Marketing Happy Hour - Turning Customers into an Engaged Brand Community | Jess Druey of Whiny Baby

Episode Date: February 6, 2025

In this episode, we’re diving into brand community with Jess Druey, founder of Whiny Baby Wines—a brand that’s not just about great wine but about reimagining the wine experience for a new generation. Jess shares her journey from media and content production to launching her own wine brand, the strategies she’s used to introduce Whiny Baby to the market, and how she fosters connection both online and in person. We also explore the concept of “connection-based consumption” and why community is at the heart of Whiny Baby’s mission. Whether you’re a wine lover, a brand builder, or someone passionate about creating meaningful experiences, this episode is packed with insights on standing out in a crowded market and keeping your audience engaged. Key Takeaways: // How Jess’s media and marketing background shaped her approach to building Whiny Baby, plus her experience building her own brand as a Gen Zer // The most effective strategies for launching a new brand in a competitive industry // The role of brand community in Whiny Baby’s success // Why fostering connection-based consumption is key to the brand’s mission // How digital marketing and content keep Whiny Baby top of mind for consumers // Ways to engage your audience between purchases and create a lasting brand experience Learn more about Whiny Baby: Website Follow Whiny Baby: InstagramConnect with Jess: LinkedIn ____ Say hi! DM me on Instagram and let us know what content you want to hear on the show - I can't wait to hear from you! Please also consider rating the show and leaving a review, as that helps us tremendously as we move forward in this Marketing Happy Hour journey and create more content for all of you. ⁠ Join our FREE Open Jobs group on LinkedIn: ⁠Join now⁠ Get the latest from MHH, straight to your inbox: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join our email list!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow MHH on Social: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Community has unfortunately become like an oversaturated buzzword in business and very few companies actually have a strong community and foster it. We just really, really need opportunities and ways to connect with other people, encouraging our generation to put their phones down and to make memories and find time to gather. For my business, I believe it's what we offer. Wine is an invitation to do that. Welcome to Marketing Happy Hour. I'm Cassie, consultant, podcaster, and your host. Every Thursday, you'll hear episodes packed with insights from brand leaders on an array of topics, from crafting effective marketing strategies and hitting career goals goals to building leadership skills and launching your own business. Inspired by those unfiltered happy hour combos with peers,

this show is all about practical, empowering chats to support your professional journey. So grab your favorite drink and let's get to the episode. So today's episode is a long time coming. Jess and I were talking offline just about how Whiny Baby has been on Erica and I's radar for quite some time. So super stoked to finally chat with the founder of the brand. Jess, welcome to the show today. Yay. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited. Oh my gosh, of course. And if you're not familiar with Whiny Baby, I encourage you to pause this episode very quickly. Please go check it out. It's such a fun brand. And we'll talk about just the journey that you took just to build this brand, start it, what that process was like. But I have to ask you before we dive in, is there a go-to

bottle that you're loving right now, or just something that you're super stoked about recently that you guys have been working on? Oh my gosh. So many exciting things. I think it's silly, but really all, all three are meant to be like the perfect starter pack. So I would just say, if you are unfamiliar with wine, like I was, and honestly still am, I'm still learning. Um, you know, I was 22 when I started the brand, but I wish I had something like whiny Baby that introduced me to wine and was an easy starting place. And so that's why we've got our starter pack and there are three blends. So you can just go, I'm going to try red. I'm going to try white. I'm going to

try rosé. And from there you can go, okay, I liked this one. My personal favorite is Obsessed, our red blend. And a lot of people think they don't like red wine. So if you think you don't like wine, if you think you don't like red wine, uh, give our, give our red a try. Um, but certainly work your way through the entire starter pack. Yeah, absolutely. It's a really good approachable brand for wine. So highly recommend. I've had the unwind white wine before. It's delicious. I have to ask too, like, I feel like part of the whole experience is the bottle itself. Like it's so cute. It's so fun. So for those who are like, I'm driving, I'm doing whatever, like I can't check out Instagram or the

website right now. Can you kind of describe quickly, like what that presence or appearance is just a little bit. I mean, the, the whole bottle itself in the packaging, I would say is really what makes whiny baby special. I am passionate that any brand can make a trendy, cute label and slap it on a bottle. And whiny baby really is a re-imagined experience. And, you know, the whole story is that I had a first date and I, he asked me to bring a bottle of wine and I was 22 and had no clue what to grab. And from there, it really started me becoming obsessed with wine, but really the entire wine drinking experience from the moment you're picking it out on the shelf till you finish the bottle. And so the details really are that, you know, when you're looking at the bottles, uh, each is labeled with a big word that's meant to embody a occasion or reason

