Man Cave Happy Hour
Welcome to Man Cave Happy Hour – Whiskey, Spirits, and the stories that go along with them.
Join Jamie, Matt, and August as they take you on a spirited journey through the world of fine drinks and fascinating conversations. Broadcasting live from top lounges, distilleries, and happy hours, they explore the best new spirits, uncover hidden gems, and dive into the stories behind the bottles.
From master distillers and cocktail experts to bartenders, foodies, and entrepreneurs, every episode is a toast to craftsmanship, creativity, and the love of a great drink. Whether you're a whiskey connoisseur or just love a good cocktail, pull up a chair, pour a glass, and enjoy the ride.
Produced at the Podcast Your Voice Studios
Man Cave Happy Hour
Zero Sugar, All Buzz: From Shark Tank to Your Glass with Megan Klein
Step into a world where mushrooms transform your drinking experience—without the alcohol. Megan Klein, founder and CEO of Little Saints, takes us on a fascinating journey through her line of non-alcoholic, mushroom-powered cocktails that deliver mood enhancement and cognitive benefits with zero sugar and only five calories.
From her mint green vending trailer origins in Detroit to facing the Sharks on national television, Megan shares the remarkable story behind Little Saints' creation and her gutsy decision to turn down unfavorable investment offers. With the conviction to maintain her vision, she's built a brand that's changing how we think about functional beverages.
The tasting experience reveals something truly special—these aren't your typical mocktails. The Negroni Spritz offers a perfect bitterness without overwhelming, while the Old Fashioned delivers caramel notes and warmth that mimics traditional spirits. The St. Ember, infused with sacred Palo Santo wood from South America, provides a mezcal-like complexity that even discerning palates might mistake for the real thing.
What makes these drinks truly revolutionary is their foundation in functional mushrooms—reishi for gentle relaxation and lion's mane for cognitive enhancement—extracted through cutting-edge technology to deliver maximum benefits. The recent addition of Damiana, a natural aphrodisiac, playfully supports the brand's cheeky tagline: "mushrooms make sex better."
Whether you're sober-curious, health-conscious, or simply looking for innovative alternatives to alcohol, Little Saints offers a sophisticated drinking experience without compromise. Find them at littlesaints.com and discover what functional fungi can do for your next happy hour.
https://linktr.ee/ManCaveHappyHour
www.ManCaveHappyHour.com
Jamie Flanagan @DJJamieDetroit
Matt Fox @fox_beazlefox
Merch www.WearingFunny.com
August Gitschlag: 0:00
american pie. Everyone, he's getting ready to sing. He's like bumblebee, bumblebee, bumblebee.
Matt Fox: 0:05
Hey man, we're live, all right, here we go.
Jamie Flanagan: 0:10
I said hey, hey, welcome to the man cave happy hour I said hey hey, welcome to the man cave happy hour. We're gonna drink a fine whiskey and smoke a really fine cigar. It is time for Happy Hour. It is the man Cave. Happy Hour Whiskey, cigar, spirits, the stories that go along with it.
Matt Fox: 0:39
I am Jamie Flanagan. That over there is August Gitschlag. I got.
August Gitschlag: 0:42
Mrs Vino here to my right.
Matt Fox: 0:44
All right.
August Gitschlag: 0:45
And then you introduce me, and then this is Mr Fox, there you go, there you go. You are part of the team now you have to pick up on his cues.
Matt Fox: 0:53
I'm like walking around the table like and, and me.
Jamie Flanagan: 0:57
No more and then, no more and then.
August Gitschlag: 0:59
If you had jumped in I was. I couldn't wait to throw it to her and see if she got it.
Jamie Flanagan: 1:02
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll get there best rehearsal ever, ever. So, uh, a couple of offers uh on the table. Uh, well, there's a lot of stuff, there's some stuff on the table and we're gonna talk about today like I said, best rehearsal ever. All right, I'm gonna run this back. Start again. Little saints, all right. No, it's the live ones you gotta. You gotta roll with it okay me. You, stevie winwood, we're rolling with it anyhow uh two offers on the table.
Jamie Flanagan: 1:33
Lots of stuff on the table, little saints. Offers on the table are simply like subscribe, leave a comment. I always forget to say that up at the top well do all the podcast things and all the podcast places. Uh, we appreciate everybody who joins us for the, for the party. Absolutely, it's amazing in august.
August Gitschlag: 1:49
Uh, you had a screwball idea yeah, it's kind of goofy, which I love. Yeah, I mean, what's the name of the podcast? Is a man cave happy hour. Well, we have a lot of friends, gentlemen, and a lot of our friends spent a lot of money on their personal man cave yes, yes put together a basement, a garage, a tiki bar in the yard, something like that.
August Gitschlag: 2:06
They got a collection they want to show off, whether it's booze or toys that would be what my collection would be or, uh, you know, art or some stuff. They got.
Jamie Flanagan: 2:12
We actually did do one um and with one of my fraternity brothers um, and his basement is filled with hockey memorabilia yeah, he has he has he Pat Mailey? I think I might have taken it down because it was kind of a nightmare of an episode. Well, I remember that episode, it kind of went sideways and the audio went by anyway, but so he's got. But the seats in his basement, his man cave, are all from like the original six stadiums.
August Gitschlag: 2:39
He's got seats from the original six, so you can't sit in any of them.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 2:43
Oh no, you can sit in them.
Jamie Flanagan: 2:45
Yeah, that's great, and then he's got sticks from everybody. But that's cool and it's fun to go in and talk to people about their man caves. We've talked to people on the show about their man caves, but it'll be fun to do some from other people.
August Gitschlag: 2:58
We're just going to force our friends to entertain us and give us treats and show us their shit.
Jamie Flanagan: 3:02
We've done a handful at my house.
Matt Fox: 3:04
Yes, we have In your man cave.
Jamie Flanagan: 3:05
Yes, Down in the man cave and then on the patio.
Matt Fox: 3:09
Those are PA, those are pre-August we have to get there. We all want to take a bath together.
Jamie Flanagan: 3:15
I have not done one in the hot tub. No, I've not boiled my sausage with you fellas yet. Come on, let's go take a bath.
August Gitschlag: 3:21
That's what I said.
Jamie Flanagan: 3:22
It's uh, it'll be fun Awesome.
August Gitschlag: 3:25
On mushrooms.
Jamie Flanagan: 3:27
So there you go. Those are the two offers on the table. Like subscribe, leave a comment for all the uh podcast fun you can possibly imagine. And then, uh, just reach out to any one of us, uh, to connect, to be able to. We'll do this, uh, in the luxury of your own home. Yes, we'll come over and drink your booze?
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 3:44
No, we'll bring host gifts. We will bring gifts.
Jamie Flanagan: 3:47
We will bring some host guests, we will be good guests.
August Gitschlag: 3:50
We'll bring you non-alcoholic mushroom-based beverages. I'll bring some vintage wine Alright.
Jamie Flanagan: 3:59
So yeah, we'll do that, oh yeah, and if you're lucky, we'll bring Kristen.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 4:03
Yes, if you're lucky, we'll bring Kristen. Mmm. Yes, If you're lucky.
August Gitschlag: 4:06
Only if you're lucky.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 4:07
Put in a special request. Yeah, there it is. You gotta tease him with something.
Matt Fox: 4:11
You're already teasing off man.
Jamie Flanagan: 4:14
Yeah, so we're busting her chops about you know? Hey, you're part of the team lady. Hey, let's get with it over here. And if you're lucky you can come, we'll bring you along if you're lucky. She brought the party today. I did Little Saints and she upped the ante and brought in Megan Klein.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 4:34
Megan, welcome to the man Cave, Megan. Yeah, live from Miami.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 4:40
I came in my special cat outfit.
Jamie Flanagan: 4:44
You are the CEO of Little Saints. I'm the founder and.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 4:49
CEO of Little Saints Yay.
Jamie Flanagan: 4:53
Awesome Right on. Is this your brainchild?
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 4:56
This is my baby, my brainchild.
Jamie Flanagan: 4:58
All right, so we're going to talk about Little Saints and we're going to find out fun. Uh, there's some fun stories that go along with it the whole shark tank thing. We're gonna hear about that and uh. But before we get into that, megan, uh tell me about your childhood lots of, lots of daddy issues and lots of alcohol.
Jamie Flanagan: 5:22
You're in, you're in, you're in, you're in right on, so, uh, so what brought you into the world of, uh, the mushrooms? Right, mrs vino, just you take over at any moment. Um, because you wrote a whole article about this, uh, in your edible wow magazine. Mrs vino, she is like, she's like, she's like so cool, um, she writes, uh for the edible wow and uh, there was a nice. Is this, yeah, is this the uh episode?
