NE BUS REPORT WRKO AIR 3-16-25

In this week's edition of the New England Business Report, Kim Carrigan talks to Eric Groves of Alignable, an online networking platform for small businesses.  Boston Business Journal Senior reporter Greg Ryan talks about the 17 Massachusetts federal leases scrapped by DOGE. Fabio Pari, GM at Cambria Hotel in the Seaport talks St. Patrick's Day business and Tom Walsh, Co-Founder of Flying Tumbler Irish Whiskey tells us all about his family run operation. Finally, transportation expert Craig Carlson talks about the future of bike lanes in Boston and their possible impact on the upcoming mayoral election. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the New England Business Report with Joe short
Sleeve and Kim Carrigan, a weekly roundup and discussion of
the top business news impacting our New England economy.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Good morning everybody, and welcome to the New England Business Report.
Great to have you with us on this Sunday, March
the sixteenth, of course Saint Patrick's Day weekend. I'm Kim
Carrigan Joe Shortsleeve with the week off, so good to
have you with us. As I mentioned, and of course
this is Saint Patrick's Day weekend and today in Southey,
of course that big Saint Patrick's Day Parade stepping off

(00:33):
a little earlier this year at eleven thirty. So if
you're headed out to the parade, I hope that you're
planning a wonderful and safe day. It's always a great
event in Southey, a great event really across the Boston area.
Very exciting, very historic, that's for sure, and it's really
an economic boon to so many businesses. Again they're in

(00:57):
Southey as well as across Austin, so we would be
remiss if we didn't spend some time today talking a
little bit about that. So in the second half hour
of the show Today, we're going to talk to two
business representatives who know the benefits of this Saint Patrick's
Day weekend and most specifically the Saint Patti's Day parade.
Fabio Pario is the GM of the Cambria Hotel that's

(01:21):
there in the seaport, and in fact it's actually on
the parade route. We're going to talk to him about
the impact of this big event on his hotel, and
talked to him a little bit about some of the
neighboring businesses and the good, the bad, and the evil
when it comes to this big Saint Patrick's Day celebration

(01:42):
in South Boston. We're also going to talk to one
of the co founders of the Irish whiskey company called
Flying Tumbler Irish Whiskey. Now. Tom Walsh and his brother
founded this company, and you know, I think everybody loves
some good Irish whiskey, and they especially love it around

(02:03):
March the seventeenth. But I'm anxious to talk to him
about how they compete against some of these bigger companies.
It's great to have these family owned businesses and these
smaller companies with a lot of really interesting blends but
of course there's the big Jamisons of the world, and
that's got to be pretty tough to compete against them.

(02:24):
So we'll talk to Tom Walsh about flying Tumblr, Irish
whiskey coming up in the second half hour. Now, coming
up in this first half hour today, the CEO of
a Linable will be our guest. His company is an
online networking platform for small businesses across the globe. In fact,
they have some nine hundred small arm sorry, nine million

(02:46):
small companies on that platform using that Boston based resource.
It used to be that if you wanted to network
with a company, you obviously had to go to big conventions,
whether they were across the country or across the globe. Truthfully,
if you wanted to network with a company down the street,
you had to make arrangements and you had to get together.

(03:08):
Now you can sit in the comfort of your own
business without that huge expense, and you can network with
individuals in Asia or again you can network with people
right down the street. So we're going to talk to
him about the benefits of that company and how it
helps and what it does for some of these small
businesses that are involved. So, how do you feel about

(03:30):
bike lanes in Boston. I mean, is this a controversy
or what you know? Some people absolutely love them, and
others complain about them each and every time they get
on the road. I'm one of those people who has
very mixed emotions about it. I love the idea of
a city that has that and offers that, but at
the same time, as a driver, I frequently feel like

(03:52):
they are dangerous. This could become an issue, believe it
or not, in the mayoral race coming up here in Boston.
Josh Kraft says that they are too large, they take
up too much space, and they are too dangerous, and
he wants to see those minimized and in some cases
go away. The mayor, Michelle wou she has always been

(04:13):
in favor of them. Now she has recognized that there
are some places that those bike lanes existed during COVID
that maybe need to go away or they need to
be slimmed down. We're going to speak with a transportation
expert about the bike lanes in Boston, and then finally,
Greg Ryan, senior reporter over there at the BBJ. He
has written a piece this past week about the DOGE,

(04:38):
of course, that is the Department of Government Efficiency it's
run by Elon Musk, and his headline in the BBJ
was that Doge has now canceled seventeen leases in Massachusetts.
But when you read beyond the headline, you find out
that that's not exactly what's happened. So very interesting story.

(05:01):
And Greg Ryan is going to join us here in
just a few minutes to talk a little bit more
about DOSEE and those leases. But first, you know, it
used to be that businesses would primarily network with other
businesses in their community, or they'd have to go to
these large conferences that would be held once or twice
a year. But now, thanks to a local company, small

(05:22):
business owners can network globally at any time. We're joined
by one of the co founders and the CEO of Alignable.
This is Eric Groves. Great to have you with us.

Speaker 3 (05:33):
Well, thanks so much for including me in your show.

Speaker 4 (05:36):
I'm excited to be here, you bet.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
You know, isn't that exactly right? You know, it used
to be, you know, a company would have to pay
for their people to go to some kind of conference
and they'd be there four or five days. And you know,
now with a company like Alignable and they can get
up in the morning and be networking all around the world.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
Correct, that's so true.

Speaker 5 (05:57):
You know, we've all heard many times that it's that
old adage of it's not what you know, it's who
you know.

Speaker 3 (06:05):
But as business owners, we realize it's more than that.

Speaker 5 (06:08):
It's being able to tap into the networks of the
people that we.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
Know, because word of mouth referrals.

Speaker 5 (06:14):
Is the lifeblood of our success, and that's really where
a liable comes in.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
So let's talk about the company itself and how this
all works.

Speaker 5 (06:23):
Sure, So, we're essentially the largest online networking platform designed
exclusively for business owners.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
We've got over nine.

