I know things are tough these days and a lot of times when people think things are tough, we tend to relax. And when we relax, we have a drink, whether that's an alcoholic beverage or non-alcoholic beverage. Do you ever wonder if that beverage is good for you? Do you ever wonder what's in it? I mean, we've seen food and we've seen drinks and all the stuff that they make it taste so great and you wonder what's in it. Like, is it good for me or is it
not so good for me? Well, today I have a special guest, Amy Holman, who is the CEO and founder of the Holistic Spirits Company. It is an alcoholic beverage company that makes the beverage that's not as bad for you. It's actually all the stuff that goes in it. I know obviously alcohol can be not so good for you, but all the stuff that's made with it is actually really good for you. It's organic. It's picked out specifically for this drink. It's a blend that you'll love.
And it's something that I wanted to talk to Amy about because she heard her company just got B Corp status, which is really interested. We talk about the B Corp status, what it means to the company, why she decided to go for that and the company to go for that to build a better company. But we find out more reasons why and what was involved. And then we just talk about the sustainability aspect of making a better beverage.
So we're going to talk about that on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Let's start the show. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lew. And this is the podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean, what you do to live for a better ocean by taking action.
And on today's episode, I am very happy to welcome Amy Homewood, who is the CEO and founder of Holistic Spirits Company. It is a phenomenal brand, a very new brand that's out there. I'm not a huge alcohol drinker. I like my alcohol. I do like it. And I have it every once in a while, especially on like a hot summer day. If you're sitting on the dock or you buy the water and you enjoy a nice beverage to cool off and to have some fun.
This is a beverage for you. And I'm looking forward to not only discussing what the beverage is like, but discussing the process of making a beverage in today's day where people want to know what's in their food and in their drinks. Right. We want to know that it's healthy for us. We want to know that it's not that bad for us. You know, obviously, this is an alcohol drink and alcohol, if not consumed
properly, can be bad for you. But if it's consumed in moderation and it has a nice blend to it and it's a healthy blend, it's organic blend. And it's hand picked basically in terms of the ingredients and what it goes into it. I want to find out more about that in the sustainability aspect around that. And Amy was so great, very transparent, wanted to tell us all about it and she
did in this interview. So here's the interview with Amy Homewood from Holistic Spirits Co. Enjoy the interview and I will talk to you after. Hey, Amy, welcome to the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Are you ready to talk about holistic spirits? Yes, I am ready, Andrea. Right on. I'm very excited about this because as a lot of the people in the audience know, Amy, I've been bringing companies on that do good.
And I'm very excited to have you on Amy because we're going to talk about your company, which is called Holistic Spirits Co. Is it a company? Is it company? Yes. Okay. There we go. And it's got like a lot of cool things to it. So we're going to get into sort of why you decided to start this company. You know, what made you get into the alcohol business and then the way it's created and all that wonderful stuff.
We're going to get into all of that. And plus, you know, congratulations again, we'll say it probably a number of times. But you are now the company is now a B Corp, which is which is a great, great feature for the company. So we're going to get into all of that. But before we do, Amy, you just let us know who you are and what you do. Yeah,
my name is Amy Homewood. I'm the CEO of Holistic Spirits Co. I'm an entrepreneur, not having a background in the liquor space, but I really saw an unmet need for building a better for you spirit that has never been done before. So as a curiosity project, I just started down this road and it's just been absolutely crazy. You know what it's like to try to get something off the ground that nobody's ever done before, like protect the ocean. So I'm so excited to share the story with you, Andrew.
I am excited to hear it. You know, you mentioned you were an entrepreneur. And so obviously with entrepreneur, there are a number of different things that you test out and do things before you reach, you know, something like holistic spirits. Can you talk about some of the your ventures over time? Yes. Well, I was a financial advisor previous to to being an entrepreneur in the spirits industry, but similar to being a female in an industry that's dominated by men.
Yes, I was so fortunate to get into I was in the insurance business for with my father and then unfortunately he passed away when I was in my 30s and I had to kind of forge my own path there. But it was really a great experience having my own business and also being in a world where it was dominated by men, honestly, and dealing with, you know, male clients and people that had their own businesses. So I was dealing with entrepreneurs and, you know, family owned businesses mostly.
So I was able to really navigate really uncharted waters for business owners and learn a lot about entrepreneurship and what it takes to grow a business and build a brand and, you know, roll up your sleeves and, you know, get get it done. And so I at 50 years old, I was a little burned out and I retired from that industry and I was really always so fascinated with the health and wellness space and looking at natural health and natural medicine.
I had issues as a child. I was very sick as a child and I also contracted Lyme disease when I was in my early 30s. And so I really that's an incurable disease from a tick bite. Yes. And it causes premature aging is basically what it does. So it set me down a whole different path of how to heal myself with food and plants and really learned that food is medicine and also meditation and just that there's so many chemicals and things that were really affecting me in a negative way.
