March 4, 2025 • 34 mins
Kat Hantas is a co-founder of the multi-million dollar infused tequila brand 21 Seeds. She shares the inspiring entrepreneurship story of how she took her homemade infusions and forged them into a successful brand, highlighting the power of women supporting women and the importance of following your entrepreneurial dreams. The conversation explores the challenges and rewards of starting a business, the importance of knowing your audience, and how connection and collaboration can spark big ideas. Plus, Danielle reveals her exciting new collaboration with Kat on a fun card game, “Shot Callers.”
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello Sunshine. Are you dreaming of starting your own business?
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Today?
Speaker 1 (00:07):
On the bright side, we've got the inspiration you need.
Cat Hauntis, co founder of the infused tequila brand twenty
one Seeds, is here to share how she and her
business partners built a multi million dollar brand from the
ground up. I'm telling you it was from her kitchen sink.
It's Tuesday, March fourth. I'm Danielle Robe and this is
the bright side from Hello Sunshine. Okay, I'm pretty in
(00:33):
awe of today's guests, and I don't say that a lot.
In fact, I really love Cat Hauntas and her partners
at twenty one seeds so much that I've actually had
the opportunity to partner with them and create a card
game called Shot Callers fifty two questions for girls who
call the shots. And it's really a celebration of women
(00:53):
who call the shots in their own lives. And it's
my first card game collaboration, so you guys know, I
have my our game question everything. This is the first
collab and it was a really big deal. I just
want to share the seed of how it happened. I
was invited to a women's dinner and I got sat
across from Cat and we hit it off, and later
(01:17):
this collaboration happened. But the lesson that I take out
of it is that so many opportunities for women happened
just by being in the room. And I so remember
not being invited into any rooms. I felt like I
had to claw and fight my way into them. And
it just takes one person and one conversation to change
(01:38):
the game. And I think a lot of times starting
a business can feel really overwhelming, and so today we're
stripping all of that away. We are here to empower
you to go after your entrepreneurial dreams.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Because it is so possible.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
And we also have a bit of a special treat
because Simona's traveling and unable to make it. So instead
of talking to Kat just by myself, I thought it
would be really fun to have everybody's favorite show runner
and my bright Side bestie here, Tim Palazzola, Tim, welcome
back to the bright Side.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
I'm so grateful that you said that you would join
us today because aside from being everybody's favorite show runner,
you also do consulting on the.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Side, and you work with a lot of female entrepreneur,
I do.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
I do, so you kind of have.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
An understanding of what people's pain points are. Yeah, what
do you hear from women that you work with?
Speaker 5 (02:32):
Yeah, first of all, thank you so much for having me.
I am flattered to be here with you today. This
is so fucking cool.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
You're so fun. I'm just gonna say.
Speaker 5 (02:40):
That it's really fucking cool. But yeah, I actually a
guest who was on our show, Susie Moore, don't talk
to us about networking. I've actually worked with her in
the past to help mentor and consult on a lot
of the people that she works with. And I think
the biggest thing that I noticed when people are starting
a business is that you need to have a very
(03:01):
clear idea of who and what you are first and foremost.
I think people get lost in the clutter of it all.
I think the other big thing is you need to
really understand who who your business is for. What need
are you filling for someone? And it doesn't have to
be this like I'm reinventing the wheel. There's a great
(03:23):
thing that I say to people where I say, steal
like an artist.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
You know.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
I love that you don't have to reinvent the wheel.
Speaker 5 (03:29):
The playbook is already out there for you, So pick
and choose the things you like of what people are
doing out there and incorporate them into your own. But
you see how people appeal to their audiences and building
on that. The other important thing is, at the end
of the day, you're selling a feeling.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
I really feel like if you have something on your
heart and you've been thinking about it in the shower,
you just have this kernel of an idea. Today's episode
will hopefully be really inspiring because Kat Haunts just had
this idea in her kitchen and created a multimillion dollar
brand out of it. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (04:04):
If a self proclaimed stay at home mom can turn
a kitchen sync idea into a million dollar idea, multimillion
dollar idea.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Yeah you can too.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
Anyone listening can.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Absolutely. I feel like we just need to bring her. Yeah,
let's do it.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Okay, Kat Haunts, Welcome to the bright Side.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
It is so good to be.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Here with both of you. Guys.
Speaker 5 (04:22):
Welcome, welcome. All right, now, before we talk all things business,
I know that the two of you know each other.
Will you tell us how you met?
Speaker 1 (04:28):
You? Go? I go? Okay, So we were at a
women's dinner It was a female founder's dinner, and I
was lucky enough to be sat right across from Kat,
who I'd never met before, and she lives in San
Francisco and is very tech savvy, and started talking about
AI and I was hanging on her every word. I
was asking a million questions and she was talking to
(04:50):
me about how chat GPT could be useful for what
I do. And this was before anybody was talking about
This is over two years ago, two years ago, almost three, right,
it still the.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Idea from us. We would like to fall agreement. I
love it.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
And Cat is the life of the party.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Clearly you'll understand why she created a tequila company.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
She is so much fun.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
And so I had the best I got the best
seat in the house, and I would say we really
hit it off and we stayed in touch.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Yes, yes, and.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
This idea, I mean was truly born. Shortly thereafter, Yeah,
we hopped on a Zoom and one of the one
of Kat's pillars is travel and adventure and it's one
of the pillars of the brand too, And so we
were talking about how connection can cross borders and what
was a product that we could create that would really
facilitate that, and we thought of a card game called
(05:42):
shot Callers fifty two questions for girls who call the shots.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
I love it, I love it, I love it, smarts showers.
So we did it.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
You know that that's a really great point because so
many people talk about ideas and never actually get to do.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
It totally, totally, and I'm always like, listen, tell everyone
about idea because people are busy, people have day jobs.
No one's going to steal your idea. And the more
you talk about it, right, like everything's interesting.
Speaker 5 (06:07):
You often hear don't tell people about what you're working on.
I love this. Put it out there into the universe,
and the more you talk about the more accountable.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
That's right, Yeah, that's right, And it just sort of
naturally starts to flesh itself out, and then you know
you can pivot and really try to make it happen.
I mean, I'm all, I totally believe that the best
way to make something happen is to start talking about
it immediately and then start actioning it.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Who's the first person you talk about things with? Is
your husband sort of your creative jumping board. He's not okay,
a lot of things. He's a lot of things. That's
why we've been married for twenty going on twenty one years. Yeah,
not my husband.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
I would say, it's either my sister Nicole, who I
started twenty one seats with, or one of my best
friends Danny, who's very, very funny, and we'll call you
out on stuff.
Speaker 5 (06:57):
I was gonna say, are these people trusted soundboards when
they say, oh, Cat, that's a great idea. If they
think it's a bad idea, or they go, no, Cat's
a terrible idea, move one.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
Hundred percent, they will tell me it's a bad idea.
Nicole will often be like, I'll pitch something to Nicole
and she was like, we can't do that. I'm like,
can we have an open mindset for five more minutes
before we close, you know, close that book? Like, can
we just be open mindset for a sec I love that.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yeah, I want to open the book on your origin story?
How did you even get interested in tequila?
Speaker 4 (07:27):
So you know, I didn't grow up thinking I was
going to start a tequila brand. It really started because
I was drinking wine. That was what I would go
to sort of at the end of my night. I'd
have a couple glasses of wine and after I don't know,
once I turned thirty, it kind of just stopped agreeing
with me, and I started sort of doing some research
(07:47):
on it and sort of realized, Okay, there's a lot
of organic living material in fermented spirits that doesn't exist
in distilled and so switched over to tequila. Didn't love
the way tequila tasted on its own, and found that
regular tequila to get it to taste as easy to
drink as a glass of wine would was requiring a
lot of work and math and you know, stuff that
(08:10):
I didn't want to do. Was it just a lot
of mixers and stuff at your Yeah, because wine is
so easy to drink and tequila tends to be harsh.
