August 19, 2025 • 47 mins
Today on Brewsers, we talk to Noah with Vala Seltzer. We talk about how Vala started, his background in the Navy, and so much more. Follow us on instagram and twitter at Brewserspod. Like, share, review, enjoy and cheers. #brewsers #brewserspod #Enjoylife #DrinkLocal #Cheers
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:20):
Welcome to Bruisers, a podcast about beer, coffee, booze and bruisers.
I'm your host, Ready John, And today we talked to
Noah with Vala Seltzer. We talk about how Valla started
his background in the Navy and.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
So much more. This is such a fun conversation.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Noah is absolutely making a new territory here in America.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Is very big over in Europe.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
It is the middle ground between non alcoholic and the
actual beer world in the RTD world. But you don't
want to hear from me, you want to hear from him.
So here is Noah with Valla. So yeah, we're talking
(01:05):
about companies that just, you know, like how they get
so much bigger. And I think it went all the
way back to kind of like the Capricio where that
went super viral because this one dad got really drunk
off drinking a four pack, which in a sense he
drank two bottles of wine, and all of a sudden,
people are like, where.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Can I get Capricio? Where can I get Capricio. It's
like everybody's asked to have it somewhere.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
And then, yeah, I was just talking about that sun Chaser,
like I saw that on a Bravo show and then now, yeah,
you see that stuff everywhere.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Yeah mean I feel like even like a month or
two ago, wasn't everywhere. Like I'm doing calls and it's
like stocked on every shelf.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yeah yeah, well, Noah, thank you so much for being
on the show. So tell us about your absolutely fantastic
vodka Seltzer. It's low carb, low abv. It's for people
that actually won to you know, have be out with
friends and have fun. But you know, some of these
(02:05):
Seltzers can go all the way up to like what
are we in the double digits now?
Speaker 3 (02:09):
It's like, yeah, cup water like thirteen percent. Drink one
or two of those on the boat. Yeah. So it's
a voga based RTD and it's mixed with birch water,
which is birch sat from a birch tree, boiled down
and mixed with water, and it gives such a light drink,
a really nice body and a really nice taste. We
actually beat out High Noon in every single one of
(02:31):
their flavors besides mango and like a Cane Can Challenge
competition Wow last year, which is great. It gives it
like a really nice mouth feel and kind of aligns
with our health conscious consumer. It's got antox and some
minerals and stuff in it. Dude, we come over here. Sorry,
(02:53):
I got a pop.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
I'm on because my dog's barking, so I completely understand.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
I I bottled that after a company in England called
small Beer, and they that was the term used when
water wasn't sanitary enough to drink, like, everyone would use
small beer. And they grew from two point zero to
two point eight percent alcohol. And I found them before
I even started the project here. It was probably like
a year and a half, two years ago, and I
called their owner and he said, after COVID, they just
(03:23):
took off because people are looking for a better for
you option. And funny enough, last October I was doing
a pitch in New York and the next day and
I told him about small Beer And the next day
small Beer had gotten in six states whole foods and
now they're shipping to forty five different states here in
the US. And when I first talked to Felix, their owner,
(03:45):
they weren't even around. So this they call it mid
strength overre in the UK. It was kind of bridging
the gap between NA and in full strength drinks. Usually
it's three percent. You're seeing more people come out and
do it. There's like an American small beer. There's also
this company called Dad Beer that's two point eight percent
I think, doing pretty well. And then Miller LTEs has
(04:09):
a Miller Light sixty four that's actually been around for
a really long time and they just spent like the
whole I think it was a year before last year,
rebranding it to kind of look more modern. And it's
two point eight percent sixty four calories. So really just
trying to provide an alcoholic options, lower in calories, lower
in alcohol, so you can you know, have two or
(04:29):
three of them on a weekday or in a social
setting or during the day and not feel like you
ruin your workout and stay in control the night. I
came up with the idea. My roommate and I it
was like Monday or Tuesday, and I poured with both
of beer, got to go to bed after the movie.
We both only drank half the beer. I was like,
(04:50):
wasn't there something without alcohol and calories where you could
drink like two or three of them on a weekday
and have that ritual consumption and like you you know,
took a step backwards. And then the next day I
was listening to a podcast in this guy Edward Slingerman.
He was on Joe Rogan who wrote this book called Drunk,
and it's really interesting. He says in the book that like,
(05:14):
initially humans went after fermented fruit instinctually because it was
hiring sugar and hiring carbs. And then we liked how
it made us feel, and then we created agriculture, and
it allowed us to share ideas because it kind of
any substance or alcohol kind of shuts down that natural
inhibition allows human to share ideas and connect. And I
(05:36):
saw NA getting you know, so big, and I was
like so big, and I was like, there's a middle
ground here, Like you don't have to drink nothing at all.
I mean, I was at an industry event last year
and some lady had a not out beer with a
shot of whiskey. I was like what, Yeah. I was like,
that's exactly kind of what I drink. Is So there's
(05:57):
essentially half a shot of vody in our drinks.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Nice. So like the first time we got inventory in,
I played a golf round and had like three or
four of them each nine, which is essentially three or
four drinks over a four hour period and actually had
a breath liser to test it, and I was having
fun like drinking with everyone, blew a point six, which
was like under legal limit, and it was like exactly
what I had hoped for. Kind of to tag on
(06:24):
to one of the reasons I made this, I was
my junior year in college. I was hit head on
by a drunk driver on the highway. He's going the
wrong way in the highway seventy five miles per hour.
He had a point two six blood alcohol, hit the
cars in head on. I completely reconstructed metal face, broken pelvis,
(06:46):
dislocated hip. I was helicoptered off the highway, lucky enough
to recover and then get sent out to go to
seal training after graduating the Naval Academy and getting a
couple hip surgery and so my body was pretty beat up,
but gave that a good go. Did hell we three times?
(07:06):
Failed it three times? Yeah, and then make it through
the third. They told me to kick rocks after I
didn't make it through. So I tried to take, you know,
kind of that energy and put it towards something positive,
and I created ball Up lifestyle. Seltzer, and I think
(07:28):
I'm in a good market for it down here in
southern California. The last like two weekends we sampled Saturday
Sunday in Laguna and sold like fifteen cases. So just
from one day of sampling, people are really enjoying it,
and I think there's a lot more people looking for
options like this, which is good.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Yeah, there's so much I want to talk about with
everything you just say, but if people actually want to
see the video and the pictures, you guys have an
absolutely amazing one on your on the Instagram, so definitely
people go check that out. Very very wonderfully produced too.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Kevin did a great job, Kevin Doyle.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
There we go shout out Kevin Doyle.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
But I have had so many people on the show
that do and have started absolutely incredible NA drinks or
just everything else, you know, whether it be beers or
cocktails or wine or whatever. But I do love having
this conversation because, like you said, that NA market is
not getting any smaller.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
It is getting bigger and bigger.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
As you know, it's not just for pregnant people and
people used to be drinking, so like it's literally people
like you know, I am again recently single, so I'm
back on tender and I have seen people say that
they're sober curious, and I was like, wow, this is
where we are and dating and sober curious is actually
(08:52):
a phrase on a dating app. So I love it
because there's so many people that do want to have
still a good time, but then you know, still function
and be a great yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
People and not get messy. I think it's like fluctuate
throughout history whether being drunk or being in control has
been cool or not. And I feel like in America
we still have this like all or nothing attitude from
when we gained independence from pretty Britain, and that's like
(09:25):
leaked over into a lot of our behaviors socially. And
I think now we're seeing that we're trying to figure
out how do we handle a moderate alcohol like it
was egal in our country not too long ago. In
this like midstrank category that I'm trying to, you know,
add on to in the States is really popular in
the rest of the I think the two countries with
(09:48):
the least amount of alcoholics are like Spain in Italy
and they drink the most throughout. But yeah, but it's
like one drink in the morning or one drink at lunch,
and it's usually lower alcohol too, like a cat wine
or I think that's how you say it. That's very
low and throughout like most history, we've drank super low alcohol.
It wasn't until like the eighteenth century we created gin
(10:08):
and vodka and all those things, and now we're trying
to figure out how to handle that. But I would
say we fall under this sober curious you know, umbrella
you can you can get a strong buzz from them
if you drink them fast.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
So you have shotgun them, is what you're saying.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Yes, yeah, we did that at an event once. It
was fun.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
I did that with a white claw was there's too
many bubbles or.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
With ours it's pretty lightly CARBONATEDOD okay, yeah, which is
really nice because I drink a white claw high noon
and it's like so bloated, and the water gives it
like a nice smooth like body and feel when you
drink it as well, So they're pretty enjoyable, pretty refreshing,
and obviously there's a light amount of alcohol in it,
so it doesn't taste too like there's no malt liquor,
(10:54):
which is nice because I feel like those white claws,
and even like a twisted tea, you really taste the malt.
That's why I went vodka. But obviously there's some more
difficulties going with a spirit than you know, beer or
malt liquor. But I, you know, I just wanted to
make something that I want to drink, and that's kind
of what I went for.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
So how did how did you end up on the
birch Water?
Speaker 3 (11:19):
So I was ordering everything and trying to figure out
exactly what I knew I wanted, like a mid strength
category drink, and I was trying to figure out my kitchen.