Jamie Flanagan: 5:50
yeah, that's yeah there you go is this, uh, the issue with the, the feature in it. Yeah, that's so. This is how.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 5:59
This is how megan and I met. You know, I found Little Saints when, when she had first launched this product at the Royce in downtown Detroit. Oh nice Back in the day, when CBD was one of the ingredients. However, how?
Matt Fox: 6:14
long ago, and how long ago was this?
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 6:17
summer of 2021? I launched. It was like mini movement weekend, like 2021. Was like mini movement weekend like 2021. There was an official movement. But I launched because I had a little mint green vending trailer that I parked outside of spotlight on movement weekend and I sold my little. They were then called plant magic mocktails. We have since dropped the word mocktail, but that's that's why they started may hear them moving across the table resonating.
Matt Fox: 6:42
So 2021, and you said a mint-colored.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 6:47
A mint. Her name was Baby Mint and it was a mint green vending trailer that I towed around Detroit and around Michigan with my mint green Jeep.
Matt Fox: 6:58
That's brilliant. All right, it really was brilliant, I bet.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 7:01
Yeah, yeah, I'll show you a picture, because there's a lot.
Jamie Flanagan: 7:05
There's like probably eight, 10 different things on the table here. The elevator pitch. Real quick, megan. What is Little Saints?
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 7:11
Little Saints is a brand of non-alcoholic cocktails and spirits powered by mushrooms, All of our spirits. So we have RTDs which are like a classic cocktail in a can. And then we have spirits which are meant to be mixed like a regular alcoholic spirit would be. They're all infused with functional mushrooms, so the cans have reishi, the bottles have lion's mane and they're all zero sugar and five calories. Whoa what.
Jamie Flanagan: 7:40
So there you are All right. So that was. I just want to put a little frame of reference, because we knew what they were.
August Gitschlag: 7:46
What just landed in front of us here? Slow down, slow down. We know what they were. Multiple cans open. They're coming at me, I know.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 7:51
I can't help myself, she's so excited, all right.
Jamie Flanagan: 7:55
So, kristen, you cracked a can for us and shared it up in a glass. We threw it over some rocks.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 8:01
And what?
Jamie Flanagan: 8:01
was the first one that we did.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 8:02
So the first one's the Negroni Spritz.
Jamie Flanagan: 8:04
Okay, negroni Spritz All right, so I've, like I got a hard time with Negronis.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 8:09
We just did this a couple of weeks ago. We did.
Jamie Flanagan: 8:11
We did cocktails, and I've tried Negronis a few times. I haven't tried this yet.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 8:15
Um.
Jamie Flanagan: 8:15
I usually. I usually Negronis, but all right, so this is a Negroni spritz. You got it and again in the cans. You said the lion's mane is in the bottle. And then the can is the what? The Reishi, reishi, reishi. All right, giving this a little sniff, it smells delicious.
Matt Fox: 8:37
It smells, it's good, it's refreshing. But on the back end I'm getting like a like a or like a red hot cinnamon flavor, okay, which I'm really enjoying.
Jamie Flanagan: 8:48
Do you smell that candle? It smells like fireball.
Matt Fox: 8:50
People call that cinnamon.
Jamie Flanagan: 8:53
Non-alcoholics call that cinnamon. Yeah, it's a yeah, Cinnamon-y. Oh, August, what are you doing?
August Gitschlag: 8:59
I'm putting gin in the grunny.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 9:01
He's fostering it.
August Gitschlag: 9:03
You're like my brothers.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 9:04
Well, you're like my brothers.
August Gitschlag: 9:05
Well, they're not intended as mixers.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 9:09
Some people do use them as mixers.
August Gitschlag: 9:13
Oh, okay, I figured you'd be like any other cocktail person. It's like in any way. You want to enjoy my product, please enjoy it. Do whatever you want, there's a dryness.
Jamie Flanagan: 9:24
The finish is very, very dry. There is that Negroni bitterness. Is that bitter Is bitter? The right word?
August Gitschlag: 9:29
You got it, it's not nearly as bitter as an actual Negroni.
Jamie Flanagan: 9:32
But it's not like that. Maybe just because you mixed them up wrong last time. Maybe that's why. Maybe I was supposed to like them and you mixed up a terrible cocktail tastes like this.
August Gitschlag: 9:40
I would have drank the shit out of them.
Jamie Flanagan: 9:42
Sorry, the crap out of them. I'm hit and miss when we do three cocktails. I'm going to get one perfect and the other two are going to be. We know what we're getting into when we mix those things up.
Matt Fox: 9:56
Thank you, may I have another?
Jamie Flanagan: 9:58
That's nice. On the finish it's dry. If you gave this to me and told me it was a cocktail, I would say, oh okay, yeah, I wouldn't.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 10:07
I wouldn't know that it's not boozy. Well, the next one that I have for you, gentlemen.
August Gitschlag: 10:11
So, and megan megan can talk.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 10:15
You're a gentleman. What he? Wants to be yeah uh, the next one that we'll try is the negroni, or, I'm sorry, uh, fashioned Now, megan, this one is seasonal, so I know that we're moving into after this we just sold out of three weeks worth in two days.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 10:31
So it's no longer available. So, gentlemen, are the last to try it. Oh all right, I like that.
Jamie Flanagan: 10:37
But it will. It will circle back around next season.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 10:40
We probably will do. We've done a couple versions of the old-fashioned. I'm from Wisconsin that's where I grew up so we did a little bit of a cherry old-fashioned, and the one that you're going to try is a spiced old-fashioned.
Jamie Flanagan: 10:52
Okay.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 10:52
We'll probably. I'm not sure, but they're similar. We'll bring back one Old-fashioned Sorry, cranberry, old-fashioned.
Jamie Flanagan: 11:00
So let me be honest, I'm pitching ideas. I'm pitching ideas. This is the first time I've heard of mushrooms and mocktails coming together. Yeah, I've heard of.
Matt Fox: 11:12
I've heard of, yeah, this is the first time I've heard of mushrooms as the foundation for mocktails uh flavors, you know, is that is that the thing is the foundation for the flavor, uh, of the it's the fuel.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 11:20
So, like when you know, when I started Little Saints, I did dry 2021. I was in my house in Jefferson Chalmers in Detroit and I tried everything that was like available in non-alcoholic and nothing had a nose to it. Everything was full of sugar and then nothing had like a really good functional ingredient. And like I was like, ok, you know, you can go to the bar and right now the only fuel is alcohol. Like I see the bar back bar of the future of as a rainbow of fuels. So some might have THC, some might have functional mushrooms, some might have kava, some might have kratom, and I just know so does Kristen like, just like how helpful functional mushrooms are for my mental health and they just put me in a better mood. And I was Kristen like, just like how helpful functional mushrooms are for my mental health and they just put me in a better mood. And I was drinking. You know lots of people drink mushroom coffee right.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 12:10
Mushroom like yeah, like rise, mud water, all the mushroom coffee. So people are like familiar with that concept of it and I was like, well, we need like a mushroom nighttime drink.
August Gitschlag: 12:23
So I'm curious. You chose eight ounce cans. It was. Where is that? Was it a market like, like we want to be able to package it smaller, or it's because it's like it's more like a cocktail.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 12:35
You know, like if you're going to pour it on ice into a glass like eight ounces is really like you guys know it's like you don't need any more than eight ounces, like you got enough ice in it in the beginning like some manufacturers were trying to get us into 12 ounce cans and actually that like first weekend at spotlight we had 12 ounce cans and it was like way too much for like one cocktail.
August Gitschlag: 12:57
No one at spotlight has ever overindulged in anything, though never, what are you talking about?
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 13:06
I'm still I'm still enjoying the negroni yeah, I'm still sippity wait till you try the next one. Okay, bring it. This is yeah yeah all right.
Jamie Flanagan: 13:14
So what's what's next on the on the hit parade? Is this out of the bottle or another? Can't no we're gonna do here.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 13:19
Yeah, we'll do another.
Jamie Flanagan: 13:20
Can we'll break into the the spirits, all right yeah, I got to finish my negroni so I can use my glasses.
August Gitschlag: 13:25
I just grabbed the other glass, the fancy glasses. I brought in fancy glasses for you guys.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 13:32
They're platinum rimmed.
Jamie Flanagan: 13:34
Should I rinse? Does it make a big deal?
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 13:36
Nah, just make sure you suck it all down. This is the old-fashioned.
Jamie Flanagan: 13:40
Oh, this is the old-fashioned, a little bit more.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 13:44
You and Matt are splitting it.
Jamie Flanagan: 13:47
It's like Bill Murray with his tab and I was like, uh, this is a little over the top.
Matt Fox: 13:53
All right, there we go. Look at that. Go, don't drink it all.
