How Tipsy Lady Turns Heritage Into A Premium RTD w/ Toni Gilliard

A great drink story is never just about what’s in the can. We’re joined by serial entrepreneur and attorney Toni Gilliard, the founder behind Tipsy Lady, a Caribbean-inspired ready-to-drink canned cocktail line built from her own recipes and backed by a clean-ingredient mindset. We talk about what it really takes to turn a 20-year rum punch tradition into a premium RTD brand at 12% ABV, why that alcohol volume changes everything from grocery eligibility to state-by-state strategy, and how packaging choices like a 200 ml can fit the real moments people drink: on the boat, on the course, or at an outdoor event. 

Then we get into the unglamorous truth of beverage entrepreneurship and alcohol distribution. Tony breaks down the gatekeeping power of distributors, what happens when that middle layer changes overnight, and why supply chain control matters when your formula has 13 readable ingredients sourced from around the world. We also dig into the role of tasting and sampling, award credibility, and how earned media can move a brand when ad budgets are limited. If you care about CPG marketing, spirits industry rules, or how founders build traction, you’ll get a clear look at the playbook and the pressure. 

We also go beyond cocktails. Toni shares why she launched Resort Beverage Company, an all-natural mixer line designed for cocktails and mocktails, including pairing options for THC spirits, and why the non-alcohol market is not a trend but a long-term shift. Finally, she introduces Re-Entry OS, her recidivism prevention and re-entry tech concept that uses AI and workflow tools to help people transition from incarceration, build resumes, and stay compliant. If you like founder stories with real numbers, real obstacles, and real ambition, hit play, subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people find the show.

South Carolina Research Authority (SCRA) is a public, nonprofit organization that fuels South Carolina’s innovation economy by supporting technology-based startups, academic research, and industry partnerships. Through funding, coaching, and its investment arm SC Launch, SCRA helps early-stage companies grow, commercialize ideas, and scale within the state’s key innovation sectors.

King & Columbus is a full-service marketing and advertising agency based in South Carolina that helps brands grow through a mix of creative storytelling and data-driven strategy. They offer everything from branding and content creation to media planning, digital advertising, and PR—focused on delivering measurable results across digital, social, and traditional channels. https://kingandcolumbus.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Charleston Marketing Podcast, brought to you by the Charleston AMA and broadcasting from our friends at Charleston Media Solutions Studios. Thanks to our awesome sponsors at CMS, we get to chat with the cool folks making waves in Charleston. From business and art to hospitality and tech. These movers and shakers choose to call the low country home. They live here, work here, and make a difference here. So what's their story? Let's find out together.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Welcome to the Charleston Marketing Podcast. My name is Mike County. President and co-founder of Roombo, RMBO.co. And uh what else

Welcome And Meet Tony

SPEAKER_01 0:40

there, Kelly? We uh I'm I'm almost past president.

SPEAKER_04 0:43

Oh, when is your uh your July.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

July Jake takes over.

SPEAKER_04 0:47

Are you counting down the four weeks?

SPEAKER_01 0:50

I'm not counting, am I? Uh anyways, here I am uh with Kelly Morse. Say hi, Kelly.

SPEAKER_04 0:56

Hey everyone, I'm Kelly Morse. I'm the director of digital communications at Trident Unite Away, and I love being a part of this great podcast team that we have here for the past couple of years.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

You're jumping right in, Kelly. We appreciate it. Absolutely. Definitely. We got a super talent in the in the house today, folks. Uh, this woman does it all. Uh we she does it all, we can't even talk about all of it. Uh we've got Tony Gileard in the house right now.

SPEAKER_05 1:22

Did I say your last name right? Gileard? It depends on where you are from. Well, you say so down here they say Gileard. Gileard. But up north is Gileard. Okay. But Gileard is fine. Since we're in Charleston.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Talk about Tony. What do you got?

SPEAKER_05 1:36

So I am a serial entrepreneur, I guess that's what we call it. So among many talents, I make cocktails.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

Yes. Woo! And you know, listeners, I like some cocktails.

SPEAKER_04 1:48

It's the perfect time of year for them.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

Boating season. It is boating season. Tony, we met at the Harbor Entrepreneur Center, didn't we? We did. What brought you to that?

SPEAKER_05 1:56

Um, one, I won the pitch competition for one of the brands that I'm gonna talk about today, which is Tipsy Lady. I was part of one of their cohorts.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:04

And we pitched to win money and I got the bag.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Yes. Good job. How many um applicants or how many other pitches were there?

SPEAKER_05 2:12

And there were you it was a good screening process for the cohort. On that time, I think there were maybe nine businesses in my group. Sure. Not many female founders, um, which attracted me to kind of, you know, be a trendsetter. Yes, please. And so we had more techies. I was the only CPG brand.

SPEAKER_03 2:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 2:29

So it was kind of risky

Harbor Accelerator And Winning The Pitch

SPEAKER_05 2:31

because it was alcohol and they had never brought in a CPG, let alone anything in the spirits industry. So I pitched, gave them some free run punch, and then I got the call.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

You got them drunk and then got the money. Talk about that experience a little bit.

SPEAKER_05 2:44

It was great. It was the for entrepreneurs um who were part of the Arm Entrepreneur Center at the time they were in the Citadel Mall. Oh, okay. So we didn't have this great building that we have now. So we were occupying space there. We had to be there every, like about every day, I believe, for that for that cohort. We learned about business. Uh, we learned about venture capital. Okay. Funding. That was a new space for me. Yeah. I didn't know I could ask for money and get it.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

Uh-huh. That's very important for entrepreneurs to know, isn't it? How did that change you?

SPEAKER_05 3:14

Um, one, it made me want to become a venture capitalist. Ooh. Right, to start investing in other businesses.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

You're gonna you're gonna add another thing to your place. I am.

SPEAKER_05 3:24

Yeah. So so that's one thing that it that sparked my interest, and and then I learned about other businesses and it, you know, kind of sparked my interest in the tech space. At the time, they had a coding center. Didn't take that, but you know, that's no longer because of AI and that kind of thing. But it was nice to be around, you know, other local businesses. And then we pitched, you know, to some angel investors, so in winning, also had some private people who would watch the pitch who wanted to invest on the side. Okay. So they handed me a check on SPY.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

So cool. We're doing uh the this year's pitch on June 11th uh at the College of Charleston. Yes. At Dig South. Yeah, yeah, it's gonna be great. And there's ten um entrepreneurs, ten founders uh pitching and a room full of investors like you're talking about.

SPEAKER_04 4:15

Do you get to know in advance who all the pitchers are or like?

SPEAKER_05 4:19

So they are part of the cohort, so they get to learn the business acumen, they get to know how to prepare the pitch decks. They also get to learn financials, how to, you know, do your multipliers, um, know your numbers, track your data, that's most important, and and your evaluation, which is pretty cool. So most of it is pre-seed um versus series A and all of that. So a lot of it is pre-seed. So some people don't even have a product, it's just more of an idea in my group, which things have seen have changed, so people actually have a product or a service.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Correct. Correct. It's an amazing um accelerator program, and I'm glad you got a lot out of it. That's pretty good. I did. So there's a little pitcher at Harbor Entrepreneur Center. Let's talk about uh so was it Tipsy Lady that you pitched there? I did.

SPEAKER_05 5:01

Okay, Tips Lady Resort Beverage Company did not exist. So with Tipsy Lady, it's a ready-to-drink Caribbean-inspired canned cocktail line. They are my recipes. I didn't pay anybody to make them. I hired a formulator, it started in 2019. I'm of Caribbean as well as Gala Geechee descent. So I wanted to do something that honored my heritage. And I'd been making at the time that rum punch for over 20 years. I don't look that old, but I am. So I wasn't one of those people who was drinking an under 80. You're 10 years old when it came up with that. Like, you know, so when I was developing it, I always said it's kid tested, mother approved, because I would let my kids taste it to say, does it taste like the real thing? Just give them a little teaspoon.