So I was able to really learn about the things that aren't really good in our food sources. And so I really was trying to figure out how am I going to insert myself into this? It'd be like a resource for people. So I ended up getting kind of involved in the nutrition space for a while there and went back to school, got a master's degree at Johns Hopkins, went got a nutrition science certification from Stanford.
Like I went back to school for a while while I was just on this quest, honestly, to figure out where where was I going to land? And through that process, I just couldn't understand because I do like to have a cocktail and enjoy that. I've always, you know, I told you my great grandfather was, you know, Canadian. He was a liquor business back in the day. And I just couldn't understand why nobody was working on using nutrition science as a foundation of making alcohol.
And it just it's one of those scratches, you know, itches that you can't like scratch it out, right? So I ended up deciding that I wanted to try to figure it out. How could we make alcohol less toxic using nutrition science? And was that possible? So that started probably in 2018. And we here we are, you know, 2025. Yeah, and we actually, I think we nailed it. We have created something really special that the world needs to know about how to do how to make it, not just keeping it to
ourselves. But there's so much that I learned along the way about the alcohol industry and the way that people don't really understand how it's made and what's in it, that I felt like, gosh, we really have an opportunity to open up to that. And I think that's a great opportunity to open that open the door and show people like this black box. And, and so we're really excited about doing that. And that's part of the mission of the story.
And also part of why we became a certified B Corp and attempted to do that, because you really have to open up everything to be, you know, reviewed to look at everything you're doing, which is such a great experience for a small company, just starting out. And you talk about all these different times in your life. And, and I love how you're like, Yeah, it was it was hard. But you know, I made it through and retired, like from the, from the financial advisor business at 50 and then
go back to school and stuff. That's, it sounds like a lot of challenges you had to face through that time. What was one of the biggest challenges
through that time? I know it's, it's, if there's a lot of time in there and, and, and there's a lot that happened in there, but what was the biggest challenge from like going from a full time, you know, business and then, you know, trying to figure out the next steps, but then having to go back to school to learn more about the process that, that you want to go in that direction. And I think that's, that's the biggest challenge that I would imagine that, you
know, there's a lot of risk involved. I'm like, what if this isn't something I want to learn after a while? Like, what was that biggest challenge? Think it just that people building belief that what I was doing, I could get people to come along. So that's where I have always believed and I've learned this from other entrepreneurs, that you have to share your ideas with people or you'll never get your idea off the ground.
I mean, you have to tell as many people as you can do not keep your idea to yourself because you'll never find the people that are going to help you build the idea if you don't talk about it. So that's where the challenge was so many people, especially people, especially people in the liquor industry were saying that this would never work. Even if you could figure it out, it'll never succeed because you can't talk about it the way you're going to need to for people to give a crap.
And it's going to be really expensive to do. And you have no idea what you're doing anyway. And no one's going to buy brown vodka. So you should just stop even fascinating yourself with that. That's very true that when you think about it, brown vodka is like, wait a minute, isn't provided? Yeah. Yeah. So I was like, I, I think they might. I do. So it's having your own self confidence, knowing that because I know, I'm not going to be able to do that.
Because I know it's just like you with you're so marine biologist, you know, so much more than 99% of the people about what you know. And it's hard for people to understand why you're so passionate. And maybe they just never will. And that's okay. Yeah, but but the most important thing is that you believe that is that you believe it and that you know what you know, and no one can take that away from you. So for me, it was like, I know what I know.
And I know more about this probably then because not a lot of people have actually thought about how to do this. And I found that because one of the things I did, Andrew, probably similar to the things that you do to rally your people is found some of the most brilliant minds in the industry. You know, I used to sell life insurance. So I would call anybody. Okay, I was not afraid to pick up the phone and call
people. Right. Because I knew what I had was going to be something that was really important for them, even if they didn't appreciate it, they just don't understand. Yeah, you know, because when they're on an airplane, and they think it's going to crash, they're going to say, Oh, crap, I wish I would have bought that life insurance.
Yeah, you know because when they're on an airplane and they think it's gonna crash they're gonna say oh crap I wish I would have bought that life insurance policy that Amy tried to sell me
You know what I mean? I know that so I'm like, yeah, I know more than you do about how this is gonna feel So I really felt really strongly about this and I called like experts all over You know in academia and they were liver, you know liver cancer experts and also experts in plant science, you know drug development evolves from plant science and I got Incredible responses like this is such a
good idea and you know what? Nobody's actually called me to ask me this question So I think you could get a patent So they're like I'm an expert in the field nobody's called me to ask me anything about this So I think this is really like I'd really like to help you with this So I got a lot of people that were kind of excited and then of course Academia wanted to own all the intellectual property So I had to go in a different direction than going up a big institution which was fine
So I ended up, you know, so it's finding those troops those believers so the biggest challenge is don't give up when you know you have something and there are entrepreneurs and this applies to any cause where If your idea if no one believes it's possible It's the best time for your idea. It's probably contrary. It's a good contrarian truth. Okay, it's Contrary to the truth and that's when you have to build your idea because that's when it's Someone has to do it then and who's going to right?