Jamie Flanagan: 13:56
Oh, wow, there's a, there's a. You said, like most, that Negroni had a beautiful nose. There was nothing bitter in the nose on the Negroni. It smelled sweet, sweet, sweet, but it didn't taste sweet, sweet, sweet. And this it's colorful. What are you getting man on the nose?
Matt Fox: 14:14
It's like an amber. Yeah, I'm looking at Jurassic Park right now.
Jamie Flanagan: 14:20
Yeah, all the color is gorgeous.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 14:24
That's where the life is at. It's in the mushrooms, no mosquito DNA.
Jamie Flanagan: 14:30
It's a sweet. I wouldn't say caramelly, but this is an old-fashioned. There's a caramel, but it's a different kind of caramel. I'm trying to pick the caramel. There's a caramel, but I don't know which caramel. It's a caramel family.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 14:45
Is it caramel Car? Which caramel? It's a caramel family. Is it caramel Caramel adjacent or?
August Gitschlag: 14:48
is it caramel, exactly. Is it the nougat coming out? All right.
Jamie Flanagan: 14:52
All right, that's gorgeous. Now going for the taste, right? Yeah, I like the sound of the sipping into the microphone.
August Gitschlag: 15:00
You would be fooling me if you gave. You could have give me this and tell me that it had booze in it, and I would think it did.
Jamie Flanagan: 15:07
Yeah, both of them were two, this one especially this one especially.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 15:12
I'm so happy, megan, you don't understand. August is a difficult one to please, yeah, and he hasn't even bastardized it yet. He hasn.
Jamie Flanagan: 15:18
What are you doing over there? Oh, washing my hands.
August Gitschlag: 15:23
My partner is a flight attendant, so I get little bottles of booze to smuggle around places. I tend to knock things up my way.
Jamie Flanagan: 15:35
Is there a smoke in there?
August Gitschlag: 15:37
I'm just surprised at how it tastes. Is there wood or a smoke or a barrel? There's no sugar.
Jamie Flanagan: 15:41
Where are we at on sweetness and sugar?
August Gitschlag: 15:45
There's an old-fashioned sweetness to it. There's a simple syrup in there, but there's not.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 15:48
It's the monk fruit that's the sweetener, that's in it.
Matt Fox: 15:52
That sounds made up Zero sugars, five calories, five grams of sodium, five milligrams of sodium.
Jamie Flanagan: 15:58
Megan, are you just making this crap up? These things don't exist. Monkey fruit or monk fruit.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 16:02
I think you're drinking it.
Matt Fox: 16:07
It's a monk fruit juice concentrate, the FDA, they'll believe anything.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 16:11
Nobody's watching anymore. It's the pure monk fruit. We get a million DMs and comments is there erythritol in the monk fruit? And the answer is no, it's just pure monk fruit juice concentrate. Just a tiny little bit to give it the sweetness.
Jamie Flanagan: 16:29
So how do you juice the monks? How exactly are you milking the?
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 16:33
monks, this is a gay monastery I'm not a monk milker actually, so I don't know the process of milking the monks. Tell me a little bit about monk fruit.
Jamie Flanagan: 16:43
What is what's monk fruit? Where's it come? Where's it come from? Did you ever hear.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 16:48
I don't know if you were a total dork in like college, but some people had monk fruit parties and you would fight into a monk fruit. A monk fruit is actually a fruit and like it is so sweet that everything that you then eat after it it like tastes like cake.
Jamie Flanagan: 17:05
Okay.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 17:05
It's this really weird. It's an actual fruit. It is like oh.
August Gitschlag: 17:10
I know what you're talking about now. Yeah, I remember that. Cake cake, cake, cake cake. I didn't.
Jamie Flanagan: 17:14
I was never I commute, I was a commuter. I went to U of M Dearborn, so I commuted, I was gonna say I think cinnamon challenges yeah, you know, yeah, I was way too.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 17:26
I was way too nothing that cool no, it's a fruit that is native to asia, and then you can create a um, a juice, out of it, and you only need like a little bit. Like you see, it's like the last ingredient oh, okay on the cans, because you just need like a tiny, tiny little bit to give it the sweetness. It's really expensive. So most people don't use the pure monk fruit juice concentrate. They use like erythritol and the other things. But, we're purists over here 250 times sweeter than sugar.
August Gitschlag: 17:57
Very nice, so these would call me monk fruit in college.
Jamie Flanagan: 18:02
I love that. I love that line. I love college. I love that, I love that line.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 18:06
I love that line.
Jamie Flanagan: 18:09
I love that line, Megan. If we are ever at any point disrespectful to you or your product too bad, Please warn us and flag us down.
August Gitschlag: 18:21
We should have come up with a safe word. Why don't you?
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 18:24
Let's come up with a safe word.
Jamie Flanagan: 18:26
If we go too far, megan just give us the sign.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 18:29
Talk about snowmobiling.
Jamie Flanagan: 18:31
Because sometimes we go off the rails.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 18:33
Sorry, megan, I can only keep the guys in line for so long.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 18:37
No, I think we should try for the safe word.
Jamie Flanagan: 18:39
No, this is nice. I would do either one of these and believe they were cocktails. Yes, I believe there is. I think it's the mushroom. So now, so what? Uh? What does what do this? What? What kind of trip am I going to be on here, megan?
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 18:52
there, there's no trip, you're not unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on I'm not, I'm getting you high they're not psychoactive. So you're drinking the can right now which has reishi mushroom in it which is just like it's. It's been used in chinese medicine for a long time. It's like it gives you a take the edge off feeling.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 19:09
It's like a slight relaxing to your nervous system, but it's not like a cbd where it kind of puts some people to sleep it just we put it in there because we worked with a food scientist, with their masters and adaptogens and some neuroscience advisors and like, if you are stressed out, you can feel it more. If you're super stressed out like I'm super stressed out and I have a can I will feel like a slight take the edge off. If you're just like you know, having a normal day, you might not feel something.
August Gitschlag: 19:36
The whole point is it's like a really subtle kind of so this is good for my blood pressure issues, is what you're saying? Oh yeah, he's on the cusp, I'm on the cusp.
Jamie Flanagan: 19:45
I was shaking my head because my wife was like, hey, we should get a dog. So we just had this puppy come into our life and my life has just been stressed for the last. It's like set a timer for 10 minutes, we got to take her on 10 minutes. Oh my God, god, take her back out. She's peeing on this. Oh my, it's been. My life has been every 10 minutes a timer going on and you're a high school teacher for christ's sake, oh my god I went to, I went to work to relax today.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 20:15
Oh, my gosh, that bad that is that little, my little, my little fur baby reina.
August Gitschlag: 20:20
Yeah, uh, so keep talking about this damn dog every podcast now.
Jamie Flanagan: 20:25
Is that?
August Gitschlag: 20:25
going to be the main topic? Did we talk about?
Jamie Flanagan: 20:28
her yesterday.
August Gitschlag: 20:29
Did we talk about her yesterday? Never mind.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 20:32
Sorry, jamie, I got you covered you can just bring this into the teacher's lounge, your little hip flask.
August Gitschlag: 20:39
I love these bottles by the way.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 20:41
Adorbs.
August Gitschlag: 20:45
What's this next one you just opened?
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 20:46
up for us. You chose the Ginger Mule.
Matt Fox: 20:50
Yes, you did.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 20:51
That one's got. I want to go back to the old-fashioned I think we're out of those already.
Matt Fox: 20:59
There's some. I'm teasing.
Jamie Flanagan: 21:02
I want to finish this and try the next one.
August Gitschlag: 21:04
I don't want to drink too many of these because it'll calm me down and I'm useless to you.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 21:10
It's calming, but it's also a cognitive function.
Jamie Flanagan: 21:14
Did you add anything to the bourbon, the old-fashioned one? Nope, look at you, good boy.
August Gitschlag: 21:21
F. You guys, I'm dumping vodka in this one you had me, I was being all good, I was curious.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 21:29
Now you're taunting me for not juicing it up. That's why we put baby in the corner.
August Gitschlag: 21:35
Can you turn that mic off over there?
Matt Fox: 21:37
Oh come on now.
August Gitschlag: 21:40
Oh, and she knees me under the table. Okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I won the table. Okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I won't say it again, chris, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Do you have the ice next to you?
Jamie Flanagan: 21:48
Oh?
Matt Fox: 21:48
yes, megan, if you were here in person, you'd hit him too.
August Gitschlag: 21:53
It's okay If you're not smacking me. I'm doing something wrong.
Jamie Flanagan: 21:58
All right, so now the ginger mule is next. Yes, I'll tell you what.
August Gitschlag: 21:59
I put too much vodka in there.
Jamie Flanagan: 22:00
Did you? You vodka, I don't taste it. You vodka, I don't taste it.
