How RTD Brands Really Scale 🍺 Data, Ops & Sales with Rob Minucci at TalkHouse Encore

This week 📢I talk🎙️with Rob Minucci CEO & Co-Founder at TalkHouse Encore and we discuss how he has used his experience in operations to build out a CRM and win Accounts and Distributors! 👏🍷 🎇 🎉 ✨ 👏 🥂 😁

How do RTD brands actually scale? 🍺 Rob Minucci, CEO of TalkHouse Encore, breaks down data, operations, CRM, distributors & real-world sales strategy for CPG growth. @ThirstyThursdaysat3PMEST 

 “Everything I’ve built is based around systems, processes, and procedures that are repeatable—with as little human intervention as possible.”  Rob Minucci

Watch Here!  https://youtu.be/AeZl7vXfigo

Most RTD brands chase hype.
TalkHouse Encore built systems.

In this episode, Jessie Ott sits down with Rob Minucci, CEO & Co-Founder of TalkHouse Encore, to break down how operations, data, and distributor trust drive real growth in CPG and beverage.

🔥 Key Takeaways:
 • Why beer distributors outperform spirits distributors for RTDs
 • How CRM + real-time data create sales accountability
 • Building velocity before chasing expansion
 • Why on-premise still matters (40% of sales!)
 • How systems beat guesswork every time
 • Using tastings + analytics to drive reorders

This is a masterclass in execution over noise.

How Rob’s Team Actually Differentiates (and Why It Works)

Most RTD brands compete on flavors, packaging, or hype.
 Rob and the TalkHouse Encore team compete on execution.

That difference shows up in a few very specific ways.

They build systems before scale
While many brands rush distribution, Rob’s team focused early on operational processes that remove friction. Sales, inventory, distributor activity, and account follow-ups are tracked in real time. Less guessing. More control.

They designed a CRM for beverage reality
Instead of forcing reps to live in bloated software, they built a CRM that works the way beverage teams actually work:

• Simple inputs
• Shelf photos
• Account scoring
• Inventory flags
• Route efficiency

It’s not “data for reporting.”
 It’s data that drives action in the field.

They treat distributors like partners, not order takers
Rob’s team doesn’t just hand off the brand and hope for the best. They create clarity for distributors by:

• Showing exactly where velocity is working
• Identifying underperforming accounts early
• Making it easier for reps to win

That builds trust — and trust gets priority.

They use focus as a competitive advantage
Instead of chasing national presence, they went deep in hard markets. Fewer states. Better execution. Higher velocity. 

They win on-premise to pull through off-premise
With roughly 40% of sales on-premise, TalkHouse uses bars and restaurants as marketing engines. Sampling, education, and activation create demand that shows up later in retail 

They remove ego from pricing and product decisions
Pricing wasn’t set to “fit the shelf.” It was set to reflect quality, margin, and sustainability. The mixed vodka + tequila v

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Transcript

Robert Minucci (00:00)
The beer distributors, have been one of the decisions that we've made. Looking back on it, it was probably one of the best decisions we've made, is taking the, I guess, the non-conventional approach where everyone said, you have to go with the spirits distributor. They know the space. They have the best relationships with liquor stores. And we thought, well,

Beer distributors understand the market. They understand how to move cans. They know how to do it most efficiently. Their reps are grinders. They're out there. They're merchandising. They're building relationships with bartenders. They understand volume. And we know that that's the use case for our product. At the end of the day, we're not a handle or a liter of vodka. We're a ready to drink. It's essentially a beer replacement.

So we felt like we would fit in best with those guys and it's been one of the best decisions we've made.

Jessie Ott (00:49)
Yeah,

Hello everybody and welcome to Thursday Thursdays. I am Jessie Ott and I have another exciting guest at beginning of the year here in 2026, Rob Minucci, CEO and Co-Founder of TalkHouse Encore. Welcome, Rob.

Robert Minucci (01:34)
Happy to be here, I'm excited.

Jessie Ott (01:36)
Yep. Me and my big old, what do you call these things? Headphones, earmuffs, whatever you call them. I feel ridiculous, but it's best for echo and all the things. So it's functional. That's right. Anyway, how are you doing today?

Robert Minucci (01:41)
Yeah,

functional, functional.

doing well. It's a new year. It's exciting. We're hitting the ground running, so I can't complain.

Jessie Ott (01:57)
Nice. And where are you calling from?

Robert Minucci (01:59)
I'm in Brooklyn.

Jessie Ott (01:59)
Okay, my aunt lived there. I lived there for about a couple of weeks. ⁓

Robert Minucci (02:04)
where? Where in Brooklyn?

Jessie Ott (02:07)
Near York? Is it York Street? No.

Robert Minucci (02:09)
I think there's a York Street maybe in downtown Brooklyn. I'm like up north in Williamsburg.

Jessie Ott (02:14)
you're in Williamsburg. Okay. Yeah. I can't remember exactly anymore. but it was by the big park, right by the big park. Yeah. Prospect park. Yeah. That's the one. Yeah.

Robert Minucci (02:18)
⁓ but like Prospect Park. Okay, so yeah, it's cool. Like, yeah, Mid-Middle Brooklyn. Very cool.

Jessie Ott (02:24)
Are you from Brooklyn originally?

Robert Minucci (02:26)
No, I'm from Connecticut and I have been here for about 15 years. So I've seen a change.

Jessie Ott (02:31)
Okay, so not...

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I lived there in 2003, 2005. Well, no, I lied because I was there for 9-11. I moved out there that January. I was there for 9-11 and I stayed like three years.

Robert Minucci (02:34)
Yeah, to say the least.

Mm-hmm.

⁓

I think living in New York is an interesting place and I think everyone should do it. You get thrown into the thick of it and you're around a lot of people who are hustlers and go-getters and doing really interesting things and I love it. It's my type of

Jessie Ott (02:56)
Yeah.

Yeah, I just love, I remember with my girlfriends, we would just meet at a random bar and you never know who you're gonna sit by, have a conversation with. Figuring out the accents and where everybody's from.

Robert Minucci (03:18)
Well.

Yeah, and that is the interesting thing about New York, right? Which is, you you don't really go over to people's apartments that much. You kind of go out and you meet at bars and restaurants, which is, I think, unique to like a lot of other, you know, cities, you know? No, you can't. So like, you know, I mean, up until COVID, I New York was like a bar culture. You would, you know, there'd be happy hours and you would go out and it's...

Jessie Ott (03:36)
Yeah, that's true. You can't fit in each other's apartment.

Yeah.

Robert Minucci (03:49)
COVID changed it a little bit, I always enjoyed that.

Jessie Ott (03:52)
Yeah, yeah, it's kind of like not quite there yet, huh?

Robert Minucci (03:56)
It's different. I also, I mean, I'm admittedly getting a little older. So, you know, I'm not out until two o'clock in the morning on a Thursday, I still love the city.

Jessie Ott (04:01)
It's not the same.

Yeah.

Yeah, I remember the fun, the extremely fun times that we had were, okay, get up on Sunday, get your laundry done, let's meet for brunch. And then we just hit a different neighborhood and bars, a snack, a drink, snack, a drink. You'd be hung over for like four days, but it was so worth it because you had so much fun.

Robert Minucci (04:18)
Yep.

of course. mean, listen, that's, you know, that's,

well, that's the beauty of, I guess, alcohol, you know, consuming in moderation. But, you know, it brings people together. It's a social. Well, I try to be as PC as I can. But, you know, it's a it brings people together. You know, that's the beauty of it. No, doesn't. It really does.