So that's why I got even more excited with all the rejection. I was like, yes, no one believes it I know it's I know it's the right time It's such a weird such a weird thing to hear where it's like, oh nobody believes it Well, no, no, now I know I'm on the right path because people people are believing
it. That's a hundred percent Yeah, a hundred percent validation for your idea Now let me ask you this so, you know, you talked about you know You want to to make the process better for people and less toxic? Let's talk about that initial process like the regular alcohol that we get at a liquor store or so forth What is so toxic? Is it the alcohol or is it the stuff that's made around it? All of it? I'll of it together. Okay, sure, but you think of the industrial food machine,
right? Yeah, industrial food and that basically 90-something percent of all American, you know, it's industrial food manufactured food and it's alcohols that way too. So uses a lot of water a lot of waste a lot of sludge a lot of artificial ingredients and
flavors and colors. Yeah, and And there are no labeling requirements by the FDA or the TTV to put any information on a bottle The only thing the only time you have to put information on a bottle is if you say That you're made with organic ingredients You're not certified organic if you're made with organic ingredients You have to put every ingredient on the label and say what percentage of it which ones are organic and which ones are not But other than that if you're not made
with organic ingredients You do not have to put anything on the label and you have no idea. It's so bizarre So bizarre it makes no sense to me, right?
Right I guess that's just the way you know people lobby and they get the laws made and you know They get it in a certain way So they don't have to put it down because if you the more information you have the more decision you can make and if you don't Have that information you can't really make an informed decision So you just end up just by like getting giving their word like or taking them at their word, right?
Just be like no, this is well They're not even telling there is no word because no right as anything So the only thing you're seeing is with added to you know tequila as they're talking about now when you go to a finer restaurant You're gonna see additive free list of tequila and then the regular tequila There's no additive free gin vodka.
There's no additive free other page Yeah, okay, and I don't know if they can have that because frankly I have no idea what's in all this other stuff All I know is when we went to make our stuff I had a mandate that we're not gonna put anything in there That's not natural and made you know from a plant and so and we weren't going to manipulate it with any art Any even a color just for the sake of the
color. We're not everything has a purpose for being in that bottle Yeah, and so, you know, this is something I think that the industry is going to be grappling with Coming up real soon here that because people are going to start asking more questions 100% I mean there's we're seeing it in regular foods not just in liquids But we're seeing it in Whole Foods where even with Whole Foods people are wondering how it like you're labeling this as organic Or non organic, but how is this organic
like, you know, it's it's not just a marketing scheme I think a lot of companies are very you know cognizant of of green of the term greenwashing because there's it's been so apparent and it's now you just see it all the time and It's it's nice to have companies who are like no No, we're gonna like the companies who are not greenwashing are the ones who are fully transparent, you know They put everything on their balls because like, you know what?
We know what was in here and we want to tell you what's in here Right so that you can make that decision and yet the power goes back to the consumer and that's what I that's what I love About this process. So when you decide to like look we're gonna we're gonna make this with a number of different plant-based materials What like in terms of like there's so many different species of plants There's so many different types of berries you can put in and all this types of stuff Where do you begin?
In this type of area, right you begin by hiring a really good food scientist.
That's work with the FDA Because there's a list of ingredients you're allowed to put into alcohol It's called it's a grass certification Generally regarded as safe and the FDA has a list and now you can go back to the FDA and say hey I want to put milk thistle and they'll say well, it's not on the list Okay, so you're gonna have to like hire someone to get it on there So we started with the list that was already available and that's what we used We didn't want to fight that battle
We saw the list and I then I hired, you know a Danish scientist in in Oregon who works with a lot of very unusual Ingredients some of which the ones that were on the list. I never heard that before And I was like who's the top person with muscadine grapes? Yeah, and it happened to be Gita Jensen PhD from you know Yeah, a little town in in Oregon and so, you know learning what? ingredients Could do potentially what it's in terms of being able to stabilize
Alcohol is like a matrix. It's a liquid that's gonna hold stuff right and so what can stabilize in there and Actually maintain the benefits of the ingredients instead of having them be destroyed because alcohol is a solvent and it like absorbs things Right, but it also can make them more powerful or it could just make them Rendered useless because they don't have any benefits left because it gets destroyed So all this testing it took almost four years of all this testing Wow and trying to find
people to help us and you know And then and then also studying all the base spirits too because alcohol can be made from cane corn We you know sugar whatever all the different grapes Tulip bulbs, I mean, you know white one You know winter wheat, you know European wheat gluten-free wheat I mean it goes the list goes on so we had to study all of those too because they have their own ramifications In terms of a chemical reaction that they have with the other plants.
