September 6, 2022 • 23 mins
In part 2 of our interview with Crowns & Hops owners Benny & Teo, they talk about the artistry of creating a can of beer, the fun of marketing an all-black beer company, and how they raised capital for their brand.
Host IG:@itstanyatime
Guest IG: @crownsandhops
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey Money Movers. This is part two of our interview
with Anny and Tao Hunter. If you miss part one,
tune into yesterday's episode. Hey money Movers. Welcome back to
Money Moves, the daily podcast determined to give you the
keys to the kingdom of financial stability, wealth and abundance.
(00:25):
I'm your host, Hannya Sam and our next guest are
the creators of what started as a social media lifestyle
round around beer, Crowns and Hawks, and today they are
the proud owners of one of the few black owned
craft breweries, Money Movers. Please welcome and cheers, Benny and
Tao Hunter. Let's get down to the beer because I
(00:45):
think this is really fascinating And I know, um Ter
you already said you're a geek, You're a nerd, and
this is a nerdy podcast. So tell us how do
we make a good mugga beer? Oh? Man? Um, you know,
it's like any thing that involves the craft, like anything
that involves um. You know, I like in it much
(01:05):
of the time, to the culinary arts, because you know,
you could go, you know, a billion places around the
world and have pancakes, but someone's gonna do something special
to that one that's whether it's adding you know, a
few drops of vanilla, you know, you know, you know,
putting a vanilla or a cinnamon stick in that batter.
You know, there's gonna be things that I think only
(01:28):
speak to your palette and some of the nuanced elements
that you react you know, that you react to on
your palette or your background in terms of how you
smell or incorporate ingredients. And and I think that first
and foremost are focuses on developing an excellent beverage UM.
And and you know there there are you know, processes available.
(01:52):
You know that there's anybody can can do their best
to master a recipe UM. But it really is on us,
you know, UM and me as a head of brewing
operations to just find that combination um of hops, that
combination of grain, that combination of adjuncts, whether it be chocolate,
whether it be cinnamon, whether it be key lines, you know,
(02:15):
whether it be black lava season you know, UM to truly,
how should I say, UM, make these styles shine and
and not only make it shine, but shine in places
where to where it never had an opportunity to shine. UM.
So you know in that you know, some people you
(02:35):
know are some brands rather will be specific to only
doing lockers, only doing pills, only doing I P A s,
or only doing stouts. Um. We have the fortune of
being able to offer several different styles because we have
an opportunity to show people the scope of what craft
beer can be. Wow. Okay, So I mean you're preparing
(02:55):
your items, You've got your grains, um, you've got your water,
you sort of brew the beer, um, and I'm like
super high level here. I'm not I'm not giving away
any trade secrets here, and then you ferment it, bottle it,
and that's it. So it's it's that simple. I don't
know if simple would be the case. Um. Actually, just
(03:17):
I'm in the middle of a brew day right now.
We just so happen to be UM in a two
hour window of what's called the boil um. You know.
But but you know, of course I could dive down
the rabbit hole and process. But but but you you
you really did offer what the pillars are a beer,
which is grain, yeast, water, and hops. You know, it's
(03:38):
those four things. And like I said, you can add
certain things to you know, make it more interesting or
to enhance certain flavors. Um. But I think more importantly, Um,
we've been able to couple our culture with our products
as well. So, for example, we have a series of
beers that we call Mama's and um, you know, we
have Mama's Peaches, which is a peach cobbler style goes
(04:03):
which we brew. Um it's denoted by it being a
little bit tart, a little bit salty, almost like a margarite,
if you will, But we brew it with with peach
puree and Graham crackers in addition to coriander and sea salt.
So you know, again, our community hasn't been afforded an
opportunity to try these dynamic styles. But very much like
(04:24):
in wine, we are now starting to not only see
our community produce these things, but we're able to speak
to it in a way that makes sense to us,
you know, and and and it's appealing to us. So
I think it's all of those things between storytelling between
I mean, should I just found out my great great
great grandmother was a brewery two years ago? Yeah, crazy, right,
(04:48):
Like we started this process like seven years ago, and
I just found out that, you know, I had a
great great great grandmother that was brewing beer from nineteen
hundred ninety and that doesn't tell you are exactly where
you were supposed to be, you are exactly supposed to be. Wow,
that is really crazy. That's pretty cool. Um. But those
(05:11):
are the stories that you don't hear um, you know,
especially if you don't explore. Like Benny and I think
we can agree that we didn't see ourselves like we
didn't go to school to be, we didn't go to
HBC used to become industry people like you said, I'll
(05:31):
give you a million dollars to say what you'd be doing.