Jessie Ott (04:35)
And that wasn't moderation. was a kid. I was in my twenties. I didn't know any better. It does bring people together. That's a huge, it's

a, and I think that's a huge message in today's world, especially how tough it is out there because there's just so many choices. And that's, that's kind of, think how you guys have built yours and that's through community and storytelling.

and how important that is to a community and to get support from that community. And we'll get into it, but that's, think, kind of how you position the business with the beer distributors because they really do a great job at that.

Robert Minucci (05:16)
The beer distributors, I think, have been one of the decisions that we've made. Looking back on it, it was probably one of the best decisions we've made, is taking the, I guess, the non-conventional approach where everyone said, you have to go with the spirits distributor. They know the space. They have the best relationships with liquor stores. And we thought, well,

Beer distributors understand the market. They understand how to move cans. They know how to do it most efficiently. Their reps are grinders. They're out there. They're merchandising. They're building relationships with bartenders. They understand volume. And we know that that's the use case for our product. At the end of the day, we're not a handle or a liter of vodka. We're a ready to drink. It's essentially a beer replacement.

So we felt like we would fit in best with those guys and it's been one of the best decisions we've made.

Jessie Ott (06:06)
Yeah,

So how did you get into the beverage business?

Robert Minucci (06:11)
so I was in the, started in the food business and I was the director of operations or like in like the fourth employee at a company called Hungry Root. I worked there for a little while and then I became the chief operating officer of another direct to consumer food company called Time Food that made ⁓ vegetable based meals in a jar. We would ship them to you, which was really interesting. ⁓

Jessie Ott (06:14)
Okay.

That is interesting.

So it's like a direct to consumer.

Robert Minucci (06:36)
It was direct to consumer, yes. Yeah, and it was one of those companies where...

Jessie Ott (06:38)
Interesting. Was that the days

before e-commerce?

Robert Minucci (06:43)
It was during the height, or I guess maybe a little after the peak of like food e-commerce. But it was really interesting because when the company started, had, you know, they had like a commissary kitchen that they were making everything. It was basically like this art project and the unit economics were atrocious. So like I had to basically come in and we turned it, we went from like our own facility to outsource manufacturing and that kind of flipped the unit economics to actually make sense. And then, you know,

Jessie Ott (06:50)
Okay.

Robert Minucci (07:11)
From there, basically figured out how to get the shipping done properly. Ultimately, I think the company ran out of money, which, listen, it's the food business. It happens. It's a capital intensive business. But from there, I went into food and beverage consulting. So food and beverage companies would hire me to help them set up their operations, supply chain, distribution, sales, finance. And I did that for, I don't know, maybe

Jessie Ott (07:17)
It happens.

Yeah.

Robert Minucci (07:35)
for six years, where I was kind of like, you the guy that would either, you if you had an idea, figured out how to bring it to market, or even if you had a company that was doing 50, 60 million in revenue, and you needed a new product line, or just, you know, figure out how to optimize your cost of goods, you know, I would, you know, people would call me to do that, which I really enjoyed that. Yeah. So I saw what worked and I saw, well, that's the thing, right? You see what works and you see what doesn't work.

Jessie Ott (07:54)
That's awesome. Yeah, you get exposed to so many things.

Robert Minucci (08:02)
And you learn from the things that work and you learn from the things that don't work. Arguably, you learn a little bit more from the things that don't work. I really enjoyed it. It was fun. I loved consulting. I loved taking on projects that were super interesting to me. yeah, that's kind of where, up until then, that's basically how met Ruby. She hired me as a consultant and like three weeks into working with her, she was like,

Jessie Ott (08:09)
Right.

Robert Minucci (08:26)
think we work really well together. You compliment me. She's more branding, marketing. I've had the operations, supply chain, finance, sales experience, and we kind of ⁓ co-founded this.

Jessie Ott (08:37)
Yeah. Well, I interviewed Ruby, you know, last year and posted her podcast. So she's, she's an amazing individual and she's well-spoken. I feel bad. Some of the crap she's had to deal with, with some of these distributors. She mentioned something about being called something, something, something inappropriate. And it's just really frustrating. But I, I'm sure she's strong. She's got this. She's, she's

Robert Minucci (08:45)
Cheers.

Sure.

Yes.

Jessie Ott (09:02)
She'll win. She's winning right now.

Robert Minucci (09:05)
She is. Ruby is a very, very unique person. I have met a lot of people and she's quite honestly one of the few people that I've met that is a genuine, authentic person. She really is. And she just cares about everyone that's around her. And it's a pleasure to work with someone like that.

Jessie Ott (09:25)
It's ⁓ not very often where I meet someone where I want to help them so much and mentor. you know, so I was trying to reach out a little bit and help her, but I didn't, I felt kind of silly. I, I backed off, but she, yeah, she's, she's certainly somebody that you just want to go, okay, let's do this together. You know what I mean? Like you just want her to be successful so bad and, and, and do what you can to help her, you know.

Robert Minucci (09:38)
Yeah

She

convinced me to join the team and start this with her. She's good.

Jessie Ott (09:54)
She's good. Yeah, I think I remember

on the podcast she said somebody told her that if you're going to create a company like this, you have to talk to Rob Mnuchie. And she did.

Robert Minucci (10:07)
She's

very generous with her compliments, especially towards me. I'm just doing my job.

Jessie Ott (10:16)
Yeah. Well, that's why you're here. Cause I'm so curious into, ⁓ you know, what you guys are doing and your strategies and your metrics and analytics and whatnot. So let's, back up just a little bit here. So you were a consultant and then you, you talked to Ruby. And so what was, what was that conversation like? Had she started the brand or she just concepting at this point? Okay. She had an idea.

Robert Minucci (10:18)
Yeah, exactly.

Thank you.

Yep.

She had an idea. She just, she had an idea.

And, you know, I said, okay, great. Well, then I can introduce you to the formulator and we can put together a financial model and we can start to, you know, figure out how to build the framework. So you can go out and raise some ⁓ pre-seed angel, you know, money to start the business.

Jessie Ott (10:56)
Nice. Okay. So did you guys formulate it kind of together or did she have just like a basic concept?

Robert Minucci (10:57)
Yeah.

The, well, think as you know, Ruby has celiac, so she's gluten free. So instead of doing a beer, which I think the bar like always wanted to do a beer, she obviously can't drink gluten. So the idea was let's figure out some other alcohol drink and.

Jessie Ott (11:18)
Right.

Robert Minucci (11:23)
you know, we decide or she decided to do a hard seltzer. mean, the category is obviously exploding. And, you know, why not come out with like your dive bar classics? But I think, you know, the formulator I introduced her to, to get this going.

did a lot of work in the traditional beverage space. So you'll notice there are lot of RTDs out there, and I think there's nothing wrong with this, but it's like vodka, sparkling water, and natural flavors. It's not super complicated to do that. You get flavoring, and you get vodka. They're good, Greg, you have a drink. We took a little bit of a different approach. We kind of developed this like you would a natural beverage, because we believe that at the end of the day,

flavor and product quality or what drives the category. The way that I guess why we look at it is like, there was beer and then all of a sudden White Claw came out. It was like the beer alternative. And some people said it tastes better than beer if you're not a beer drinker and then truly. And then all of sudden High Noon came out and that was like the spirits version and it used real juice, better ingredients. And then now you have like your surf sides and your sun cruisers, more flavor.

better for you, better quality. And we think that that's the way the industry is moving. So we design these drinks to be very flavorful, use real ingredients, real juice. Like when you pour out our product, it pours the color of the juice that's in it. And we think that that's kind of what differentiates us from a lot of the competition.

Jessie Ott (12:54)
And what about the story? Then the branding? Do you want to talk a little bit about that?

Robert Minucci (12:56)
I think that that's

the most unique part about us. This is not a brand that's made in a boardroom. This is a legendary dive bar live music venue from the Hamptons. It's been around for over 40 years with 70 members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame play on this little stage. mean, like last year Metallica played there. How many other bars and small music venues can say that?