And so I thought, you know, I got to do
something to this tequila to make it more drinkable and
an easier to use. And so I love to cook.
I start infusing it, and twenty month Seeds was born
in my kitchen. Basically, I would literally infuse you know,
(08:33):
regular tequila blanco tequila, and it completely changed it. It
would it smells so good when it's infused, especially you
know when you're really really using great ingredients, easy to mix,
you can drink it as a sprits. Super simple. If
that's what you want, you can mix it into any cocktail.
It's going to taste better.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Well. So as you're in like you become your own alchemist,
and as you're infusing these tequilas in your kitchen, what's
the trial and air process?
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Like I'd put the tequila in a Brita, put in
the fruits and vegetables. I wanted to visit it, and
then I would stick my finger in and taste it.
And I was like, what do you.
Speaker 5 (09:10):
Mean you were like pouring it through a brit brit
of picture.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Now, No, so I just used a Brita because of
the quantity. I wanted to make a big batch so
that it would last for a long time.
Speaker 5 (09:26):
Sorry, I thought you were like filtering it through a Britta.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
I was like, oh, that's another level.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Okay, I know, not that mechanically engineered. But anyways, so
it wasn't. It was, you know, very much trial and error.
It's it's a lot of it is my my taste profile,
you know. So but you know, if you want to
make a a our tequila, is you know a big
(09:52):
consumer of ours or women? Right? Eighty percent? I think
eighty percent of our consumers are women. And you know,
if you want to create a product that w are
going to enjoy, it's probably a good idea to have
a woman create that product, especially it's something you're eating
or drinking. You know, we want something that's smooth, and
that's what twenty one seeds is. It's incredibly smooth. It's
(10:12):
a hint of flavor, that's it. And it's not sweet.
So you can add sweet if you want to add
to sweet, but you don't have to. And you know,
just having the confidence to say this is what I like.
You know, it's not like I was a bartender. It's
not like I was a mixologist. I didn't come from
the spirits.
Speaker 5 (10:27):
Industry training, nothing like that. So you're playing around with
this and you're making it, I assume for yourself. Yes,
at what point, like at that time, were you even
thinking this was going to be a business.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
No, No, no, because I had, you know, my whole
career had been in the movie industry, so I needed
something else to drink other than wine, and I wanted
it to not have a lot of stuff in it,
and and sort of less is more. I once I
realized that by infusing tequila. It really changed it and
smoothed it out and made it more easy to drink.
(10:58):
That's what I would make at my house. So if
you came to my house and I did that for
nine years.
Speaker 5 (11:03):
Nine years, okay, So I was gonna ask like, at
what point did you?
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (11:07):
Nine years?
Speaker 5 (11:07):
Sorry, friend, And I assume at some point you're like
giving it out as gifts or yeah, having parties and
everyone like, oh my god, I need to taste Cats tequila.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
And that's what they would call it. They would just
say Cats tequila. And my sister, you know, if anyone
who sort of knew me, my immediate people, they just
I'll just bring Cats tequila. You know. It really became
a thing within our friend group. Yeah, and again what
I would do is now we call it a seed
and soda bar, right, But what I would do is
I'd take a bunch of infused tequilas that I'd made,
I'd put them out and then a bunch of different
(11:36):
club sodas, some with flavor, some without flavor. And then
I like to do like a charcouterie board of garnishes
and just put that out and then different glassware and
people could just make their own drinks, and that's what
you would have at my house if you came to
my house for dinner or dinner party. I love it.
Speaker 5 (11:51):
I've seen like make your own bloody marrion bars, but
I when everything to do that with like a tequila
that's really smart.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Like it's a tequila soda. So we do that now
it's like our seed and soda bar.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:59):
So what so nine years of doing this just sort
of in your friend group, you know, what was that
moment for you when you thought this is more than
just my friend group, this this could be a business. Like,
what was that moment?
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (12:11):
So what I noticed, and this was sort of just
a frame a time wise. It was after you know,
Cosamigos had sold to Diagio, so tequila was really on
the rise. And what I noticed I started just realized,
like when I'd be out and this was before COVID.
We this was all like twenty eighteen, early twenty eighteen.
We launched the brand in twenty nineteen, So early twenty eighteen,
(12:34):
you know, I'd be out in a bar or a
restaurant and I would notice that especially women were ordering, Hey,
can I have a tequila soda? Three lines. Can I
have a tequila soda, splash of juice of some kind,
or tequila sota, slice of orange? And that was that
was the order. And I thought, huh. At the time,
there was either like shots or really high end, you know,
(12:57):
sipping tequila. Those were the two ways people were sort
of marketing tequila. And I thought, Wow, there's this other
way that people are drinking tequila, which is in the sprits,
right like our seed in soda. That's the sprits. And
and I'm making this infused tequila, and man, that would
taste better. Infuse tequila plus soda sounds better than you know,
(13:19):
just tequila soda. It's much smoother, it's got a hint
of flavor. And I thought, well, why isn't anyone really
talking about this.
Speaker 5 (13:24):
Because infused vodka's was quite a thing. Totally see it
in tequila. So you were saying that women women ordering
I should do this?
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Well no, Then I thought, maybe let me go see
what's going on in the tequila aisle, because you know,
I hadn't I hadn't really like paid attention to it
from that lens. So I went into the tequila and
I thought, oh my god, there's first of all, it's
all it's all all the new tequilas that had come
on the market were again these sort of higher end
you know, marketed like scotches and whiskeys being pushed to men,
(13:56):
right like, like instead of drinking whiskey and sipping on ski,
sip on a tequila. And I thought, there's no color
in the aisle, there's no fun. There's everything so serious,
you know, and where's the fun and where's the sprits?
The sprits is fun, you know, and something you could
enjoy in that wine occasion, easy entertaining. So it was
either like shots woo woo on the table tequila, right
(14:18):
or it was sipping tequila which was very serious. And
I was like, where's the fun tequila, you know, just
the drinking tequila that's just you know, an easy sprits
that you can have, you know, when you're with dinner
or entertaining at home or in that wine occasion. And
there just was nothing in the aisle that was that
was literally speaking to that occasion. And then there was
(14:38):
certainly nothing in the aisle talking to women. And I
was like, wow, the women are the ones who are
driving the growth in this category and no one's talking
them in tequila asle And then it was at that
point that I was like, Okay, maybe there's something here.
And then I went and talked to my sister.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
Nic You're best a call or open mind?
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Did you have to have that open mind?
Speaker 5 (15:00):
Keep it up in mind with her?
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Initially so she.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
You know, at the time, Nicole was the CFO of Angelist. Okay,
so she had a big job, right, And I said
to her, I was like, sister, you know that tequila
that I've been making at home and everyone loves And
she's like, of course, everybody loves it. You're tequila, of course,
and she loved it, and she said, I said, I'm
thinking that I want to turn that into a company.
(15:25):
Do you want to do it with me? I thought
for sure, because she's oftentimes closed mindset, and I thought
first sure she'd be like, no, I have a day job.
I'm a big, powerful CFO of a big company. I
don't have time. And she goes one hundred percent les done,
yeah first time, Like our mom is Greek, and she
leads with no, like you ask her question, can I
(15:45):
do No, she just does it just so that she
has her footing, I think before and so I think
Nicole inherited that from my mom, and in this case,
she just immediately was like, yes, I think it's a
great idea. People love your tequila. It's you know, I
think it's a good idea. She felt it in our bone,
she felt it in her bones. And then how did
you cause you have there's three co found right, And
(16:06):
then we needed a person who knew something about making
a product, which we did not, so that was Sarca.
And Saraca is awesome, super smart, you know, Stanford engineer
and had been doing work in the food space for
a while, taking ideas from kitchen shell, you know, from
kitchen counter to shelf and in food, but she hadn't
(16:28):
done it yet in spirits. But we were using real ingredients,
so I thought, you know, we're using real food, so
let's I'm sure she could help us figure this out.
