Women in Business Putting Food on Our Tables Part 3

Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios. It’s time for Women in Motion. Brought to you by Wbec West. Join forces, Succeed Together. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:27] Lee Kantor here another episode of Women in Motion brought to you by our friends at WBEC West. And today’s topic is the food industry putting food and beverages on our tables. And we’re going to learn from a lot of several experts in this space. We have Rhonda Busnardo with Caesars. We have Laura Brisco with Laura’s Gourmet and Michele Freeman with Venice Beach Beverage. Welcome, ladies.

Rhonda Busnardo: [00:00:53] Thank you.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:54] Before we get too far into things, I’d like to kick it off with Rhonda to discuss maybe some of the trends she’s seeing out in the industry today, or is anything catching your eye?

Rhonda Busnardo: [00:01:05] Uh, there’s a lot of new fun things out there. Plant based and natural foods are huge right now. Also, you know, for the vegan and just, you know, crowds that have health conscious or, you know, meat free dairy free type of diets in mind, they are huge right now. Every food show that I go to, there’s a very big portion of plant based items. So I definitely see a lot there. People are health conscious now more than ever, a lot of bright and natural colors, you know, different fruits and varieties, things like that. Now that are that are out there that you’ve never seen. And believe it or not, finger foods, a lot of finger foods, a lot of really small desserts. So the little tiny one bite type of desserts are a huge trend right now because restaurants are noticing that a lot of desserts people either didn’t want because they were too full or, you know, they would take a few bites and waste the rest of it. So it’s a lot of waste. So now, yeah, little finger items and small desserts are really popular.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:11] Now. Rhonda, can you explain for our listeners that maybe they’re not familiar with Caesars is a brand that we’re all familiar with, but there’s lots and lots of kind of brands underneath that umbrella, right?

Rhonda Busnardo: [00:02:22] Oh, yeah. So we have, of course, Caesars as our brand. We have a lot of casinos that people don’t understand that are owned by Caesars I and you know, just go out there, Google Caesars Entertainment and you’ll be surprised at all of the casinos across the United States that we own. I think it’s right around it’s it’s at least 50 properties right now. We keep changing every day. So it’s it’s a lot across the board. And then we have many different restaurants, some owned by us and some that are not owned by us that are in each casino. So a lot of different a lot of different things.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:59] Now, when you’re talking about a trend in food and beverage, how do you kind of take that trend and then sprinkle it through all of the brands that you represent to make sure that it’s a right fit in each place?

Rhonda Busnardo: [00:03:12] Yeah. So it’s different in each region, right? So the East coast, West Coast, very different. Sometimes things start over on the West Coast and then move their way to the east seems to be the case most of the time. And it also just depends on local sourcing and everything. But what we do is we we go to these food shows, we see what trends are out there. We talk to a lot of vendors and chefs. And then what we do is we send all of these things out to our chefs and procurement department to share amongst their properties. And yeah, then we start to source things that they’re interested in or that they see that’s going to work in their properties. We do a lot of cuttings which are going to properties, sitting with the chef and tasting different things, trying different things. Um, you know, there’s, there’s a lot that goes on in the background that a lot of people don’t realize.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:10] Now. Laura, can you share a little bit about Laura’s Gourmet? How are you serving folks?

Laura Briscoe: [00:04:16] So Laura’s Gourmet actually is the chef brand. So we have a few different things under our umbrella. The most widely known is Laura’s gourmet granola. Laura’s gourmet granola has been a retail product for just over 19 years, and we’ve been supplying food service for 16. And that’s actually a much bigger piece of our business, which is great for me as a chef. It’s a wonderful conversation. When you’re doing you’re speaking with other chefs about how you can integrate your products into their menus, talking to F and B, and then also identifying places on property. If it’s a hotel where you can integrate a retail product as well. But in terms of so our products are available nationally for both retail and food service. And what stands out around our our granola is that everything that we do is certified gluten free, certified kosher nondairy and also certified women owned, as you know. But also of our ten SKUs, seven of them are vegan. But the thing that’s interesting about it is that all of those certifications are just happen to be because as a chef driven product, we always look to do things as naturally as possible and. As cleanly as possible, because at the end of the day, we’re looking for the trifecta of taste, texture and mouthfeel.