In one week, I ordered like a palette of not
a palette, but like a case of Birchwater seltzers. And
at the time I had like three roommates and we
(11:40):
might have had a party or something. And within a
week all those birchwater seltzers were gone. I was like,
what is that? And I mixed it with the vodka
and it tasted unbelievable. And then I found a lab
in la and we went to them and they did
a really good job. So I was super happy with
how it landed.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Wow, that's awesome. Random, Oh, these are working out really
well why not?
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Yeah, and it kind of like it also is like
a little knee add on for the health conscious kind
of going after you know, it's got antalyx and some minerals.
It's good for your skin quote unquote still.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Alcohol poison your body.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Yeah, like below three scientifically you're still hydrating, but like
you can't market that.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
And of course, yeah, noways good. I need to be
I need to be drinking an hydrated at the same time.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
But when you're creating a brand and a business, like
obviously you have to figure out what the name is
going to be, what your logo obviously, like what size
can or if you're winning a can? Like how did
all of that kind of come together?
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Yeah, that was a that was quite the process. I
mean it it took a good year to really like
have a solid brand and a solid look and everything.
I mean, the number of can changes we did in
you know, box changes was insane. But my initial thought
was I wanted like an alcohol company that was kind
of Yory, Lululemon and Red Bull kind of like all mixed.
(13:18):
And I think we landed like very close to that
or like exactly how I wanted it. I mean, the
brand itself, like how I envisioned it in the beginning
is pretty much exactly what it is now. Valla is
a playoff the Latin word valier, meaning strength and vitality,
and I really like the way it looks. And then
lifestyle Seltzer is kind of just just a nod to
(13:42):
what it is exactly, and that's like a drink that
can fit into your lifestyle in certain moments and times.
And it's not like, you know, Valla is against heavy drinking,
but like this is here for you when you want it,
and like you can drink and be social and be
active and be quote unquote cool without not drinking at all,
(14:05):
you know what I mean, and stay on the path
you're kind of headed towards. So the initial can design
was literally just a buddy that did graphic designing and
a lot of this was just like going out and
like taking action and talking to people and like churning
and then like meet one person they introduced to you,
(14:27):
another person they induced to another person, and that's exactly
what happened to the person we ended up landing on
for the brand. We have now Clay Summers, who did
an amazing job met someone from Cornatto Brewing Company who
introduced us to Eddie Buchanan who was buddies with Clay,
(14:48):
and Eddie's a salesman and has a consultant company for
alcohol business. And we worked for like pretty much eight
months to like ten months building everything and having a
super solid foundation like graphically in brand wise before we
really launched. Sorry about that. And we did a little
(15:13):
bit of a like soft launch last year around this
time with a distributor in La And then this summer
we're cranking in Laguna and Malibu and Orange or like
RSM Orange County a little bit more south and also
attacking some places down in San Diego. It's funny up
(15:35):
in La I figured out after events that people actually
really like this drink when they're drinking heavy as well
then and then go to the after party, and people
had stopped in the liquor store nearby and bought like
cases for the after party. So down in San Diego,
I just got into a nightclub and bottle service loves them.
(15:57):
So I don't know if people are like doing shots
then drinking this or using it as a mixer, but
it's funny to see it kind of fits in not
only when you're drinking light, but also when you're drinking heavy.
And in some parties I've brought it to like people
have a cocktail and then switch to this. So it's
a really nice option to have available.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
What did you when you started it?
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Obviously you just you saw what was happening in Europe
and and I love that people were finding what's happening
in Europe and then bring that over here because I
know that's how buzzball started and so many.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Others really, and it's huge over there, you know, right.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
I love that they're the forefront and we're like, oh wait,
what everybody else doing?
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Okay, yeah, exactly, yeah, because our relationship with alcohol is
in as good as other places.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
No it is not.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
No, Yes, COVID really hit tilt Free a lot of people. Well,
when you first made it, obviously you said you wanted
to there is that bridge, and it's obviously going to
start growing here in America as well. Did you see
it as that bridge that you just wanted to be,
you know, kind of the way you guys are functioning
(17:05):
as a fitness and lifestyle one or did you see
the fact that people were going to be the in
between the heavy drinks.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Also, I did not foresee that, and that initially I
wasn't even really good to go after on premise accounts
because I was like, I don't know, like if people
go to a restaurant, I don't know if they're going
to want to like buy this. But the more we
kind of like dip their toe into some of them
and like found success, I was like, this is great.
(17:35):
And I think the bottle service one is a nice
little like strategy because it's on the menu. They're already
paying a lot of money and they don't have to
make a decision of like hey am I going to
drink that or this in like worrying about a budget,
and so it's a way to like kind of get
it in front of people without there having to be
(17:57):
a lot of mental energy take in place. So that
is like one of the difficult things that we're dealing
with right now is like obviously a startup beverage company,
your profitability isn't going to be great until you hit
a certain scale. And you know, scale is not a strategy,
(18:17):
but we need to get it out there and price
point is important for a lot of people. And it's
funny because a lot of na drinks are priced at
the same as full strength drinks, but this has you know,
happy alcohol in it, so people are like, why isn't
it less? Yeah, and a beers cost the same exact
But this summer, you know, we're putting out cases that
(18:39):
are competitive with he Noon and we're finding success at
that price point. And that's just something you know, we'll
continue to have to work through as the company grows,
which any beverage company does, you know, they continue to
tweak the formula, they continue to make it better and
find better sourcing and suppliers and manufacturers. We got really
lucky with our manufacturer, uh, super like professional, and I
(19:04):
know a lot of people run into issues with that.
I mean in our first pilot run we were doing
in Colorado. We're in Lake Elson, We're in California now,
but the Colorado run like one of the skews, the
whole skew was completely busted out, and like starting a company,
that can be like kind of detrimental. And I've heard
horror stories from other companies like go to Mexico and
(19:24):
not being able to get it in or what it was.
I think it was Thorn Brewing. I could be wrong.
On that. But anyways, a brewer in San Diego ordered
a bunch of cans from or manufacturer or a bunch
of cans from China or something like that. It was
faulty paperwork and it was like one hundred percent defective cans.
(19:48):
All of them leaked. And it's like the beverage industry
I've realized was illegal in our country not too long ago.
So there's a lot of like kind of like things
you have to navigate, and I feel like just going
slow and being patient is the best way to do
it unless you have, you know, a bunch of connections.
I just went in blind, which is.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
And every state has different liquor laws and they're so
fun and it's genuinely ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
It is ridiculous. Yeah, I know, it's just another thing
you got to navigate when when trying to grow it.
But what doesn't kill you makes it stronger.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Right exactly.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
I've said it so many times on this podcast. So
I imagine people are gonna like shut up. But I
understand again that we're the United States. We're supposed to
be fifty different countries, but we're all under one. But
we all drink alcohol, we all sell alcohol.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
We all Okay, we.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Don't all drink alcohol. We'll say that a lot of
people drink alcohol the same way in every you know,
state and city.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Make the laws all the same.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
That way, we all could just do the same, and
business is so much easier. It's just it's it's never
made sense to me. And again, like you said, years ago,
we couldn't even buy it in a store. So then
now all the laws are down and different.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Yeah, and I feel like that leaks over into like
the relationship between the three tiered system.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
I don't hear any good things between a distributor supplier
or anything like that. And then some of the states
where you know, if you go there and side with
a distributor when you're small, you're locked in for life
with them. It's like there's all these like different things
you kind of got to be weary of when growing it.
But I guess that's part of the fun.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Well, so yeah, that kind of made think like when
you when you got into this, obviously you had to
learn real fast about alcohol laws and a bunch of
other things or just you know again stuff about cans
and all the other you know, actually making sure the
bar code does this that and the other.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
Yeah, well there's there's a scare ones with the bar code.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
See.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Well, so what are some things that really you were like,
holy shit, I didn't think about this? And then what
were things that you kind of like really got into
that you didn't you didn't see coming.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Definitely the legality aspect of it with sampling and also
with I mean even the other day I stopped by
an account I called them I was I set up
like it was like a warm sales call, like ready
to go, and the lady was like, oh, we're wine
based spirits, so like being you know, a vodka base
has its own difficulties as well, And sometimes I'm like, oh,
(22:28):
I wish we did mall. But I really like the
fact it's forty five calories and zero sugar, So you know,
that's that's one thing we have to navigate. One thing
I really dove into when starting. I think I have
like a passion for the branding in like how people's
lives and the storytelling. I really liked all that. I
(22:48):
think the the arm of the company in regards to
dealing with suppliers and vendors, I mean that is something
I've gotten better at I think initially, especially coming out
of the military, like this is my first real like
civilian like adventure of per se or yeah, let's just
(23:10):
call it that. And I was working with these suppliers
and vendors and not really realizing that it is a
partnership and you should like establish that with the supplier,
with the vendor, with the manufacturer right away. It's like
a lot of people and how I was in the beginning,
(23:31):
it's like, oh, we'll just pay you right away, or
how about like, hey, if you guys help us here,
let's do this run. We'll give us sixty ninety days
and then we'll pay you for the manufacturer run after
we sell the product. And like being creative with the
partnerships and even with the suppliers, whether that's like making
you know, a longer term contract to get better pricing
(23:54):
or what have you, because like that is one of
the big difficulties starting off, is just yours of goods
aren't Your profitability in margins just aren't great because you're
doing it at such a small scale, in a small
scale that you kind of have to do whether you're
cash strapped or you're trying to get proof of concept
and then move to the next spot. But I think
it's realizing that like you add value to the supplier,
(24:17):
the vendor or the manufacturer as well, and like in
like taking that stand and like a lot of them
do kind of come back and are willing to work
with you.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Yeah, without a doubt, it's all about building those relationships.