I would have never. Oh yeah, I have a beer.
Is the beauty of this. That's why I really love these,
like these stories because you know, I just feel like
in life and oftentimes people are looking so hard to
find something to be passionate about, and it feels like
it should be this very linear journey, Like especially for
black people, we get put in this box right and
(05:54):
here you are and you're like, never in your wildest
dreams what I think that I get up every day
and think about beer? But what a place to be
And it's it's I think what we love about what
we're doing is we both get to do what we
actually love. Like if this wasn't a beer company. I'm
(06:15):
pretty sure T would be doing something in food or
you know, recipe to like he would be probably living
in this space, uh, and I would be living in
a world of colors and content and marketing and creative
and you know, but the beauty of Crowns and Hops
is we get to take our imagination um both uh
you know, the expansion of palette mentally, you know, physically
(06:38):
everything and bring it to life. And we bring it
to life and we share it on our cans, when
we open up our brick and mortar UM, crowns, inglewood, um,
everything on social media, everything we do were is an
extension of our imaginations. UM that we hope the world
shares the same colors and and vibrancy and energy that
(07:01):
we do and and to date they have. I think
if anybody can look at us and kind of see
our journey like they should again take a look at
what are no big deal skills are and if you
don't have people around you that can fill those gaps,
just intrinsically, just actually have something that don't have. And
(07:24):
it's actually a shout out to Lynnette, my uh, my partner.
She's the one who dropped that jewel on me? But
ultimately it means that you know, whatever you do that
is just so effortless, you know. So you know, some
people are natural people people. You know, some people are
natural with numbers, some people are natural what it means
(07:44):
to exalt others. There are so many things that we
just do naturally. UM that if you applied that and
whatever it is that you're doing, um, that you could
you could truly find success. And I think it's partnering
with others that have no big deal skills that you
don't have, that that that really allows you to move
(08:06):
with a velocity and certainly that with easy right and
it just you know it, um it definitely you know,
creates that yin and yang that I think you need
to have to avoid, you know, redundancies, to avoid um,
blind spots and and and just for people to truly
(08:26):
feel passionate and enjoy what they're doing. Um. You know.
So again Benny and I apply those skills, and you know,
over time, I think people have been able to see.
So I want to dig into a little bit of
the operational in the business side. You know, you guys
now have formulation, not down it's obviously ever ever evolving
and you're continually creating new new brews. Um. But you've
(08:50):
now decided that you're going to move into brick and mortar,
and that's a heavy, heavy, heavy lift. And you've spoken of, um,
what it was like being out there fundraising for this
because you're buying a building, you're buying equipment. UM. I
want to know you know how you decide, how it
was as black people in this industry looking out there
for investors, you know where you successful or speak a
(09:13):
little bit about that journey. Well, one, we're still raising
money and I think just for any any who was listening,
you don't. I don't think you've never stopped raising. And
I think to most people who are listening, if they're
not you know, at the level you are in terms
of entrepreneurship, they don't understand like just because you start
making money and you're growing and scaling, you always need
(09:33):
more money in to get to the next level. It's
it's very rarely does it become that thing where you're
just coasting and putting checks in the bank. If you
want to grow, right, if you want to grow and
hands are to be you know, bigger and better. Yes,
you always need capital to do that, I think, you know,
reaching out to investors when we've in the beginning was
(09:56):
a little hard, UM because we didn't have a big
a footprint in the distribution space, you know. I think
our initial intent was to open our brick and mortar first,
and because of COVID, we had to pivot to more
of the sales and distribution model UM. But now that
we have products on shells and people are actually able
to see the results of our profits, it's a much
(10:20):
easier conversation to have. But it is a little a
little more difficult, especially when we're in an industry where
you don't necessary a lot of us at the success
level that we're trying to achieve UM, So there aren't
a whole lot of examples to prove our model in
the diversity, you know, as a as a black owned
craft beer brand. To a large degree, we we we
(10:42):
were able to leverage the community that we have built
in UM and Crowns and hops in order to immediately
garner serious conversations around distribution, you know, because just to
kind of take a step back, you know, most brewery
coming out the gate don't get distributor deals, don't get
the strength of what it means for a distributor to
(11:04):
say we believe that you all are going to move
and just for the audience, distributor deal is like if
you guys picture, um, you know they're brewing beer, and
those beer cans need to leave their cannary with a
distributor and go on shelves across the country. That's a
big thing, right, and you don't want to be on
the bottom shelf and the back row of this, Like
having a strong distributor relationship is a really big deal
(11:26):
and very hard to secure. So there, that's very impressive. Yeah,
I mean, I mean we're in Whole Foods in California,
we're in Trader Joe's. Um, we have distribution relationships and
here and in Atlanta, so make sure you yeah, make
sure you look out for us out in in Atlanta
as well. UM. But really it was the strength, you know,
(11:49):
shout out to the Crowns and Ops community. I mean
not only are they patrons but their investors. Um. We
had an equity crowdfunding campaign that we launched to the community. UM,
because you know, we also had to look at other
ways of raising capital and we realize that equity crowdfunding
was something that can do and why not give our community,
(12:11):
the very community that had been hashtagging and liking and
harding everything that we're doing, an opportunity to invest with us.
