Trading Secrets - 298. Kyle Cooke: Loverboy, SBA Debt & Fighting to Save a Multimillion-Dollar Brand

Episode Date: May 11, 2026

This week, Jason is joined by Kyle Cooke — entrepreneur, reality TV personality, DJ, and founder of Loverboy — for a conversation on what it really takes to build, scale, and fight to save a consumer alcohol brand in real time.Kyle shares the full story behind Loverboy today — from once scaling to 30 employees, 200-plus distribution agreements, and national attention, to now operating with just three full-time employees while navigating cash constraints, distributor challenges, and millions of dollars in debt.He breaks down the unique economics of the alcohol industry — including why brands are legally required to go through distributors, how wholesalers and retailers cut into margins, and why selling alcohol is far more complicated than most consumer products.Kyle also opens up about the financial pressure behind the scenes, including personally guaranteeing a $4.2 million SBA loan, still owing roughly $2.9 million, and needing to generate over $100,000 a month just to cover the loan payment after taxes.Beyond the numbers, Kyle shares the emotional reality of entrepreneurship — putting $500,000 of his own money back into the business, laying off employees, losing his COO, managing strained vendor relationships, and nearly facing the possibility of bankruptcy.He also explains how the support from Summer House fans helped save Loverboy through direct-to-consumer sales, merch pre-orders, and renewed demand after he vulnerably shared the company’s financial struggles on the show.Jason and Kyle also get into the impact of reality TV on business, why Loverboy’s fan base remains so loyal, how public attention can both help and hurt a brand, and why Kyle has intentionally avoided capitalizing on personal drama in a way that feels cheap or exploitative.From SBA debt and distribution nightmares to multiple revenue streams, DJing, brand partnerships, and rebuilding Loverboy with a leaner team, Kyle gives a raw and honest look at what it means to keep showing up when the business, the money, and the public pressure are all hitting at once.Kyle reveals all this and so much more in another episode you can’t afford to miss!Subscribe to the Trading Secrets podcast!Host: Jason TartickCo-Host: David ArduinAudio: John GurneyVideo: Marc ColcerGuest: Kyle Cooke

This message comes from Capital One Commercial Bank. Your business requires commercial banking solutions that prioritize your long-term success. With Capital One, get a full suite of financial products and services tailored to meet your needs today and goals for tomorrow. Learn more at Capital One.com slash Commercial, member FDIC. Welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets. Today we are joined by entrepreneur, reality TV personality, and the founder behind one of the most talked about beverage brands in the country. Kyle Cook. Kyle first rose to prominence on Bravo's Summerhouse, but behind the scenes, he was building Lover Boy. A better for you, alcohol brand that quickly scaled into a multi-million dollar business with national distribution and a very, very loyal customer base, which we'll talk about.

But what we'll get into today is building a consumer brand. It's not always what it looks like from the outside. There's so much that happens behind the scenes. Hiring, firing, outside noise that impacts sales from rapid growth to real financial pressure, tough investor conversations, and navigating public attention while trying to save and rebuild the business with so many ebbs and flows. This is a raw look at entrepreneurship in real time with the one, the only. Kyle, Kyle, welcome to trading secrets. That's quite the intro. Let's go. Do you think it was a pretty good depiction of what's going on? It's called a roller coaster.

That has been my life. So I think it's pretty spot on. We're talking a lot of business today. We're talking a lot of lover boy today before I get right into the financials and business. How's life? How are you doing? Was 2026 what you expected it to be? Not so much.

It's been a roller coaster. I think when you put yourself out there, sometimes you just don't know what to expect. And yeah, I mean, April has been one of those months where... You're probably ready to turn this page today. Yeah, ready to turn this page. But, you know, I appreciate you asking. I mean, people have been checking in, and it's been a roller coaster.

I mean, you were here in Miami in January with Amanda? Yes, yes, I know. Days after we announced our split. Yep. Yeah, so I don't think if you were to ask me if I saw any of this coming, I absolutely not. Such as life, you know, you just kind of got to learn from everything and move on. Life and business.

Let's go into business and let's first talk Summer. Like, one of the biggest things, I'll tell you, I was just with about 20 or so reality stars, if you will, from all different backgrounds, right? And in the different niches, they all know their business as well and they all know their shows well. But like I'd say I'm from the batch. You're like, oh, I might know one person or something. Right. Unanimously, every single one of these people, when Summerhouse came up, everyone knew Summerhouse, everyone knew you, everyone knows what's going on. it feels like Summerhouse has become one of the most relevant, biggest, most talked about reality shows on any network in America. Give me the why.

What has happened behind the scenes with the business and the strategy of Summer House that has put it in the position where it's the biggest talked about show in the country? Yeah. You know, look, I think Lindsay was just on watch what happens with Annie Cohen. And I think she was asked a similar question. I think I always thought of Summer House as like the little engine that could. and it's kind of grown at a steady clip year over year just in terms of our audience, ratings, et cetera. I think what makes our show just so unique

is the relatability. I'm not saying like everybody can relate to renting a multimillion dollar house in the Hamptons, but the very premise for the show was a bunch of young professionals. And when I say young, yes, I'm including myself 43. Benjamin Budzo. Yeah. I mean, we originally were trying to target 30 plus

when we were, you know, casting. And I helped cast the, the entire first season. And the reason we wanted 30 plus is we wanted people with actual experience, both life, personally, professionally. And it's, you know, New York is known as the city that never sleeps. Work hard, play hard. If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.

And I think that kind of ethos and kind of DNA translates to the show. And I think the reason our show has been able to kind of hang on and continue to put better numbers up year over year is, if done correctly, everybody on the show has, some way to resonate with the audience. You're not going to resonate with the whole cast, but you're going to resonate with some of the cast. And it's that relatability factor.