At the end of the day, think the customers, like I'll go back to what I said, flavors really important product quality, but also looking for authentic brands. They're looking for something they can connect with. that's the TalkHouse allows for.

Robert Minucci (13:34)
Yes, so I think that's another extremely unique part about our brand is that most beverages, know, it's a bunch of people in a boardroom coming up with an idea, trying to find a target market. And I think what's really unique about us is we have, you know, we have this history and this legacy of this like 40 year old institution in the Hamptons. It's a place for everyone, but they get some really iconic acts.

I think this year or last year when Metallica played in front of 250 people, which was pretty ridiculous to see. ⁓ My ears were ringing for two days. how many places have had Metallica play? mean, it's a national stadium act. So it's just awesome, just really unique, authentic.

Jessie Ott (14:04)
Unbelievable.

Yeah, I bet.

Robert Minucci (14:22)
brand and we were able to take that and bring it to the masses. Very similar to what like a REO's pasta sauce did or like Tate's cookies did. You know, that's kind of the angle we're taking there. And the authenticity creates a real connection with the customer, the consumer.

Jessie Ott (14:32)
Yeah.

Yeah, it's really interesting the acts that have come through there. ⁓ Ruby even talked about when she was a kid, Steen came through so she had to wear a nicest dress. And I asked her about Howard and Howard Stern, of course. And she's like, yeah, he comes in and because he loves rock and roll. mean, he loves rock and roll. I he helped a lot of bands get started, including Bon Jovi. ⁓ You know, so I mean, I just thought it was really cool that he goes there. And then I asked her about

Robert Minucci (14:47)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Sure.

Jessie Ott (15:07)
a celebrity endorsement, you know, and she's like, yeah, nobody their age drinks anymore. ⁓ Which I think is, I mean, which is fine because it's harder as you get older to drink.

Robert Minucci (15:12)
Yeah

Yeah, for sure. Though it's funny because I'm actually a big Howard fan and I'm listening and all of a sudden he's like, oh, I was at the Stephen Talkhouse and I saw Metallica and he would go on for 30 minutes about that. I was like, oh my God, that's our place. I was at that concert, it was pretty incredible. yeah, yeah, No, oh yeah, oh he was, yeah, yeah. Really, yeah, really interesting.

Jessie Ott (15:35)
that's cool. I was wondering if he was there. I would assume he would be. Yeah. Yeah.

Have you met him? No.

Robert Minucci (15:44)
No, ⁓

no, I'd like to leave people alone. What do they want to meet me for?

Jessie Ott (15:49)
Yeah, of course. Yeah.

Well, I didn't know, you know, sometimes it could happen. You just never know how, how, you know, social situations can, come to, come to play. Yeah. Yeah. You're not going to go up to him and go, Hey, I'm CEO and founder or what's up? Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. Did Beth go?

Robert Minucci (15:54)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, I understand.

there to see a show, let them enjoy the show and you know.

Yeah, she was there.

Jessie Ott (16:13)
Awesome. Very cool. I remember the year that they, they, ⁓ wow. that's so awesome. ⁓ I remember. Yeah, that's really wild, but that's just how famous this place is and how famous it's been for so long. You know, for Metallica to go, yeah, I'll play that gig.

Robert Minucci (16:14)
Yeah, Paul McCartney was there too.

Yeah. Yeah, that was crazy to see Paul McCartney. I was wild.

Mm-hmm. I mean, it really is. It's like... Yeah.

And also, that's a testament to Ruby and her family. Like, they've really cultivated some amazing relationships, not only with, you know, the locals out there, but with the town and with, you know, the partner SiriusXM.

Jessie Ott (16:41)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, that's really cool. I didn't realize there are partners with SiriusXM. That's amazing.

Robert Minucci (16:56)
Yeah, they usually do one show there a year, is incredible.

Jessie Ott (17:01)
Yeah, that's super cool. I didn't realize that at the time I wasn't familiar with that venue until I spoke with Ruby and I do agree with you. think it's a spectacular story and it's one that everybody loves music, everybody loves bars, and the whole cocktail piece to it just fits in perfectly. So I do agree. I think that's a real strength for you guys.

Robert Minucci (17:24)
Yeah.

Yeah, it is. And it's certainly a strength and a differentiator as well. In a very crowded market.

Jessie Ott (17:26)
Are we delayed?

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, 100%.

So as a VP of operations as your past has been, and Ruby obviously reached out to you because of this skill set, how did you formulate the business and the structure so that you can build it to scale? What are some of the key decisions that you made to get there?

Robert Minucci (17:53)
Yeah, I think a lot of everything that I did was based around like systems, processes and procedures to make things that were very easily repeatable and with as the least amount of complexity and human intervention as possible. That's been like my...

Jessie Ott (18:10)
You sound just like my wife. That's exactly what she does. Get

rid of paper, make it easy, simple, process-oriented, and repeat.

Robert Minucci (18:21)
A

hundred percent. And if there's one thing I've learned about operations in the food and beverage space is like what can go wrong will go wrong. So take the human aspect out of it and build something that's repeatable and then also be prepared for something to go wrong. mean, you know, there's never really a production run that goes by without, you know, there being some sort of mishap, hiccup, you know, an ingredient not arriving on time. So you have to basically plan for the

you know, the possible mistakes or errors and just, you know, pad your time, set reasonable expectations. But, you know, just it's a lot of it comes down to systems processes and procedures for us to, you know, to scale properly. And I really wouldn't have been able to do that if I didn't have the experience of working with very small beverage companies and very large beverage companies. So you see what works in the law of large ones. And then you cut out a lot of the red tape and you kind of implement those in the

Jessie Ott (19:03)
Yeah.

Robert Minucci (19:17)
in the smaller ones.

Jessie Ott (19:18)
And Ruby mentioned something about a CRM that you created that has been really beneficial. And if I remember correctly, it's pretty transparent with the distributor. Is that, am I saying that right?

Robert Minucci (19:23)
Yeah.

Yeah, well, yes.

Yeah, no, it is. you know, when we have our own sales team that helps sell our product. So we have like three reps in New York, two in New Jersey, one in Connecticut, two in Massachusetts. And we think it's really important to like understand what's going on on the ground, be able to, you know, have direct interaction.

with as many accounts as we can to help cultivate the brand, build a relationship, get better product placement, get our POS up, you know, like all of the, just the meat and potatoes, the brand building basics. Like we think that that's extremely important. So, you know, in order to do that, we need to have our own reps or at least that's the way that we've, we've built this. And it's in theory, a very easy concept, but in practice,

You know, it's these are, you know, they're humans and they're out there and they're trying to, and they're doing their best and they're trying to put together routes and they're trying to make sure they're going to see the right accounts. listen, Ruby and I both did it for three years. we were out there grinding, going from store to store and like, kind of going back to my operations experience, like systems, processes and procedures. So, went out there, looked for a CRM system that, you know, I thought could help us like.

streamline a lot of this work and like some of them were really great at like GPS tracking and recording but the other ones didn't have the ability to like take photos and to You know schedule good follow-ups or to put scorecards on accounts or even to pull all that data and then get Dashboards to make actual insights. So I finally got fed up and I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna get salesforce

And I'm going to hire someone to build this out the way that I want it done. That way that I want it done, the way I think it should be done. And I will say that that was probably one of the best decisions we ever made. Because now we have full accountability for all of our reps. And by the way, they don't have to put a lot in. Everything is done by like check boxes or just like saying yes, no, a little no.

Jessie Ott (21:09)
The way that you want it done, yeah.

Robert Minucci (21:31)
We have photos of all of our product on the shelf, what it looks like against our competition. We can pull pricing data from that. It's incredible. we go into an account and we see that we're low on blood orange. We can set a reminder, hey, go back in two weeks. The account's low on blood orange. And we go in there and they're sold out. ⁓

Jessie Ott (21:36)
That's great.