Laura Briscoe: [00:05:32] And when you start incorporating other things that are not natural, then you also bring in textures and flavors that are not really good for what you’re trying to achieve. So so I like to talk about our products being chef driven, but happen to be so that there’s no sacrifice to the flavor profile. You know, there are a lot of trends out there, and I agree with everything that was just shared. But what I really love seeing is some of the international flavors making their way into the American palate. And I don’t mean just the low hanging fruit, but when I walked a show back in June, being able to capture things coming out of Asia that we don’t have yet or things coming out of Italy, even where you think that we’ve seen everything we haven’t. So being able to find ways to incorporate that into our product line, into subsequent lines that we’re introducing is and doing it in a way that meets the very needs of the American palate is it’s a fun chef challenge to have.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:33] Now, do you think that chef driven brands like yourself are the ones that are kind of leading the charge here, that the trends are starting with you, You’re able to connect dots maybe in some creative ways that the larger entities are kind of following your lead.

Laura Briscoe: [00:06:50] Yeah, that’s a great question because there’s two ways to look at that. There’s Chef Driven where everything we’re doing is based on the ingredients, right? The naturalness of the ingredient and, and manipulating it in a way that creates that recipe. But then the other way is if you look at it from a nutritional standpoint. So there are a lot of products out there that are driving for that, right? They’re looking to offer, you know, a probiotic or a prebiotic or something along those lines in their product, which may or may not influence the taste in a positive way. So personally, I prefer the chef driven way because there we know that we’re not going to put something out that doesn’t taste amazing, but we’re also going to ensure that it has the attributes that people are looking for.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:35] Now, Michele, can you share a little bit about Venice Beach Beverage, how you serving folks?

Michele Freeman: [00:07:39] Well, I like to call Venice Beach Beverage Health without the hassle. Venice Beach Beverage is a line of products that are from family recipes and plant based shelf stable, all natural vitamin teas with 100% daily vitamins in every can. I’m a midwest girl who was planted in California. Venice was my happy place. Thus the name. We’ve had the trademark since 2008 didn’t launch till 2020. That’s planning. So we waited until I was retired and my husband was retired to start our business. The nice thing about our products are they actually imagine if Sweet Tea was healthy. That’s what I like to tell people about our original vitamin iced tea. Then we also have a 35 calorie ginger tea with 5000mg of organic cold pressed ginger juice. There’s a lot of products out there with too many additives and too many things that aren’t good for you. You have to have something that’s healthy and that someone actually wants to drink. I am a big advocate of if it’s nasty, I don’t want it. So that’s the rule number one. I like hearing Laura talk about chef driven because I’m taste driven and I totally get what she’s saying. It has to taste good. You’re wasting your time. Otherwise, um, we have less than five milligrams of caffeine in our tea, so that way you’re not jittery. I’m trying to alleviate the issues that the everyday health enthusiast has. There’s so many people north, south, east and west that want to do better. They wanted a better beverage, but they don’t want to sacrifice taste for themselves and their families. So that’s what I’m here for.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:41] So I’d like to throw this out to the group. Let’s talk about your target audience. Do you have a target audience in mind or is this something that you have a passion about and you’re putting it out to the world and then you’re just hoping that the target audience finds you?

Michele Freeman: [00:09:59] Oh, no, you better have a target.

Laura Briscoe: [00:10:00] Audience 100% target. Audience Yes, You’re going to waste a lot of hope. You don’t. You don’t just cross your fingers and close your eyes and hope that’s just not what the product that’s not that’s not healthy.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:15] So then that being the case, then you have a persona of who that person is and then you are marketing towards that person.

Michele Freeman: [00:10:26] Correct? The everyday health enthusiast that’s looking for better beverage options for themselves and their family. There’s a whole thing that the powers that be age, demographic, where does this person work? What does this person do? How many children does this person have? All of that. There’s so many things that go into finding out your specific target audience. And it is different for our different lines because of our 35 calorie ginger tea. Everyone thought, Oh, she must be vegan. I am not. But I make a product that is and that’s very good for you. There’s there’s some overlap with the people that enjoy our products and I’m happy about that.

Laura Briscoe: [00:11:19] Yeah, to to dovetail on that. You know, when we look at our target audience, first and foremost, the thing that comes to mind are people who consider themselves to be foodies, right? Those who are looking at things that are more elevated, the combination of flavors. And in addition to that, then we look at those who are layering a different type of lifestyle or want to just have a day where this is you know, they’re going to be enjoying something that they know is better for their body, even if it’s not there every day. But, you know, we’ve targeted the higher end of the market in terms of retail, the specialty stores specifically, because we are an artisan crafted product and we can’t sit successfully on a shelf next to a granola that is full of not better for you ingredients that are that’s also being sold for a third of the price. We’ll never win that game and that’s not an educated consumer that we’re going after anyway. We are going after the people who pick up a bag and flip it over and look at a label and understand that seven ingredients can really taste this good. So I did a I did a small artisan market a few weeks ago that was local to Arizona. And what I really found interesting was that everyone who attended that was a self-proclaimed foodie and every single one of them were going berserk over the product because they felt like they had just had their first taste of what granola was meant to be, not what is normally billed as granola. So. So target market 100%.

