Greenwood Whiskey

Greenwood Whiskey didn’t start as a business plan. It started as a question four friends kept coming back to: What would it look like to build something we were proud to put our names on? Something rooted in quality, purpose, and ownership. Something that honored where we come from while creating opportunity for others.

The Greenwood District represents that idea. It stands for resilience, excellence, and community-led success. Its legacy isn’t distant to us – it’s personal. It reminds us that greatness can be built when people come together with intention, discipline, and belief in one another.

#realtalk #sipandconverse #positivemindset #personalgrowth

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:15

What's up? What's up? Guess what time it is again? It is now time for another episode of Sip and Converse. Before we get started, make sure you like, share, subscribe, tell a friend, and tell a friend. As you look on the stage right now on this camera, you might see two other people you've never seen before. That is our guess. And I'm happy to some of my homeboys over here to come and talk about, you know, the title is Sip and Converse. So we're going to be talking about something that you can actually sip. And as you sip, you'll roll right into that conversation. So I'm not going to steal that thunder, but I want to introduce you guys from a nice, delicious grown folks beverage called Greenwood Whiskey. But let's give a thunderous round of virtual applause to none other than KG and Stu for Greenwood Whiskey.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Guys, what's going on? What's going on? Chilling, chilling. What y'all been up to? Man, you know, moving whiskey trying to change the world one glass at a time. One glass at a time. That's it.

SPEAKER_04 1:12

Selling this black history. Oh, black. Oh, it is black history, month too.

SPEAKER_05 1:17

You know, that was perfect timing. Have y'all on to knock out the last recording of the month for the Black History Month. Yeah. So tell me about uh Greenwood, man. Tell me first, tell me about how long we've been knowing each other.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

Man, we about strong 2530, I swear. I'm aging us. I'm aging us over here now, man. We about 30. You know, we don't crack. We don't crack. So we don't talk about eight. We're about at least 30.

SPEAKER_05 1:40

Yeah. Because you can think about it. We started knowing each other middle school. Yeah. Middle school through high school. Middle school through high school. Went to the same college, Eagles fly high. Yeah, absolutely. You know, we always gotta represent them.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

G S U.

SPEAKER_05 1:52

The real GSU. The real GSU. We gotta specify.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

You gotta specify.

SPEAKER_05 1:56

Because you know, you say GSU in Atlanta people are gonna claim Georgia State. We're talking about the real world. South Georgia, you already know. South Bullock County. Right, right. But no, I'm glad y'all on here and we're talking about black history, my hair. Um first question I want to kick off with what is what is what is Greenwood? What can't how did it come about?

SPEAKER_02 2:15

Yeah, so Greenwood came about from a space of I feel necessity, right? Like, like you talked about our history, us being in a in a in Atlanta, an Atlanta Metro. One of the things that that we realized, um, the beautiful thing about Atlanta is that you could literally wake up, get out the bed, and bump into a black business owner, right? Right, right. Um, and sometimes it's taken for granted, but like we looked at it like, wow, like it's black businesses everywhere, um, especially in the food and restaurant space. Like we've seen like black-owned restaurants, black management, black waist staff, black bartenders. But when we look behind the bar, we didn't have that same level of representation, right?

SPEAKER_03 2:56

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

And then a black community who spends four billion dollars a year on alcohol, just then two percent suppliers.

SPEAKER_03 3:03

How much? Four billion. No, black folks.