So that was very interesting It was a whole process That's it seems like you're you're trying to put a puzzle together That's never been put together and the pieces may or may not form together and you have to find that formula that
It actually forms together. And so you said that took four years Yeah from idea of those phone calls to these brilliant people to finding these people going through a year and a half of Universities that said they wanted to own everything to pivoting and then you know and then starting to make it which we made it in a in a little kitchen in Salt Lake City which The scientists that I work with Natalie
chevro. She's a beautiful French chemist who I knew from years ago from another company and She had never worked on alcohol other than having it preserve Ingredients for like cosmetics and stuff because alcohol is used in a lot of
products, right? Yes And so we really sat in her kitchen with these different ingredients And we're just hundreds of batches and just playing around with different things and then to take that and then find a distillery to make that product We were able to what was really fun as we I told you I'm from back East originally the Bethesda, Maryland Maryland area. Yeah, and we've I was Fascinated with a distillery in
Frederick. It's the only certified organic distillery in the state of Maryland And I thought why don't we go talk to this gentleman who owns this and see if he would want to work with us? Because it's right in our back door. We were there still while we were doing some of this research and He was not really Able to help us in the beginning, but once we came to him with the formula He was totally blown away by what we came up with in this little kitchen in Salt Lake City
He just couldn't believe it. So we got really lucky. So we do make in a certified organic green Distillery in Frederick, Maryland and that's where we make our vodka But now we're also making a gin and I'll tell you a little bit more making that up in Petaluma, California So you know going through that process working with other?
Experts in the field instead of going to try to own our own distillery That was not an option at all or not even necessary Why do that when you can use somebody else who's already put that sweat equity and already has it set up as certified organic? and Absolutely incredible entrepreneur
people, you know to work with yeah. Yeah and to partner with with somebody like that Obviously has gone through the hoops and everything that you need to go through The I would imagine they'd be excited to partner with somebody like like yourself to say hey look We're trying to change the game here like we're trying to offer you provide an option for people where they can be healthy and still have a you know still have a good time and relax and know that what they're putting in their system is
healthy for them and and Know what's going into their system, which I which I think is And I yeah, and I think Andrew a better way to say it to frame it is this last bad not hell. Yes Yeah, for sure. You still have to do it moderately. That's right. Yeah, of
course. Yes. Yeah. I like that Now, you know four years of trying to come up with a formula and and you know going to school and everything like that not Doing your work, you know you I would imagine this is not something like that It's like, you know, you could bootstrap it, but it's a very difficult thing to just bootstrap yourself You look I assumed you'd look for investors and you and you had investors and people interested how does that work when you start a company like this with such a I
Can say like I guess it's a more of a rebellious nature in that in the alcohol industry But something that's so innovative, you know to get investors Was that a difficult pitch to make for this type of brand that you were trying to create?
In the beginning it really was not because we had People really excited to help us But we did bootstrap it, you know all through that four years and put a lot of money into the company but then Woody Harrelson drank a bottle of origin holistic spirits vodka and one of our investors who's been a friend and business partner of mine for almost 35 years he knew Woody's manager from another investment that he had done and he just said hey you should send him a bottle and see
You know just send it to him because these he might want to be an investor in the company Yeah, not even woody, but what he's manager, right? And so
So he got it and he goes. Oh my gosh I need to send this to woody woody is gonna want this because woody really likes clean spirits He likes like clear he likes he drinks natural wine You know, he he's very picky about what he puts into his body very when he saw the ingredients on the label He was like, oh my gosh I I got a so we sent two bottles to woody and he and his wife and his neighbors in Hawaii Came over and they pretty much drank a whole bottle And so in one night to test
it out. Well, yeah, test it out You gotta do it. They totally went all in and tested it out and they called literally the next day They're like, oh my gosh. I love this. I will want this in my body I want this in my world and I've been waiting for this like thank God Hallelujah, let's I gotta meet this purse
this crazy person. So we got so we got on a zoom We totally connected and I was like woody you're amazing We think I've always loved you and I respect the crap out of you But you know, we're not looking for a celebrity money grab kind of guy, you know We're looking for a real partner and if you want to get involved, we'd love you to invest in the company So let's have a conversation about that and he did and it was incredible and he brought some other people that are really fantastic
You know people to have on our team as well. So we work with their team He does, you know, he's got a great team. We have a call every two weeks Yeah, and the most important part of what he does is these kinds of things that we're doing right now interviews For magazines to educate people more about why we're doing what we're doing and why he got excited about the company And look, I don't know. I've never met
woody Harrelson. I've had the pleasure of meeting him He seems that from a celebrity point of view like one of the most down-to-earth types of people That you can you can meet and we know, you know, everybody knows of his clean living type of style, you know vegan very clean I believe there is a joke that was made on a celebrity talk show with one of his co-stars I
Blank on her name. She He starred with her but she would joke around with him He would drive she would drive him to work or as she was driving to work She would bring him to like a McDonald's drive drive him nuts And he's get all mad at her and kind of stuff But it because that was everybody knows what he likes, you know clean living like he likes his his his his vegan lifestyle He wants to make sure that everything's
organic. Everything's good for him in his life You know the way he sees it and I think that and it kind of speaks to his down-to-earth Personality from what I gather like in front of scene obviously You kind of agree with that in terms of you know No, we're getting to know him and so forth and I think it's important to have a celebrity like that when you start talking about having a spirit that an alcohol that is You know that that's that's cleaner, you know
like you said less bad for you then then then all the others and and to just even ask the question even to think about Asking the question like how good is this gin for me? You know, even though it's alcohol and I want to have a good time to taste good or or vodka that tastes good But how good is it like there are so many mixtures of?