Michele Freeman: [00:12:56] Yeah. And that’s so exciting when you see people. I’ve had people. Oh, I don’t. I don’t like Ginger. I don’t. You don’t like Ginger with all of the additives, powders, sirups and oils in it. If you had organic cold pressed ginger, that’s a different thing. It’s smooth enough for my grandchildren to drink. That’s another thing that I really like. And I hear that a lot. Oh, my gosh. This is really good. And they look surprised. Well, yes, I wouldn’t have done this otherwise. Thank you. So it’s really important to offer something that is beneficial. You know how many people juice every day and don’t want to? Do you know how messy it is? And I bet a lot of people that, you know, have a juicer, they don’t want to do it. It’s dirty, it’s messy, it’s time consuming. It’s expensive. And now you can have a better ginger juice and you didn’t have to do anything to get it. That’s what I like. And I put not.

Laura Briscoe: [00:13:52] Only that, it’s consistent every time, Right? You’re giving them exactly the consistency and the quality because you don’t necessarily get that if you try to make it yourself. So. Exactly.

Michele Freeman: [00:14:02] Exactly. And your kitchen is a whole lot cleaner.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:06] Now, when you both were when you both were starting, did you have this kind of persona in mind or was this something after you developed the product and then you realized, hey, this is the the target for this? Like, did the idea come first or did the audience come first?

Michele Freeman: [00:14:25] Well, in my case, the idea came first. These are my grandmother’s tea recipes. I was fortunate enough to marry a gentleman who grew up in Japan and Taiwan Air Force kid and learned how to make proper Japanese tea at a very young age. What are the odds of that? Fast forward. Um, he has been in the beverage industry for over 30 some years. He was actually vice president of Coca-Cola. So when you have a person that’s right next to you, that’s your best friend with all of that helpful information on quality control, logistics, manufacturing fleet, and then you put that with really good recipes, then you get an opportunity to check out the market to see who likes what and to find out, hey, there’s a lot of there’s a lot of people just like me who want a healthier alternative but aren’t die hard enough to do it every day themselves. And vitamins. I can’t begin to tell you how many emails I get from people. Oh, I hate taking vitamins. I forget they’re in my cabinet. It’s a pain, but you don’t have to now. You’re welcome. And it is very difficult to make vitamins taste good in a beverage. Very, very difficult. That’s why you don’t see any other ones but us. So I’m very, very proud of that.

Laura Briscoe: [00:15:48] Yeah. In our case, our it was an organic, happy accident. So I changed careers. I went to culinary school, and after culinary school I started my first company, which was focused on doing private fine dining and events and culinary instruction. And during that startup phase, over the first year and a half or so, I started playing with a recipe for granola for my own enjoyment, and I kept modifying it and modifying it, taking out ingredients that I can’t eat personally that just don’t work for my body, and trying to find something that reminded me of my college years and consuming boxes of granola during finals and after. A lot of it’s actually several months of just I don’t know why I was just on this mission and having been fully trained now on recipe development with culinary school, I was documenting everything. And just like any time you bake something, you have more than you want and you give it away. So I was sharing it at my daughter’s soccer games. I was giving it to friends, my personal trainer, whatever the case was, and people started asking for it and they asked for it a lot. So my best friend suggested I should think about selling it. And at the time and for the next 15 years, I did sell it, but not proactively. It was, you know, I just I placed it in our local retailer and that became a second retailer. And then that became a very large restaurant chain asking us to make it for food service. And finally, 15 years later, I figured I had to pick a team between running my private fine dining and elegant events or doing Laura’s Gourmet. And so since 2019, it has been with intention. And since that time we have weathered 2020 and have grown significantly since then with our most recent rollout last week, as a matter of fact, with fresh thyme. So so there’s a lot to be said for happy accidents. And then finally waking up and listening to the universe. So and a lot of planning behind that.

Michele Freeman: [00:17:50] Oh, yeah, agreed. Agreed.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:52] Now, Rhonda, how does it work in an enterprise like Caesar’s that’s so large? Does the audience come first or does the idea come first?