And like you said, you never knew that you'd meet
that guy, but you got connected to this person through
that person, And that's exact same way of getting either
placements or meeting an owner of this place or that
place or whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
It's all about those relationships in that networking.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Yeah, I feel like like you just got to go
take action and if you keep you know you're rewarded
for it at some point. There can always be a
lot of planning done, but like you got to just
go out there and talk to people and do the thing.
And that's kind of how we even like how I
took an idea and just made it into a brand.
It's like I talked to as many people as possible,
(25:09):
and no matter who it was, or someone's like hey
this person does that, I talk to them and try
to learn something from them, and you do that over
a two year period, you ended up learning a ship ton. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
No, and we're talking about alcoholics, I think.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Ye.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Well, so who's some people that kind of helped you
along the way that you would kind of bounce ideas
off of or really kind of uh made you be like, oh, okay,
I get it, I see it in that way now.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Yeah, like starting to kind of process the whole thing.
And it did take me a while because there's like
so many different arms to the beverage industry. You know,
there's the inventory management, there's the sales, there's the marketing,
there's the legality, there's admin and like it took me
a while for my brain to kind of understand how
to like work throughout a week in daily basis. But
(25:59):
the biggest one at the beginning was Eddie Buchanan, who
I got connected to through Cornado Brewing Company. He was great.
He was our consultant for a little while and we
still talk now, Like if I ever have a question
or just want to bounce ideas off of him, I
call him. Tony Gaines is a great one. He's done
a lot in the beverage industry, and I bounced ideas
(26:22):
off of him all the time, and he has great
advice as well. But you know, a lot of it
I think is just going out there doing it, making
a mistake, learning from it, and then like getting better
at it. And like even doing sales calls now compared
to you know, a year ago, Yeah, it's so much different,
like so much different, and you just get better and
(26:42):
better and better as you do it more and more.
And I remember two years ago when I had the idea. Initially,
you know, I was just doing like some market research
and would go up to a liquor store and just
ask them before I had a product, before I had anything,
like hey, like what do you think about this? And
like it was like a knee jerk reaction, like no
one would ever drink that. No, But it's crazy to
(27:04):
see now, like today, I probably did like eight sales
calls this morning. Every single one of them was like
super receptive. They understood it, they get it. That's where
people are drinking from. So like I might have been
like a little early when I had the idea, but
this is like whether I'm getting better at sales calls
or this like kind of mid strength category is just
becoming more understood. Even though there's not a lot of
(27:25):
stuff out there. It's definitely a lot easier at the moment,
which is great. And like I told you, like doing
the Laguna samplings the last couple of weekends, like fifteen
cases in four days, Like that's like a lot, yeah
for one location, you know, so people love it.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
That's awesome. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
It's the thing with sales is once you get okay
with hearing no, you're fine, you can you can literally
do whatever.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Yeah, yeah, you definitely yeah that and like even some
of the social media stuff, like coming from Harry and
now doing this, it goes in the military. It's all
about kind of keeping quiet and like keeping your own
circle and kind of your brainwashed and now like putting
yourself out there. But like once you kind of like
(28:13):
for yourself of embarrassment and rejection and liberating and then
you're just like having fun with it.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Yeah that's what. Yeah, that's just life. I think.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
Uh yeah, I wish four people came to that conclusion
or which I came to that realization earlier.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Hey, you're still young, you get all the time in
the world. Okay, So you went through hell Week three
times after an accident that almost ended your.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Life I did.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Yeah, I have so many questions about so many things.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Okay, how long?
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Okay, how long were you unconscious from the time the
accident happened till the time you woke up.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
I was falling asleep in the back of the lift,
and I remember feeling the hit. It felt like I blindsided,
like football game or something like that. And I think
I got knocked out from that. And then I came
to and the windshield was out my face, the rate
was in my lap, the driver was passed out on
the steering wheel, and I looked down on my hands
and they were like covered in blood. And I thought
(29:21):
the lift driver was drunk driving, so I think I
was yelling at him and he was not responsive. And
then I blacked out and I blacked in, and I
guess I had crawled like the human body like naturally
goes away from like the accident, So I guess I'd
crawled with a dislocated hit broken pelvish. I falled that
out of my head away from the accident, and I
(29:45):
remember laying in the middle of the highway and like
a truck pulled up next to me, and like someone
got out, and then I blacked out. And then I
blacked in and they were putting me on the stretcher
and then I blacked out, and then I was in
the helicopter and they're asking me, well, my leg was
hanging off the stretcher, and I was told the empt
I was like, he do something about this, like it
really hurt. And they trapped my leg onto the They
(30:07):
literally took a strap and like strapped it onto the stretcher.
And then somehow I rattled off my mom's phone number.
She answered. I don't even think she like said a word.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
She was in shock, I imagine.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
And then I blacked out again and I blacked in,
and we were like on the h path like it
was like a movie, like all the people round me
and above me, and then I was getting wheeled in
and then I think it was like a day or
two days later. I came to and they had done
surgery on my face. They put my hit back into
place because my left leg was like up in my back. Yeah,
(30:43):
I had really bad internal organ damage. And then like
blew out my right knee and I came to and
like all my parents were around my bed, and you
know that was I was thankful to be alive for sure,
but I was in the housepital for it was in
Baltimore Shock Trauma for I think three or four days,
(31:04):
and I was super lucky. Apparently the plastic sergion on
call was one of the best in the country, doctor Green,
and he redid he three scanned the left side of
my face, cut a little slit up in my lip.
They blew up my face and then put like this
metal mesh and kind of redid the right side of
my face. And I went in for like the two
week follow up with him, and he like grabbed my
(31:26):
face by the chin and he like turned me right
and turn turned my face right, then left, and then
he said what great work I did, and then he
walked out. Those were the only things he said. I
guess he wanted doctor that you know, has that confident.
Speaker 5 (31:38):
Yeah, that's fair.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
Yeah, that's the thing they're working on your face. And
then it took me about eight months to you know,
be running again. And it was in my junior year
at the Naval Academy, and that's when they do a
lot of the screening to go to basic underwater demolition school.
(31:59):
And I'd always wanted to be a seal, and I
think this kind of motivated me a little bit more,
even because I was like, hey, like why not, Like
even though my body is super messed up, Like, hey, like,
I can die tomorrow, literally, I promised, Yeah exactly. So,
so I think it did motivate me a little bit more.
And I was super super fortunate and lucky to you know,
(32:22):
go straight from the Naval Academy UH into basic underwater
demolition school. I had to get a couple of surgeries
after graduating, which those were six months recovery each UH
got a bunch of waivers to be commissioned as an
officer into the Navy, but was able to like go
out there and really give it a shot. And you know,
(32:44):
that training super physical and my body was super beat up.
Not to say who knows, Like I I made it
to Hell Week, which was awesome. I would I would
do it all over again just for that experience. I
think it taught me a lot, so I'm happy about it.
And then good good stuff comes from it, you know.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
So I listened to David Gagin's book, which I think
is better because somebody reads it and then they it's
almost like a podcast where they ask him about stuff
that had happened in that chapter, and he would go,
you know, off on his advice and everything. But he
talks about hell Week and it is literally sounding like
one of the most brutal things that someone could go through.
(33:29):
Please for people who don't know about hell Week, please
tell us about Hell Week.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
So I only made it like two days in each time,
like two and a half into Wednesday morning once, and
so I was at there three times. The whole thing
itself starts Sunday night and it ends Friday morning, or
it starts Sunday like morning, or yeah, Sunday night early
early Monday morning, and it ends the following Friday morning.
(33:59):
And the first like two three days there's no sleep.
I think you get a nap on like Wednesday. I
never made it to the nap unfortunately. And then in Yeah,
I mean it's it's a lot. I think, like every
time I was going back into training, it's like how
did I do that last time? And the human body
(34:21):
is pretty amazing, like yeah, like renorming. It's like how
we used to live in caves and like run around
chasing animals all the time. Like your body can only
compare how you feel today to how you felt the
day before that and the day before that. So like
they do a really good job at kind of working
your way into everything, and then you can like it's
cool because like you realize like how much more capable
(34:43):
you are than you think. I mean, doing it three
times too, you get better and better at it. But
it is interesting. I mean, it's just kind of it's
it's a cool environment where human beings really take themselves
to the edge.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
What are some of the things.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
They're physical things that you all have to go through.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
Uh, there's just a lot of running on the sand
with boots and with a boat on your head. I
think that. I mean that's like essentially first phase. And
then you also do a lot of log training. You
do like the oak course, and you do some fun
paddle stuff in the ocean. Say fun, it's like they
make you wait out in the water after you get
wrecked by waves. You know. There's a lot of like
(35:30):
cold cold water exposure and stuff like that, which you know,
initially I thought like I'll never go in the cold
ocean again, but it really is good. I like ice
bath every day now. It's like you yeah, I mean
I just think it's so good for your mental I
didn't really foresee that, Like shortly after I got dropped
from training, you know, my life dreams were crushed now,
(35:53):
But no, yeah, I think there's like there's a lot
of value in kind of like putting yourself through adversity,
in kind of making yourself have a little bit stronger willpower,
no matter you know what environment it's in. I think
like everybody can benefit from that no matter what they're
doing with their life. And like, obviously seal training is
just done at a very extreme level because those guys
(36:14):
have to operate and do things that are extreme to
protect our countries, so.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Right, exactly.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Yeah, yeah, I think I do think more people need
the discomfort in their lives. There's too much, Like I
do think that people just live too much in a
comfortable like oh blah blah blah, and then they freak
out when like.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
The internet goes out. It's like, yeah, like what do
we if that's the worst go insane?