And she had had my tequila at events and parties
at my house and so we then approached Saraga and
we're like, hey, do you want to start tequila company?
And she's like yeah, And I think in the beginning
they sort of I think they thought, Okay, this is
(16:50):
this is cool. It's like everyone kind of had a
side hustle in this. You know, in the in the
twenty eighteens, everyone felt like at a side hustle, and
so I think in the beginning, maybe you know, they
thought okay, cause Sarco was still working at a company
and I was a stay at home mom at that time. Yeah,
But then very quickly it started to become very real.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
We need to take a quick break, but don't go anywhere.
We'll be right back with Cat Hauntis. And we're back
with cat Hauntis.
Speaker 5 (17:30):
It's also interesting to me because taking a step back
without all of this insight, it's like, okay, tequila the
spirits is a really saturated marketplace, and you think about
things like Cosamigos where you have George Clooney on a motorcycle,
and you think, wow, it's such a crowded space, how
do I even break into it? But to really be
able to identify your niche in your target market, right,
(17:51):
I think that's a huge lesson that anyone who's thinking
about starting a business can really like.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Think about, like how to differentiate yourself.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
No, totally, we really focused on a particular consumer. Her.
We were focused on her and even more so focused
initially on moms because you know mom's moms are super
powerful consumers, right, because they are first of and foremost
the original influencer in all our lives. Right, Like, whether
we like it or not, our moms still try to
(18:20):
influence their themselves, influence us and what we do, how
we raise our kids, like our life in general. So
they kind of give everyone in the household permission to
consume or you know where whatever whatever they bring into
the house. So she was doing a lot of heavy
lifting boars, but we were very focused on the female
consumer and really trying to solve all her pain points.
(18:41):
So that's how we built the business. And that's not
the typical playbooks.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
I think it's really I think it's really smart too,
because you know, if you think about meeting your audience
where they are, that's right. And I think another thing
a lot of people make the mistake of when they
do go into business is thinking that their product has
to appeal to everyone, right, And when you do that,
you appeal to no one, no one right. So for
you to figure out it's such a strategic way of
(19:08):
thinking about it that you're going to target a very
specific consumer and let that smaller niche than grow right
from there.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
Exactly, like just get that critical math and then you
know they will tell their friends, you know. And so
we really thought about, you know, a lot about like
where does she discover brands? Where does she shop? Like,
you know, how does she plan? You know, so we
use Pinterest for example, and a lot of brands don't
use Pinterest. But we were like, you know, women are
always putting Pinterest boards together on like a birthday they're
(19:42):
going to celebrate, or a baby shower or like you
know whatever, a wedding, a bridal party, shower, like just
there's they use Pinterest. And so we're like, we want
to be on Pinterest. And it was funny like nobody
was really advertising or just even we weren't even advertising.
We were just putting recipes up on Pinterest because we
thought that's where she goes to find that stuff. And
(20:02):
we were like, women don't really discover you know, brands
and bars and restaurants. If they're at a bar and restaurant,
they're not talking to the bartender about like the history
of agave.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
You know, probably you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
It's like I want to hang out with my girlfriends
or on my date or with my husband or you know,
with my coworkers, Like I just I just want to
get my cocktail and get to the talking parts.
Speaker 5 (20:22):
Yeah, and those brands have a certain legacy. You were
never going to compete with that.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
Now, No, we weren't trying to. Yeah. And I think
the thing that I give my sister a lot of
credit for Nicole right as our CFO, is that she
really did keep us on track. It's the one thing
I think as a startup is you can like burn
through money, you know, quickly, and just she was very
disciplined with us about making sure that we focused on
(20:47):
that core consumer because as you might imagine, it's like
a really good tasting tequila. Everybody wants a really good
tasting tequila at their parties, you know. So we were
just as diligent about saying no to stuff, which I
think is really important when you're getting going as saying
yes to stuff and again until you sort of reach
like mainstream, staying very focused on that consumer, like our
core consumer, because we just didn't have the marketing dollars
(21:09):
to market beyond our core consumer. Raising money takes a
lot of time, energy, effort, it's a big distraction, and
so we didn't have to do it very often, so
that was good. It wasn't just like some magic bullets
like oh my god, easy like started to kill a company,
sell it and the three of us had very different lanes, right,
and we didn't get in each other's way. Like what's
(21:31):
huge something really crazy is I was the CEO of
the company. I didn't want to be the CEO of
the company. I'm like, I'll should be the CEO. I'm
not that responsible, but like but I never even had
access to the bank account like Nicole fully had. Like
I trusted her. I'm like, you do that. I'm going
to focus on sales and marketing and you know, product
(21:52):
recipes that kind of stuff, and Sarga is product product product, right,
just making sure that the you know, it got made,
it got to where it need to go and all.
And that's like a hole. That's so much work.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
I'm curious about that aspect, though, Kat, because, like you
mentioned at the beginning that you were a stay at
home mom before this, and this was such.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
A quick rise.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Were you prepared because a stay at home parenthood is
so much work, but being a founder is a different
type of chaos. Were you prepared for this and were
you even interested? Like, were you like, oh my god,
I can't believe I'm the CEO of this big, huge company.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
Yeah, it was crazy. So yeah, so I would say
that a couple of things. One are just to set
it in time. Again, right, A lot of our the
majority of the time while we were in business, a
lot of that was during COVID H So in some
ways that made things a little less complicated in terms
of like the logistics, right, both from a parenting perspective
(22:52):
and a work perspective. Like again, you know, when you're
starting a spirits brand, you have to do a lot
of travel going to meet with distributors all over the country,
and we could do all that now over zoom, So
that was really convenient. So there were certainly some advantages
of building a business during COVID. And then also on
the parenting side, right, the kids weren't like going to
(23:12):
soccer practice and you know all of that stuff, so
that that was also pared down. So that helped. But
even even then when I started the company, like my
kids were older, they weren't littles anymore, you know, and
my husband and I we always we we had this
sort of understanding when we had kids that I would
take defense and he would take offense.
Speaker 5 (23:34):
Oh my gosh, I love that.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
What was the best money you spent and the worst
money you spent? Okay, so the worst money we spent
was with our first branding agency. We thought, okay, we're
gonna we wanted this is sort of a category, new
new category really in many ways flavored tequila, so we
want to go, you know, and we did not come
from spirits, so we thought, okay, we're going to spend
(23:59):
a big portion of this little money we had on
making sure. We wanted to hire a branding agency that
was like an industry veteran that you know, had really
like done some successful brands before. And we hired them,
and we spent all this time working with them, and
in the end, they just they weren't listening to us,
(24:22):
I think because we were three women honestly, I do
that were outside the industry, had no spirits industry experience,
had no beverage experience, and really one of us was
a stay at home mom, right, and the other financed
the other one in food. So and they had this
in particular, this one guy like had this image of
(24:44):
what this brand should be. And we kept giving him notes,
his team notes, and they were just ignoring our notes.
And at one point he finally said, I am ignoring
your notes. Yeah, he actually said it to me, and
I thought, what the heck? Yeah exactly. So I called
my sister. It's like, you have to fire him.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
You're an offense exactly.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
I'm like, you know, I like people too much. I
can't fire him, so you have to. So she did
and that was like, Fortunately, the best money we ever
spent was on the agency we hired afterwards, which was
a female founded agency with full of women and delivered
this product that you see here in front of you,
and they just nailed it for us, and they really
like they listened to what we had to say, you know.
(25:27):
And then that's the thing is that you can keep
going and keep sinking more money or you just cut
and pivot, and that's what you have to be able
to do.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
It's time for another short break, but we'll be right
back with Cat Hauntess. And we're back with Cat Hauntess.
Speaker 5 (25:49):
There's a game.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
There's a game. Should we play? Shot Collars? Shot Collar?
