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- [00:00]
A
Alright, guys, we have a special episode today with my partners John and Sam Shahidi, into the business of Happy dad, number four seltzer in the nation. Before we get into it, football season is well underway right now, and Prizepix is the best way to watch football and win cash. And almost every week, Prizepix has what's called Max discounts. You throw it in your pick and it just boosts your entire shit. This week it's Jalen Hurts point five more. Obviously he's gonna get that. It's a max discount. So here's my lineup for this Sunday. And again, I just throw Jalen Hurts into that. Boost the entire thing. Take advantage of that. Also, Prize Picks has a sweet new feature where you guys can just follow me on the app. I got ill. You guys can just tail my pick straight from there. So make sure you guys go to the Prizefix app. Follow me at Kyle. Another sweet deal. Code Nelk, take advantage of this. If you put in just $5 with code NELK, you're gonna get $50 for free with your lineup. Take advantage of Code now. That's for you guys. Download the Prizepix app. Use Code Nelk. Let's get into the podcast. All right, guys, we have a very special episode of the Full Send podcast today. Today I'm here with my two amazing partners. We have Sammy Shahidi, the CEO of Happy dad, the best CEO in the game. Guy's an absolute robot. And we have the president of Happy dad and Full Send, John Chahidi. We thought it'd be really cool to just kind of recap the last four years of how we built Happy dad as a business, go through some cool moments and talk about some info, some inside info on the business and just stuff that you guys don't really see or probably haven't heard. So I think this is going to be a really cool episode.
- [01:39]
B
Yeah, I like it.
- [01:40]
A
Can you guys believe it's been four years?
- [01:42]
B
No, not.
- [01:43]
C
Not at all. Feels like, I mean, sounds cliche, but it feels like yesterday.
- [01:46]
A
It does. Just to start it off here, I mean, we have some stats here and honestly, every time I read these, I can't even believe it. We've sold 224 million cans in the last four years. We're the number four seltzer in the USA, which is all behind big alcohol brands like White Claw, Truly and Topo Chico, who are owned, like, by big brands like Coca Cola and stuff. We're nationwide in Canada, we're even selling.
- [02:13]
C
In Northwest territory in Yukon and everywhere.
- [02:16]
A
We're everywhere in Canada.
- [02:17]
B
Everywhere.
- [02:17]
A
None of it to. Yeah, we got to make a trip up to none of it. In LCBO are we the number one.
- [02:23]
C
So our grape launched recently. So we're the number one innovation on grape. On a 473 where the number one innovation on tea, because we just launched that.
- [02:33]
B
Our.
- [02:33]
C
Our fruit punch 473 there is absolutely crushing it. Our variety pack is we've only been in the LCBO for one year.
- [02:40]
B
Wow.
- [02:41]
C
Yeah.
- [02:42]
A
88 employees in the USA, 30 employees in Canada. 6 vice presidents, 7 directors, 10 chain managers that handle us in Walmart, we're in over 3,000 Walmarts. So there's so many other stats too. There's some crazy. Any. Anything else that. That's like crazy Sammy.
- [03:00]
C
We're number four in a nation right now, but we're on pace to be number three. So that's a big one. We actually just hit number three in North Carolina, which is a great indicator of like we're going the right way, especially in the seltzer business. I mean, like you said, there's White Claws, number one. Truly's number two, White Claws, owned by Mark Anthony. So Mike's Hard Lemonade, Cayman Jack White Claw, which is a beast.
- [03:23]
A
He's owned by Boston Beer.
- [03:24]
C
Boston Beer. So you got Sam Adams Twisted Tea, you know, and truly within that world. And the third one is Topo Chico, which is Coca Cola, but it's a partnership with Molson Coors. So Coors Light, Coors Banquet.
- [03:38]
A
So we're pretty much number four behind three massive big dogs.
- [03:42]
C
We're independent. I mean we have some investors, but the whole company is ran by us. And it's always been. And it's been, it's been. So it's very different. Right. Like nobody in this independent businesses has ran a company like what we've done.
- [03:56]
A
But that's crazy.
- [03:57]
C
You know, going from just us and you know, Joe Bau and our friends have. We've probably. People have seen in like the documentaries to figuring this out. And alcohol is hard, man. It's one of those things where you have government laws from Canada to the States and you have to follow very strict guidelines. And. And for us to hire an incredible team from zero to numbers, insane.
- [04:24]
A
That's one thing people always find fascinating, I find when I tell people in public is all the marketing regulations that come with the alcohol space. Like obviously if you guys don't know, there's a whole fucking list of things that you can't do when marketing alcohol, you obviously can't associate it with health or it being healthy in any way.
- [04:46]
C
I mean there's underage, obviously.
- [04:48]
A
There's the big thing people find fascinating is you're not allowed to shit on another alcohol brand.
- [04:55]
C
Yeah.
- [04:55]
A
So in another space, like if it's the energy drink space, you can say like ghost energy.
- [05:01]
B
Yeah.
- [05:01]
A
Or some shit. Ghost energy made me throw up the other day. So ghost energy, you can't say that. If you. In the alcohol space, you can't say.
- [05:09]
B
But what you can do is compare. Right. You can't say one of our competitors tastes like shit. Stop drinking it.
- [05:16]
C
It's.
- [05:17]
B
It's horrible. But you could go and compare the facts. Like we could compare our hard iced tea to twist the tea, the nutritional side of the can. Right. You could say these are the facts. You know, we are one gram of sugar. They are in their, their, their tall one which is most of their sales. 24 to 28 grams. Somewhere between there, you know, you could compare the facts and say like we are better for you. We not might not be as sweet, which has kind of been the feedback with tea. It's not a sweet, but no shit, we're one gram of sugar. You know, the world is. And this is also a big success of Happy dad is the trend of. Everyone says alcohol sales are down and the fact is alcohol sales are back to normal before. COVID is where we're at now. Covid spiked up alcohol sales like crazy.
- [06:09]
A
Made everyone alcoholics.
- [06:10]
B
Yeah, Covid, you were able to order a margarita off door dash and have it at your house. You know, I mean like people are drinking outdoors and all that, that that stopped. Right. So people are back to normal. People are back into health. They realize post Covid yourself as well. Tnm all that stuff is successful right now because of everyone wants to get healthy. So even though Happy dad, we're not marketing as a healthier drink. But people know like they know I don't want 24 to 28 grams of sugar in a can. I want one gram of sugar. I just want a slight buzz, you know, those are facts that you can state that, you know, this is, you know, we are a better for you product.
- [06:46]
C
And more people are pre gaming now than ever. So bars and restaurants are seeing people showing up later.
- [06:52]
A
Pregames are up 15%.
- [06:53]
C
Yeah. Pregames are up 180%. You know, it's it and is what it is is because obviously you know, people like their, their pockets are much lighter now.
- [07:03]
B
Yeah.
- [07:04]
C
You can pre game at Stein and post game. Let's see.
- [07:07]
A
Definitely Post game.
- [07:08]
C
Yeah, yeah. Is that, is that what happened last.
- [07:09]
A
Night game or more than a pregame.
- [07:10]
C
That what happened last night?
- [07:11]
B
Not last night, but.
- [07:13]
C
So the pregaming is a big thing because obviously cost of living has gone up and, and you know, alcohol prices have gone up for a lot of other people. We try to keep our prices real quick.
- [07:22]
B
You know, Stein is going to hit me with like, yo, was that Shade? Yeah.
- [07:27]
C
What's happening now is like you have people coming in, showing up to bars at midnight because they pregamed hard. So they're buying 12 packs of Happy Dads or anything else at their place and then they go to the bars and spend, you know, a couple hours there and not spend as much money. There's that. That's a change in alcohol though. But going back to the marketing thing, you know, Nelk and all of us in our history and everything, we came from Internet social media. Right. So we had no really censorships. We always had it. We did wild stuff to promote whatever video we had. So I think it was like kind of a culture shock for us to now have to follow laws and rules and everything, but also keep our brand authentic, which seemed like a hard thing. But it was really just all of us being in line of what's the right thing to do and what's, you know, what not to do. Right. So I think it's pretty impressive like just now to the game. Like, you know, when there's a post or a video that is you like someone sending it. Like originally we used to just really review these things. Now it's second nature on what not to do.