Speaker 4 (36:37):
But it's insane, I mean yeah, I mean you you
you lose what you don't use, right, Yeah, A lot
of people don't use their kind of willpower or tolerance
muscles a lot, and thus, you know, their life can
be kind of catastrophic because like I feel like the
more you put yourself or force yourself to be uncomfortable
and do certain things that could be something super easy
(37:00):
like taking out.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
The trash, Yeah exactly, it.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
Doesn't have to be anything crazy, but like a lot
of people and then they get riled up about all
this stuff. Where like if you do put stuff in
perspective and you're just like kind of grateful for having
the opportunity to do whatever you have throughout your life
or day life usually seems to be a little bit
easier and better.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Well, so there's a saying.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
So I'm not a BJJ player, but I know that
there's a saying called embrace the suck, and that's exactly
what it is. It's like there's gonna be good things,
there's gonna be getting bad things, but like how do
you get out of it and how do you react
to it?
Speaker 3 (37:37):
Is basically yeah, and like everything is hard no matter
what you're doing. It's kind of like that renorming thing, yeah,
talking about like it's all like perspective based, and so
like it's like choose your hard to a certain degree,
because doing nothing is going to be just as mentally
hard is doing a lot.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
It's actually worse like you, it's somehow more tired not
doing anything.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
Yeah, like taking like talking to people, taking action, being physical,
like being active, like that is what life is and
that's what gives you energy in life. So yeah, it's
funny because I feel like a lot of people don't
understand that exactly. You know, there's like I was actually
talking to one kid the other day. I saw him
(38:22):
at the gym, and I guess he hadn't made it
through seal training or something like that, and he got
sent to the fleet to be on a ship, and
then he ended up coming back and ended up making
it through. And I was talking to him and we
had kind of somewhat of this conversation. It was like
being on the fleet. You know, that was hard, but
it was hard, and it's just like like, what what
(38:43):
do you want to do? What's what embodies you the most,
and then choose that and go all in. And it's
going to be hard. It's not like it's going to
be easy. But if it more aligns with who you are,
I think it goes a little bit smoother and it's
more fulfilling.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
Yes, exactly, Yeah, you need Yeah, it's.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
You get a little pressure and make a diamond.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
So yeah, yeah, So I want to go back to
your rehab from the wreck.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
How what was.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
What was the mental rehab for you? Like, because all
of this your body has to go back, like you said,
renormal you have there's a new normal and it's now.
I mean, obviously things probably settled inside you're with the
organs and everything, but I imagine there was still some kind
of just I mean, I don't do you have anything
(39:38):
from the accident still that kind of pops up every
once in a while internally.
Speaker 3 (39:43):
Why my stomach was really messed up for a while.
That was actually like one of the times I was
in training. I just like couldn't put a meal down.
I was thrown up all the time. And that was
actually with me at the Naval Academy as well. So
my organs were a little messed up. But for rehab,
I think it's just like anything, like you just gotta
(40:04):
little like celebrate the little winds, like build off of
the next thing. It's like, Okay, the first day, you know,
I could walk on my own. Okay, Then you walk,
then you jog, then you sprint, then you you know,
so on and just like being very patient with it,
and like it is, there was like a lot of
mental hurdles, especially with like the surgeries. Like two years
(40:24):
after that accident, because I was trying to kind of
make my hips a little more ready for training, I
went in and got two hip surgeries, you know. That
is like mentally like running on that like ooh, does
that hurt or is it like injury or is it
pain or what have you? And I feel like it's
just being really deliberate with your rehab, with your diet,
(40:47):
with everything to make sure you kind of put yourself
in the best position to be as healthy as possible.
And that's really all you can do, you know. And
it's just like building off a one day like it's
going to be hard to recover from something like that,
Like that's a given, But what's the alternative to like
not do the rehab and I'm not running Like it's
almost like I feel like I feel like if I
(41:09):
didn't do what I wanted, like if I didn't go
the route I wanted to do, like I may not
be as healthy as I am right now, as crazy
as you know what I mean, which is kind of
like counterintuitive, but like I now I work out a
ton and my body like is I mean, I can't
really run anymore after after all that got medically separated.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
But yeah, running is not that great for you anyway, it's.
Speaker 3 (41:37):
Bad.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
Well also, like you know, I think it's for smaller
frame people, and you know you don't look smaller frame
enough to where you need to be running.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
So yeah, no, it is bad for your joints. I mean,
especially if you do it when you're heavy.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
Yeah, I'm two twenty.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
There's no way you're going to find me run unless
it's from somebody or there's a beer at.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
The end of it.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
There's there's no reason or a valla exactly, there's a
at the end of it.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
Hey, there you go. Five k ideas.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
Well. I have a segment on the show. I call
it the five count. She has five random questions. Uh,
what would your last meal be?
Speaker 3 (42:15):
My last meal? Oh, that's a good one, probably a
ribi steak.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
How do you cook it?
Speaker 3 (42:24):
Medium? Okay, the seasoning, put some mashed potatoes in there,
and then I don't know, I feel like a waffle
with ice cream. But it's got to be a good
waffle for desserts.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
I like that. Yeah, if you were a progress or
MM A fighter.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
What would your name be?
Speaker 3 (42:43):
Uh does it have to be a real name or
like a w W E?
Speaker 5 (42:47):
I mean yeah, like well yeah, w.
Speaker 3 (42:49):
W mister knockout. How's that?
Speaker 2 (42:55):
That's good. That's surprised. I've never heard that before. Yeah,
there has been a KO, but they've never been a
mister KF. Yeah, knockout, mister knockout. What was your favorite
band when you were a kid versus.
Speaker 3 (43:06):
Now some forty one? When I was a kid, Hell, yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
I have I have a broken drumstick in the other room.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
From Yeah drums as well awesome And now I really
like alt J at the moment.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
Oh yeah's good. Yeah, yeah, they're fantastic. Who are what
inspires you?
Speaker 3 (43:29):
I would say, not really who. I mean, there's a
lot of people I'm inspired by, but what I feel
like from my accident and from kind of having like
a near death experience, and I mean that was like
even in you really come to realization like the world
is so unpredictable, in your life is so unpredictable, like
(43:51):
anything can happen like that and be flipped on its head.
So it's like taking every day as for itself and
like treat that as like one life and like getting
the most out of it and doing the most from
that and like not being like scared or have fear
of like discomfort and stuff like that, because I feel
like the more you get out there and take action,
just like how you know, I was talking to this person,
(44:13):
that person, the next person, and you can like do
cool things and create cool things and like have like
fun adventures. If you treat every day like that and
you kind of free yourself of embarrassment and rejection and
you don't care about discomfort, then then you're kind of
the world is your oyster. And I try to wake
up every day and kind of have that attitude. So
I guess I guess kind of striving for that every
(44:35):
day is what inspires me.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
Yeah, again, more people need to have that realization.
Speaker 3 (44:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
And finally, what would you tell your seventeen year old
self get your shit together?
Speaker 3 (44:52):
I would say, be more like secure with yourself and
like have more confidence, and like I feel like each
of us have individuals, have our own like you know,
strengths and like geniuses per se or genius per se,
and that's true like with every single human being. And
I feel like a lot of times when you're growing up,
(45:12):
and even like in the military, like you're so socially
impacted by like social norms or like what other people doing,
and like the thing that makes each individual great is
being themselves. And like so I wish, like you know,
when I was younger, maybe just be myself a little
bit more and not really care about what other people think,
because I feel like that's when cool stuff happens.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
Now, if people want to find out more about Vallah,
try it themselves. Follow you guys online because you guys
are a great follow How can they do all the things?
Speaker 3 (45:44):
What you said?
Speaker 2 (45:44):
How can they do all the things?
Speaker 3 (45:46):
Oh? Please follow us on at Valla at Valla Seltzer
on Instagram. That's v A l A Seltzer. Our websites
Valla Beverage dot com and we will be selling online
hopefully in the next like two to three weeks, which
would be great for California, just in California at the moment,
and and that will be up and running and then
Valla Beverage on TikTok and that's what we got rolling
(46:10):
right now.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
There we go.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
No, I love this conversation and I can't wait for
Volla to go obviously to Texas because that's that's one
of the big markets. So but no, I can't wait
to see where you guys go, not only in you know,
the next year, of the next five years.
Speaker 3 (46:26):
Awesome. Well, thank you so much, John, I really appreciate
you linking up and have a great day.
Speaker 5 (46:31):
Thank you too, all right, thank you so much to
know for being on the show.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
This guy's been through hell week and now he is
making a great selser So you know, you definitely want
to find out what he's doing next in where you
can find it, So definitely make sure to find that
out on their social medias. And while you're checking out
them on their social media is, make sure to go
over and follow us on ours at bruisers Pod. That
is b R E W S C R S p
O D on the Instagram, the threads, and the Twitter.
(47:12):
If you want to send us an email, it is
Bruiserspod at gmail dot com. If you want to follow
me directly, it is Roady John. That is R O
D I E j O N. Roady John is the
name on the Twitter and on untapped. In case you
want to find out what I'm drinking. Maybe we can
have beer together and if you want to follow me
on the Instagram or the threads, it is of Fisher John.
