Shopify Happy Hour

Hear from Shopify founders, operators and experts on growth marketing strategies, lessons learned from the trenches, and other nuggets of wisdom shared over a different drink each episode.

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Shopify Happy Hour

Launching the Fastest Growing DTC Beverage Brand with Aaron Nosbisch of Brez

October 29, 2024 • Dan Cassidy • Season 1 • Episode 4

Aaron Nosbisch is founder of BRĒZ which creates microdosed cannabis & mushrooms in a can.

During this episode Aaron shared his journey launching one of the fastest growing DTC beverage brands. We dove into topics including:

launch strategies using organic UGC amplified by paid ads
why every brand should advertise on Meta
navigating regulations in a new category
DTC vs retail expansion
new product development

And lots more!

Brands and products mentioned in this episode include:

Dan (00:03)
Okay, welcome to episode number four of the Shopify Happy Hour. On the Shopify Happy Hour, you'll hear from Shopify founders, operators, and experts on growth marketing strategies, lessons learned from the trenches, and other nuggets of e-commerce wisdom shared over a different drink each episode. Today, I'd like to welcome Aaron Nosbisch, founder of Brez, which creates microdosed cannabis and mushrooms in a can. Aaron, welcome.

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (00:28)
Hey, man, I'm super glad to be here. Thanks for having me on the show and congrats on the launch. This is a really cool concept for a podcast and I'm glad to be here with you.

Dan (00:36)
Awesome, awesome. I am super stoked to have you on and to have a chat and also to hear about your journey and the product set. So before we kick off all of the cool stuff about hearing how you started it, all the lessons you've learned with bringing this brand to market, why don't you tell me about the product set that we're about to crack open literally and figuratively.

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (00:57)
Absolutely, Yeah. So Brez is a microdose cannabis and mushrooms in a can. We've essentially taken THC from hemp. Hemp is a legal form of cannabis as long as it has below 0.3 % THC by weight. We've added that to a drink alongside CBD and some other minor cannabinoids. And also in addition, we have lion's mane mushroom and there in the combination creates this happy, euphoric, uplifting and relaxing

relieving experience that's comparable to alcohol but comes with less consequences that alcohol comes with. we launched it on 420 of 23, pun intended with the 420, and then have been scaling it since. It really took off, It's been about 18 months now or so, and it's become the largest cannabis beverage in the world now, which is really exciting. I love doing it, man.

people a drink like this that allows them a sense of relief allows them to way to enjoy cannabis and a more subtle, fast acting short lasting capacity. It really gives people an alternative to alcohol that that you know, scratches it itch and fits the bill and give something you can actually consume while you're with other people and social settings and people seem to like it quite a bit. We also have this other drink. This is called Brez Flow. Flow has no THC or CBD in it, but it has

Lion's Mane mushrooms, cacao, black seed oil, and L-theanine. And it creates more of like a clear, calm, refreshing kind of flowy experience. If you've heard of flow state before, it's kind of like that state of effortless momentum where you feel locked in and clear and able to accomplish whatever you're trying to do. So we kind of say it's kind of like our feel good, focus afternoon drink. And that's that's kind of how I use it. And we just launched that updated updated formula and launched flow just a few weeks ago and people seemed

to

really be taking it. So that's that's who we are.

Dan (03:01)
Super cool. Well, the timing is great because so, you know, I enjoy beer, cocktails, wine, but just the day after is not fun, right? So I've been exploring all sorts of non-alcoholic options.

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (03:10)
Totally.

Dan (03:15)
And in addition to that, I've also been going down this rabbit hole of all these different nootropics just to try to enhance focus and get locked in. So it's great because the two products that you're referencing seem to accomplish both, right? Just based on the need and use case. So I haven't tried either of these first. So what do you suggest I crack and open first? The normal version or the flow state?

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (03:38)
I know we start with flow and then we can jump over to an infused one. can do like a few single just to kind of dial our heads in first. Yeah, exactly. And then kind of relax on the back end. So cheers, guy. Yeah, absolutely.

Dan (03:46)
might be a little safer.

Perfect, all right, well cheers to some flow. Let's get her going, let's get her going.

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (04:00)
What do you think about the taste? Yeah? What do you notice?

Dan (04:01)
It tastes really nice. That tastes really nice.

So there's definitely some citrus in there, very effervescent. I'm picking up the elderflower for sure. And there's also a little berry as well I'm getting.

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (04:18)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yep. I'm glad you see it. You're on the money, you know, and there's also

So that's kind of like the the lemon elderflower tastes primarily. So it's kind of like flavorful. It has a little bit of an herbaceous to it, but mostly like a sweet, lemony kind of flavor. And then we add the lion's mane in there, the cacao, the black seed. think the cacao, the lion's means pretty neutral. The cacao and the black seed add a little bit of a spice or almost like a there's like an undertone there of like some boldness. And I think that the epivessiveness and plus the lemon. And honestly, there's a lot of water in it, too, I think keeps it refreshing and

And so, you know, it of doesn't really taste like a seltzer, like I would say like a La Croix or like, you know, those I find to be really kind of bitter and flat. And it's just not really like a soda either, where soda is kind of like syrupy and sugary, you know, but it just kind of like fits somewhere in between there where it's like, it's more flavorful and enjoyable than a seltzer, but it's less of that syrupy ickiness that you might get with a traditional soda.

Dan (05:21)
100 % agree with that. So I typically stay away from lots of sugar, definitely any sugary drinks. But this is really nice because it's got just a little bit of sweetness. I am picking up a tiny bit of spice at the end, so those pepper notes. And it's super refreshing. Lots of sparkling beverages can be a little cloying, but this is not. So it's great. And what's also nice is I've been doing a lot of nootropics that are kind of coffee focused or coffee alternatives.

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (05:40)
Mm.

Mm.

Dan (05:49)
which are great in the morning, but sometimes if you just want something refreshing, know, coffee is, I don't view coffee as a refreshing beverage, but this is super nice. I mean, I would drink this all day in the summertime and wintertime too. It's pretty nice. So excited to feel the effects from it too, because.

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (05:53)
Sorry.

Hell yeah.

Dan (06:06)
Yeah, whenever I've had different and I've tested lots of different nootropic beverages, they're fantastic. Just the focus I can get from it. I'm sure I've got a good amount of ADD in my system. So anything that can help me dial in and stay focused for, you know, 90 minutes and power through some work. I'm always all about that. So yeah, awesome. So so thanks much for going through this. We'll crack open the other version in a few minutes. But while while we're while we're sipping on this, why don't you just tell us about

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (06:32)
Yeah, totally.