August Gitschlag: 22:03
This is a nice. This is a. It's a wonderful mixer. I think it's delicious.
Matt Fox: 22:08
So mules typically would have vodka, or would it be it's got that?
Jamie Flanagan: 22:11
ginger.
August Gitschlag: 22:12
It's definitely got the ginger, Ginger lime and it's not super spicy ginger. Any lemon to it or lime. I like that, Megan this is a lot of curation yeah.
Jamie Flanagan: 22:29
There's a lot of different expressions.
August Gitschlag: 22:31
You're a busy bee, you phrased that like an English teacher.
Jamie Flanagan: 22:39
How many different expressions are there of Little Saints?
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 22:42
There are six canned flavors and we've got two spirit flavors.
Matt Fox: 22:47
We'll get to the spirit bars.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 22:49
Yeah, because the spirits, I think so the spirits, you know, especially St Amber. Here I'll just pour these in the fancy glasses for you guys, all right.
Jamie Flanagan: 22:58
so the mule it's gingery. You know what? I kind of don't like mules. Okay, so it's my go-to, the animal my go-to is vodka and ginger ale with lime, not necessarily ginger beer.
August Gitschlag: 23:12
I like ginger beer. Ginger beer is just too calorie heavy. They're too sweet. They're too, sugary. This does not have that. There's a lightness to this that I really enjoy.
Jamie Flanagan: 23:21
But the mules is like this mule that mule. Now everything is this mule that mule. All I've got to do is put anything in ginger beer. Mules have been very in vogue of late.
August Gitschlag: 23:28
There's the Mexican mule, the Kentucky mule. You can put ginger beer, whatever spirit you want.
Jamie Flanagan: 23:32
I'm just like, just give me the spirit straight up, really, but this guy isn, I cleared my glass for you.
Matt Fox: 23:40
It's fine, I got a new glass.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 23:44
It's the salmon me.
Matt Fox: 23:47
Everyone's really starting to calm down right now.
Jamie Flanagan: 23:49
I know you guys are grabbing another glass.
August Gitschlag: 23:53
I'm still trying to figure out the mule. You got fresh stuff in front of me here.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 23:57
Yeah, I like the ginger mule. Where are you at?
August Gitschlag: 23:59
on the mule. Matthew, we're done with the little cans, now With the mule the ginger.
Matt Fox: 24:02
Where are you at on the mule, Matthew? So we're done with the little cans. Now With the mule, the ginger is definitely there, jamie Megan, it's very the ginger beer. It's always got that bite. When you go to sip on it, it gets in your nose.
August Gitschlag: 24:12
If it's done right and has ginger in it, it's going to ginger.
Matt Fox: 24:14
But this ginger is just, it just sits so nicely. I'm really enjoying it. I want some more actually.
Jamie Flanagan: 24:19
There has been a dryness. I would describe these as an after, as a dry feeling, like a dry wine. There's a dryness to these.
Matt Fox: 24:32
They all do kind of yeah.
Jamie Flanagan: 24:35
All three of them. The first one and this one more than the old-fashioned.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 24:38
Makes you thirsty, makes you want more, more please.
Jamie Flanagan: 24:41
I found some more. Makes you thirsty.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 24:42
Makes you want more, more, please. I found some more.
August Gitschlag: 24:43
Yeah, there you go, so did I.
Jamie Flanagan: 24:49
But I hate like diet pops.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 24:53
Only ginger beer.
August Gitschlag: 24:54
The diet ginger beer is better than the regular ginger beers, I think.
Jamie Flanagan: 24:58
Which brand Diet pops? Any of them are just better when their diet is just lighter, less sugary. Oh yeah, megan, do you miss the word pop?
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 25:08
Wisconsin we call it soda.
Jamie Flanagan: 25:10
Are you back to soda?
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 25:11
I've always been soda because I grew up in Wisconsin. Oh, you're from Wisconsin, all right, yes, yeah, always been soda, all right.
Jamie Flanagan: 25:19
Well, it spreads over.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 25:20
I still vibe with pop as a Midwesterner, but yeah, I love it. I vibe with pop.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 25:24
Yeah, I vibe with pop All right.
August Gitschlag: 25:30
So what's in the fancy glasses here?
Jamie Flanagan: 25:32
No, I'm not done with the mule.
August Gitschlag: 25:33
Well, I am, it's just a ginger mule. I'm moving on.
Jamie Flanagan: 25:35
Ginger mule sparkling cocktail, so it's gingery fizzy fun.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 25:40
With the reishi in there. Megan, do you want to get geeky On the back of the can, Mr Fox, if you can read what's the percentage of the beta-glucans?
Matt Fox: 25:52
in there. What did you just?
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 25:53
call me.
Jamie Flanagan: 25:55
I got a speed read now what did you just call me Beta-glucans?
Matt Fox: 26:00
Minimum of 70% beta-glucans.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 26:03
Okay minimum of 70% beta-glucan. Yeah, you got it. What does that mean?
Matt Fox: 26:06
70%, I can take it away.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 26:07
What is?
Jamie Flanagan: 26:08
the beta-glucan.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 26:09
All right. So when you have a picture like you're cooking and there's a mushroom, the whole mushroom does not have health effects in it.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 26:16
All the health effects are in the beta-glucan, which is a fiber in the mushroom that has all the good stuff in it. The how, all the like health effects are in the beta glucon, which is a fiber in the mushroom that has all the good stuff in it. And so if we were to just fry up like a lion's mane mushroom in a pan, for example, it would be about 1% beta glucon. But if you um, our extracts are 70% beta glucon because our mushroom suppliers are like the best in the business. They extract the beta glucon from the full mushroom fruiting body and mycelium via ultrasound. So it's like a really pure extraction technology. So you guys know you're in Michigan, like it's like a lot of the extraction processes for mushrooms and CBD and all the things you can use solvents and all that stuff. This is just a pure ultrasound extraction so it's able to like isolate the beta glucon and then deliver that to us as like a 70% beta glucon extract for the reishi and the lion's mane. Wow.
Jamie Flanagan: 27:16
Yeah, that is, we got nerdy as hell. I know that was real nerdy, but that's that's important bits that we need to know, alright are you done on this? One it's in does that? Is there mushroom? I don't know, I'm not getting mushroom in any of these, but I don't know what lion's mane or the reiki reishi so the reishi, it's good, you know one of you remarked on the mouthfeel.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 27:45
The dryness mouthfeel is from the mushroom extract.
Jamie Flanagan: 27:48
All right, so that's okay. So that's the mouthfeel that you get, yeah, and then remember, like I said, lion's mane.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 27:54
So that is a cognitive enhancer.
August Gitschlag: 27:57
All right, I need all the cognitive enhancement I can get.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 28:02
So it's good for you. So that's why you know you kind of get like an elevated feeling when you drink. You know any of these, whether it's the cans, whether you know once we move on to the spirits specifically the St Ember. So that's what I poured in your glasses with no ice, because I just want you to taste it nice and cold is with no ice, because I just want you to taste it nice and cold. So that, st Ember, this is the original spirits that Little Saints originally came out with.
Jamie Flanagan: 28:29
And this one has.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 28:29
Yeah, so this is an OG. This one has the lion's mane and then also the Palo Santo. Now, palo Santo. I don't know if you gents know.
August Gitschlag: 28:38
That's your ex-boyfriend.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 28:40
Well, I did get a Spaniard.
August Gitschlag: 28:41
Palo Santo.
Matt Fox: 28:42
Palo I was going to say? Was it Inigo Montoya? You killed my father, you killed my father.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 28:50
So the Palo Santo Megan can talk more about what that is for individuals who don't know what Palo Santo is. It's not a person.
August Gitschlag: 29:00
It's a resort town.
Jamie Flanagan: 29:03
All right. There's more, there's more nose on this thing yeah, all right, tell us about what do we got here in our glass?
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 29:09
so this is a um, it is, it's a total, it's a creation all of its own. It's like a spicy more spicy than smoky um, it's meant to. It is not a one-to-one, but I was inspired by like Tobalaz. Tobalaz is like a spicy mezcal that has like a little bit of fruit and a little bit of spice, and so I wanted to recreate those flavors. We're not using agave, it's just like inspired by, so I wanted to recreate those flavors.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 29:36
So Palo Santo is a wood. It's like a sacred wood that's grown in Peru and Ecuador and Central America. It's a like a sacred wood that's grown in peru and ecuador and central america, and um it it we like we. It's a whole process. We our supplier harvest the dead and fallen trees, makes it into an oil on site, and then we bring it to the us and we make it into an extract. So it's like a really unique ingredient that um is really hard to get and I kind of you know how we love seven thousand dollars a bottle yeah kind of there's a lot of effort in that's, uh, yeah yeah, I mean listen.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 30:13
But we like spirits because we like to tell the story of them. We know that it's like hard to make or it's been aged a long time, and so the palo santo is like the really kind of special, like bespoke ingredient in there, and then you can probably smell and taste. There's like ginger and cardamom in there too.