So until next time, make sure to enjoy life, drink
local and cheers
Welcome to Bruisers, a podcast about beer, coffee, booze and bruisers.
I'm your host, Ready John, And today we talked to
Noah with Vala Seltzer. We talk about how Valla started
his background in the Navy and.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
So much more. This is such a fun conversation.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Noah is absolutely making a new territory here in America.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Is very big over in Europe.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
It is the middle ground between non alcoholic and the
actual beer world in the RTD world. But you don't
want to hear from me, you want to hear from him.
So here is Noah with Valla. So yeah, we're talking
(01:05):
about companies that just, you know, like how they get
so much bigger. And I think it went all the
way back to kind of like the Capricio where that
went super viral because this one dad got really drunk
off drinking a four pack, which in a sense he
drank two bottles of wine, and all of a sudden,
people are like, where.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Can I get Capricio? Where can I get Capricio. It's
like everybody's asked to have it somewhere.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
And then, yeah, I was just talking about that sun Chaser,
like I saw that on a Bravo show and then now, yeah,
you see that stuff everywhere.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Yeah mean I feel like even like a month or
two ago, wasn't everywhere. Like I'm doing calls and it's
like stocked on every shelf.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yeah yeah, well, Noah, thank you so much for being
on the show. So tell us about your absolutely fantastic
vodka Seltzer. It's low carb, low abv. It's for people
that actually won to you know, have be out with
friends and have fun. But you know, some of these
(02:05):
Seltzers can go all the way up to like what
are we in the double digits now?
Speaker 3 (02:09):
It's like, yeah, cup water like thirteen percent. Drink one
or two of those on the boat. Yeah. So it's
a voga based RTD and it's mixed with birch water,
which is birch sat from a birch tree, boiled down
and mixed with water, and it gives such a light drink,
a really nice body and a really nice taste. We
actually beat out High Noon in every single one of
(02:31):
their flavors besides mango and like a Cane Can Challenge
competition Wow last year, which is great. It gives it
like a really nice mouth feel and kind of aligns
with our health conscious consumer. It's got antox and some
minerals and stuff in it. Dude, we come over here. Sorry,
(02:53):
I got a pop.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
I'm on because my dog's barking, so I completely understand.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
I I bottled that after a company in England called
small Beer, and they that was the term used when
water wasn't sanitary enough to drink, like, everyone would use
small beer. And they grew from two point zero to
two point eight percent alcohol. And I found them before
I even started the project here. It was probably like
a year and a half, two years ago, and I
called their owner and he said, after COVID, they just
(03:23):
took off because people are looking for a better for
you option. And funny enough, last October I was doing
a pitch in New York and the next day and
I told him about small Beer And the next day
small Beer had gotten in six states whole foods and
now they're shipping to forty five different states here in
the US. And when I first talked to Felix, their owner,
(03:45):
they weren't even around. So this they call it mid
strength overre in the UK. It was kind of bridging
the gap between NA and in full strength drinks. Usually
it's three percent. You're seeing more people come out and
do it. There's like an American small beer. There's also
this company called Dad Beer that's two point eight percent
I think, doing pretty well. And then Miller LTEs has
(04:09):
a Miller Light sixty four that's actually been around for
a really long time and they just spent like the
whole I think it was a year before last year,
rebranding it to kind of look more modern. And it's
two point eight percent sixty four calories. So really just
trying to provide an alcoholic options, lower in calories, lower
in alcohol, so you can you know, have two or
(04:29):
three of them on a weekday or in a social
setting or during the day and not feel like you
ruin your workout and stay in control the night. I
came up with the idea. My roommate and I it
was like Monday or Tuesday, and I poured with both
of beer, got to go to bed after the movie.
We both only drank half the beer. I was like,
(04:50):
wasn't there something without alcohol and calories where you could
drink like two or three of them on a weekday
and have that ritual consumption and like you you know,
took a step backwards. And then the next day I
was listening to a podcast in this guy Edward Slingerman.
He was on Joe Rogan who wrote this book called Drunk,
and it's really interesting. He says in the book that like,
(05:14):
initially humans went after fermented fruit instinctually because it was
hiring sugar and hiring carbs. And then we liked how
it made us feel, and then we created agriculture, and
it allowed us to share ideas because it kind of
any substance or alcohol kind of shuts down that natural
inhibition allows human to share ideas and connect. And I
(05:36):
saw NA getting you know, so big, and I was
like so big, and I was like, there's a middle
ground here, Like you don't have to drink nothing at all.
I mean, I was at an industry event last year
and some lady had a not out beer with a
shot of whiskey. I was like what, Yeah. I was like,
that's exactly kind of what I drink. Is So there's
(05:57):
essentially half a shot of vody in our drinks.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Nice. So like the first time we got inventory in,
I played a golf round and had like three or
four of them each nine, which is essentially three or
four drinks over a four hour period and actually had
a breath liser to test it, and I was having
fun like drinking with everyone, blew a point six, which
was like under legal limit, and it was like exactly
what I had hoped for. Kind of to tag on
(06:24):
to one of the reasons I made this, I was
my junior year in college. I was hit head on
by a drunk driver on the highway. He's going the
wrong way in the highway seventy five miles per hour.
He had a point two six blood alcohol, hit the
cars in head on. I completely reconstructed metal face, broken pelvis,
(06:46):
dislocated hip. I was helicoptered off the highway, lucky enough
to recover and then get sent out to go to
seal training after graduating the Naval Academy and getting a
couple hip surgery and so my body was pretty beat up,
but gave that a good go. Did hell we three times?
(07:06):
Failed it three times? Yeah, and then make it through
the third. They told me to kick rocks after I
didn't make it through. So I tried to take, you know,
kind of that energy and put it towards something positive,
and I created ball Up lifestyle. Seltzer, and I think
(07:28):
I'm in a good market for it down here in
southern California. The last like two weekends we sampled Saturday
Sunday in Laguna and sold like fifteen cases. So just
from one day of sampling, people are really enjoying it,
and I think there's a lot more people looking for
options like this, which is good.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Yeah, there's so much I want to talk about with
everything you just say, but if people actually want to
see the video and the pictures, you guys have an
absolutely amazing one on your on the Instagram, so definitely
people go check that out. Very very wonderfully produced too.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Kevin did a great job, Kevin Doyle.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
There we go shout out Kevin Doyle.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
But I have had so many people on the show
that do and have started absolutely incredible NA drinks or
just everything else, you know, whether it be beers or
cocktails or wine or whatever. But I do love having
this conversation because, like you said, that NA market is
not getting any smaller.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
It is getting bigger and bigger.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
As you know, it's not just for pregnant people and
people used to be drinking, so like it's literally people
like you know, I am again recently single, so I'm
back on tender and I have seen people say that
they're sober curious, and I was like, wow, this is
where we are and dating and sober curious is actually
(08:52):
a phrase on a dating app. So I love it
because there's so many people that do want to have
still a good time, but then you know, still function
and be a great yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
People and not get messy. I think it's like fluctuate
throughout history whether being drunk or being in control has
been cool or not. And I feel like in America
we still have this like all or nothing attitude from
when we gained independence from pretty Britain, and that's like
(09:25):
leaked over into a lot of our behaviors socially. And
I think now we're seeing that we're trying to figure
out how do we handle a moderate alcohol like it
was egal in our country not too long ago. In
this like midstrank category that I'm trying to, you know,
add on to in the States is really popular in
the rest of the I think the two countries with
(09:48):
the least amount of alcoholics are like Spain in Italy
and they drink the most throughout. But yeah, but it's
like one drink in the morning or one drink at lunch,
and it's usually lower alcohol too, like a cat wine
or I think that's how you say it. That's very
low and throughout like most history, we've drank super low alcohol.
It wasn't until like the eighteenth century we created gin
(10:08):
and vodka and all those things, and now we're trying
to figure out how to handle that. But I would
say we fall under this sober curious you know, umbrella
you can you can get a strong buzz from them
if you drink them fast.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
So you have shotgun them, is what you're saying.
Speaker 3 (10:27):
Yes, yeah, we did that at an event once. It
was fun.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
I did that with a white claw was there's too
many bubbles or.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
With ours it's pretty lightly CARBONATEDOD okay, yeah, which is
really nice because I drink a white claw high noon
and it's like so bloated, and the water gives it
like a nice smooth like body and feel when you
drink it as well, So they're pretty enjoyable, pretty refreshing,
and obviously there's a light amount of alcohol in it,
so it doesn't taste too like there's no malt liquor,
(10:54):
which is nice because I feel like those white claws,
and even like a twisted tea, you really taste the malt.
That's why I went vodka. But obviously there's some more
difficulties going with a spirit than you know, beer or
malt liquor. But I, you know, I just wanted to
make something that I want to drink, and that's kind
of what I went for.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
So how did how did you end up on the
birch Water?
Speaker 3 (11:19):
So I was ordering everything and trying to figure out
exactly what I knew I wanted, like a mid strength
category drink, and I was trying to figure out my kitchen.
In one week, I ordered like a palette of not
a palette, but like a case of Birchwater seltzers. And
at the time I had like three roommates and we
(11:40):
might have had a party or something. And within a
week all those birchwater seltzers were gone. I was like,
what is that? And I mixed it with the vodka
and it tasted unbelievable. And then I found a lab
in la and we went to them and they did
a really good job. So I was super happy with
how it landed.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Wow, that's awesome. Random, Oh, these are working out really
well why not?