Dan (06:36)
how you got here, why'd you start Brez, and how'd you get to where you're at today?

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (06:39)
Yeah, absolutely. I'll just touch on one other thing about the drink while we're at it. It kind of flows like a really interesting kind of effect profile to kind of dial in because it's like you want that like focus and sharpness and that stimulation that you get from maybe like caffeine or from like a more traditional focus or energy drink. So there's a little bit of that in there. Not too much though, but you also want that kind of like relief feeling that allows you to like kind of take some of that stress off the day so that way you can kind of like lean in, you know?

is kind of like what we were going for with this drink. like, wanted it to be, it's really, think, it's not here, this drink specifically, it's not here to replace your coffee. This isn't really to have like, instead of your coffee or instead of your whatever. This is really to be that noon, two o'clock, whatever drink to kind of help you just dial in, to give a little bit of relief, a little bit of focus. You're having the Lion's Mane, which is creating a little bit of sharpness and cognitive enhancement. The cacao, you know, a of people don't realize that cacao's rich in therabromine, which is kind of like the happy.

part of chocolate, when people say chocolate makes you happy, that's the happy part of chocolate. So put that in there to kind of give you a little bit of a mood boost. The black seed oil has like a vitality energy. So you get this kind of like stamina, this like, and that's also some of that peppery, and then the L-theanine is the calming part of green tea. I'm sure you're aware it's like, you know, a top nootropic compound used in most nootropic sacks. And so it kind of gives that calming sense. So it's not really like an energy drink. It's more of a feel good, flowy, focused drink, clarifying,

calming, refreshing, of just like keep moving through the day, kind of drink. That was the real goal with that. We're actually, between you and me and everyone watching, we're working on a more of an energy drink variation to come out sooner than later. That would be much more of like a punchy, get you going kind of thing. And then, know, ultimately, I kind of see like there's this opportunity to kind of craft experiences across the board, similar to what we see in Neutropics or the Adaptagen or Function.

functional world overall. It's like, the THC drink, the current THC drink, the OG blend kind of really fits that alcohol alternative solution. This flow one's kind of that mid day gap closer dial you in, help you keep going. I that there's something to be said about like a morning get you up and going or more much more stimulating drink. I think there's an opportunity around creativity maybe even. So that's kind of how I see this kind of like broader, you know, and especially for people who use nootropics, like there's just such a wide range of

opportunities to kind of like help people dial into the way they want to feel and to, you know, achieve kind of help facilitate that that optimal state for whatever they're working on. And that's kind of a lot of the vision that we have with Brez. It's kind of like help people craft into the craft.

craft those moments into a can so that they can tap into that. And that's not to be said that people need that to exist. This is really an additive to life and a way to do that in a big, natural, clean, like you were saying earlier, very low sugar. In this case, there's eight grams of sugars, which is, think, maybe a fifth of what's in a soda, something like that on average. And that comes from agave, so it's all natural. It's only 35 calories. so trying to keep that low sugar, low calorie, clean ingredients. American manufactured,

kind of vibe to kind of help people craft experiences that can elevate their day and also a way that's not dependent building or any of that either just just like a natural nice to have to elevate but anyway I could talk about this stuff forever

Dan (10:10)
I

know I love so can I, so that's awesome. you, so definitely want to go, you know, talk through how you got here, but before that, just while we're on the topic of all the different ingredients that are in here, so how do you go about product testing? Because I'm sure, you know, like there's so many different things you can put in a can to help people focus. There's so many different combinations. What was product testing like and how, how, what is it? Yeah, just what is it like when you're like, all right, I want to create this beverage that will help people focus in the afternoon.

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (10:22)
Mm.

Totally.

Dan (10:38)
Where do you start and how long does it take to go through that whole testing until you have something where you're like, yeah, this is it, let's move this to production.

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (10:46)
Totally. I first and foremost, a really great team. Like that's where the majority of it comes from is I have a two really awesome partners. One, especially Travis Duncan, who is kind of like our chief formulator at the company. He's responsible for all of our formulations and our variants and all the testing and identifying unique and new ingredients that we can work with. And then we also have Dr. Preston Campbell, who is a PhD in pharmacology from Vanderbilt University. And he's kind of a little bit more of the pharmacologist side of it. So how do all of these

Different adaptogens herbs fungi, you tropics. How do they all work together to craft these kind of experiences? and yeah, think we kind of start with the intention of the The effect that we're trying to create the experience that we're trying to create. So that's the first step second step is kind of like identifying what are Both the well-known and not so well-known compounds that help people achieve that What are some of the known and not so well-known stacks that help people to achieve that? What are the safety profiles and the efficacy efficaciousness?

efficacy profiles of each of those ingredients and what is the existing knowledge of how those work together? So we try to figure all that out and then we kind of put those together into some proposed solution of like, okay, if we did it this way, we also use a lot of like innovative technology on the extraction and processing side of these ingredients to make them a little bit more bioactive. we go through like a unique extraction process and then a unique nano emulsification process that makes the particles really

small of these ingredients and then which makes them faster absorbing and shorter lasting sometimes as well. So it's more of a craft experience type of product. For example, the cacao, like if you've had a cacao ceremony in the past, you you take thick chocolatey mud like consistency of a drink, you put it together and you drink it and it's a very chalky, chocolatey experience. It's a nice, very refreshing, it's very fun, very happy of an experience, but it's it's but it's a heavy drink to drink even if you like chocolate. It's a heavy drink. So to get that to come

That active profile to be in a lemon elderflower like light soda esque type vibe not easy like but possible and that's kind of like where I think we're Travis and Preston and

And our team like really come to play there is coming up with unique ways to modernize, ancient wisdom and ancient compound to, to create something new. So we, so we do that and then we test it. We make a lot of variants with slight verification, verifications, and then we send it to a small group of us. And then we kind of narrow that down. And then we send it to a larger group of us. And then, we do some like, safety studies and white papers around the profiles. we even, once we have finished blends, we do EKG studies to kind of see how, the interaction.

of on the brain is while you're drinking it so we can kind of measure some of it in an objective sense. and we're at the early stage of this, you know, we're a young, young startup kind of figuring this out. But our intentions is to really get really honed in and on their honed in there to be to create really efficacious yet safe products that deliver really, you know, nice and pleasant experiences for people to help facilitate success and in their life. And we say we're on a mission to reduce suffering and maximize potential. So making life better and easier.

in some capacities and helping people reach the fullest potential. you we find like our infused OG blend, it's a great product instead of alcohol to find some relief and satiate that kind of like desire to just relax and calm down and connect with other people. And when you're doing something a little bit more generative, like using our product versus more harmful ones, it facilitates that level of reduced suffering while maximizing potential. Where flow might help you dial into your day or find a little bit of relief that helps you finish your day strong, you know, so that helps you again,

and

achieve your potential. So we're looking for just unique ways to kind of craft products that help reduce suffering for humanity overall and maximize the potential overall as well, which is quite the grained idea and it's challenging to make a reality, but we're gonna do our best.