We all still hustle. And most people can relate to the grind. Most people can relate to the hustle. And not to knock on, like, other shows. I mean, well, let's talk about Vanderpump for a second. Some of my best friends in the Bravo kind of universe are from Vanderpump. Yeah. That show, like the best years of that show was when they were actually working at the restaurant.

Like, they all were there to be actors and actresses and models. and musicians. And they did what a lot of people in Hollywood do. Yeah, that's a great dream. Maybe you'll make it, but you got to pay the bills, so you go work at a restaurant or a bar. Right.

Who can't relate to that? Sure. So that show, like the best seasons were when they were actually physically working at Sir. Yeah. And the second they bought multi-million dollar homes in the valley, it was like, well, wait a minute, all right. I mean, like at a certain point,

the audience is kind of in on it. Like, all right, they don't really need to work this shift. Yeah. And so the concept of the show changes. So then it's like, well, what is it? And what role does surplay? With our show, it's like, this is our summer. I mean, some people forget that it is like why we work so hard.

Like in New York, you know, you kind of work five, six, seven days a week to enjoy the fruits of your labor. And if you live in New York City, yeah, the idea is to get the heck out and get to the Hamptons or Nantucket or Mekinos or, you know, wherever. Yeah. And a lot of people forget, like, I'm not partying like. this year round. Right. These are my summer weekends as a New Yorker. But I think that mindset, even if it's aspirational, you can relate to it or look up to it.

And I think that that's like that that hasn't changed on our show. We all still grind. We all still hustle. It looks a little different than season one. But the premise and concept of the show has not changed. Interesting. So it's that the show has stayed consistent. but I think in today's world with social media,

relatability has become one of the most important things. So it's like the show's been the same. It's just the relatability factor is now stronger. It's magnetized to people in different ways. I think about when Alex and John Buford, we came to your filming. That was back in 2024. I remember Rippin'Liverboys.

The one thing that blew me away by the show is the lack of, and this is a testament, this isn't a shot, but the lack of production in the fact that they just let, you be there. They just let you talk. They just let you be real. They let you talk about your business. They let you talk about other businesses to help support the businesses. And it feels like with what's important to people on social media and viewers of reality TV, that's the relatability that's big. Do you feel, because I want to connect this question back to Lover Boy, too, do you feel like the audience, as far as like Gen Z or Jen Alpha, the age gap? Are you guys starting to attract like younger people to

the show? Have you noticed that in the fan base? Yeah, I mean, even casting, right? We no longer I have that 30 plus requirement. Yeah. Particularly when everybody wants to be an influencer and join the creator economy, I think it naturally kind of translates to a younger audience than it originally did. But to kind of build on what you're saying, I mean, the fluidity of how we film, it's so much less produced than you'd ever expect. Ever.

And that's one kind of unexpected byproduct of how we film. The show filmed straight through the weekend, Friday through Sunday. Most shows are scene-based, so you go to this restaurant, you go to this park, you shoot for a couple hours. Cameras go up, cameras go down. On our show, yes, we have the big cameras. They go up and they go down because, you know, crew can only be on the clock for so long. But then they capture everything else on the surveillance. If I have something to say on a scene-based show, I literally have to wait for cameras.

On Summer House, I might just say it right at the moment because I know there's surveillance. Yeah. So it just lends itself to a more organic. It's like real reality. Right. I'm not trying to say that other shows aren't real, but they just lend themselves to feel a little more produced because, well, yeah, life isn't scene-based.

Right. Our weekends, though, I mean, we shoot straight through. And that's the kind of beauty of the footage that we get. Yeah, it's amazing. It's really cool to see the way it's taken off. To talk about the business behind that is fascinating, too. Let's get into your business. So it was about three years ago or so

that you were on Trading Secrets, talking about a lover boy for the first time. And some of the things that you threw out there was business was growing at an immense pace. You were in 35 states. At that time, you had 20 employees and then 200 plus beverage distribution agreements in place. At that time, we talked about your SBA loan and how the SBA loan was approved at 5 million. I remember in the recap, I was like, I used to underwrite SBA loans. To get approved at 5 million is very impressive because it's very, hard to get that money.

Well, to be clear, we were at 4.2, the max is 5. The max is 5. We didn't quite max it out, but we came damn close. Damn close. But you were approved for 5, correct? Yeah, I think we could have pushed it if we wanted to. Could have pushed it. Okay.

But that's just a quick summation of what it looked like three years ago. Right. I asked the question about the viewing audience because we know just the alcohol industry has changed a lot. So talk to me about, like, where is the business today? We've heard you on the show, talk about some of the financial constraints of operating an alcohol business. Give us the full summation of lover boy today. What it looks like. So I'll try to give you like the high level of where we're at. And then I think the follow-up

questions are kind of like how we got here. Yeah. Because we peaked in 2022 from a distribution standpoint. And with alcohol, that is the crux. Like distribution is everything. And we'll talk about why. But just in terms of where we're at, I now have three full-time employees. Wow. I went from at our peak 30 down to three. Wow. Most of those people were in sales. Unfortunately, we were always playing catch up. So when we first recorded the podcast, we had rapidly expanded. I look back and we actually over-expanded based on the resources we had.

And that's mostly money and team. So even though 20 to 30 employees sounds like a lot, what a lot of people don't understand is most alcohol suppliers, I'm technically a supplier. They have to build up their own sales force that works alongside the district. sales force. It sounds completely counterintuitive, but we'll talk about why. And we were always playing catch up. And so in some states, I literally would have to have over a dozen distributors to cover the full state. And you'd think all those distributors would work together to share product when I ship a truck. Turns out none of them work together, even when they're in the same network. And so we were just massively under-resourced and understaffed to support the distribution that we had built. And

And so the cracks almost immediately formed from a logistics standpoint, from a sales standpoint, and from a support standpoint. And again, I didn't truly appreciate this because when we built the brand, our brand was just getting undivided attention in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID. So a lot of the tactics that I'd say big alcohol uses to gain distribution was not really doable during the pandemic. That's like incentivizing the distributor sales team with these, you know, lucrative golf trips. It's going into stores, doing sampling.