for buying. So we've got OMG obsessed in, like you said, unwind. And I love that you, you use the correct name. Um, and the thought process there was really, you know, when me and my friends were grabbing a bottle of wine there, it was for a reason or occasion or an occasion, right? So if you're just hanging out, you know, having a chill night in reading your book for book club, maybe you're going to grab and wind. If you have a first date, maybe you're grabbing the obsessed with all the hearts on it. Um, and then OMG is certainly what everyone uses for, you know, their best friend getting engaged or, you know, someone passing the bar or moving into their dream apartment. It's, it's the celebration one. Um, and then from there,

there's all sorts of fun, different things, but we've got our conversation bottle caps. So, um, if you're driving right now and you can't take a look, our bottles have bottle caps instead of corks. And, um, when I first started the bottles originally did have corks. And what happened was I kept breaking the corks. And I was like, okay, if we all, right. So I was like, if I own a wine brand, and I keep breaking corks, other people are too. And I also like the look of crown caps. So we have crown caps. And then underneath is surprise conversation starters. So everything from spin the bottle to what's a book you're reading, the craziest place you've done the deed. There's all sorts of fun, juicy ones.

And then lastly is the back. You flip it over and it's a peel and stick savable back label. I've never seen another wine brand certainly have. It's like a sticker on a sticker. It peels completely off and it says date, location, memories from the bottle, and you can fill it out and save it and keep those memories. People put them in journals or picture frames or cards. And, you know, all of those concepts were on my original bottles, but they've evolved and improved. So on the original

bottle, I didn't have the technology or resources to do like a sticker on a sticker. So the label, but everyone was like, I love this so much, but I don't want to keep the whole bottle, you know, peel it off. Um, so that's how, how we've kind of evolved it over time. And that concept again, came from, I was on the first date and like a lot of people I'm thinking, Oh my gosh, if I'm going to marry this guy, I want to keep this bottle of wine forever. And that's what wine does. It creates memories and all those details that I've developed are going to enhance the consumer's experience. Yeah, and it really is that. It's a whole experience in and of itself. Obviously the wine itself is, it comes with memories, it comes with experiences, but to be able to kind of like dive into the bottle as an experience, the brand has an experience.

It's so fun. So, okay. So I want to go back and talk about your story. Like you were in kind of this media marketing world, right? And then you founded whiny baby. So what was that journey? Like, like, why did you jump ship? Like. So what was that journey like? Like, why did you jump ship? Like what, what was kind of the process there to building this brand today? Yeah. So I'm super passionate about, you know, the story and sharing it because still to this day, I think a lot of people, especially people in their twenties, you know, look at people who have started businesses and, and they're like, oh my gosh, how did that happen? And it can be easy to be like, yeah, she had an idea and she, you know, and there's so

much more to it. And so I just think it's really important to encourage others. Like there's no difference between me and other people. We all have ideas. The only difference is I went for it and I wake up every day and choose to keep pushing forward. It really has to be an everyday decision. But I was working and living in Los Angeles. I dropped out of college. So I kind of had an earlier start, I would say, to like working in corporate America and things like that. And I landed an amazing job at Red Bull and worked my way up there for a while. And it's funny because I didn't know it at the time.

But Red Bull, you know, is the greatest beverage marketer of our generation, if not marketer, period. And they really showed me what it looks like to have a product that represents a lifestyle. And when someone thinks of Red Bull, they don't just think of the energy drink. They think of the athletes and Red Bull gives you wings. And that is the greatest example of marketing in my opinion. And I always say if the wine industry could take just a little bit of Red Bull's approach, we'd be in a lot better position. You know, unfortunately, the wine industry is really struggling right now. And I am an eternal optimist.

And I'm like, oh my gosh, I think we're in the best place for opportunity. I think that the wine industry just hasn't done a good job of introducing our generation to wine, which is what Winey Baby is doing. So anyways, I was working at Red Bull. It was the pandemic. So we switched from in office every day to remote like a lot of people. And honestly, for the first time in like my, you know, early 20s, I was like, okay, I should probably like think about my personal life now. So I like download Hinge. And I'm like, I had more time on my hands, and went on that date, had the idea. And over the next year, I kind of puttered around with the idea, you know,