And um, we're able to. We were the first black
owned craft beer brand to ever raise a million dollars
a million plus do the thing? Man? Can you do
that again? What regulations? That is? That's huge? That is
(12:35):
really major, And I mean again, you guys are literally
like walking the talk in which you speak of saying
like we were about community. We are here for the
community and we're not. You know, we're taking everybody up
with us as we build. That's that's really amazing. I
love that I'm toasting you with the beer right now
in my heart. Let's talk about moving forward. You know
what's next for Crowns and Hops? You know what what
(12:58):
do your wildest dreams look like? And my second question
is what keeps you up at night? I mean, for
me beer, you know, and it sounds so like mundane,
but I mean, you know, I wake up in the
middle of the night thinking about if a yeast is
going to produce the esthers of a labor profile that
(13:20):
I thought it was gonna make you know or if
you know the the UPC is right on a on
a beer that you know, the whole Foods or Trader
Joe's just picked up. UM. So it's it's more than
just the making of the beer. And that's another thing
that I think, you know, I'm Benny can even speak
on it is beer is not just the liquid, you know,
it's it's so much more. We touch so many different industries.
(13:42):
Any what keeps you up at night? What keeps you up?
I would say I wake up at night just thinking
about telling our putting our best foot store forward. In
terms of our consumer journey, are people feeling connected to
this brand in and off entic way? Are our visuals
emotionally connecting to people? Um? Are we selling beer? Are
(14:08):
we do we have another campaign that people know where
to find our beer? You know? Do they like the beer? They?
You know, it's there's so many things every day that
we have to identify as a as a really small team,
like it's there's maybe internally and that's two of us
(14:28):
just just had two more people really start um and
and help us. But me and Teo have been the developers,
you know of the recipes and the creators of the content,
and we bring in resources to help us, but fundamentally
it filters through through our lens before anyone else sees it,
(14:50):
anyone else tastes it. And that pressure that we just
put on ourselves as a business owners to make it
great is just keeps you good night, I will say. Also,
you know, you know this is a podcast for and
from black people, and and I'll be honest with you,
one of the things that always is a bit disturbing
(15:13):
at times is when black entrepreneurs automatically give the past
to uh companies that are not black, just because they
feel that black owned products and businesses won't be supported.
You know, I can't tell you how many times I've
gone into events that celebrate black and brown excellent and
(15:35):
I don't see a black owned beer or a black
owned spirit or you know, black black own beverage, And
I'm like, wait a minute, how dedicated are you really
to that? And as intentional as we are about reaching
out to you know, our our white um you know
companies and and non black and brown companies about investigating
(15:56):
who they're patronizing, like we got to be the first
patronize us. Like if you show up at a at
an event celebrating anything, the chances are there's going to
be a beer there. That beer should be crawlsing out
the brewing company, if not another local black owned beer
or spirit in that region. And you know, Benny and
are focused. You know you asked us, you know, you
(16:18):
asked a moment ago, like, you know, what do we
want to be? We want to be the dopest, biggest
craft beer brand on the planet. And and and that
means that that events and venues that celebrate and exalt
and make money off and you know, being able to
speak very openly about I don't mean the black the
(16:38):
white owned legacy brands that black people patronize, right, that's
a totally different thing. Like we need to be very intentional,
you know about what are our black brands that we
are choosing that we are uplifting um. And you know,
one of the things, like I implore, and we'll talk
about this at the end, is that if you guys
actually check out the Crowns and Hops website, because the
(17:00):
attention to detail that this duo has done into not
only developing the formulas for great tasting beer, but they
can so um. Benny when you're talking about what keeps
you up at night. You know, you look at the
marketing that you've seen put in there, like eight Trails
and pills like and I feel like I'm drawn to
Mama's peaches, like I'm in Atlanta. You know, it's a
(17:21):
pretty can. I want to be standing out there with
my black owned beer and guess what that can is? Cute?