It's putting out super extravagant displays. There was none of that. And we were just dropping pallets at stores. But our brand had so much awareness that it pulled organically. So like, you know, if all the marketing techniques that are used, to put some of the products that you don't normally want, but you're basically tripping over in the store. And you're like, oh, well, this is on sale. None of those were in play. And so the brands that had real organic demand were what the distributors focused on. And that was

Loverboy. We were one of the fastest growing brands in alcohol. Lately, I've been more intentional of what I wear day to day, leading into pieces that feel easy and comfortable and still put together. It just makes getting dressed simpler. Well, Quince has been my go-to. The fabrics feel elevated. the fits are clean and everything just works without needing to overthink it. Quince has all the wardrobe staples for spring. Think 100% European linen shorts and shirts from 34 bucks, lightweight, breathable and comfortable, but still just put together. Their pants also hit the same balance, relax, comfortable, but still polish enough to wear literally anywhere. And the trading secret I love is that everything is priced 50 to 80% less than you'd find at similar brands

because Quince works directly with ethical factories that cuts out the middleman. So you're getting premium materials without all the markup. I am going to Europe in June and I have just bought the best fits for this trip. I cannot wait to show you all from Quince. Just refresh your every day with luxury you'll actually use. Just head to quince.com slash trading secrets for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com slash trading secrets for free shipping and 365-day returns. Quince.com. slash trading secrets. Real quick, for anyone that's listening to this, it's very important to note the word distribution keeps coming up. If I'm wearing this aura ring here, right? An aura ring manufactures this and they want to sell it to Walmart or Target. They go direct to Walmart and Target buyers and they buy or a ring and they put it on their shelf. Alcohol is very different in the United States in the fact that you must go through a alcohol distributor. before you could go to Walmart or Target.

So Loverboy is created by Kyle. You then have to work through this middleman channel of distribution to then go to the end user, which reduces your margin and creates more headaches. And to your point, changes the flow of the industry of how things are sold. I don't think most people know that. And distributor is synonymous with wholesale.

Correct. Right. So wholesaler, distributor, synonymous. And in alcohol, you are legally required to use a wholesaler. Now, technically alcohol is part of consumer packaged goods, CPG. It is the only category in consumer that you are legally required to go through wholesale. Wild. Let me ask one follow up. We talk money on this podcast. I got an eight pack here. If you were able to just sell direct to the stores, how much money could you make on an eight pack versus having to go through this distribution channel?

Right. So a wholesaler ends up making about a 25 to 30 percent margin. Wow. So there's a markup to retail. And if you think about it, we basically have three customers, wholesale, retail, and consumer. That's the other really challenging part of running an alcohol brand. You got to cater to three different audiences, right? And they're all taking a cut right up until the consumer, right? So you get your wholesaler taking a cut, you get the retailer taking a cut.

Now, if I'm a small startup, to your point, if I'm manufacturing, or rings, or let's just choose something in CPG, if I've got like the latest better for you snack brand. A Walmart actually wants you to go direct. They'll capture a little more margin and they'll better understand supply and demand because they're the experts, not the startup. They know how to forecast, they know how to do all that. So what a Walmart will actually prefer you to do

as a small CPG company is to sell them your product direct. And then they hub and spoke it. What does that mean? They have distribution centers. So Walmart owns their own distribution centers, warehouses. Yep.

They kind of strategically take your product from you, strategically put it in their, you know, their warehouses, and then manage what goes to the individual stores. Now, if I want to do that, if I want to sell in Walmart, I can't do that. I have to go through hundreds of unique individual distributors that all require their own distribution agreements, which is what I had 200 plus, and they all require, their own relationship management. They all require their own inventory management. It is a nightmare. So when everyone's like Kyle, like I don't understand why I can't, why doesn't my local Whole Foods or my local Walmart or my local mom and pop, like independent store? If they want to buy it,

why can't they just go out and get it? Well, if I don't have a distributor in that zip code, I can't help you. You can't because there's nothing legally you can do. Right. And then your margins are getting eaten up. So unlike a case of lover boy, the retailer might be selling it for a certain dollar amount, but you're only going to see a small fraction. Right. So this is an eight pack. Okay. In alcohol, specifically beer, which I'm kind of like grouped into. Sure.

A case consists of 24 cans. So three eight packs. Okay. I'll sell that to a distributor for, let's just call it, 25 bucks. Sure. They'll turn around and sell it for 36 bucks. And then it'll sit on the shelf for anywhere from 45 to 55, divided by three. So you're hoping to pick up an A-PAC for like $14.99 to $16.99 on the shelf. So I'm, like I said, I'm selling it for $25.

It costs me $15 to make. I'm only dealing with, for that 24-can case, I only have $10 of gross margin once I cover my cost of goods, which is the can, the ingredients, all that good stuff. And then you still have operating expenses, salaries, things like that. So when you talk, like we see you on Summerhouse and you're talking about bleeding based on the cash flow,

100,000 plus a month. Yeah. There's a connection to that, of course, of distribution. What are some other factors that people that are watching the show wouldn't know about your business that could lead to 100K of potential bleeding because of the debt? Like what are some of the things happening in the business other than distribution we don't know about? I mean, first and foremost, I think a lot of people think I must be in like gohooots with NBC or clearly I'm not the guy running the company.