Rhonda Busnardo: [00:18:02] I would say the audience comes first. You know, same thing. So we have people asking for things a lot. And when you see that becoming popular and asked for a lot, we start looking. Um, I would say it would be a little bit of both because sometimes our chefs come up with ideas from what they’re seeing as well, and then we go out looking for the items that we need that match that profile. So I would say just, you know, the consumer and what they want is where we get most of our ideas from.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:36] So now let’s shift gears a little bit and talk about some of the challenges that are facing the food industry today. Rhonda, we’ll start with you. What are some of the challenges that Caesars is facing?

Rhonda Busnardo: [00:18:48] Challenges in our side is just, you know, just the supply chain still with inflation. Also just being able to get the product that we want to get in in a timely fashion and for it to be available. You know, we still have a lot of problems from Covid that are still trickling down with just, you know, companies that are just getting back and up and moving again with being able to produce the amount of volume that we need. So and also getting professionals in the door that are qualified. You know, chefs, a lot of them moved out of being a chef and moved into different lines of work during Covid because all the restaurants were closed for so long. So, you know, getting our our employee employee base, you know, back up to where it used to be. It needs to be.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:44] So is that become kind of an opportunity for Caesars to acquire some talent that might be available now that wasn’t in the past?

Rhonda Busnardo: [00:19:52] Yes, absolutely. And some new talent. You know, it also helps for new talent out there that are looking to get into these type of restaurants or this type of business that maybe didn’t have that availability before because we had people here that were, you know, there for so long and there was no opening. So a lot of new talent that’s out there. There are so many talented chefs out there. I mean, you watch the shows on TV. It’s a real thing. You know, there are so many just naturally talented and, you know, Internet based, you know, chefs that that really are looking for some type of way to get in. And now’s the time.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:33] Laura, what are some of the challenges that you’re facing?

Laura Briscoe: [00:20:37] So currently, I think some of the challenges that are most so logistics there seems to be always a challenge with logistics in moving ingredients in and moving product out. I don’t know what’s changed except for what we’ve all experienced, but it just feels like every time there’s a little bit of a of a struggle, even with with some of our logistics partners. And then weather has definitely played a role as well. I mean, yes, there’s supply chain issues and being we’re able to get product now that we weren’t able to before or as timely and prices have come down a little bit. But we’ve seen weather now impacting some of the ingredients that we usually could get very, very easily. And now we see lead times that we hadn’t experienced before. So that’s always something to, you know, get your heart rate up when you’re not wanting it to go up. So and you know, and then in terms of hiring, you know, we had had some challenges in hiring. And of late we have seen people really, really get entrenched in the business and are happy working in our packaging and manufacturing. It’s exciting to see that and I think that’s borne from the culture that the company has overall. And then the direction from our production manager for our team to really make them feel like a team. So, so that’s one of the ways that we’re surmounting that type of challenge. But there’s a laundry list, I’m sure, and, and sometimes it’s just a challenge working with some of our distribution partners, you know, just throws a wedge in here and there. So you have to keep your eye open for that.

Michele Freeman: [00:22:14] Michelle The main challenge that we faced, we handled our second year. This is our third year in business. And that was I don’t want a co-packer. So we purchased our own production facility. This way we are not obligated and bound to someone putting us on the back of the line. When someone bigger comes, making you produce more than you need losing money on that. That was very important to us because this is our money. We did not get funded for this company. I saved my entire paycheck for over 15 years to start this when we retired. So I like I said, I’m a midwest girl and I’m extremely. Ordinarily frugal. So I want to make sure that I am utilizing our money in its best capacity. So we got a production facility and that helped us alleviate a lot of the pain and difficulty that a lot of new businesses start with. With my husband’s background in manufacturing. I had no problems with worrying about who should I get this? Should I do this, what to do? Because that’s not my wheelhouse. I stay in my lane and he stays in his lane and it works out very well for us that way. And oh, one more thing. I was not aware that so many different stores are paid to play to the extent that they are. We’re in about 550 stores nationwide and as of yet, we do not pay for slotting. We’re in hotels, we’re in golf, country clubs and things like that all over the place. And I’m very appreciative for those independent grocery stores, hotels and things like that. Very grateful that I don’t have to pay thousands of dollars just to have the privilege of sitting on their shelf. I know that in the future that I will have to do that. But for right now, I’m going to try to collect every single store that appreciates our product for what it is and not have to pay to play and actually not make any money.