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Yeah, and it kind of like it also is like
a little knee add on for the health conscious kind
of going after you know, it's got antalyx and some minerals.
It's good for your skin quote unquote still.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Alcohol poison your body.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Yeah, like below three scientifically you're still hydrating, but like
you can't market that.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
And of course, yeah, noways good. I need to be
I need to be drinking an hydrated at the same time.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
But when you're creating a brand and a business, like
obviously you have to figure out what the name is
going to be, what your logo obviously, like what size
can or if you're winning a can? Like how did
all of that kind of come together?
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Yeah, that was a that was quite the process. I
mean it it took a good year to really like
have a solid brand and a solid look and everything.
I mean, the number of can changes we did in
you know, box changes was insane. But my initial thought
was I wanted like an alcohol company that was kind
of Yory, Lululemon and Red Bull kind of like all mixed.
(13:18):
And I think we landed like very close to that
or like exactly how I wanted it. I mean, the
brand itself, like how I envisioned it in the beginning
is pretty much exactly what it is now. Valla is
a playoff the Latin word valier, meaning strength and vitality,
and I really like the way it looks. And then
lifestyle Seltzer is kind of just just a nod to
(13:42):
what it is exactly, and that's like a drink that
can fit into your lifestyle in certain moments and times.
And it's not like, you know, Valla is against heavy drinking,
but like this is here for you when you want it,
and like you can drink and be social and be
active and be quote unquote cool without not drinking at all,
(14:05):
you know what I mean, and stay on the path
you're kind of headed towards. So the initial can design
was literally just a buddy that did graphic designing and
a lot of this was just like going out and
like taking action and talking to people and like churning
and then like meet one person they introduced to you,
(14:27):
another person they induced to another person, and that's exactly
what happened to the person we ended up landing on
for the brand. We have now Clay Summers, who did
an amazing job met someone from Cornatto Brewing Company who
introduced us to Eddie Buchanan who was buddies with Clay,
(14:48):
and Eddie's a salesman and has a consultant company for
alcohol business. And we worked for like pretty much eight
months to like ten months building everything and having a
super solid foundation like graphically in brand wise before we
really launched. Sorry about that. And we did a little
(15:13):
bit of a like soft launch last year around this
time with a distributor in La And then this summer
we're cranking in Laguna and Malibu and Orange or like
RSM Orange County a little bit more south and also
attacking some places down in San Diego. It's funny up
(15:35):
in La I figured out after events that people actually
really like this drink when they're drinking heavy as well
then and then go to the after party, and people
had stopped in the liquor store nearby and bought like
cases for the after party. So down in San Diego,
I just got into a nightclub and bottle service loves them.
(15:57):
So I don't know if people are like doing shots
then drinking this or using it as a mixer, but
it's funny to see it kind of fits in not
only when you're drinking light, but also when you're drinking heavy.
And in some parties I've brought it to like people
have a cocktail and then switch to this. So it's
a really nice option to have available.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
What did you when you started it?
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Obviously you just you saw what was happening in Europe
and and I love that people were finding what's happening
in Europe and then bring that over here because I
know that's how buzzball started and so many.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Others really, and it's huge over there, you know, right.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
I love that they're the forefront and we're like, oh wait,
what everybody else doing?
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Okay, yeah, exactly, yeah, because our relationship with alcohol is
in as good as other places.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
No it is not.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
No, Yes, COVID really hit tilt Free a lot of people. Well,
when you first made it, obviously you said you wanted
to there is that bridge, and it's obviously going to
start growing here in America as well. Did you see
it as that bridge that you just wanted to be,
you know, kind of the way you guys are functioning
(17:05):
as a fitness and lifestyle one or did you see
the fact that people were going to be the in
between the heavy drinks.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Also, I did not foresee that, and that initially I
wasn't even really good to go after on premise accounts
because I was like, I don't know, like if people
go to a restaurant, I don't know if they're going
to want to like buy this. But the more we
kind of like dip their toe into some of them
and like found success, I was like, this is great.
(17:35):
And I think the bottle service one is a nice
little like strategy because it's on the menu. They're already
paying a lot of money and they don't have to
make a decision of like hey am I going to
drink that or this in like worrying about a budget,
and so it's a way to like kind of get
it in front of people without there having to be
(17:57):
a lot of mental energy take in place. So that
is like one of the difficult things that we're dealing
with right now is like obviously a startup beverage company,
your profitability isn't going to be great until you hit
a certain scale. And you know, scale is not a strategy,
(18:17):
but we need to get it out there and price
point is important for a lot of people. And it's
funny because a lot of na drinks are priced at
the same as full strength drinks, but this has you know,
happy alcohol in it, so people are like, why isn't
it less? Yeah, and a beers cost the same exact
But this summer, you know, we're putting out cases that
(18:39):
are competitive with he Noon and we're finding success at
that price point. And that's just something you know, we'll
continue to have to work through as the company grows,
which any beverage company does, you know, they continue to
tweak the formula, they continue to make it better and
find better sourcing and suppliers and manufacturers. We got really
lucky with our manufacturer, uh, super like professional, and I
(19:04):
know a lot of people run into issues with that.
I mean in our first pilot run we were doing
in Colorado. We're in Lake Elson, We're in California now,
but the Colorado run like one of the skews, the
whole skew was completely busted out, and like starting a company,
that can be like kind of detrimental. And I've heard
horror stories from other companies like go to Mexico and
(19:24):
not being able to get it in or what it was.
I think it was Thorn Brewing. I could be wrong.
On that. But anyways, a brewer in San Diego ordered
a bunch of cans from or manufacturer or a bunch
of cans from China or something like that. It was
faulty paperwork and it was like one hundred percent defective cans.
(19:48):
All of them leaked. And it's like the beverage industry
I've realized was illegal in our country not too long ago.
So there's a lot of like kind of like things
you have to navigate, and I feel like just going
slow and being patient is the best way to do
it unless you have, you know, a bunch of connections.
I just went in blind, which is.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
And every state has different liquor laws and they're so
fun and it's genuinely ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
It is ridiculous. Yeah, I know, it's just another thing
you got to navigate when when trying to grow it.
But what doesn't kill you makes it stronger.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Right exactly.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
I've said it so many times on this podcast. So
I imagine people are gonna like shut up. But I
understand again that we're the United States. We're supposed to
be fifty different countries, but we're all under one. But
we all drink alcohol, we all sell alcohol.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
We all Okay, we.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Don't all drink alcohol. We'll say that a lot of
people drink alcohol the same way in every you know,
state and city.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Make the laws all the same.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
That way, we all could just do the same, and
business is so much easier. It's just it's it's never
made sense to me. And again, like you said, years ago,
we couldn't even buy it in a store. So then
now all the laws are down and different.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Yeah, and I feel like that leaks over into like
the relationship between the three tiered system.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:12):
I don't hear any good things between a distributor supplier
or anything like that. And then some of the states
where you know, if you go there and side with
a distributor when you're small, you're locked in for life
with them. It's like there's all these like different things
you kind of got to be weary of when growing it.
But I guess that's part of the fun.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
That's true.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Well, so yeah, that kind of made think like when
you when you got into this, obviously you had to
learn real fast about alcohol laws and a bunch of
other things or just you know again stuff about cans
and all the other you know, actually making sure the
bar code does this that and the other.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
Yeah, well there's there's a scare ones with the bar code.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
See.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Well, so what are some things that really you were like,
holy shit, I didn't think about this? And then what
were things that you kind of like really got into
that you didn't you didn't see coming.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
Definitely the legality aspect of it with sampling and also
with I mean even the other day I stopped by
an account I called them I was I set up
like it was like a warm sales call, like ready
to go, and the lady was like, oh, we're wine
based spirits, so like being you know, a vodka base
has its own difficulties as well, And sometimes I'm like, oh,
(22:28):
I wish we did mall. But I really like the
fact it's forty five calories and zero sugar, So you know,
that's that's one thing we have to navigate. One thing
I really dove into when starting. I think I have
like a passion for the branding in like how people's
lives and the storytelling. I really liked all that. I
(22:48):
think the the arm of the company in regards to
dealing with suppliers and vendors, I mean that is something
I've gotten better at I think initially, especially coming out
of the military, like this is my first real like
civilian like adventure of per se or yeah, let's just
(23:10):
call it that. And I was working with these suppliers
and vendors and not really realizing that it is a
partnership and you should like establish that with the supplier,
with the vendor, with the manufacturer right away. It's like
a lot of people and how I was in the beginning,
(23:31):
it's like, oh, we'll just pay you right away, or
how about like, hey, if you guys help us here,
let's do this run. We'll give us sixty ninety days
and then we'll pay you for the manufacturer run after
we sell the product. And like being creative with the
partnerships and even with the suppliers, whether that's like making
you know, a longer term contract to get better pricing
(23:54):
or what have you, because like that is one of
the big difficulties starting off, is just yours of goods
aren't Your profitability in margins just aren't great because you're
doing it at such a small scale, in a small
scale that you kind of have to do whether you're
cash strapped or you're trying to get proof of concept
and then move to the next spot. But I think
it's realizing that like you add value to the supplier,
(24:17):
the vendor or the manufacturer as well, and like in
like taking that stand and like a lot of them
do kind of come back and are willing to work
with you.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Yeah, without a doubt, it's all about building those relationships.
And like you said, you never knew that you'd meet
that guy, but you got connected to this person through
that person, And that's exact same way of getting either
placements or meeting an owner of this place or that
place or whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
It's all about those relationships in that networking.