No, no, no, I am. I'm a bivant outlier in these, you know, celebrity brands, and I hate that word, but you have celebrities, you have influencers, you have marketers, you have a lot of people that are attached to a brand somehow, some way. I'm actually running it. So when I say on the show that I'm not taking a salary, some people are like, well, duh. It's like, no, no, guys, I film and DJ in my spare time. I run this company. I am CEO. I don't have anybody behind the curtain pulling the strings, especially now that I have three employees, right? My COO left in January. So when you have- That's a tough loss there. It's a

And those are things you don't see on the internet. Yeah, we can talk about a lot of what you don't understand, but just to give you an idea of our cost centers, I mean, about one third of our costs are payroll. But then you have warehousing, you have freight, and you have various vendor relationships. We have a huge technology stack, so various things that we do on our website to make sure we're digital first. So there are a lot of costs associated with running a CPG business, particularly alcohol. Where most of my headcount was back when we had 30 employees was sales. and we can talk about why I have to build up a sales team even though I'm not legally selling the retail

the wholesaler is. But what a lot of people don't appreciate is, so right now there's not a lot of items for sale on our website. We were dealing with some severe cash constraints over the winter. So I talked about on Summer House how I had to put $500,000 of cash into my own business. Well, that was January of 2025.

I went on, that was to help jumpstart a bridge round, So a bridge round in, you know, the startup world is just like a smaller round of financing to kind of cover costs. So I raised a total of 2.2 million of which 500K was my investment. We burned through that in 2025. Despite all of our challenges, I still had 19 full-time employees when I cut that $500,000 check. And it was to literally pay my employee's payroll. needed to raise more of that money. Unfortunately, we just burned through that.

We still had a fairly large sales team and we were just not effectively selling, right? So by the end of last year, I was practically in the same exact position as I was when I wrote that first $500,000 check. Minus $500,000. Right. So I had to do more layoffs

and we're just barely managing our cash with three, people on payroll. And what a lot of people don't understand is when you have out of stocks, you have a bunch of vendors that you work with, packaging, cans, production, those vendor relationships were actually pretty strained when my COO left. I don't think I realized or appreciated just how much. When it came time to try to restock some of our best selling items, like our lemon cello sprits or espresso martini, because we can sell those online, unlike the T's. And since we're having so many distributor challenges,

I wanted to make sure our website was stocked. Well, it turns out all the vendors that I need to do a production run were owed money. And you didn't know this because your CEO did not tell you this. I mean, I knew we had, you know, about $500,000 to $600,000 of account payables. That's basically what I owe my vendors. But what I didn't realize is I'd have to pay a lot of that down for them to schedule more production. So in other words, like, Kyle, yes, you're going to incur costs to produce lover boy.

You got to spend money to make money. But what you don't realize, I'm not going to print more cans, print more cardboard, and run the run until you pay off what you owe me from previous runs. So I literally couldn't spend money to make money because I still had over a half million dollars of additional debt account payables on top of the SBA.

So I was literally in between a rock and a hard place. I was like, I'm in this, I don't have to clear the, account payables myself write another 500,000 check into the business just to stay in business. So when you talk about what people don't understand or appreciate, talk about stress.

Like we have a brand that sells things that people want, and I can't even make it on the shelves. Scaling a business takes the right expertise at the right time. And Upwork helps grow teams quickly, brings in specialized freelancers so you can move faster and take the business to the next level. Hiring help shouldn't be a headache or drain your budget. Upwork makes it easy to help hire specialized freelancers so you can get the expertise you need right now. Upwork is that one-stop platform to find hire and pay expert freelancers across web and software

development, data and analytics, marketing and business operations and more. We actually just hired a contractor from rewired at Upwork, and I'm telling you, it has been a game changer. Upwork helps grow your business by giving you fast access to specialized talent across 125 plus categories so you can fill gaps, launch projects faster, and scale support up or down without committing to full-time headcount. With Business Plus, you can actually access the top 1% of talent on Upwork and with AI-powered shortlisting. This makes life so much easier and allows you to scale at the speed you need. Just visit Upwork.com right now and post your job for free. That's upwork.com to connect with top talent, ready to help your business grow.

That's upw-w-rk.com. Upwork. I want, like, if you're watching on YouTube right now, you can see kind of my body language and it's like moving and it's getting nervous and I'm like feeling stressed. I want to say that that reason if we're watching this on YouTube is because I have seen the financials of thousands of businesses being in banking and I know SBA loans. And the reason I'm like going like this, is because to deal with an SBA loan is very hard because it's government-backed.

It's a great way for the government to support small business. But because it's government-backed, if it goes belly up, the government will actually reimburse the banks so that the banks could take on the risk. The reason I'm, like, putting my clenching my stuff together is because I know how it works with personal guarantees. What these banks do is they wrap up all, it's called a PG. And so if this loan doesn't get paid off, They will come after Kyle's assets until it's paid off for eternity.

Like, they will find a way to get this back. The reason I'm getting stressed is because I know as a business owner, to just have a personal guarantee is very stressful. To deal with laying off 20 to 30 employees is extremely stressful. That's just to message that. To do on top of the SBA loan, a bridge loan of $2.5 million where you're injecting $500,000 of your own capital, and that money not returning a profit to those people, extremely stressful.

Losing your COO to not have what you work so hard for and not knowing that this product's available, extremely stressful. Those are four things going into 2026 that would break majority of CEOs of companies that I've seen before. We still haven't talked about the public noise of being a reality starting dealing with. Those are things that we don't see on TV. And you see me, look, the toughest episode of all time for me is yet to come on season 10. I basically hit my breaking point.