SPEAKER_02 3:09

The black community spends four billion dollars a year on alcohol, just the black community alone, right? Wow. And we're less than two percent of the suppliers. Wow. So for us, it was like something about that is on shit right now. The math, nah, math, no. No, they math for eight math. Uh-uh. And we should we should play a part in this. So it was one from the space of hey, there's an opportunity here to speak to an audience that hasn't been talked to in an authentic way without an authentic story. So for us, it was like, all right, how can we fill this gap when we're gonna do it through through whiskey? But more importantly, we want to make something that's impactful, something that's meaningful. And that's why we named it Greenwood. Right, got it. So we named it Greenwood because we were inspired by the Greenwood district in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Yep, which in the early 1900s was home to Black Wall Street. So, like that resilience, the community, um, the economics of Black Wall Street inspired us to say, hey, we can do this in at the time, what, 2020? No, we can't, we can't, no, we can do this. So um, for us, we wanted to share that story of inspiration and encouragement. Hopefully, you know, and our story will motivate others to do whatever that they want to do, you know, it not necessarily just spirits, but it could be in whatever you're into, right? And for those, let me elaborate on Black Wall Street, because I sometimes I take it for granted, right?

SPEAKER_05 4:31

Right, because a lot of people don't know.

SPEAKER_02 4:33

Yeah. So like Black Wall Street in in 1906 was home to the largest concentration of black-owned businesses in the entire United States. You know, within a 40-acre plot, you had roughly 600 different businesses, anything from movie theaters, hotels, uh pharmacies, attorney's office. It was a it was a self-um-contained community, right? And some of the toughest times, we ain't had civil rights, we ain't had no right ill but rights, but still, we're in a space where we had community and we had each other. And that black dollar circulated 36 times in that community before it left.

SPEAKER_03 5:09

36. 36 times. How much it circulates now?

SPEAKER_02 5:13

Yeah, you know, it black dollars say what 30 seconds in the community.

SPEAKER_05 5:16

If that, if it really don't circulate, stuff. What you what are you gonna say with that? What one time, maybe? One, yeah, yeah, and that one time is when it comes in.

SPEAKER_02 5:24

Yeah, yeah, does it exactly? Does it so like to see that, like we were inspired by that and then the sense of ownership, and we wanted to celebrate that, right? Like we understand other things happened with with Black Wall Street and Tulsa, like it was later burned down in 1921. Um, but for us, we wanted to celebrate the community that that built it, right? So that's what it's about. So when you when you grab a bottle of green, what it's more than just the whiskey, yes, but also a celebration of history, celebration of culture. So when Stu talk about black history, yeah, that's what it is.

SPEAKER_05 5:54

So what what made y'all because you pretty much answer that first question I was gonna ask was like, what problems were you trying to solve?

SPEAKER_02 6:00

Yeah, it was I think it was a problem of representation, yeah, right? Yeah, that's of the millions that I think whatever billion, whatever as a community, wherever we spend our dollars, I think we should have a level of representation there in there, right? Because we have to be more than just consumers. We are more than consumers, we're creators at the end of the day. So for us, that was that was part of uh the challenge that we wanted to solve. We wanted to, in essence, provide some diversity in the in the space that's been around for hundreds of years, right? But yet we haven't been represented. So between y'all two, why a whiskey?

SPEAKER_05 6:35

Because you know, you you see people, you you look at the trending things, everybody, you know, tequila went to the top. Yeah, and then, you know, back in the day when we were in college, it was what Gray Goose? Grey Goose, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:47

And then it was uh, you know, uh Hennessey Paul Mason and uh Urkin jerking jerk bring back memories on Erkin jerk.

SPEAKER_05 6:57

Bring back headaches, right? So why why did y'all go whiskey route and not a not a cognac or a or a tequila route?

SPEAKER_04 7:06

I mean, so pretty much for us, man, I think a lot of it was just our age at this point. Um we're a lot more subtle, a lot more chill than we were back then. I always use the term as far as like when I'm out, I always be like, we're gonna bring back and make whiskey cool again. Right. Um a lot of us are at the point where we smoke cigars, we just want to relax, and whiskey and burning are the best things to pair with a cigar. So that was like one of the plan, one of the main focuses for us. And then also just the fact that, like you said, we didn't want to jump on the wave with everybody else. We didn't want to jump on that tequila wave. We wanted to show everybody, okay, we are gonna make whiskey cool again. And that's what we've been doing. So no more of that drink till you faint. Yeah, we ain't doing that. Yeah, we ain't doing that. No more drink till you faint. No, drink responsibly.