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Yeah, I feel like like you just got to go
take action and if you keep you know you're rewarded
for it at some point. There can always be a
lot of planning done, but like you got to just
go out there and talk to people and do the thing.
And that's kind of how we even like how I
took an idea and just made it into a brand.
It's like I talked to as many people as possible,
(25:09):
and no matter who it was, or someone's like hey
this person does that, I talk to them and try
to learn something from them, and you do that over
a two year period, you ended up learning a ship ton. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
No, and we're talking about alcoholics, I think.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Ye.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Well, so who's some people that kind of helped you
along the way that you would kind of bounce ideas
off of or really kind of uh made you be like, oh, okay,
I get it, I see it in that way now.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
Yeah, like starting to kind of process the whole thing.
And it did take me a while because there's like
so many different arms to the beverage industry. You know,
there's the inventory management, there's the sales, there's the marketing,
there's the legality, there's admin and like it took me
a while for my brain to kind of understand how
to like work throughout a week in daily basis. But
(25:59):
the biggest one at the beginning was Eddie Buchanan, who
I got connected to through Cornado Brewing Company. He was great.
He was our consultant for a little while and we
still talk now, Like if I ever have a question
or just want to bounce ideas off of him, I
call him. Tony Gaines is a great one. He's done
a lot in the beverage industry, and I bounced ideas
(26:22):
off of him all the time, and he has great
advice as well. But you know, a lot of it
I think is just going out there doing it, making
a mistake, learning from it, and then like getting better
at it. And like even doing sales calls now compared
to you know, a year ago, Yeah, it's so much different,
like so much different, and you just get better and
(26:42):
better and better as you do it more and more.
And I remember two years ago when I had the idea. Initially,
you know, I was just doing like some market research
and would go up to a liquor store and just
ask them before I had a product, before I had anything,
like hey, like what do you think about this? And
like it was like a knee jerk reaction, like no
one would ever drink that. No, But it's crazy to
(27:04):
see now, like today, I probably did like eight sales
calls this morning. Every single one of them was like
super receptive. They understood it, they get it. That's where
people are drinking from. So like I might have been
like a little early when I had the idea, but
this is like whether I'm getting better at sales calls
or this like kind of mid strength category is just
becoming more understood. Even though there's not a lot of
(27:25):
stuff out there. It's definitely a lot easier at the moment,
which is great. And like I told you, like doing
the Laguna samplings the last couple of weekends, like fifteen
cases in four days, Like that's like a lot, yeah
for one location, you know, so people love it.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
That's awesome. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
It's the thing with sales is once you get okay
with hearing no, you're fine, you can you can literally
do whatever.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Yeah, yeah, you definitely yeah that and like even some
of the social media stuff, like coming from Harry and
now doing this, it goes in the military. It's all
about kind of keeping quiet and like keeping your own
circle and kind of your brainwashed and now like putting
yourself out there. But like once you kind of like
(28:13):
for yourself of embarrassment and rejection and liberating and then
you're just like having fun with it.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Yeah that's what. Yeah, that's just life. I think.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
Uh yeah, I wish four people came to that conclusion
or which I came to that realization earlier.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Hey, you're still young, you get all the time in
the world. Okay, So you went through hell Week three
times after an accident that almost ended your.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Life I did.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Yeah, I have so many questions about so many things.
Speaker 2 (28:50):
Okay, how long?
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Okay, how long were you unconscious from the time the
accident happened till the time you woke up.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
I was falling asleep in the back of the lift,
and I remember feeling the hit. It felt like I blindsided,
like football game or something like that. And I think
I got knocked out from that. And then I came
to and the windshield was out my face, the rate
was in my lap, the driver was passed out on
the steering wheel, and I looked down on my hands
and they were like covered in blood. And I thought
(29:21):
the lift driver was drunk driving, so I think I
was yelling at him and he was not responsive. And
then I blacked out and I blacked in, and I
guess I had crawled like the human body like naturally
goes away from like the accident, So I guess I'd
crawled with a dislocated hit broken pelvish. I falled that
out of my head away from the accident, and I
(29:45):
remember laying in the middle of the highway and like
a truck pulled up next to me, and like someone
got out, and then I blacked out. And then I
blacked in and they were putting me on the stretcher
and then I blacked out, and then I was in
the helicopter and they're asking me, well, my leg was
hanging off the stretcher, and I was told the empt
I was like, he do something about this, like it
really hurt. And they trapped my leg onto the They
(30:07):
literally took a strap and like strapped it onto the stretcher.
And then somehow I rattled off my mom's phone number.
She answered. I don't even think she like said a word.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
She was in shock, I imagine.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
And then I blacked out again and I blacked in,
and we were like on the h path like it
was like a movie, like all the people round me
and above me, and then I was getting wheeled in
and then I think it was like a day or
two days later. I came to and they had done
surgery on my face. They put my hit back into
place because my left leg was like up in my back. Yeah,
(30:43):
I had really bad internal organ damage. And then like
blew out my right knee and I came to and
like all my parents were around my bed, and you
know that was I was thankful to be alive for sure,
but I was in the housepital for it was in
Baltimore Shock Trauma for I think three or four days,
(31:04):
and I was super lucky. Apparently the plastic sergion on
call was one of the best in the country, doctor Green,
and he redid he three scanned the left side of
my face, cut a little slit up in my lip.
They blew up my face and then put like this
metal mesh and kind of redid the right side of
my face. And I went in for like the two
week follow up with him, and he like grabbed my
(31:26):
face by the chin and he like turned me right
and turn turned my face right, then left, and then
he said what great work I did, and then he
walked out. Those were the only things he said. I
guess he wanted doctor that you know, has that confident.
Speaker 5 (31:38):
Yeah, that's fair.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
Yeah, that's the thing they're working on your face. And
then it took me about eight months to you know,
be running again. And it was in my junior year
at the Naval Academy, and that's when they do a
lot of the screening to go to basic underwater demolition school.
(31:59):
And I'd always wanted to be a seal, and I
think this kind of motivated me a little bit more,
even because I was like, hey, like why not, Like
even though my body is super messed up, Like, hey, like,
I can die tomorrow, literally, I promised, Yeah exactly. So,
so I think it did motivate me a little bit more.
And I was super super fortunate and lucky to you know,
(32:22):
go straight from the Naval Academy UH into basic underwater
demolition school. I had to get a couple of surgeries
after graduating, which those were six months recovery each UH
got a bunch of waivers to be commissioned as an
officer into the Navy, but was able to like go
out there and really give it a shot. And you know,
(32:44):
that training super physical and my body was super beat up.
Not to say who knows, Like I I made it
to Hell Week, which was awesome. I would I would
do it all over again just for that experience. I
think it taught me a lot, so I'm happy about it.
And then good good stuff comes from it, you know.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
So I listened to David Gagin's book, which I think
is better because somebody reads it and then they it's
almost like a podcast where they ask him about stuff
that had happened in that chapter, and he would go,
you know, off on his advice and everything. But he
talks about hell Week and it is literally sounding like
one of the most brutal things that someone could go through.
(33:29):
Please for people who don't know about hell Week, please
tell us about Hell Week.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
So I only made it like two days in each time,
like two and a half into Wednesday morning once, and
so I was at there three times. The whole thing
itself starts Sunday night and it ends Friday morning, or
it starts Sunday like morning, or yeah, Sunday night early
early Monday morning, and it ends the following Friday morning.
(33:59):
And the first like two three days there's no sleep.
I think you get a nap on like Wednesday. I
never made it to the nap unfortunately. And then in Yeah,
I mean it's it's a lot. I think, like every
time I was going back into training, it's like how
did I do that last time? And the human body
(34:21):
is pretty amazing, like yeah, like renorming. It's like how
we used to live in caves and like run around
chasing animals all the time. Like your body can only
compare how you feel today to how you felt the
day before that and the day before that. So like
they do a really good job at kind of working
your way into everything, and then you can like it's
cool because like you realize like how much more capable
(34:43):
you are than you think. I mean, doing it three
times too, you get better and better at it. But
it is interesting. I mean, it's just kind of it's
it's a cool environment where human beings really take themselves
to the edge.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
What are some of the things.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
They're physical things that you all have to go through.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
Uh, there's just a lot of running on the sand
with boots and with a boat on your head. I
think that. I mean that's like essentially first phase. And
then you also do a lot of log training. You
do like the oak course, and you do some fun
paddle stuff in the ocean. Say fun, it's like they
make you wait out in the water after you get
wrecked by waves. You know. There's a lot of like
(35:30):
cold cold water exposure and stuff like that, which you know,
initially I thought like I'll never go in the cold
ocean again, but it really is good. I like ice
bath every day now. It's like you yeah, I mean
I just think it's so good for your mental I
didn't really foresee that, Like shortly after I got dropped
from training, you know, my life dreams were crushed now,
(35:53):
But no, yeah, I think there's like there's a lot
of value in kind of like putting yourself through adversity,
in kind of making yourself have a little bit stronger willpower,
no matter you know what environment it's in. I think
like everybody can benefit from that no matter what they're
doing with their life. And like, obviously seal training is
just done at a very extreme level because those guys
(36:14):
have to operate and do things that are extreme to
protect our countries, so.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Right, exactly.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
Yeah, yeah, I think I do think more people need
the discomfort in their lives. There's too much, Like I
do think that people just live too much in a
comfortable like oh blah blah blah, and then they freak
out when like.