These drinks of gin and vodka these days and you don't know what's in them You just drink them because somebody either told you about them or you see it on TV or you know You just find it in the liquor store And you just start to drink them and because you like them and then you like the way it feels on a hot summer Day or what have you and then you start to go but you know now for me meeting you and knowing about this brand You're like well, yeah, is this is good
for me or is this not as bad for me? Like I want to know what this what this really is I think it's an important question to ask and I think having having Woody Harrelson Attached to it in the capacity that he is and not just like the face of it He is the an investor and he wants to know more about it in his business practices I think that's that's I think that's really that's really great to be able to do that But then like, you know, I don't know
much about making a product and stuff. My product is information That's how I that's how I run my business and obviously, you know you the information is important in this aspect for for alcohol But when you once you have the formula once you kind of figured it out How'd what's the next steps that you have to take in terms of you know, making the product at a particular scale? Do you start off trying to ramp it up as much as possible or do you start off slow?
How does that work and where do you start to get the distribution and things like that? Right? So You can do it a couple different ways. We started off slow because we needed to have proof of concept Yeah, it's one thing to have Woody Harrelson get excited And me to be excited because finally somebody made something I actually want to drink, right?
We needed to show because of the skepticism in the spirits world Show that there were people that would want to buy this so it's very funny So the first thing we did which makes zero sense But just what we did so we went to the Wilshire Country Club
Okay, 500 bottles. Okay, okay, and we had a friend who was a member of the Wilshire Country Club And he said listen, I'm in charge of the LPGA tournament I think you guys should host a bar at the LPGA tournament at my country club and all the members are gonna come try it and You're just gonna have this little little group of people that see what they think in a over four days Okay, and there were two different golf
tournaments. There was one there and another one the next week at Palace Verdes So we said, you know, that's a great idea It was absolutely incredible People were just loving it and they were so excited and they were just like but what was interesting which I didn't realize is a lot Of the people that watch ladies golf professional golf are Korean men that don't Don't drink vodka. No, they don't drink
vodka. They drink whiskey or Burbank or scotch very expensive Barrel-aged for 20 years, you know, right ours is made in one day. Ours is like having a smoothie It's like a fresh juice in a bottle. Okay, and so so they're coming up and they're like, what is that? Because it's a brown. It's a copper pinky brownish color clear liquor sure and it looks like whiskey Yeah, so I was no way I was telling him
it was vodka. I was like, alright, you guys just need to try this so we made old fashions, you know cocktails with it and
They just absolutely loved it. Everybody loved it was great and It was a really good You know sort of a market where there were all different ages because there were young people there were older people It was all variety of different even though it was it was an open tournament So people could come and see it So there were all different kinds of people that were coming to it for four days testing area. It was really cool Yeah, then we made a thousand cases. Okay
after that case. So then yeah thousand cases, which is not really that much believe it or not How much in the case how many in a case four six six? Yeah six bottles. So, you know, okay. All right so yeah, and then we so that was our like round one and From there. So since we started Andrew, we've sold four thousand cases and that's been about over about a year and a half So now we make them in these increments,
right? Yeah, we also know That whenever those ingredients come in because we have we have four ingredients that are from all over the world Artichoke leaves from France. They're they're harvested four times a year Elderberry extract elderberries are grown in Europe Mostly in the Alps are grown in Poland,
you know, there's a war. I mean, you know, you're anian war There's all kinds of crazy stuff going on for sure And then we have the muscadine grapes which are a seasonal grape that's harvested in October They're make they're grown in the United
States. Okay, and if there's if there's a Freeze like there just was yeah foot of snow in Georgia, which is yeah And then we have green tea from China So we have these ingredients from all over the world and then our base spirit is an organic wheat in the vodka That's European wheat. So, you know, you've got all these dynamics of How you're gonna source these ingredients, right?