Lee Kantor: [00:24:38] Now, Michelle, do you mind explaining what pay to play is for the folks who aren’t familiar with that?

Michele Freeman: [00:24:43] Oh, sure. Um, big grocery stores will charge you anywhere from 500 to $1000 a skew just to sit on their shelf. Then there’s cap. That’s when you walk past a past a shelf and the end cap on the end when you’re going from aisle to aisle that they charge for that. Then a lot of these stores, even if it’s you know, one can talk about Venice Beach beverage better than I but they ask you to have someone else, a company come in and do sampling for you instead. I’ve gone as far as Puerto Rico to do samplings for our stores, so I’m not above getting on a plane and going. Um, these are the things that grocery stores have. Allocated as this is what you have to do. And it kind of started in the beverage industry when the top three beverages in the US said, Hey, we want to be at eye level and we’re going to pay you to be there. And then they realize, Hey, everyone can do that. And so now to be in these stores and these are very popular stores, people are very interested in being in them because they’re so big. But I would rather have 550 independent stores where they’re actually purchasing it. I don’t have to worry about, Oh, I’ve got to make this many sales or I get kicked out in six months. And just all of that added money. You would be surprised at how many people are in stores right now and they don’t make a dime because they’re giving all the money back because of the pay to play system. So I’m a pray for me. I’m trying to stay away from that as long as humanly possible.

Lee Kantor: [00:26:37] Yeah, I’m sure a lot of folks aren’t familiar that with that. They think that everybody earned their spot on the shelf. But people are paying to be in eye level.

Laura Briscoe: [00:26:48] To to clarify that, though, you do earn your spot in that chain. Okay. It’s not like you just said, I’m going to give you 50,000. Put me on the shelf. Right. So you do have to go through an evaluation process. They do category reviews for your products. You go through tastings, cuttings just like Ronda experienced or shared earlier. But if they select you, depending on the size of the chain, then there is normally some type of a fee involved. And it could be like just as Michelle shared, anywhere from $500 to several thousand per SKU per item. But but you do earn that spot. What I think the average consumer doesn’t understand, though, is there’s two parts to this. One for a retailer, while they may look at the at the high level, like their margin is so great, like they may have layered maybe 35% onto the cost from the distributor, that that margin gets whittled down very, very quickly between all the SKUs that they’re carrying, the management of it all, the people that they’re know that are in store. Et cetera. Damage loss, what have you. So so there’s that piece of it. But also, anytime you see an item on sale in a grocery store, a buy one, get one or it’s $2 off or whatever, that money is actually coming out of the manufacturer’s pocket, not the grocery store, unless you have a partnership with them where they might step up and share in some of the in some of the the the coupon, if you will.

Laura Briscoe: [00:28:25] So my favorite thing is when someone reaches out to me from Wisconsin and said, oh my God, your product is on sale at X, Y, Z, I’m super excited. And I’m thinking, yes, I’m paying for that. I am well aware that that is on sale there because we made that happen. So there’s just a lot if someone is planning on launching a retail product, I mean, the number one thing I would suggest to them is go and talk to somebody who’s been doing it for a while. It is it’s it’s challenging. It’s hard. Just like Michelle, we’re bootstrapped. We have been since the beginning. And it’s expensive if you don’t know what you’re walking into. You are at huge risk. I’ve been fortunate enough to learn over the last 19 years as I went, but we had some hard lessons. Really hard lessons. It’s it’s. It’s got its challenges.

Lee Kantor: [00:29:16] So is it still fun?

Michele Freeman: [00:29:20] Well, it’s funny for me because this is actually something I chose to do. I retired at 40, so I’ve been patiently waiting for my husband to retire so that we could do this. This is something that I’ve always wanted to do. So in trust, there are much better ways to to spend your retirement money. There’s a lot of easier things to do. So I wouldn’t suggest, hey, start a business at 57. I wouldn’t I wouldn’t necessarily suggest that for everyone. But for me, this is something that has been in the patient making, dreaming, hoping, praying for for a very, very long time. And I’m extremely happy and extremely proud that we’ve been able to do this. And you have everyone has their quitting days where you wake up and go, my God, why did I do this? And then you have those other days where you’re like, I’m so glad that I’m doing this. I could burst. So it’s within it’s like any other job, you know, you have your good days and you have your bad.