That's super cool.

Robert Minucci (21:55)
We have basically insight into everything through this CRM platform. And we grade every single one of our accounts on a scale of 0 to 100. And we have a target that our guys have to hit. And if we have an on-premise account, they have to say, the product's behind the bar. It's on the menu. We've talked to the bartender. We've done a tasting with the bartender.

So it basically creates like a checklist, like a pilot will go through before they start a plane to make sure everything's done properly. And we've seen like, the productivity increase has been absolutely ridiculous compared to what we were doing compared to now. I'm very proud of this because you talked about accountability with the distributors. So our guys will go out, they'll be like, okay, here's a 10 case order.

then the traditional way it works is you call the distributor rep and they put in that order. Well, sometimes they're busy, sometimes they forget. But our system tracks compared to the distributor system. if the delivery date's Wednesday and nothing comes in, we know we have open orders. And then we can go back and follow up with the distributor to get that order in if they forgot. Or we send them weekly updates of here are all the accounts that are missing product. Here are the ones that want to order with you guys. Here are the ones that ordered.

Jessie Ott (22:58)
Wow.

you

Robert Minucci (23:05)
here are the ones that need products.

it gives them actionable, it makes it actionable for them to be able to go out and help sell for us. And it's something that all of our distributors are kind of shocked that we have this capability and it's, you know, it holds each of us accountable and it's worked really well. I'm really happy with it. I'm really happy.

Jessie Ott (23:23)
So do the reps have an app then? Were they?

Robert Minucci (23:26)
Yeah, so

it's all built on the Salesforce platform. ⁓ But what I didn't realize was how customizable, this isn't a pitch for Salesforce by any means, but ⁓ it's very customizable. So I can go in and I can be like, okay, this account just got something delivered, here's your dashboard for all your accounts that just got product delivered for the first time.

Jessie Ott (23:31)
Okay.

Right.

Robert Minucci (23:50)
You have to go in there within three days and make sure it's set up. And I can set up all these systems and automations to make sure that they're actually doing the most important things first. Another thing we do is once we get a first order, well, it's important for us to get that second order and that third order. So every account that has a first order, then it goes into a list of, you got to get your second orders. You got to get your third orders.

Here's the accounts you haven't been to in over 30 days. Here are your accounts that are A accounts, high priority accounts. Go to these. And then it all comes up on a map so they can build their routes super efficiently. And it'll tell them, if you want to see all these accounts, throw it in here. And then it uses AI to say, OK, here's the most efficient route for you to go and do your day and come home. Yeah, I'll say it again. I'm very proud of this because it

Jessie Ott (24:33)
Wow.

You

could make that into a whole thing because nobody has that.

Robert Minucci (24:46)
They don't and you know, I've tried a lot of CRMs and they just never were, they never got, know, they never were able to give me the data that I was looking for or really to be able to hold, you know, the reps accountable or to actually make the reps more efficient in the field, which at the end of the day, you know, nobody wants to spend hours of their week planning their routes and trying to find places and using pen and paper.

I think it's super important to use, we have technology, let's use it and let's make the workday as enjoyable as possible and as efficient as possible and let's focus on the things that matter the most, not just the ⁓ minutiae, guess, or the fluff.

Jessie Ott (25:14)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, that is super interesting. When I was at St. Michelle, we created territories for on-premise and call it 25 cities. It's all gone now. But the concept of it was called precision selling. And so what we did is we looked at accounts on different ways. Like, okay, what are the chain accounts? What are the hotel accounts? What are the high volume accounts? What are the prestige accounts?

Robert Minucci (25:37)
Yeah.

Jessie Ott (25:48)
And so we were able to really dial in to 80 to 100 accounts in a single market and just focus there because that's going to get your biggest bang for your buck.

Robert Minucci (26:01)
100 % and I think something that I'm very proud of our team Our team doing is the ability to focus because I think sometimes you get like what I call like shiny object syndrome where you want to do everything and be everywhere and get the product everywhere but like

I really try and get the team to focus on like what matters most. And we have, you know, meetings every couple of weeks as a team. We say, Hey, these are the three things we're trying to accomplish. Everything else doesn't matter. These are the three things I want you guys to do. And we use the Salesforce tool to be able to focus them into that. So because, you know, at the end of the day, like, you know, sometimes it takes five touches to close an account. That's, that's a lot of, you know, that's a lot of time. And

Jessie Ott (26:46)
Thanks a lot.

Yeah.

Robert Minucci (26:48)
Isn't it better to close an account that's gonna do 20 cases a week as opposed to one that's gonna do two cases a week? You know, let's let's make sure we're going after the accounts that like service who our customer is, know over time We'll expand from there But like we want to be really really granular when it comes to you know accounts We're going to who's our customer why they're gonna buy the product why it makes sense and then go, you know and then build out from there, so Yeah, I'm proud of the focus because I think that you know, sometimes you want to be

Jessie Ott (27:13)
Yeah, 100%. That's cool.

Robert Minucci (27:15)
Sometimes everyone's like, you know, I'm doing, you know, 30,000 cases. Well, you're in like, you know, 10 markets, so you're 30,000 cases. You know, I'd rather be in, I'd rather be doing 20,000 cases in two markets. You know what I'm saying? And I think the focus helps you with that.

Jessie Ott (27:22)
Right. ⁓

No, and that's how you build

it one community at a time. That's longevity. And that's, you're paying for what you can afford, you're growing organically. This isn't an overnight business as we all know. It's why barely anybody that knows the business creates a brand. They're all people that are outside of the industry. It's cause it's so hard. It is really hard.

Robert Minucci (27:30)
Yep. Yes.

You have to be a certain type of person to...

Jessie Ott (27:56)
an age maybe. As you get older, the harder it is.

Robert Minucci (27:57)
Yeah, certain type of person, I think age

plays into it, but I think you have to have like a relentless obsession with ⁓ what you're doing. You really do. And I think if you talk to some of our sales guys, they might say I have a bit of a relentless obsession. ⁓ I think you have to. No, you can't. You have to love it too. Like have to love the pain.

Jessie Ott (28:05)
Yes.

Yes.

You can't teach that.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, and people that are out there, they do love it because a lot of those people that they're talking to are their friends. You know, they've established relationships over time, whether they're at A account or B account or wherever they move, you know, and they're not desk people.

Robert Minucci (28:35)
Yeah.

Well, that's the biggest thing.

No, no. that's the biggest thing that was that was one of the biggest ⁓ eye openers to me, which is how much the Bev Out business is a relationships business.

You could have an account, I could go into an account personally and the buyer will be like, yeah, we're not interested. But then I can go to the sales rep and be like, hey, I really want to get into this account. But all of a we got five cases worth. You're like, yeah, I've been friends with that guy for 30 years. ⁓ He'll take five cases. So it's a relationships business. you really have to treat the distributors with respect. You have to treat the distributor reps with respect.

Jessie Ott (29:11)
Yeah.

Robert Minucci (29:17)
It's you can't you can't ask too much of them. I think it's a nice balance between You know, basically have to work together If you if you think you're come down with a heavy hand on a distributor at our size, I think you're delusional

Jessie Ott (29:34)
Right. Yeah, for sure.

Robert Minucci (29:35)
And you have

to prove to them that it works. ⁓ Now was going say, we basically spent all of 2025 proving to our new distributors that TalkHouse is a brand that they want to invest in by showing them that we can get into an account. And then once we get into an account, we get the reorders, which is something that we're really, really proud of, is our ability to get reorders.

Jessie Ott (29:39)
So how, yeah.

And I believe when we talked before the podcast, you mentioned that you've figured out a formula for success on what that looks like on reorders.