- [08:30]
A
Yep.
- [08:30]
B
Yeah. It's become a no brainer.
- [08:31]
A
It was tough at first to learn.
- [08:33]
B
It's tough, you know, because especially coming.
- [08:35]
A
From the Nelk background, I mean, I think that's one of the reasons why, you know, Happy dad flew off the shelves at the beginning or there was a, you know, just the big enthusiasm for it was because we were the rule breakers.
- [08:46]
B
We're also learning it with nicotine is, you know, these rules are also in place for the right reasons. Right. Like underage drinking. Of course, you don't want anyone under 21 drinking, you know, excessive drinking. You don't want to encourage those who actually have drinking problems, which is a big world out there that we respect.
- [09:05]
C
I think the alcohol rules actually makes it easier.
- [09:09]
B
Yeah.
- [09:10]
C
Because it's like very strict and strict's a tough word to say, but it's very specific.
- [09:15]
B
Yeah.
- [09:15]
C
What we deal is all the time because people like, man, I can't believe you got, you know, deal with whatever there's rules with, like, distributors and all that. I'm like, yeah, but we have a playbook, and you just follow that. You know, there's not. I'd rather do that than be in a business.
- [09:27]
A
That's not hard.
- [09:28]
C
Yeah, yeah.
- [09:29]
A
The only one I wish is if you could just publicly. On other brands.
- [09:32]
C
Yeah, we all do.
- [09:34]
B
Shooting on themselves, though, when you realize, you know, it's 24 grams of sugar, they just end up on themselves, right? Like, you know, when, you know, you realize, you know, you're on a, you know, clean diet and, you know, you're drinking that super heavy beer and you feel like they end up on themselves. People know, like, you know, I want to get in shape. I'm not drinking a heavy beer. I'm not drinking a seltzer or a tea with 24 or 28 grams of sugar. You know, I'm not getting super up with this extra hard drink or this hard liquor. So I don't wake up in the morning, go to the gym, or I look on the GR. On Instagram, whatever it is, you know, I mean, like, they end up. You know, the world is also changing where it takes time. It's not an overnight thing for us to just make one video about it, but the world is waking up as well.
- [10:18]
A
Let's talk about how, like, me and Nelk and all the guys and you guys became partners. What were you guys doing, like, the last, you know, five years before.
- [10:30]
B
Before we met, you know, Sam and I, we got into the YouTube business in 2009. Like, a long time ago. Like, way before the word YouTubers was a verb. Before Instagram was created, before Instagram was created. Back at that time, the only social networks that were for public figures were YouTube and Twitter, because even Facebook was around, but was Super Private in 2009. 2009, yeah. So from 2009 to this day, we've been in the YouTube business. Now. We've worked with all types of people. Floyd Mayweather, Mike Tyson, Usain Bolt, Cristiano Ronaldo. Then obviously, you know, Bieber got involved with the company and. And. And invested in 2012. You know, then. Then we worked with, you know, we were working with vine creators at the time. And that's when you saw Bieber doing a lot of content with vine creators. Because we want. We believe vine creators could become YouTubers. So we just wanted to make them household names, which we did. And Bieber would collaborate with them with the Anwar Jabowis, Rudy Mancuso's. Lele, Pons, King, Patch, Jake, Paul, Logan. Paul, Jake and Logan actually lived two doors down from me. So they would just always come over, hang out, whatever. And we've always. So we've. If you've noticed, like, all the people I named all types of personalities that we dealt with. And you know what? We were also, when you're dealing with that personality, it also, with all types of personalities, it gets a little bit old after a while. So when we met you, which we could talk more detail about, because I think that's a really great story is we also said, well, one, we love Nelk. We were fans of Nelk.
- [12:10]
A
You got put onto us, right.
- [12:11]
B
You put down on us. Sam would send me tick tocks all the time.
- [12:14]
C
Yeah, you guys popped up during, like, specifically a little bit before COVID And then actually, I think I was at the party where you guys did the prank at Coachella, like, letting people in. And obviously I heard about you guys and we knew Banks for a while too, and everything. You were at the. At his house and. But long story short, was one thing that you guys did different than I've never seen any YouTuber, creator, artist, or anybody do was you guys were so proud of marketing your products, which was a full send brand. Every video was, boys, we got this drop. We got this drop coming.
- [12:52]
B
You, Jesse, Steve, absolutely nailed it.
- [12:55]
C
Like, it was. There was nobody in the world that. That knew how to plug your brand in the right way and also deliver great stuff. And it was cool, and you made it cool. And wearing your brand was awesome. And I was like, man, these guys nailed it.
- [13:11]
B
So going back to those personalities and getting tired is. My brother and I at one point were like, what if we put the work that we did to make a lot of these people household names or bring them back? Right. Like, like, we were really. We were responsible for bringing, you know, we worked with Mike and Mike Tyson and his wife on, like, rebranding Mike in 2009, 2011 to funny Mike Tyson. And, you know, to this day now, he's like, you know, his, you know, I mean, now, you know, funny. Mike Tyson is a thing, right? Does a video, does something. Yeah. You know, anything he says goes viral. That's funny. But we said is, what if we treated the creators and put all that effort into a creator instead of into a creator into a brand and treated a brand like an influencer. So, you know, that's where the inception of Happy dad came.
- [14:05]
A
Yeah. And then on my end, basically, obviously, you guys know, I mean, we've we were repping alcohol in our videos all the time. When I saw that, we really had influence was we started drinking Corona, obviously. And I think me and manager Drew actually came up with the term in like one of our friends basements in Canada, my friend Tristan. And we just started calling it Rona Season. And we started saying that in videos. Rona Season, Rona Season. And Corona was always typically a drink for like older people. You didn't see 21 year olds or college kids drinking Corona. It was more of like, you know, my dad would drink it and they marketed to seniors on the beach. So we start saying Rona Season and then, you know, we do a merch drop and sell Rona Season shirts. And we'd sell 20,000, and we sold 20,000 in 24 hours.
- [14:49]
B
Crazy.
- [14:50]
A
And I'm like, Holy shit.
- [14:51]
C
Units.
- [14:52]
A
20,000 units in 24 hours.
- [14:54]
B
We.
- [14:54]
A
And I was like, that's when I realized I was like, hey, we have a real influence here. And then I start pulling up to frats and I see all the kids, they have Coronas and they're giving me Coronas. And I'm like, all right, you know, we have real influence here. We tried to get a deal with Corona. We were obviously way too crazy. Now I know why they could never touch us, but that was a blessing. But, you know, we'd get off.
- [15:13]
B
Touch you back then, now.
- [15:14]
A
Touch you back then, now. Of course, now we're grown up, I'm not 21. Like, so different people would approach us and say, hey, like, you know, we want to starting this alcohol. We want to give you 20%, this and that. And I was like, you know, I feel like we just have a big, big influence.
- [15:31]
B
Yeah.
- [15:31]
A
So basically after that point, I was like, I want to start our own alcohol brand. And then I met the Shahidis.
- [15:41]
B
You had been pitched a lot of different alcohols that taste like shit too, right?
- [15:44]
A
Yeah. People, like came to our house and they said, here's our pre existing alcohol. We're starting it. You know, take 20% of it. But I would try it and be like, yo, this is trash.