Laura Briscoe: [00:30:31] And luckily the good outstripped the bad by without a doubt far outpaced. Yeah, we wouldn’t be doing it if it didn’t. And it is. Yes, it is still fun. And it’s not just still it is fun because as owners of the business and being the entrepreneurs who created the products and knowing that we have more products that we’re bringing to market and seeing the impact that it has on people and hearing from them about what a change it has made in their lives, whether, you know, no matter what, you know who or where that person is, you know, that is I think the word is rewarding that I think it’s so much more rewarding than anything I can put my finger on. You know, there’s there is a lot to be said for knowing that you’ve put something out there that no one else has done before, because you’re doing it in a way that no one else has done before, and you’re supporting it in a true, authentic and transparent way that that just that lights you up, that keeps you moving forward. That. Yeah.

Lee Kantor: [00:31:35] So now, Rhonda, where do you find the joy in the work that you’re doing?

Rhonda Busnardo: [00:31:40] I’m actually just bringing the food to the table in our restaurants, just finding, um, you know, like these businesses are just listening to these ladies and that passion. You know, I. I look for that passion. I can go to a huge floor filled with different vendors, and the passion and drive is what attracts me. Um, you know, so bringing those attractive and, you know, wanted items to the tables of all across the nation. It makes it exciting, you know, it’s almost like a challenge, but it’s really, really exciting to watch people enjoy themselves and our casinos to watch them, you know, post things on social media about their experience. There’s nothing more rewarding than all the hard work that goes on in the background just coming to fruition like that and seeing that happiness in our consumers and.

Lee Kantor: [00:32:40] Especially, I would imagine you get a lot of joy from seeing when you’re kind of discover this emerging brand and then you put it in front of your people and then it’s a success and you know that you had some help in making that impact.

Rhonda Busnardo: [00:32:56] Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: [00:32:58] Now, I’d like to throw this out to the group. How important is you mentioned social media a second ago. How important is social media and maybe share some tips that you’ve learned in order to maximize social media to help you grow your brands? Anybody want to take a stab at that?

Laura Briscoe: [00:33:20] Okay, I’ll I’ll jump in there first. I have a dream that someday I’ll use social media just for the pure fun of social media. I don’t I don’t get to do that right now because it’s always brand awareness related. Right. And best foot forward. But like I said earlier, it’s authentically, you know, one of my favorite things to do when we use social media is use our behind the scenes. Here’s how our product is made. Here are the people who are making it. Here’s the heart and soul that goes into what we do. Um, and it’s it. You learn to get a thick skin too, because you’re putting yourself out there. You don’t know how someone’s going to respond. And luckily we’ve been very well supported. But but it’s social media. I remember when social media first really started raising its head in about 2010, and I didn’t even understand the phrasing social media, like, what is that supposed to be? And it was all about Facebook at the time. Um, and so, you know, it’s just there’s so many ways you can put yourself out there or you put your product out there. And each platform requires a different message because the audience is different. So I have a real appreciation now for why you would want to have someone do that for you full time. But I haven’t gotten to that point yet because it’s still my voice. It’s my product, these are my babies and I want to make sure that that is the message that’s consistently shared. So that’s a that’s just a quick social media from Laura.

Michele Freeman: [00:34:58] Agreed. Agreed. Agreed. I am very used to speaking. I was an actor. I did commercials and voice overs for a living. I had no idea that I would be running back to do this again on our YouTube page, on our Pinterest page, on Facebook. I wasn’t on all of these platforms initially, but when you have a business, it’s imperative that you are so it is very time consuming. And when like like Laura said, when you’re bootstrapping your business and you don’t have a social media person, you have to rely on doing it yourself and your customers. I have never been so grateful to strangers in my life. I don’t like taking photos anymore at at 59. I don’t like it. I prefer I preferred it in my 20s and 30s. But now I get photos from someone’s soccer team. I get photos from a guy going to work who’s in Florida. A very cool picture. Um, TMZ took photos of Brad Pitt drinking my drink. Very exciting. So things like that that helps with social media when your customers are are in contact with you.

Michele Freeman: [00:36:23] That’s the thing that I’m the most grateful for because I do not want to be on camera every day. I just don’t. So when I get these photos from people very, very grateful for a here he is, the official DJ for the Dodgers, for the baseball team here in Los Angeles. He is a huge fan of our teas and he told all of his fans about it. And then all of those fans started purchasing it through here in LA and on Amazon and so forth. And I got so much social media presence from those people, so grateful, so very grateful for each and every person that has purchased our product, reviewed it, talked about it, held up a can. And you know, took a picture. So I am really big on interacting. Oops, sorry, very big on interacting with our customers to engage with them and showcase their pictures and showcase their bar or their hotel and things like that. So yeah, it’s a lot of work. It is a full time job that I look very forward to handing over in the future.