Speaker 2 (36:33):
The internet goes out. It's like, yeah, like what do
we if that's the worst go insane?
Speaker 4 (36:37):
But it's insane, I mean yeah, I mean you you
you lose what you don't use, right, Yeah, A lot
of people don't use their kind of willpower or tolerance
muscles a lot, and thus, you know, their life can
be kind of catastrophic because like I feel like the
more you put yourself or force yourself to be uncomfortable
and do certain things that could be something super easy
(37:00):
like taking out.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
The trash, Yeah exactly, it.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
Doesn't have to be anything crazy, but like a lot
of people and then they get riled up about all
this stuff. Where like if you do put stuff in
perspective and you're just like kind of grateful for having
the opportunity to do whatever you have throughout your life
or day life usually seems to be a little bit
easier and better.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Well, so there's a saying.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
So I'm not a BJJ player, but I know that
there's a saying called embrace the suck, and that's exactly
what it is. It's like there's gonna be good things,
there's gonna be getting bad things, but like how do
you get out of it and how do you react
to it?
Speaker 3 (37:37):
Is basically yeah, and like everything is hard no matter
what you're doing. It's kind of like that renorming thing, yeah,
talking about like it's all like perspective based, and so
like it's like choose your hard to a certain degree,
because doing nothing is going to be just as mentally
hard is doing a lot.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
It's actually worse like you, it's somehow more tired not
doing anything.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
Yeah, like taking like talking to people, taking action, being physical,
like being active, like that is what life is and
that's what gives you energy in life. So yeah, it's
funny because I feel like a lot of people don't
understand that exactly. You know, there's like I was actually
talking to one kid the other day. I saw him
(38:22):
at the gym, and I guess he hadn't made it
through seal training or something like that, and he got
sent to the fleet to be on a ship, and
then he ended up coming back and ended up making
it through. And I was talking to him and we
had kind of somewhat of this conversation. It was like
being on the fleet. You know, that was hard, but
it was hard, and it's just like like, what what
(38:43):
do you want to do? What's what embodies you the most,
and then choose that and go all in. And it's
going to be hard. It's not like it's going to
be easy. But if it more aligns with who you are,
I think it goes a little bit smoother and it's
more fulfilling.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
Yes, exactly, Yeah, you need Yeah, it's.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
You get a little pressure and make a diamond.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
So yeah, yeah, So I want to go back to
your rehab from the wreck.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
How what was.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
What was the mental rehab for you? Like, because all
of this your body has to go back, like you said,
renormal you have there's a new normal and it's now.
I mean, obviously things probably settled inside you're with the
organs and everything, but I imagine there was still some kind
of just I mean, I don't do you have anything
(39:38):
from the accident still that kind of pops up every
once in a while internally.
Speaker 3 (39:43):
Why my stomach was really messed up for a while.
That was actually like one of the times I was
in training. I just like couldn't put a meal down.
I was thrown up all the time. And that was
actually with me at the Naval Academy as well. So
my organs were a little messed up. But for rehab,
I think it's just like anything, like you just gotta
(40:04):
little like celebrate the little winds, like build off of
the next thing. It's like, Okay, the first day, you know,
I could walk on my own. Okay, Then you walk,
then you jog, then you sprint, then you you know,
so on and just like being very patient with it,
and like it is, there was like a lot of
mental hurdles, especially with like the surgeries. Like two years
(40:24):
after that accident, because I was trying to kind of
make my hips a little more ready for training, I
went in and got two hip surgeries, you know. That
is like mentally like running on that like ooh, does
that hurt or is it like injury or is it
pain or what have you? And I feel like it's
just being really deliberate with your rehab, with your diet,
(40:47):
with everything to make sure you kind of put yourself
in the best position to be as healthy as possible.
And that's really all you can do, you know. And
it's just like building off a one day like it's
going to be hard to recover from something like that,
Like that's a given, But what's the alternative to like
not do the rehab and I'm not running Like it's
almost like I feel like I feel like if I
(41:09):
didn't do what I wanted, like if I didn't go
the route I wanted to do, like I may not
be as healthy as I am right now, as crazy
as you know what I mean, which is kind of
like counterintuitive, but like I now I work out a
ton and my body like is I mean, I can't
really run anymore after after all that got medically separated.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
But yeah, running is not that great for you anyway, it's.
Speaker 3 (41:37):
Bad.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
Well also, like you know, I think it's for smaller
frame people, and you know you don't look smaller frame
enough to where you need to be running.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
So yeah, no, it is bad for your joints. I mean,
especially if you do it when you're heavy.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
Yeah, I'm two twenty.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
There's no way you're going to find me run unless
it's from somebody or there's a beer at.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
The end of it.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
There's there's no reason or a valla exactly, there's a
at the end of it.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
Hey, there you go. Five k ideas.
Speaker 1 (42:07):
Well. I have a segment on the show. I call
it the five count. She has five random questions. Uh,
what would your last meal be?
Speaker 3 (42:15):
My last meal? Oh, that's a good one, probably a
ribi steak.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
How do you cook it?
Speaker 3 (42:24):
Medium? Okay, the seasoning, put some mashed potatoes in there,
and then I don't know, I feel like a waffle
with ice cream. But it's got to be a good
waffle for desserts.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
I like that. Yeah, if you were a progress or
MM A fighter.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
What would your name be?
Speaker 3 (42:43):
Uh does it have to be a real name or
like a w W E?
Speaker 5 (42:47):
I mean yeah, like well yeah, w.
Speaker 3 (42:49):
W mister knockout. How's that?
Speaker 2 (42:55):
That's good. That's surprised. I've never heard that before. Yeah,
there has been a KO, but they've never been a
mister KF. Yeah, knockout, mister knockout. What was your favorite
band when you were a kid versus.
Speaker 3 (43:06):
Now some forty one? When I was a kid, Hell, yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
I have I have a broken drumstick in the other room.
Speaker 3 (43:12):
From Yeah drums as well awesome And now I really
like alt J at the moment.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
Oh yeah's good. Yeah, yeah, they're fantastic. Who are what
inspires you?
Speaker 3 (43:29):
I would say, not really who. I mean, there's a
lot of people I'm inspired by, but what I feel
like from my accident and from kind of having like
a near death experience, and I mean that was like
even in you really come to realization like the world
is so unpredictable, in your life is so unpredictable, like
(43:51):
anything can happen like that and be flipped on its head.
So it's like taking every day as for itself and
like treat that as like one life and like getting
the most out of it and doing the most from
that and like not being like scared or have fear
of like discomfort and stuff like that, because I feel
like the more you get out there and take action,
just like how you know, I was talking to this person,
(44:13):
that person, the next person, and you can like do
cool things and create cool things and like have like
fun adventures. If you treat every day like that and
you kind of free yourself of embarrassment and rejection and
you don't care about discomfort, then then you're kind of
the world is your oyster. And I try to wake
up every day and kind of have that attitude. So
I guess I guess kind of striving for that every
(44:35):
day is what inspires me.
Speaker 2 (44:37):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
Yeah, again, more people need to have that realization.
Speaker 3 (44:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
And finally, what would you tell your seventeen year old
self get your shit together?
Speaker 3 (44:52):
I would say, be more like secure with yourself and
like have more confidence, and like I feel like each
of us have individuals, have our own like you know,
strengths and like geniuses per se or genius per se,
and that's true like with every single human being. And
I feel like a lot of times when you're growing up,
(45:12):
and even like in the military, like you're so socially
impacted by like social norms or like what other people doing,
and like the thing that makes each individual great is
being themselves. And like so I wish, like you know,
when I was younger, maybe just be myself a little
bit more and not really care about what other people think,
because I feel like that's when cool stuff happens.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (45:35):
Now, if people want to find out more about Vallah,
try it themselves. Follow you guys online because you guys
are a great follow How can they do all the things?
Speaker 3 (45:44):
What you said?
Speaker 2 (45:44):
How can they do all the things?
Speaker 3 (45:46):
Oh? Please follow us on at Valla at Valla Seltzer
on Instagram. That's v A l A Seltzer. Our websites
Valla Beverage dot com and we will be selling online
hopefully in the next like two to three weeks, which
would be great for California, just in California at the moment,
and and that will be up and running and then
Valla Beverage on TikTok and that's what we got rolling
(46:10):
right now.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
There we go.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
No, I love this conversation and I can't wait for
Volla to go obviously to Texas because that's that's one
of the big markets. So but no, I can't wait
to see where you guys go, not only in you know,
the next year, of the next five years.
Speaker 3 (46:26):
Awesome. Well, thank you so much, John, I really appreciate
you linking up and have a great day.
Speaker 5 (46:31):
Thank you too, all right, thank you so much to
know for being on the show.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
This guy's been through hell week and now he is
making a great selser So you know, you definitely want
to find out what he's doing next in where you
can find it, So definitely make sure to find that
out on their social medias. And while you're checking out
them on their social media is, make sure to go
over and follow us on ours at bruisers Pod. That
is b R E W S C R S p
O D on the Instagram, the threads, and the Twitter.
(47:12):
If you want to send us an email, it is
Bruiserspod at gmail dot com. If you want to follow
me directly, it is Roady John. That is R O
D I E j O N. Roady John is the
name on the Twitter and on untapped. In case you
want to find out what I'm drinking. Maybe we can
have beer together and if you want to follow me
on the Instagram or the threads, it is of Fisher John.
So until next time, make sure to enjoy life, drink
local and cheers
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