Dan (14:46)
That's great. I love the mission. think anything that your team can do and just in general through e-commerce products or any products that can help people get more dialed in so they can get more good stuff done will just maximize efficiency and help people be more productive.

ambitious people who want to change the world a bit, you know, if they can have something that will help them get more dialed in or chill out a little bit when they're having a little bit too much stress, I think is fantastic. So I applaud you on the mission. So how do you get started with it? How did Brez come to life?

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (15:21)
Totally been, and to touch connect there, helping people just like feel better and do better. You know, like that's kind of the goal there. And I think that that's kind of like an innate human desire is that we all want to feel better and do better in this. Like, hopefully we can facilitate that with these products. So how it started is I actually, used to drink a lot of alcohol back when I was younger and I.

I joke around and say I went pro and retired early and realized that I was having a lot of fun with alcohol, but it wasn't really adding a lot of value to my life personally. And that's not to say that to some, doesn't just for me. It wasn't really adding a lot of value. But when I stopped drinking, I was kind of left with this whole of like, man, I got misconnected with my friends. I miss having something to do that, like, let me find some relief. And I enjoyed smoking cannabis or eating an edible. But, you when you smoke cannabis, it's kind of like traits and odor. Some people don't really like that odor. It's not always the, the most socially friendly thing to smoke around people.

you know smoking at end of the day no matter if it's a healthier product like cannabis or a more harmful product like tobacco like it's burnt plant matter going into your lungs that's not necessarily a generative thing inherently and Edibles, you know, they're tough because you take them and you wait 30 to 60 minutes and then hits Yeah, and maybe it lasts four to six hours, you know and so there was kind of this like missing hole and the space of like why can't there be a drink that's not Harmful or not very harmful. It has you know, it has generative effects rather than reductive effects

to it still provided that sense of relief and space and success and didn't have to be smoking or crossing my fingers and hoping that this ride on my edible is going to be okay. But allowed me to connect with people like alcohol did. And, and so that's where a lot of, you know, breeze came from is finding a way to craft a fast acting. you know, you feel breezed usually within five minutes of drinking it goes away in about an hour, hour and a half at most. And that's a very comparable effect curve as alcohol. And the way

we've dialed in with the natal emulsion and the unique ingredients like the lion's mane and the THC feels kind of like alcohol you get that happy kind of giddy feeling that typically is associated with the dopamine release of drinking alcohol from the lion's mane and you get the relaxing effect from the THC is comparable to the ethanol and alcohol is this this depressant so so you get a comparable experience while being very clear-headed you know I think a lot of people have had maybe a bad experience with an edible in the past or they got really too high one time and it really you

our whole, we joke around at Brez and we say that Brez is the antidote to the bad edible experience. It allows you to kind of tap in to the benefits of cannabis in a very clear and conscious and sessionable, subtle and stackable experience. so that's...

That's kind of where it came from. You know, and I think we all found both with the partners that I have and the broader team and the customers that now drink Brez on the regular, that I wasn't alone in that desire for an alternative and for a better way to consume cannabis. even, you know, what's kind of funny about Brez is Brez is also short for Breathe Easy, B-R-E-Z, Breathe Easy.

as an alternative to smoking a cannabis. So it's kind of an alternative to alcohol and an alternative way to kind of feel the way you want and an alternative way to consuming cannabis. That's a little bit, you know, healthier for you in the process.

Dan (18:36)
Well, all right, you've got me excited to try this. So if you're good, first one, yeah, and I'm a lightweight with CBD and THC, so we'll crack it. I got the little guy, I got the little one, the smaller version to start out with.

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (18:39)
You're gonna love it, dude. Is this your first one? The infused one?

All right. It. All right, cool. So so the

the THC one comes in at what we call a single and a double. This is two and a half million. This is five million. We'll both do the two and a half one. Now you'll find it's very subtle. It's not an overwhelming experience whatsoever. Like you'll feel it, but it's very chill, comparable to a beer or comparable to a cocktail. So I think you really like it. Cheers.

Dan (19:09)
Cheers, kind, sir.

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (19:13)
I'm curious to know the difference in taste.

Probably notice the bite on the back end of this one.

Dan (19:22)
Yeah, so it is, it's good. is.

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (19:29)
you

Dan (19:29)
a little bit,

there's a little bit more spice on the back end. It's hitting me more on the roof of my mouth a little bit. It is, I'm still picking up, I'm still picking up the same flavor profile. It's just a bit more, I'd say savory and less light, but still quite good.

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (19:36)
Mm.

Totally. Totally. So this one has.

So this is this one has a little bit more of like an herbaceous bite, I think, towards the back. And so it's kind of like that flavor for sweet for first taste. And then you get a little bit more of a bite on the back end. And that's primarily coming from the cannabinoids, actually. So the smaller you make the cannabinoids, the more you taste them. And cannabinoids are actually pretty bitter, no matter what form of cannabis you get them in. The smaller you make them, the more they absorb, the better that they are. So it's a little bit more of a bite. Now, what I like about that.

as a reminder, it's an adult beverage, just like if you're drinking a beer or a cocktail, there's a little bit of that bite that's associated to alcohol. And I think that that bite, it's kind of a feedback loop of like, hey, this is doing something, this is working, this is creating this this experience. And so that's, that's kind of kind of that I think you'll see as as you continue to drink, it grows on you and it gets it, you might not even say

And you probably find this as well. It's kind of a novel taste. It doesn't really taste like much other things in the market. I think it's comparable maybe to a Sprite or comparable to maybe a squirt like one of these like Libin, lime, elder, lemon, lime, soda type vibes. But it's still a little distinct even from that.

Dan (21:05)
Yeah, I would compare that sort of aftertaste almost to hops in hoppier beers. And I don't know the exact relationship, but I think the hop plant and the cannabis plant are somehow connected. They're both bitter agents, right? So it makes sense that there's this, to me, it resembles that in flavor profile.

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (21:14)
Mm. Yep.

That's right. That's right.