Speaker6: [00:37:44] Yes.

Lee Kantor: [00:37:45] Now is there anything that you’ve learned that you can be doing proactively to encourage your superfans to, you know, share on social media? I mean, to have TMZ take a picture of Brad Pitt holding the can is a, you know, lightning in a bottle kind of thing. And I don’t know if you could have planned that that way, but are there anything you can be proactively doing to encourage that level of sharing and engagement from your fans?

Michele Freeman: [00:38:14] Well, what. I do as I ask them when when they tag me in a photo on Instagram, I message back, Thank you so much. May I please share this on other platforms? And most people are like, Sure, yes. And especially with different demographics that I hadn’t thought about or things that I hadn’t thought about. It never occurred to me to mix our ginger tea with alcohol. It didn’t occur to me, but it occurred to a whole lot of people on Instagram and they sent me the recipes and beautiful pictures. The black Cherry. This is the this isn’t a I don’t know if you can see that or not. This is our original sweet tea black cherry. This is really popular, very popular back east and in the South. And people mix that with all sorts of alcohol that it would have never occurred to me. So look, interact, engage with your customers and you’ll see they’ll tell you what they like and what their favorite is. I also hadn’t considered heating our ginger chai, our chai flavored tea. Didn’t occur to me to heat it and put it with cream. My a lot of my customers do that. So you learn how your products are implemented in different households. And I really that’s exciting to me. That’s exciting that someone likes it and put their own spin on it, whether it’s alcohol or or heated or whatever. I’m really grateful for the interaction with our customers.

Laura Briscoe: [00:39:59] And to to springboard on that too. When you talk about super fans, we have super partners also, right? We have our one of our Granolas, which is a coconut granola used exclusively by a few different chains of businesses that do acai bowls and smoothie bowls. And so they’re constantly promoting everything on social media to encourage their audience. And by nature of that, they’re tagging us. And so people understand that we are part of that product. And so we’re able to enjoy exposure to their fan base. And then people will end up going to buy the retail product because they want to have it in between or what have you, and buy the same thing as Michelle saying that she hadn’t thought about X, Y or Z with her product. We’ve had chefs from around the country who have taken our products and used them in such creative ways on their menus that I never would have thought about. My favorite is one who has taken our chocolate granola and soaked it overnight in milk and then strains. It uses the base, the milk to make ice cream and then dries out the granola and uses that as a crumble on the dessert. Okay, so what? Right. So just kind of fantastic to see and to help push the boundaries where the answer isn’t just a yogurt parfait or a bowl of cereal, but it’s literally breakfast to dessert. These are things I’ve learned as a result of social media and a result of the partnerships that we have.

Lee Kantor: [00:41:29] And it sounds like you’re both doing a great job in creating that human to human connection that, you know, is so important in today to have that authenticity and that relationship and that level of trust between the brand and the consumer is so important to differentiate yourself from maybe some of the larger players who can’t really make those one on one connections that you’re making.

Laura Briscoe: [00:41:55] You know, I think that 1 to 1 connection is one of the reasons our products taste better, because the bigger the company gets, the more outsourced and co manufactured and everything else. Something happens in that manufacturing process that takes away from the authentic flavor of what it is you originally went out to make. Because there’s some there’s some big competitors to us. I mean, huge. But you can it just doesn’t have that same artisan. Feel and flavor to it.

Speaker6: [00:42:31] He’s right.

Michele Freeman: [00:42:31] Laura So right. It cheapens the product and we’ve heard it before. There are certain things that are will never be in my products. And high fructose corn sirup is one of them. Under no circumstances. There are certain things that big companies will use to cheapen. They’ll use ginger powder. That’s by no means as effective as organic cold pressed ginger juice. Huge, huge difference in your body and in the nutritional value of it. So there yes, there are cheaper ways to make everything, but that’s one I know, Laura, and that’s one thing I really admire about her company as well. You’re not taking the cheap route. You’re taking the correct route to health and deliciousness. So that’s I think that’s why we get along.

Speaker6: [00:43:29] So. Now.

Lee Kantor: [00:43:31] Rhonda, can you share a little bit about how social media plays at Caesars? Because, I mean, you have so many brands doing so many things, it must be hard to kind of control, it seems, the uncontrollable.