Like you guys have done the most, I think. I mean,
I will give to you his credit when it comes
to our cans because visually, again, you know, we divide
and conquer. The beer is Tio's imagination come to life
(17:42):
across all of it um and you know we we
we work with different artists sometimes and collaborate, but fundamentally,
the there's so much intent, not just around the beer
recipes that we developed, but around what does the can
match the rest to me? That matches the storytelling, that
(18:02):
matches the copy, that matches what you see on social media,
that matches the events, Like all of it is this.
Everything we do is a seamless thread for the for
the consumer to connect. And that is so important when
you're building a brand, is every moment needs to feel
curated and and to you as the consumer. And if
(18:23):
it doesn't, you know, it's a brand if you need
to probably reconsider. And my background just to go back
to that no big deal skill wasn't home entertainment, you know.
I used to work on Blu rays and DVDs and
one sheet for for for the you know, for the
motion pictures, you know. And then going back to Bennie,
(18:44):
you know, Benny literally made craft beer feel dope, you know,
like you know, if it's not in the hands of
someone dope, then you're going to struggle to know that
it's dope, you know, the same way that beats to
sound and headphones. You know, Bennie has been able to
do that with craft beer. You know that they don't.
You don't think about dope beer without thinking about crowns
(19:05):
and hups. And if you don't have crowns and ups
in your hand, then you don't have the right beer,
you know. And that was by by design, you know,
so you know it is it is truly an effort,
consistent effort um you know, to all those entrepreneurs, I'm
sure they understand when I say that this is this
has been a every day you know, I would they
(19:29):
to even call it a hustle or a grind, because
it's much more intentional than just doing mindless work. You know,
it is very intentional and it's consistent, and I think
Benny and I finally have started taking opportunities to really
kind of enjoy what we've been able to accomplish. But
in no way, you know, do we confuse that with
(19:50):
resting in our looks. This was enlightening. I love it. Um,
you know we're day drinking here, so I think that
is totally fine. I think it's an occupational has occupational
perk for you guys. Um. I don't know what my excuses,
but such a pleasure to have you both on the podcast.
And before we leave, I would just like to say,
could you please share with our audience where your location
(20:14):
is opening up, what the date is, and where they
can find you on social media? Yes? So we uh,
top of next year, we'll be opening Crowns Inglewood. It's
a fourteen thousand script foot restaurant in brut Club right
in this the heart of Inglewood. You can find us
at Crowns with an S and Hops with an S
(20:34):
dot com or at Crowns and Cops. We should tell
them about our new beers coming up. Yeah we um yeah,
you've both been in attended HBCUs. I went to a
Howard University and Benny too spell in college. Uh So
annually we do a pair of beers called HBC U
I P A Uh yeah. We ultimately create um the
(20:58):
same We use the same bay recipe, but executed in
two different styles of I P A UM. We have
our UM what we call our take on october Fest
called dopectober Fest that drops around the same time Dope
october Fast. I love it otber Fest, Yes, yeah, And
(21:20):
ultimately that means you can sell it, you can you
can celebrate, and you can have appreciation for other cultures
without losing your own. And um. You know, I think
for a lot of people, they think if they're going
to celebrate in october Fest that they have exactly transform
into a German. You know, I might have been there
with UM, but but you know, now my own bring
(21:45):
your own beer. It's totally rebranded with Crowns and Hobbs.
We're bringing our own black beer to the party and
that that's it. It would be a classic Meriton and
we'll have our traditional flagship I P A S B
P O B asy I p a in a trill Pills,
which is named after our nonprofit that goes towards helping
(22:07):
to build other black owned brewing companies in the US.
So look out Atlanta, New York, Portland's California, California. UM,
go to our beer finder. Uh, it's in a link
in our bio. Be intentional about where you spend your dollars,
patronize them. And if you're gonna drink some beer, drink
black beer because it's delicious, it tastes good. TiO Benny,
(22:29):
thank you so much for gracing our Money Moves podcast.
We appreciate you so much. If there was a funny
beer toast here, I would say it maybe it's like
cheers to all who believed in you and un cheers
go to hell to the ones who don't. I don't know.
Our tagline is on your crown, Own your crown and
we uh. It is meant to remind people that they
(22:53):
are always deserving of the very best. Oh well, on
that note, on your crown, Thank you so much, Benny
and Teo. Cheers to crowns and hops and money movers.
That's all the time we have for today, but make
sure to follow Benny Ashburne and Teo Hunter on all
of their social media and find their beer, so make
sure you check out their links in bios so that
(23:13):
YouTube can support and kick back with a good brew
from Crowns and Hops. And if we have helped you
make your money move, please make sure to let us
know by sending us a like, sharing the knowledge, and
or leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Thank you
so much for tuning in Money Moves audience. If you
want more or a recap of this episode, please go
to the bank Greenwood dot com and check out the
(23:35):
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from
Hey Money Movers. This is part two of our interview
with Anny and Tao Hunter. If you miss part one,
tune into yesterday's episode. Hey money Movers. Welcome back to
Money Moves, the daily podcast determined to give you the
keys to the kingdom of financial stability, wealth and abundance.