Isn't that funny

even on the alcohol side beer and especially beer but beer and cannabis are they actually come from the kind of a very very the cousins of the same plant essentially they're very they're very comparable hop and they look like if you look at a hops plant the hop nug looks just like a cannabis nug or flower you know and so yes there's a this kind of interesting relationship between the two but yeah it has a little bit of that kind of like herbaceousness I would say a little bit of a bite a little bitterness but

Yeah, I think kind of like, you we wanted it to taste like a cocktail. We wanted to have kind of like that little bit of like that that experience of like, this is my evening and my adult beverage. And you're probably starting to feel it already. It's pretty quick, very subtle, though. Like I told you earlier, it's not like this overwhelming experience. You're just like, cool. So if you're not yet, you'll feel it soon. But I'm glad you're going to try. think you're going like it.

Dan (22:19)
looking

yeah looking forward to the effects soon but yeah both of these very well done in terms of the taste the effervescence is really nice for both of these and there are slight differences in the flavor profile but it does it does seem like the flavor profile of the cannabis and mushroom version is where the cannabis and THC version is

I think the adult version of the Flow One is a nice way to say it, just in terms of the flavor profile. So, and the branding is excellent. I love what you've done with your website branding and the branding on the bottle. The fact that it's sort of short and doubles for Breathe Easy is really nice. Can you talk to me about how you launched and what your marketing strategies were around getting Brez to market? Sounds like that's just about a year and a half ago. So what was that launch plan like? And looking back,

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (22:45)
Yeah, I think so as well.

Dan (23:11)
what worked and what didn't.

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (23:14)
Yeah, I so it was one of the fastest growing DTC brands ever. It was one of the fastest growing. It is one of the fastest growing DTC brands ever. It's one of the fastest growing beverage brands ever. It's definitely the fastest growing DTC beverage brand ever. And so it's a lot of weird combinations. Now, I think a lot of people see Brez and it's like where did Brez come from? Like it just popped out of nowhere. But I've been in the e-commerce world for the last, I don't know, 15 years or so. Now, more than that, actually 17 years now, I started my first e-commerce brand when I was 13 on Big

cartel

in my space. So a lot of experience with e commerce. And then I have some really awesome partners to whether it's Travis impressive as I mentioned, but also Nick Shackelford, who is a major direct to consumer and e commerce player, as well as often clients, CEO of Lucyd also major direct to consumer and e commerce players, a lot of really smart DTC comp players on the team. And then, and then a deep knowledge of cannabis and personal affinity. So, you know, the goal when we initially started was like, we're just going to make a super simple

website

like a front single front page and a single product PDP and a simple checkout flow and make that really dialed in not over complicated just very clear very consistent and very organized

And then it was, okay, let's do UGC directly from ourselves. So user generated content directly from ourselves. Like we don't need to go hire a bunch of people. We don't need to go do a bunch of crazy shit. Like let's just record ourselves talking on the phone, talking about how cool this product is. What makes this different than a gummy kind of the similar kind of conversation that we're having now. I make that into content. What's cool about that is like, I know this product better than most anyone knows this product because it's, you know, the product that I found it in that our team is building. Same with my team. They know this product better than other people. And so we're able to communicate directly that message as well

to make iterations quickly that we can then test. we made some content like that, have this simple website. And we initially started with meta ads. Now the trouble with meta ads for a product like ours is most THCBD and products like this are very hard to advertise. There's a lot of restrictions around it due to the changing and evolving legal landscape. But my other company, Lucyd is the leader in advertising cannabis and hemp products. And so we have an agency that's been running cannabis and hemp products for the last six years, seven years.

And

so I have a lot of experience in that front end as well. So new kind of the strategies that would work effectively on that front. So we did that. And then I have a little bit of following on my socials. then Nick has a big following on his socials. And so we kind of connected his following and my following and our team's following and kind of did this hard organic push at the same time. And so that's how we kind of launched initially is push it through organic, simple assets, simple website, push it through meta ads.

Set up some email campaigns. We went to Benzinga me and Travis went to Benzinga cannabis, which is a cannabis conference in Miami and we passed out 200 cans like directly collected business cards put those into a clavio email Segment it's shot an email when we launched it and kind of connected the dots between the guys we handed out samples to and the initial email blast and And then we just kept rotating that in to more, you know, it's like, okay now we're gonna keep posting more on social and now we're gonna keep

pushing

more on ads. Now we're going to make optimizations to these things. And it was just a lot of iteration, but I would say like for any brand.

It's simpler than you think. lot of like, like the thing about, you know, it's like any complicated thing. It's like once you get through the complication of it, it's actually simple. And so I think Brez is a good example of kind of what it looks like to just kind of narrow it down to what is actually necessary to make it work. Something that I think a lot of people miss about Brez that I think super important is that the unit economics necessary for a direct to consumer brand to succeed.

in 2024 are very particular. You need to have an average order value above $60 and ideally as close to $120 as possible, sometimes more if you can, if you can make it happen. And the reason for that is like the direct to consumer e-commerce game has always, but is especially now a game of he who can pay the most will win. And now like when all things are equal, when everyone has equal access to creativity or, or, you know, these other aspects of of, of, of advertising or

AI democratizes the ability to do media buying. It's really going to come down to business model, unit economics and creativity and really around both offer and around creative and earlier. So my point that is that what's kind of interesting about Brez is Brez is rather expensive. That's one due to the ingredients that we put in, which are higher quality to make a better product. But it's two because that's necessary to make a direct consumer beverage brand work.

average is heavy to ship, you know, it's like it's not something you can just put in the mail and offer free shipping on it costs on average, like 1011 bucks to ship a package so you can get pretty expensive. So we there's a lot of like, nuance around creating a business model and a unit economic structure that would facilitate direct consumer growth as we got better and better in it and on it. And so that's what that's kind of how it started and kind of how we built it to be aerodynamic enough to scale quickly.

Dan (28:33)
Awesome, awesome. how are you, what are you doing with DTC versus retail?

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (28:41)
Great question. So DTC was kind of like what we knew best and how we kind of like know the game. we use a lot of that direct to consumer knowledge to kind of like initially scale up and get us in front of a lot of people quickly. And then we kind of went direct to retailer. There's solutions like air goods and I forget, but a few others that essentially allow you to kind of let smaller mom and pop or more boutique retailers find your products and order it online. And as well, people saw our ads and wanted to try our product directly. So they would

reach out and send, you know, submit a wholesale application and buy from us that way. So really initially it was a lot of direct retail. And even today, it's still kind of the same. I'd say probably 50 percent, maybe more of our retail sales are people ordering directly from our website or ordering from one of these solutions like air goods or one of these other ones. so we do that. And then on the other side of that is more of a traditional distribution model comparable to beer or alcohol primarily, but also kind of like the functional

or non-alcoholic drinks that you might find at a Whole Foods or public. So we work with distributors, whether that's...