Speaker 5 (06:33):
Million businesses on the platform across North America and literally
adding almost one hundred thousand each month. We started off
down here on Cape cod with a couple hundred businesses
as a way to really connect locally, but we've evolved
into something much bigger than that, really a business relationship

(06:54):
engine that helps business owners build the connections that fuel
their success. So if you think about a typical business
owner's network, they have on average around two hundred and
fifty fellow business owners.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
That they know.

Speaker 5 (07:09):
But the most powerful thing is that each of those
people they know know another two hundred and fifty. So
that's kind of like a network reach of over sixty
thousand potential customers, partners and opportunities that essentially have been
hidden in plain sight just within your network. And Unalignable,
what you do is you have the ability to kind

(07:30):
of unlock the potential to see who those sixty thousand
potential customers are and who knows them, so you can
basically identify the people within your network that you need
to reconnect with to gain access to those people. You
can see who your trusted connections can introduce you to,

(07:51):
so you're not doing cold outreach, You're sharing warm introductions
with each other. And this kind of strengthens the key
relationships that you have so you can make strategic introductions
for each other, which creates this sort of cycle of
trust and referrals and new opportunities. And you know, as
these business relationships thrive, they're built on real value and

(08:13):
reciprocity because when you help people, they help you, and
so Alignable basically makes this process seamless, strategic and scalable.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
Eric Groves is our guest from Alignable. So if I
go onto this platform, sort of explain to me what
it looks like because Obviously my business is I'm assuming
you can really target what it is that you're looking for,
because you've explained that with being able to get to
those customers. But my business would be very different from
someone else's, So obviously I want to get into a

(08:47):
lane that's good.

Speaker 5 (08:48):
For me, right, So I mean one of the ways
to I love to talk to business owners and ask
the question, how many of you has a stack of
business cards sitting on your desk?

Speaker 3 (08:58):
Right, You've met these.

Speaker 5 (08:59):
People over the years, you built relationships with them, and
you never throw away those business cards, you know, and
you don't thrown away because you know there's value in
each one of those cards. You just have no idea
what it is, right, So imagine you could literally take
every one of those business cards and turn it over,
and on the back of that business card, it would.

Speaker 3 (09:21):
Say, hey, here's Kim.

Speaker 5 (09:23):
Kim is a radio host and she has a network
of four hundred and fifty people that she knows well.
Of those four hundred and fifty people, there are twenty
three that match your ideal customer and another forty two
that are great referral partners because they share similar customers
to you.

Speaker 3 (09:42):
And then that card in that stack would be brought
to the top.

Speaker 5 (09:47):
A different card each week, and it would say this
is the relationship you should work on this week. That's
essentially what happens within the platform. So all of those
business cards you've collected come to they get organized based
on the relevancy of the relationships that person has. And
now I can reach out to you and say, hey, Kim,

(10:09):
I've noticed there's three people in my network that really
line up well with the people you want to meet.
Can I introduce you? And oh, by the way, there's
two people in your network I would really love to meet.

Speaker 3 (10:19):
Could you introduce me?

Speaker 2 (10:20):
Sure?

Speaker 3 (10:21):
And that's how the cycle happens.

Speaker 5 (10:22):
And so that's really the light bulb that goes off
when a business owner joins and ads their network to Alignable,
is they.

Speaker 3 (10:29):
Get to see that stuff instantly.

Speaker 2 (10:32):
We're a business show, So let's talk the business of Alignable,
you guys, I don't know. I'm just taking a stab
at it, you guys in my tears. Where how did
this all come about?

Speaker 3 (10:44):
Well? So co founded by myself and a guy named Venkat.

Speaker 5 (10:49):
I was one of the founding executives at a company
called Constant Contact, which is a huge impact on the
small business economy many years ago, and so I kind
of have been a small business junkie for the last
thirty plus years. My co founder, Venkat is a serial entrepreneur.
He was one of the guys that invented vis align,

(11:10):
the braces company.

Speaker 2 (11:11):
Yeah, and he's sort of.

Speaker 5 (11:12):
This brilliant PhD in computer science that went to Stanford,
has all of these great ways of sort of taking
something that's been done one way forever and revolutionizing it,
you know, from like grinding your teeth down with the
north and honest to these little inserts. So, you know,
we came together and we're really focused on how do

(11:33):
we help small businesses find new customers?

Speaker 3 (11:36):
And we met and both lived.

Speaker 5 (11:38):
In Acton and we started talking to business owners in
Actin and learned that everything was driven by word of
mouth referrals. And if you think about that, it's words
and mouths.

Speaker 3 (11:50):
Right.

Speaker 5 (11:51):
Words are the things you want people to say about you,
and mouths are the people that you have relationships with
that are willing to say it.

Speaker 3 (11:57):
And that's your network. So the challel lunge was how.

Speaker 5 (12:00):
Do we help business owners build and leverage their network?

Speaker 3 (12:04):
And that's how Alignable got started.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
Well, that's fantastic. How many employees you guys have and
what's the future of this business?

Speaker 5 (12:12):
So we're about sixty employees and growing. We were based
in downtown Boston until COVID hit and then became sort
of fully remote, so we've got employees all over the country.
Now we've got nine million businesses on the platform and
our goal is really to bring this platform to every
business owner across the globe.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
Obviously, the reaction has been fantastic. You don't have nine
million without that, Well, thanks, Are there other businesses in
the offing that could be you know, sprung off of this, Well.

Speaker 5 (12:49):
You know, I think there's like the small business economy
and helping drive it is what we're all about, and
there's certainly a lot of other businesses that are looking
to support that can unity. And so one of the
things we do is we do a lot of research
on what is impacting small businesses that really got kicked
off during COVID. We worked in partnership with a bunch

(13:11):
of the faculty at Harvard Business School to really track
the economic and emotional impact that COVID had on business
owners over the you know, the four years plus of
impact that it had, and so through that research, we
really have become sort of the voice of small business,
not only through the press, but also into the political world.