Turning Rum Punch Into A Brand

SPEAKER_05 5:41

Oh, yeah. All right, all right.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

Um, well, that's really cool. So Tipsy Lady came about because you had a recipe or I had a recipe uh that I'd been making, and people would always pay me to make it.

SPEAKER_05 5:53

And I was like, Well, you know, I don't know if that's legal because it felt very bootlegging.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

That's even better, right?

SPEAKER_05 6:00

But it was for family and friends. Like they invite me to the events. Hey, can you bring the rum punch? Okay, this is what it costs to make it. And it was expensive to make on my own. And it took me two weeks to make a batch. Okay, because I literally took all the herbs and stuff and put it in the bottle and put it under the cabinet in the sink and let it make my own spice rum.

SPEAKER_04 6:16

This is really legit. Like, this is the good stuff. It's good stuff.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

Oh my gosh, it takes a long time. Yeah, it takes two weeks to make. It takes two weeks to make a drink.

SPEAKER_05 6:25

Yeah, it would make take two weeks for me to make a good rum punch. And then everything is organic and all natural, so I didn't put junk in it, which helped with the hangovers. So it's literally the only rum punch my grandmother and my mom and my sister drink. Like they, you know, we go to the islands and get it, and we there's no cheap liquor. So all natural ingredients with the rum punch, it's only vegetables and fruit for the coloring. So no preservatives.

SPEAKER_02 6:47

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_05 6:48

The alcohol is the preservative. They're both 12%. We have three flavors: rum punch, sunrise mimosa, which is a mango and vodka. So I always say we are a screwdriver, meats, a mango, mimosa. Because there's four ingredients in that one. So it's uh vodka, mango, um, orange juice, and then uh kosher wine. So it's also kosher certified.

SPEAKER_04 7:14

Cool. That is amazing.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

Where did you get that recipe?

SPEAKER_05 7:17

Oh, I would make that at home. I wasn't pitching that or selling that. That was my kind of after hour. Okay. Well, before our my brunching type of thing. So yeah, totally. So I call it the hard brunch.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

Heck yeah. Where did Tipsy lady name come from?

SPEAKER_05 7:32

So it's about tipping the scales in the alcohol industry as it related to women of color in the industry. So it's a play on the word. So tipsy has zero to do with being drunk, although it's 12%. And at the time, no one was formulating anything at that ABV, alcohol volume. Everything was 7% and under because you can get in a grocery store space. So I knew it was a little edgy, it was going to be challenging, not as challenging as I thought it would be, because every state, the rules are different as far as alcohol volume and sh and being on the shelf. And now we have the cutwaters of the world who were doing 10%. So I got a lot of no's because it's too strong. It's 12%.

SPEAKER_01 8:09

And then cut water comes in.

SPEAKER_05 8:10

And they come in the big bucks. So cut water, if you're listening, you would like to white label our formula. So they came in because they do you think that they helped your your um yeah because most people who would drink cup water, they would get the buzz that they were looking for, but the can is larger, right? So our cans are smaller, they're 200 ml cans, so they fit in your the palm of your hand. And I'm a boater and a golfer, so I wanted something that it doesn't um so they fit, you know, in your hand. So when you in your golf cart and you got the taller can shaking and you spilling, so it's one to control the spill, but also the consumption in a smaller, you know, in format.

SPEAKER_01 8:55

I mean you could put water in here or dilute it somehow if you would just you can't.

SPEAKER_05 8:59

So most people do ice, just a little bit of ice, and then um soda water.

unknown 9:04

Oh, that would be good.

SPEAKER_04 9:05

But you can just enjoy it straight out of the can out of the can.

SPEAKER_05 9:07

You don't need to add anything, but for those who are but then again you can do half of a can and then the rest soda water.

SPEAKER_04 9:14

I do like you pointed out the size of like the larger cut waters. I mean you have one of those at like a river dogs game and that's all you need for the night. Like that, you get to actually enjoy something you not only get like the effects, but you're also enjoying something that tastes good and is all natural, and it's thirteen different ingredients in this little can. Which and it they're probably all things that you can read.

SPEAKER_05 9:36

It's all you can read, you can pronounce it, so it'll tell you like I collar with just fruits and vegetables. I don't use any dyes.

unknown 9:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:43

Uh amazing. Who came up with the artwork?

SPEAKER_05 9:46

So, um, that's me being creative. So I sketched out how I want it to look, and I did about three runs and then found a designer who could execute. So I literally took a crayon and said, Okay, I want the waves to resemble the water, but I didn't want it to. And then we have, of course, pink for feminine, you know, energy, although it's called Tipsy Lady Men love it as well.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

Yeah, yeah, we do, because it's good. I had some at the Spark Awards um event that we had. Did you have some too, Matt? Oh, okay, good.

SPEAKER_05 10:15

Yeah, when I walked through the door, he was like, You made this. Like, this is good. Why do I'm just learning about this?

SPEAKER_01 10:23

That's awesome. Um, so yeah, and thank you for bringing that along to the Spark Awards too. Charleston American Marketing Association has a Spark Awards every year, and we're always looking for new products, and it was great to to showcase a local product. Yeah, and I appreciate that. Heck yeah, thanks for coming too. I saw you.

SPEAKER_05 10:39

And then with Making Tipsy Lady, folks who were as we move and shifted to the non-alcohol space. I didn't want to do a non-alk version because technically it does have alcohol if it's non-alk, if it's like 0.5. So I think that's a little deception with that. So we created resort mixers, resort beverage company, which is a separate company, separate legal entity, and it's just mixers with all uh uh organic agave, okay, real fruit, so there's real strawberries in the bottle, and then real lime, and then we have the pineapple, which we're reproducing, real pineapple chunks in the bottle, all um, all natural product as well. But they're formulated and tested to pair with your THC spirits, or you can just add soda water to uh make a mocktail. So your friends who don't drink don't feel left out, so you can use half a bottle and mix it with tequila or rum or whiskey. This is great. This strawberry is great with bourbon, because I like bourbon. And um, I make a bourbon smash, like a strawberry bourbon smash. And then you can also just, you know, make mocktails with the other part of the bottle for your friends who don't drink.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

So, okay, going back to tipsy lady. What was your first hurdle going into making Tipsy Lady, like on the business side of things?

SPEAKER_05 11:54

The first hurdle was because it was 12%. Yeah, is that what it is? And I couldn't get in grocery. Only 11 states allow you to sell alcohol in the grocery store.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

What about those

Building Mixers For Cocktails And Mocktails

SPEAKER_01 12:03

what are the three dot places, the liquor stores?

SPEAKER_05 12:05

That's you have to have, and then the m huge barrier in every state is you need a distributor. So if you don't get in bed with that middleman, you can't get your product on the market. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 12:15

How did you choose your distributor?

SPEAKER_05 12:17

Well, for South Carolina, um, it was a lot of hey, you want to try it? Yeah. And then, you know, had a meeting and said, just try it. And then if you don't like it, then fine.

SPEAKER_01 12:27

Right.

SPEAKER_05 12:28

And he had some and he was like, Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

Oh, yeah. Obviously, it was a no-brainer for him, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_05 12:34

Um, and then so so you just he sold the business in January of last year. Oh, okay. You know, you didn't tell me he was selling. Oh dear. But he sold, and when we had Charleston Wine and Food, which we would do every year, come up like, hey, you know, he's like, Well, I sold the business. Like, but thanks for telling me.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

Yeah. Okay. Well that's a hundred.

SPEAKER_05 12:55

So that meant Total Wine and Moor, those large accounts, and Sam's Club. I was able to get Myrtle Beach. Those accounts could not be fulfilled because I didn't have a middleman.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

What the heck?

SPEAKER_05 13:04

And so you found I had another word for it, but it didn't start with an H.

Distribution Hurdles And Supply Chain Reality

SPEAKER_01 13:12

I believe you. That sounds very stressful. How did you get over that?

SPEAKER_05 13:17

So I found an online distributor.

SPEAKER_01 13:19

You found it yourself. Like I did, I did all these researchers. Mixing the drinks. Yeah. I'm assuming you're not bottling the drinks.