Speaker 5 (25:53):
Well, you tell us a little bit of how this
came together and what it is.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
So when Cat and I hopped on that zoom, we
were talking about a game that women could play on
vacation at dinner parties with their families, Like we wanted
something that everybody could play while drinking twenty one seeds.
And I loved their tagline, the hashtag girls who call
the shots, and so we were like, it has to
(26:18):
be called shot callers, and we just imagined women who
call the shots in their lives drinking twenty one seeds
tequila and playing this game with their friends.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
So can we play today?
Speaker 4 (26:27):
Let's do it. Let's do it. Okay, I want it,
you go first, tim.
Speaker 5 (26:31):
Okay, the question is what characteristic do you have that
has made people want to invest in you?
Speaker 4 (26:38):
Okay, good questions, great question, A good question. And actually
a friend of mine just recently said this to me.
And so it's funny that you asked this question because
maybe three months ago a friend said to me, you
know what you are? A cat. He's like, you're a maximalist,
and I was like.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Him and I both had it right now.
Speaker 5 (26:59):
We both died the seat.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
I know a lean back. You guys did a lean back,
and I was like, go on, Like, what do you
mean by that?
Speaker 2 (27:09):
You know?
Speaker 4 (27:10):
Yeah, And he said, you you take whatever opportunity you have,
you take it. You connect all the dots and you
squeeze every last drop out of it. You don't waste
a moment, not one stone unturned. And that is exactly
what I do. That is exactly I think. That is
(27:31):
the one that is a characteristic that I have that
has made me very successful.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
You know what's funny is I just pulled this question
and I'm going to say the exact opposite of Kat
for this. So the question is a wellness or beauty
tip you've picked up along the way that's worth sharing.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
I'm a minimalist when I comes to beauty. I feel
like less is more.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
I'm with you, less products, less stuff, less procede, Like
I'll I'll just do less and you'll be way happier,
Like get a massage, drink some water.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
One hundred percent. I totally agree. I'm a minimalist too
when it comes to that stuff. One hundred percent. Like
I don't remember like the last makeup product I bought.
You know, I probably still have stuff for my wedding makeup,
you know, like twenty one years ago.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
I love like that.
Speaker 4 (28:15):
Yeah, exactly, probably packing style now probably is It's true.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Blue eyeshadow is back.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
Okay for one more.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
This one's funny.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Have you ever jumped to conclusions about someone based on
their zodiac sign? O?
Speaker 4 (28:28):
There's zodiac sign I have? Really really I don't do
zodiac at all. Like, I don't know anything about the
zodiac signs. I have this one friend who like lives
and dies by the zodiac signs. She's always using it
in conversation. Almost every time I talked to her on
the phone, I'm like, how do you bring that up?
You know what?
Speaker 3 (28:46):
You start to say something?
Speaker 5 (28:48):
Hold on, what's your sign?
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Yeah? Exactly?
Speaker 4 (28:49):
Like really what was a zodiac sign?
Speaker 5 (28:52):
And what did you think about that person?
Speaker 3 (28:54):
Yeah? I'm so embarrassed because Kat, You're right.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
I used to not know anything about this stuff when
I lived in Cargo and then I moved to LA
and everybody the first question you get on a date
is what's your zodiac sign? Like?
Speaker 3 (29:05):
What are you?
Speaker 1 (29:06):
And so I met a guy who was a Gemini,
and Geminis are known to have two personalities two faces.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
You hate that. I hate two faces. I don't like
a two face person.
Speaker 4 (29:18):
Nope, So I did.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
I jumped.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
Wait and did you guys date it all? Or no?
Speaker 1 (29:25):
We went on two dates and then I was like,
I think he's too much of a Gemini.
Speaker 4 (29:29):
That's so funny. That's so funny. I will see like
a parlor trick of trying to like pick up now
is tarot card reading? I do think it's cool to
know how to do that. Like, I think that's a
fun fun like a parlor house, yeah, kind of everywhere.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Okay, what's the most recent book, podcast, or TV show
that you've been obsessively into lately?
Speaker 4 (29:50):
Okay, so I I read this book called Ultra process People.
Have you heard of it?
Speaker 1 (29:56):
No?
Speaker 4 (29:56):
It's so interesting. It's all about like the the the
how ultra processed food got introduced into our food system.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
It was written by two doctors. It's fascinating. It's really
really interesting. It's really you know, originally it was because
they were just trying to feed soldiers in like the
most compact you know form. So basically the way that
they would do that is by like putting more fat
into the food and more carbs into the food. So
how could you do that as fast as possible and
(30:28):
like what you know, if you take food and you
break it down to just the molecules that's made of,
Like do you even need to be using food to
do that? Or can use byproducts of like petroleum or
other things like that? Fascinating, fascinating reading. And I like
to listen well. And my other thing is I like
to listen to books like on two x like super fast,
(30:49):
because I just because I want to, because you're a
maximum maximus, I want to. And my other favorite thing
is like the fireflies on Zoom. Now that record zoom calls,
you can like using AI now you can record zooms,
which I love because you can be you know, in
ten places at once. You don't have to be in
all the meetings anymore because then you can just listen
to them back and it's almost like listening to a podcast.
(31:10):
You're just listening to a zoom meeting. I love that. Yeah,
So I like, yeah, I'm like, just record it. If
I can't be on it, just record it. Send me
the fireflies. And then when I'm taking a walk, getting
my ten thousand steps, and then I just listen to
zooms and you can get so much more done. She's
the Queen of AI.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
The first time I met her, she told me about chat.
Speaker 5 (31:30):
To talk about AI.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Do you use AI in your business at all?
Speaker 4 (31:33):
Oh my god, I am trying to become even more
proficient at it. I feel like I actually am having
a bit of a panic around it because I feel
like it's evolving so quickly that like once I get
up to speed on something, I think something else new
comes out. But yes, I mean, it's amazing how much
you can get done with AI. Now. You know, it
will take the meeting, it will list out the notes,
(31:54):
it will tell you the talking points like takeaways, all
of that kind of I'm actually sort of actually think
about these generations after It's like what are they going
to do with so much free time?
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Right?
Speaker 4 (32:05):
Like, with like AI and robots doing so much for us,
It's like, think about it. In the old days, we
would spend a whole day just provisioning a meal. You know.
It's like, now you're gonna have so much free time,
Like what are you going to do to fill your days?
Speaker 1 (32:17):
So I listened to a futurist that said that if
we are able to take care of people financially, so like,
you know, even though they have all this free time.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
Do they have jobs? Do they have income?
Speaker 1 (32:28):
If we can take care of them financially, he thinks
it could create a renaissance of art.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
Oh so yeah, with all this free time, with yeah,
you can really like settle into your creativity. People can
create more infused tequila brands.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Learn how to play guitar.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
Learn how to play guitar. Yes, I want to learn
how to play a piano. That's the thing I want
to do. I need to do that. Do you think
you'll do it? I think I will. Yeah. Cool.
Speaker 5 (32:52):
Yeah, next time we see you, you'll be playing Mozart.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
She's a maximalist piano. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Kat, thanks for celebrating bold, curious women. And I really
feel like every time somebody has the courage to go
after something big, it gives us all a little bit
more courage.
Speaker 4 (33:13):
So thank you. Amazing, amazing, amazing. Yes, everyone, do it,
do it, do it. We love new products, innovation. I
love innovation. We're here for it.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Kat Hauntis is one of the co founders of the
infused tequila company twenty one Seeds.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
That's it for today's show.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Tomorrow, we have economist and author Emily oster Back here
to give us the latest research on fertility.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Join the conversation using hashtag the bright Side, and connect
with us on social media at Hello Sunshine on Instagram
and at the bright Side Pod on TikTok oh, and
feel free to tag us at Simone Voice and at
Danielle Robe.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Listen and follow The bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your pododcasts.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
See you tomorrow, folks, Keep looking on the bright side.