SPEAKER_05 7:59

What a cat would drink responsibly. So uh, you know, with the with you guys going down the history of it, uh, you know, what was what's what's important to you, you know, is the legacy, the ownership, because you did say, you know, being having a piece of the pie. Since we we tend to that number is still a style, I'm still stuck on that. I I knew our people spend money on beverages. I didn't know to the tune of four billion, right? Yeah, for you. So when you were doing your research on on getting into this industry, what was your first reaction when you saw that that number? Did you have a clue?

SPEAKER_02 8:34

Did you so I had a clue, but it was bigger than I was like, you it was bigger than what I thought. Right. I was like, what? Like I just I was surprised that you know that type of that type of dollar was being spent. And and you seen, and I guess like in certain spaces you've seen it, right? Because you've seen like certain brands that were, I guess, I don't know, like black adjacent, not black owned, but had black representation. Right. Black, what do we call it? Like they had uh uh branding deals and so forth. So we seen some of that, and you figure like, all right, that that that helped grow it, but we wasn't expecting it to be the size that it was. And so from that, it was like, yo, we really, it kind of just really initiated that fire. Like we really need to do something, do something to kind of um to diversify like this industry, you know, and not only as we got into it, we see not only from ownership, but actual employment throughout the industry is still the jobs created, yeah, the jobs created, and that's something that you know we were we were intentional about as well as both of us to create some jobs.

SPEAKER_05 9:35

And speaking of the industry, you know, like we we're kind of hitting on it, it is a crowded industry. Extremely so how did you guys in Greenwood come about being not predominant yet because you're gonna get there, right? But being in this crowded industry, how do you stand out to where it's Greenwood is something people feel and not just another drink? Yeah how do you separate yourself?

SPEAKER_02 10:02

And I think, and that's a good question, right? Because, like you said, this is one of the most competitive industries like that you could be in. Man, we kind of took it for granted when we started it, but literally, like you could go into a liquor store now and you will see no a thousand of our competitors on the shelf with us, right beside you, right beside us, yeah. And and honestly, they've been around for a hundred, they had a hundred-year head start on us, and they got a budget that's that's a lot bigger than what we have as far as you know, marketing and promotion. So, what we wanted to do to stand out and differentiate ourselves was one, we have an authentic story, like we want to highlight history, true. And I think the consumer nowadays, like they they want to hear a story, they want to have a story, something that's relatable to them, and not just a big like corporate machine. Like, we're a bunch of regular dudes who was like, yo, we're gonna go do this, right?

SPEAKER_05 10:48

And this is I'm glad you mentioned that because you guys, like you said, you're a bunch of regular dudes, and then you think about some of the other people have brand uh faces, faces, yeah, and you think about who they are, and you know, we ain't drop, we ain't giving no shine on nobody right now. We ain't getting we ain't gonna mention no other names because we want y'all to go by Greenwood, right? Um, but we saw how they got in the game, yeah. Yeah, and but with the regular dudes, so you said one thing was realizing we own the chef next to people got a hundred hundred-year head start. Yeah, two, you got an authentic story about it.

SPEAKER_02 11:22

What else? And we and we recognize our audience who our consumer is, and we want to overserve our our consumer. Like, who to me, there's no there aren't brands that talk to our our consumer, us right in an authentic manner, right? It's it's a lot of it seems like feels like a lot of stereotypical things and things of that nature, like yo, where like nah, we can have a conversation because we are our consumer. So I think that level of authenticity, you know, separates us and we got a quality product too, right? Yeah, so that's like that. It is delicious, right? It is delicious. So and a piece of it too, when we talk about the story, and I didn't mention earlier, like it's full circle. So we were inspired by those that came before us, and like we talked about, hopefully inspire those that come after us. But more than an inspiration, where a portion of our proceeds go towards nonprofit organizations that reinvest in underserved communities. Right. Gotcha. You know, so that's part of a whole part of what we do, and I think that's part of the differentiation.

