's a Panamanian rum, most likely there's a
couple of different Panamanian distillers out there that have that
(25:28):
those different RUMs.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
It's how they.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Formulate it to make it special coming out of that
distillery each right.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
So same with Tequiee.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
So if you had two big brands, they could both
be coming from that same distillery. Each one's just getting
their own attention to detail to make it a little
bit more unique.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
And the same thing with our rum.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
That's why we liked the blend idea because we felt
like we were taking the best from these different regions
and putting it together to make it something new.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Yeah, and you know there's a lot of blends out there.
There's wine blends, there's spirit blends, and a lot of
blends are done to help costs. They blend them down.
So here's a really nice liquid is you know, fifteen
years old. We love it, but it's very expensive, so
let's blend it with something cheaper so we can keep
our costs under control. And that's you know, I think
one of the great unique things about Palm Republic is
(26:14):
it's all really quality rum that complements each other, and
it's brought together in a way that you know, the
flavor notes work together, and it's not just, hey, here's
a great rum that we like some of the features
of let's blend it down so we can we can
make it cheaper. It's not that. So yeah, the you know,
the rum has been in our age, has been in
Beryl's sherry casts for eight years. So, like you said,
there's and wins the same way. You know, there's a
(26:37):
handful of distilleries that produce rum and sell it to consumers.
When you see bourbon and whiskeys come out and they're
fifteen years most likely that company didn't start fifteen years
ago with liquid and a barrel, right, they purchased that
from somewhere and it's been aging for fifteen years.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Absolutely, Now what do you think so far? This is
one thing I like about where spirits is going is
that they're nothing is staying in its lane, meaning, you know,
it's not just Okay, I'm gonna have a margarita, so
it's got to be a tequila. I'm gonna have a rum,
so it's it has to be a pinicolada, I'm gonna
have a I'm gonna have a whatever, gins or that
has to be gen and tonic, you know whatever. This
(27:12):
this sake is everybody's mixing and matching. And what I
like about that is we're able to try all these
different cocktails, exploring with different spirits. So for example, my
favorite cocktail that Palm Republic does with.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
The Age, and I've said it time and time again,
is an old fashion.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
It is the most killer old fashion and everybody I've
told about it, I'm like, it's gonna change the way
you think about about rum because everybody, you know, bourbon whiskey,
they're like old fashion, amazing drink. People love it all
the time. And and I still love it with bourbon
and whiskey as well. Don't don't get me wrong, I
still love it that way. But what I like is
that palm. Republic truly brings a different sort of hint
(27:54):
of a note that's just a different flavor because it's
a rum. But also our notes are so have a
consistency with like a bourbon or whiskey too in a
lot of ways.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
You know. And it's so you know, Paul Republic's so versatile, right,
It's great on the rocks, it's great neat. You know,
if you're a bourbon whiskey person and you drink eat,
our age is great neat. But it's so versatile in cocktails,
and like you said, that allows us to bring a
lot of people to the rum category that may not
drink from right now. So you know, I've had new
or dozens and dozens of people when we started they say,
(28:24):
you know, I don't I don't really drink rum. What
do you drink? I drink bourbon in old fashioned perfect
Try it with our age and they're like, oh wow,
this is rum. And I think I told you the
story my dad, who's been in the you know, beer
and wine business forever, when I first gave him our
first round of samples, and he said, this isn't rum,
this is this is bourbon. You know, this is bourbon whiskey,
and I said, no, this is age drum. And he said,
now rum's got that, you know, cinnamon, it's a little
(28:45):
bit more spiced. I said, no, that's not good rum.
I said, this is this is quality rum. So you know,
it is so versatile, and you can make a rum martini.
Now you can make a rum old fashion, you know.
And then again it just allows us to bring people
who normally wouldn't drink rum over into the category and
kind of open their eyes because again, the common consumer
when they think rum, they don't think of palm, republic
age room. They think of something that's overly sweet, has
(29:07):
a cinnamon bite to it, and they probably got sick
off of it at one point one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Even like a friend of ours, who are just a
friend of mine, I said, it just posted something on palm.