Jamie Flanagan: 30:30
Cardamom. What's cardamom?
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 30:31
Cardamom.
Jamie Flanagan: 30:32
Cardamom.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 30:34
Cardamom are pods. It's a seed pod and it's a type of spice. It's usually used in Middle Eastern.
Jamie Flanagan: 30:42
I don't know I want but not dirty earthy but like oh, there's another taste that comes after the first sip Not grass. It's not grass, but it's not dirt, but it's earthy.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 30:57
Yeah, it's organic tasting you definitely don't want to aerate this one. I was telling all my friends that I was visiting who are sommeliers. I said do not aerate this in your mouth because the spice on it yeah you gotta just let it sit, because it's got a bite to it. That's why I like it. I think that's why a lot of men like this, because it's mezcal-ish and it's got that spice and that smoke to it and you can drink as much of this as you want.
Matt Fox: 31:26
I'm definitely getting the smoke on this one. Definitely hitting on the smoke.
August Gitschlag: 31:30
This is another. If you didn't tell me that this wasn't a spirit, I wouldn't. You could have fooled me.
Jamie Flanagan: 31:35
This is hitting me like not on the roof of my mouth, but at the back Way in the back. Way in the back, but up top way in the back. It's where it's hitting hard and hanging out Spicy back.
Matt Fox: 31:52
It's hanging out and it's, uh, spicy. Not bernie, almost bernie, it's a warm.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 31:55
It's a warmth.
August Gitschlag: 31:55
It is absolutely yeah, yeah, earthy I don't know how to bastardize this. I don't know what booze to put in this. You can't. Don't tell me what I can, and can't. Yes, I can, yeah, I'm gonna tell you exactly what you can't do. No, I'm gonna go find something now but anyway but I, I wouldn't.
Jamie Flanagan: 32:07
There's no you want?
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 32:08
or vodka, yeah you want to know what my brothers do? Yes, I do actually, I absolutely do right so they they're like I'm never not going to drink alcohol in their words, but they will make like a mezcal negroni out of that, so they'll like sub that for mezcal and add some curry and vermouth so that makes more sense to me.
August Gitschlag: 32:28
Like I said you could, you could told me this was a spirit, this is actually alcohol, and I would have believed you, and so you could absolutely sub this in as an ingredient.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 32:38
Okay, well, some bartenders do, because it's hard to get Palo Santo. Kristen, you know like it's hard to get Palo Santo as an ingredient for a cocktail, like most bartenders that I knew would like try to age it in a cat. You know they would try to put some sticks into an infused like some Palo Santo sticks or just be like hard to make the extract. So if you kind of want that Palo Santo flavor, like people, I don't know what I said that offended my podcast mates.
August Gitschlag: 33:03
It just got up and walked off the show.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 33:05
What did you do? Are you guys?
August Gitschlag: 33:05
like.
Matt Fox: 33:06
Morgan.
August Gitschlag: 33:06
Wallen starting that live this weekend. Just get up and walk out. Oh, he's going to get a bottle of water to cleanse his palate.
Matt Fox: 33:11
I had to check something real quick. I thought I may have screwed something up, but no, we're good, we're good.
August Gitschlag: 33:17
I wanted a little water.
Jamie Flanagan: 33:18
Okay.
August Gitschlag: 33:18
We'll get up at the same time Like what did I say? What?
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 33:20
did I do this time? Yeah, normally you just throw your empty chip.
August Gitschlag: 33:24
walked up Taking care of bees now.
Matt Fox: 33:25
Yeah, okay.
August Gitschlag: 33:33
This does not lend itself to mixing booze with it, but as a substitute for booze I could absolutely see that working. Yeah, I'll tell you what. My girlfriend's mother is going to love this stuff. She's obsessed with mushrooms. She's vegan and gluten-free, so mushrooms is her substitute for everything. They're actually working on a little less wine in the daily routine.
Matt Fox: 33:56
This is a good substitute.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 33:57
What is this guy called it's?
Matt Fox: 33:59
called.
Jamie Flanagan: 33:59
St.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 34:00
Ember.
Matt Fox: 34:03
I know we haven't spoke price point at all with any of these just yet. We'll get there.
Jamie Flanagan: 34:07
And availability Countrywide and in Michigan.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 34:11
You'll definitely find the cans at Meadowbrook Country Club in Novi. Okay, so they're going to have them on their golf carts poolside in the clubhouse.
Jamie Flanagan: 34:19
Nice.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 34:20
And I know that the Spirit. So St Umber, and then we'll try St Juniper once you boys finished with the first one. Those are getting played with in downtown Detroit with some really awesome mixologists and bartenders down there, specifically the Highlands on top of GM. Bromson.
August Gitschlag: 34:37
Nice.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 34:38
All right.
August Gitschlag: 34:38
Yeah, yeah, take this stuff over to Freya. Yeah, that's where we just had they didn't have a lot of mushroom based stuff there.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 34:44
They would love this. They'll love it.
August Gitschlag: 34:46
So, Jamie, I'm curious. How does love it? So, Jamie, I'm curious.
Jamie Flanagan: 34:54
How does the St Ember pair with Cheetos? It's like wine and cheese. Don't judge, don't judge.
August Gitschlag: 35:00
You guys out me for dumping vodka in my stuff. You're dumping Cheetos in yours.
Matt Fox: 35:05
That's on you, fellas. I'm going to sit here and enjoy it. I'm going to enjoy it the right way here.
August Gitschlag: 35:09
There's never a wrong way to enjoy these products.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 35:12
You are correct. Yeah, that's right.
Jamie Flanagan: 35:14
I was looking for some straight up Fritos, but I don't have any.
August Gitschlag: 35:18
If these are no, I know I'm jumping the gun a little bit Are these retail available, especially the canned products?
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 35:24
They are.
August Gitschlag: 35:25
Okay, so where would we look for that?
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 35:27
So I know that, good Time Party Store in Northville Okay, would we look for that? So I know that, uh, good time party store in northville okay, so they carry these. I know holiday market in ferndale, they carry them.
August Gitschlag: 35:36
All the good stuff is at holiday market yeah, they're, they're, they're exploding.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 35:40
I know that tiktok, uh little saints is viral on there and, after you know, megan was on shark tank. She was the opener for the season.
Jamie Flanagan: 35:50
So, while we sip on these embers, megan, tell us a little story about your experience. What was it like to get on the Shark Tank? What kind of process was that? How long did it take you to get vetted, to get on there? And then, how much horse manure is it actually? Is it real? So much of reality TV is much horse manure? Is it actually? Is it real? So much of reality TV is such horse manure I just I can't watch it. Colleen loves watching the reality TV and I'm like it's such horse poo. These people are all lying, it's all scripted. This is crap.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 36:25
No, it's more real than I thought it was going to be. It is more due diligence than I have had with, like actual fundraising.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 36:34
For real like I had a data room, I had to like put all my financials in there. They grilled me on them, it was so they. They reached out, one of their scouts reach out to me. So I was lucky. But that doesn't mean I didn't have to do anything. I still then had to like beat out there like a thousand people in my pool, so we had to apply. I had to do a video application, I had to do another video application. I had to put together like two 10 page questionnaires. I had to give them all my financials. I mean, they knew more about my business than I did by the time. Like so there's this full application in there and then you just kind of wait and then they reach out to you and in between the time I started applying and when I got on and when I filmed the show, it was six months okay, wow, all right, that's a process yeah, it's a real process and you have like a producing team that like kind of just tells you because you have to do your own set like
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 37:30
we little saints like designs our set, so you have to like um, communicate with the, the, the shark tank people to like make sure that things are the way, because you're only in la for a day, so there's a lot of prep work that has to happen on. My set needs to look like this they like approve your outfit to make sure I'm not wearing like did you have the kitty cat? Uh no, I was wearing a green outfit.
Jamie Flanagan: 37:54
I kept it like minorly classy, but then you know you have to do you rehearse.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 37:59
Thank you, thank. I'm generally some sort of a cat disco cat, but um no, but actually so you. You have to memorize a 90 second pitch, just but you would do that anyways for a real fundraising meeting, right?
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 38:12
So it's like your regular pitch. But then after that, like there were 45 minutes when the sharks were grilling me and that was not rehearsed, and that was wild, like all I could do was be reactive and be like they were all firing questions at me at the same time and like I know my numbers, and so I was spitting stuff back questions at me at the same time and like I know my numbers and so I was spitting stuff back. But there was like it wasn't really like a, it was like you just had to.