- [15:54]
B
I forgot the guy's name. And I. I don't even want to on him anyways, because it's irrelevant. But I remember I posted a picture of our dinner and that guy had followed me and he, he was like, hey, I've been actually trying to pitch Nelk on this alcohol. He's like, can I send it to you? Can you get. I can't get a hold of Kyle. Can you send it? And I was like, if you can't get a hold of Kyle, then you must have sucked. But sure, send it to me. He sent that to my house. I was nauseous. Like, I had to take, like, four Pepto Bismols. Like, I was so sick. And that's why I told him. I was like, bro, this opportunity of a lifetime, but it's got to be done right. Like, it can't be Nelk fans or any creator, Any celebrity fan will try things once, but that's about it. Will they come back? We gotta crush it. He's like, well, we should call Joe Bhutau. Because going back way before 2009, bro, one reason why we got into the YouTube business, we had created a tequila with the booth house, and this tequila was a 10 out of 10. But we had no marketing. Like, you know, people, you know, we're like, you know, we got into a couple stores and they're like, all right, well, what are you doing for marketing? Are you buying radio ads? Are you buying billboards? This and that. And I'm like, no, that costs a lot of money. We're not doing the traditional stuff. Like. And then one of the reasons why we actually created the YouTube network was to eventually get the eyeballs to build brands. That's been our model since 2009. Now, it took to 2020 for us to find the right product, but we stuck with it. But that was the one big thing, and I think that's a big message for all creators, is like, just because you've got a big fan base, don't just sell garbage. Figure out a product, because people will buy this once, but are they going to go back? Go through it the weekend, for the weekend, and go back the next week and buy another 12 pack? Buy another 12 bag?
- [17:31]
A
I think no one was coming to us, too, with a good product. So we just said, like, listen, let's. Let's make something that, you know, we were drinking seltzers at that time. That was the time when I, you know, kind of started drinking seltzers because me and Steve were working out and we're trying to watch the barrels a little bit. So we were drinking seltzers, and then, you know, we were drinking other. Other ones, and we thought that they could be a little better. So we kind of just teamed up and we started from scratch and we said, let's spend the next. I think it ended up taking like a year and a half of taste testing, and let's just make the best product we possibly can. And let's make something that we like.
- [18:09]
C
Yeah.
- [18:10]
A
Because we were passionate drinkers, and we said, you know what? If we like it, I think that all our fans are gonna like it as well. And that's what we set out to do.
- [18:19]
C
So there's a couple things to that. One was, I remember watching your Nelk videos, and you're like, we don't have a manager. We don't believe in this. And I was like, the perfect time, because my brother and I were like, we actually want to find a partner. We're gonna go in and be. Have a partner. So that was one piece that was big. But then the other side was from our experience because we were on the other side of doing deals for, like, brands will come up to our talent and say, hey, we want to do a deal, or whatever. And. And when their sales were not doing well, they're like, can you get them post more? I'm like, well, this is the thing. You can't make that our talent the face of your brand when the product's not great. You have to make the brand bigger than the talent. Should just help it, but it shouldn't be it. Right? And I think when we all talk, we were like, you know, let's not. This is not Nelk Boys Seltzer. This is a full sense Seltzer. Let's make a name bigger than that. But more importantly, what was happening, I remember was people were like, hey, we made this. You could have some. So you don't own that art, right? That's not your recipe. So we were like, from day one, we got to own every single piece of this and own that journey. So nobody could slow us down with any decision or anything. So during that process was pretty cool, though, because we all went from. We didn't come up with you and say, hey, here's a new flavor. We had those taste tests, right? And you're. I think you were like, in Alabama, we would ship it to you, be like, hey, let's taste this. It needs to be a little sweeter.
- [19:40]
B
Alabama.
- [19:41]
C
He was. You were.
- [19:41]
A
Now, I think we were in Tampa one time.
- [19:42]
C
Tampa? Yeah. Oh, yeah. It was the key. I think it was the Key West.
- [19:45]
A
We were doing a taste test, and a week later, we flew out to Air Force One. If you see it in the documentary, too.
- [19:50]
C
Yeah, that's right.
- [19:51]
A
Traveling. How many revisions did we go through?
- [19:54]
C
5 or 6.
- [19:55]
A
Yeah, but.
- [19:56]
C
But we were always on sync, though, right? Like, it wasn't like. Well, I think, like, we all have similar pallets. We all had a similar palace And I think it was cool that none of us had experience in alcohol because we had a great flavor house that's been with us since day one. We get flavor houses all the time that, like, try to pitch us. I'm like, this. This is our guy, and he knows exactly how we think or how we want things. And. But it was cool because it's really easy to overthink and get very scientific and technical on flavors. And we were just all sitting there, be like, can you make a little sweeter? It has an aftertaste. What's that? Metallic aftertaste. And we got rid of that. That's. Our competitors have this weird taste in the back that sits where we don't have that.
- [20:38]
B
Right.
- [20:38]
C
And that was because we kept saying it tastes kind of like those other guys. And we went through this whole process, which sometimes when you don't know anything is actually a good thing. Right? Because you just kind of this. You're not. You're not stubborn. You just kind of. You're just like, I just don't like it. Now. We could go to PH level or whatever. But I think the story, though, like, even to continue and going through, like, we got the flavor right. And then the name, you know, we. We were like, we have to be bigger than the Nelk fan base. We have to be bigger than the YouTube fan base. And the YouTube fan base.
- [21:11]
A
That was always like, obviously, one of my goals, just from even thinking about it, was this is not a Nelk thing. This is not a full send thing. You know, we didn't want to call it. We were thinking of calling it full send seltzer. At the beginning.
- [21:23]
B
I had that.
- [21:24]
A
Yeah. And then I was like, you know what? Full sends great. It's big, but we want to create something new and, you know, just promote it to. To our fans. And. Yeah, when we came up with the name Happy Dad, I think everyone loved it. We wanted to think of something that was just, you know, everyone, if you.
- [21:40]
B
Remember, we were thinking not just bigger than elk and applies everyone. We were also thinking, like, golf and golf. Something like Happy Gilmore. We had, like, Happy Gilmore mood boards or, like, what was the drink in there?
- [21:50]
A
And something I could drink with my dad, too. And, like, the garage in Canada.
- [21:54]
C
That's cool. Like, think about how many dads are wearing Happy dad now. And just like, like, getting dabbed up.
- [22:00]
B
The brilliancy of that, now that I think about it, was going back to, like, why else was also excited to do a hard seltzer with milk versus, like, a Hard seltzer with, like, say, like, Alex Cooper or any other female was, you know, the biggest. One of the biggest things that we have done is we brought the seltzer category. Is a massive category, but it's very competitive. We brought a new profile person into that category. Like, we brought males at the first. Males in their mid-20s drinking seltzers and flexing seltzers. Right. Like, I used to drink White Claw back then, but, like, you would never see a picture with me in a white cloth with a white claw. Like, I would, you know. You know, if someone's taking a picture, I would hide it behind my back.
- [22:43]
A
Especially older guys, too.
- [22:45]
B
Yeah. Like, I would never.
- [22:46]
C
If you're a beer drinkers.
- [22:47]
A
Yeah, beer drinkers. I think the. The seltzers, like, white claws work. You know, they weren't bad for, like, the 20s. But above 30.
- [22:56]
B
Yeah.
- [22:56]
A
No one above 30 was repping, drinking a seltzer.
- [22:59]
B
Yeah, maybe so I was over 30 at the time, but. And now I'm over 40. But I. You know, and that's the thing. Like, how do we actually take that, you know, fix that problem? That's a problem. Like seltzers. Men like seltzers, but they don't want people knowing and what he makes.
- [23:15]
C
The skinny can problem.
- [23:16]
B
Yeah, yeah, the skinny can. Just the branding, you know, I wanted.
- [23:20]
A
To go for a beer vibe on.
- [23:21]
B
A seltzer, and that's what we did.
- [23:22]
A
And attack the mail market.
- [23:23]
B
So that's why, if you look at the can, I mean, this is gonna be our new can.