Moller's course distributor or an anhyzer bush distributor or someone like this and we get into a relationship with those guys Where they will distribute our products across all the stores that they serve? They'll buy the product from us and they'll distribute it and sell it to them And and we expand that way, you know, yeah, what's great about average especially in retail is that there's existing distribution infrastructure that exists that has been in place for decades, know and that a lot of the whole world that we

we

exist in no matter what state you're in operates through that that infrastructure. So when you're at the restaurant and you want to order a drink, you know, it's there because someone got it there. And so and or whether it's your you know, whatever it might be the restaurant or the bar or the grocery store, it's it all wraps into these distribution networks that exist. So our kind of focus on retail is finding the right distributors who understand our product and better that have a lot of reach that we can kind of make creative partnerships with so that

we can expand our product through retail. You know, think DTC has allowed us to scale really fast. And I think that we'll have a large and successful DTC business long term. But I do think that ultimately large scale expansion, especially for a category like beverage, comes from retail distribution. You know, it's like, if you look at, if you look at some of these big beverage companies, whether it's Monster Energy, which is a $60 billion valuation, Red Bull, you know, these are massive companies and the majority of their sales come from, from retail. So our hope

is that we can continue to expand and drive market sharing awareness of our product through DTC, and then we can drive long-term expansion opportunities through retail and use that DTC arm as a vehicle to drive velocity in retail, while also creating a strong subscription relationship with our direct-to-consumer customers that have on repeat. Also some interesting things we're doing.

that you might get a kick out of is now Brez is available on platforms like GoPuff and Delivery Dudes. And so you can order Brez for instant delivery and a lot of different zip codes. We also launched a new platform, a new program with GoPuff called Powered by GoPuff.

that allows us if you're in one of a hundred and I think 30 zip codes now, you can actually buy Brez directly on our direct to consumer website, drinkbrez.com and have it delivered to your house within 30 minutes, which is insane. And what's crazy is it's cheaper to do that than it is to buy Brez and ship it to your house from our warehouse.

which is really interesting. like if you happen to be in a place we serve like Texas or Florida and these areas, then you can just go through our funnel just like normal. And at the end, it's like, do you want it in 30 minutes? And it's $8 to get in 30 minutes versus $10 to get it in five days. So that's kind of a cool. we're looking for all these like unique opportunities. And like, how can we both, you know, be where people usually shop, show them a product, we can introduce them to the category, and then give that instant delivery vehicle as well. So people can have these products.

want it. You know, it's like if it's on a weekend, it's a Friday night and you like people go to the store and grab a 30 pack of beer or 2012 pack of beer or whatever it is, it's like there needs to be kind of an option for this kind of like new age functional, THC infused alternatives way to both get that at your locations that you'd buy normally from but I think it's really cool if you could just get 30 minute delivery from a brand's website of that product as well.

Dan (33:10)
30 minutes, $8 bucks sounds like a fantastic deal, especially when you wanna have a nice chill Friday or Saturday night. One thing you mentioned was for D T C, you're using that to grow the breeze philosophy. Can you talk more about that?

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (33:16)
Totally.

Yeah, like, well, you know, it's like this is kind of a new product category. A lot of people aren't aware that there's legal varieties of THC if it comes from him. Like that's a big one. And, you know, this microdose cannabis and mushrooms in a can, you know, delivered to your door, comparable to alcohol, fast acting, short lasting. It's a new concept. And so a lot of what we do is like introduce and educate people about like, these products like ours exist now. Brez is actually the leader in the market. And it's a really great experience. It's going to give you that comparable experience to

alcohol and maybe a more generative way. that's kind of what, you know, it's like, so there's a lot of like education and market awareness activity that happens through DTC and that even gets paid for by the DTC business model. So it's like we're advertising and making people aware of this and they're converting. So we're able to keep doing that. And what's cool about that is like there's a lot of, you know, CPG industry understands this really well, but the alcohol industry doesn't understand it as well, which is that like direct to consumer sales and online advertising is one of the strongest forms

methods of driving velocity in store and retail but alcohol because it doesn't have a big D to C business it's kind of challenging to to ship spirits and beers it's a little easier with wine but it's still pretty challenging across the board there's not that much awareness to the fact that a direct consumer and online advertising can actually drive a lot of retail velocity but but we're seeing it work for Brez so for example we just got carried in several stores in total in total wine in Florida in 10 stores in total wine in Texas which is kind of cool a new bigger account

And we sent an email blast last week that was like, Hey, Brez is available in these total wines in Florida. We sent it to all the people on our customer lists who live in those areas. And within one week, we sold 20 cases across all those stores. And so there was kind of this like clear connection. It's like all this online marketing and advertising efforts is allowing us to activate our customers who yes, enjoy to get our product online. Sure. But really they want to get it in store as well. And so when we have those kinds of strategic partnerships, whether it's total wine or ABC or whoever it might be, we can actually

activate our customer base to move a lot of volume in retail. And that's kind of a cool thing. You know, it's like a lot of beverage brands and CPG brands rely on retail partnerships to bring new customers to their brand. And we're doing the opposite. We're trying we're actually bringing new customers to the retailer to buy our products. And they often pick up other products at the retailer at the same time. So that's kind of exciting, exciting innovation.

Dan (35:49)
That's super cool. Yeah, I'm very excited for where Omni Channel Marketing is gonna go. Shopify has been making a big play with that with their POS for brick and mortar retailers. But doing what you're doing where you've got a DTC brand and you're pushing brick and mortar sales through your distribution channels, I think is super smart. you know, growing a DTC brand is hard enough. Growing distribution via your retail channels is pretty difficult. Doing that with a

product category that is somewhat regulated, more regulated than others, I'm sure it has a whole nother depth of complexity and difficulty. Can you talk about what that has been like where you've got to navigate the regulations and any legal issues that would come with this product category? What's that been like?

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (36:28)
All right.