Robert Minucci (30:06)
Yeah, mean, to me, it's like the fundamentals, right? So we get into the account, we try and get the account to take three or more flavors, five plus cases. Then what we do is we come in, we'll do a tasting. Taste is extremely important. But not only do we do a tasting, we try to get the best placement possible in a fridge. We want to get fridge stickers up, we want to get ⁓ shelf talkers up, we want to build a relationship with the

the owner of whether it be a bar or a liquor store, get them to try the product, get them to be a proponent or a brand believer. And we replicate that over and over and over again. It's just like the fundamental brick building 101. think, who is it? Like Gallo came up with like 10 steps to a sales call. I think that's something that they coined. ⁓ But it's...

Jessie Ott (30:53)
Yeah, that sounds about right. Because I know they had good training.

Robert Minucci (30:56)
but it's that gallo mentality and you know we kind of made it our own.

Jessie Ott (31:01)
Yeah, that's super cool. So how does the reps, now is this, this is the system is really for you and your team, right? The distributor doesn't use the team, but you show the team, you show the distributor reps the reporting and the tools and the evidence on volume and reorders and whatnot.

Robert Minucci (31:10)
Yes.

Yeah. Yes.

They have, yeah, they had, I mean, you they had their own, you know, their own systems to figure out the volume, the reorders, all that stuff. What we're trying to really do is one, you know, show them, hey, we're out there because sometimes they're like, are your reps really out there? I'm like, yeah, here they are. Here's the GPS location of where they went. Here's the photos. And they're like,

Jessie Ott (31:26)
systems, yeah.

Robert Minucci (31:44)
Really? OK. All right. So now we're gaining trust with them. So if we go into a store and we say, hey, we're sold out of line, they're like, are you sure you're sold out? Here's the photo. Sold out of line. OK. So now everything is kind of about trust with the distributors. I think they've been burned by a lot of brands coming into this space, whether it be RTD or whatever.

Jessie Ott (32:01)
Yeah.

Robert Minucci (32:05)
and they make a lot of promises, but they don't follow through the promises. So what we try to do is make sure they know that like when TalkHouse comes and they're working with TalkHouse, we're going to put someone in the market. going to be an advocate for our brand, but we're going to go out there, we're going to hustle, and we're going to make your life easier. And we go into an account, they're sold out. Every week we send reports to the distributor here. This account sold out, here are the notes. This account sold out, here are the notes. And then some of them have even taken it

a step further where like now they're reporting back to us on a weekly basis what's happening at each of those accounts. So it's like a full feedback loop. Shout out to Kraft Massachusetts and Kyle over there. He's a great guy.

Jessie Ott (32:36)
That's great.

Wow.

That is pretty cool.

Yeah, well, you know, that's what a partner does, right? Like that's when you know your true partners and something together. They're giving you the time. They're there. You're giving them the respect and you're working together as partners. You know, it's not, it's not like you're coming to them and saying, Hey, you're not doing your job. You're just saying, Hey, they sold out. Let's get this. Let's get this refilled. Let's let's I just, and then you have reminders that help. Like that's just a, a super, super smart way.

to build relationships with distributors.

Robert Minucci (33:14)
100 % and and like I said, I couldn't find any system to make this where it was like You know, and that's why we had to build it because we couldn't find anything that made this like very simple repeatable, you know where it's a low lift on the from the rep standpoint because you know at end of the day no one wants to you know, the The thing that sucks about a CRM system

Jessie Ott (33:21)
There's no way.

Yeah.

Robert Minucci (33:40)
If you're like a traditional like sales guy is like entering in the data, but like we've made it so it's very simple. anyone can use it too.

Jessie Ott (33:49)
Yeah, that's really cool. And when you talk about account lists and by markets, what kind of accounts are your targets for TalkHouse?

Robert Minucci (33:56)
Well our product

yes, so like our customers between the age of 21 to 35. They're kind of like on their second job They have a little bit more disposable income and they're looking for something that's better for them better quality You better taste so like maybe they've graduated from like the traditional seltzer like like malt seltzer and they're looking for something a little bit Maybe a little bit better a little bit better tasting You know, so we try and target areas where those consumers are

We also, depending on the season, target different regions based on what people are doing. for example, in the springtime and summertime, we're on the shore. We're hitting up places that serve seafood, where you go and you have a lobster roll and a couple beers.

⁓ you know, boating, golf, do really well on golf courses. So it's like, yeah. So where, where people are vacationing, where they're open to drinking, where they're open to, ⁓ where they're out, where they're socializing, meeting people. We want to meet the consumer or the customer where they're drinking consuming alcohol. So that's what we try and do.

Jessie Ott (34:49)
yeah, that makes sense.

So

it sounds to me like you guys have a pretty big focus on on-premise. What percentage of your sales are on on-premise?

Robert Minucci (35:12)
40 % of our business.

Jessie Ott (35:13)
That's a lot. I would say that's really high for RTD.

Robert Minucci (35:15)
Yeah, it is. I'm really... Yeah, it...

Yep, it is. It's really high for an RTD and we're really proud of it. And we use on-premise to drive off-premise business.

Jessie Ott (35:24)
Yeah.

Okay, smart.

Robert Minucci (35:28)
And the thing,

I was gonna say the thing about our on-premise business is like we don't wanna be everywhere for everyone. Like we want to work with accounts.

that will give us the time of day, allow us to come in, make the product, put it on a special, get it so we can get it in front of the customers, leave the accounts where they'll have it behind the bar and not just keep it in the basement. We tell them, we're gonna be your best partner, just allow us to help, allow us to get it in front of the customer and then we're gonna build from there.

Jessie Ott (35:58)
Yeah, that's awesome. And I believe when we talk, I just assumed that all RTDs were going after convenience stores and that's not true. That's not something that you guys are really going after, which I also found very intriguing.

Robert Minucci (36:10)
We can't either because we're spirits. So that's another thing too. like, yeah, no, it's based on the type of alcohol. So like we're spirits, we're vodka and tequila. So they can't really be sold in most convenience stores, which is really...

Jessie Ott (36:13)
⁓ okay. You're too high in alcohol?

⁓ well, maybe in other states they can, but I

don't, that's a good point.

Robert Minucci (36:31)
Yeah, oh,

you know what? actually, so I apologize. You make a great point. Because we're only in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts at the moment, like, you know, there really no convenience stores that sell our, like, that sell our, I guess there's like a couple 7-Elevens, but it's not, it's because of the alcohol type. We can't really sell into those.

Jessie Ott (36:43)
that are an option.

Robert Minucci (36:52)
And we actually really don't have a ton of chain business as well because most of the markets we operate in don't allow chains over like six or seven stores. So it's hand-to-hand combat.

Jessie Ott (36:59)
or independence. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, I would definitely say you're building. Yeah. You're building

out, in the hardest market.

Robert Minucci (37:09)
That's what we realized very quickly is we are in arguably the hardest market because we cannot snap our fingers and get into 50 accounts. It is literally hand-to-hand selling, store-to-store, bar-to-bar, you know, that's just the way it is. And that's why we really have to be dialed when it comes to like our systems of focus because you can spin your wheels here.

Jessie Ott (37:22)
Yep.

Yeah.

So in terms of your market penetration in these states, are you guys looking to grow in other states this year?

Robert Minucci (37:41)
We want to open up Rhode Island to kind of round out the Northeast. And then that is it for 2026. 2027, we'd like to add maybe two more states, but that's really it. The idea is to go very deep in the markets that we're in until we feel comfortable in expanding.

Jessie Ott (37:59)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Well, if you ever want to go overseas and explore that, let me know. One of my companies we export, we're going to the Duty Free Show this year. Yeah. Whenever you're ready, keep us in mind. We've got some business going on in the UK and just, fun. We're just having fun.