- [23:25]
A
We got to do this for Canada too.
- [23:28]
C
It's coming next.
- [23:28]
B
It's a great idea.
- [23:29]
A
Now you have to.
- [23:30]
C
Yep, I do. Yeah, exactly.
- [23:34]
B
You can't. Sammy's loved in Canada. I saw that in Nelk video.
- [23:37]
C
Went to Toronto Memorial Weekend.
- [23:38]
A
I know.
- [23:39]
B
Yeah. Who goes to Toronto on Memorial Weekend?
- [23:43]
C
I had to go to lcbo golf.
- [23:44]
B
Tournament on Monday, but you were there for four days. But I know I can't control you and Kyle together, what you guys have going on. But. But that's the big thing, and I think that's the other for any creators, because I love helping creators come up with brand ideas. I get friends of ours calling all the time, like me and Aiden Talk weekly. What's a brand I should be doing? And we think through it, and I think that the. The secret is look at a category that's growing, but bring a new customer into that category. Right now, supplements is growing, but I wouldn't advise a gym influencer to get into the supplement business. You Know, like every gym influencer, every fitness, health and wellness podcaster is already, you know, part of a company or has their own company. That's a cat it, that's a growing category, supplements and health and wellness and, and hydration sticks and all that. But I wouldn't advise, you know, someone already going into that, that's, that's their audience. Someone new should coming in there, right? Like someone like if a guy or girl who has a big fan base of 16 year to 20 year olds that are, you know, they're the ones that should be getting into the health and Wellness, like get 16 year olds, 17 year olds drinking hydration sticks or taking supplements or whatever, you know, I mean, so I think that's the one thing is bringing new people into a category. And we did that with grape, you know, we did that with grape, which we could talk about. We're doing that with this. Whenever we come up with the new flavors, who do we bring into that category? So when we go to Walmart and we go to Kroger's, we go to 711 Circle K. All our big partners like, hey, we have a new flavor and we're marketing it to this person. So don't worry if someone's coming in for White Claw Truly, let them buy White Cloud Truly. We know who that is. That's a 23 year old girl is buying the White Claw Truly. That's not who we're bringing in. We're bringing in this pro, you know, we're bringing in the 25 year old to now 30s, 40 year old men who are switching from beer to seltzers. We're bringing those guys in, we're bringing in, you know, with, with great quality. Yeah, yeah, that's what we already go into that. None of this works. If you don't have a great product, none of this work. No one's buying. They'll buy it once and that's it and then you're off the shelf. Your business is over.
- [25:59]
A
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- [27:38]
B
Oh, yeah.
- [27:39]
A
And in the first 48 hours, I think there was so much traction for spam that it got. Yeah, deleted.
- [27:44]
C
Totally forgot.
- [27:44]
A
But that shit always works in our favor too. It made us even seem more like the underdogs.
- [27:48]
B
Yeah.
- [27:49]
A
And like the Instagram became like a top five most followed alcohol brand in like the first week or three days.
- [27:56]
C
So the biggest challenge in any alcohol beverage is at the end day distribution. Luckily, we figured out how to make product and we ran out of stock a little bit here and there, which was fine. And that's part of the game. And it's actually probably better for us in a way. But we. Distribution is the toughest one. So we had a great partner that came on board and started selling us. But as you grow your company, you want to be in every corner, right? Like, White Claw is in like 98 of America.
- [28:24]
B
Right.
- [28:25]
C
We're currently in like 21 of America. So distribution is like. Let me explain what distribute. Distribution is in. In the alcohol business, it's illegal for us to sell directly To Walmart. It's illegal for us to sell to Gopuff or, or Publix or any of these guys. Kroger, you need a distributor, you need a distribute. It's called a three tier system. It's like old laws, like prohibition laws that you have to have a partner at some point. You need to. You go from one distributor that could help you nationwide to you need a lot more because you need the guys to win every corner, every county in America. And so this is for the US business only. So these guys are the ones that go to a local gas station that's showing up three days a week and just rolling in, you know, Bud Light, Michelob Ultra model or whatever else and everything. So at some point we got so big, but we were still hearing friends saying, man, I can't buy it here, I can't buy there. Oh, you're out of stock at Walmart. I'm like, how are we out of stock at Walmart? It's because some distributors don't show up every day, every week or whatever that is. So fast forward to today. A year ago at this time we had 76 distributors and now we're at 238. We're going to go from being in 21% of America to about 70 and eventually about 90 because wow, what happens.
- [29:41]
B
White Claw has right now.
- [29:42]
A
How long does it take for that to go, in effect 21.
- [29:46]
C
So, so, so to go from like 76 distributors to 230, it should take us a couple years. Our company was able to add 104 new distributors from our existing. We had one distributor in 10 states. Now we switched to 104 distributors in 90 days. Totally unheard of. The only way we were able to do that is we had incredible partners that believed in our brand that want to buy our distribution rights. On top of it, we had a great in house team, we have a great legal team in house that moves so damn fast. In contract negotiations to make the switch, we didn't want to wait two more years. We need to start selling in Wawas and Circle K. So we were only at 1% of the Wawas and Circle K's in Florida, 1% in Texas, 0% in Colorado, 0%.
- [30:29]
B
Gas stations and convenience, which Mavericks is massive there.
- [30:32]
C
And now we'll be everywhere, right? And they're the ones that are gonna take us to four to one and all that. So our whole business is a whole different beast now. But more importantly is for our, our fans, our customers. Because you know, for myself there's an Ampm right by my parents house. That's where I buy. I bought all my beer and I still do to this day. That's where I buy my Gatorade. That's where I buy everything. Oh, you can't buy. You can. You weren't able to buy Happy dad there.
- [30:56]
B
Now we're about to be in.
- [30:57]
C
Now we're gonna be over 800. Yeah. AM P. The west coast.
- [31:01]
B
So we weren't properly distributed into gas stations and convenience sources. So when we're talking about all these sales and you're talking about the can sales and you know, being number four, all of that was mostly just being in grocery chains. The Walmart's, Kroger's, Bevmo, Publix. Yeah, yeah, we were just there. But you couldn't find Happy dad which is a malt seltzer. It's a beer in a 711 Wawa, Circle K, Golf, AMPM, whomever, Chevron. And now we're about to be there and that's where this is the. This next year to two years of Happy dad is going to be a whole different. We're going to do part two of this in two years. These stats are gonna be nothing compared to what those stats are gonna be in two years.
- [31:45]
C
And so we have like a whole initiative this year of like every county in America counts. So what that means is if you're in, you know, Youngs County, Texas, that county is just important to us than selling in LA or in miam. Someone that's listening right now is probably living in Youngs county and they probably weren't able to buy Happy dad before.
- [32:03]
A
But they're in housing.
- [32:05]
C
But the problem in the past was.
- [32:07]
B
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- [32:21]
C
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- [32:36]
C
Why should we go spend all this money and take those ideas when you couldn't buy it at that little tiny gas station in the corner of Montana, but like Colorado, right?
- [32:45]
A
Because then all those marketing efforts are just kind of wasted.
- [32:48]
C
You're not getting your, you're not getting a return on investment.
- [32:50]
B
You know, I mean like our fans are everywhere. Elk fans are everywhere. So We've, we've been in the middle of nowhere, America. It's not just Miami, Louisiana.
- [32:56]
A
Middle America is like our biggest.
- [32:58]
B
Yeah, yeah.
- [32:58]
C
No, but what I tell, like, all of our partners and everything is like, the machine is about to turn on because we never turn it on, the marketing machine. But now that we have, we know that our fan in that little county and, and wherever is going to be able to buy Happy dad in the next, you know, three to six months. It takes a little bit of time. Just. It's just so many stores. So that's, that's a really important thing, where our brand's going. So all these incredible numbers and everything that we shared was. I mean, it's, it's, it's very early days, but we have such a great team. We've hired about 14 people in the last. In this past year and we're gonna continue to hire more. But I just think, like, our brand is just such a unique place because we have a culture too. That's something we haven't even talked about. Like the culture we created, our hats, our merch. Like, if you think about, like the road brand, right. Haley Bieber's new brand that just got acquired for a billion. You know what, what are some of the things that she did right? One, the quality of the product was 10 out of 10. It was authentic to her.