SPEAKER_05 13:25

Mm-hmm. Well, no, I have a co-packer, so I had to find a co-packer who could produce it. And they had, and that was another challenge. They had to be kosher certified. Because the one right. So I had to have kosher wine because the facility owner was Jewish.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

Oh, oh. Wow. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_05 13:42

And I said, say less. Say fine.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

Let's do it. And how did what did you do then? How did you?

SPEAKER_05 13:48

At New York, so I sent my formula. So I hired my formulation team, send the, you know, you have the whole batch sheet and the recipe. And and the irony in that is that some co-packers can source your ingredients, but because it's 13, they didn't know where to get. So I have cinnamon in here, I have nutmeg.

unknown 14:04

Oh.

SPEAKER_05 14:05

Yeah, so I have a map on the website of all the countries where I source.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

What's the website?

SPEAKER_05 14:10

Oh wow. Uh tipsy ladycocktails.com. So you yeah, you can see the map on the website of where I get the um ingredients, and they could not do it. So I literally, you know, know the business front to end. So where do I get it? Okay, how much do I need to run 500 gallons or scale and put everything in their spreadsheet so that I could order everything, do the purchase order, and have it shipped to the facility to make it? It was a lot of stress.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

That sounds like a lot, right? It was.

SPEAKER_04 14:39

That's pretty cool though. I'm looking at the map right now and I see you have 14 different areas around the world where you're getting your ingredients. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Sourcing ingredients from all over the world and bringing it here to Charleston. Yeah. That's lovely. Um, how did you go to school for mocktails and drinks? Like did you go to school in the environment?

SPEAKER_05 14:56

So that I would say this is more of a a blessing for my ancestors, right? Um so I'm a lawyer by trade over two decades, like 25 years now almost. Um so doing law and thinking outside the box and not taking no for an answer. I think that's where it comes from. Or somebody's doing it, so that means it can be done.

SPEAKER_01 15:17

True. True. And you decided to figure it all out on your own.

SPEAKER_05 15:20

Yeah, a lot of reading in my spare time.

unknown 15:23

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 15:23

I didn't have to do much with formulation because I already was making it, right? Right. I just had to make the batch, ship it to different companies to say, can you make it? Send me a sample so I can see how it tastes. And for me, it needed to be authentic. I didn't want to just have like high C with some rum in a bottle.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

No, that's exactly what you're saying.

SPEAKER_05 15:42

Um but I did get some of those back when I said it it needed to be authentic. So I was able to find a formulator who first run got it perfect with the exception of the collar. And that was it. And that was just adjusting the fruit. Cool.

SPEAKER_01 15:56

How long did it take from when you said, okay, I'm not gonna do this on my own, I'm gonna find I'm gonna do this legit. Like you have this, you already had the idea, you already had the recipe to your first bottle of distillator. How long did that take you?

SPEAKER_05 16:10

A week. Like it's in my brain.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

Yeah, so you have it, right? But then you had to find everybody else. So a year. You had to find the one year, you know.

SPEAKER_05 16:23

So 2019, I started looking for the formulator. Once I got it right, then 2020. Yeah. Oh boy. So remember COVID? No, I don't remember that. Right. It was a blur because you were drinking too much. Yeah, too much. It's all a blur. Well, during COVID, it gave me a good bit of time to kind of be still and work it. Uh-huh. And then you couldn't um sell alcohol online. And then COVID hit. I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_04 16:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 16:49

And then they allowed you to sell online. I didn't know I wasn't aware of that.

SPEAKER_04 16:51

That's interesting. So they changed a lot of the things.

SPEAKER_05 16:55

With the grab and go, you know, like the Uber Eats in some places. You could they would throw a bar a a can inside somebody's jerk jerk chicken meal. Ooh. That sounds good. Yeah. So that's awesome. So that allowed me to, so I say, you know, there's warning before destruction, but that didn't turn into destruction. That allowed me to sell online. Um, and that allowed me to have people try it outside of the Charleston market.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_05 17:25

And that's how I got New York.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

Oh, very cool. Um was it just an instant success? Did people just like it's flying off the shelves?

SPEAKER_05 17:33

Yeah, so um Happy Cork, this is a plug. I have no business relationship with outside of them selling my product. Happy Cork in Brooklyn. She usually features, you know, all brands, but she has a section for black owned spirits and I just ship two cases to them. They buy 'em quite often. North Carolina, they buy 'em, um, different parts of North Carolina. And then I got an order from Florida yesterday. Oh, okay. So and I was in Florida um when I first started with Total Wine in Florida, but now the online, you know, like the retail spaces are starting to order. Nice. Because I thought she was dying. It was like, oh, well, you know, Tipsy Lady's about to die. But I think it's just timing. It's just timing.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

Everything's timing. If you could hold on long enough, it'll eventually pick up. Just like this podcast. Four years later. Um, no, that's it's awesome. I I couldn't believe when we met at the harbor you were telling me all about that. I'm like, I was just blown away, and I'm like, we gotta talk more about this.

SPEAKER_04 18:30

Um How are you getting the word out about it? You see that you've been on the Today show, that you're getting into all these festivals.

SPEAKER_05 18:37

I just that you taste it. I say, if you don't like it, then you don't have to feature me.

unknown 18:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 18:42

So do you actually go and personally I mail in and say I have good shit. Hell yeah. And I stand by it.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

Yes. Yeah. So

Awards Press And Getting People To Taste

SPEAKER_01 18:52

so what what all has she been on so far?

SPEAKER_04 18:54

Well, see, you've got the today show. You were a gold award winner at the San Francisco Ready to Drink competition.

SPEAKER_05 18:59

Yeah, that was the first couple of months, and as someone called and said, You should submit. And it was 1,300 judges blindfolded, so they don't even see the product, it's just taste. Yeah. And then I brought I won the gold.

SPEAKER_04 19:11

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_05 19:12

1,300. Blind tasting.

SPEAKER_04 19:14

That's a big deal. That's great.

SPEAKER_01 19:17

Yeah. I just agree.

SPEAKER_05 19:18

So there's no judgment as far as hey, I know it. It's judging, but no judgment. But then I'm like, I know the brand I'm gonna vote. It's the straight flavor.

SPEAKER_04 19:26

That's a competition I want to judge too. Yeah. You are in Essence magazine, travel noir, Black Enterprise celebrates your Sam's Club experience.

SPEAKER_05 19:37

So that issue, um, Janet Jackson was on the company. Come on. Oh.

SPEAKER_04 19:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:43

That's pretty cool. Did you meet her?

SPEAKER_05 19:44

No. I would like to. I would like her to you want to invest, Janet? Yeah. Calling it. Like turn to this page of the magazine.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

Um, are you are you born and raised here in Charleston?

SPEAKER_05 19:55

No, I'm a native New Yorker, but my roots are here. My mom was born here, right down the road, Mount Pleasant. Grandparents, my dad's side, they're from Snowden, as far as his dad's side, which is my grandfather, but his mom is Bermudin. So that's where that DNA, you know. And the irony is I didn't know I had Caribbean descent until an adult. But I had all these ways that my mom like, and I thought I was adopted. It's like, I don't belong here. I would walk around bare feet. I didn't like the cold, I'm a December baby. I'm like, I believe belonging to somebody's island. Not New York. And then my grandmother married someone from Barbados.

unknown 20:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 20:34

And so he was a very important factor in my upbringing in the Caribbean culture. And then my mom dated someone or married someone eventually from Barbados as well. So then I studied at the University of West Indies and Barbados in law school. Oh, wow. And I didn't want to leave. And I was like, okay, there's something to this. And then just start digging them out. It's like, you ain't crazy, you're not a dog, but your grandmother's Yeah. You were home. You were there. It's a little secret. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:59

So much um culture there. Um then and then so you when did you move here to Charleston?

SPEAKER_05 21:05

I moved to Charleston in 2003. So it's been here a while. It's been here a little bit. So I don't think I'm officially a Yankee anymore.