(13:36):
And so, you know, one of the things that we're
tracking right now is really understanding the impact that tariffs
are having on small businesses. And just in the last month,
the impact has been amazingly felt by business owners not
only across North America, but in Massachusetts in particular. You know,

(13:56):
the business owners thinking that the tariffs are going to
have a significant impact on their business in twenty twenty
five has grown from a thirty percent to forty six
percent in just thirty days.

Speaker 3 (14:08):
So you know, we're trying to keep our finger on
the pulse of all of.

Speaker 5 (14:11):
This to really be a voice for these business owners,
not only in Massachusetts but across the country.

Speaker 2 (14:19):
Sure, Eric Groves, thank you so much. What a fascinating business,
What a great business for these small business owners. A
terrific platform. It's called Alignable, be sure you check it out.
Coming up next, we'll be joined by Greg Ryant from
the Boston Business Journal. This is the New England Business Report.

Speaker 1 (14:39):
You are listening to the New England Business Report on
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Speaker 2 (16:48):
The Trump Administration's Department of Government Efficiency run by Elon
Musk is claiming to have canceled seventeen federally held leases
in the state of Massachusetts over the last couple of weeks.
After an investigation that doesn't appear to be exactly true.
We're joined by Boston Business Journal senior reporter Greg Ryan,

(17:08):
who has been involved in that investigation for the BBJ. Greg,
great to have you with us. I know that your
headline says, you know that DOGE has canceled seventeen leases,
but as I began to read, it's not exactly as
it appears.

Speaker 11 (17:24):
Yes, that's right. So I did some reporting on this.
I did not reach out to all seventeen.

Speaker 4 (17:29):
Landmarks here involved with these leases.

Speaker 11 (17:32):
But I did speak to quite a few, and you know,
it does not appear that these are seventeen canceled leases.
You know, in some cases the federal government has said
we're not going to renew a lease.

Speaker 4 (17:43):
I know that's the case for a building and mold.

Speaker 11 (17:46):
They're not going to renew the lease when it comes
to at the end of next year. And I found
one of the one instance in Worcester where bee Feds
said they were going to cancel.

Speaker 4 (17:58):
A lease and then sent a follow up notice saying
never mind.

Speaker 11 (18:01):
So, as is the case with some of Doge's other initiatives,
you know, everything is not as it seems.

Speaker 2 (18:08):
Yeah, yeah, and they do like that upper hand we
canceled versus maybe we're just not going to renew.

Speaker 3 (18:13):
Right exactly.

Speaker 11 (18:16):
Yeah, So you know in some cases, yeah, you know
those you know, those those offices.

Speaker 3 (18:20):
Will be shut down eventually.

Speaker 4 (18:22):
If they're not going to renew the lease, but you
know it might not be immediately.

Speaker 2 (18:26):
Sure, what's the largest space that you've learned about?

Speaker 3 (18:30):
Sure?

Speaker 11 (18:30):
So the largest in Massachusetts was a seventy two thousand
square foot Fish and Wildlife Service lease and and Hadley
that is the the ED Agency's Northeast regional headquarters. And
as with a lot of these offices, it's it's unclear
what's going to happen.

Speaker 4 (18:46):
So, you know, that's a pretty sizable.

Speaker 11 (18:48):
Operation out there in Hadley. Are they going to be
moving to a smaller space?

Speaker 4 (18:52):
And how does this connect.

Speaker 11 (18:53):
With Dog's efforts to cut the federal workforce rate or
you know, you know, will people be losing their jobs?
Those questions are unclear.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
Do you have any idea how many people work in
that facility?

Speaker 3 (19:05):
That one and Hadley.

Speaker 4 (19:07):
I'm not quite sure.

Speaker 2 (19:08):
Now, Yeah, give me some ideas about some of the
other spaces that maybe they have approached said they're not
going to renew leases or they're getting out.

Speaker 3 (19:17):
That's right.

Speaker 4 (19:18):
So there's an IRS office.

Speaker 11 (19:20):
In Lowell that's about thirty six thousand square feet and
owned by Boston's Anchor Line Partners, and that's that's one
of the examples where the Feds told the landlord that
they're not planning to extend. They're not canceling the lease,
they're just not they're planning not to extend the lease.
So that looks like it'll be closing down at the

(19:41):
end of twenty twenty six. A couple a few of
these are ir S offices, so youither investigative offices or offices.

Speaker 4 (19:49):
Where people can drop in for tax help, that sort
of thing.

Speaker 11 (19:53):
When I mentioned in Worcester, it looks like that one
will be staying open, even though it was originally slated
to close. There's another in spring Field that I talked
to the landlord and he said he's not quite sure
whether the whole.

Speaker 3 (20:05):
Office is closing or part of the office is closing.

Speaker 4 (20:07):
So so that's still up in the air.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
So, Greg, I have to assume that these landlords are
sort of bracing for the worst.

Speaker 3 (20:13):
Right, Yeah, yeah, I think so.

Speaker 11 (20:17):
You know, some said they were surprised, but others said,
you know, once you know this DOJE effort got out in.

Speaker 4 (20:24):
The public, you know, we you know, we were.

Speaker 11 (20:26):
Anticipating, you know, we could see some cutbacks here, and
I shouldn't mention you know that the sets have one
point seven million square feet of leases in Massachusetts. These
seventeen leases account for about two hundred and fifty thousand
square feats, so you know, the vast majority of the
federal government's.

Speaker 4 (20:45):
Lease space in Massachusetts is still still ongoing.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
Another thing that you talked about was the fact that
Dog announced that the federal government was going to put
some of the buildings that they own in the in
the state up for sale. So talk to us a
little bit about what the outcome there has been so far.
I realized this is probably a process still in the makes,

(21:10):
that's right.

Speaker 3 (21:10):
So that's another one where where things seem to be, you.

Speaker 4 (21:13):
Know, facts on the ground are changing quickly.