- [33:57]
B
Well, still is. 10 out of 10.
- [33:59]
C
Yeah, it still is. Yes.
- [34:00]
A
And every hot girl just has that road phone case.
- [34:03]
C
Every hawker has a road.
- [34:04]
A
And even as a male, like, when I see the girl have the phone case, I'm kind of like. Kind of makes her more like wifey. I swear, like, when I see a girl, like, I'm. I don't know anything about it, but when I see the girl with the road case with the. Is it like lip gloss or some shit?
- [34:15]
C
Yeah, it has his little glass.
- [34:16]
A
It's just hot. I don't know what it is.
- [34:18]
B
And it's supposed to take care of herself.
- [34:20]
C
That's like the happy dad hat. Yeah, I mean, we have the happy hat. Everybody loves wearing a hat and everything. So what do you think?
- [34:25]
A
What do you think?
- [34:26]
B
Five guys, including me, so four other guys wearing a happy dad hat at the gym. It was cool.
- [34:30]
C
If a girl sees a guy wearing a happy dad hat, what do you think she's thinking?
- [34:33]
B
Hopefully the same. I don't know, probably a protector.
- [34:36]
A
It's either really good or really bad. I don't know. It might be a red flag at the same time, but I don't know. I Mean, it works for me.
- [34:42]
B
Yeah.
- [34:43]
A
Well, sometimes I'll go into the gym, too, and, like, I'll see a guy wearing, like, a Happy dad shirt, and, like, I'll kind of, like, give him a look. And, like, sometimes he won't even know who I am. Like, I went up to some guy in the gym, and I dabbed him up. He was wearing a Happy dad tank. And, like, I thought he was like, who the fuck's this guy, bro? Like, Happy Dad's just that big now, where it's like, obviously people are repping it and they don't even know who I am, which I personally love.
- [35:04]
C
I'm like, wow, where's the guy in New York? Somebody, like, went up to you and, like, no.
- [35:07]
B
Weren't you on a flight once and there was a guy that had no idea he had a happy.
- [35:10]
A
Happens to me all the time.
- [35:11]
B
Yeah.
- [35:11]
A
I'll make. Try to make eye contact with people in, like, the gym wearing Happy dad hats, and they, like, won't even look back.
- [35:14]
B
Back. Yeah. Yeah. I had a guy that was. Came to Power Wash my house last year, last summer, and I was wearing a Happy dad hat and sweater. And the guy, he walks in my house and he goes, so, do you work for Happy dad, or are you just a super fan? Yeah, and I'm like, both. And I was like, you? He's like, yeah, I love Happy Dad. And I was like, really? I was like, like, like, which flavors? He's like, all of them. I'm like, which ones? Like, yeah, you know, I was trying. Trying to see, like, he's messing around. And he like, no, I love the fruit punch. Even knew when we had banana. He's like, I had the banana, but I know you guys stopped that one. Like, I was like, oh, this guy knows. I was like, bro, are you fan of the Nelk Boys? He's like, who? I'm like, oh, do you watch? Maybe. I was think maybe it's more sophisticated and watches this. I was like, do you watch a full S podcast? Like, no, I don't really watch podcasts. Like, how did you hear about Happy Dad? He's like, I saw a 12 pack once. I saw the name, I thought the name was cool. I bought it, and I got obsessed with it.
- [36:11]
A
It's working.
- [36:12]
C
Yeah.
- [36:13]
B
This guy was probably late 30s, early 40s.
- [36:15]
A
A really cool partnership I want to talk about is the Death Row grape partnership with Snoop Dogg. A lot of people don't know that story. Yeah, that was. I got to give credit to fucking John on that one. The Death Row partnership was. Was genius. And it was. I remember when we launched that flavor, I posted it on Instagram, and, like, people really got attached to that right from the get go. Can you tell us a little bit about your history with Snoop and how that partnership came about?
- [36:44]
B
Yeah. So Snoop's been like a close friend of ours for, like, 16 plus years. And so he and I are, like, really close. We've always talked about doing things together. We've never done anything together. We've made some investments together, like here and there when I used to invest in third parties, but we've never figured out, like, what we're going to do. And one day, like, he called me, he goes, hey, I got an idea. I was like, what's that, Snoop? He goes, we should partner with your beer. Like, I should partner with your beer. I'm like, my beer? What? What are you talking about? That beer you keep posting on Instagram. And I'm like, oh, that's not a beer, Snoop. That's a hard seltzer. And he goes, what the is a hard seltzer? I'm like, how do I explain this.
- [37:34]
C
To him real quick?
- [37:34]
B
So I was like, it's like White Claw, but for men. He goes, what the is White Claw? I'm like, oh. And I. I remember just hit me right there. I was like, there's a world out there that doesn't know seltzers. And again, going back to thinking, bringing new people into the category. So, yeah, let's do it. And so I remember call. I called Sam and I said, hey, like, I think, you know, Snoop's deal with Corona was just up. But I said, snoop's deal with Corona is up. Like, what if we partnered with him? He's like, let's do it. And I remember calling you, and I think shortly after he actually came on here, he came on a Snoop on the. On the. On the full Send Pod podcast. And you guys talked about a little bit there. And the idea at the time was to call it Happy Dog and what kind of like what we did with Happy mom and Cross it out and put Dog. And I mean, we went pretty far. We, like, trademarked Happy Dog. We were gonna have his face on the can, and we had all these different things. I was like, this just doesn't feel right. During that time, Snoop bought Death Row Records. I was like, it just didn't feel cool. It felt kind of like four. So seemed like what something like an old beer company would do. Like, it just didn't feel something that you And I would be proud of when it comes into marketing. So I told Sam, I said, hey, what if we. And we were going to do this with lemon lime? And I said, because I was Snoop's favorite flavor at the time, I said, hey, what if we actually put the Death Row logo? And Sam said, that's cool. But the lemon lime's green. Yellowish green. Like, it's. I don't know if it's going to look right. And I said, well, is there something with, like, a black logo we can do? Because the Death Row logo is black. It's like, yeah, I don't know. It's just not going to pop. It's not going to feel like something people are going to want to consume. And so I called Snoop back. I said, hey, like, I think we should do it with Death Row. I think Death Row logo is cool. We can't think of a color palette that's going to be marketable, though. And he said, well, why don't we do purple gray? I'm like, oh, okay. So that's a great idea. So came back to Sam say, let's do a new flavor grape, and let's make the Death Row logo purple. That's gonna stand out. We designed it at first, before we even made the flavor, we designed a logo. We're like, whoa, this looks sick. Can we make a grape taste good?
- [39:58]
A
Initially, I remember when you told me the idea, and I. I really. I don't like grape flavor or anything.
- [40:02]
C
Same.
- [40:03]
A
So I was totally against it. I was like, grape, that's great. I was like, no, I don't know about that. But then when we tried it, I was like, holy.
- [40:13]
B
That was a first shot, by the way. I don't even think we went back.
- [40:15]
C
No, we all looked at it. I was like, I've never liked a grape drink of anything. And I was like, oh, wow.
- [40:20]
A
And grapes, like, my favorite.
- [40:22]
B
Yeah, so that. That's how I. That happened. And, you know, then Snoop, you know, you guys, you did the pod. We did the full scent collab. Our audience loves Snoop. You guys got along. Like, you guys started hanging out all the time. We were going back. Back, you know, to go into the compound, and. And then I think that those first videos we made with them, and we remember we were in the studio with them drinking. He was drinking the grape. He's like, you nailed it.