SPEAKER_04 21:12

I I think you're you're a local now. I'm local.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

I know. I'm from Detroit originally. I did Tampa for 18 years. I moved north to live in the South. Right. And uh and and I found out that you you you can't become a you can't be a local unless you have like generations So then I'm a local.

SPEAKER_05 21:32

Like my children were born here, my mom was born here, my grandparents, like my my mom's children were the only ones born in New York. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:39

New York was just a stop on your journey.

SPEAKER_05 21:41

Yeah. Or the It's still my face. Starting point. It might be a stop, you know, I might want to move back.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

Oh man.

SPEAKER_05 21:48

What so New York City or I'm from the city, back by Lincoln Center.

SPEAKER_01 21:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 21:51

Oh nice.

SPEAKER_05 21:52

And when how long did were you uh what what age were you when you I moved there, I was three when my mom moved to Midtown. And that was there until I went to college. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 22:02

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_05 22:03

And I still go back. My brother's still there, so I still go back to the house. Oh, I bet we'll get back. It's still home for me. It's a cool place. It's a great place. Yeah. Very diverse. It's definitely a melting pot. Right. Good, good food. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 22:15

I mean, you're describing New York, not Charleston right now, but we have food. I was a little nostalgic. Right. Right. And that's fine. But I mean, so do you love living here in Charleston now?

SPEAKER_05 22:24

I like the beach. I like the weather. Charleston's okay. Aesthetically is pretty. It's a beautiful place. You know, they have some things. Like the infrastructure is kind of weird. Super weird. And it's like get it together.

SPEAKER_01 22:36

You know what though? I found out. Uh speaking of infrastructure, I found out they can't build tall buildings here. I'm talking about the highways. Oh, the highways too.

SPEAKER_05 22:45

Roads. I'm like, just you know, like what Mount Pleasant has done with that overpath. Yeah. That's amazing with traffic flow.

SPEAKER_03 22:53

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_05 22:53

Like if you can do that in like Somerville, Goose Creek.

unknown 22:57

Right.

SPEAKER_05 22:58

It's wash, rinse, repeat.

SPEAKER_03 22:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 23:00

Because that Burlingy Myers was a nightmare back in the day. Like to get to Orangeburg Road, because I had property over there when I was married, it took me a lot longer to get there. Now, you know, to get over Burlingue Myers to get, you know, to Orangeburg Road is so much easier.

SPEAKER_01 23:14

Charleston was such a hub of you know, like one of the first cities, obviously, in in in metropolitan type of cities. Um you would think that they would have a bigger bigger thought process in the infrastructure. Like you think that's or just wash, wrench, repeat. You did it here, Mount Pleasant. Yeah. It's it's it's so funny. It's so funny. And now it's just growing and people are moving here by the you know, 30 a day or something like that. More than that now.

SPEAKER_05 23:38

You know, I'm in real estate when I say I'm seriouspreneur. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 23:41

And you have your real estate license.

SPEAKER_05 23:43

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 23:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 23:45

What don't you do? No, sleep. Don't sleep.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

You got two uh almost grown kids, right? One almost grown, one kind of grown.

SPEAKER_05 23:55

They're never grown.

SPEAKER_01 23:56

Right. Right. And uh and and and living here in Charleston and and just w what what's next with Tipsy Lady or or So Tipsy Lady is just to continue to scale, get the word out, find hopefully a national distributor who can pick it up.

SPEAKER_05 24:11

They have some issues going on in the distribution world. Some with some of those middlemen where they were one particular one, I won't say a name, who weren't paying for the product. Right. You get the product and people waiting on their money. Oh so that may have been a blessing in disguise, right? So just finding, you know, a distributor who can pick up the product and product placement, and then with resort, um, hopefully we'll be in Harris Teeter in a couple of weeks. Okay. So I just dropped product off yesterday for that. So that's moving quickly. With uh the resort, it is certified South Carolina product. So we have the South Carolina certification. So that's how we're able to have that conversation.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

Are there any others?

SPEAKER_05 24:51

For what? The product?

SPEAKER_01 24:53

Competitors.

SPEAKER_05 24:54

Oh, so we have like um Tresagaves, they do a strawberry and like some other flavors, so they are similar, but they don't do um we have a pineapple.

SPEAKER_03 25:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 25:05

And then we're coming out with uh strawberry mint and a blackberry.

unknown 25:09

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 25:09

I want it all. Are they local though? Are they local? They're not local. So they're the only local.

SPEAKER_05 25:14

Yeah, I'm the only local. So you have, of course, you have um Chaucer mix, which is the Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary. But they don't do they do, they now do like a lime or something, but they don't do strawberry and they don't do uh that and that. Like I'm doing a strawberry mint. I don't know them personally, but they have good Bloody Mary mix. Yeah, that's what people and I'm not a Bloody Mary girl. These are different different things. Yeah, different for sure, for sure.

SPEAKER_03 25:36

I would not be able to do that.

SPEAKER_05 25:37

And then it's not I don't know if it's formulated to pair well with any spirit. So with Bloody Mary, of course, it's vodka, right? And then their lime, it's pushing for tequila. With resort beverage company, it's dual versatility in that it's for cocktails or mocktails, right? So we don't just want to be in the liquor store, but to be in a liquor store in South Carolina you have to add one percent alcohol. Oh, right. That's interesting. So we do have the ability to do that with our Cope Packer, and the Cope Packer is local, whereas New York produces Tipsy Lady Resort is right here in Charleston produced here.

SPEAKER_01 26:10

Cool.

SPEAKER_04 26:10

That's awesome. And I really like that you're taking that concept because so much nowadays is moving towards that non-alcohol space. So you're really allowing yourself to be expansive with your product where you're reaching multiple audiences instead of just one or the other.

SPEAKER_05 26:24

Right. So the kids can come to the cookout.

SPEAKER_04 26:26

Yeah. Although you might not know what's in the glass.

SPEAKER_05 26:30

Yeah, and it's really good with any spirit with most of um, when you look at margarita mixers, it can, you know, you market for tequila. So we market for all. So if you look at resortbeverage company.com, we have recipes. So if you kind of have a brain fart and don't know, well, what can I make outside of a margarita? Because some people don't like tequila, you can mix it with other spirits or THC if you don't want any alcohol, like the Delta 9 space. Um, you can do that again. You can also just add soda water, and it makes a good little uh frozen drink as well. Some of our California influencers make frozen margaritas. Oh, sure.

SPEAKER_01 27:06

And it's yeah, it's pretty cool. Yeah, I'm getting thirsty there, guys. Um these are really good. I've tried them before. Let's talk black-owned businesses. Where can in it sounds like you're kind of like the pioneer almost in this space? And and and can you talk about the growth on that level in Charleston here specifically?

SPEAKER_05 27:31

Well, I'm the only one in this space.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

Oh, you're the only one in this space.

SPEAKER_05 27:36

For black-owned um in Charleston as far as mixers. Really? Um, I was the first RTD black-owned in South Carolina, period. They have one brand that started after, but theirs is a little different. Um, out in Greenville, they're also black-owned, and they kind of they do RTDs, which is ready to drink, the can space. Um, so when you say RTD is ready to drink, so that's what you know when you it's in a can.

SPEAKER_02 28:01

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_05 28:01

So, and it can be ready to drink in a bottle as well. But first one for both in the state.

SPEAKER_01 28:08

That's amazing. Holy crap.

SPEAKER_05 28:09

And I think currently there's still just the two of us as far as RTDs in the state. And as far as black owned mixers, I believe I'm still the only one.

SPEAKER_01 28:18

Amazing. What about general? Like why and what what makes it important here in Charleston generally having black owners and black-owned businesses?

SPEAKER_05 28:26

For me, I'd I would like my product to be known as the product that just happens to be owned by a black woman.

SPEAKER_03 28:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 28:32

Right? Right. Um, and I've always stood on that to not just say it's black owned, because then people just assume it's just for black

Black-Owned Branding And Charleston Sales Truth

SPEAKER_05 28:39

people. No, anybody can consume it, right? So I don't like to be put in that box, it just happens to be blessed by the hands of a black woman, right?