Speaker 11 (21:17):
So yeah, last week, the federal government posted a list
of hundreds of federal buildings that it was putting up
for sale, including nine here in Massachusetts, including you know,
some very prominent buildings, the JFK office complex right across
from City Hall in Boston, the O'Neill office complex right
next to TV Garden, and then the brand new BOLTPI

(21:38):
Transportation Center, which MIT just built a couple of years
ago in Kendall Square.

Speaker 4 (21:43):
So they said, you know here.

Speaker 11 (21:45):
These buildings are for sale, and then within twenty four
hours they had pulled that list. This was the General
Services Administration. The GSA had pulled the list off the website,
and the last time I checked they had not. They
said there'll be more information coming soon that they had
not republished any properties. So that's undetermined, you know what,

(22:05):
which properties, if any, will be put up for sale.

Speaker 2 (22:09):
So, Greg, what would you think that means if you
sell a federal building like the JFK building, for example,
does that mean they're closing down those offices in there.
Does that mean they're going to turn around and rent
that space for federal workers? What would you think that
would be the outcome?

Speaker 11 (22:27):
Yeah, there are a ton of questions that are tough
to answer like that. I mean, for one thing, just
because you're putting a building like say the.

Speaker 4 (22:34):
JFK building downtown Boston.

Speaker 11 (22:37):
You know, this is an older building, the exact type
of building that a lot of investors are not interested
in paying money for that have been really struggling since COVID.

Speaker 3 (22:48):
So it's a big question what kind of market there
would be.

Speaker 11 (22:51):
But even if it were to sell, I mean, these
are filled with with federal you know, federal agencies. So
would they sign me leases? Would they take some of
the space? You know, how much of this would be
an effort to call the size of the federal workforce right?
Because if you sell a federal building and it's owned
by a private landlord, you know, that's not space.

Speaker 12 (23:12):
You're getting back.

Speaker 11 (23:13):
So if they if they take away the federal government space,
you know, it.

Speaker 4 (23:17):
Makes it harder for a future administration to come in
and grow the size of the federal government.

Speaker 2 (23:22):
Again, do you know the you know, how full the
capacity of some of these federal buildings are they full?
Would it be possible to you know, move workers into
other buildings?

Speaker 3 (23:36):
Possibly?

Speaker 11 (23:36):
I don't know the exact they can see I do
believe they're pretty full.

Speaker 4 (23:40):
I mean JFK and ONNEO buildings in Boston.

Speaker 11 (23:42):
They they they have dozens of federal agencies in them
and included and.

Speaker 4 (23:47):
As well as offices.

Speaker 11 (23:49):
For politicians like Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey. But those
are I mean, these are some of the biggest properties
that the federal government either or.

Speaker 4 (23:59):
Leases or owns bought in Massachusetts, so they could do
some shifting around.

Speaker 11 (24:05):
But I think I think if they sold those buildings,
it would would result in a, you know, a significant
decrease in the amount of space available to these agencies.

Speaker 2 (24:15):
Well, buckle up, right, who knows what's yet to come?
All right, Greg Ryan, thank you very much for being
part of the show today. All right, everybody coming up
next celebrating Saint Patrick's Day in Boston. This is the
New England Business Report.

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Are you a brother or a sister of one a Greater
Boston's local trade unions? And finally thinking about getting ready
to hang up your tools after thirty five years of
working your tailoff? Congratulations, he worked hard to build your
retirement nest egg. But now what Let me help you
break through the nonsense and financial speak so we can
get to the questions that are important to you. As
you know, nothing gets built without a set of plans

(27:14):
and neither will your financial future. My name is Mike Marshall,
President and CEO of Marshal Wealth Management and creator of
the Marshall Plan, a comprehensive, customized plan that will help
you answer important questions in all seven key areas. You
don't have to do it alone. There is no cost
or obligation. Call us at eight five seven three four
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(27:37):
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Speaker 10 (27:44):
Advisory services offered through Capital Analysts or Lincoln Investment Registered
Investment Advisors. Securities offered through Lincoln Investment Broker Dealer Member Finra, SIPC,
Lincoln Investment dot Com. Marshall Wealth Management and the above
firms are independent and not affiliated.

Speaker 2 (27:57):
Hi everybody, I'm Kim Kerrigan and I'm Josh.

Speaker 13 (28:00):
If you want to be part of the New England
Business Report, sponsorships are still available.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
You can email us at any Business Radio at gmail
dot com.

Speaker 13 (28:10):
That's any Business Radio all one word at gmail dot
com and we'll get your business on the show too.

Speaker 2 (28:20):
Welcome back, everybody. Kim Kerrigan here Joe Shortsleeve with the
week off. Good to have you with us. I want
to just remind you that coming up in this half hour,
we're going to talk about celebrating Saint Patrick's Day in Southee.
Of course, the big parade there today getting ready to
step off at eleven thirty, a little bit earlier than usual,
draw us thousands of people to the area. Of course,

(28:42):
typically we use this time, you know, to talk about
some other business headlines that maybe you would have missed.
But today I want to talk about that parade because
I thought I would share some of the facts of
the South Boston Parade in just how historic it really
is here in Boston. I don't know if you knew this,
but Bostonians were the first to celebrate Saint Patrick's Day

(29:03):
in North America on March seventeenth, seventeen thirty seven, as
a gesture of solidarity among the city's New Irish immigrants.
That is when Boston first kicked off all of these celebrations.
There were banquets and parades and all kinds of things
down by the Boston Common in the early days as
we celebrated Saint Patrick's Day, and in fact it wasn't

(29:26):
until nineteen oh one that the parade actually moved to
South Boston, a neighborhood that was not only home to
a robust Irish community, but was the site of Dorchester Heights,
which that of course was where evacuation of British troops
from Boston took place on March seventeenth, seventeen seventy six. So,

(29:49):
of course this big celebration of Saint Patrick's Day is
not just that of Irish heritage in the city, but
it's also to commemorate evacuation. So for those of you
who didn't know what it's actually a dual holiday, and
it's a lot about why we honor both our military
and of course Irish heritage during the big parade, which

(30:12):
will of course be taking place on the sixteenth this year,
in just a couple of hours. As I mentioned, thousands
of revelers coming out on this Sunday, which is really
a weekend celebration, you know, when it falls on a Monday,
Saint Patrick's Day. It gives folks a full weekend to
be here in the Boston area and it has some

(30:34):
impact on local businesses. We are joined by the general
manager of the Cambria Hotel, which is located along the
parade route. Today, Fabio Pari is our guest and it
is great to have you, Fabio with us. Thanks so
much for joining us in Happy Saint Patrick's Day.