SPEAKER_04 12:18

And then uh uh one of the things that that we always say that we do that's keeps us that stands out from the bigger brands. Anybody can have an event if we feel like it fits our demographic, one of us gonna show up. Might not be all of us, but one of us gonna show up, one of us gonna be there, one of us gonna be able to uh work the room, talk to everybody so they can actually have that feel. Like you said, if you got somebody famous, they're not coming to uh South Fulton to J.R. Cricket. They're not doing where we're gonna be in there, we're gonna be at anything on Camp Creek. We're gonna be at anything long as it makes sense for us and it makes sense for who we're doing the business with, one of us will be in there talking. We're not just gonna send somebody, not just gonna send a representation, we're gonna be in there talking, building community and trying to figure out what the next event we're gonna do.

SPEAKER_05 13:10

So you said uh one of y'all I got two of y'all here on the show. Yeah, how many uh heads that come together to to work together to build Greenwood? How many of y'all because I know we was in we were in college together and we talked about doing various business deals, yeah, but we never got to the point where we we could all chap in chap in on the same thing. So how did y'all all come together?

SPEAKER_02 13:35

So we are the Wu-Tang planner with like yo, we all like we are deep. I'm telling you, and you'll never you it's rare you get all of us in the same room.

SPEAKER_05 13:45

So let me ask you say Wu Tang, so are you Wu Tang or are you are you no limit deep?

SPEAKER_04 13:50

Are you Wu-Tang deep? We might not be quite no limit deep. Um but yeah, Wu Tang, we'll take it more.

SPEAKER_02 14:00

We'll take the number. It's a little bit more, yeah. Yeah. Nah, it's like so had the idea, and and who better to do do business with than people who are around me, who I've known for years, who we had like the vision, like all of us have known each other for minimum, you know, we week 30 years in, right? Minimum, the our other partners 10 year 10 plus years. So it was one of those things where it made sense that everybody had a different strength, right? Yeah, so it's like everybody has something that they're good at. And for us to come together, I know that great things happen from community. True. Right? Like there's no this lone wolf, I'm gonna go out here and do it on my own type of deal. I that's not something that I I I you know subscribe to that concept. So I know it community takes community to make things work, and we can go a whole lot further together. So that was the that was the mindset, and everybody came in with the same goal and the same mission. Like, look, this is what we want to do, and figure out how which part that each person could play. Sue, you got anything out of that?

SPEAKER_04 14:58

Yeah, pretty much what he said, like, like that was a cool thing about it. Everybody had kind of similar to what you said earlier, everybody had done other things, um being an entrepreneur, and then we finally had something that we all could come together as. So, like you said, all of us have different strengths. Some people have been doing operations, I have been doing marketing and social media stuff. Everybody just had different strengths. So when we all got together, like you said, Wu Tang, if you want to go back super old, like a Voltron type situation, we all come together as one. Oh, you're the new agency. So I'm just saying, but uh yeah, like it's it's been it's been a great thing. Um, and it's also great to see it continue to grow. Um when we have new people that come aboard and new people that maybe not have the same say-so that we all have, but just having, like he said earlier, being able to provide opportunity for others in our community. So it's been great.

SPEAKER_05 16:01

And you know, we get ready to wrap up soon, but I got a question for so what do you when y'all, when people see the label, what do you want them to think about or to know about y'all when they see the Greenwood label?

SPEAKER_04 16:14

I mean, for me, like I said, I'm big on just the black history aspect of it. Um, when you see Greenwood, depending on your age, you should already know Tulsa. That's what you should think. But of course, we've come across a lot of other black communities of different states, the different Greenwoods and Mississippi, South Carolina, but it's always in a black area. So when they see it, that's the first thing they ask. Oh, are y'all from Mississippi? Are y'all from South Carolina, y'all from North Carolina, y'all from Tulsa? And when we say we from Atlanta, then it gives a like you like like KG was saying earlier, Atlanta just being a home of so many entrepreneurs and so many black entrepreneurs, it gives it such more credibility, but it also lets them know where the roots are from. So I just think just that black history aspect of it. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_05 17:03

You get you anything with that one?