SPEAKER_03 28:47

Of course.

SPEAKER_05 28:47

So for me, when DEI was starting to kind of be eradicated, I said, Well, child, I saw that coming, which is why I wanted the product to stand on its own.

SPEAKER_03 28:56

Correct.

SPEAKER_05 28:57

Right? I don't want it to be focused on being black on, which is great for marketability for a lot of people. But I find, you know, being true candid, it done put you as a target.

SPEAKER_01 29:08

It does put you as a target. Is that what you're saying? Yeah. Yeah. I was gonna ask you. I was gonna ask the challenges behind that.

SPEAKER_05 29:14

Yeah, so you see a lot of us in the space, and then you see, you know, you're competing with the celebrities who are now everybody got a tequila, right?

SPEAKER_03 29:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 29:25

So now we're competing with the celebrities versus the good product, right? But then you have the uncle nearest of the world, right? Where she's, you know, the bankruptcy and Fawn is under a lot of scrutiny with business practices with her whiskey.

SPEAKER_01 29:40

Oh, okay. No, I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_05 29:41

So then you get the negative press, right? But I always ask myself, but for that, her being a black woman and being visible and being a valuation of a billion dollar brand, would she have the same scrutiny if she weren't black? I think not.

SPEAKER_01 29:57

Right, right, right. That's tough. That's tough.

SPEAKER_05 29:59

It's tough.

SPEAKER_01 30:00

So is this unfair, but it is what it is. That's the world we're in right now.

SPEAKER_05 30:05

And that's the world we've been in.

SPEAKER_01 30:06

Mm-hmm. Ben, right, correct, correct. It feels like we can't change it backwards sometimes. We would like to, but we can't change it. Right, right. Um but it's just it's just amazing, and especially here in Charleston, you know, the the culture here is is you know, I'm I'm listening to uh The Demon of Unrest by Eric Larkson. Have you guys heard that yet? Oh, is that the one that takes place in Charleston here? Like beginning a civil war and then during civil war and all that. It was fifty-fifty here, white black. Yeah. You know, most of the population was black in in in a lot of these in a lot of cities here in South Carolina.

SPEAKER_05 30:39

Um but the numbers are fifty-fifty, but when you look at the economic impact, that ain't fifty-fifty.

SPEAKER_01 30:44

No.

SPEAKER_05 30:45

It's a huge income disparity.

SPEAKER_01 30:47

Yeah, 100%. Um, so so it's just uh I feel like it's just such a great thing seeing products like yours coming from. You know what I mean? Humans. Right. And human first, right? Just have to be black.

SPEAKER_05 30:59

And then the irony is, you know, you don't like to bring race into it. However, it's relevant, right? So I'm uh kind of local, right? People knew that it was black own. My sales were lower in Charleston for Tipulated than any other area in South Carolina where they didn't know me.

SPEAKER_04 31:16

Stop really.

SPEAKER_01 31:18

Interesting, interesting data point there.

SPEAKER_05 31:21

Very interesting. So it's like, well, what is it? I've spend marketing dollars in Charleston. I live here, I'm rooted in here.

SPEAKER_03 31:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 31:30

Those other places, I just hired people with a taste, you know, to do the sampling of the product. Yeah. They didn't know there was no image imagery of me here.

SPEAKER_01 31:38

Right. It doesn't show anything on the page. No.

SPEAKER_05 31:40

So they bought the product because they liked the packaging. Yeah. They were repeat buyers because they like the flavor profile.

SPEAKER_01 31:45

Right. I don't know. I don't get it.

SPEAKER_05 31:49

And it's not like Charleston's a poor place. Yeah. Right. We're not liking, you know.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

How speaking of poor, how is the the price levels? Uh the price point.

SPEAKER_05 31:57

Uh so the price point, so for the tipsy lady for the summer, we run specials for $15.99. Normally it's $22.49 at Total One and more at $15.99. With the mixtures, they're about $9.99. Some places sell them for $14.99. Sure. Um, because it's all natural. Yeah. But cheap, but it's a good price. I don't want to say cheap. And it's a premium product, but priced appropriately.

SPEAKER_01 32:23

The name though isn't saying nothing about it says Charleston on her.

SPEAKER_05 32:26

No, that's intentional because I'm not boxing myself in to just be Charleston, right? I I'm a global woman. So I like my products to reflect who I am. So with Resort Beverage Company, I want to see those mixtures in barrels, the cruise ships.

SPEAKER_01 32:41

In Bermuda.

SPEAKER_05 32:42

I want to see, right. The resorts, and then you got Defusky Island here. We'll love to. I've met with those folks. They express an interest in carrying on that little resort that they're building out there. So we'll see what happens with that. Um, so still giving the Caribbean resort vacation vibe with both names, two different entities, but yeah, a resort beverage company. You want to, you know, feel like you're at the pool in a resort, vacation every day.

SPEAKER_01 33:05

I mean, just looking at the bottle, I feel like I'm at the pool. You know? So good work on that.

SPEAKER_05 33:09

You come here with that nice tan where you at the pool. I do.

SPEAKER_01 33:13

It's more uh high blood pressure probably than anything.

SPEAKER_04 33:16

I like you kind of had a little tagline there of like vacation every day.

SPEAKER_05 33:20

Vacation every day.

SPEAKER_01 33:21

It's so cool, uh, listeners. You gotta look at the uh YouTube video to see the bottles.

SPEAKER_05 33:26

But uh they're real agave, real fruit. Yeah, real simple. We make it simple for you.

SPEAKER_01 33:34

That's what it says. That's your tagline. So marketing-wise, it's the Charleston Marketing Podcast. What can we do and how can we help? And um, you know, yeah, we'll need help.

SPEAKER_05 33:47

So what's next is I need to hire someone to handle the marketing for resort beverage company. We'll look at that. So we'll have a conversation. Yeah, so once it hit the shelves locally, then you know, perfect timing so we could have a conversation.

SPEAKER_01 34:01

She's looking for help.

SPEAKER_05 34:01

Yeah, I need help. Not just the micro influencers, but you know, those who can promote it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:08

You've got the tone, you know, you've got the look, you've got the the the culture and the story behind it. So it shouldn't be too difficult for uh a marketer to kind of come in and help you out. I love the bird too. We got a little bird on there.

SPEAKER_04 34:21

I love just looking at it. I can see three ingredients water, agave, and lime juice.

SPEAKER_01 34:25

Simple ingredients.

SPEAKER_04 34:26

Yeah, three right there.

SPEAKER_05 34:29

Yeah, very simple.

SPEAKER_01 34:30

Yeah, it's clean. It's clean, but fun. The colors though, too. What why how did you pick the colors out?

SPEAKER_05 34:35

Oh again, Caribbean, you know, you yeah, I'm thinking channeling Puerto Rico, I was channeling Mexico, I was channeling the beaches and the resorts of what I'd like to see visually when I would go to Barbados or when I go to Mexico. I I used to live in Mexico for a short period of time. Okay. I went to school there. I was gonna say you probably went to school there. Not for language, I speak Spanish fluently, but I went because it was cheap to go for this program. And I was like, well, okay, I could live with the family and kind of live in Cuernavaca and hit Mercy City. And so I just wanted to channel all those things, you know, this lived experiences, the color, and you know, and be on brand as far as strawberry, the pink, and the fruit.

SPEAKER_01 35:15

Did you design this too?

SPEAKER_05 35:16

I did.

SPEAKER_01 35:17

Jeez Louise, Tony.

SPEAKER_05 35:18

I was a creative in my younger days. When I was in high school, I wanted to go to LaGuardia, you know, LaGuardia High School. I would live next door. Oh, okay. So I I auditioned as an artist and a dancer. I didn't make the cut. So I ended up going to Martin Luther King High School and studied law. So that's how I became a lawyer.

SPEAKER_01 35:36

Too bad. Yeah, shame. Such a shame.

SPEAKER_04 35:39

What else do you have going on besides this?

SPEAKER_05 35:42

Siri Entrepreneur, so I do have an app I'm working on, a recidivism prevention app or re-entry OS. Recidivism prevention.