(00:25):
I'm your host, Hannya Sam and our next guest are
the creators of what started as a social media lifestyle
round around beer, Crowns and Hawks, and today they are
the proud owners of one of the few black owned
craft breweries, Money Movers. Please welcome and cheers, Benny and
Tao Hunter. Let's get down to the beer because I
(00:45):
think this is really fascinating And I know, um Ter
you already said you're a geek, You're a nerd, and
this is a nerdy podcast. So tell us how do
we make a good mugga beer? Oh? Man? Um, you know,
it's like any thing that involves the craft, like anything
that involves um. You know, I like in it much
(01:05):
of the time, to the culinary arts, because you know,
you could go, you know, a billion places around the
world and have pancakes, but someone's gonna do something special
to that one that's whether it's adding you know, a
few drops of vanilla, you know, you know, you know,
putting a vanilla or a cinnamon stick in that batter.
You know, there's gonna be things that I think only
(01:28):
speak to your palette and some of the nuanced elements
that you react you know, that you react to on
your palette or your background in terms of how you
smell or incorporate ingredients. And and I think that first
and foremost are focuses on developing an excellent beverage UM.
And and you know there there are you know, processes available.
(01:52):
You know that there's anybody can can do their best
to master a recipe UM. But it really is on us,
you know, UM and me as a head of brewing
operations to just find that combination um of hops, that
combination of grain, that combination of adjuncts, whether it be chocolate,
whether it be cinnamon, whether it be key lines, you know,
(02:15):
whether it be black lava season you know, UM to truly,
how should I say, UM, make these styles shine and
and not only make it shine, but shine in places
where to where it never had an opportunity to shine. UM.
So you know in that you know, some people you
(02:35):
know are some brands rather will be specific to only
doing lockers, only doing pills, only doing I P A s,
or only doing stouts. Um. We have the fortune of
being able to offer several different styles because we have
an opportunity to show people the scope of what craft
beer can be. Wow. Okay, So I mean you're preparing
(02:55):
your items, You've got your grains, um, you've got your water,
you sort of brew the beer, um, and I'm like
super high level here. I'm not I'm not giving away
any trade secrets here, and then you ferment it, bottle it,
and that's it. So it's it's that simple. I don't
know if simple would be the case. Um. Actually, just
(03:17):
I'm in the middle of a brew day right now.
We just so happen to be UM in a two
hour window of what's called the boil um. You know.
But but you know, of course I could dive down
the rabbit hole and process. But but but you you
you really did offer what the pillars are a beer,
which is grain, yeast, water, and hops. You know, it's
(03:38):
those four things. And like I said, you can add
certain things to you know, make it more interesting or
to enhance certain flavors. Um. But I think more importantly, Um,
we've been able to couple our culture with our products
as well. So, for example, we have a series of
beers that we call Mama's and um, you know, we
have Mama's Peaches, which is a peach cobbler style goes
(04:03):
which we brew. Um it's denoted by it being a
little bit tart, a little bit salty, almost like a margarite,
if you will, But we brew it with with peach
puree and Graham crackers in addition to coriander and sea salt.
So you know, again, our community hasn't been afforded an
opportunity to try these dynamic styles. But very much like
(04:24):
in wine, we are now starting to not only see
our community produce these things, but we're able to speak
to it in a way that makes sense to us,
you know, and and and it's appealing to us. So
I think it's all of those things between storytelling between
I mean, should I just found out my great great
great grandmother was a brewery two years ago? Yeah, crazy, right,
(04:48):
Like we started this process like seven years ago, and
I just found out that, you know, I had a
great great great grandmother that was brewing beer from nineteen
hundred ninety and that doesn't tell you are exactly where
you were supposed to be, you are exactly supposed to be. Wow,
that is really crazy. That's pretty cool. Um. But those
(05:11):
are the stories that you don't hear um, you know,
especially if you don't explore. Like Benny and I think
we can agree that we didn't see ourselves like we
didn't go to school to be, we didn't go to
HBC used to become industry people like you said, I'll
(05:31):
give you a million dollars to say what you'd be doing.
I would have never. Oh yeah, I have a beer.