I googled how to start a wine brand and I was like oh gosh this this is like really hard you know just like everyone else does and uh it wasn't until I had an unfortunate life event but it was the catalyst my stepfather had passed and um it was during that time that I really saw the power and healing power of food and wine and what, you know, he was ill for about three, four months and my mom would come home from the hospital and friends and family would fly in and we'd sit around the table and, you know, have food and wine. And before that, you know, I think people grow up in households where either your parents like drink wine frequently or they don't and mine didn't. And so if you grew up how I grew up,

you're not introduced to wine, you know? So it wasn't until I kind of had that family experience that I was like, whoa, you know, life is short. You know, it really showed me like if I want to go for something, I need to go for it. And wine is the thing I want to go for because it is so powerful and so healing. And, and, you know, Gen Z is the loneliest generation. We need connection and wine is a catalyst for that. So had the idea wasn't for like a year later that I really went, I'm going for it. And then it was another year of, you know, I didn't go, I'm going for it and quit my job. I couldn't do that. I couldn't afford to do that. So I had the idea. I was fortunate enough that my

family had set aside money for me to go to college. So when I dropped out over the years, I'd be like, Hey, can I tap into that money for X, Y, Z? And thankfully they said, no, no, no, no, no. And finally with whiny baby, they said yes. And so it wasn't a lot, you know, like 20,000, something like that, um, which is amazing and more of a spring, I mean, like 20,000, something like that, which is amazing and more of a springboard that many, you know, many people don't have. However, if I hadn't had that, I would have gone out. I would have figured out how you get $20,000 to start, but $20,000 around about that much had to be scrappy.

Just Googled my way through it. And then I'm so passionate about podcasts because I would listen to how I built this like every morning on my walk. And, um, that's how I found my partners, the McBride sisters. They were on how I built this. And, um, podcasts are so powerful because you just get an immediate, you know, access to hear people's stories. And hopefully when people listen to this, they have a similar experience of, Oh, wow, that person's like just like me and I can totally do that too. Absolutely. I mean, your story is such a testament to truly like you don't have to have this crazy background and wine or whatever it is to like start this company. If you just talk to the right people, research your way through it, like if you're determined enough and hardworking enough, you will figure it out.

So it's not letting any of those variables stop you. And I also say I really feel that my like superpower and really an important element to Winey Baby is that I don't know a lot about wine. I know who to partner with and allow them to be the experts. So, you know, Winey Baby is premium quality wine. We have amazing winemaking team and I'm a part of that, but I get to have the mindset that our consumers have. And that helps me translate what they're looking for. Because to be honest, the longer I'm in the industry and the more I learn, it's like, wait a second, the everyday person doesn't have this

knowledge. I, you know, I shouldn't know what you're supposed to do. The everyday person doesn't. And so I think oftentimes leaning into what you don't know can be just as if not more powerful. started and stepped into the market. What were some of those strategies you took to get this fairly new brand kind of off the ground out into consumers hands, increasing visibility for the brand itself? So what were some of those first early days, you know, strategies there that you imparted to do that? Yeah, so thankfully, we're not seeing the TikTok ban right now anymore because TikTok played a really big part in our journey. It's interesting. I actually don't talk about this a lot, but you're the perfect person to talk about it because I know you'll get it. So in 2020, again, just like everyone else, I was like, oh, what's this TikTok thing? And I started going on it and I'd really just talk or say, I mean, I'm a very opinionated person with a lot of thoughts. And I was like, great, I can just share thoughts here.

And I grew a little bit of a, of a following, nothing crazy, but like around 80,000 or something. And, um, it's funny. I had this kind of, uh, thought where I went, oh, I could really pursue this and probably like start making money off TikTok. But I realized I was like, I don't really have interest in like being an influencer per se, you know, influencers are hired by brands. And I went, I want to be the boss. I want to be the brand, not the influencer. And so I made an intentional decision to go, look, I've grown this community naturally. And I just am more of an entrepreneur

myself. And I would rather create a product and a brand for this community rather than be an influencer who gets paid by other brands, if that makes sense. And so I kind of paused from posting on TikTok and spent time, you know, I honestly, I should have been better about keeping up with that, but I just felt like I needed to focus on building whiny baby. And so then when I launched my proof of concept, I had this platform, an immediate way to kind of get consumer feedback. And so I only posted two TikToks when I launched and they went pretty viral. And, you know, we sold out of that. I had a small batch of that, like proof of concept round day. And that pretty much sold out and kind of proved my point for, look, there is a need for this. And that gave me the ability to go, okay, I've proved my point. I've made my proof of concept. And now how am I going to scale this thing? And that's when I went, I could, you know, bootstrap, sell, get more money, sell. But that would take me years to get on store shelves. The other route I could do was, you know, raise money.

But I knew this industry is so complex and I could raise $10 million and wouldn't have the proper resources or infrastructure to execute, I didn't trust myself, right? I'm not the best person to execute the operations in that way. And so I kind of had this thought, look, the wine industry is, I think not enough people talk about how, you know, I talk a lot about ideas and going for it and creativity. Probably the most important part is actually my research and the not glamorous part, like for every fun, creativity, you know, marketing, I backed it with research. So I knew I had a hunch, right? Like the wine industry, the shelves, like they're not speaking to me.