- [40:43]
A
Snoop's so smart because he. He sees our fan base and he sees our demographic. And the Death Row audience is probably typically a little bit older, right? So I think Snoop saw The value and said, yeah, how am I gonna get younger kids to rep Death Row? Now you see kids wearing Happy dad Death Row shirts.
- [41:00]
B
Yeah.
- [41:00]
C
All the, all the college bars have Death Row beer pong tables.
- [41:03]
B
Yeah.
- [41:03]
A
And they were. And college kids aren't repping Death.
- [41:06]
B
Snoop is a genius. Like, when it comes to marketing, everybody knows. I don't even need to talk about Snooping genius. But he also, like, knows, like, you know, there's an audience out there that I need to work with that loves me. But how do I reach them? Men in their 20s and early 30s love Snoop Dogg. How do I reach them? I'm a partner with Nel. I'm a partner with Happy Dad. He's like, I want to partner with these guys. I trust them. And he loves it. He just posted a picture the other day, like a picture with him and a bunch of his budd. Actually, I think it's on Harry O. Harry O. Is the original founder of Death Row. He posted a picture, like a group picture, a bunch of them. Snoop shared it on his stories and like, it was one of their random friends wearing a Happy dad letterman's jacket in there. You know, like, they just love it. And like, that's what we did. We brought the Death Row brand. What's. It was a. It was a. It was the perfect two way relationship. Snoop helped us create another cool looking. Because you got to remember what's also important with us. We've talked about the liquid being great. We've talked about the marketing being great. We're going back to that. The, the guy who power washed my house. You also gotta, like catch people's eyes on the shelf, Right? What's grabbing their attention when they're just doing a quick, you know, grocery store run, this pops their attention. You know, the Death Row logo pops. You know, Death Row, what the fuck they gotta drink now? How many people are just saying that there's a Death Row drink, you know, like, gets their attention?
- [42:34]
A
After that, we brought in so many cool partners. I mean, Drew Ski was a huge one. You know, I've been friends with Drew Ski and I've just been a fan of his content. So, like, I was like, I told you guys, we got to get Drew Ski involved. I mean, and now his evolution is insane. I mean, he's one of the biggest creators in the world, but guys, on every commercial, I didn't even know his.
- [42:56]
B
Numbers until you told me. Yeah, we had a call with Drew Ski last week and his team. Team. He's just a good dude. Like, I know Drew Ski, like, the personal Drew Ski, you know, like, he's just a good dude, good partner. He was on the call, what more can I do? How can I help you guys? All that stuff. And then I told you, remember? We. I. You're like, how to call it Drew Ski. I was like, great. Like, he just wants to help. He's like, well, he's massive now. I was like, is he like. That's how he posted that one skit, like, a few days after we talked. It has like120,000 comments. Yeah, I'm like, I didn't realize how big Drewski was. I just know him as. He's just a good, good guy. Yeah, he's just a good guy.
- [43:29]
A
Hard to get him to pull his credit card out when you're at dinner or like the club still. He's always. He never pulls out his card. I went out with him, I paid for dinner and it was like. Like six grand. I paid for the, like, because it was girls there and too. And then we went to the club and like, starts ordering tequila and too. I looked at him. I'm like, buddy, you're pulling out your card. Yeah, I was like, Buddy, I've seen six Google commercials with you two. A&T's this and that. I'm like, pull out your. But no, besides that. He's a great guy.
- [43:56]
B
Okay.
- [43:57]
A
And then after, I mean, we have Sugar Sean. Sugar Sean was Sugar Sean.
- [44:00]
B
Also another great partner.
- [44:01]
A
Massive, massive.
- [44:02]
C
Dustin Lynch.
- [44:03]
B
Dustin lynch.
- [44:04]
C
He has a. He's on tour most of the year and he's got beer pong tables, drinking Happy dads, all his shows.
- [44:10]
B
And Dustin lynch has also opened up our eyes into, like, another category that loves Happy dad, loves the hard iced tea. And it's the country world, which is also the rodeo world, where recently we're. We've just announced that, you know, we partnered with Rock Steiner, who is awesome. And you know, he's now bringing us into the rodeo world because the rodeo country, pbr, like that whole world loves us too. We just didn't know.
- [44:40]
A
And you know, they're drinking.
- [44:41]
B
You. They're drinking. But you go down a lot of.
- [44:43]
A
Waters at Rodeo's probably right?
- [44:45]
B
You go to Texas. I mean, that's one reason why we have the custom Texas can. Like, you go to Texas, you go to any bar on Broadway. Nashville. Happy dad is pumping, pumping, pumping. Bridgestone arena, which we should get into arenas, because now we're starting to get in arenas and stadiums.
- [45:00]
A
What arenas do we have? I mean, I know we got the.
- [45:03]
C
In Intuit Dome, which a lot of people don't know. It's a two billion dollar arena. The number one arena in the world, I think. Brand new. Yeah. The Clippers play there in la. That was. I think that's pretty iconic for us.
- [45:14]
A
And we're the official Hard Seltzer.
- [45:16]
C
Hard Seltzer nt of that. Of there. We're in Bridgestone arena in Nashville, which if a lot of people have never been Nashville. Make sure you go to a concert there because. Because you go to a concert, you literally walk out to Broadway. Sick.
- [45:28]
B
All the bars.
- [45:29]
C
Allegiant Stadium in Vegas, Raiders. So Raiders Nation is just ripping Happy dads at Raiders games, which is awesome. And then recently we did Texas Rangers, which Yankee Stadium. We're in Yankee Stadium as well.
- [45:43]
A
Big Papa's Fly at Yankee.
- [45:44]
B
Yankee Stadium was the first, I think, right?
- [45:46]
C
I think Yankee State was the first stadium. PNC Park, Pittsburgh Pirates, Hard Rock Stadium. We're in there and it goes on now. We're just gonna start clearing out all these arenas and stadiums and stuff in.
- [45:59]
A
The places that I see it now. I remember when we even initially partnered, I asked you guys, I'm like, do you think we're gonna get it into Grutman's restaurants ever?
- [46:06]
B
Yeah.
- [46:07]
A
And like, that to me was so cool because we started going to Miami and doing podcasts and stuff. And you know, those Grutman spots are always the coolest place to be in Miami. And Fountain Blue and the Fountain, I was like, yeah. Now you walk into live and it's Happy Dad Town lives the number one.
- [46:22]
B
Most popular, most popular nightclub in America, right? Like, like you. You think of nightclubs, you think of live, right? Like every new nightclub wants to be a better live or a like live. And we're, you know, we're. They're serving buckets of happy dad with 1942 bottles at the nightclubs.
- [46:40]
A
Seeing it in all the clubs is really cool too. I mean, Vegas is. We're in all the clubs too. Miami. We're in all the clubs.
- [46:46]
C
But I think for us, the. The biggest piece where I always talk to like our. Our distributor partners and everybody is like, our team is just so humble for how big we are, right? We're just always like, holy, I can't. We're here like, like it was day zero, right? And I think our hunger and like the way we market and the way we think and the way we message each other every day and all that is, is we act like we just launched a brand yesterday.
- [47:13]
A
What is it about these Clubs that want to make them carry Happy dad because same thing, a lot of these other brands they're paying to be in these clubs, right?
- [47:23]
B
Yep. Well, I think we're a lot of.
- [47:24]
A
A lot of the clubs that we get into where Sam's really good at avoiding those deals. I don't know if it's because you've put your work in at the clubs the last 10 years, but.
- [47:35]
B
Yeah, well, Sam's got a lot of relationships with them.
- [47:37]
A
If guy's been to Paris, Texas more than me and shit.
- [47:40]
B
Yeah.
- [47:40]
C
Paris, Texas ran out of inventory the.
- [47:42]
B
Other night, so he's working those. But I think the clubs, it's no different than, you know, a 45 year old man wearing a Happy dad hat. Right. It's just the brand makes you cool as well.