Absolutely. I love these questions. This is challenging. It's a short answer, whether it's marketing and advertising like on like on on Facebook and Instagram, some of these other shelves like it complicated and nuanced and how to run these ads and run them compliantly and run them sustainably. But like on the more macro, you know, in 2018, there was a farm bill passed that said cannabis sativa. So marijuana sativa, cannabis sativa below point three percent THC was constituted as hemp. And then from there, any

product that has below 0.3 % THC by weight is legal. The thing about beverage and other products is they're kind of heavy, so we can put two and a half milligrams of THC in here and it's a very small percentage. Same with these. And so that made products like Breedies legal. They're hemp-derived THC products or cannabis sativa below 0.3%. So that's what made it legal. I don't know if that was the original intention of how those laws were made, but it is how those laws were made. So that's where you saw the CBD boom, and that's where you saw

some of this kind of Delta A and Delta 9 stuff that kind of transpired from there. You some people get confused, they hear Delta 9, they think, that's kind of like fake weed or gas station weed. It's really not. Whether you smoke cannabis or you do netable from your dispensary, it's always Delta 9 tetrahydrocannabinol. It's just a question of was that source from a high THC cannabis plant or a low THC cannabis plant? Low THC cannabis sativa is hip. So so now there's been a whole new suite of regulations kind of being put into place and that I'm

working with organizations like the US Hemp Roundtable, the Hemp Beverage Alliance, the Cannabis Beverage Association, CABBA. There's a lot of these different organizations where we're pushing to create regulations to ensure that people have.

safe and clear access to these products. So things like age gating, have a age checker.net on our website, you choose this third party age verification through public records similar to a soft credit check, and then requires an ID to be uploaded if you if it doesn't verify your age from that. So things like that, that ensure that only adults are having access to these products, but also like clarity on the labels. So ensuring it's, you know, really clear that there's THC in products, putting warnings on these products as well that break that down and make very, very clear to the customers. You also probably see

We have these QR codes on each of the cans those scan and bring you to a lab test page where you'll see a third party full panel lab test for Pesticides and for heavy metals and it shows potency and just shows you that these are clean and safe products and so we're pushing for regulations that that Require those things across the boards that way only the good actors succeed in this category, you know whenever you're doing anything new like this, there's kind of like a

It's a new thing, you know, you have to create the laws around it, you have to facilitate that. so in the process, it's been challenging, you know, there's, there's some states that are fearful, and they'll ban it, or they'll put blocks in it to prevent you from selling it, or they'll make weird restrictions in it. There's other states like Minnesota, who make a full infrastructure of legality that every bar and restaurant you go to now there's THC drinks available at so there's a lot of moving pieces, and we're doing our best to promote

in honest, clear knowledge and educate consumers and fight for fair and safe regulations that allow people access to these safe and effective alternatives like our drinks while protecting.

people to ensure that only adults have access to these and kids don't have access to these drinks and etc. think things like this and so it's a little bit of a complicated game. There's also like other players, know, there's big cannabis companies and monopolies who have kind of monopolized the cannabis industry, which weren't really expecting that there'd be legal forms of THC drinks available at restaurants and bars and things like this now, which is kind of changing the game. And so they kind of want a piece of it or they don't want it to necessarily run away from them. So there's a little bit of that going on where they'll fight

you know against it or for depending on the state and their stance and there's big alcohol companies where maybe their sales are going down a little bit and they want to kind of own this category so they're trying to push it towards favor to them so it's kind of a funny little game that's happening right now as you have big cannabis MSOs multi-state operators monopolies you have big alcohol monopolies and distributors and whatnot and then you have this hemp category who's created these new products that are awesome and that people love and but so much so that both of those

kind of groups want to put it under their their warehouse. So I'm learning a lot about politics. I'm learning a lot about big, big industries. And, you know, I mean, it's it's it's big opportunity is the thing, you know, drinking is very close and dear to humanity. Like we drink all day every day, like whether it's water or coffee.

tea, beer, whatever people are drinking and they're doing it often. when you apply something that can kind of create a sense of relief for people too, that's a very powerful product. The alcohol industry alone in the US is worth $250 billion, which is just a massive industry. It makes it one of the biggest industries in the world. And then across the globe, I think it's 1.4 trillion or 1.4 trillion now. So it's very, very big industry and there hasn't been much disruption to it in quite a long time. So these THC beverage like Brez are kind

of you know first crack at disrupting an age-old business and I think there's a way to do that in a co-existing mutually beneficial way but there's a little bit of evolution required in everyone's part to get there.

Dan (42:06)
Well, Aaron, gotta say after sipping on this for a little bit, I think this episode is gonna change from Shopify Happy Hour to Shopify chill hour, because this has been nice and super, just super relaxed. It's a very nice, yeah, know, when you first have a beer or any sort of alcoholic beverage, you get pretty relaxed, you get more, I would say you get less inhibited with this. I'm not feeling any sort of disinhibition or anything, but I am pretty chill. So the relaxation.

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (42:14)
yeah.

Mm.

It's not like foggy either.

You know, it's not like I feel high. Yeah.

Dan (42:36)
Correct, yeah, still super clear headed. Right,

all right, but I imagine having half of a flow with this is probably maybe counteracting that a little bit too, but feeling very focused but also pretty chill. I think this is super nice stack if you're just, say you're stressed and just gotta have a little bit of relief like you're talking about but still wanna stay pretty locked in. These are super nice for that. Okay, so, yeah, thanks for sharing.

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (42:45)
Yeah.

It's just an alternative.

Dan (43:05)
Yeah, yeah, so thanks

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (43:06)
Of course.

Dan (43:06)
for sharing that journey. You know, I don't envy you having to deal with all those regulations, but sounds like you and the team have done a great job with it. So if you were starting over again, I know you're about 18 months in, but.

If you were starting over and wanted to do another launch and grow your business, knowing what you do now, if you knew it then, what would you do differently than what you did? And keeping in mind, let's say you had to start over with shoestring budget, just hyper efficient marketing strategies. And this would really be designed for advice for anybody listening who's looking to launch a Shopify business or grow an early stage Shopify business, whether it's in the beverage industry or something else.

What would you recommend as the most effective and most efficient marketing strategies to grow an early stage D T C brand?

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (43:59)
Good question. You know, I think it's a lot simpler than people think. I think that the most confusing part to starting a new brand in e-commerce is that you get this overwhelming feeling that there's just so much to do and I gotta do this email thing, I gotta have this thing over here selling this after this post-purchase, sub-sale and cross-sale and there's all this nuance and nonsense and all that kind of does matter as you build out your brand ultimately.