Is the beauty of this. That's why I really love these,
like these stories because you know, I just feel like
in life and oftentimes people are looking so hard to
find something to be passionate about, and it feels like
it should be this very linear journey, Like especially for
black people, we get put in this box right and
(05:54):
here you are and you're like, never in your wildest
dreams what I think that I get up every day
and think about beer? But what a place to be
And it's it's I think what we love about what
we're doing is we both get to do what we
actually love. Like if this wasn't a beer company. I'm
(06:15):
pretty sure T would be doing something in food or
you know, recipe to like he would be probably living
in this space, uh, and I would be living in
a world of colors and content and marketing and creative
and you know, but the beauty of Crowns and Hops
is we get to take our imagination um both uh
you know, the expansion of palette mentally, you know, physically
(06:38):
everything and bring it to life. And we bring it
to life and we share it on our cans, when
we open up our brick and mortar UM, crowns, inglewood, um,
everything on social media, everything we do were is an
extension of our imaginations. UM that we hope the world
shares the same colors and and vibrancy and energy that
(07:01):
we do and and to date they have. I think
if anybody can look at us and kind of see
our journey like they should again take a look at
what are no big deal skills are and if you
don't have people around you that can fill those gaps,
just intrinsically, just actually have something that don't have. And
(07:24):
it's actually a shout out to Lynnette, my uh, my partner.
She's the one who dropped that jewel on me? But
ultimately it means that you know, whatever you do that
is just so effortless, you know. So you know, some
people are natural people people. You know, some people are
natural with numbers, some people are natural what it means
(07:44):
to exalt others. There are so many things that we
just do naturally. UM that if you applied that and
whatever it is that you're doing, um, that you could
you could truly find success. And I think it's partnering
with others that have no big deal skills that you
don't have, that that that really allows you to move
(08:06):
with a velocity and certainly that with easy right and
it just you know it, um it definitely you know,
creates that yin and yang that I think you need
to have to avoid, you know, redundancies, to avoid um,
blind spots and and and just for people to truly
(08:26):
feel passionate and enjoy what they're doing. Um. You know.
So again Benny and I apply those skills, and you know,
over time, I think people have been able to see.
So I want to dig into a little bit of
the operational in the business side. You know, you guys
now have formulation, not down it's obviously ever ever evolving
and you're continually creating new new brews. Um. But you've
(08:50):
now decided that you're going to move into brick and mortar,
and that's a heavy, heavy, heavy lift. And you've spoken of, um,
what it was like being out there fundraising for this
because you're buying a building, you're buying equipment. UM. I
want to know you know how you decide, how it
was as black people in this industry looking out there
for investors, you know where you successful or speak a
(09:13):
little bit about that journey. Well, one, we're still raising
money and I think just for any any who was listening,
you don't. I don't think you've never stopped raising. And
I think to most people who are listening, if they're
not you know, at the level you are in terms
of entrepreneurship, they don't understand like just because you start
making money and you're growing and scaling, you always need
(09:33):
more money in to get to the next level. It's
it's very rarely does it become that thing where you're
just coasting and putting checks in the bank. If you
want to grow, right, if you want to grow and
hands are to be you know, bigger and better. Yes,
you always need capital to do that, I think, you know,
reaching out to investors when we've in the beginning was
(09:56):
a little hard, UM because we didn't have a big
a footprint in the distribution space, you know. I think
our initial intent was to open our brick and mortar first,
and because of COVID, we had to pivot to more
of the sales and distribution model UM. But now that
we have products on shells and people are actually able
to see the results of our profits, it's a much
(10:20):
easier conversation to have. But it is a little a
little more difficult, especially when we're in an industry where
you don't necessary a lot of us at the success
level that we're trying to achieve UM, So there aren't
a whole lot of examples to prove our model in
the diversity, you know, as a as a black owned
craft beer brand. To a large degree, we we we
(10:42):
were able to leverage the community that we have built
in UM and Crowns and hops in order to immediately
garner serious conversations around distribution, you know, because just to
kind of take a step back, you know, most brewery
coming out the gate don't get distributor deals, don't get
the strength of what it means for a distributor to
(11:04):
say we believe that you all are going to move
and just for the audience, distributor deal is like if
you guys picture, um, you know they're brewing beer, and
those beer cans need to leave their cannary with a
distributor and go on shelves across the country. That's a
big thing, right, and you don't want to be on
the bottom shelf and the back row of this, Like
having a strong distributor relationship is a really big deal
(11:26):
and very hard to secure. So there, that's very impressive. Yeah,
I mean, I mean we're in Whole Foods in California,
we're in Trader Joe's. Um, we have distribution relationships and
here and in Atlanta, so make sure you yeah, make
sure you look out for us out in in Atlanta
as well. UM. But really it was the strength, you know,
(11:49):
shout out to the Crowns and Ops community. I mean
not only are they patrons but their investors. Um. We
had an equity crowdfunding campaign that we launched to the community. UM,
because you know, we also had to look at other
ways of raising capital and we realize that equity crowdfunding
was something that can do and why not give our community,
(12:11):
the very community that had been hashtagging and liking and
harding everything that we're doing, an opportunity to invest with us.