Robert Minucci (38:10)
amazing. very cool. I will keep that in mind.

Yeah,

you have to. You have to in this business. You have to have fun. ⁓

Jessie Ott (38:25)
Yeah, you have to.

It's fun waking up every day going, I love my job. I love what I do.

Robert Minucci (38:31)
You gotta make it part of your life. That's what I've realized. My wife might not like that, that's what I do. Yeah.

Jessie Ott (38:38)
It's what we do. That's funny.

So can you talk about a major challenge and maybe it's the CRM you want to talk about, like a major challenge that you guys have overcome that you want to kind of share and how you handled it and maybe some advice behind that.

Robert Minucci (38:56)
yeah, let me think about that. A major challenge.

You know, I think the biggest challenge for us has been maybe on the distribution side of things. Because when we first started the business, we went out, we talked to some of the big guys, and essentially they wouldn't, kind of wouldn't work with us. They're like, ⁓ you're too small. You have no experience. And we're like, okay. So we...

built the business with a clearinghouse. Have you heard of MHW? Yeah, so we built our business with them in New York. And we grinded it out from zero to 300 accounts. then we went out and we were able to get distributors interested in us. And then we had to get distributors interested in us in other states.

Jessie Ott (39:28)
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Robert Minucci (39:43)
I'm telling you, when you don't have the backing of a large strategic, it's challenging to get into states. ⁓ know us getting into Northern New Jersey, that was multiple emails with no response, multiple phone calls.

Jessie Ott (39:54)
Yeah, it really is.

Robert Minucci (40:05)
You know, I remember the guy basically finally took the phone call with me to tell me that he didn't want to work with us. And I convinced him to take a meeting with me and that if the meeting didn't go well, I will never talk with him or bother him ever again. And he, he, this is not, this is not even a joke. mean, he reluctantly accepted and I walked out of that meeting and 30 minutes later he called me and, ⁓ and we had a deal.

Jessie Ott (40:20)
Hahaha!

Robert Minucci (40:31)
So like, was a grind, it's a grind. And I'll tell you, like, you know, we had, you know, we had to make some very big promises. And they were like, well, I hope you live up to everything, all the expectations you've set. And I can, I think I can confidently say that all the distributors we work with have, you know, will say whatever TalkHouse says they're going to do, they do.

Jessie Ott (40:31)
Wow.

Yeah.

Robert Minucci (40:52)
So, and I'm very proud of that because we say we're going to do this, this, this, this, and this and watch, we're gonna have a conversation in six months and it's, we'll have executed on all of this. And I don't think we've made a promise we haven't lived up to.

Jessie Ott (41:05)
that's fantastic.

Robert Minucci (41:06)
Yeah, the distributors, they're tough. ⁓ I get why. Well, then they've been burned. So this is like some, who is this Rob guy off the street coming in here selling another canned cocktail? I don't blame them.

Jessie Ott (41:10)
They are. Well, and they have to be. Yeah.

Yeah.

Robert Minucci (41:22)
⁓ But, you know, when you come in and you set the right expectations and you tell them that you're going to support and you already have the team lined up to do so, you you kind of make it a, you make an offer they can't refuse. Yeah.

Jessie Ott (41:35)
Yeah.

that's, that's, and, and it's kind of like a rinse and repeat once, I mean, now that you've got the velocity behind the brand and the success and the stores, you've got a story to tell, you know, and you can back, back that up now, you know, instead of just getting started, you've got evidence and fact-based data.

Robert Minucci (41:44)
Yeah. We do.

Yeah, listen, it

100 % and it took it took time to get here These businesses are not you know successes overnight and sometimes you have to like set the proper Expectations and make sure people know that you know, these things take time I think a great example of that is is beatbox, you know, they were just acquired by anhyzer bush, but like

You know, it took them years. Yeah, but it took years for them to even get to like three million in revenue years. ⁓ And by the way, what a great success story. And like kudos to them because this is not easy. And they created a great brand, a great product, and they were able to bring it to the market. People responded to it. And, you know, it takes time.

Jessie Ott (42:26)
Yeah. Yeah.

Huge.

Yeah. And they were, they were one of the first

to go to the beer distributors because they're, they're wine based and they were, they're convenience based. And so I think that was a big move in the industry and it worked. And, know, I think that's partially why the beer distributors are so open. I mean, I know beer's struggling a little bit, but you know, I think that was sort of that first

Robert Minucci (42:46)
Yep. Yep.

Yeah.

Jessie Ott (43:05)
partnership that really worked out.

Robert Minucci (43:08)
Yeah, yeah, 100%. I have a lot of respect for beer, for beer distributors. It's old school, it's the ground and pound. These are the guys that are going in, they're making sure the cold boxes are set up. They take pride in their little section of the cold box. They get posters up. I think one of the coolest things,

was I was doing, I was in Northern New Jersey and I was checking in on accounts. I try to go to each market regularly and I walked into one of our accounts and it turned a corner and I saw a giant like three foot by 10 foot TalkHouse poster on above the cooler and I was like, what is this? And it's just like, my God. And then so I called our rep and I was like, Chris,

What is going on here? He goes, yeah, that's what we do, We're brand builders. We're going to represent you guys. We're going to put the brand up. And that's what I love about those guys. It's making sure the product is in front of the customer. It's so important. Because you walk down the RTD aisle, there's hundreds of them. How are you going to stand out?

Jessie Ott (44:00)
That's awesome.

Mm-hmm.

Robert Minucci (44:16)
How is your partner going to help you stand out? It's those little things that help with the incremental growth.

Jessie Ott (44:18)
Yeah.

Yeah. No, think standing out is definitely a difficult task because of all the, I wouldn't call it noise, but competition and it's busy and it's colorful and lots of things. you know, for me as a consumer, you know, when I see like walk through Total Wine, I can't even stop to really focus too long because there's

When you have three packs across, that's noise you can absorb. But if you just have, this is different every four to eight inches, it's so much noise your brain can't really absorb it. And it's a challenge.

Robert Minucci (44:54)
Yes.

100 % so there's nothing more, there's nothing that gets me frustrated more than a one case placement. It infuriates me because it just, our ability to succeed is like cut in half.

Because that one case is not going to get great placement. Nine times out of 10, it's not going to get great placement. It's not going to be in the cold box. Maybe it was a favor that the buyer did. Yeah, there's nothing that gets me more frustrated than that. And we can't invest. We love to invest in the people that

⁓ the locations that support us will do with tasting. Our tasting metrics are, want to talk, I remember we started this conversation by talking about data, like our conversion rate on tastings is 50%. And we did over 400 tastings last year. Yeah. Yeah.

Jessie Ott (45:46)
wow. That's awesome. That's wonderful. I know

that that is so important to invest in. That's how Stella Rosa, that's how they did it. I believe in the interview that I heard him on of Drinks with Erica Ducey.

Robert Minucci (45:54)
Yep.

Jessie Ott (46:02)
she interviewed the CEO and he said that they do 3000 sampling demos a year. I mean, hands down, that's how they built their brand because liquid to lips is so important.

Robert Minucci (46:13)
It's so important and you know, yes, you have to have, you know, marketing and yes, you have to have social presence, but at the end of the day, we believe that being at the right end of the customer journey where it's like, walk into a store, Hey, do you want to try an RTD? All right, why not? And it, Oh, wow, this is really good. And you know, we over and over and over again, we, hear that and we think that's,

what's helped us really succeed because you do a couple tastings in an account you turn that account from a you two case a month account to a 20 case a month account and it's it takes time and I know again when we started conversation we talked about like my philosophy like systems processes like our that CRM system I have

Jessie Ott (46:43)
All

Robert Minucci (46:55)
Links up to our tasting system. So we submit all our tastings through there. We manage our tastings through there We get all the feedback from our tastings into there and then we can run numbers We can figure out what day of the week is the best for tasting what time is the best for tastings? You know, like we try to optimize all of that. Yeah Yeah

Jessie Ott (47:11)
That's amazing. Heck yeah. 100%. That's, that's

unbelievable. You could ⁓ easily sell this system if you wanted to start another business, but I'm sure you want to keep it competitive to yourself. Keep the competitors out.