They're probably not speaking to others. But then I had research to back it. Oh yeah. The wine industry is failing to capture new consumers. So that's important. You know, you have to have, you have an idea, but you have to be backed by research and facts that, that there's, you know, a need for this. Um, so yeah, I, I had that research. I had the backing and, and went for it. That's amazing. Yeah. That's, I feel like that truly is a testament to just, if, if you're in marketing and you want to pitch a new idea for a campaign or whatever, like the idea itself may sound awesome

and you may present it to a leader and they're like, okay, cool. But like, how does this lead to the bottom line? And so to your point, coming with that research and that information to present, because most leaders, most investors, whoever it is you're talking about, they just want to know the why they want to know what's in it for me, what's in it for us as a brand. And so doing your due diligence like that is so, so incredibly important. So it was true, right? All these big wine companies, they had what I needed, the wine making excellence, the infrastructure, the distribution, And then that's how I landed my partners, which is what allowed me to so quickly get on store shelves and grow. And I'm so grateful to them, the McBride sisters, if you don't, if you are not familiar, they're the largest black owned and

largest female owned wine company in the US. And they have an amazing story. And I was also fortunate, you know, a lot of times you enter into a partnership like that with a bigger company and they have every right to come in and change things. They trusted and believed that Winey Baby would only work if me and the community stayed authentic. And so when I said, I want our still wines to be, you know, our rosé is slightly frizzante. It's not a full spark. It has a little bit of bubbles.

The everyday person wouldn't know this or realize this, but our bottles are actually sparkling bottles. So industry people think they're sparkling wines. The everyday person doesn't know that, right? Sure. And so I was like, well, I want them to be in the same bottle. The cohesion is important to me and Gen Z, like aesthetically. Right.

And it really drives the idea that they're this pack that go together. If they were different style bottles that in my opinion, that didn't work. And so I asked our winemaker, like, does it hurt the wine? You know, and she's like, no, like, but that's not really what you do. And I'm like, well, the consumers don't know that. Right. You may know that. And thankfully my partners, the McBride sisters said, you know, we agree. Okay. If that's what you want to do, you know, go for it. So it's stuff like that.

Right. Yeah. And it's just also, I mean, so many things are popping out at me here, but it's like also this idea of challenging the status quo, like just because things have always been a certain way, doesn't exactly mean they have to continue to be that way. Yeah. There's a purpose and there's a reason for a lot of things, but just not being afraid to do something a little bit different and tell people and explain to people why you want to do it that way. And that helps you stand out. I think I love what you said before about, um, kind of like you have to prove a lot of times to leaders or investors, um, you know, you have to show them, you can have the idea in your head. It makes sense. Like, Oh, I'm going to execute it like this, but it's, it's, it's a skillset that is not talked about enough because

you can have an idea, but if you can't communicate it, but it doesn't matter, you're right. If you can't get other people to understand it. So one, that's why I went, okay, it's not enough for me to make a deck and pitch it to wine companies. I had to do the proof of concept. And it was important to me too, because now I can say it's true. I, for that proof of concept round, I did everything on my own. I packaged it.

I shipped it out. I found the one. So that's given me, you know, credibility and also experience that was important. But the whole concept of having to prove your idea really began for me during my time at Red Bull. I was a producer and really young and junior. And I wanted to be part of bigger projects. There was a specific documentary that I, it was a docu-series that I wanted to produce and lead. Why would they give me that opportunity? But I knew I deserved it.

And so what I did, and I actually, to this day, still do this, you know, I've always been the person who goes the extra mile. And I think when you're younger, that's like cringe and whatever. No, go the extra mile because most people won't. And so what I did was when I wanted that, I built a deck proving out, you know, my concept, how I was going to execute it, my budget, you know, I showed, you know, how I was going to do this docuseries. And I printed it out. I bound it and I left it on every single leadership person at Red Bull's desk. And I ended up getting that docu-series. And same thing when I had the opportunity to meet with my partners. Oh my gosh, you land a once in

a lifetime meeting. Great. You're going to show up. You're going to talk. But in my head, I'm going, no, I need to show them that I will be the most buttoned up person in the room. I know how, you know, and so same thing, I built a deck, I bound it, gave it to them. And so then, you know, we could have a great conversation, but they'd have something physical where they go, Oh, yeah, that girl, we really should, you know, do something with her. So going the extra mile, taking the time to visualize and communicate what's in your head, that in my opinion is going to be the thing that really helps you get there. Yeah. And then with that, I have to ask you just building confidence in your ideas, in yourself, clarifying how you communicate and stuff. Do you have any tips

for just honing that and building that out personally? Like what do you feel young professionals, especially who are just getting their feet wet in their careers or if they're building a business, how, how can they go about like building that confidence in their ideas and just making sure they're clearly communicating? Like what are some things? Yeah. It's funny. I, I've been thinking a lot about like this topic of confidence because I think you really do get to a point where even in your personal life, this sounds bizarre to relate it to, to professional life, but I think it's important. Like I was driving the other day and you know, I think every person has struggled with like body confidence at some point in their life.