SPEAKER_02 17:05

Yeah, I mean, I want them to see quality. I want them to see excellence, I want them to see culture, right? And and and community. I want like that's all those things that he said, all that's what our brand, our brand stands for.

SPEAKER_05 17:17

Now, what have building this brand, what has it taught you guys the most? What's been your most aha moment in building this brand? Besides knowing that you own the chef with people who got a hundred year head start. What's been some other aha moments like?

SPEAKER_02 17:32

Oh wow. Patience. Definitely patience, definitely patience, right? Like I think and not only in business, but I think in life, I think things take a little bit longer than expected, because oftentimes it's not on our time anyway. It's on, you know, it's on God's time. But so things take a little bit longer than expected. So, and just being patient. So I think like what like what I developed and what we developed is like like I'm extremely patient with results, but impatient with activity, if that makes sense. Yeah, oh yeah. Right. Okay. So like we gotta, we gotta be active, we gotta trust the process and the results to take care of themselves. So that's something that really fine, I really fine-tuned through this journey of entrepreneurship.

SPEAKER_04 18:18

Yeah. I mean, ah moment. I mean, similar to what he said, I think for me, it's more so this has taught me to understand that everybody that look like us is not always gonna want the best for you. Um so that's like been a big thing for me. But of course, like he said, we all been learning patience. So sometimes when you think that you have a situation where it would be a great partnership, it might not work initially, but if you had that patience, they'll circle back at some point. So, but that was like my aha moment. Like, oh, okay, I get it.

SPEAKER_05 19:02

And you know, wrapping this up with with uh, let me ask you this. With people that's listening to you guys now and hear that you've gone and started this brand, what should a person's mindset be if they want to do something, not say in the spirit world, but just entrepreneurship-wise, period. What's one thing that you we know it's multiple because we all we all are entrepreneurs of it, so we know what it takes. But what should a person's mindset be before they take on any endeavor?

SPEAKER_02 19:31

So for me, I'm a listen, get started. I'm a fan of action. Like get started, like you can plan. Like, I think I read somewhere that it was, it was, I love the quote. It was like literally like a hundred hours of planning isn't worth like one hour of action, right? So it's like for me, just go get started. Whatever it is, whatever it is you think you do, go get started. And even if you even if it doesn't work, you've learned something. Like, I don't believe in failure. We don't fail at nothing. Fail is first attempt at learning. Yep. Right? So like get off my noob, go get go get started, man. That's my thing. Go get started, and then you're gonna learn along the way through doing, right? And then you just gotta pivot and make adjustments.

SPEAKER_04 20:10

What about you, Stu? I mean, like he said, just be active. Like, just jump out there. Like a lot of times, like I said, all three of us have been here. We we've been talking about doing business since we were at Georgia Southern. So, and a lot of them businesses didn't start because we didn't take action. You know what I'm saying? So, so it's it's it's like he said, just really just don't overthink it. If you know that's what you want to do, you're passionate about it, just go ahead and do it.

SPEAKER_05 20:42

And I know uh speaking of whiskey, we got a couple of bottles here. What's on y'all's product line? As the people, you know, as people are looking on the product line.