- [47:54]
C
Right?
- [47:54]
B
Like there's, you know, we are a drink for 20, you know, the audience that people are going after is our audience. Right. Like, I mean, look at the elections, you know, I mean like there's no joke. Like who did President Trump go after? Our audience, you know, who did these clubs want to go after? Like everyone wants this 25 to 30 year old person right now. And we're winning. Barstools is winning, you know, those audiences. And that's what they want, you know, or else they're just gonna be that old company. If you're a club and you're carrying White Club and White Claw and Corona, I mean, like it's like, you know.
- [48:31]
C
No, I gotta be the culture that we bring in too. That's just what it is. And, and they, they see that and, and you know, when, when they're buying a bunch of bottles of champagne and everything, people are also buying some beers or some seltzers and if anything they want, want the premium seltzer, which is us. Not by cost, but just, it feels right. And, and you know, just people still want to drink something light, but they could easily pick some cheesy brand or they could pick us.
- [49:00]
B
Yeah, I think that's it.
- [49:01]
C
And that, and that's also why you see sales in like these arenas and everything. They're like, oh, we were carrying this other brand and you guys are just like tripling the sales. I'm like, because it's a cool brand. Like for example, like if, if you're a, if you're a club or a festival or anything, I would probably partner with Poppy over a soft drink because fans, people, people will be like, I want to drink a Poppy. They don't want to drink maybe a, you know, cherry soda. Of whatever, some other brand.
- [49:30]
A
I mean. Yeah, and it's one thing we didn't really talk about too is based on that is how many celebrity brands, alcohol brands have come and gone. I mean, I think we inspired this week, fucking this year. I mean I think there was a lot of celebrity brands before us too, but I think we definitely inspired a lot of people to, you know, build their own brands and launch their own brands. But specifically in the alcohol space, celebrity brands typically just fail. And I think that, you know, the way we've treated it obviously like we said at the beginning is, you know, we don't want this to be a nelk thing, a full send thing. Even though at the beginning, like you said, said we did over close to 500 meetups. I mean we put in the physical work, we, we went to 500 different stores, shook hands with liquor store owners, signed hats, signed cases. But what do you think is the biggest mistake that other celebrity alcohol brands are making that we specifically in alcohol though, that.
- [50:29]
B
Let's talk about specifically the seltzer companies that you're talking about. All the celebrity ones that have recently come out, out, they're going after the same person. I mean, do your research on who, because I don't want to on these people. So some of them I know or their teens, but they're going literally after the 25 year old girl, you know, like that's done like White Claw and truly behind in a little bit of High Noon, like own that, you know, like why are you going after that? Like they own that, you know, I mean, so you're, you know, why are you going after that person? There's a lot more people out there, there, you know, so I, I think that's the problem. One, they're going after the same person. You know, if you look at some of the most recent like tequila companies that have taken off, they've marketed to whole different people, right. Like Casamigos, I forgot the name but the rocks, right. Like, like they went after Teramana. Like they're going after like different audiences and they're doing well. But then, you know, so you've got to find. I think that's the one of the first things you got to think if I'm going to make a product, is it going to fit right with this audience? Is their product market fit one Obviously we've talked a million times over, the product's gonna be good. So that's a no brainer. If you don't get that, then don't even bother.
- [51:47]
A
I think one Thing a lot is they're not willing to put in the physical work.
- [51:50]
B
That's the next thing I was gonna bring. You got to put in the work. You got to put in the work.
- [51:53]
C
And that's some like, cute little signing. We did 30 meetups in Texas when we launched. Texas in five days.
- [51:59]
B
Yeah, yeah.
- [52:00]
C
You got to put actually 32 to be exact.
- [52:02]
B
Like, that's one thing.
- [52:03]
A
Like, and you got to drink when you're on those meetups too. I mean, there's some, there's some guys that like.
- [52:07]
B
Well, there was one.
- [52:08]
A
They don't even drink and they launch an alcohol brand.
- [52:10]
B
There's one person, I saw a video, I don't want to say his name because we're kind of friends with him. But like, he had a tequila. It was actually here in Newport Beach. He had a tequila and he was promoting the tequila and, and he was at a meetup. He would literally like followed all our places. After we did our Dana Newport tour, the, the Mon Bomb tour last year, he did the same exact route. And then there was a video that went viral on Tik Tok and was like, all right, well, thanks for coming. Let's all take a shot. And he goes, actually, I don't drink. Kill this tequila. The tequila was dead after that.
- [52:43]
A
That's why sometimes, like, if Sammy hits me up about the schedule and says, like, yo, want to do this and this. Sometimes I'm realistic and be like, yo, I don't think. Cuz I don't want to. You gotta, it's a drink. You gotta, you, you can't pull up there and not drink. If I'm doing a happy dad meetup.
- [52:57]
B
You gotta, you gotta love your problem.
- [52:59]
C
And so going back to is you gotta put that work in. But it's not the. Oh, these.
- [53:02]
A
Otherwise it feels. Well, I feel guilty.
- [53:04]
C
We did 450 in the first two years and like now we're at over 500 and it's that work.
- [53:11]
B
But then we're not stopping, by the way. Four years.
- [53:13]
C
There's not a month that doesn't go by that someone doesn't tell me, hey, I want to launch this alcohol brand. Like, who's your team and what's your distribution? Because again, we could have done everything. But if we didn't have good distribution and good support system and a good team, what are we selling? Nothing. It doesn't even, it won't even be on the shelves.
- [53:29]
B
Right. You got a good back end team because while you're doing the meetups, the team here, here is hitting up all the other stores. Hey, hey, look. You know that stock, that one post you're talking about from San Diego? Like, you know, the meetup of San Diego, the team on the back end was hitting all the rest. You know, we launched California. Only while you were doing all that, what was the team doing? Calling all the other states. You better carry our product. Look at this. I'll never forget when we. When we did that meetup, it was at a BevMo. No stores wanted to carry us at first. We're like, ah, no, we have too many seltzers. I was trying to explain who Nelk was. Never heard of them. You know, that's all the retailers are, right. People in, you know that just don't watch YouTube. And I remember that day, it was a Tuesday when we did that meetup on Bedmo and bevmo. The next day, I had a call from Total Wine. We want to bring your product in the day after that. Ralph's, which is Kroger's here in California. We want to bring you in the next day. Albertsons like. Like, you know what I mean? But that was our team making those calls. And they're like, yes, we're in. We didn't know. We didn't realize that you're bringing a different person. We had no idea. We tried your. It's great, actually. We want to bring you in. Within that one week, we were in.
- [54:38]
C
All these California importantly, when we launched BevMo and Total Wine and even Walmart. Now, to this day, every day, we're looking at our sales in every single store. And if something isn't going right or something's going incredibly right, we go and we reach out to them and we work with them. So that relationship with BevMo, Total Wine, Kroger from day one, that we ever created, created has not only hasn't not stopped, but it's gotten better and better every day as partners, right? And that's where the team comes in, because you're not calling them. You know, I talk to some of them sometimes and everything. John's not calling, but that's our. All of our incredible employees that are like, let's keep this going. And they kept the tidal wave going since day one. You know, and there's a reason why we're a top three brand in bevmo and some of these other places. We're top two now. And everything is because we specifically stayed in touch with those people for four years, every week, every month, you know, whatever that is. And we're watching that's like the data side of our whole business. That's, that's next couple years from now, we'll talk about that. But that's where it goes. Sales and distribution, that's all that matters, you know, and, and, and outside of all the magical things that we've done.