Jamie Flanagan: 38:34
I was on my feet, just like firing it was like a 45 minute barrage, and then they edited it down to like five or ten minutes five yeah, exactly, exactly so when you were standing there in front of cuban and mr wonderful, who were the other two folks, three folks that were it was Lori.
Matt Fox: 38:49
Yep.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 38:49
And it was Damon Johns, and then it was Rashawn Williams. He was a new guest shark this season.
Matt Fox: 38:55
Oh nice. So which of them kind of drilled on you the most, gave you the most questions and were more interested in Little Saints?
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 39:04
Well, rashawn Williams he played for the Falcons and I was a bunch of like investment things. He gave me two offers. He came in with one offer on his own and then he gave me a second offer with Mr Wonderful and he was asking a lot of questions. He had invested in other beverages and he really wanted to invest in little saints, but he gave me a horrible offer financially.
Matt Fox: 39:24
So I was like no, I'll give you, I'll give you what you want at 35%.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 39:28
Yeah, and then Kevin, mr Wonderful, asked a bunch of questions also because he also gave me an even shittier offer.
August Gitschlag: 39:35
Excuse me, Let it out.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 39:38
Swearing is on the table again, folks.
Matt Fox: 39:43
But I understand you turned down the charts.
Jamie Flanagan: 39:46
You turned it down. You had an offer on the table and you said nah, not so much.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 39:50
Well, because it's financially. I mean, I actually really wanted to do a deal with Mark Cuban and he, right in the middle of our talk, he was like oh, I don't invest in this category, which was shocking to me because I thought that he did, Didn't he?
August Gitschlag: 40:02
own a tequila, Didn't he own a tequila? Yeah, no, I was like what.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 40:06
And he has natural products and he's invested in like mushroom adjacent things. So I was trying to convince him, otherwise he didn't want to invest. And then the offers that I got. I mean the thing is it's like a real financial discussion with them. So I'm telling them I'm like listen, at that point I had done $5 million in like revenue in the past 12 months and they were trying to offer me thank you, like they were trying to offer me like a one times revenue valuation, like a $5 million valuation, and market would be like three to four. So I was willing to give them some discounts, some sort of like celebrity shark tank discount, but not like a 75% discount.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 40:45
And so that was the discussion that we were having. I was like, if you guys give me, they were only offering me $500,000, which of course is a lot of money but like that's not. That wasn't enough to you know, last me years. So I'm like I'm going to have to fundraise again and then people are any like real investors going to think I'm an idiot if I take this deal. So can you give me a better deal?
Jamie Flanagan: 41:11
And so we went back and forth and we just couldn't get there on valuation. So I that's when I said no, that's good for you. Yeah, that's how much pressure, how hard was it to say no. Or you're smart and you know numbers and it was easy. Was it harder? Was it harder? I think that's right they're really.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 41:20
They're really smart. So, like I, it was easy to say no when kevin came in with a bad number and rashaan came in with a bad number, but then the two of them came in together for a third offer.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 41:32
And like, and it was like you could get two sharks for the price of one and that I had to really like. I checked in with my intuition and I was like I still, it's still a bad deal, Like. And then I don't know if, Chris, I don't know if you know this, but actually after the fact I saw Kevin O'Leary in person. It was like this random thing he was in Miami, my friends were right next to him at the bar, yeah, and I went up to him and I reminded him who I was. He didn't remember who I was.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 41:57
How could he not? He was lying.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 42:05
No, I don't think he did. He was like oh, I get pitched so many times.
August Gitschlag: 42:09
And then you know, life Douchebag.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 42:11
And so then I was like well, thank God, I don't have him on my cap table. It was like a gift from the universe that I did the right thing.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 42:19
You know what you came out. You came out with the best outcome, which was the main goal, I believe.
Matt Fox: 42:29
I believe on Shark Tank is just get on there.
Jamie Flanagan: 42:30
Yeah absolutely that's it.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 42:31
That's it, that's it, and then it's how much?
Jamie Flanagan: 42:33
how much of a bump is it with them? Are they? Are they? Because I see a lot of products and I'm like do you own any Shark Tank products?
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 42:41
I don't know. I own a scrub daddy and little saints.
August Gitschlag: 42:44
I own dude wipes. Oh dude wipes.
Jamie Flanagan: 42:47
Yeah.
August Gitschlag: 42:47
Organic butt wipes. Ok, dude wipes, the organic butt wipes. They're a little bit bigger.
Jamie Flanagan: 42:54
They're made for men's butts, Alright fair play.
August Gitschlag: 42:56
I'm a dude wipe guy. It's the only Shark Tank product I own.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 42:59
And Poppy. Do you guys drink Poppy? Poppy's the Shark Tank product.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 43:03
Oh yeah, the Poppy soda. Yeah, that stuff's good.
August Gitschlag: 43:09
I've actually been looking into it as my soda alternative these days. I actually have a friend who also was on Shark Tank and did not get an offer, and they put her into the psych trailer for an hour afterwards to make sure she wasn't going to kill herself. Yeah, I thought it was really impressive. I shortened down that story, but they made sure that they had to have a ride there. They couldn't drive themselves, and she thought it was just incredible. They made her sit for an hour before she could leave, hoping that she wasn't going to be like oh my God, I'm killing myself, my life stream is over. So this is done.
Jamie Flanagan: 43:36
Liability Because somebody in an early season jumped off a bridge or something like that.
August Gitschlag: 43:41
This is like four years ago, right after COVID she was on. I thought that story was fascinating.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 43:47
Well no, they have an on-set psychologist.
August Gitschlag: 43:49
Yeah, everyone has to.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 43:50
I had to talk to the psychologist afterwards.
August Gitschlag: 43:52
Yeah, see, I think it's incredibly responsible of them. Yeah, no, it is like a legit that thing is a great.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 43:58
It's very well organized.
August Gitschlag: 44:01
Even though she didn't get an offer, she was thrilled with the experience. It helped her tighten her action. Her company is going well. It's still a small company, but Helped her tighten her action. Her company is going well. It's still a small company, but, yeah, she was thrilled with it.
Jamie Flanagan: 44:12
Has that experience helped Little Saints?
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 44:15
It's helped us a lot because we are primarily like D to C, like direct to consumer. Only about 10% of our sales are wholesale. We have distribution in Michigan, thankfully, but we don't have trucks distribution in most states, and so because we already did instagram and facebook ads and because we already like, do most of the sales on our website, I think that shark tank is really great, I'm sure, for everyone, but especially if you're an internet company and then people can kind of look you up and um buy online because these aren't alcoholics.
Jamie Flanagan: 44:44
So you can, you can ship many shenanigans any place anybody's stopping you, yeah right, and that's because that's a thing, a lot of the spirits people, uh, every state in michigan is so, just you know, just so controlling and uh, it's hard, to hard to do things. Uh, so that's nice, you, you, you can internet the hell out of this stuff. Good deal, all right. So what I got mike? What do I have in my glass?
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 45:11
I love the shark tank story yeah, megan, thank you for sure for sharing that, yeah what do I got?
Jamie Flanagan: 45:15
my glass now. What is this? What?
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 45:17
is what are these saint juniper so? So this one is going to be more of like a gin ask. So, megan, do you want to talk about saint juniper a little bit?
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 45:26
yeah, so saint juniper it's. It's inspired by like the old school gins, which means for us, like it has Burt. Of course, the juniper is the leading, like nose and flavor. It's a really beautiful juniper extract. And then we have birch and angelica, root, coriander, cardamom. So it's, like you know, an herbaceous gin with some like sort of unique flavors. Not all the gins have the birch in it, not all the gins have the angelica root.
Jamie Flanagan: 45:57
I'm so susceptible to suggestion, and when you said, oh, there's birch in it, I'm like, oh, okay, I feel the white wood.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 46:07
I was going to say do you know what birch is? I'm waiting for the follow-up. Yeah, yeah, that actually was Matt's nickname in White white wood. I was gonna say do you know what birch is? I'm waiting for the follow-up yeah.
August Gitschlag: 46:11
Yeah, that actually was matt's nickname in in isn't that a cards against humanity card right up there with bigger blacker dick I feel the white wood I've got everybody I felt the white wood uh, is it?
Jamie Flanagan: 46:26
you got a little jenny jny gin, so my favorite spirit is chartreuse.
August Gitschlag: 46:33
I love herbally chartreuse Just to have, just a regular green chartreuse, just to sip on it. The last word is like my favorite cocktail. So I love a good herbally concoction.
Jamie Flanagan: 46:43
There's a lot going on in here. It's a little weird for me.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 46:46
Do you want me to mix up?