And so we really had to now to get all that organized and also in such an effective way of understanding How these ingredients get here and thinking all along that we wanted this company to be a certified B Corp from day one I became obsessed with what's called conscious capitalism and following John Mackey and his story Reading the books reading going to the you know, the conscious capitalism summit meetings Learning about conscious capitalism and why it's so important
So important to instill those principles in your business at the beginning instead of waiting until later So that's where all these things were like in the back of my mind, too But the ingredients that we discovered that worked were from all over the world So we couldn't help but have that be what
it is. Yep. Okay, so Yes, yeah Especially now there's so many, you know in different parts of the world There's so many things that could be affecting these crops, you know from droughts to freezes to wildfires to anything so That's a lot of risk to even though it's great to have all those to be combined It's a lot of risk you take so you have to be careful in terms of how those those are managed I guess right well You need to find out what the backup plan is all the different resource the
different growers and what's cool is these ingredients are mostly used in supplements not used in alcohol So they're used in natural medicine and in supplements. So and they're used they're grown and they're very successful
Being used in supplements. So they're powders and so, you know, we have a base spirit and Then we it's distilled and it's filtered it, you know, it's 18 times Distilled 18 times and then so all the impurities are out literally and then we add these Superfood botanicals in after it's been
distilled and they're never heated. They don't go through distillation at all They're just suspended in the liquid and then they're filtered a little bit Because they have to be you don't want particles floating around right?
So there's a whole process but once we understood how to do that, it's actually very easy to make and and what's wonderful is the companies that we work with to get our ingredients are so excited about what we're doing because it's never been done this way before they don't sell ingredients like that to alcohol companies so we can get whatever we need because They're so excited even if we're just a little company and like during Covid elderberry extract was in
very short supply. Mm-hmm Because everyone was taking it for their immune system and you literally unless you had a contract with an elderberry company You're not getting elderberry extract But once they found out what we were doing they were like you could have whatever you want We'll make sure you have it.
So that was amazing. I know Yeah, it's gotta be exciting when you get buy-in from everybody who wants to help you succeed Exactly, right because they could have said no because I'm sure they had other priorities They could have said no whenever they want, but they're like, no, we really believe in this. This is yes This is something that we think they can really work. That's that's incredible It is it's very it's very Exciting because you get to learn one
thing that's so fascinating. There's so many interesting people in This whole soup that we have going. Yeah, there's just a lot of really interesting people that are so Get behind you and that helps encourage when the you know when times are, you know, do they go and get stuff?
Yeah, well, it's so funny because you mentioned at the beginning It's like the best thing you can do is tell people about your ideas But I think a lot of entrepreneurs at the beginning when they have an idea They don't want to necessarily tell everybody because they don't want to give away their ideas for that person to turn around and develop that idea on their own here you are like no tell people that you know that you need that you will tell the world because
You never know who's gonna buy in who's gonna help who's gonna prioritize right you over other other priorities That's a that's a very different way of thinking when it comes to entrepreneurs It is and it's a really important way of thinking because you cannot do this I mean you think of all the people that have these great ideas and they never do anything with the idea because you're they Either they're just they just don't believe in themselves that they could get it done
Which is why you have to talk to people because yeah, you might have a great idea You don't have the capability of doing it or the money, right? But then you've got so the investor side you were asking me about that a little bit and that you know Now we're at the next phase where the liquor business is very expensive business to be in. Yes. I had no idea What makes it so is it is it the bringing all the things together to make the actual?
Alcohol or is it or the the the spirit or is it more of the distribution and all the things afterwards? All the things afterwards. Yeah, it's it's not inexpensive to make either But in terms of the margins the margins are there for it to be a solid business if you get your Economies of scale and you you work with the right partners and you control your growth, right?
Because if you go too big too fast and you don't have enough money for distribution and your sales forces and your marketing spend and It's just expensive to get on a cocktail menu in a bar. It's expensive to Set up your distributor Relationships where you have to help do incentives for all the
salespeople. It's expensive for Going into total wine and more and doing all their consumer education classes and tastings at every store, you know It just adds up and then the digital marketing and the advertising now we have Woody Harrelson, you know, we have all these beautiful So there's just it depends on What you want your business to be to be you could be a little Distillery, which is lovely a little family business in Tennessee and have your whatever and that's
great and just have a nice life But that's not what we're doing. We are We are our goal is to educate and make a huge splash Right to show people this is the next best thing clueless consumption is over You now have a choice of what you put into your body Yeah, you know you have a choice to give a shit to and that's okay 100 percent I
completely agree. I love that And you know you talk about things to do like distribution and then getting into you know, certain stores doing test things and stuff It gets expensive too But there are certain things that you'd like to do to help develop the business even more One of the big things that you've recently gained was and we talked a little bit about it was the you know The b-corp status right and being part of the b-corp Can you talk a little bit about what
b-corp is for some of the audience people who don't know we've talked a little bit about it on this on this on this podcast, but if you can just kind of manage that and then why it was important for holistic experience to be on that Yeah, so I mean b-corp is a platform that audits if you will and validates businesses for their practices around Environmental their governance their employee the way they treat employees They're the way they treat their their stakeholders and inform
stakeholders their suppliers and so if you again, I think a really Easier way for people to understand is to
read the book conscious capitalism. Okay, then you'll really understand Why a b-corp and there's a lot of companies that act like a b-corp, but they don't go through that process It's really hard to do once you're already in business because you have to open up your entire financial All your supplier contracts all your distributor contracts where you're buying all your materials all your shipping costs Everything you do all your materials your bottling your boxes, you know
How much water how much energy your distilleries are using? You know how your what how much? Leave you're giving to employees when they have a child like What kind of governance you have on your board? You know, what are your board policies like everything about your business has to be disclosed In the way you're operating your business and have somebody else look at all of that and tell you Basically whether you are on a path to become a b-corp which you have to get I think it's a
8 80 approval. I can't remember exactly what the ratio is Um, I think we got 82 percent and what's the most important part of this for us was we had our entire team With our employees all involved in the process So there was so much work that had to be done to provide documentation And I wanted everyone on our team to learn what those things were and why we had to do them Yeah, and and then writing policies, you know An employee handbook and having everyone sign off on that like what
was the last job you ever had? Okay, i've been in business For like i'm 63 since i was 14 years old. I can't remember reading an employee handbook Yeah Okay I don't know if you have first time I did it was at the job i'm at right now and that was like three months ago Okay, you've been in business for a
while. Yeah, so like having these things in place to get everyone on board Yeah to get behind this movement around If you're gonna do it, it's just like the alcohol if you're gonna drink Why not drink better if you're gonna have a company? Why not operate better for everybody's benefit? Not just us but everyone
in the world's benefit. Yeah And that's really what b lab is 100 and I think what's what's interesting about that is when you have a company where you're treating people well Like the staff you're treating the stakeholders. You're treating the environment. You have an impact You have a mission that goes beyond just profit and you care about the planet you care about what's in what's in your your product?