SPEAKER_04 20:52

We got two of the three here with us. So over here with me, I have the Greenwood Celebration. This is our caramel flavor whiskey. Um, this one is 70 proof. This is probably our hottest seller right now. It's been it's been jumping when we first just a little backstory. When we first started this, this was probably the hardest out of the three to get some kind of consensus within the team because once again, we didn't want to ride no waves. Um, so it was like, oh, caramel flavored whiskey. No, we want to stick. But once it actually, as KG would say, once it actually hit the lips of the consumers, it's just been going up. Like we can't keep this in stock. Um, so it's been great to actually have this third one. Um, and just being able to have three diverse different products now. So that's been great. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

And at the opposite end of the spectrum, we have our bourbon, right? This is our weeded bourbon 1906, paying homage to the year that that they started. At uh Greenwood District and Black Wall Street. But this bourbon is 100-proof. So this is gonna, it's some kick on this one. It's aged uh seven years in charred American oak barrels. Okay. Yep. So this one is perfect if you like the for your whiskey drinker.

SPEAKER_06 22:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:17

Or maybe you likes to enjoy a cigar, you could drink this neat. You could put it on a rock. If you want to put it in a cocktail, it goes great in the old-fashioned manhattan. It's one of my favorites, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 22:30

Uh yeah, when I whenever I do step out, it's always an old-fashioned assumption.

SPEAKER_02 22:35

And it'll work, man. So um this is one that we're extremely proud about as well. Um, and it's just like for the different drinkers. So, like, whatever we we pride ourselves in our product line, we also have a ride that we don't have with us, but in our product line, whatever type of drinker you are, we have something for you, right? So all of ours are cocktailable as well. So, like with the celebration, it's great meat, also. But if you want to mix it, put it in a cocktail. Like espresso martini is like our top-selling cocktail at the moment. Yeah, and most of you do espresso martini with vodka, but we're gonna do it with we do it with our caramel. Nice twist to it.

SPEAKER_05 23:09

Any any surprise products y'all working on that's in the lab that you're able to uh hint or or tease, or it's gonna be wait till it comes out.

SPEAKER_02 23:19

We got some stuff cooking. Okay, we can't. I keep telling you, we're definitely in the kitchen cooking, so um, it'll be out sooner rather than later, or maybe later than sooner. We'll see. But we're working.

SPEAKER_05 23:29

Yeah. You did say patience, but patience. So let me ask uh for for the listeners, where can they find either one of you, or where can they find the the beverages or website or anything that you want to share?

SPEAKER_02 23:43

So, website greenwoodwiskey.com on social media is Greenwood Whiskey on all social media TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Greenwood Whiskey everywhere. Uh as far as product, so we're in over, if you're in Metro Atlanta, we're in over 500 plus locations in Metro Atlanta. Uh, you also can go on our website. We have a store locator, so you put in your zip code, it'll tell you the closest store near to you. And the best way to find us is to go to whatever local store, restaurant, bar you usually go to and ask for Greenwood because they'll get it in there. You know, so that's how you'll find us. And like I said, Greenwood Whiskey on all social media.

SPEAKER_04 24:22

Yeah, that's pretty much it, like he said. Um, and also you'll find us at events all around town. So and they can find all this, all your upcoming events on your social media pages.

SPEAKER_02 24:34

On social media, always upcoming events. Literally, we're doing something every week. We have something going on from tastings to to pairings. You want to have a chocolate pairing, you could do that, dinners, the whole nine. So it's a whole experience, and you should come check out the Greenwood experience.

SPEAKER_05 24:50

And I know some of you that's watching right now probably asking KG where he can get his fedors from. You know, I'm gonna speak and be on the lookout for some Greenwood fedors coming sometime. Coming soon.

SPEAKER_04 25:00

They're coming soon.

SPEAKER_05 25:01

There we go. Maybe soon, maybe later, but it's gonna be at some point, it's gonna get there. So thank y'all for joining us on this episode of Sip, which we got, which you can now sip on and converse. Make sure you like, share, subscribe, go follow all the social medias that they just mentioned for Greenwood whiskey, and support these brothers as they continue to make waves in this crowded industry, but they're creating their own lane for delicious whiskey that you two can have in your cup that you can get from sip and converse. There you go. So until next time, see y'all later. Peace out.

SPEAKER_06 25:39

Let's talk about it.