And I was driving and I like remembered to a time back in college when I really struggled with it. And I remember that I would like not go to certain things or events because I was so insecure about that. And I like was driving and I was like, oh my gosh, I forgot that I used to feel that way. And it made me so sad that I like had felt that way. And so similarly, I think how you overcome those things is very different personally and

professionally and a whole other topic. Similarly, in your professional life, I have had times where I went, oh, wow, I have always been very confident in my professional life and kind of just known that I've really believed in myself, but I think it's because I put in the work. And so because of that, I have, you know, I've put in the work and I put in the research. So I, I trust myself, um, with that. But I think that gaining confidence is really through like exposure therapy, right? Someone asked me actually yesterday, like, how do you get comfortable and like, you know, confident and stay strong after being told no. And I'm like, I put so much stuff

out there and work for so many opportunities that one no doesn't even phase me because I've got 80 other things in the works. And I really do believe that if something was a no, well, one, I've had enough time and experience to go, there's major retailers. I can't share which one, but it's really exciting. One of my favorite retailers, we landed this year. Well, last year they told me no. And they told me no, like even as far to say as like, they didn't particularly care for the style of wine.

And like, that really hurt me. And like, I was sad. I was like, okay, like we move forward and now fast forward a year. Now they, they want it and it's going into their stores. And so I just think it's like, you just got it. If you're going to do something like this, you just got to get comfortable. Not everyone's going to like you. Like it's like social media too. You're, if you put yourself out there, I was just on a reality show. So scary. And I was like, look, I'm going to go on here. I'm not going to be everyone's cup of tea. And that is okay. Like I don't like everyone in the world. Like no one,

you know, everyone, but I think when you do something like this, you have to have a great group of people around you where I go, look, I care about my family, my friends, my business partners, opinions of me because they know me and, and, you know, but I don't care what a stranger on the internet, you know, you know, their opinion of me, but really failure and growing in professional confidence. It comes from experience. I hate, I used to hate this because like at 22, when people would be like, well, some things just take time. I'm like, well, no, like I'm 22. Even from 22 to 27, the skills I've gained, the it's just now when I'm told no, I have the experience to look back and go, well, maybe in a year it'll be a yes. So it just comes with time. It comes with experience. And then lastly, this is maybe the most important part. I'm only 27 and that's not

lost on me that that is like so young. I used to be like, I dropped out of college because I was just like, I need to get on with my life. And then I started a business because I was like, I got it. I've always been like onto the next thing. When I look back, I would not have been able to do what I've done now if I didn't have that time at Red Bull, if I didn't have all the other jobs I've worked. So if you're in something and you're like, I feel stuck, I want to move on. That's great. But you will look back and be like, wow, all the skills I'm developing right now and the people, all the people that I worked with at Red Bull, I've worked with them in some capacity or they've helped me with whiny baby. So whatever you're doing right now, don't blow it off because you're ready for the next thing. Yes. It's okay to be ready, but

the people you're working with, you'll work with them again, or they'll help you in some way. And the skills you're developing, you will use them. So just, I know it's hard. It's still hard for me. Like even with whiny baby, I'm ready for the next thing, you know, I'm ready for the next product we're going to develop. I'm right. There's a reason we're in the time we're in now. And we really, you don't want to miss what you're supposed to learn because you're looking for the next thing. Yeah, for sure. Oh my gosh. I was literally in therapy yesterday. And my therapist is like, you're such a go-getter. Like you're, you're so forward thinking. She's like, that's amazing. And you need that. But she's like, slow down.

Like experience everything you need to experience right now. Like what can you take away from this? So it's such a good reminder to anyone who's like very driven, which again is very positive. But like there's a balance there, right? So true. It's something I think we're all clearly. I mean, I literally talked about it with my therapist. I also love like, I don't even know how old you are, but I feel like you're 29. Okay. You're cusp.