SPEAKER_01 35:50

Recidivism.

SPEAKER_05 35:51

So those who've been released from incarceration who are looking for assistance out of transition after being released from prison.

SPEAKER_01 35:58

Okay.

unknown 35:59

That's good.

SPEAKER_05 36:00

So to have the wellness components as far as the wellness doctors join the platform to give therapy sessions at a discount rate.

SPEAKER_02 36:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 36:08

Um, job search and then with resid with re-entry OS, it reads with the supervision centers, like the halfway houses and the probation officers, where they can track the data to see who's making progress. Because a lot of them return to prison for minor infractions, like oh, you didn't check in. It has geocoding built in so you get to see where the person is in real time. And it's for people who are on low supervision, of course, right? And then it has the ability to build the resume because most of them they don't know that they had skill sets that they had acquired in prison that translate to everyday life. So if you're a floor technician and you got a certificate in prison, you can get a floor technician job.

SPEAKER_01 36:48

Did not know that. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_05 36:50

But if you know how to put it on your resume, so you're able to speak into your phone and say what skill sets an AI builds you a resume.

SPEAKER_01 36:56

That's awesome. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_05 36:58

And then, you know, and then I even was able to create an AI photo of someone, just a simple headshot. Yeah. And to be able to create a LinkedIn profile.

Re-Entry OS And Recidivism Prevention Tech

SPEAKER_04 37:07

That is really, really good.

SPEAKER_05 37:09

And when I put them in a suit, where are you in this? Um so right now we're building out the MVP and we're looking for which is where the VC comes in. So met with decarceration fund, they're interested. They have recidivists who's kind of tracking the data for those who were in prison during COVID who could be released early.

unknown 37:27

Oh.

SPEAKER_05 37:27

So data sharing is important. Um, so with the MVP, so we're looking for investors for that to finish building out the MVP and then beta test it with the halfway houses and the facilities that are looking to help those who need to build the skills or if they need to get a driver's license, where to go. Because a lot of times they don't know where to go.

SPEAKER_01 37:46

Right. I can only imagine. And this is just a simple app. Just a simple app. All you have to do is download.

SPEAKER_05 37:51

And it would be free while they're on free freemium subscriptions to avoid the poverty tax. Cool. The halfway houses and the government entities would pay for that part. But for those who need the help, they give access to what they want to share. So if you got an apartment, your officer may not know that. These are things that help you get off supervision early.

SPEAKER_01 38:13

It's just kind of automatically checking off.

SPEAKER_05 38:14

All you gotta do is update your Right, just updating and then reads on the back end, it tells your probation officer or your supervising agency what you've done. So if you're on a one to five year supervision, you can get off in a year because you could say, here, spit out a report that I've done everything I needed to do.

SPEAKER_01 38:29

Nothing to do with drinks.

SPEAKER_05 38:30

Nothing to do with drink, but it's necessary work.

SPEAKER_01 38:33

It's very necessary work. It sounds like an amazing and how is it not already out? How is this?

SPEAKER_05 38:37

No one's doing it yet, but they do have one gentleman, I can't remember his name, who was released from incarceration in North Carolina. He's the first to own a prison. He bought a prison.

SPEAKER_01 38:47

Well So this gentleman got out of jail.

SPEAKER_05 38:49

Yeah, he owns a prison in North Carolina. And then two days ago, I saw that he was doing something similar, not at the level that I'm doing, so he just released it. So it's necessary.

SPEAKER_03 39:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 39:00

Well, it is because you have I mean, that's there's such a large part of that population that ends up back in jail, like you said, for the smaller crimes. It years away when it's a good thing. And they're not even crimes. Yeah, and they might not even be aware of it.

SPEAKER_05 39:10

They're just minor infractions, right? So it's like, oh, you left the state and you didn't tell me. Well, I was in North Carolina at the border in Fort Mill.

SPEAKER_01 39:19

Right.

SPEAKER_05 39:20

And crossed over a light and was in Carowins. So technically I left the state.

SPEAKER_01 39:25

That sucks. Yeah. Doesn't it?

SPEAKER_05 39:27

So I get a ding for that.

SPEAKER_01 39:28

Yeah. But but now your app. Right.

SPEAKER_05 39:31

So you just do, and then also when right now they have the with the Department of Justice, they you check in if you need to leave the state or whatever, you have to fill out an old PDF form like handwriting and then text your probation officer. That's insane. With the app, you can digitize it to say, hey, because what if your PO says you didn't give me that?

SPEAKER_03 39:50

Right.

SPEAKER_05 39:50

Unless you text it, now you have the proof because it's all compliance, and then you can approve it within the app, so you have tangible proof that you got approval to do the thing that you asked to do.

SPEAKER_01 40:01

And so this isn't just gonna be statewide, you could go. No, this is a federal thing, including like the other territories.

SPEAKER_04 40:07

Breaking barriers.

SPEAKER_01 40:08

Yeah, no kidding. Okay, Tony. I didn't know about that.

SPEAKER_05 40:12

Yeah, so that's what I'm working on. How long have you been working on that for? I've been doing uh the last year, so I have someone I'm mentoring. Okay. And within thirty days, he had a two jobs.

SPEAKER_01 40:23

Oh, okay. So you have a case study. That's cool. That's all. Yeah, you're changing lives with that. Yeah, definitely. That's for sure.

unknown 40:32

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 40:32

Again, that's just a brilliant idea. Um, I'm surprised that well, I'm not so surprised that the government didn't take it off.

SPEAKER_05 40:38

Well, I think it's more because they make money. Prison system make money, right? At the federal level. Um, that's a business. But I think people don't know the gap. So you have some people who say, I want to be a probation officer, I want to help, but then you get overwhelmed because you have so many cases that you can't give one-on-one attention to any individual to say, what are your needs?

unknown 40:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 40:58

It's like being a social worker. Like, how do I know what your needs are? Most people who are released from college, they don't know I can get off supervision early. Like they go, Well, I'm gonna do ride this out to my five years up. No, ask for permission.

SPEAKER_03 41:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 41:13

And show your equities of why you are worthy of a release. But if you don't know, you know, so I think it's not necessarily ignorance of it is no excuse. It just is so much paper, old school, filling out this form. And if you digitize it and leverage AI so that it's still reducing the number of people who return to prison for stupid stuff, in my opinion. But you also helping with case management for the officers for as far as their workflow.

SPEAKER_01 41:42

Sounds like a no-brainer, dude. Good work. So what when what it that's all I'm doing. You're not not just a few things. So uh on a on like a uh a day-to-day level, as far as what that's concerned, you're not coding, are you?

SPEAKER_05 41:56

You don't have to code, you use AI, and then I have a software team that I've hired offshore. So I write the modules on how I want the workflow. Some are visual, right? Learner and tactile. So I draw out this is what I wanted to do, the crayons, old school.

SPEAKER_01 42:11

Right. And then take pictures, some over there.

SPEAKER_05 42:13

And then I want the API to read like this.

SPEAKER_01 42:16

So you got a lot going on, Tony. That's just a lot.

SPEAKER_05 42:19

So the goal is to sell Tipsy Lady. Okay. Um, at some point, be acquired to sell it. Because I want to make sure my investors get their money back and some profit. Right. The same with resort. We're just getting started. So we'll see where that goes. So I build to sell, I'm not building to keep them.

SPEAKER_01 42:35

Mm-hmm. Smart. Yeah. You gotta you gotta know the end product. You gotta know what you're gonna do before you build something. Right.

SPEAKER_03 42:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:41

Uh so on an entrepreneur side of things, I know there's a lot of entrepreneurs here in the Charleston Marketing Podcast. Do you have any advice for entrepreneurs um that they can take home with them?

SPEAKER_05 42:50

Tell people what you do. Because if we don't know what you do, like you didn't know about recidivism app, right?

SPEAKER_01 42:55

That name this is is re-civ.

SPEAKER_05 42:58

So it's re-entry OS. So re-entry OS for operating systems. I had no idea about that. Yeah. This is new.