- [55:53]
A
But to say one more thing on that is like, yeah, when people ask me, you know, how do I start, you know, a creator product or something too. I mean, I got to give a lot of credit to obviously, Sam and John. I think that, you know, Happy dad, you know, Nelk's job was obviously, we created the enthusiasm and we posted it and it went crazy and we helped blow up the social media. But that would have been an initial spike. And then I think what, you know, Sam and John, you guys have done, and Sammy being such a great leader and just an absolute robot. I mean, this guy will be at a fucking event, and then the next morning, he's up at 5am on his laptop, waking up before me. I think that's been a huge, huge reason for our success. Sammy's here. And John's work ethic, I love it. Sammy's the fucking hardest worker. Everyone I meet to don't know how he does. And John's absolute marketing genius. So I think that's the final thing I would say is like, you know, an influencer, whatever. If whoever you're partnering with, you know, it's gonna be your job to market it, but the people that you're partnering with gotta only not only be like friends, and we become almost like brothers, literally. You gotta have that and you gotta do your job, and they gotta do their job. And I think we've both done our too.
- [57:00]
B
You are groomsmen to 11 out of 10. Yeah.
- [57:03]
A
And I think, yeah, Happy Dad's our goal. John, too, is to really. Happy Dad's our first product. But, I mean, you always say it.
- [57:10]
B
We're.
- [57:11]
A
We're in the shelf space.
- [57:12]
B
Yeah. We're not. We're not in the alcohol business. We're in the shelf space business, especially as we've established these incredible relationships with great people. Like, you know, there's sometimes, you know, the folks at Walmart will want a meeting, and I'll say, I'll just fly out there to you guys. Like, I like spending time with them. So I'll fly to Bentonville, we'll fly to Texas, meet what's up, Lemon? We'll fly to Ohio to meet with Kroger's because they're good people and they're Always, like, what else do you guys have going on? And obviously we're always marketing and coming out with new products. Like, you know, two years ago we came out with the grape flavor. Last year we came out with hard iced tea. As you watch the elk video, there'll be a lemonade flavor. The new can to celebrate 250 year anniversary of American independence. We'll have the new fruit punch can this year. But then what other things, what other shelves could we get on? What other shelves could use disruption? And we, last year we launched our beef jerky brand and we saw we couldn't even keep it in stock on Amazon, the demand was so high. So that's going to be our next big one, in my opinion. So that's one. We could talk on this more. Maybe it's a documentary on getting into the smokeless tobacco pouch business.
- [58:37]
A
We're working on something. Won't say too much about that. But yeah, just being in the shelf space business, I think it's genius how Happy Dads are first. And now that it's been such a success, we own all these relationships with Walmart and all the stores. So this won't be our last product that we ever make. But anything we make, it's the same thing as Happy Dad. We want to love it. It's, you know, it's got to be a great product at the end of the day because we've seen if it's not a great product, there's no way that you can market it. It's at the end of the day, anything that works is just got to be a great product.
- [59:11]
B
That's the thing. Don't settle for just anything. Be authentic. Something that you use in a category that's growing and go disrupt that category. And I think that's my advice for everybody. Every two, three times a week, a top creator. That's one of your guys's favorites. One of our friends will call me. What do you think I should. What, what do you think about this idea? And I'll spend an hour, two hours of my day brainstorming with them. But, you know, tell them why it could be a good idea or why it could be a bad idea. But you got to really think through and don't rush these. Almost every celebrity, if you know, if you remember, has dropped the product and you forgot about it because it just didn't work. It's got, you know, there's only a handful. I mean, we were talking about before we started, what are the ones that have worked? We can't even Think of too many. You know, Jordan's worked for Michael Jordan, beats worked for Dr. Dre, vitamin water worked for 50 cent, road work for Haley Bieber, you know, like. But there, you know, and there's probably another four or five other ones, but there's really not a lot that have worked because they've rushed to it and they just think they could just slap their name on anything and. And it's not authentic. Doesn't taste good, does not. Don't have the right distribution, don't have the right team. There's a lot of moving parts to it.
- [60:21]
A
And then what do we see for Happy dad for the next three years? I mean, we're launching. We already said we're launching a lemonade. We kind of teased that in the Nelk video, which tastes fucking amazing. I don't know if I was a little buzzed at the bar, but it tastes great. I just tried it again and it tasted amazing.
- [60:36]
B
I think the biggest thing for us is going to be focused on distribution, being in more stores, being more available. So as you're watching this, as you're watching El, you're watching Sugar, Sean Drewski, Pauly D, Dustin Lynch Rocker, Steiner, Justin gaii, any of our partners, and you go to the store, we should be available, you know, so that. That's. That's the biggest.
- [60:53]
A
But we will be launching new products over the next.
- [60:56]
C
Yeah, we'll. We'll definitely do some other products, but.
- [60:58]
A
We have some cool ones in the pipeline that we can't.
- [61:00]
C
Yeah, we definitely do.
- [61:02]
B
It's not that we can't say we. We feel more comfortable when it's ready to go.
- [61:05]
A
Yeah, you know, yeah, it's better to be surprised, too.
- [61:07]
C
But most people don't understand that, like, you know, when you have a big product, you know. Yeah, the retailers are great, industries are great, but we have to be the. The distributor and retailers are our customers. We have to be the best partners to them. And so that is an insane amount of work to make sure that we're incredible.
- [61:25]
B
Work with that's tens of thousands of.
- [61:28]
C
Stores and that's, you know, we have 120 employees. We might be at a couple hundred next time we. We do something like this. But to manage and be able to be great partners is extremely hard. And that's what we need to do. Right. And that right there, it doesn't sound sexy when it comes to, like, business and new things, but that is the core of our company. And that's what we are because that's who we all are.
- [61:51]
B
Right.
- [61:51]
C
We're great.
- [61:52]
B
We.
- [61:52]
C
We treat everybody right, and we want to treat our partners right. Cause there's a bunch of idiots out there that don't that take all this for granted.
- [61:58]
B
And I think there's a lot of other components. Like, you know, his role is that. His role is keeping the retailers happy, relationships, distributors, you know, great product. We never even got into the manufacturing the product. When you're talking about, you know, a food product, you're making tens of millions of cans a year, you know, of different flavors. Like, there's so much logistics when it comes to production, brewing, canning, freight, all that. So that's. That's. That's. God bless Sam. He's done a great job of that. It's not an easy job. Not at all. Yeah. And then. And then you and I always keeping up with the marketing, right? You brought Drew Ski to the table. You brought UFC to the table. And the network behind ufc, with all the fighters that joined on board, that's.
- [62:43]
A
Pretty much everything we wanted to just kind of, you know, this was. This was fun for us to just sit down and kind of give you guys an inside look into the business. It's been a crazy four years. I mean, and I can't thank you guys enough. I mean, it's been. It's been a dream come true for me, man.
- [62:58]
B
Thank you. I mean, thanks, Steve. Thank Steiny, Saleem, the whole team. Obviously, we showed a lot of love for our partners. We're grateful for them, but, you know, our. Our team that you helped introduce us to has really gotten us into this.
- [63:12]
C
Definitely. Thank you, Dana White.
- [63:13]
A
Thanks to Dana.
- [63:14]
B
Thanks to Dana White.
- [63:15]
A
All our partners. Yeah, I mean, I. I watched the. Duh. We posted a documentary on Nelk about four, three years ago, and I clicked on it the other day, and it's. It's crazy to see how far Happy Dad's come.
- [63:26]
B
Let's do part two.
- [63:27]
A
Yeah. I mean, documentary. We are filming a documentary. We have a lot of footage, but it's just all about, do we want to put another one out now, or do we want to put it out in a few years? But we're filming this entire process, and I couldn't be more happy with. It's just been a dream come true for me. So thanks to all you guys watching, especially all the old Nelk fans that have been supporting us for, like, over 10 years, too. For me, it's amazing, and I couldn't be more grate. Grateful every day.
- [63:53]
B
Yeah.
- [63:54]
A
Happy dad. To the moon.
- [63:55]
B
Let's go.
- [63:56]
C
Let's go.
- [63:56]
A
Thank you guys.
- [63:57]
B
Yeah.