I'm 27. We're cusp, right? It's actually, you are like, some people would say we're like zillennials, you know? Cause it's like, I totally, I know I'm not a millennial, but I definitely don't like identify with like core older millennials. But then also, you know, Gen Z, the bulk of it is a lot younger. So it's like these, this is a lineal generation is pretty caught in the middle, you know? But anyways, it's funny. I myself am working through that exact thing in therapy too. Yeah. Yeah.

No, it's good. It's a good reminder. And it's good to hear from other people kind of navigating that. It's very reassuring. So, oh my gosh, I could talk to you all day about just like career and like personal development um but I have to ask you just about that like connection and community piece so you talked a little bit about that with whiny baby but connection-based consumption is at the heart of your brand which I absolutely love that So why do you feel fostering connection

is such an integral part of what you're doing? And why do you think just overall thinking about the bottom line of a business, for example, that community element is so critical? Yeah, it's funny. Community has unfortunately become like an oversaturated buzzword in business. And very few companies actually have a strong community and foster it. And to be totally honest, it's something that I want to grow with whiny baby. I think you make a product and, you know, so much of my day to day is getting that product into stores and working with distributors and all that that you a lot of times don't have the budget or the resources to execute the community aspect in full that you want to. However, social media obviously plays such a big part and I think we really do have a community and actually, you know, embrace it in the sense that we've been developing an orange wine and when it came the

time to make the label to uh decide on the flavor profile I literally social media made those decisions they picked the color palette they picked the logo they picked the design they picked like there I actually disagreed with the final result. And I had a moment where I was like, I really liked this one better. And I was like, no, like I asked our community, they gave me an answer and that's like what it should be. And so it's funny to me that I remember sitting in meetings at Red Bull and this whole, how do we get, you know, the new consumers, like every single company is having that conversation. And I was in a boardroom full of wonderfully talented, very intelligent, but much older,

not very diverse people. And I remember thinking like, you're all sitting here going, how do we, you know, what should we do coming up with these ideas? Like, A, why are there not more people that represent the community you're after in this room? But B, why are you not just asking them themselves, what do you want? What would, what are you into? What would help? And so I'm really passionate about the fact that even myself being a Gen Z-er, I don't know all the answers. My friends, I'm trying to be hyper aware of just because my

friends like something, well, that's not a representation of the rest of the country, you know? So I really make an effort to get a variety of opinions from our community because that's what it really, you know, means to me. In terms of, you know, why that's important and connection-based consumption, again, Gen Z is the loneliest generation. I think we're all still struggling with this. And I don't think it's fully hit the peak of like, technology has been changing so fast. We had the pandemic. And then now I don't know the percentage, but most people I know went from working in an office to working from home. And I struggle with loneliness. Like my every single day is I'm like up, I'm on my computer and I realize I'm like, oh my gosh, like I haven't

like seen another person in like two, three days because I like work from home. And so we just really, really need opportunities and ways to connect with other people. And for the wine industry specifically, there is a decline of drinkers across all of alcohol, but especially wine. And what I firmly believe is not the solve, but what I firmly believe is not changing no matter what changes in terms of drinking habits is when people gather, they drink, period. And so encouraging our generation to put their phones down and to make memories and find time to gather, that is, for me personally, what I believe the whole point of life is. But then for my business, I believe it's what we offer.

It's, look, a generation is feeling this way. Wine is an invitation to do that. I get started? What are some different strategies I can employ? You know, social is a big piece, right? Like I tell everyone all the time, I'm like, if you were not responding to comments, simply put responding to DMS, like that's the first way to start, like build trust with your community, show that you're there listening. Um, but is there anything else that you would say, or just like easy touch points or even unique, fun, different things you all have done to cultivate that community we so um for a lot of uh cpg brands that you know enter into stores you'll do like a store sampling so we uh started doing that and you know we got back results that we were like over indexing like 60% than industry standards. And why I think that is, is when we'd go into a city, we would promote it obviously on social, but if I'm going to have to tell someone, come to a store and try the wine, I'm going to make it an experience. So I would add elements like they'd come in and they could, you know, take the back of the label and I'd provide

like kind of like arts and crafts. I'd make a thing of it. I'd say, grab your girlfriends. You know, if I'm going to tell them to come to like a BevMo or a Total Wine or Target, you know, on a Thursday night, like I want to make it a thing. And so I would do that. But then the extra cherry on top was, you know, I myself am going to these samplings. So I'd be traveling. Well, if I'm going to go travel for a sampling, I'm going to make the most of it. And so what I would do is I'd make sure all of our samplings were in kind of like college towns. And the night before a sampling, I would DM myself what I believed were like local tastemakers that were at a college or recently graduated or whatever. And I'd say like, hey, you know, I own this wine brand. We're doing a