I spiraled. And I just, I felt so misunderstood because of exactly what you're saying. Like, when I talk about this $500,000 investment, that does nothing to pay down my SBA loan. Correct. That went into the operations of the business, to cash flow the business. So I was dealing with the, I was staring at the same exact problem. for a second year in a row, I might actually have to come in

and cash flow the business with my own investment of God knows how much more money. I'm still on the hook. So just to back up, in 2021, we took on a $4.2 million SBA loan. That is a business loan,

but I am personally guaranteeing it, as Jason said. So it's kind of like, everyone is familiar with student loans. Doesn't matter what your personal finance, situation looks like. You are always stuck with a student loan, even if you can't pay it. What will happen is like, all right, you can't pay it. Cool. We'll just pause payments until you can. You will never escape this student loan. That is the equivalent of an SBA loan. You will always be

personally guaranteeing this debt even if the business goes belly up. Oh, yeah. So to put this in perspective, my SBA payment every month because interest is $10,000, $55,000. Now, I live in New York City. I do well. My income tax all-in, federal state, city, about 50%. I literally need to make $100,000 plus $1,000 a month just to break even on paying this SBA loan payment. And that's only the SBA loan. Just the SBA loan.

So that's not cost of living. That's nothing. And so when people like, oh, I mean, he's got the show income, you know, he's apparently, DJing, like, is that really true? Is he really DJing to make money, or is he just doing it to get out of the house? No, guys, I'm literally looking for any and all revenue streams because I know my SBA loan is not going anywhere.

And just to be clear, I've had it for five years because I took it out in 2021. Of the $4.2 million principal balance, we've only paid down 1.3. Wow. Because as most people, when you're paying, interest on a loan. The early years are just mostly interest. So yes, I'm five years into a 10-year loan. We've only paid $1.3 million down. That means my balance that I'm personally guaranteeing is $2.9

million. It was actually misquoted on the show. $2.9 million. And so, yes, the idea of putting more money into the business, not to pay down the SBA loan, but just to keep the wheels spinning, keep the lights on, make payroll, and also clear some of my account payable debt. It is frightening. Fortunately, so we were running as lean and mean as possible, as luck would have it. The episode where I talk about the financial stress of the business

was the same exact day, you can't make this stuff up, that Amanda and West put out their joint statement. And the irony, I guess, of that is you recorded this episode like six months ago, and a month ago. That was from July. Just a fluke timing.

Fluke timing. It was actually my birthday. I'm in that old guy. I was one of my prosthetics. It was August 2nd, which is two days before my actual birthday. And it just created this outpouring of support. And literally, everybody that went on

Loverboy, drinkloverboy.com and bought something or bought a presale item helped cash flow the business so I didn't have to put more of my money on the line. And it, I mean, I'm not joking. The support from our fan base saved Loverboy Because I was like I could put more money in But that doesn't go to paying down the loan

Or I could basically start the bankruptcy process. I mean, that was literally my reality a month and a half ago. And so in the last month and a half, due to fan support in the show, they've now put you in a position Where you can continue to operate in a manner that will allow you to pay down this $2.9 million Yeah, so we did a ton of pre-sales for merch.

Because again, we had no inventory. We couldn't do. I think everyone saw Carl's a mess. Carl's a mess. I mean, what? You had to sell thousands of those. Thousands. But you know what? I asked Carl, I'm like, have you seen how viral this is going?

And he's like, honestly, it's the only little bright light in all of this because he's like, it's making me laugh. And then I was like, to me, that sounded like the, he kind of opened the door to me doing a merch run. Like, I wanted him. to be okay with it. And then that was, we actually had the same exact idea at the same time to do a portion of proceeds for release recovery, which is the mental health organization that he runs for.

So, yeah, the fact that we were able to pre-sell that merch, because we did not have it ready to go, obviously. And then we also did a pre-sale for lemon shell on espresso martini. So people being willing to put their money down and wait for something, literally save the business. And when you're doing the difference in, of course, lover boy and merch, is we know lover boy has to go through distribution, profit margins are tighter.

When you're doing merch, the profitability is going to be a little bit higher, right? It's higher. It's higher. There's no distribution. Yeah, our margin is much higher on merch. And also, we didn't have to clear all that account payables to run a run of t-shirts and sweatshirts. When people buy direct through you and your website, are you able to eliminate distribution, therefore it's better for small business?

Yeah. So direct, you know, we call DTC, direct-to-consumer. The reason why we don't sell our hard teas on our website is legally you can't. The only thing you can actually buy direct as a consumer is wine or wine-based product. So we found like a clever loophole. Obviously our sprits and our special martini or Cosmo, our margaritas, they don't taste like wine. This is not the type of wine you're buying off the shelf. It looks and tastes and smells like vodka.

And we buy it and it's called other than standard orange wine. It's a mouthful. But basically, it is technically a wine product, but it sure as heck is a great vodka substitute. It's clean, it's odorless, it's tasteless. And that's how we make the products that we sell online. We call them RTDs, ready to drinks. So a ready to drink is everything from a hard seltzer to a hard tea.

Basically anything in a can in alcohol, it's not beer. Interesting. Okay. That makes sense. Cocktails. Yeah. You get your high noons and whatnot. So the best way to support this business is to go direct to the website.

Obviously, merch is very helpful. I'm curious, you talked about 2022. That's when the peak of Lepper Boy was and you've dealt with some of these hardships. At what point in your head, because I remember when you came on the show three years ago, you're like, I don't want to focus on influencing. I don't even want to do brand deals. I'm all in on Loverboy. That's getting all my attention.

You then made a very intentional shift to be like, I need to start doing outside things to pour. money back into Lover Boy. When did you make the decision that you're like, I need to start doing it and have those businesses been more successful and very material and actually provided cash injections? I mean, listen, like, I was so laser focused on Lover Boy that there was also a bandwidth constraint. Like, I just did not have the time to be like shooting content for brand partnerships. But when the show continued to grow in popularity, our followings continue to grow, I realize I'm just leaving so much money on the table.

for me, it's all about doing partnerships with brands that I'm already a consumer of. It's very important to me that if I do like a paid post, it's got to be something that I'm actually using in my day-to-day life. But I kind of got to a point, like I said, where I'm just like, okay, there's clearly a lot of money to be made. You run an agency. Like you know damn well, like how much money I was leaving on the table. So I was like, all right, well, in order to de-risk this SBA loan situation, I need to do brand partnerships. I need the DJ. I need to say yes to a second TV show.