SPEAKER_01 43:03

I see you once a month almost through the harbor. Uh and thank you for your leading the fundraising committee.

SPEAKER_02 43:10

Fundraising committee. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 43:11

Yeah, I'm on the boards. Harbor Entrepreneur Center, and we need funds. Um so so no, that's great. But that's another thing that you're doing, too. You're on the you're on boards. What other boards are you on? So I knew you weren't. That's not it. Don't tell me.

SPEAKER_05 43:25

Grady likes to say, you're just an overachiever.

SPEAKER_01 43:28

Uh-huh. Yeah. Well, we already knew that. You're tipping the scale now on that one. Um pun intended.

SPEAKER_05 43:36

So just tell people what you do and ask for help.

SPEAKER_01 43:39

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 43:39

Yeah, and then ask for introductions or connections. So I'm not like in real estate, we would say, Don't be a silent agent. Tell people what you do. So I don't just do any kind of real estate. I have a niche. So pick a niche. So I do probate real estate. So somebody's died and their family has to sell the property, I give the market analysis to the court, and then I put the properties on the market.

SPEAKER_01 44:00

Well just an so that's that's a Tuesday.

SPEAKER_05 44:02

And then a Wednesday you're and I've color code

Entrepreneur Advice And Finding Your Niche

SPEAKER_05 44:05

everything on the calendar. So I'm I'm literally these days are reserved for these particular businesses. Do you yeah, so with exception of real estate, because it kind of moves if I get an offer, you gotta move when it's moved. Like in the car I sent an offer to be signed.

SPEAKER_01 44:17

Oh, cool. So making deals.

SPEAKER_04 44:19

You don't have an assistant?

SPEAKER_05 44:21

No. What's my daughter helps sometimes? Like, go drop that box off, but she's in medical. No, she has no interest. My son's like, go sell your liquor.

SPEAKER_01 44:31

Bootlegger, Ma. Yeah, I'm dying.

SPEAKER_05 44:33

He's gonna go off to college and be like college. He's the smartest one in the household. He's betrayed. He's diesel mechanic high school getting betrayed now. And he's like, I don't want to debt. He's Somerville High School.

SPEAKER_01 44:47

Somerville High. Okay. Somerville doesn't have a CIS program up there.

SPEAKER_05 44:50

He's doing um diesel mechanic and then like welding a part of his curriculum. So when he gets out, he'll welding is gonna be giant. Yeah, yeah. That's what I said. He's smarter than the rest of us. He's like, I'm not going in debt to pay it back, but I'm gonna be you, mom, with XY's almost 200,000 in law school tech.

SPEAKER_04 45:09

I think that's so great though, around like I didn't hear that much about that growing up, but like all the trades that you can learn in high school so that you're not because we were so ingrained to like you have to go off to college. Right, I wouldn't have gone to law school.

SPEAKER_05 45:20

I would have started real estate at 18. Yeah. I make a shitload of money in real estate.

SPEAKER_04 45:24

Like that's very starting to do it.

SPEAKER_05 45:25

Can you say shitload on my gut? And I actually enjoy it because I'm helping estates, right? Helping families who are mourning the death of a loved one. They don't want the emotional tie of taking all the stuff out, so I hire people to come and clean out the house. I put the property in them, I do all the things. Oh, no kidding. So I always say for that, it's God's work. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:44

You've got all kinds of God's work on. No, that is definitely God's work. You know, too. You got your buttons, James. You've been buzz and taking it. You gotta have something to balance it out.

SPEAKER_05 45:57

And I'm not even drinking anymore like I used to. Well, I mean, I don't even have a taste for it. I like my mix.

SPEAKER_01 46:06

And well, you're gonna you're gonna live longer for not drinking as much, to be honest. Maybe. No, it'll make it. It just depends on the stress. That's so true. Oh my gosh. That's so much. Kelly, what else you got over there?

SPEAKER_04 46:20

I have just one more question, actually, about the tipsy lady. Where did you learn your original recipe from?

unknown 46:25

Oh, Bermuda.

SPEAKER_05 46:26

Oh, in the kitchen. I I think it's cultural. I think it's literally ancestral, to be honest. So I think it's some things you just gift it with.

SPEAKER_01 46:33

So it was in you or was it on an old piece of paper?

SPEAKER_05 46:35

No, it was in me. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 46:36

So you just started putting I was like, I want a rum punch.

SPEAKER_05 46:40

And then I woke up and then I put it together, and then I was like, okay. And then I have a special ingredient in there that most people don't use. But if you're of Hispanic descent, you always instantly pick it up.

SPEAKER_03 46:52

Oh.

SPEAKER_05 46:52

It's not a super secret now because most people ask, it's guava. But Barbados makes rum punch differently. Each country is different, right? Each house is different. So the way I make it, I add that nice thing to kind of this is like one of a kind.

SPEAKER_04 47:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:09

Yeah. Easily. That's amazing. Um, okay, so marketing, entrepreneurs. What else can we share with our listeners uh about about Tony?

SPEAKER_05 47:19

Uh you can buy resort online, uh, resortbeverages.com. We ship direct to your door. Um, it's being distributed in California now, so we got that deal. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 47:29

What about Wild Dunes? What about like Loyal? Well, call me.

SPEAKER_05 47:33

You know, um I would hope so.

SPEAKER_01 47:35

They gotta they could probably got that.

SPEAKER_05 47:38

But the it's distributors, you it even that space, you got the middleman.

unknown 47:43

Yeah, you can't.

SPEAKER_05 47:44

Even though it's not alcohol, you can buy direct because there's no liquor, but they like, oh, we do business with this person, like with Harris Tita. Like Publix, they only buy from Kahi. I met with them last week. They only buy from one Cahi is the name of the distributor, the middleman. And so they have contracts with these folks, so they only buy from them.

SPEAKER_01 48:04

Is there a convention that you can go to?

SPEAKER_05 48:06

No, they know me. I bet. I bet met with them. So it's not a no with Kahih when I met with them last week. They just want it to be instead of all natural, you want it all organic.

SPEAKER_01 48:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 48:19

Oh. It's all natural, but meaning the facility that produces it has to be organic facility. And then all the products has to be organic, not just natural, because there's different terms of art.

SPEAKER_04 48:29

Yeah, like when you go to the grocery store, you got the organic.

SPEAKER_05 48:32

Certified organic. So to be certified, it costs money. Yeah, obviously.

SPEAKER_03 48:38

Oh.

SPEAKER_05 48:39

And then you I bet.

SPEAKER_01 48:41

I bet. It's a good thing you get that real estate.

SPEAKER_05 48:44

Right. So that is that is why. So we'd love to get the word up our resort beverage company. This is the perfect time for people who are drinking responsibly or less, because you can put a little bit instead of doing two ounces of alcohol, you can do one ounce. So you gotta pour your own truck on. Make your own. You can personalize it.

SPEAKER_04 49:02

I'm loving all these recipes I'm looking at. They're good recipes. Pineapple Prosecco Sparkler. Okay. The pineapple cognac cooler.

SPEAKER_05 49:10

So you don't have to just be boxing with tequila. Tequila. Yeah, so yeah, so any connections, or if you see this podcast and you want to try it, accept ship out free samples, low, you know, for businesses. I got some Airbnbs in DC that reached out that want to they're closing on a property. They want to make it on their featured. That's cool. Oh, that's cool.

SPEAKER_01 49:33

That'd be huge too. Once you get one of those. So these are these are you don't need distribution companies for these. No, they can buy from me directly because there's no liquor. There you go. That's interesting. I would focus on those versus having to but then you're trying to get bigger and you have to have a distribution company to get bigger. So it's great.

SPEAKER_04 49:58

I think a catch 22.

SPEAKER_05 49:59

It is a catch. Like everything else. Right? And with the larger accounts, you can still put the same amount of hours in and get the whole 50 United States.

SPEAKER_01 50:14

Copy.