But really going zero to one, you can do most all of that with just some solid creative that you can shoot on your phone of you talking about your product or your friends talking about your product or a family talking about product or whatever. And a simple website that's optimized for direct to consumer conversions. There's a lot of great brands that exist that you can create an MVP and minimum viable product to keep it simple, stupid, kiss methodology, like simple variation of their DTC site that facilitates information, addresses the value points, addresses the

Concerns people might have you know, for example with breeze. It's like this is a Cannabis and mushrooms in it and a can but it's not gonna be overwhelming. So people's you know, I'll push back all I don't know about THC It's not gonna be overwhelming. It's subtle. It's fast-acting you're gonna feel in five minutes. It's gonna go away to an hour It's very clear. It's very conscious, you know, tastes great. It doesn't taste like grassy weedy yucky taste refreshing You know, it's a it's a light experience that you stack variable the alcohol you would drink it anytime you drink it so I'm kind of both

and depositioning in that process. And you don't have to get too marketing about it. You just kind of think about people and humans. So clear, simple website, clear, simple creatives, just like we're talking about here. I always recommend, like, Meta is the ultimate platform right now. Like it has been for a while. I don't think that that's changed. I don't think that's changing anytime soon. I would highly advise people to advertise on Meta right away, get their pixel set up, start running those ads.

And, you know, like dream big, think small. like, you know, I want to change the world. I would like to see breeze as the leading functional beverage in the world. And I think we're on the path to do that. But every day we do what's the according thing to do today, which is a lot smaller than that grand vision. So so I do a lot of that. And yeah, just just keep it super simple. Like, don't worry about all these crazy nonsense like.

Run simple advantage shopping plus campaigns and meta that are AI optimized. Just launch the creative, let it do the work. Don't worry about the targeting. Just do broad targeting. U.S. you know, whatever your age 18 plus for us is 21 plus, but for you it might be 18.

You know, set those things up and just let it do its thing. Try to keep it super simple. Post on social media while you're doing it. Tell people what you're up to. Share the story. You know, it's interesting and it's exciting. And, you know, we share a lot of what we do on social and that's both a promotion of the brand, personal brands, but it's also an opportunity to involve the community and the story of building our brand and kind of see the things that we don't see that might help grow it faster. Things like this, you know, it's like.

I think people overcomplicate this stuff way too much and that's probably due to the tech side of it, but like utilize the tech to make a simpler experience for your consumers and you know, get a lot of feedback like listen, look at your reviews. What are people saying about it? What are people saying about when they introduce the product like address those pain points so that way you can remove the friction of conversion and retention. Also like start with subscription always like find a way to integrate subscription to your business. Be mindful of your internet economics. Make sure that you have a high enough AOV optimized for a

long lifetime value, to both a great product or subscription, things like this. So it's narrowing down on those things that really matter and optimizing those and leaning in.

Dan (47:37)
I love it, simplicity plus strong business metrics. Those are gonna be a powerful combination. So shifting gears a little bit, tell me about your favorite shopping experience online or offline.

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (47:51)
Great question. I love going to an Apple store.

both online and offline. I think that like it's exciting, you know, it's like I like I want to like I think that the experience of people's products starts, with the first ad with the website with With all of it, you know, it's like I want to have like an exciting experience from the moment I enter the brand's universe and so when it's an apple store, know, you walk into this white like portal like of lights and chrome and in natural woods and premier products and it feels so sophisticated and interesting and exciting

and magical, would say, know, and similar to their website. So I really like that. I really like also kind of like just any form of like experiential design in retail and in store. So in a branding with packages is like, you know, I optimize for novelty.

And I think other people should as well. people you often hear about surprise and delight, you know, surprise and delight. It's like try to look for opportunities to surprise and delight your customers or creates a higher affinity towards yourself or the brand or you know, it's just a nice loving thing to do towards people. And so so I'm always looking for novel ways to communicate the brand like this packaging is kind of different.

You know, it's like it's it's it's familiar enough, but it's also kind of fun and exciting and unique and different. The effect profiles unique and different. Like it creates that that unique experience. And so I'm always looking for creating that sensation of novelty, which I think people really appreciate, especially in our modern age, where there's so much out there. There's so much of the same. It's like when you can kind of craft something net new, that's a valuable thing to do in humanity alone. And then you can follow that up with a really great product experience.

Dan (49:36)
Fantastic. I love the Apple Store reference. We'll often reference that with clients when we're doing web design.

you know, one of the worst things for conversion rate is having a cluttered website. And we'll say, okay, so if you walk into an Apple store, or if you walk into a dollar store, what's the difference, right? And Apple store is a highly curated collection experience. There's a consolidated product set, lots of white space, easy to walk around, easy to look from far away and find what you're searching for. Versus the dollar store where things are just jammed in bins, disorganized, there's clutter everywhere.

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (49:55)
Mm.

Totally.

Dan (50:11)
And from a web experience standpoint, it can crush conversion rates if your website is super cluttered. So the Apple Store is definitely a great example for a favorite shopping experience. So that is a good one to have. Okay, so what is one thing in life that you do better than most people just naturally, and how do you do it?

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (50:27)
Totally.

Mm.

Geez, I think I connect with people pretty well. I can kind of like, I like my I just can like, I think I understand myself pretty well, for the most part. And I and I think I understand other people pretty well, because I understand myself not so much that like.

We're all the same, but there's parts of us that are all the same, that there's similar desires and fears. There's similar, you know, like, pieces of humanity that are, that are consistent. And so I think, I think it's because my dad, he was really good at sales. He was also an ATF agent. So alcohol, tobacco and firearms. So he was a federal agent. He did a lot of like interrogations and people and kind of like just knowing people. And so I think I learned at a young age, how to connect with people, how to sell things. And, and, and I think through a lot of like personal, expansion.

And in work, kind of learned about myself a lot better. And I think in that process, I'm able to use those two things kind of in a very intuitive way to understand how like a new product might fit in the market and how people might relate and what they're kind of looking for and how to connect those dots. So a lot of that is kind of very natural to me. And I think that that gives us a competitive advantage. I think that's available to everyone. I just think it's some of people have a little bit more of an affinity towards it. But I think that's what gives me I think I might do that.

not better than other people do it at times and I think that's what allows us to kind of

We also play to our strengths, know, like beverage is a retail game and we're doing it in direct to consumer That's like why it's like because we're gonna direct to consumer, you know, it's like that's that's kind of so we're applying that and I think that that works with everyone and like this is a great question because it's like the answer the question is like what is that to Whoever you are and whatever you're doing, you know, it's like like if you can be mindful of that and not just try to play other people's games but play your game play, you know what like

Whatever you're trying to do, do it in a way that leans on your skill sets and your talents. Like you can get much stronger returns doing that than trying to play someone else's game who is very like there's a lot of really strong retail players out there and like Brez is getting stronger and stronger in retail now and we're going to be a real becoming a real powerhouse in that department. But it came from playing to our strengths initially so we could get to that point. And that's what I often recommend to people is identify like where is that unique opportunity for you?

whether it's events or DTC or retailer creativity or branding or social media or whatever and do that. But yeah, for me, think it's a lot of marketing and direct to consumer sales experience, some branding experience like creativity and design around that. And a lot of just intuit intuitiveness that allows me to understand myself and the world around me and how a new product might fit into the space like this.