sampling in your city. Do you and a group of your friends want to have dinner with me? And we'll like try through some of our wines. And we've started doing these, what we called like tastemaker dinners. And they were so fun. Like I'm friends with all the people we still do it with. And that to me is like about as authentic as it gets in terms of creating a community. And I, you know, it's hard as a brand owner, like even though I have an amazing partnership, I'm still small and still scrappy and a lot of stuff I'm still doing myself. And I think as hard as that can be, what happens is a brand will grow too fast. And then a founder becomes kind of detached, right? They're not checking their DMs. I'm guilty of it. Um, we've had amazing people who work on our social media and, um, you know, run kind of point on community. And so for a while, like I wasn't

in our DMs because someone else was. And then when I started jumping back in, I was like, I should never become removed from this because when I started jumping back in, I had the opportunity. Now I don't do this for everyone, so I don't want everybody DMing now, but I had the opportunity, you know, someone had messaged, you know, I was really bummed to see that I went to the store and the bottles didn't have the beads on them because currently, um, they only come on orders from whinybaby.com. The reason they're not yet, uh, shelf safe. That's just not something we've been able to do. I will say sneak peek. We have a retailer this year that's bringing the bottle beads. So amazing. Um, you will be the first to have the bottle beads on the amazing. Major retailer. You will be the first to have the

bottle beads on the shelf. But she wrote this thing about, you know, how bummed she was and like disappointed in the brand. And that's so important for me to see. So I was able to personally reach out, personally send her beads, you know, and say like, look, you're a valued member of our community. I totally get that frustration. Let me send you some hang tight while we figure this out. Um, but that is fostering authentic, real community in my opinion. Yeah, for sure. I think if it's your founder, awesome. If it's someone from your team, like that human connection with a brand is so important too. And that really stands out. Like when someone, when you take the time to like personally write a message to that, that person and that customer, like they will

remember that and that touch point with the brand. And so I think just how can you humanize as much as possible? How can you open the line of communication? How can you show you're listening to, to, um, your consumers and integrating that feedback wherever necessary. I think those are all just important elements that sometimes we forget about. I couldn't agree more. Yeah. So I want to just ask quickly about digital channels. So just keeping consumers engaged between purchases. So social media, you guys have such a fun presence on there. So what's kind of the strategy there for just maintaining that relationship, that connection with your community in between their, their bottle purchases online or in store? Yeah, there's a couple different

touch points. I'd say Instagram is our main one. Um, I love, you know, Instagram story features that really allow us to pull and ask questions and, um, interact. Like, I just think that's like every brand should be pulling on their stories. You literally get to ask your consumer and get direct feedback. It's amazing. Um, I, whiny baby, naturally, like people love to take pictures and it just, so we get so many, you know, DMs and pictures from our community that just like, that like makes my day. Um, that being said, it's so important to remain on top of emerging platforms, unfortunately. And this is something I really still struggle with and I want, I need to start talking about it more to start getting more solves for it. But TikTok, while you can be an alcohol brand

and be on TikTok, it's like a law that you can't promote alcohol on a social media platform if the majority of the users are under 21. And for a time that was the case, I don't know if it's still the case, but I do know that whether TikTok it's selfish shadow bans alcohol content, I know that it's, it's very, very difficult for alcohol brands to

promote on TikTok. So if I'm being honest, I kind of went, look, it's kind of not pointless, but it's really like not the best platform for an alcohol brand. I'm going to maintain my personal TikTok as kind of a, I myself embody the brand just naturally. And that's, that's, that's good enough like there. Um, and then TikTok of course reels and we really execute always on content. We're always posting. We're always, you know, and we try to blend, you know, when we were in the middle of developing our orange and we still are developing our orange wine. I didn't know. I thought orange wine came not, I didn't think it came from oranges. Some of my friends thought it came from oranges. What I, what I got confused on is people say skin contact. And I thought that contact meant the winemaker like was hands on. I know it's crazy. I know. I completely understand. This is a normal,

valid conversations with many people. Yeah. And I just know industry people, if they listen to this are like, Oh my God, whatever. Okay. The everyday person does not know what's going on. Yeah. So we, I'm like, okay, lean in. Like if I thought that, right. So we made all these amazing graphics, like orange wine is not come from oranges, like, uh, you know, talking about orange wine. So I really try to blend entertainment and education. Uh, I really think the wine industry needs to do a better job of that. Um, and then lastly, I would say, well, actually two parts. Lastly, one, I think on the topic of emerging platforms, like Substack for me personally and Tiny Baby, an amazing platform that I need to spend time diving into and figuring out. And I want to

have a presence there, whether it's me or the brand or we'll figure that out. Our bottles have a phone number and we promote a phone number on social media. And that has been such an authentic form of community. I mean, if you text it, it's me and maybe like two other people who even have access to it. But it's most of the time me you're talking to. But people like leave voicemails and ask questions and more on an industry side of things. It's been an amazing tool for genuinely going in my industry. What happens is you work with a distributor and they put you on store shelves.