Jamie Flanagan: 46:47
one of the the juniper's a little weird for me. There's a lot going on. There's a lot going on. There's a lot. It's a little weird for me.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 46:53
I'm going to make you something special, August.
Matt Fox: 46:56
Oh boy, okay, Because there's like a.
Jamie Flanagan: 46:59
There's like. She got shakers and ice and all kinds of Just her August.
August Gitschlag: 47:08
And everything nice, I'm getting my own cocktail.
Jamie Flanagan: 47:11
We are sitting on the wrong side of the table my own mocktail.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 47:13
I'm going to make it for all of you.
Jamie Flanagan: 47:15
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, it's just for me. Yes, yes, yes, Everybody's special Everything.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 47:18
What are you making, Kristen? So we're doing some lavender simple syrup cups shot glasses.
Jamie Flanagan: 47:28
We don't need no shot glasses. We don't need no stinking shot glasses.
Matt Fox: 47:32
Megan, did you have a question for Kristen? I said what is she making? Oh yeah.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 47:37
So this is something that I came up with at home. So it's the St Juniper. This is a organic lavender simple syrup from my friend, Wendy. So she owns one of the largest lavender farms in Michigan, Belle, Lavend out in the middle of nowhere just west of Fowlerville.
August Gitschlag: 47:55
Well, you got to be because those lavenders can get out of control. They get at people.
Jamie Flanagan: 47:59
So you got to wrangle them in.
August Gitschlag: 48:00
Yeah you got to wrangle them, got to be out in the middle of nowhere.
Jamie Flanagan: 48:02
What else do you need in there?
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 48:04
That's it oh wait, no, no, no, I forgot. This is my secret ingredient.
Jamie Flanagan: 48:08
Secret ingredient. Oh, and you did it in the right Ancient Chinese secret.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 48:12
No, no, you have to do it in a Russian accent. Ah, Russian Because this is sea buckthorn oil, and pine resin. I know it sounds interesting.
Jamie Flanagan: 48:23
Now we're baseball season. Going to be Christmas tree. It's going to be Going to be like Slavic holiday, like Slavic holiday Shake it's going to be Like Slavic holiday On ice.
Matt Fox: 48:34
Slavic holiday on ice.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 48:37
Yes.
Jamie Flanagan: 48:39
We need.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 48:42
What's in that one?
August Gitschlag: 48:44
The last stuff.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 48:45
We'll just do that. I'll make room, it's fine.
August Gitschlag: 48:51
It is very tasty. Don't strain yourself. Ba-dum-bum, ah, funny, funny. See how sharp I am when I'm not drinking on this show. Yeah, see your cognitive enhanceitions happen.
Jamie Flanagan: 49:08
What's a sprig of what? On top of that, did you put a?
August Gitschlag: 49:09
little weed in there.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 49:11
No, it's lavender.
Jamie Flanagan: 49:13
Lavender on lavender. You got to double down on the lavender. I'm going to relax.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 49:20
Nope.
Matt Fox: 49:21
I just had the.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 49:21
Are you straining it, Kristen? Are you straining it?
August Gitschlag: 49:25
That's why the don't strain yourself comment came from yeah, I got freshly finger-banged lavender.
Jamie Flanagan: 49:34
Mine too, finally got it. You got a little one on there.
Matt Fox: 49:37
Try to work the phrase finger-bang into every podcast you got a little ding on. That one you got a little ding on that one A little ding.
Jamie Flanagan: 49:44
Partial ding my other, a little ding. Partial ding my other nickname in college.
August Gitschlag: 49:49
Partial little ding.
Matt Fox: 49:53
How many nicknames did you have in?
August Gitschlag: 49:54
college Was there four years, only four, four in one semester. I took an extra football season at Michigan State.
Jamie Flanagan: 50:02
Do you know how many years it took me to finish my undergrad?
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 50:05
Sorry Fox, you got a little one.
Matt Fox: 50:06
No, no, you're good, because I'm not a professional mixologist. Can we cut that quote to me Can?
August Gitschlag: 50:12
we isolate that quote. We're going to isolate that quote.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 50:17
All right, cheers, guys, cheers, megan, cheers, oh cheers.
August Gitschlag: 50:23
Cheers. There's something green in there. Is that Kool-Aid?
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 50:28
This is an old school little saints glass that I had our our logo put on oh, the glass is green.
August Gitschlag: 50:35
Okay, the glass is green, it's my favorite glass?
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 50:38
No, no, no, I'm just drinking St Amber straight.
Jamie Flanagan: 50:40
Nice.
August Gitschlag: 50:41
This is beautiful, this is great.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 50:43
You like it? It this is beautiful.
Jamie Flanagan: 50:44
This is great you like it.
August Gitschlag: 50:45
It's nice it tastes like my Breathe Right strips that I get the little lavender scented ones.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 50:48
Oh, that sounds good, it's very fun. I like that it's fun.
Matt Fox: 50:52
It's very metro.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 50:53
Yes, it's very cool.
Jamie Flanagan: 50:57
Nothing is not metrosexual gentlemen For me there was way too much stuff going on with this, with the juniper. Yeah, this balanced. Way too much stuff going on in that with, with this yeah this balanced it out. This balance is it? Uh, it adds to it. There's more, there's even more going on now, but it's more balanced. Yeah, it kind of relinquishes a little bit of that it needed.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 51:16
I, when I was playing at home with some of you know some of the spirits you know, like the St Amber, I like it just straight, or honestly, I'll put tahini in it or a tahini rim on it, and and I'm good with it. Now, the saint juniper, because I just, you know, I'm, I'm a health nut and I have a bunch of weird stuff at home.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 51:34
I mean, I don't think anybody has seed buckthorn oil with pine resin can confirm, nobody has no, okay, yep, and I'm weird out, um, but that with the lavender, simple, that's what it needed to just kind of like it balances out, and it's a fun cocktail to make too.
Jamie Flanagan: 51:51
Huh, lavender simple syrup we got to add that to our recipes.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 51:55
Yeah, that's a good one, the secret is this sea buckthorn oil Cause, like when you let it sit, when you let the cocktail sit, the secret could be aviation gin.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 52:08
Did you add gin to that? Or the vodka? Was that a gin?
August Gitschlag: 52:11
at least yeah, he just added some gin to it just a little, just like a quarter ounce, just a little touch, just a little little. Yeah, but see, these are meant to these are.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 52:21
You can play with them. You can add alcohol to them. You can, you know, play at home. Make a low ABV.
August Gitschlag: 52:27
You know it's delicious either way.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 52:29
Yeah, yeah, it's all good. I can do that Now, one of the one of the slogans for a little saints is you know, mushrooms make sex better.
Jamie Flanagan: 52:39
Yeah, what does this lines mean? What's a cause? It's neither my birthday nor my anniversary, so you're sending me home with some class colleen's not gonna hello lucy yeah, and it's funny some of your some of your advertising. Uh, because once we started doing this and the algorithms and I liked a few of your things.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 53:05
The next thing, my food was just filled with. You're gonna have a good time you said you saw sex is better with mushrooms.
Jamie Flanagan: 53:12
Yes, yes yeah, that's popping up on my feed with some regular frequency we are.
August Gitschlag: 53:17
We're looking at a lot more flavors here than I thought we had on the table. I didn't realize. They're all different. Do these come? I have to ask? Is a?
Jamie Flanagan: 53:24
like a party or is a party?
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 53:26
sample sample pack no, they're sampler packs. There's like a variety pack of the cans you can get. Um, you can pick either bottle and have them but if you're like, I love your hands.
Jamie Flanagan: 53:35
If you like, I love the espresso, you can just order a six pack yeah, exactly, yeah.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 53:39
Well, 12 packs are the 12. Yeah, there's actually, there's a four pack of the espresso. That's the only one that comes in a four-pack.
Jamie Flanagan: 53:48
All right, so yeah, so again, you can do this on the line People anywhere, anyplace, anytime.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 53:55
Yeah, littlesaintscom, that's where we do most of our sales. Yeah, or.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 54:00
Michiganders, michiganders. Just email, kristen, it's T-E-N at littlesaintscom.
Matt Fox: 54:07
Mrs Vino is connected in there as well.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 54:09
Well, I mean, that's like my pen name, that's how people know me, it's now Mrs Mushroom. No, I won't take that. That's Megan's. Megan's the mushroom yeah.
Jamie Flanagan: 54:21
Megan. Wow, this is like these are a lot.
Matt Fox: 54:26
These are special, these really are special.
Jamie Flanagan: 54:28
Megan, what else do we need to know? What else Are we missing? Anything?