Hello Sunshine. Are you dreaming of starting your own business?
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Today?
Speaker 1 (00:07):
On the bright side, we've got the inspiration you need.
Cat Hauntis, co founder of the infused tequila brand twenty
one Seeds, is here to share how she and her
business partners built a multi million dollar brand from the
ground up. I'm telling you it was from her kitchen sink.
It's Tuesday, March fourth. I'm Danielle Robe and this is
the bright side from Hello Sunshine. Okay, I'm pretty in
(00:33):
awe of today's guests, and I don't say that a lot.
In fact, I really love Cat Hauntas and her partners
at twenty one seeds so much that I've actually had
the opportunity to partner with them and create a card
game called Shot Callers fifty two questions for girls who
call the shots. And it's really a celebration of women
(00:53):
who call the shots in their own lives. And it's
my first card game collaboration, so you guys know, I
have my our game question everything. This is the first
collab and it was a really big deal. I just
want to share the seed of how it happened. I
was invited to a women's dinner and I got sat
across from Cat and we hit it off, and later
(01:17):
this collaboration happened. But the lesson that I take out
of it is that so many opportunities for women happened
just by being in the room. And I so remember
not being invited into any rooms. I felt like I
had to claw and fight my way into them. And
it just takes one person and one conversation to change
(01:38):
the game. And I think a lot of times starting
a business can feel really overwhelming, and so today we're
stripping all of that away. We are here to empower
you to go after your entrepreneurial dreams.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Because it is so possible.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
And we also have a bit of a special treat
because Simona's traveling and unable to make it. So instead
of talking to Kat just by myself, I thought it
would be really fun to have everybody's favorite show runner
and my bright Side bestie here, Tim Palazzola, Tim, welcome
back to the bright Side.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
I'm so grateful that you said that you would join
us today because aside from being everybody's favorite show runner,
you also do consulting on the.
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Side, and you work with a lot of female entrepreneur,
I do.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
I do, so you kind of have.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
An understanding of what people's pain points are. Yeah, what
do you hear from women that you work with?
Speaker 5 (02:32):
Yeah, first of all, thank you so much for having me.
I am flattered to be here with you today. This
is so fucking cool.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
You're so fun. I'm just gonna say.
Speaker 5 (02:40):
That it's really fucking cool. But yeah, I actually a
guest who was on our show, Susie Moore, don't talk
to us about networking. I've actually worked with her in
the past to help mentor and consult on a lot
of the people that she works with. And I think
the biggest thing that I noticed when people are starting
a business is that you need to have a very
(03:01):
clear idea of who and what you are first and foremost.
I think people get lost in the clutter of it all.
I think the other big thing is you need to
really understand who who your business is for. What need
are you filling for someone? And it doesn't have to
be this like I'm reinventing the wheel. There's a great
(03:23):
thing that I say to people where I say, steal
like an artist.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
You know.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
I love that you don't have to reinvent the wheel.
Speaker 5 (03:29):
The playbook is already out there for you, So pick
and choose the things you like of what people are
doing out there and incorporate them into your own. But
you see how people appeal to their audiences and building
on that. The other important thing is, at the end
of the day, you're selling a feeling.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
I really feel like if you have something on your
heart and you've been thinking about it in the shower,
you just have this kernel of an idea. Today's episode
will hopefully be really inspiring because Kat Haunts just had
this idea in her kitchen and created a multimillion dollar
brand out of it. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (04:04):
If a self proclaimed stay at home mom can turn
a kitchen sync idea into a million dollar idea, multimillion
dollar idea.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Yeah you can too.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
Anyone listening can.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Absolutely. I feel like we just need to bring her. Yeah,
let's do it.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Okay, Kat Haunts, Welcome to the bright Side.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
It is so good to be.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Here with both of you. Guys.
Speaker 5 (04:22):
Welcome, welcome. All right, now, before we talk all things business,
I know that the two of you know each other.
Will you tell us how you met?
Speaker 1 (04:28):
You? Go? I go? Okay, So we were at a
women's dinner It was a female founder's dinner, and I
was lucky enough to be sat right across from Kat,
who I'd never met before, and she lives in San
Francisco and is very tech savvy, and started talking about
AI and I was hanging on her every word. I
was asking a million questions and she was talking to
(04:50):
me about how chat GPT could be useful for what
I do. And this was before anybody was talking about
This is over two years ago, two years ago, almost three, right,
it still the.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Idea from us. We would like to fall agreement. I
love it.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
And Cat is the life of the party.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Clearly you'll understand why she created a tequila company.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
She is so much fun.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
And so I had the best I got the best
seat in the house, and I would say we really
hit it off and we stayed in touch.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Yes, yes, and.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
This idea, I mean was truly born. Shortly thereafter, Yeah,
we hopped on a Zoom and one of the one
of Kat's pillars is travel and adventure and it's one
of the pillars of the brand too, And so we
were talking about how connection can cross borders and what
was a product that we could create that would really
facilitate that, and we thought of a card game called
(05:42):
shot Callers fifty two questions for girls who call the shots.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
I love it, I love it, I love it, smarts showers.
So we did it.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
You know that that's a really great point because so
many people talk about ideas and never actually get to do.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
It totally, totally, and I'm always like, listen, tell everyone
about idea because people are busy, people have day jobs.
No one's going to steal your idea. And the more
you talk about it, right, like everything's interesting.
Speaker 5 (06:07):
You often hear don't tell people about what you're working on.
I love this. Put it out there into the universe,
and the more you talk about the more accountable.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
That's right, Yeah, that's right, And it just sort of
naturally starts to flesh itself out, and then you know
you can pivot and really try to make it happen.
I mean, I'm all, I totally believe that the best
way to make something happen is to start talking about
it immediately and then start actioning it.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Who's the first person you talk about things with? Is
your husband sort of your creative jumping board. He's not okay,
a lot of things. He's a lot of things. That's
why we've been married for twenty going on twenty one years. Yeah,
not my husband.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
I would say, it's either my sister Nicole, who I
started twenty one seats with, or one of my best
friends Danny, who's very, very funny, and we'll call you
out on stuff.
Speaker 5 (06:57):
I was gonna say, are these people trusted soundboards when
they say, oh, Cat, that's a great idea. If they
think it's a bad idea, or they go, no, Cat's
a terrible idea, move one.
Speaker 4 (07:05):
Hundred percent, they will tell me it's a bad idea.
Nicole will often be like, I'll pitch something to Nicole
and she was like, we can't do that. I'm like,
can we have an open mindset for five more minutes
before we close, you know, close that book? Like, can
we just be open mindset for a sec I love that.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Yeah, I want to open the book on your origin story?
How did you even get interested in tequila?
Speaker 4 (07:27):
So you know, I didn't grow up thinking I was
going to start a tequila brand. It really started because
I was drinking wine. That was what I would go
to sort of at the end of my night. I'd
have a couple glasses of wine and after I don't know,
once I turned thirty, it kind of just stopped agreeing
with me, and I started sort of doing some research
(07:47):
on it and sort of realized, Okay, there's a lot
of organic living material in fermented spirits that doesn't exist
in distilled and so switched over to tequila. Didn't love
the way tequila tasted on its own, and found that
regular tequila to get it to taste as easy to
drink as a glass of wine would was requiring a
lot of work and math and you know, stuff that
(08:10):
I didn't want to do. Was it just a lot
of mixers and stuff at your Yeah, because wine is
so easy to drink and tequila tends to be harsh.
And so I thought, you know, I got to do
something to this tequila to make it more drinkable and
an easier to use. And so I love to cook.
I start infusing it, and twenty month Seeds was born
in my kitchen. Basically, I would literally infuse you know,
(08:33):
regular tequila blanco tequila, and it completely changed it. It
would it smells so good when it's infused, especially you
know when you're really really using great ingredients, easy to mix,
you can drink it as a sprits. Super simple. If
that's what you want, you can mix it into any cocktail.