Speaker 15 (30:51):
Yes, Happy Saint Patrick's Day to you as well, and
thank you very much for having me. It's a pleasure
being here.

Speaker 2 (30:56):
This must be a very exciting time for you guys.

Speaker 15 (30:59):
It certainly is is uh you know, one of the
biggest you know weekends for our location, for the city
and for where we're specifically located at the start of
the parade route, and we have uh, you know, sold
out weekend and lots of guests that have come in
from from all over really to to be able to
be a part of it.

Speaker 2 (31:17):
So tell me how this weekend would compare to I
don't know, let's say last weekend or next weekend.

Speaker 15 (31:24):
Absolutely, so it's you know, a huge economic driver for
the city and certainly for us, you know, coming in
uh you know, third month of the year and typically
slow time of the year, so this really generates a
lot of revenue for us, not not just from you know,
the hotel rooms, but also for our restaurants, so the
food and beverage and really gives people a reason to

(31:46):
to really come out and come into the city.

Speaker 2 (31:49):
Talk to me a little bit about the businesses around
you obviously, you know, I know as a GM there
probably you're involved with the community. Is is this a
good time for everyone? Or is this difficult? Because I
do know there are thousands of people who converge on
South Boston and they can be a little routing.

Speaker 15 (32:10):
Yep, absolutely no, It's definitely a good time for the
for the businesses. You know, a lot of a lot
of businesses within the hospitality space of restaurants, hotels still
really kind of reeling a little bit from the effects
post COVID pandemic. So this really is a great time
and a lot of the a lot of the restaurants
along the Parade route have really are established restaurants, so

(32:33):
they're very familiar and always looking forward to to the
Boston business.

Speaker 2 (32:37):
You know, we were chatting with the restaurant owner about
two weeks ago and he was saying that this January
and February has been particularly difficult. I think sort of
uncertain times. Obviously, we had a pretty tough winter here
in Boston. How about you, guys? Is this sort of
the springboard.

Speaker 15 (32:58):
This is the springboard, absolutely, and I would agree you
know this, Uh, you know, the first couple of months,
the start to this year has been a little bit
more difficult than than in years past, and and as
you mentioned, you know, certainly uncertain times. But this really
is the launch pad, and we're really bullish on the
rest of the year. Really, you know, the spring, into

(33:19):
the summer and really into the fall look really really
good for us.

Speaker 2 (33:25):
And I'm to tell you, I'm so glad to hear
you say that, because that would was going to be
my next question. I know that we have spoken to
the folks that meet Boston and lots of conventions coming
this direction. They do feel like a lot of even
the international traveler is back, So that must be a
good thing for you guys. Tell me what your what
your forecast really does look like.

Speaker 15 (33:47):
Yeah, absolutely, you know, for for me, Boston, this is, uh,
you know, by all accounts, a record setting year for
them in terms of the number of large conventions that are.

Speaker 4 (33:57):
Coming into the city, not not just at the BCCY, but.

Speaker 15 (34:00):
At the Hines Convention Center. And we are really at
the doorstep of the b c C. So we are.
We have a lot of the convention blocks that are
that are staying with us and and you know, very
easy access from from our hotel to the convention center,
whether by walking or or just a short uber ride

(34:22):
or if there's you know, buses that are that are
part of the UH the conference.

Speaker 2 (34:26):
Let me go back to this weekend now and talk
about some of the special steps that you guys take
first off, to make it celebratory, but you must have
some special security type of things you have to put
into place as well.

Speaker 15 (34:41):
We do absolutely so you know, first and foremost the
tent here is to make sure that everyone has a
good time and that safety is at the forefront. So
we do contract UH for additional security on the day
of the parade, just to ensure that, you know, not
only that the safety of of our patrons and hotel guest,
but just making sure that you know, everyone is celebrating

(35:04):
in the safest manner possible.

Speaker 2 (35:07):
Absolutely special things going on at the hotel this weekend.

Speaker 15 (35:12):
Yeah, so we have actually a ticketed, a private ticketed
event in our restaurant space. It is ail tickets are
available on event right. It's one hundred dollars a person,
includes a beverage. There's going to be food throughout and
and then there it'll be a cash bar after that,
and then there's a soupernir glass as well that's included,

(35:34):
and that runs from nine am to four pm on.

Speaker 3 (35:38):
Sunday the sixteenth.

Speaker 2 (35:40):
Okay, terrific, And tell me about your feeling about it.
How many years have you been there at the hotel
and had this experience?

Speaker 15 (35:48):
Yeah, absolutely so. Actually so this is actually my very
first year with with this specific hotel. But I'm originally
from from the Boston area, grew up just just north
of Boston, and so I'm really looking forward to it
just because it's you know, as a as a young kid,
I used to come in all the time for this event.

(36:08):
And this year they're going back to the original parade route,
so the original three and a half mile long loop.
So I'm really excited just to be able to be
a part of that and then to be able to
help others that may be new to it really kind
of make the most of their time.

Speaker 3 (36:24):
Here while you stay with us.

Speaker 2 (36:26):
Absolutely fantastic. Well, listen, we wish you the best of
luck today. Very exciting that this is your first one
there at the hotel. So I hope it is a
terrific day for you. Congratulations.

Speaker 15 (36:39):
Well, thank you very much. We're definitely looking forward to.

Speaker 3 (36:41):
It and can't wait.