And um, we're able to. We were the first black
owned craft beer brand to ever raise a million dollars
a million plus do the thing? Man? Can you do
that again? What regulations? That is? That's huge? That is
(12:35):
really major, And I mean again, you guys are literally
like walking the talk in which you speak of saying
like we were about community. We are here for the
community and we're not. You know, we're taking everybody up
with us as we build. That's that's really amazing. I
love that I'm toasting you with the beer right now
in my heart. Let's talk about moving forward. You know
what's next for Crowns and Hops? You know what what
(12:58):
do your wildest dreams look like? And my second question
is what keeps you up at night? I mean, for
me beer, you know, and it sounds so like mundane,
but I mean, you know, I wake up in the
middle of the night thinking about if a yeast is
going to produce the esthers of a labor profile that
(13:20):
I thought it was gonna make you know or if
you know the the UPC is right on a on
a beer that you know, the whole Foods or Trader
Joe's just picked up. UM. So it's it's more than
just the making of the beer. And that's another thing
that I think, you know, I'm Benny can even speak
on it is beer is not just the liquid, you know,
it's it's so much more. We touch so many different industries.
(13:42):
Any what keeps you up at night? What keeps you up?
I would say I wake up at night just thinking
about telling our putting our best foot store forward. In
terms of our consumer journey, are people feeling connected to
this brand in and off entic way? Are our visuals
emotionally connecting to people? Um? Are we selling beer? Are
(14:08):
we do we have another campaign that people know where
to find our beer? You know? Do they like the beer? They?
You know, it's there's so many things every day that
we have to identify as a as a really small team,
like it's there's maybe internally and that's two of us
(14:28):
just just had two more people really start um and
and help us. But me and Teo have been the developers,
you know of the recipes and the creators of the content,
and we bring in resources to help us, but fundamentally
it filters through through our lens before anyone else sees it,
(14:50):
anyone else tastes it. And that pressure that we just
put on ourselves as a business owners to make it
great is just keeps you good night, I will say. Also,
you know, you know this is a podcast for and
from black people, and and I'll be honest with you,
one of the things that always is a bit disturbing
(15:13):
at times is when black entrepreneurs automatically give the past
to uh companies that are not black, just because they
feel that black owned products and businesses won't be supported.
You know, I can't tell you how many times I've
gone into events that celebrate black and brown excellent and
(15:35):
I don't see a black owned beer or a black
owned spirit or you know, black black own beverage, And
I'm like, wait a minute, how dedicated are you really
to that? And as intentional as we are about reaching
out to you know, our our white um you know
companies and and non black and brown companies about investigating
(15:56):
who they're patronizing, like we got to be the first
patronize us. Like if you show up at a at
an event celebrating anything, the chances are there's going to
be a beer there. That beer should be crawlsing out
the brewing company, if not another local black owned beer
or spirit in that region. And you know, Benny and
are focused. You know you asked us, you know, you
(16:18):
asked a moment ago, like, you know, what do we
want to be? We want to be the dopest, biggest
craft beer brand on the planet. And and and that
means that that events and venues that celebrate and exalt
and make money off and you know, being able to
speak very openly about I don't mean the black the
(16:38):
white owned legacy brands that black people patronize, right, that's
a totally different thing. Like we need to be very intentional,
you know about what are our black brands that we
are choosing that we are uplifting um. And you know,
one of the things, like I implore, and we'll talk
about this at the end, is that if you guys
actually check out the Crowns and Hops website, because the
(17:00):
attention to detail that this duo has done into not
only developing the formulas for great tasting beer, but they
can so um. Benny when you're talking about what keeps
you up at night. You know, you look at the
marketing that you've seen put in there, like eight Trails
and pills like and I feel like I'm drawn to
Mama's peaches, like I'm in Atlanta. You know, it's a
(17:21):
pretty can. I want to be standing out there with
my black owned beer and guess what that can is? Cute?
Like you guys have done the most, I think. I mean,
I will give to you his credit when it comes
to our cans because visually, again, you know, we divide
and conquer. The beer is Tio's imagination come to life
(17:42):
across all of it um and you know we we
we work with different artists sometimes and collaborate, but fundamentally,
the there's so much intent, not just around the beer
recipes that we developed, but around what does the can
match the rest to me? That matches the storytelling, that
(18:02):
matches the copy, that matches what you see on social media,
that matches the events, Like all of it is this.