It's going to taste better.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Well. So as you're in like you become your own alchemist,
and as you're infusing these tequilas in your kitchen, what's
the trial and air process?
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Like I'd put the tequila in a Brita, put in
the fruits and vegetables. I wanted to visit it, and
then I would stick my finger in and taste it.
And I was like, what do you.
Speaker 5 (09:10):
Mean you were like pouring it through a brit brit
of picture.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Now, No, so I just used a Brita because of
the quantity. I wanted to make a big batch so
that it would last for a long time.
Speaker 5 (09:26):
Sorry, I thought you were like filtering it through a Britta.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
I was like, oh, that's another level.
Speaker 4 (09:30):
Okay, I know, not that mechanically engineered. But anyways, so
it wasn't. It was, you know, very much trial and error.
It's it's a lot of it is my my taste profile,
you know. So but you know, if you want to
make a a our tequila, is you know a big
(09:52):
consumer of ours or women? Right? Eighty percent? I think
eighty percent of our consumers are women. And you know,
if you want to create a product that w are
going to enjoy, it's probably a good idea to have
a woman create that product, especially it's something you're eating
or drinking. You know, we want something that's smooth, and
that's what twenty one seeds is. It's incredibly smooth. It's
(10:12):
a hint of flavor, that's it. And it's not sweet.
So you can add sweet if you want to add
to sweet, but you don't have to. And you know,
just having the confidence to say this is what I like.
You know, it's not like I was a bartender. It's
not like I was a mixologist. I didn't come from
the spirits.
Speaker 5 (10:27):
Industry training, nothing like that. So you're playing around with
this and you're making it, I assume for yourself. Yes,
at what point, like at that time, were you even
thinking this was going to be a business.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
No, No, no, because I had, you know, my whole
career had been in the movie industry, so I needed
something else to drink other than wine, and I wanted
it to not have a lot of stuff in it,
and and sort of less is more. I once I
realized that by infusing tequila. It really changed it and
smoothed it out and made it more easy to drink.
(10:58):
That's what I would make at my house. So if
you came to my house and I did that for
nine years.
Speaker 5 (11:03):
Nine years, okay, So I was gonna ask like, at
what point did you?
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (11:07):
Nine years?
Speaker 5 (11:07):
Sorry, friend, And I assume at some point you're like
giving it out as gifts or yeah, having parties and
everyone like, oh my god, I need to taste Cats tequila.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
And that's what they would call it. They would just
say Cats tequila. And my sister, you know, if anyone
who sort of knew me, my immediate people, they just
I'll just bring Cats tequila. You know. It really became
a thing within our friend group. Yeah, and again what
I would do is now we call it a seed
and soda bar, right, But what I would do is
I'd take a bunch of infused tequilas that I'd made,
I'd put them out and then a bunch of different
(11:36):
club sodas, some with flavor, some without flavor. And then
I like to do like a charcouterie board of garnishes
and just put that out and then different glassware and
people could just make their own drinks, and that's what
you would have at my house if you came to
my house for dinner or dinner party. I love it.
Speaker 5 (11:51):
I've seen like make your own bloody marrion bars, but
I when everything to do that with like a tequila
that's really smart.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Like it's a tequila soda. So we do that now
it's like our seed and soda bar.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:59):
So what so nine years of doing this just sort
of in your friend group, you know, what was that
moment for you when you thought this is more than
just my friend group, this this could be a business. Like,
what was that moment?
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (12:11):
So what I noticed, and this was sort of just
a frame a time wise. It was after you know,
Cosamigos had sold to Diagio, so tequila was really on
the rise. And what I noticed I started just realized,
like when I'd be out and this was before COVID.
We this was all like twenty eighteen, early twenty eighteen.
We launched the brand in twenty nineteen, So early twenty eighteen,
(12:34):
you know, I'd be out in a bar or a
restaurant and I would notice that especially women were ordering, Hey,
can I have a tequila soda? Three lines. Can I
have a tequila soda, splash of juice of some kind,
or tequila sota, slice of orange? And that was that
was the order. And I thought, huh. At the time,
there was either like shots or really high end, you know,
(12:57):
sipping tequila. Those were the two ways people were sort
of marketing tequila. And I thought, Wow, there's this other
way that people are drinking tequila, which is in the sprits,
right like our seed in soda. That's the sprits. And
and I'm making this infused tequila, and man, that would
taste better. Infuse tequila plus soda sounds better than you know,
(13:19):
just tequila soda. It's much smoother, it's got a hint
of flavor. And I thought, well, why isn't anyone really
talking about this.
Speaker 5 (13:24):
Because infused vodka's was quite a thing. Totally see it
in tequila. So you were saying that women women ordering
I should do this?
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Well no, Then I thought, maybe let me go see
what's going on in the tequila aisle, because you know,
I hadn't I hadn't really like paid attention to it
from that lens. So I went into the tequila and
I thought, oh my god, there's first of all, it's
all it's all all the new tequilas that had come
on the market were again these sort of higher end
you know, marketed like scotches and whiskeys being pushed to men,
(13:56):
right like, like instead of drinking whiskey and sipping on ski,
sip on a tequila. And I thought, there's no color
in the aisle, there's no fun. There's everything so serious,
you know, and where's the fun and where's the sprits?
The sprits is fun, you know, and something you could
enjoy in that wine occasion, easy entertaining. So it was
either like shots woo woo on the table tequila, right
(14:18):
or it was sipping tequila which was very serious. And
I was like, where's the fun tequila, you know, just
the drinking tequila that's just you know, an easy sprits
that you can have, you know, when you're with dinner
or entertaining at home or in that wine occasion. And
there just was nothing in the aisle that was that
was literally speaking to that occasion. And then there was
(14:38):
certainly nothing in the aisle talking to women. And I
was like, wow, the women are the ones who are
driving the growth in this category and no one's talking
them in tequila asle And then it was at that
point that I was like, Okay, maybe there's something here.
And then I went and talked to my sister.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
Nic You're best a call or open mind?
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Did you have to have that open mind?
Speaker 5 (15:00):
Keep it up in mind with her?
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Initially so she.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
You know, at the time, Nicole was the CFO of Angelist. Okay,
so she had a big job, right, And I said
to her, I was like, sister, you know that tequila
that I've been making at home and everyone loves And
she's like, of course, everybody loves it. You're tequila, of course,
and she loved it, and she said, I said, I'm
thinking that I want to turn that into a company.
(15:25):
Do you want to do it with me? I thought
for sure, because she's oftentimes closed mindset, and I thought
first sure she'd be like, no, I have a day job.
I'm a big, powerful CFO of a big company. I
don't have time. And she goes one hundred percent les done,
yeah first time, Like our mom is Greek, and she
leads with no, like you ask her question, can I
(15:45):
do No, she just does it just so that she
has her footing, I think before and so I think
Nicole inherited that from my mom, and in this case,
she just immediately was like, yes, I think it's a
great idea. People love your tequila. It's you know, I
think it's a good idea. She felt it in our bone,
she felt it in her bones. And then how did
you cause you have there's three co found right, And
(16:06):
then we needed a person who knew something about making
a product, which we did not, so that was Sarca.
And Saraca is awesome, super smart, you know, Stanford engineer
and had been doing work in the food space for
a while, taking ideas from kitchen shell, you know, from
kitchen counter to shelf and in food, but she hadn't
(16:28):
done it yet in spirits. But we were using real ingredients,
so I thought, you know, we're using real food, so
let's I'm sure she could help us figure this out.
And she had had my tequila at events and parties
at my house and so we then approached Saraga and
we're like, hey, do you want to start tequila company?