Speaker 2 (36:43):
All right, take care fabio, Thank you very much. Obviously,
lots of spirits are being consumed this holiday week, and
not just in Southea but across the globe, and certainly
Irish whiskey is a favorite. Tom Walsh is a co
founder a Flying Tum were Irish whiskey, and he joins
us now to talk a little bit more. Hi, Tom,

(37:04):
Great to have you, and happy Saint.

Speaker 16 (37:05):
Patrick's Day, and say to yourself, Kim, wonderful to be
on the show.

Speaker 4 (37:10):
Happy saying Patrick's Day to you.

Speaker 2 (37:12):
So now tell me a little bit about flying Tumblr.
It's a family business, right.

Speaker 4 (37:18):
It's a family business. Myself, my brother.

Speaker 16 (37:20):
And other people in our family set up back in
about twenty eighteen on our family farm in a place
called Carlo, which is about fifty miles south of Dublin,
and we were born and raised on the farm. Our
grandfather bought it in nineteen forty four. Our dad took
over the farm in nineteen seventy four, and we didn't

(37:41):
really do anything in terms of traditional farming, my brother
went to London. I came to Boston to pursue different careers,
and about six years ago my brother came up with
the idea of setting up a whiskey venture back on
the family farm. So we're essentially bonders and blenders and
we take different whiskey from different distilleries around Ireland, we

(38:01):
bring them all back to our facility and we put
really really unique blends together. The Flying Tumbler, the name
comes from exactly our story. The Flying Tumbler is an
Irish homing pigeon, a bit of a wild character, a
bit of mystery to him. He goes out every morning
there's some somersaults in the air, and comes home with
stories of his adventures. And that's very much where the

(38:23):
story came from.

Speaker 2 (38:24):
So I love that story came That's so terrific. That
was actually going to be my next question. I was
curious as to where that name came from, and what
a terrific, terrific name. Talk about the popularity of Irish whiskey,
it feels like to me, it's just it's built its
popularity here in the States certainly, certainly.

Speaker 16 (38:47):
Yeah, Look, the US market is the number one market
for Irish whiskey. You can see over the last decade,
year on year in terms of brown spirits, Irish whiskey
has been up there, if not the number one growing
whiskey across the board over the last ten years. So
Irish whiskey in general, it kind of sits somewhere between
your scotches and your bourbons. You know, your scotch has

(39:10):
that kind of pasier aspect to it, your bourbons has
a sweetness. Irish whiskey is always in there in the middle,
a very very smooth tasting whiskey and that captures a
lot of kind of new two whiskey drinkers. So it
doesn't seem like it's stopping in terms of its popularity.
And a lot of that probably was driven by you know,

(39:32):
Jennison and pin of Ricard back in the day. They
did a very large marketing drive and that helped. You know,
so fifteen twenty years ago that started and now you
know a lot of other kind of Irish whiskeys are
kind of sailing on the on the wings of where
Jennison has gone.

Speaker 2 (39:50):
So sure, you know, you're a smaller you're a smaller
company with a smaller label. Tell me how you guys
compete with some of these bigger companies, bigger names like
the Jamisons of the world.

Speaker 16 (40:03):
Yeah, look, we're you have to get out onto the
street and you gotta gotta fight your corner. Really, you know,
you are up against some of the multinationals when it
does come to retail activity.

Speaker 4 (40:14):
So you you're you're really.

Speaker 16 (40:16):
Trying to get into the hearts and to get onto
the lips of the consumer.

Speaker 4 (40:20):
So we're we're very much focused up here.

Speaker 16 (40:23):
On the North the Northeast, from from Boston down to
d C.

Speaker 4 (40:28):
And we we made.

Speaker 16 (40:31):
A kind of a pact or one of our kind
of KPIs is is to always have a brand ambassador
on site within each market that we're in. So they
work very very closely with distribution teams in each state.
And the idea is that we do a lot of
physical tastings, we get out there to the consumer and
we just have to get the have to get the

(40:52):
liquid to lips. You know. The brand and distribution are
are to the real key things to get it to
the consumer, which looks we'd love to have the marketing
budgets of the William Grants and the Peana reck cards,
but we just got to build it from the ground up,
you know, into retailer, get it to the consumer.

Speaker 2 (41:12):
Well, Tom, by the way, this is Tom Walsh and
he is a co founder of Tumbler Irish Whiskey. We
are obviously flying tumblr. By the way, we are obviously
a business show. So let's talk a little bit about
the business. Talk to me about the distribution and about
like the employees that you have, and what kind of

(41:33):
progress you've seen since really getting started now, what maybe
six or seven years ago.

Speaker 16 (41:41):
Yeah, So look, when we started the business, it was
pre pre pandemic, and we we had to quickly kind
of our focus initially was on Ireland and the UK,
and we had to kind of quickly pivot to an
online kind of sales strategy.

Speaker 4 (41:54):
At that stage.

Speaker 16 (41:55):
We always wanted to come across the Atlantic and go west,
and that's that's still our scalable plans to bring it
across the US to California all the way into the
Irish drinking spots.

Speaker 4 (42:08):
But we started in Boston.

Speaker 16 (42:10):
And we we we started with a great relationship with
ms Walker, our distribution team up here, who would be
in the top maybe if not the top spirits distribution
team over in our in Boston and across New England,
and we quickly expanded down to to d C New York,
Maryland and d C so numbers wise, we we have

(42:34):
a brand ambassador in each market, and then back in
Ireland we have a head of a director of sales,
director of marketing, and my brother runs the entire operation
from Ireland. So we're, you know, we're we're We're still
quite small, you know, compared to the to the bigger
guys in the market, but we're we're we have scalable
plans to to kind of keep going west, as they say,

(42:56):
across the country.

Speaker 2 (42:57):
That's terrific. Tom, tell me what makes a good Irish whiskey?