And so I may know a store in a state we're going into, but I don't know like when it actually hits the shelf. And so I feel really bad saying like, you know, Kentucky, we're now on these store shelves and then someone will go in there like it's not there. Like that's breaks my heart and that's awful. And so I was having that problem. And so I leaned in and I'm like, look, I don't know. I need your help. If I'm wasting your time, I'm so sorry, but I need your help. People started going to the store, taking a picture, sending it to the whiny baby number. And then I would screenshot it and say, confirmed Kentucky,

we are on the shelf. And I'm like, our community really, they're like our little army, like out there working with us, you know? So I just think companies need to lean in. It can be scary. You know, I shared for the first time yesterday that we've had a delay on our orange wine. It was supposed to come out last year. And I can't share why that delay has happened yet, but there is a delay. It is coming, you know, bear with us. And so it's uncomfortable when you're in it as a business owner to lean into

the difficulties, but people value that transparency and you'll be surprised how much they'll like work with you. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's goes back to that trust element. Like if you just open that line of communication, but I love also how you've just alluded to like testing and trying platforms. You tried to talk, it wasn't really working out for you. So you pivoted there and you're leaning into these other areas. And I think that's such an important lesson to business owners, to marketers, like don't be afraid to try something new, but if it doesn't work, like don't be afraid to pivot away from that too. It's totally fine. So it's interesting. And again, I'm like getting, I have no to pivot away from that too. It's totally fine. So it's interesting. And

again, I'm like getting, I have no problem like sharing things that I'm like in this moment working on. One thing is like, do I evolve our branding over time? Do I evolve it to mature? Or do I have products that evolve, you know, and that I think a brand would be like, like, what are you talking about? Like, that's like an iconic, like you think about Red Bull or Coca-Cola. It's like, they're not like, you know, you wouldn't change a whole brand identity over the years. And I would never change our entire identity. But yeah, it's crossed my mind to like adapt and grow because I grow and so do our consumers.

And so those are the interesting things that I think a lot of brands, that's not the norm to go, Hey, it's okay to change and adapt and grow and, you know, adapt over time. And I actually don't have a good example of a lot of brands that have really done that. I mean, maybe wine baby will become an example one day of doing that. Oh, I'm so curious to see what you decided to do with that. And just excited to hear about the orange wine launch, big fan of orange wine. Can't wait for that one. Um, well, speaking of that, Jess, this has been amazing. I mean, so many good insights and we can't wait to just stay in touch with you, stay in touch with the brand. So where are the best places to do that online? Social media, um, you know, whiny baby, our Instagram, of course,

um, I'm super responsive on my own Instagram. Um, and yeah, like I had a call, um, a couple days ago with another, um, you know, aspiring beverage founder. And she was like, you'd be surprised how many people, you know, haven't taken my calls. And that saddened me because when I first started out and still people have been very generous with their time to give me advice. And so that's something that I want to always do is pay it back. And, um, I think that it's interesting. I think about this a lot for young people and for women. I think that a lot of it's, it's sad. I, this isn't for, this isn't for the majority or whatever, but

oftentimes women don't always want to empower other women because they're like the only woman, you know what I'm saying? Like, it's not lost on me that being a young woman in the wine industry has been beneficial because there's so few, you know? Um, and I don't want to ever do that. There is space for everyone. You know, I want, and it doesn't even, I'm not even just talking women. I'm just talking across the board. There is space for everyone. And the only way we're going to grow, um, is by helping each other. And for me, for, for the wine industry, a win for the wine industry is a win for me and whiny baby. And so, you know, I want, I want to do that for others always. Oh my gosh. Amazing. Yeah. I appreciate that offer. And we'll

have all of the links to whiny baby channels, as well as your channels below. Just thank you so much. Again, this has been such a inspiring, empowering, uh, chat and just can't wait to stay connected with you and stay in touch with everything you're working on. Likewise. Thanks so much for having me. Thank you so much for tuning into this week's episode. If you enjoyed this conversation, I would love your feedback. And if you're ready to take things to the next level, sign up for my weekly newsletter in the show notes. You'll get weekly career and marketing insights straight to your inbox. And if you have an idea for a future Marketing Happy Hour episode, shoot me an email. Hello at marketinghappyhr.com. Thank you again, and I'll see you next Thursday.