They were all cognac drinkers. And remember cognac comes from
like a pot still in the way that they make it,
so often that element of what the Jamaican rum brings
can have a bit of a cognac sort of you know, feel.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Profile to it.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
So these guys all sipped on palm for a big
fantasy football draft and they're like, oh my god, this
is the best rum we've ever had.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
This is unbelievable. It really does sit more.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
Like a Cognac Bourbon in that range for the age,
and I think so to me, that's my favorite cocktail,
the old fashion.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
You got to try it if you if you by
the age.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
And also with the silver, So many my tequila friends
who are drinking, you know, the silver tequilas, and that's
their focus, not going to the najos and all that
I said say in Yeho, I pronounced that very poorly.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
My wife would be pit it's good the silver.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
A lot of my tequila friends are like, wow, I
could totally sip on this silver rum with a lime
instead of a vodka or on the rocks, just like
I would my my tequila.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
And it's got.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Sure, it has a different flavor profile, but it SIPs
so smooth and it tastes so good that it's a
great alternative or something you just want to mix a
match with.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Well, and we say it all the time, you know,
we kind of see the rum categories where tequila was
ten or twelve years ago, where obviously people were familiar
with tequila, you know, but it was it was cheaper liquid.
It was not as good. People have bad experiences.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
People forget about that because of the craze of tequila. Now,
like when I started drinking tequila, I got so sick
off of tequila that I to this day, I'm not
a tequila drinker.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
I'll have a margarita. I do like those, but I
don't like tequila neat on the rocks. I can't do it.
It gives me horrible memories.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
And that's where it was ten or twelve years ago. Yeah,
and Run's kind of the same way. And we see
where tequila went. I mean, now tequila is seen as premium, upscale.
Go into any liquor store and there's one hundred hundred
and fifty two hundred dollars bottles of tequila, you know.
And again, I think that the nice thing about Rum,
and the unique piece about Rum is it's so approachable. Right,
It's a little bit sweeter at the end, so it's
it's you know, approachable. It's it doesn't have an acquired
(31:14):
taste like tequila, it doesn't have burn like berber and whiskey,
but it still has a lot of those characteristics.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
Yeah, and look as we go on to launch. I
just want to say to the listeners I've said it before,
the support has been incredible. It means a lot to
us because we take this very serious and I've said
it before, it's not this was never my intention as
a celebrity play on a brand. I've been very passionate
about this category, very passionate about building something on my own.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
I have a great partner, we have great investors and a.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
Great team, and to see that support and the people
show up has meant the world to us. You know,
we were a few months in now launching our babies,
sending them off, you know, and then the walking steps
right the stages of their lives. And we really see
this as a brand that would become a staple in
the Rum market, and that will build and people when
(32:05):
they think of Rum will start thinking Palm Republic. That's
our goal. So we invite you to spread the word,
share it, try it if you haven't tried it, just
as we say, join the Republic, be part of our
mission to change the narrative on Rum and lift it
up and just enjoy enjoy new experiences with the Rum family.
(32:27):
So that's where we're at, that's where we're headed. Brad,
thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I
thought it'd be fun to share our story a bit,
talk a little bit of business, talk about our relationship,
and I think the listeners will get a kick out
of this.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
Great, thanks for having me. Appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Awesome, take care of men.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
Thanks to all right, Well, everybody, thank you for listening
as always, and I hope this was insightful just to
learn a bit about where my mind is at with
the company and the business and how much it means
to me and my partner. You got to see it
face to face now, so again I appreciate you. I
hope you have a chance to enjoy Palm republic. Give
(33:05):
us a follow at Palm republic rum on Instagram, Palm
republic Rum on TikTok, Twitter or x I should say Facebook,
that's that's everywhere.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
And also go to our website. Check it out.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
It's the same thing, palmrepublic rum dot com. Get the
latest news, check out the merch and buy yourself a bottle.
Try it all right, everybody, thank you for listening. If
you have something you want to talk to us about,
send it to our DMS at he said Ado or
email us at Ericanroz at iHeartRadio dot com and Roz
will be back for the next one.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Take care, bye, thanks for listening. Don't forget to write
us a review and tell us what you think.
Speaker 4 (33:40):
If you want to follow us on Instagram, check us
out at the said a ens at email, Eric and
Ross at iHeartRadio dot com. He said. AB is part
of iHeartRadio's Mike Wilutap podcast network.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
See you next time. Bye,
Host
Roselyn Sanchez
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com