SPEAKER_05 50:16

So it's like real estate. You spend the same amount of time and effort for a house that's 300,000 that you're gonna spend for 5 million. Right. What you gonna pick? Right. Five million for two. Okay. Obviously.

SPEAKER_01 50:29

Oh, that's amazing, Tony. You're doing a lot, and and thank you uh for taking some time off with us to to talk about it. What else do you have for us here? You you're what's next? Like what's nothing.

SPEAKER_05 50:40

I would love to, you know, have someone either white label, I'm having conversations with people who want to buy the recipe, not exclusivity. So I'm white labeling now, shifting to white labeling. That's yeah, that's a new thing I've heard you say.

SPEAKER_01 50:51

White labeling.

SPEAKER_05 50:52

Yeah, so just like you see like Snickers, somebody made it, right? They just sell the recipe to Hershey or whoever makes those things. I don't eat candy.

SPEAKER_01 51:00

And that's the same amount of work on your end, right?

SPEAKER_05 51:02

Is it even like No, they just buy, I they pay me per unit.

SPEAKER_01 51:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 51:07

And they source their own ingredients. So kind of like Yeah, licensing. Licensing. So they take the take the recipe and you pay me per unit.

SPEAKER_01 51:17

And they do their own can their own can, their own. They do everything else.

SPEAKER_05 51:20

Yeah, I just have the rest you just pay me to use the juice. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 51:24

Good work.

SPEAKER_05 51:25

So that's what I would like to do. Just white label it. Um yeah. Because they have some of the stores that are like doing their own brand, like Costco's, have their own misc mixers. Right.

SPEAKER_03 51:35

Mm-hmm. Right.

SPEAKER_05 51:36

Yeah. I don't care if resort, I'm not tied to the name. I just want good stuff to be on the market. Yep. So you can put whatever on the label in your own bottle, just good stuff inside.

SPEAKER_01 51:47

Mm-hmm. And you know it's good stuff because you created it.

SPEAKER_05 51:50

And you've had it, so you know it's good stuff. Making it out.

SPEAKER_01 51:53

It's so good. I did, I I I I hosted the Spark Awards. I was drinking one of those. I had a good time. I had a good time. He was just as tanned.

White Labeling Plans And Wrap Up

SPEAKER_01 52:01

I was. Again, the blood pressure.

SPEAKER_04 52:04

You have to enjoy these when you're getting your tan on the table.

SPEAKER_01 52:07

He wasn't tanning, but it was not tanning. I was in the spotlight, all embarrassed, trying to get over being on stage.

SPEAKER_05 52:15

Um never. He was blushing all the time. Give me a microphone. Give me this.

SPEAKER_01 52:21

Let me look at Matthew, maybe instead of um so a true entrepreneur. Thank you for your time. Of course. Uh Tony. It was really cool having you here. Uh Kelly, do you have any last questions?

SPEAKER_04 52:33

Any kind of when can we crack these open?

SPEAKER_03 52:36

I'll I'll leave these for you guys. Oh, thanks.

SPEAKER_05 52:39

Kelly's over being a fangirl. She's vetting. I see her. She's looking at all of this, every every website that I have. No, it's not even party, just she's like, oh my god, yes, this is a thing. I feel like Kelly has a good I'm in this. I am in this.

SPEAKER_01 52:51

She's got a good health boozy.

SPEAKER_05 52:53

She's doing the vetting. She's like, let me make sure this is valid.

SPEAKER_01 52:56

Yeah. No, she's she's got a good balance because you do you do 5K's and stuff like that too, Kelly, don't you? And then we just had that interview with uh classes uh with Jillian and drop-in and the drop-in, right. All right, that was the last one.

SPEAKER_05 53:07

And then But that is not my type of carrying on.

SPEAKER_04 53:10

Well I've got the balance. Like all that workout thing.

SPEAKER_01 53:14

Right, right. Right. It's all about balance, right? Uh I don't know how you're doing it, balance-wise, but you're smiling. And I go to bed by nine. And you go to bed by nine.

SPEAKER_03 53:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:24

All right, we gotta get you back to work.

SPEAKER_05 53:26

Go to bed by nine. Well, yeah. I've always gone to bed at nine. Even at law school, if it wasn't done by nine, it wouldn't get done. Don't call on me. Go to the next person.

SPEAKER_01 53:34

Right. And then you're waking up at about six, seven.

SPEAKER_05 53:37

That's plenty. That's great. That's great. Sleep. I need that. That's why I don't look 50.

SPEAKER_01 53:41

That's my note I'm taking away.

SPEAKER_05 53:43

Like, are you 50? Yes. Sleep. Nine o'clock. Nine o'clock. That's that's the looking thing. In the sheets, not the streets. Nine o'clock. Nine o'clock. That's what you tell your kids too, right? Yeah. They're all good. But I'm yeah. You know, the old say they say, only after what, midnight, nothing but open but legs in hotels.

SPEAKER_01 54:04

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 54:06

I have not heard that, but that is great.

SPEAKER_01 54:09

I just heard nothing good happens after midnight. I don't know about open legs. Love that. All right. So one more time with your dot coms, Tony.

SPEAKER_05 54:25

Okay, resortbeverages.com, and then it's tipsy ladycocktails.com.

SPEAKER_01 54:31

And resortbeverages.com wasn't taken. How I mean that's just because it was meant for me.

SPEAKER_05 54:36

That's right. Yeah, it was. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 54:37

All this.

SPEAKER_05 54:37

What is meant for me?

SPEAKER_01 54:38

Well, you're creating your own world, Tony. I like it.

SPEAKER_05 54:40

And then with re-entry OS, still building that out. So there's no I have the domains reserved, but it's not public yet. Yeah. That's gonna be a big one.

SPEAKER_01 54:48

I can't wait to hear more about that one.

SPEAKER_05 54:49

So if you know any investors in that space. I've been meeting with them. Yeah. A few people. Venture South and S C R something, that one.

SPEAKER_01 55:02

I'll have to give it to you afterwards. Um pitch to them.

SPEAKER_05 55:05

But I just um submit it to BMOC?

unknown 55:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:10

Oh yeah. Yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_05 55:11

Yeah, yeah, I just submit it for the app pitch competition.

SPEAKER_01 55:14

Oh, yeah, that's a good one. They gave a bunch of money last year. Yeah, we're we're trying to become friends with them too at the harbor. So we're just trying to like make this one giant entrepreneur location, even like North Carolina. There's some entrepreneur centers up there that we work with. And um it's just all about building an ecosystem. And you're building your own little ecosystem here in your own house for crime.

SPEAKER_05 55:35

My little home office that's a write-off on my taxes.

SPEAKER_01 55:38

Right, but that's the idea, right? It's just to kind of keep building, keep bringing businesses here. I want my kids to be here after college. They can leave for a little bit, then come back to the cul-de-sac and build their own family. So that's what we're trying to do here, is just build economy. And again, you're you're doing it single-handedly. Well, you got two hands, but um maybe four. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Act like four for sure. Uh, cool. Well, thank y'all. Yeah, no, tell me. Definitely. Uh who else do we have to thank? We have to thank um Charleston Media Solutions. Uh King in Columbus. Yes and oh, the SCRA. Yes. The South Carolina Research Authority.

SPEAKER_04 56:17

And also DJ Jerry feels good for the beats.

SPEAKER_01 56:22

Did you see Jerry? He was at the Spark Awards. He was the DJ.

SPEAKER_05 56:26

Yes, he was really good.

SPEAKER_01 56:27

Yeah, yeah, thank you. Yeah, yeah. DJ Jerry feels good, man. He's he's the man. He came out and uh he brought a saxophonist too. I forget his name. Yeah, they were.

SPEAKER_04 56:34

But they had a good time at Spark Awards. Uh Clark on the side. Oh, I can't remember.

SPEAKER_01 56:38

I can't remember his name.

unknown 56:39

Sorry.

SPEAKER_01 56:40

I mean they were good because they were up high. Yeah. Yeah. But uh alright, cool. Well, thanks, listeners. Appreciate you. We'll talk to you next time.

SPEAKER_05 56:48

Yeah, bye bye.