Speaker 16 (43:02):
Well, look, you know, again back to my point about
the different versions of whiskeys. You know, everybody kind of
tastes whiskey differently, and an Irish whiskey is traditionally of
a smoother profile. So our first, you know, we have
a couple of different expressions and we're really kind of
strong on the blend. And you know, they're they're in Ireland,

(43:24):
we've gone from one distillery to almost thirty distilleries over
the last twenty five years. So for us, we didn't
want to have a distillery. We wanted to focus on
areas as blenders where we feel the real kind of
taste profile comes from, and that's that's on the blend
and that's what we do. So our first expression into
the US market is called the Bird, and the Bird

(43:47):
for me personally anyway, the Bird, and what I've seen
in the feedback in the market is it is just smooth, smooth, smooth.
It's got seven years finished in bourbon barrels. It's seventy
and grain mixed in with a thirty percent malt mix.
And what that is doing and why we love it,
and the feedback that we're.

Speaker 4 (44:07):
Getting is so positive.

Speaker 16 (44:08):
It's it's more for a kind of a new two
whiskey drinker, ipa beer drinker coming into Brown Spirits, Clear spirits,
drinkers like tequila jin vodka coming across into Brown Spirits.
So it's a great initial Brown Spirit to get into.
It's got that real calmly kind of double foodge kind
of real smooth taste, lovely neat sip and whiskey doesn't

(44:30):
really need water or rice. Irish whiskey is always like that.
It's just got that smooth profile and it's a great
new two whiskey drinker to get kind of get into
Irish whiskey is well.

Speaker 2 (44:40):
We hope lots of people out there today are trying
some fly flying Tumblr Irish whiskey. Tom, thanks so much
for being a part of the show today. Very much
appreciate it and happy Saint Patrick's day. Tu up next,
good bye, Glanes in Boston play a role in who
is the next Mayor of the city. This is the
New England Business Report.

Speaker 1 (45:06):
You are listening to the New England Business Report on
the Voice of Boston WRKO six 't eighty Joe and
Kim will be right back.

Speaker 9 (45:16):
Are you a brother or sister of one of Greater
Boston's local trade unions and finally thinking about getting ready
to hang up your tools after thirty five years of
working your tailoff? Congratulations, you worked hard to build your
retirement nest egg. But now what Let me help you
break through the nonsense and financial speak so we can
get to the questions that are important to you. As
you know, nothing gets built without a set of plans,

(45:37):
and neither will you a financial future. My name is
Mike Marshall, President and CEO of Marshal Wealth Management, and
creator of the Marshall Plan, a comprehensive customized plan that
will help you answer important questions in all seven key areas.
You don't have to do it alone. There is no
cost or obligation. Call us at eight five seven three
four two ten thirty. That's eight five seven three four

(46:00):
two ten thirty. Well check us out online at Marshallwealth
dot Com, Marshall with two els, Marshallwealth dot Com.

Speaker 10 (46:07):
Advisory services offered to Capital Analysts or Lincoln Investment Registered
Investment Advisors. Securities offered through linoln Investment Broker Dealer member FINRA, SIPC,
Lincoln Investment dot Com, Marshal Wealth Management and the above
firms are independent and not affiliated.

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Speaker 2 (47:31):
Hi everybody, I'm Kim Kerrigan and I'm Joe Shortsley.

Speaker 13 (47:34):
If you want to be part of the New England
Business Report, sponsorships are still available.

Speaker 2 (47:40):
You can email us at any Business Radio at gmail
dot com.

Speaker 13 (47:44):
That's any Business Radio all one word at gmail dot
com and we'll get your business on the show too.

Speaker 2 (47:55):
Hi everybody, It's Kim Karragan along with Bill Chase of
High Tech Windows Insiding Now. Bill We've been hearing a
lot about your windows being the same windows installed at
the top of Mount Washington, and that these windows are
only sold by high Tech.

Speaker 4 (48:06):
That's right, Kim.

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Our Summer Series windows are designed to keep your house
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That sounds great, But what about the cost bill Because
things have been pretty tight for people these days.

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It sounds terrific. So the best prices and the best
quality call high Tech today at nine seven eight seven
seven one eight nine three nine. That's nine seven eight
seven seven one eighty nine thirty nine, or visit high
Tech Corp dot biz for a free estimate. Welcome back, everybody,
great to have you along on this Sunday morning. I'm
Kim Kerrigan, Joe Schwartzlleeve of course, with the week off.

(48:56):
Lovehim or hate them, Those bike lanes in Boston certainly
have become polars. Recently, Joe spoke to a transportation expert,
Greg Carlson about their future and the impact they may
have on the upcoming mayoral election.

Speaker 13 (49:09):
You know a topic that we've been talking about a
lot in recent years on when I did the Bloomberg
based d A business program and now here the New
England business support on WRKO has to do with the whole
ideas of bike lanes.

Speaker 4 (49:21):
Okay.

Speaker 13 (49:21):
Nothing gets people crazier on this topic when you talk
about bike lanes.

Speaker 2 (49:26):
Okay.

Speaker 13 (49:27):
And here's the headline of the Globe, and this is
talking about Josh Kraft making his run for governor, I
mean run from mayor, rather running for mayor the headline
and a Beth titelpiece in Boston, who has the right
to public space cyclists or drivers? The crowd at Josh
Craft's memorial kickoff went wild when he promised to pause

(49:48):
construction of new bike lanes. I mean striking a nerve.
Let's bring in somebody who knows a lot more about this.
Craig Carlson, Managing director of the Carlson Group since two
thousand and three. He's worked for Arthur D. Little and
in the General Motors corporation, and I've known Craig for
one hundred and fifty years, I believe at this point, Hey, Greg,

(50:09):
welcome to the program.

Speaker 12 (50:10):
So thank you very much for having me on.

Speaker 13 (50:12):
Yeah, let's talk about this issue. I mean, I guess
we look at it. We're a business program. Where's the
intersection of business impacts and bike lanes?