It makes it you make almost a stronger you not almost you do make a stronger company Because you get people who work for you who work for the company who love it, right? Who come in every day being passionate because they know that You know, they're doing good and they're doing good work. They're taking care of
their customers. They're taking care of each other They're being taken care of that helps in every aspect the environment's being taken care of And I and I think like someone who's an employee at a different company is you're like, okay Like yeah, I get this like this seems like a really good plan And and I can you know, I can see myself being here for a long time because they actually care For the people in all aspects of of the
company. I think that's really important to drive Absolutely and to attract talent Yeah, it creates so much value In the sense of the kind of people that you actually really want to that truly have their heart and soul in that movement absolutely that you can bring on board and That part to me is just absolutely priceless and you're right like 10 times Success if you read that's why I want everyone to read
conscious confidence. Yes if you truly implement these measures Even if you only did like 60 percent of it, right? Right your success level is so much greater with these principles And so from it just in general like if you're going to work why again? Why not have the odds in your favor? When you are bringing all of these things to the table where that do you do have that skin in the game?
You have that mindset where the people that come to work every day are so passionate about it and that they really truly care and you just create a movement and that's one of our You know, it's not a drink. It's a movement. That's what holistic spirits company is. I like that I like that. It's not just drink. It's a
movement. I think that's that's important because we need more companies like we're in a very interesting time in our in in the world and We're at a point where you know companies can be very detrimental to society and companies can be very good for society and I think supporting companies that are very good society becomes we we will have a better society by doing that in all aspects of of life and and doesn't matter the product that they sell because we know that there it's a benefit
Then we can we can work with that and and I think people as just regular citizens will be like this is what we need We need people to help out. We need people to care Again and not just have profit but have impact have purpose in life And I think that's what the b-labs and the b-corps do on a regular basis. It's in the mandate, right? It's in it's in the audit is to how much do you care?
How much are you willing to go above and beyond what you are you are required to do To make a better world for everybody, you know, not just the people in your circles And I think that's that's really great now. I have to know this is something that's not easy to get You know to get a b-corp status When you received it or first when did you receive it and how did you feel when you received it?
We received it in november. Okay, and so we kind of been holding off as we did our press release in january Yes, um, oh my gosh, we were we I mean it's right now i'm sitting here going we haven't even had a proper celebration with our team. We need to do something Um, so i'm really glad that you're talking about this right now because I haven't done anything yet Except say oh my gosh,
you guys got it. Yeah um we We kind of knew we were going to get it because we worked so hard We hired a couple people to help us go through the process Again, why not work with people that already know how to do this and go. Okay guys Here's what you're going to have to do instead of just going. Oh, you know We wanted to make sure we nailed it So we really we did hire some people that helped us but we had to go through the process
They didn't do it for us. They just told us this is what you're going to need you know, um And they helped us and we these were people that I had already known from different incubator, um You know sustainability incubators we've supported and things like that We've always been a supporter in my other industry too of like sponsoring things and even when I was a financial advisor Where things around sustainability and things like and supporting entrepreneurs that are doing really cool things
Yeah with sustainability. So yeah, so excited and so proud. We're also working on Another certification called the butterfly mark, which is called positive luxury, which is for very I'm going to say it's more in the luxury
brand space. Yeah, it's a european Mark, okay that is even harder to get So we are we are working on that most of the b-labs believe it or not b-corps There's more european companies that are b-corps than right then american companies and the same thing with the positive luxury So we're still working through that and we really want to have that as well. And honestly like This is really good for our marketing efforts to do that extra thing and do
that. Yeah, we believe that our brand Is a global brand and the world should know about holistic spirits and a better way to drink And so we're just setting up the stage We're just putting all the you know, the backdrops and the curtains and you know all the things for the play to start Basically and a lot of people would say well That's just doesn't seem like a very good way to spend money and I don't really care what they say because that's what I see this movie the stage getting ready for
the big you know Performance and what's so exciting is that the spirits industry also? Is recognizing the distributors because we've had a hard time getting a distributor for our weird brand Right, even with woody harrelson. It's not a slam dunk not even right andrew. I mean there's 68 000 brands It's crazy so much. So it's just insane. So
All these things have helped us. We just finally signed with southern glazer wine and spirits and that's the number one distributor in the united States, so They didn't pick up very many brands.