Rhonda Busnardo: [00:43:43] Yeah, I mean, it can be good and bad like everyone knows and you do have to develop thick skin, but it’s also a good, um, a good information platform. So if there is a problem that we’re not aware of, it’s being watched and being looked at to make sure that it’s not a real problem that we can fix. It’s a very large corporation, so things can slip through the cracks or there could be an issue that maybe someone’s not aware of. You know, it’s good and bad. You know, sometimes you just have unhappy people that go out there and say things that, you know, may not really be a valid, you know, thing, but you have to appreciate everyone’s opinions and take the good from it that you can. It’s definitely something that we use a lot in marketing, getting all of the different activities and shows and, you know, specials and restaurants that are opening, you know, anything that’s happening out there to our consumers. So it’s great for that. And it’s it’s really is damaging as you think it can be. We need to know the bad stuff, too. So you just really have to find the good parts of that.

Lee Kantor: [00:44:57] So as we’re getting close to wrapping here, Rhonda, is there what do you need more of? How can we help you? Are you looking for more kind of interesting ingredients to play with at Caesars and the different restaurants? Are you looking for more chefs? What what do you need more of and how can we help?

Rhonda Busnardo: [00:45:17] Yeah, I mean, chefs, if you’re looking to work in any of our restaurants or at Caesars Entertainment, please go on caesars.com and look at career opportunities. We are always looking for talent out there for sure. Same thing with vendors. Please always reach out to me and I can provide Michele and Laura, you know, I can provide you with my contact information. I’m always looking for new innovative products out there. And especially as Laura was explaining and Michelle, you know, things these chefs can play with, you know, figure out what they can come up with with these new items. It’s really nice to have clean products that they can do a lot of things. And I mean, who knows, you know, your ginger tea could be in a soup. You just never you never know what these chefs can do. Keep your minds open and don’t just walk by a restaurant or a side shop a breakfast bar and think that your product couldn’t belong because you never know.

Lee Kantor: [00:46:17] So, Rhonda, one more time, the website for Caesars.

Rhonda Busnardo: [00:46:20] It’s just caesars.com. Very easy.

Lee Kantor: [00:46:23] Great. Laura what do you need and how can we help you?

Laura Briscoe: [00:46:27] So what I really appreciate is when we get an email from one of our consumers that shares that they have a market local to them in the state that they live in, that they’d love to see our product in that we may not have ever heard of. So it gives us an opportunity to find placement with another independent because similar to what Michelle was saying, you know, the specialty independents around the country, you know, there’s such great stores. They have such a variety of products there. They’re very foodie driven with the products that they carry. And it’s usually a really good match for us. So I really would encourage anyone listening to this. If you don’t have one of our larger retailers near you to please share what your what the what the local independent is and let us know so we can share our products with them to bring to the store. And in addition to that, if there is their local smoothie shop or a restaurant, a breakfast restaurant or something like that where they know we’d be a great fit on their menu, let us know so we can send some samples, because I think everybody deserves to have Laura’s gourmet granola in their diet at least once during the day. So let us help you.

Lee Kantor: [00:47:38] And then the website. The best way to get Ahold of you.

Laura Briscoe: [00:47:41] Our website is Laura’s Gourmet.com And. And you can always email us at Hello at Gourmet.com.

Lee Kantor: [00:47:48] Michelle, what do you need and how can we help you?

Michele Freeman: [00:47:51] Agreed. Everything Laura said those small independent stores as well as larger chains. Because we are nationwide already. We can and we have our own manufacturing. We have the capability of utilizing more stores. I guess that’s the easiest way of putting it. Um, we are trying to focus this year, 2023 on the West Coast a little more. I actually have more stores in New York than I do in California. I’d like to even that out this year. And also I would very much appreciate sharing with these other stores. If you go in and ask, we’ve actually gotten into stores simply because customers have said, hey, I want to get the vitamin iced tea. I want to get the vitamin ginger tea. So that has helped us. You’d be surprised just walking in and asking. And then when all else fails, Amazon, we’re right there waiting on you. So that’s also an opportunity to enjoy our products as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:49:05] And Michelle, the website.

Michele Freeman: [00:49:07] Our website is Venice Beach beverage.com and you can find us at Venice Beach beverage.com on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest.

Lee Kantor: [00:49:21] Good stuff. Well, thank you all for sharing your stories today. You’re each doing important work and we appreciate you.

Laura Briscoe: [00:49:29] Thank you for the opportunity to share. We really appreciate it.

Michele Freeman: [00:49:33] Yeah. Appreciate you.

Lee Kantor: [00:49:35] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We will see you all next. Time for Women in Business.