Everything we do is a seamless thread for the for
the consumer to connect. And that is so important when
you're building a brand, is every moment needs to feel
curated and and to you as the consumer. And if
(18:23):
it doesn't, you know, it's a brand if you need
to probably reconsider. And my background just to go back
to that no big deal skill wasn't home entertainment, you know.
I used to work on Blu rays and DVDs and
one sheet for for for the you know, for the
motion pictures, you know. And then going back to Bennie,
(18:44):
you know, Benny literally made craft beer feel dope, you know,
like you know, if it's not in the hands of
someone dope, then you're going to struggle to know that
it's dope, you know, the same way that beats to
sound and headphones. You know, Bennie has been able to
do that with craft beer. You know that they don't.
You don't think about dope beer without thinking about crowns
(19:05):
and hups. And if you don't have crowns and ups
in your hand, then you don't have the right beer,
you know. And that was by by design, you know,
so you know it is it is truly an effort,
consistent effort um you know, to all those entrepreneurs, I'm
sure they understand when I say that this is this
has been a every day you know, I would they
(19:29):
to even call it a hustle or a grind, because
it's much more intentional than just doing mindless work. You know,
it is very intentional and it's consistent, and I think
Benny and I finally have started taking opportunities to really
kind of enjoy what we've been able to accomplish. But
in no way, you know, do we confuse that with
(19:50):
resting in our looks. This was enlightening. I love it. Um,
you know we're day drinking here, so I think that
is totally fine. I think it's an occupational has occupational
perk for you guys. Um. I don't know what my excuses,
but such a pleasure to have you both on the podcast.
And before we leave, I would just like to say,
could you please share with our audience where your location
(20:14):
is opening up, what the date is, and where they
can find you on social media? Yes? So we uh,
top of next year, we'll be opening Crowns Inglewood. It's
a fourteen thousand script foot restaurant in brut Club right
in this the heart of Inglewood. You can find us
at Crowns with an S and Hops with an S
(20:34):
dot com or at Crowns and Cops. We should tell
them about our new beers coming up. Yeah we um yeah,
you've both been in attended HBCUs. I went to a
Howard University and Benny too spell in college. Uh So
annually we do a pair of beers called HBC U
I P A Uh yeah. We ultimately create um the
(20:58):
same We use the same bay recipe, but executed in
two different styles of I P A UM. We have
our UM what we call our take on october Fest
called dopectober Fest that drops around the same time Dope
october Fast. I love it otber Fest, Yes, yeah, And
(21:20):
ultimately that means you can sell it, you can you
can celebrate, and you can have appreciation for other cultures
without losing your own. And um. You know, I think
for a lot of people, they think if they're going
to celebrate in october Fest that they have exactly transform
into a German. You know, I might have been there
with UM, but but you know, now my own bring
(21:45):
your own beer. It's totally rebranded with Crowns and Hobbs.
We're bringing our own black beer to the party and
that that's it. It would be a classic Meriton and
we'll have our traditional flagship I P A S B
P O B asy I p a in a trill Pills,
which is named after our nonprofit that goes towards helping
(22:07):
to build other black owned brewing companies in the US.
So look out Atlanta, New York, Portland's California, California. UM,
go to our beer finder. Uh, it's in a link
in our bio. Be intentional about where you spend your dollars,
patronize them. And if you're gonna drink some beer, drink
black beer because it's delicious, it tastes good. TiO Benny,
(22:29):
thank you so much for gracing our Money Moves podcast.
We appreciate you so much. If there was a funny
beer toast here, I would say it maybe it's like
cheers to all who believed in you and un cheers
go to hell to the ones who don't. I don't know.
Our tagline is on your crown, Own your crown and
we uh. It is meant to remind people that they
(22:53):
are always deserving of the very best. Oh well, on
that note, on your crown, Thank you so much, Benny
and Teo. Cheers to crowns and hops and money movers.
That's all the time we have for today, but make
sure to follow Benny Ashburne and Teo Hunter on all
of their social media and find their beer, so make
sure you check out their links in bios so that
(23:13):
YouTube can support and kick back with a good brew
from Crowns and Hops. And if we have helped you
make your money move, please make sure to let us
know by sending us a like, sharing the knowledge, and
or leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Thank you
so much for tuning in Money Moves audience. If you
want more or a recap of this episode, please go
to the bank Greenwood dot com and check out the
(23:35):
Money Moves podcast blog. Money Moves is an i heeart
radio podcast powered by Greenwood Executive produced by Sunwise Media, Inc.
For more podcast on iHeart radio, visit the i Heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts
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