Speaker 12 (50:22):
Well, let me just start by saying Joe that bike
lanes are a very popular topic these days. You know,
not just Boston, but other cities are doing it. And
I understand it. I live in Boston and I have
a bike, and I use them occasionally. I think, really,
where the biggest disconnect here is two things. One is
Boston is an old city and many of the streets

(50:43):
that they're trying to put bike lanes on just don't work.
I mean, even when there's no bike lanes, no bus lanes,
and in some cases no parking lanes, the traffic still
doesn't flow that well. So when you add bike lanes
on an already congestice street or narrow street, it just
does not work. So that's really the issue, and how
it really intersects with business is the way I kind

(51:04):
of see this is you take the business person who
is coming into Boston most days for work and for
meetings everything else. Or the business person who has the
option of coming in for a meeting or doing a zoom.
If they have a bad experience or a series of
bad experiences that differ from the way traffic was three
five years ago, they're they're less inclined to come into

(51:29):
Boston for that meeting, They're less inclined to go to
that restaurant, they're less inclined to go to that store.
So I think that's really what we need to look
at today, is you're taking a resource a lane a
road and you're basically not allowing as many cars per
minute per hour to flow down that path.

Speaker 13 (51:50):
Mayor Wu initiated a thirty day review of all street
infrastructure changes. She did that the last day of February,
the last week of February.

Speaker 3 (52:01):
Why is she doing that?

Speaker 13 (52:02):
Is she hearing footsteps from Josh Craft and is promising
to pause all bike lanes.

Speaker 12 (52:08):
Absolutely, this is a terrific campaign issue for Josh Craft
and for an outsider kind of looking in, you know,
criticizing something that is not popular with both business people
and residents. You know, it's certainly a very good thing.
I think on her part, she has had a tremendous
amount of pushback from residents, from the business associations in Boston,

(52:29):
from the residential associations in Boston, basically saying, all of
these bike lanes, let's add bus lanes in because as
you probably saw, no, they just announced they're going to
be removing a bus lane from Boylston Street, which is
another crazy thing. We can get into how they did that,
and also one down by South Station they've already taken out.
So I think she's hearing that, and I think she's

(52:49):
also using this as an opportunity to do a review
of all of the existing bike lanes, saying these are used,
these are not used, tremendous and let's make a plan
going forward. Maybe we'll even take some of the bike
lanes out. You know, there hasn't been announced yet that
I wouldn't be surprised, you know, if some of them
are actually removed.

Speaker 13 (53:10):
Craig, is there a way to quantify? I mean, you
talked to me about today's appearance on the show, and
you talked about how people not coming into Boston anymore.
What sort of stats exist as we try to quantify
people's discontent with bike lanes.

Speaker 12 (53:26):
I don't know if I can give you a really
I don't know if there's enough data to give you
a hard number. I can just speak from personal experience
of having lived in the suburbs, you know, years ago,
now living in Boston, having a lot of friends who live,
you know, in the Metro West and some of the
other surrounding suburbs. And I think just a case in
point story would be this, if a couple were planning,

(53:47):
let's just let's just look at a restaurant perspective. A
couple was planning to come in on a Thursday night
into Boston from let's say Wellesley, and in the past,
the experience was, say forty five minutes by the time
you left you driveway till you pulled up to the restaurant.
Now it's probably more like an hour and fifteen minutes.
And the latter portion of it when you come into

(54:09):
Boston to get to that restaurant and get parked with
all of the reduction of lanes is very frustrating. And
I think the other thing that compounds it is the
timing of the traffic lights and maybe the reduction of
lanes and the timing of the traffic lights kind of
coincide with each other, because something that normally would take
let's say three or four light cycles to get through

(54:31):
a certain amount of a certain amount of space maybe
now takes ten. So where I think this goes is
that that couple doesn't have the greatest experience adding an expert,
or maybe they're late for their reservation. So I think
that when you repeat this experience over and over and
over again, it makes coming into Boston less attractive than

(54:53):
it was before. And I think people say, well, see,
are there any good restaurants I can go to, you know,
kind of locally, because going into Boston is much more
of an effort and much more aggravating than it was
three five years ago.

Speaker 13 (55:04):
I guess I'm curious as to the Biking Association. Let's
assume where we're talking about one or the groups that
are behind these bike lanes. I mean, why is it
that they've had so much sway, they've had so much
poll Why is the pendulum swung as far as it has?

Speaker 12 (55:18):
That is an excellent question. And I have studied this,
and I've spoken with some elected friends of mine, and
they've all said the same thing. It started with Mayor
Marty Walsh, and what happened was the bike organizations were organized,
became more organized, and when they went in to meet
with Mayor Walsh and his senior transportation people, they basically said,

(55:39):
we want more bike lanes. These are the streets we
want them on, and we want you to do this,
and if you don't do this, you know in the
way that we want, We're going to go to some
of the media, what's including the Boston Globe and others,
and in fact, you know, kind of say that you're
against bike lanes. So it really became a political issue

(56:01):
very quickly, and respectful to Mayor Walsh, but I think
that my read of him was, look, I think that
we'll put in some of these bike lanes. I'll give
in even some of these roadways that really were not
denigned and engineered for bike lanes. Will try it to
appease these people, because I don't think he wanted to
start a war with this group, because there really isn't
an organized group on the other side. You know, motorists

(56:23):
and individuals will speak to it, but they're not organized
in an association and a common voice like a bike association,
So that was kind of amplified when Mayor wou get elected.
She and her folks really like this. You know, people
in city Hall tell me some of the leadership in
her transportation group do not own cars, and they you know,

(56:46):
this balance between driving and bikes and walking is not
in balance in my opinion right now, and I think
that to really understand it, you know, you have to
be familiar with all modes of transportation and try to
find that balance. And I think we're a little bit
out to balance these days.

Speaker 13 (57:01):
He's Craig Carlson. He's the managing director of the Carlson Group.
None of the positions is two thousand and three. We
appreciate you sharing your expertise with us on this topic
here on the New England Business Report.

Speaker 2 (57:19):
Well that's going to do it for this edition of
the New England Business Report. So glad that you could
be with us on the sixteenth of March, of course,
the day of the Saint Patrick's State Parade in Southey,
stepping off at eleven thirty this morning. If you're headed
that way, please be careful and please enjoy every second
of it. Joe and I'll be back next Sunday at
eight am, have a great week. Everybody