And she's like yeah, And I think in the beginning
they sort of I think they thought, Okay, this is
(16:50):
this is cool. It's like everyone kind of had a
side hustle in this. You know, in the in the
twenty eighteens, everyone felt like at a side hustle, and
so I think in the beginning, maybe you know, they
thought okay, cause Sarco was still working at a company
and I was a stay at home mom at that time. Yeah,
But then very quickly it started to become very real.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
We need to take a quick break, but don't go anywhere.
We'll be right back with Cat Hauntis. And we're back
with cat Hauntis.
Speaker 5 (17:30):
It's also interesting to me because taking a step back
without all of this insight, it's like, okay, tequila the
spirits is a really saturated marketplace, and you think about
things like Cosamigos where you have George Clooney on a motorcycle,
and you think, wow, it's such a crowded space, how
do I even break into it? But to really be
able to identify your niche in your target market, right,
(17:51):
I think that's a huge lesson that anyone who's thinking
about starting a business can really like.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
Think about, like how to differentiate yourself.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
No, totally, we really focused on a particular consumer. Her.
We were focused on her and even more so focused
initially on moms because you know mom's moms are super
powerful consumers, right, because they are first of and foremost
the original influencer in all our lives. Right, Like, whether
we like it or not, our moms still try to
(18:20):
influence their themselves, influence us and what we do, how
we raise our kids, like our life in general. So
they kind of give everyone in the household permission to
consume or you know where whatever whatever they bring into
the house. So she was doing a lot of heavy
lifting boars, but we were very focused on the female
consumer and really trying to solve all her pain points.
(18:41):
So that's how we built the business. And that's not
the typical playbooks.
Speaker 5 (18:46):
I think it's really I think it's really smart too,
because you know, if you think about meeting your audience
where they are, that's right. And I think another thing
a lot of people make the mistake of when they
do go into business is thinking that their product has
to appeal to everyone, right, And when you do that,
you appeal to no one, no one right. So for
you to figure out it's such a strategic way of
(19:08):
thinking about it that you're going to target a very
specific consumer and let that smaller niche than grow right
from there.
Speaker 4 (19:18):
Exactly, like just get that critical math and then you
know they will tell their friends, you know. And so
we really thought about, you know, a lot about like
where does she discover brands? Where does she shop? Like,
you know, how does she plan? You know, so we
use Pinterest for example, and a lot of brands don't
use Pinterest. But we were like, you know, women are
always putting Pinterest boards together on like a birthday they're
(19:42):
going to celebrate, or a baby shower or like you
know whatever, a wedding, a bridal party, shower, like just
there's they use Pinterest. And so we're like, we want
to be on Pinterest. And it was funny like nobody
was really advertising or just even we weren't even advertising.
We were just putting recipes up on Pinterest because we
thought that's where she goes to find that stuff. And
(20:02):
we were like, women don't really discover you know, brands
and bars and restaurants. If they're at a bar and restaurant,
they're not talking to the bartender about like the history
of agave.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
You know, probably you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
It's like I want to hang out with my girlfriends
or on my date or with my husband or you know,
with my coworkers, Like I just I just want to
get my cocktail and get to the talking parts.
Speaker 5 (20:22):
Yeah, and those brands have a certain legacy. You were
never going to compete with that.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
Now, No, we weren't trying to. Yeah. And I think
the thing that I give my sister a lot of
credit for Nicole right as our CFO, is that she
really did keep us on track. It's the one thing
I think as a startup is you can like burn
through money, you know, quickly, and just she was very
disciplined with us about making sure that we focused on
(20:47):
that core consumer because as you might imagine, it's like
a really good tasting tequila. Everybody wants a really good
tasting tequila at their parties, you know. So we were
just as diligent about saying no to stuff, which I
think is really important when you're getting going as saying
yes to stuff and again until you sort of reach
like mainstream, staying very focused on that consumer, like our
core consumer, because we just didn't have the marketing dollars
(21:09):
to market beyond our core consumer. Raising money takes a
lot of time, energy, effort, it's a big distraction, and
so we didn't have to do it very often, so
that was good. It wasn't just like some magic bullets
like oh my god, easy like started to kill a company,
sell it and the three of us had very different lanes, right,
and we didn't get in each other's way. Like what's
(21:31):
huge something really crazy is I was the CEO of
the company. I didn't want to be the CEO of
the company. I'm like, I'll should be the CEO. I'm
not that responsible, but like but I never even had
access to the bank account like Nicole fully had. Like
I trusted her. I'm like, you do that. I'm going
to focus on sales and marketing and you know, product
(21:52):
recipes that kind of stuff, and Sarga is product product product, right,
just making sure that the you know, it got made,
it got to where it need to go and all.
And that's like a hole. That's so much work.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
I'm curious about that aspect, though, Kat, because, like you
mentioned at the beginning that you were a stay at
home mom before this, and this was such.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
A quick rise.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
Were you prepared because a stay at home parenthood is
so much work, but being a founder is a different
type of chaos. Were you prepared for this and were
you even interested? Like, were you like, oh my god,
I can't believe I'm the CEO of this big, huge company.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
Yeah, it was crazy. So yeah, so I would say
that a couple of things. One are just to set
it in time. Again, right, A lot of our the
majority of the time while we were in business, a
lot of that was during COVID H So in some
ways that made things a little less complicated in terms
of like the logistics, right, both from a parenting perspective
(22:52):
and a work perspective. Like again, you know, when you're
starting a spirits brand, you have to do a lot
of travel going to meet with distributors all over the country,
and we could do all that now over zoom, So
that was really convenient. So there were certainly some advantages
of building a business during COVID. And then also on
the parenting side, right, the kids weren't like going to
(23:12):
soccer practice and you know all of that stuff, so
that that was also pared down. So that helped. But
even even then when I started the company, like my
kids were older, they weren't littles anymore, you know, and
my husband and I we always we we had this
sort of understanding when we had kids that I would
take defense and he would take offense.
Speaker 5 (23:34):
Oh my gosh, I love that.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
What was the best money you spent and the worst
money you spent? Okay, so the worst money we spent
was with our first branding agency. We thought, okay, we're
gonna we wanted this is sort of a category, new
new category really in many ways flavored tequila, so we
want to go, you know, and we did not come
from spirits, so we thought, okay, we're going to spend
(23:59):
a big portion of this little money we had on
making sure. We wanted to hire a branding agency that
was like an industry veteran that you know, had really
like done some successful brands before. And we hired them,
and we spent all this time working with them, and
in the end, they just they weren't listening to us,
(24:22):
I think because we were three women honestly, I do
that were outside the industry, had no spirits industry experience,
had no beverage experience, and really one of us was
a stay at home mom, right, and the other financed
the other one in food. So and they had this
in particular, this one guy like had this image of
(24:44):
what this brand should be. And we kept giving him notes,
his team notes, and they were just ignoring our notes.
And at one point he finally said, I am ignoring
your notes. Yeah, he actually said it to me, and
I thought, what the heck? Yeah exactly. So I called
my sister. It's like, you have to fire him.
Speaker 3 (25:03):
You're an offense exactly.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
I'm like, you know, I like people too much. I
can't fire him, so you have to. So she did
and that was like, Fortunately, the best money we ever
spent was on the agency we hired afterwards, which was
a female founded agency with full of women and delivered
this product that you see here in front of you,
and they just nailed it for us, and they really
like they listened to what we had to say, you know.
(25:27):
And then that's the thing is that you can keep
going and keep sinking more money or you just cut
and pivot, and that's what you have to be able
to do.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
It's time for another short break, but we'll be right
back with Cat Hauntess. And we're back with Cat Hauntess.
Speaker 5 (25:49):
There's a game.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
There's a game. Should we play? Shot Collars? Shot Collar?
Speaker 5 (25:53):
Well, you tell us a little bit of how this
came together and what it is.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
So when Cat and I hopped on that zoom, we
were talking about a game that women could play on
vacation at dinner parties with their families, Like we wanted
something that everybody could play while drinking twenty one seeds.