But, you know, what I'll say, though, it's still just to kind of go back to like buying direct. Ultimately, something like 90 plus percentage of alcohol sales happens at retail. And I need retail. The only way for me to keep being relevant at wholesale and retail is for consumers to still ask for it at the store level. So when someone goes into their, whether it's a, chain or an independent retail account and asked for Loverboy, looking at you guys, it helps.

It absolutely helps. If you don't sell Loverboy at your favorite store, these people, the managers, the owners, they want to hear what consumers want. The challenging thing with alcohol, because of the way the distributors have so much power, the consumers don't always get what they want. Like Loverboy was on the verge of going bankrupt. That would be unfortunate because we use better quality ingredients than 99. 0.9% of alcohol brands out there.

People, I think we don't do enough to hype up the fact that it's all natural, no artificial sweeteners, and zero sugar. Like a lot of people don't realize, like I can pop up in the morning and go for a run because if I'm only drinking Loverboy, I don't have all those additives and the sugar and the artificial sweeteners that my competitors do.

It's huge. I feel better. I feel like you don't even promote that, honestly. I got to do a better job. I'm at least to put the calories and the zero sugar right on the front. in the previous packaging. But anyway, just to bring it back to what you had said,

like, yes, go to our website. If you see something, please buy it. And ask your retailers. And ask your retailers because we still need, that's a huge part of alcohol. You got to have the wholesaler relationships. You got to have the retail relationships. And we're trying to go back to our wholesalers

and say, listen, you got to give us another shot. Like, sure, maybe we had the wrong pack size. When we launched most of the markets, that we were in, we were in single flavor six packs. Now we're all in on the variety pack. So a lot of the stores that once sold Loverboy were selling more expensive single flavor six packs. And it was hard for our wholesalers and retailers

to keep everything in stock. Yeah. Because we're still a small brand. So anyway, moral of the story, ask for Loverboy. What's something you thought you were doing right with your health but weren't like getting enough fiber? Fiber isn't new. It's not trendy, but it might be one of the most important

and most overlooked parts of your health. Nearly 95% of people aren't getting enough fiber. Modern diets and busy lifestyles make it really hard to get enough consistently. Most fiber products haven't really evolved. Single source and full of gut disrupting additives. Well, Momentus took a different approach with fiber plus, combining three types of fiber, helping close a major gap in modern nutrition. Think about it this way. If you're gut functioning better than everything else you're doing, your diet, your workouts, you recover, it'll all be better. It'll all be better. It'll all be. be more effective. I choose Momentus because they hold a very high standard. Clean, minimal ingredients, no unnecessary fillers, NSF certified for sport, which means it's been a third party tested for purity and label accuracy. The same standard extends to details like using real cinnamon bark instead of commonly use artificial flavors. That's why I like Momentus. And that's why I take Momentus Fiber Plus on the day to day, especially Monday through Friday when I'm just going full speak. I'll throw it right in a little bit of a protein.

So support your gut health and overall performance with Momentus Fiber Plus and get up to 35% off your first entire order at livemometis.com, promo code trading secrets. That's livemometus.com promo code trading secrets for 35% off guys. LiveMomentis.com promo code trading secrets. Ask for Loverboy at your stores. I'm curious about this. We talk about financial risk, hiring risk, all the loan risk. One thing I haven't talked to you about is the actual show. to the product risk.

Do you notice, like if you had to measure how good of an episode was for you, like that was a tough episode or that was a great episode for me? Right. Do you also see a correlation

in the Loverboy sales or has Loverboy kind of separated it from like the season or the day you might be having on a show? So we used to, when I had more cash and a bigger team, we used to put together some of our new product innovation

while filming, knowing that we would then launch it when it aired. Got it. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to bring new innovation through wholesale and retail because we're just struggling to keep our bare essentials in stock and keep our distributors and retailers going. And we'll talk about the sales in a little bit. But for me, it used to be about trying to plan our innovation roadmap around when the show would air.

Now it's just like when I do talk about, like when I talked to Carl about why I couldn't invest and in soft bar and talked about having put $500,000 in the line, talked about only having enough cash to keep the lights on for another couple months, we saw a spike. I mean, it's much easier to track what's going on on our website than at wholesale and retailer. We saw a spike, huge spike. People just wanting to help.

Yeah. Wow. Yeah. And so, again, like, everybody that went on our website and continues to go on our website is playing an active role in, like, saving this brand. Because, I mean, you've seen it as a banker. There's plenty of great brands that have a time.

ton of consumer demand and loyalty that go out of business because they get out over their skis. Maybe they're in too much debt. Maybe they over expanded. I mean, maybe in my situation, my wholesaler stopped paying attention because we had such a small team. We weren't knocking on their actual physical doors. Interesting. One thing I also, I might bite my tongue here, but I don't think I am. I think it's a testament you just talked about when you opened up with vulnerability to Carl, how it increased sales because people want to help. I also I also think there's a big testament to you. Obviously, things are happening in the news.

Things in the news are helping support your business, but you haven't capitalized on this in marketing ways. Other than loving, fun things like Carl's a mess. It feels like that's intentional. Can you speak to that? Yeah, I mean, look, we have in an insane amount of submissions of people saying you should do F-boy, you should do lover girl, you should do team college,

you should do team Sierra. Sierra. Ultimately, I want to handle this in the classiest way possible. I know that sounds cheesy, but I was already in this mindset long before any of this happened with my split from Amanda that I needed to kind of take the high road. There's a lot that goes on in a marriage, you know, in the other 10 months that we don't film. There was really no point and no gain in dragging our marriage through that to kind of expose more and tell my side. So I was already in the mindset. I just kind of take the high road. I still have so much love for Amanda.