Dan (53:23)
Fantastic. All right, we just have a couple minutes left, so let's move to the speed round. each answer should be about 30 seconds or less. So kind of first thing that comes to mind. So what is one of your most recommended books?

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (53:35)
Gosh Zero to One by Peter Thiel like amazing book just like I Going zero to one is a very important concept and being able to do that for new categories can create some of the biggest opportunities in the planet So I love that book

Dan (53:53)
What's an under the radar product or brand you've used and like, but most people don't know about?

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (53:59)
Hmm, that's a good question. Okay, I'm gonna show you one. This is a Owyn Protein really cool product You might be aware of them, but it's kind of a non dairy all-natural Protein they say only what you need. That's what the own comes from but I love this product It's like a very natural protein very clean. That's a great one

This one people are super aware of, but I'm an air pod, a holic. use these things constantly for everything. I love them. I even just like walk around and turn them on. So that way it's a little quieter so I can think more clearly.

And okay, I got a really good one. I use an ice bath in a sauna every day, like religiously. And a lot of people know about that as well. But, you know, like finding those little things that can help you kind of like feel better and be better. Like that's what allows me to do my best work. And so hitting the ice bath and hitting the sauna in the morning or in the evening kind of like really set me up for success.

Dan (54:51)
Any favorite brand for the ice bath or sauna? Are you doing those at home or out of that gym?

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (54:54)
I use Brass Monkey.

For mine, which is a European brand. I love it, except it's been very challenging with US electricity. And so it's kind of like it's broken a few times. Another one's Blue Cube is a really popular one for the ice bath for the sauna. I have an Almost Heaven sauna. Although my favorite sauna are Nomad saunas. They're a lot more expensive, but they're credible, incredible saunas. I have a friend that runs that company and yeah, they're pricey, but they're they're awesome. Usually the barrel saunas to like the kind of circular cylinder longer ones like that.

Kind of cool.

Dan (55:28)
Nice. Name one tip you use to stay motivated.

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (55:32)
Mmm.

I use sustain motivated.

For me, often like stress is the inhibitor of motivation for me. Like if I get like too overwhelmed with whatever I'm doing. So I do a lot of Wim Hof breathing. So just like some power breathing. And I hold my breath for a while and you can find it Wim Hof method. And I trained with him in Poland and Spain a couple of times and I learned a lot. And I find just like being able to activate like when I get done with this call, I'm going to go do a breathing exercise before my next call. And like that just kind of like helps me reset and re-center and that helps me stay motivated and clear. I also

Like I do a lot of prioritization like what's important today? What's important now and they kind of like I'm to narrow down on that and Like the ultimate tip for motivation and like productivity is like get some sleep, you know, like eight hours sleep like prioritize it and make it fit it in like go to the gym, you know, it's like all that shit like people They they talk about a lot and everyone's yeah. Yeah, but what like what?

What nootropic am I going to get that's actually going to help me? It's like you can do those things and they will help you but nothing is really going to compete with the idea of just getting good sleep and getting a good workout and getting the body moving, you know, they say movement is magic. And so I'm a big believer in that. And I don't always implement it as well as I'd like to, but I work to do it better and better every day.

Dan (56:59)
So before we wrap up, I gotta hear about the Wim Hof experience. What was that like training with them?

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (57:03)
crazy

10 of us in the in the water and you know, it's what's what's wild as you tap into these very deep parts of yourself You know it like at some level you're the one telling yourself that you're cold So it's like if you can kind of like consciously tap into that subconscious they call it the interior septive system So that part of you that's reacting and feeling and I kind of like be mindful of it You can kind of like you can kind of learn a lot about yourself and you know one of my favorite quotes that I learned from there is like it's a

If you go to the discomfort when there is none, when there is discomfort, there will be none. And that was really powerful to me. it's like when you, when you learn to do these ice bathing and these kinds of techniques that are challenging, but like rewarding you, you, you kind of prepare yourself so that way when you do chase challenging things in the future, rather than react like, this is too hard. And I don't want to do this. Like you have that clear and conscious ability to say, yeah, maybe I don't want to do this, but I'm going to do it anyway. And it's going to be a good outcome in the end. And you strengthen that muscle just like you do when you go to the

When you strengthen that muscle of discipline through activities like ice water therapy or contrast therapy, you can get a very strong mentality and willpower that will allow you to do more than most do.

Dan (58:48)
If anybody hasn't heard of Wim Hof or wants to learn more, there's a really good book, What Doesn't Kill Us by Scott Carney. And it focuses a lot on Wim Hof. And there's some really cool stories in there. yeah, during the pandemic, my wife and I were doing a lot of Wim Hof breathing through the app. And we still kind of laugh because he's got such a cool accent. And while you're doing your breath hold, you're like two minutes in, he's like, you're doing fantastic. We're like, yes. Thank you, Wim. Thank you. Awesome.

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (59:06)
That's awesome.

It's awesome dude, and he's

he's just like that in person, you know, and it's even more intense in person We'll have to do it. He does them every once in a while It's like yeah, he does a couple in the winter and a couple in the summer So maybe we can sign up and do one together

Dan (59:27)
Nice, that'd be amazing. I would love that. Fantastic. Awesome. So Aaron, where can people connect with you to learn more?

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (59:33)
Absolutely. You can find me on social. It should be somewhere over here at Aaron J. Nosbisch. And then you can also check out Brez at drinkbrez or drinkbrez.com. Brez is B-R-E-Z. Drinkbrez.com. yeah, I'm getting a lot of messages these days, but I try my best to like help everyone. You know, we're kind of building in the public, just sharing what's happening in real time and being open as transparent as we can about it. I know what it's like to be a direct consumer operator and try to build a company and figure out the stuff out. And so we're trying to be as clear and open and honest and

as possible. thanks for having me on show, Dan. It's been a lot of fun. I look forward. We should do another one maybe a year out and kind of see how things have changed.

Dan (1:00:12)
Yeah, that would be fantastic. I would love to hear more about your journey along the way. So yeah, been super fun. Thank you very much for the beverages and for cracking these together. That's been great. And thank you much for bringing Brez to market and with your mission with that, you know, some DTC founders, they're just like, we want to sell more stuff, but you've got a really cool mission to help a lot of people. And also for sharing your expertise and insights with our audience and for joining us on the Shopify chill hour for this episode.

Thanks much,

@AaronJNosbisch / @DrinkBREZ (1:00:43)
Yeah, man, absolutely. See you guys.