They had they they vetted like 750 brands last year and I think they picked four Wow, so we're Because of these things We know the data is there and you should be excited your listeners should be excited too That this next generation of kids and people That want stuff care about this kind of stuff And so, you know, where is the market going?
Then it's going towards better better way to live better way to experience life better way to Be a human and care about stuff and not just just be clueless, you know So i'm really proud of that and now we have to get to work We're launching the market in california and that's really where you know, we should shine. That's our market california I mean if we don't make it california with holistic spirits, I mean forget it We're gonna have to go to like, you know,
I don't know minnesota or something. Yeah You know a little town in minnesota with all the crunchy people Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, I get it. I if you can come up to canada there's you BC crowd and let everything in the ontario crowd I mean, you know you you're familiar with the ontario the ontario It's very down to it is type of stuff and and I think it's I think it's important going back to the year Are you are you allowed to sell in europe
then? Is that is that a market for you since you're trying to get that? Okay, not yet. We we have a lot of interest over there And again, it's just taking those baby steps to yeah, we have to we if we can get california We're we are in different states. We're in utah, which is doing extremely well
there. We're in new york You know, we've got some markets on the east coast florida but we're slowly Controlling the growth so we don't yeah grow too fast, of course Um, but europe is going to be so exciting to do business over there and we're looking forward to and china China wants us already really it's got yes shanghai An importer in shanghai Okay There you go. I'm like I got we got all these like little carrots these little
shiny outfits. I'm like no No, no, you gotta you gotta hold be patient and and it'll get there Yeah, well, I think it's interesting too because like from the european standpoint their standards for health And wellness just in the regular brands is very strict compared to north american
standards. Am I correct? It is Yeah, it's a very difficult Yeah, so when it's the north american brand trying to break into the european brand I see what you mean where or the european markets I could see what you mean by it becomes more strict So you have to do a little bit more work in prep not that the the system that you have to change But you just have to work a little bit harder for or a little bit more for prep It's expensive taxes and all different tariffs, of course, you
know, the 80s and stuff Exactly, but you know and the overall though drinking is down, you know, it just is everywhere And there's a number of reasons for it The economies throughout the world Covid changed people's patterns. They don't go out as much not for sure, you know drinking having enjoying things at home a little bit and honestly In the united states this glp one like people taking these ozepic Um glp one activators is really causing people not to crave
alcohol. It's very interesting Interesting. Oh, it's really it's this epic is really changing the game and I don't know if it's good or bad But no, this is real people are not craving it going home and having that too Maybe they'll have a half a glass or so.
That's one thing and then the younger kids Are choosing to not drink as much because they're learning more, you know about the dangers and maybe they have different alternatives You know, yeah than we had back in the day That's right There's a few i'm sure we're thinking of that Uh, yeah become a lot more apparent than yes here in canada and i'm sure in california and in different states, but
Totally. Yeah. I mean this is this is great It's been so fun to have to have you on and learn about the sustainability part of the alcohol business, you know, and and not only making it healthy but making it sustainable and using natural ingredients and organic ingredients ingredients and then just really disrupting a market that People really didn't think about you know when they had alcohol I think it's I think it's really important and and the collaborations
you've made and the the the uh, the research that you've done With a number of different experts around the world and being able to pull in different ingredients That's that's phenomenal to be able to to do and in this space as competitive as it is I i'm looking forward to being able to taste it one day and oh good. Well, get send me your address I'll send you some absolutely. Absolutely. I would love to
Um, but I was amy. I want to thank you so much I'd love to have you back on to to find out, you know What you're up to in in a few months or within the next year to just be like, hey Let's see what what she's up to and and where this brand is going and what other feats you've been able to accomplish But I know you've put in so much work Uh, and I really do appreciate it from from your this is a message from your consumers and and your customers To being able like this is awesome and
i'm looking forward to being able to try it and uh and share it with with my listeners Awesome. Thank you so much. Andrew and thank you for all the work you're doing It's just it was so great watching i'm in mexico seeing the whales and thinking about You know all the work you're doing to protect the ocean and it is just extraordinary needs to be done. So, thank you I appreciate that. Thank you so much