Like, let's just try to have an amicable split because we have so many friends on so many different shows, including our own that had a pretty horrible public breakup. And it took years to just be in the same room. You know what I mean? And so I was already kind of trying to train myself to take the high road. So when everything else unfolded in April, yeah, if I did any of those things,

suggestions. I feel like I'm stooping down to a lower level that I just, I don't want to. I want to refrain from that. It's a classy move. It's a classy move. I think it's the right move. And good for you for doing that. But I mean, like, I mean, I actually mocked up just as a joke. Okay. A Sierra Mist, like a hard soda. And we just like use a little AI. But I mean, it would have been so easy. And who knows, maybe we can find a classier way to kind of execute something like that. I've always wanted to do something with Carl.

Like, yes, we have our lover boy, non-alx. Yes, we have Flower Boy, our THC drink. But, you know, letting Carl truly drive the innovation process. Like, what do you want? Do you want more like adaptogens and eutropics? To put in soft bar. Yeah. You and Carl have something special.

There's something because you guys are very different. Very different. You look different. You are different. You talk different. You act different. but like there's something very lovable in that like Batman Robin type thing. Yeah.

Another area I think if you've kind of stayed classy, but I've seen it online, is there was some gentleman out there who literally is selling hats with what looked like to me, your logo. And then I'm like reading the comment. And I thought your comment was just perfect because it wasn't like attacking. It wasn't nasty. It wasn't cutting someone at the Achilles tendon. It was just like, hey man, I'm going through a divorce.

Our show's trending. you're using the algorithm to trend to now try and go viral and you're. And we're not going to say this guy's name or his company's name. No. But here's the funny part. He was running trial reels during all of this craziness in April. Yeah. Basically saying Kyle Cook hates me and hates my hats because he thinks I stole his design.

Well, if you look at our best selling hat, it's called the classic. It's practically identical. and we launched it years before he did. So I'm just like, listen, man, maybe he was a fluke. But like, you're now trying to capitalize on what I'm going through in the public eye. Talk about cringe. He tried to claim he wasn't familiar with the show, blah, blah, blah.

I'm like, bro, you know what's cringe? Running trial reels with my name and my hashtag. That's cringe. Like, give me a break. I'm like, you're running a knockoff design charging twice the price and claiming, I don't like, you. I'm like, well, now I don't. Simply said. You talked a lot about big competitors you've had to deal

with, right, like Anheiser Beverage and some of the biggest people that, I'm not even going to say the name of the brands, but we know who they are. There are also a lot of smaller boutique, let's call them like influencers, celebrity, ready to drink brands. Sure. That have even come up on your show. Are they, like in the industry as a whole, are they too suffering? Is this something that's lover boy specific or boutique specific? What does it look like? Yeah, I think what happened was I mean, we were very early and helped set some trends. I mean, we were the first zero sugar hard tea. People came in afterwards, obviously,

but with artificial ingredients such as sweeteners. There's been a slew of competition. What ends up happening is the distributors have so many brands that they are now legally the stewards of, that they stop selling at a local level. So like I mentioned, I had hundreds of distributors. They had their sales team. When we launched all these markets,

their sales team was kind of like my local sales team. That helped gain the original distribution. But now that there's been so much competition, those distributors are no longer prioritizing selling, which we also call it like building a brand. Some of our distributors used to pride themselves on building brands. Now they call me up and say, well, if you want new accounts, new retail accounts,

selling Loverboy, you have to hire your own sales rep to bring those accounts online. I'm like, cool, I don't have cash. If I'm in 41 states, which is our peak, my 30-person team looks tiny. My competition has 30 sales reps in New Jersey alone. So our distributors, you know, which I have a love-hate relationship with,

they stopped selling, they stopped building brands, and now they turned to me and asked me to build up an entire sales force nationwide to do what used to be their job. Now, I'm not trying to blame it all on them, but right now we can't capitalize on the popularity of the show and the popularity of lover boy because I don't have distribution. This episode of Trading Secrets is brought to you by booking.com. I've got to say, if you're

looking to grow your vacation rental business, this is the place to be. Booking.com is one of the most downloaded travel apps literally in the entire world. And for good reason. Since 2010, they've helped over 1.8 billion vacation rental guests find places to say, yes, that's billion with a bee. But here's the thing. Most vacation rental hosts don't even realize. They can list their properties on booking.com. And if you're not, not on the platform, your rental is basically invisible to millions of booking.com travelers worldwide. After all, they can't book what they can't see, right? And this is the thing.

I don't have a rental property put on booking.com, but I have actually booked rental properties on booking.com. And I'm telling you, whether you're either booking one or you're putting your property on, it's a no-brainer. So if your vacation rental isn't listed on booking.com, it could be invisible. to millions of travelers searching the platform. Don't miss out on consistent bookings and global reach. Head over to booking.com and start your listing today.

Get seen. Get booked on booking.com. That constraints. Yeah. So what does it look like? Like from here, you've had this big spark, this big spike, merch sales, lover boy demand. You lost your CFO-O. You're coming back. You got some excess cash.

You still have your $2.9 million balance of your SBA loan. Yeah, the stress is still there. The stress is still real. but what is, like, as you try to move forward and look into the future, obviously appetite for alcohol slowly decreasing, it's still obviously there, but like, what does Kyle Cook as CEO of a lover boy?

Where do you go from here? What does it look like? And also, how much pressure do you feel to continue to stay on reality TV knowing that's helped pushing the demand for the product you need to turn to pay this note down? Right. I mean, the irony is with our new show in the city,

I think the plan was like, I give me, Amanda Lindsay a show where we can kind of evolve on Lindsay obviously as a mom. I mean, we were going to start a family at some point. You know, and the thought of like not being a part of the show I helped start was a little daunting. There was actually, that was additional stress last summer. I was basically filming two shows back to back and kind of having to look at Summerhouse in the rear view, mirror, which I'm like, yo, this is my baby. Yeah. That was also a stressor. But where do we go from here? I mean, look, we have a ton of products that we've never brought through retail.