Robert Minucci (47:22)
Yeah, it's like, mean, you know,

it's, you know, the tools are there, people can build it. ⁓ But yeah, no selling it as of right now. like to keep it to ourselves.

Jessie Ott (47:32)
Yeah.

Yeah, I would. I say that because it's been a huge conversation as part of my business and some others that have or hiring people to work in other markets. They want more visibility into that. And so that's just not something that I do right now. But, you know, there's just so many CRM systems out there, but a lot of them are they're expensive. ⁓

Robert Minucci (47:37)
Yeah.

Well, they're

expensive and they put you in a box and You know, there's nothing better. I'll give you here's a great example one of my reps he's like I I need a way to Track where I drop samples like I put it in the notes, but then I forget I'm like, ⁓ okay Let me just go in here Let me add a box that says samples dropped and then we put a layer on our map that shows samples dropped and boom

Jessie Ott (48:01)
Yeah.

Robert Minucci (48:21)
Within 10 minutes, I can have every single account you've dropped samples at. All you have to do is click a box, shows where you've dropped all your samples, and I can put it in a dashboard that shows all the accounts you've dropped samples at. And then what we can do now is we can track, what's the likelihood of an account? How many samples do we have to drop to get a closed account? You know what saying? We can start to play around with those numbers too.

Jessie Ott (48:33)
That's awesome.

Yeah, no, that's unbelievably smart and really incredible that you've been able to work through that and been able to invest into that program and you found the right partner. I had no idea that the Salesforce platform had that much agility.

Robert Minucci (49:04)
Neither did I. And then I got put in touch with a great implementation specialist. ⁓ basically I learned that it's a sandbox. You can basically do whatever you want. And so I just, like I said, built it our way.

Jessie Ott (49:12)
That makes all the difference.

Yeah, it's very cool. Well, moving kind of back on to you on some personal growth that you've had, is there any mentors or resources that you'd like to share with the audience?

Robert Minucci (49:23)
Yeah.

meant who should we...

That's a good question. How's personal or just, you know, personal, professional, you know.

Jessie Ott (49:41)
Any. Whatever, ⁓

you know, there's professional groups that help people, you know, within their careers. There's boss, former bosses or friends or, or, you know, even

Robert Minucci (49:52)
You know,

I won't give any names, but there have been people throughout my career that I feel that have taken me under their wing and that have like imparted a lot of knowledge on me. I remember back when I was at Hungry Group, there were these two guys that started a food company and sold it. And then I got introduced to them and...

They basically taught me everything, every single thing I needed to know about co-manufacturing, how to put together contracts, how to negotiate contracts, just how to be a professional when it came to business. Those guys were incredible. I surprisingly have had lawyers that have really helped me out. And I'll tell you too, even some of the distributors that I've worked with.

You know, they have kind of coached me and helped me along the way. I kind of think of myself as a bit of a sponge. So I'll take, if you have a thought on something, I'll take it. And I kind of like use all these little bits and pieces of information to kind of form my own path. trust me, I've made a lot of mistakes. A lot of mistakes in my day. Yeah.

Jessie Ott (50:48)
Right. Same.

We all have. We all

have.

Robert Minucci (51:04)
And I'm still learning. I think it's been, yeah, I wouldn't, yeah, and I guess it hasn't been like one thing. It's just, it's just throughout my career, I just have, if you have knowledge and you're a subject matter expert, I will, I will listen to anything you have to say.

Jessie Ott (51:06)
Nice. Yeah, that's a fun part.

Nice. Me too. I'm a sponge too. I like to learn for sure. Is there anything else you'd like to mention about TalkHouse or experience? Maybe you could just talk about a little bit of pricing, the packs that they come in.

Robert Minucci (51:23)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

⁓

yeah, yeah, yeah. Actually, that's a great ⁓ question. So when we looked at the RTD hard stocks or market, we noticed that everyone was kind of at the $9.99 per four pack price point. And we knew that some thought was like, OK, well, we have to be where everyone else is. And we have to be a cheap product so that we can get in as many hands as possible.

When we were going through this analysis, we said, well, we could do that. And we can be one of, you know, another hundred, 200, know, 999 four packs. like, we know we have a product that we think it tastes better. It has more flavor. It's better quality. I think we should price it that way. Also, the ingredients are more expensive when you use fresh ingredients, real ingredients, it costs money. So we, you we put those two things together and we said, all right.

we're going have to charge a little bit more for this to have a healthy margin. And we price our product maybe 20 % more than our direct competitors. And we have seen really no issue with that at all. Our customer is willing to pay just a little bit more for the better flavor, better quality. And you can taste the difference.

Jessie Ott (52:39)
you

Robert Minucci (52:45)
Yeah, we just, we didn't want to be where everyone else is. Another great example is our variety pack. We could have done it all vodka variety pack. We could have done it all tequila variety pack, but we decided, well, there's already all vodka variety packs and there's already all tequila variety packs. So how are we going to compete in a very crowded market? Well, let's come up with a mixed variety pack where it's vodka and tequila. And I will tell you, we opened up like,

Jessie Ott (52:49)
Right.

Robert Minucci (53:10)
80 accounts in two months in northern New Jersey just selling that concept. Stores couldn't, yeah, stores couldn't believe that we had both of the flavors inside of one variety pack. I think there might be a couple other brands that do it, but like not a ton. And we leaned into that and it worked really well for us. So, you know, we don't wanna follow the crowd. We wanna kind of blaze our own path, kind of figure out where we fit.

Jessie Ott (53:16)
Wow.

That's cool.

Robert Minucci (53:37)
in the market because it's a lot easier to sell something that's different, unique than it is to be just another vodka seltzer. And to that point, we have ⁓ obviously tequila flavors, like I said, and those have been really, really helpful for us, especially when it comes to on-premise too. Yeah.

Jessie Ott (53:54)
That's awesome. That's really awesome.

What about e-commerce and online? Do you ship online?

Robert Minucci (53:59)
We do sell online. We get orders, they come in, we don't put any real marketing dollars towards the e-commerce side of the business. We have to charge a little bit more because of the unit economics. And also we can't take advantage of the ability to save on margin shipping DTC because we have to work within the three tiered system.

So while like, you if you're like a, I don't know, a toothpaste company, you don't have to sell the distributors. You can save that margin and use that towards shipping. You're good to go. For us, we still have to sell to a distributor who then sells to a retailer who then fulfills the order. So like, we can't really take advantage of that. You know, it's one of those things where it's there, we have it, people buy it. But like for us, you know, we really want to focus. And what we really want to focus on is getting into accounts and getting the product to move in those accounts.

And I think the unit economics around just shipping cans in general is extremely challenging. it's, why did, yeah.

Jessie Ott (54:48)
Nice.

Yeah.

Yeah, already

versus already having distribution. Yeah.

Robert Minucci (55:03)
Yeah, yeah, so it's a great question. It's a great question.

Jessie Ott (55:05)
Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah.

Well, I know that type of e-commerce business really exploded over COVID as to be expected. Yeah.

Robert Minucci (55:14)
It did.

Yeah, it did. mean, when the, you know, when you can't, know, when no one wants to leave their house, have it shipped to you. Yeah, for sure. No, I think it, we could have gone down that path, but at the end of the day, we really, it was about opening doors and getting the product and moving those doors, laser focus on that. And that just was a bit of a, you know,

Jessie Ott (55:22)
You gotta do something. Yeah.