And I loved their tagline, the hashtag girls who call
the shots, and so we were like, it has to
(26:18):
be called shot callers, and we just imagined women who
call the shots in their lives drinking twenty one seeds
tequila and playing this game with their friends.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
So can we play today?
Speaker 4 (26:27):
Let's do it. Let's do it. Okay, I want it,
you go first, tim.
Speaker 5 (26:31):
Okay, the question is what characteristic do you have that
has made people want to invest in you?
Speaker 4 (26:38):
Okay, good questions, great question, A good question. And actually
a friend of mine just recently said this to me.
And so it's funny that you asked this question because
maybe three months ago a friend said to me, you
know what you are? A cat. He's like, you're a maximalist,
and I was like.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
Him and I both had it right now.
Speaker 5 (26:59):
We both died the seat.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
I know a lean back. You guys did a lean back,
and I was like, go on, Like, what do you
mean by that?
Speaker 2 (27:09):
You know?
Speaker 4 (27:10):
Yeah, And he said, you you take whatever opportunity you have,
you take it. You connect all the dots and you
squeeze every last drop out of it. You don't waste
a moment, not one stone unturned. And that is exactly
what I do. That is exactly I think. That is
(27:31):
the one that is a characteristic that I have that
has made me very successful.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
You know what's funny is I just pulled this question
and I'm going to say the exact opposite of Kat
for this. So the question is a wellness or beauty
tip you've picked up along the way that's worth sharing.
Speaker 3 (27:46):
I'm a minimalist when I comes to beauty. I feel
like less is more.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
I'm with you, less products, less stuff, less procede, Like
I'll I'll just do less and you'll be way happier,
Like get a massage, drink some water.
Speaker 4 (28:00):
One hundred percent. I totally agree. I'm a minimalist too
when it comes to that stuff. One hundred percent. Like
I don't remember like the last makeup product I bought.
You know, I probably still have stuff for my wedding makeup,
you know, like twenty one years ago.
Speaker 3 (28:14):
I love like that.
Speaker 4 (28:15):
Yeah, exactly, probably packing style now probably is It's true.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Blue eyeshadow is back.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
Okay for one more.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
This one's funny.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
Have you ever jumped to conclusions about someone based on
their zodiac sign? O?
Speaker 4 (28:28):
There's zodiac sign I have? Really really I don't do
zodiac at all. Like, I don't know anything about the
zodiac signs. I have this one friend who like lives
and dies by the zodiac signs. She's always using it
in conversation. Almost every time I talked to her on
the phone, I'm like, how do you bring that up?
You know what?
Speaker 3 (28:46):
You start to say something?
Speaker 5 (28:48):
Hold on, what's your sign?
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Yeah? Exactly?
Speaker 4 (28:49):
Like really what was a zodiac sign?
Speaker 5 (28:52):
And what did you think about that person?
Speaker 3 (28:54):
Yeah? I'm so embarrassed because Kat, You're right.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
I used to not know anything about this stuff when
I lived in Cargo and then I moved to LA
and everybody the first question you get on a date
is what's your zodiac sign? Like?
Speaker 3 (29:05):
What are you?
Speaker 1 (29:06):
And so I met a guy who was a Gemini,
and Geminis are known to have two personalities two faces.
Speaker 3 (29:14):
You hate that. I hate two faces. I don't like
a two face person.
Speaker 4 (29:18):
Nope, So I did.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
I jumped.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
Wait and did you guys date it all? Or no?
Speaker 1 (29:25):
We went on two dates and then I was like,
I think he's too much of a Gemini.
Speaker 4 (29:29):
That's so funny. That's so funny. I will see like
a parlor trick of trying to like pick up now
is tarot card reading? I do think it's cool to
know how to do that. Like, I think that's a
fun fun like a parlor house, yeah, kind of everywhere.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Okay, what's the most recent book, podcast, or TV show
that you've been obsessively into lately?
Speaker 4 (29:50):
Okay, so I I read this book called Ultra process People.
Have you heard of it?
Speaker 1 (29:56):
No?
Speaker 4 (29:56):
It's so interesting. It's all about like the the the
how ultra processed food got introduced into our food system.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
It was written by two doctors. It's fascinating. It's really
really interesting. It's really you know, originally it was because
they were just trying to feed soldiers in like the
most compact you know form. So basically the way that
they would do that is by like putting more fat
into the food and more carbs into the food. So
how could you do that as fast as possible and
(30:28):
like what you know, if you take food and you
break it down to just the molecules that's made of,
Like do you even need to be using food to
do that? Or can use byproducts of like petroleum or
other things like that? Fascinating, fascinating reading. And I like
to listen well. And my other thing is I like
to listen to books like on two x like super fast,
(30:49):
because I just because I want to, because you're a
maximum maximus, I want to. And my other favorite thing
is like the fireflies on Zoom. Now that record zoom calls,
you can like using AI now you can record zooms,
which I love because you can be you know, in
ten places at once. You don't have to be in
all the meetings anymore because then you can just listen
to them back and it's almost like listening to a podcast.
(31:10):
You're just listening to a zoom meeting. I love that. Yeah,
So I like, yeah, I'm like, just record it. If
I can't be on it, just record it. Send me
the fireflies. And then when I'm taking a walk, getting
my ten thousand steps, and then I just listen to
zooms and you can get so much more done. She's
the Queen of AI.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
The first time I met her, she told me about chat.
Speaker 5 (31:30):
To talk about AI.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Do you use AI in your business at all?
Speaker 4 (31:33):
Oh my god, I am trying to become even more
proficient at it. I feel like I actually am having
a bit of a panic around it because I feel
like it's evolving so quickly that like once I get
up to speed on something, I think something else new
comes out. But yes, I mean, it's amazing how much
you can get done with AI. Now. You know, it
will take the meeting, it will list out the notes,
(31:54):
it will tell you the talking points like takeaways, all
of that kind of I'm actually sort of actually think
about these generations after It's like what are they going
to do with so much free time?
Speaker 2 (32:04):
Right?
Speaker 4 (32:05):
Like, with like AI and robots doing so much for us,
It's like, think about it. In the old days, we
would spend a whole day just provisioning a meal. You know.
It's like, now you're gonna have so much free time,
Like what are you going to do to fill your days?
Speaker 1 (32:17):
So I listened to a futurist that said that if
we are able to take care of people financially, so like,
you know, even though they have all this free time.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
Do they have jobs? Do they have income?
Speaker 1 (32:28):
If we can take care of them financially, he thinks
it could create a renaissance of art.
Speaker 4 (32:33):
Oh so yeah, with all this free time, with yeah,
you can really like settle into your creativity. People can
create more infused tequila brands.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Learn how to play guitar.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
Learn how to play guitar. Yes, I want to learn
how to play a piano. That's the thing I want
to do. I need to do that. Do you think
you'll do it? I think I will. Yeah. Cool.
Speaker 5 (32:52):
Yeah, next time we see you, you'll be playing Mozart.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
She's a maximalist piano. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
Kat, thanks for celebrating bold, curious women. And I really
feel like every time somebody has the courage to go
after something big, it gives us all a little bit
more courage.
Speaker 4 (33:13):
So thank you. Amazing, amazing, amazing. Yes, everyone, do it,
do it, do it. We love new products, innovation. I
love innovation. We're here for it.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Kat Hauntis is one of the co founders of the
infused tequila company twenty one Seeds.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
That's it for today's show.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Tomorrow, we have economist and author Emily oster Back here
to give us the latest research on fertility.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Join the conversation using hashtag the bright Side, and connect
with us on social media at Hello Sunshine on Instagram
and at the bright Side Pod on TikTok oh, and
feel free to tag us at Simone Voice and at
Danielle Robe.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Listen and follow The bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your pododcasts.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
See you tomorrow, folks, Keep looking on the bright side.
Hosts And Creators
Simone Boyce
Danielle Robay
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