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 54:31
Yeah, you know what we're missing. One thing we added Damiana.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 54:35
We're going to just geek out on ingredients for a second, so mushrooms are the main fuel of all of the cans and the spirits, and like all of our new flavors, we've added Damiana. And I got to tie this back to sex, of course, because like sex is better with mushrooms. But Damiana is, like it's known as, like an aphrodisiac. It's not. It's like a. It's a. It's a flower, um, that's grown in South America and it's like it gives you like a little bit more body feels. Like my mom, for example. I'm not going to talk about my mom and sex, don't worry, but when she has anything with Damiana, she's like ooh, my body feels all nice. It's just like a really subtle, like kind of gives you.
August Gitschlag: 55:13
That was my drag name Damiana Damiana.
Matt Fox: 55:16
That was your drag name, yeah.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 55:18
All right In college. That's how he made it through, uh-huh.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 55:23
Yeah, damiana huh yeah, damiana, interesting, yeah, and I actually bring it back to the food scientist like, yeah, it's totally fun.
Matt Fox: 55:31
But like the food scientist is actually like, oh no, if you pair, those things pair really well together so, if I, if I can ask you, megan, are you the like proprietor of all of these recipes for, for the, for the mule and for the Negroni spritzes? Are these your brain children?
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 55:52
if you will. Well, it's always a collaboration a hundred percent of the time. Like I, I have a form the formulator with her master's in adaptogens, like she's a food scientist.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 55:56
So I come to her and then she works with a bartender who also like is like a really like you know, like a culinary expert, and then I pull in other experts, like I've pulled in, like you know like a culinary expert, and then I pull in other experts like I pulled in, like you know more chamonix people to be like do the plants like each other?
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 56:12
So it's a whole thing.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 56:13
Okay, but I yeah, no, it's a whole thing, but I will. I come up with the flavor you know. So we're launching a new flavor next week and you know I'll come up and I'll be. I'll just go like old-fashioned, like listen, like these are like the top notes I wanted to have, like this is the nose I wanted to have. Of course it's got to be clean label, it's got to be no sugar, like we have parameters and then. But I'm not the one that, like, knows where to source each of the individual kind of extracts and flavors, so they helped me with that one. So so, for example, for the juniper I'll give you an example for that, because the St Juniper was really hard for us to get right and like their juniper extracts I didn't know this are not all equal the same, as, like you know, different distillers distill gin differently, like different distillers distill juniper extract differently and so like I needed to ask like four different people and go through eight months of rounds of saint juniper to get like the right note on the right extract.
August Gitschlag: 57:13
so it's gotta be consistent after that too, so you gotta have some people that can keep the consistency that way exactly we can't.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 57:20
a lot of people will reach out to us and be like oh, I have a farm, I can make an extract for you, and it's's like uh-uh, we need a big enough volume supplier to get that consistency.
Matt Fox: 57:32
Fair. Thank you for that. Appreciate that answer.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 57:36
Yeah. So what do you guys think? I want your gentlemen's palates because I know that you guys have got scotch palates and tequila palates.
Jamie Flanagan: 57:44
No, we're not scotch Scot Palettes and tequila palettes Not scotch Scotch, scotch Scotch.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 57:48
Well, that's Logan's palette, and my husband Logan. He loves these.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 57:52
Everything else that I brought home.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 57:53
He likes the cans. He likes the St Umber the best. He's got a hard palette.
Jamie Flanagan: 57:59
The cans were my favorite.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 58:01
Yeah.
Jamie Flanagan: 58:01
The first one and the third one, the old fashioned, and the what was the first one and the third one, the old fashioned, and then what was the first one?
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 58:06
Negroni the Negroni.
Jamie Flanagan: 58:08
The second one was nice, and then the St Ember was good. The juniper ones still freaking me out. Yeah, is it the cucumber.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 58:16
There's a lot, there's a lot.
Jamie Flanagan: 58:17
I'm not a cucumber guy, so that might be it. That might be it. The cucumber might be throwing me off you. You don't like pickles anyways. Yeah, oh, that's like pickles, cousin, oh.
August Gitschlag: 58:26
I don't like those. I don't like cucumbers soaked in evil. I don't like those guys. I don't like them. I'm looking forward to trying the Paloma at home, as I went through a big Paloma phase last year. It was a new thing for me to go to the Paloma. And the buddy gave me one at a Tigers game of all places. You know, here have this big giant cup of tequila and grapefruit juice and I go okay.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 58:51
Oh, that's a Paloma. Okay, so yeah.
August Gitschlag: 58:52
I'm going to give them that I did enjoy the mojito the ginger mojito, oh the ginger mule, ginger mule. I'm sorry, ginger mule, I'm looking at the mo's her jam, that's what she likes. She did four of them yesterday at Gadget Cafe you guys were there, so yeah. And we're absolutely going to introduce mom to these because she's going to dig this stuff.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 59:15
Good, good, I'm excited. Yeah, I brought enough for you guys to take.
August Gitschlag: 59:19
Oh, thank you, yay, thank you so much so for the kids.
Matt Fox: 59:22
Negroni Spritz kind of stood out for me. The old-fashioned was kind of right there where I would go. That would be like a daily for me on that old-fashioned I'm going to revisit the Negroni Spritz.
August Gitschlag: 59:33
It was the first thing we had. I think you opened up correctly with us with that, because we had just been bitching about Negroni.
Matt Fox: 59:39
Literally like two weeks ago, three weeks ago, and it kind of changed Like, oh okay this is doable. That St Ember is just sticking in my brain.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 59:47
That.
Matt Fox: 59:47
St. Ember is really, really nice. It was the smoke on it that really got me.
August Gitschlag: 59:52
Yeah, the smoke and the spice, and that's where I can't stand mezcals, so it's not my palate, but I get it. That's why I said it. You could have fooled me. Use that in place of a mezcal in a cocktail. You'll be you'll, you'll be happy. You won't be. You won't be missing it, but that way these are delicious.
Jamie Flanagan: 1:00:07
Yeah.
August Gitschlag: 1:00:08
What a great concept. What a great concept, yeah.
Jamie Flanagan: 1:00:12
Megan, good luck with the rest of the adventure. It's, it's gotta just be, it's the hustle I mean, being an entrepreneur, it's the hustle never ends right.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 1:00:27
Every day I'm hustling. That's why you've got to email Kristen at littlesteenscom if you want these.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 1:00:30
I'm super excited to get them into more Michigan places.
Jamie Flanagan: 1:00:34
I just was back a couple weeks ago Detroit for life Next time you stumble into town we'll find a pub to pour some of these mixies up for us.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 1:00:47
Yeah, that'd be fun.
August Gitschlag: 1:00:50
It won't be one of my usual dive bars.
Jamie Flanagan: 1:00:52
We'll have to go up there.
August Gitschlag: 1:00:54
We'll have to wear a collared shirt or some shit.
Matt Fox: 1:00:56
Megan, thank you so much for being here with us. And, kristen, thank you for having Megan here in the man cave. This was fantastic.
August Gitschlag: 1:01:07
Thank you spending your miami sunset with us.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 1:01:09
We got to watch thank you guys, it was really fun. It was really fun, all right all right.
Jamie Flanagan: 1:01:15
So, uh, it's, it's. It's simply littlesaintscom, uh, kristen, oh wait, wait, wait, wait.
August Gitschlag: 1:01:23
We never asked where the name came from.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 1:01:25
Oh.
August Gitschlag: 1:01:25
Yeah, why Little Saints?
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 1:01:27
Your savior is here. It's like a play on, just like. It means a lot of things, like people have referred to mushrooms as little saviors Also. Apparently, housewives in the 50s and 60s apparently called their happy pills Little Saints. Oh no, the Quaaludes and so it's like you know, it's just a play on saving yourself from the money.
Matt Fox: 1:01:56
Excellent, thank you. Thanks for bringing that back, bringing that around, that's great.
Jamie Flanagan: 1:02:01
Okay, is it Kristen at littlesaintscom? You got it All right Kristen with a K and T-E-N Kristen with a K.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 1:02:06
And T-E-N Perfect time baby Boom, boom, boom.
Jamie Flanagan: 1:02:10
All right, all the podcast things in all the podcast places Do it Like and subscribe.
Kristen - Mrs. Vino: 1:02:17
It's Mrs.
August Gitschlag: 1:02:18
Vino next to me, kristen Carlson.
Jamie Flanagan: 1:02:19
Matt Fox is over there. August Gitschlag, Hi buddy.
August Gitschlag: 1:02:23
Hey, that's Jamie Flanagan. Someone's got to step up and say hi to.
Matt Fox: 1:02:26
Jamie.
Jamie Flanagan: 1:02:27
I was working on it.
Matt Fox: 1:02:27
I was waiting until it was done.
Jamie Flanagan: 1:02:30
And we'll do it all again very, very soon. Cheers.
Megan Klein - Little Saints: 1:02:32
Cheers, Megan. Thanks for having me.