Robert Minucci (55:40)
We had a lot of conversations. Should we put money into e-commerce? Should we put money into driving our D2C business? And it just didn't fit the goals and objectives of the business. Perhaps in the future, maybe when we want to open up a new market, we can go D2C first and drum up some business. But right now, let's just focus on what we know works and put all the resources there. It's hard enough as it is.

Jessie Ott (56:01)
Yeah. I guess you could use a clearing house to do that, right? Would they get, if you had a clearing house, will they deliver or would a not just Uber or somebody have to come pick it up? Or has to go through a retailer, you said.

Robert Minucci (56:14)
No,

has to go through a retailer. Yeah, because like so wine You can you can actually you can ship wine directly from the producer in the US Spirits you can't so like we have to sell to our distributor then they have to sell again They have to sell to a liquor store and then that liquor store has to fulfill the order to I think 40 states we can sell it to 38 40 states But but you know, we're the only money we're making is off of

Jessie Ott (56:30)
Yes.

Okay. Interesting.

Robert Minucci (56:41)
making the margin from us to the distributor.

Jessie Ott (56:44)
Right. Yeah. And what is your website?

Robert Minucci (56:44)
Yeah.

⁓ talk encore.com.

Jessie Ott (56:49)
TalkEncore.com Okay, so you can check out the brand there. And you know, this has been so much fun. I really enjoyed the CRM component and how you built that out. is something to be super proud of, because you're the only one in the industry and beyond probably that's been able to create something that special and unique.

Robert Minucci (56:53)
Yeah.

Well,

thank you. I don't know. I do get a kick out of it because it is really nice to be able to dig into that data. Like it really is. And it's also really nice to see what your product looks like on every single shelf that you're in.

Jessie Ott (57:21)
Yeah. Makes a difference.

Robert Minucci (57:28)
There's a lot of accountability there. Our reps know that the shelves need to look good, the product needs to be in the best placement. It's great. It's a nice to have, for sure.

Jessie Ott (57:37)
Yeah. Yeah, that's, that's great. Well, ⁓ would you like to play a little game to end our conversation? It's fun. I just, it's kind of rapid fire game and, I asked you three questions and, and you, you answer the first thing that comes to mind. Ready? I always ask this first question. If you were a cocktail, which one would you be?

Robert Minucci (57:42)
Let's do it. I love games. Let's do it. Let's do it.

Done.

Yes.

God. I would be our Talkhouse Blood Orange Tequila soda. It's my favorite one.

Jessie Ott (58:06)
There you go. You knew it. That's good.

Do you have a f-

Robert Minucci (58:12)
Or actually, by

the way, that, well hold on, I should say, if I wasn't a talk house drink, I would be a Negroni. I do love Negronis. So, there we go.

Jessie Ott (58:20)
That seems to be a favorite

on here. I interviewed Tony Abu Ghanem. Do you know him? The mixologist. He's out in Vegas now, but I had him on the podcast and he's a Negroni guy. He's connected to Campari. And so I reached out to him today and ⁓ Simon Ford to see if they would do a little segment with me and create a

Robert Minucci (58:22)
They're delicious.

No.

Jessie Ott (58:43)
mix a couple of cocktails for my 50th birthday this year. So I'm hoping I I hope I'm hoping I can get it together. It would be really fun. And of course, we're to make it a groany, you know.

Robert Minucci (58:50)
Yeah

They're

great and it's funny, my father-in-law actually makes a really good Negroni and I think he uses a Brutto. Have you heard of a Brutto? It's like a, it's a aperitif and I think he uses that instead of the Campari, but it's delicious. So shout out to him. Yeah.

Jessie Ott (59:05)
Uh-uh.

it sounds good. Yeah.

Very cool. ⁓ rapid fire. That's okay. happens all the time. second question is, do you have a favorite movie or a favorite line from a movie?

Robert Minucci (59:18)
Go, all right, rapid fire, sorry, I derailed us.

I mean this is so cliche but I am a big fan of Godfather Part 1. It's a great movie. It's a great movie. It is.

Jessie Ott (59:31)
There you go. There you go.

It's a classic for sure. Is

there any lines out of that movie that you refer to or think about?

Robert Minucci (59:42)
I don't know. I just love the movie. It's just so good.

Jessie Ott (59:45)
Really? Yeah.

Awesome. Well, what is your favorite type of food?

Robert Minucci (59:49)
I am... you like cuisine or just food?

Jessie Ott (59:53)
Anything.

Robert Minucci (59:53)
I love burgers. I love burgers. also love Italian food. love sushi. But I don't know, burgers are like my new thing. So I've been eating a lot of those. Have to watch out.

Jessie Ott (59:56)
I do too.

Yeah, I kind of have been too. When you're on vacation or traveling, it just seems like the easiest thing. get lots of protein for the punch.

Robert Minucci (1:00:16)
Hey, do you do?

And I love a good smash burger. This is delicious.

Jessie Ott (1:00:19)
Yeah, I gotta get into that. I gotta start making those. I have never made them before. Yeah?

Robert Minucci (1:00:22)
I think it's the best way to do it. It's the best way to do it.

You get the most amount of flavor because of that caramelization in the patty.

Jessie Ott (1:00:30)
yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. My brother's, he's, we call him Chef J because he loves to cook and smoke and all the things. I get a lot of recipes. His rib recipe is the best. And he makes smash burgers with his kids. And that's one of their favorite things to do when they come home. So, yeah. And it's a big deal. see it. Yeah, I see it on advertisements everywhere, smash burger, this and that. So I definitely got to get into the game.

Robert Minucci (1:00:37)
Yeah.

Yeah, they're delicious. ⁓

Yeah, I highly recommend it.

Jessie Ott (1:00:56)
Now I want a burger.

Robert Minucci (1:00:58)
Yeah, me too. It's almost five o'clock here.

Jessie Ott (1:01:00)
I know we have a Stonewood Tavern here and they actually have a gluten-free bun which I'm not Celiac but I'm I eat gluten-free but it's not a smash burger but they have this bourbon bacon jelly sauce something and it's the best burger I've ever had

Robert Minucci (1:01:09)
Yeah.

That sounds delicious. Ooh, you'd get that. I'm getting very hungry right now.

Jessie Ott (1:01:18)
Hands down. Well, one of the best. Yeah.

I know. I know. Burger's all so good. Anyway, well, Robert, this has been awesome. And I'm so happy you were able to take some time out and sit down with me and kind of talk about the business and your success and all that you guys are doing. I love the processes that you're going through and how you've set the company up because

Robert Minucci (1:01:24)
Kill me.

Thank you. Yeah, absolutely.

Jessie Ott (1:01:47)
You can easily scale with the tools that you have.

Robert Minucci (1:01:49)
Mm-hmm. know, I, I, listen, I, I appreciate everything you're saying. Um, we have a lot more to do. have a lot, we have, we have a long ways to go, but, I do really believe that like we've built a great foundation to grow the business on. You know, it's not like we can, you know, we get to a certain point and we have to break everything back and break everything down and rebuild it. think we built it smart and, um, yeah, but a lot more to go, a lot more to learn, but, uh, you know, I'm just.

Jessie Ott (1:01:50)
easily scale.

Robert Minucci (1:02:18)
Thank you for having me here and to be able to share our story and hopefully help some people out.

Jessie Ott (1:02:23)
Yeah, for sure. For sure, for sure. Well, I know that you're busy and I will let you get back to it.

Robert Minucci (1:02:29)
Thanks for having me, I really appreciate it.

Jessie Ott (1:02:31)
You bet. Bye.

Robert Minucci (1:02:33)
Bye bye.