We are all about using better quality ingredients, making better for you products. So if people are drinking less, they should be drinking better. Healthy, right? Cleaner. And so there's still a huge opportunity in my mind for better for you cocktails at retail. Our spritses have zero added sugar. There's 6% alcohol, so a little higher than like a, you know, some of my competition, a little more bang for your buck.

But the taste is absolutely amazing. Like, in my opinion, our sprits is low-key, like our best. product. Our cocktails, which is our espresso martini, our Cosmo, and our three different margarita lines, it's got a fraction of the sugar of the competitors. Sugar gives you a gnarly hangover. People don't really, and obviously, like, there's other byproducts of having too much sugar. You're going to gain weight. So to anybody that's trying to like wean back or cut back their alcohol intake, like, all right, maybe you spend a couple more on a brand that is going to kind of curb some of the side effects that accompany alcohol,

which is like, okay, I'm no longer drinking a ton of artificial sweeteners. I'm no longer drinking a ton of empty calories and carbs. Like, if I'm going to have a drink, make it count. Yeah. So I'm really focused on putting those better quality, better for you products on the shelf, not just selling them online. So my distributors, if they're like, well, Kyle, now there's so many hard teas. Sure, they're not as clean and better for you as lover boy, but guess what?

They have huge resources and support. What else you got? I'm like, okay, then let's talk about our sprits. Let's talk about our cocktails. Let's talk about our margaritas. That's where I'm going and just how we get there. I'm still looking for like an operational partner with so much going on and me running the day to day of this business for seven, eight years.

It's put just so much stress on me. So I am trying to find someone who can help. with the day-to-day of the business. Because, yeah, with three employees, you know, we can't cut it. It's wild to hear the 30 to three, but the fact that it's still moving, it's still growing, you're still finding a way to do it. While you're continuing to do that, is the DJ business? Is it going well?

Like, are the rates increasing or the bookings increasing that could help pay down this note? Yeah, like, look, I fly to Chicago from here. We're in Miami, for the record. Miami, yeah. You know, could I go home and just have a relaxing? weekend, absolutely. But I'm going to go DJ for one of the biggest, most respected hospitality groups in the world, Tao, in Tao Chicago. And that just elevates my personal brand, my DJing, Loverboy, having Lover Boy on the flyer. Because you'll drink the lover boy while you're performing.

And my fans will be able to buy it. And guess what? Like, it takes a lot of money that, and big alcohol pays a lot of money to kind of build those relationships that otherwise it's kind of like, well, what are you going to do for us? You know, and by DJing, I'm like, listen, like my fans want to have a great experience. Like, they haven't been able to buy Loverboy in Chicago like they would like to. Let's make sure it's available at the set.

So, you know, it helps stay top of mind with my distributor. Oh, Kyle's coming to town. We got to make sure we get product to Tau. It helps, again, elevate the Loverboy brand, my personal brand, my DJing to be associated with Tau. and he gets product in the hands of the consumer. So it helps on multiple fronts, including becoming a consistent revenue stream for me

as I deal with the daunting reality that that SBA loan is not going anywhere. It's not going anywhere. How are you now dealing? We've talked all about the stress factors. To me, it feels like the worst, I think, is behind you. Do you feel as though the financial stress, the personal stress, the professional stress

that's been on your shoulders for years. Do you feel like rocks are coming out of that bag or does it not feel like that yet? Part of that stress was just feeling so misunderstood just in terms of everything that's going on in my life. So I feel a little lighter with some of that kind of exposed and out there. Sure. Doing things like this helps.

You know, I do want people to understand the ins and outs of running a business like this because it's insanely challenging. I mean, 95% of beverage startups fail and alcohol. is even more challenging. So you can do the math. I'm not looking for sympathy,

but if people are so inclined to continue to support the brand, it helps. Yeah, I think it's education. I think people don't realize the amount that you have to carry when you're carrying millions of dollars of debt. You're carrying 30 plus people's careers

and families that they're feeding. You're carrying personal stress. You're carrying divorce. You're carrying reality. TV trolls. You're carrying being mislabeled. You're carrying putting 500,000 of your own money into a product and then also potentially have to putting another 500,000 all the while dealing with criticism because you are doing career choices that's helped supporting that. That's a lot. That'll break 99% of people. And that's to like interrupt, but there's been

points during filming where my friends are like, Kyle, why don't you just walk away? This business is going to ruin your marriage. I'm like, okay, first of all, it was supposed to be like the financial security and freedom for my future, my family's future. When I took the SBA loan out, our business, like I said, was one of the fastest growing businesses in alcohol. A lot of things are out of my control. Most of my distributors, we didn't care, we didn't touch on this, carry Bud Light. Bud Light basically got canceled in pop culture by half this country in 2023. So for the last three years, my distributors have seen a massive reduction in revenue.

So, you know, again, my distributors kind of went through this black swan event. Alcohol forever was considered to be recession-proof. For the first time ever, these businesses were down 10, 15, 20 plus percent. So that's one of the reasons why they stopped building brands. They're like literally holding on for dear life. To their main source of revenue. To their main source of revenue. The number one product in most of these beer wholesalers portfolio was Bud Light.

There were parts of this country where Bud Light was down almost 40%. So there's just some things that are out of your goddamn control. And I kind of frankly your question or why interrupted, but no, no, I feel like it's just, it's a good add on to what I was saying, which is there are so many things out of your control and they're going to keep knocking you down and you just got to keep getting up. You got to keep getting up. I could talk to you forever about this. It's so fascinating.

Learn more about lover boy where it's been, where it is today, we're expected to go. But I'm looking at the time. And unfortunately, you and I got to go speak on a panel at Bloomberg. Let's be due. Shout to Bloomberg. But I think it's a great time to get a business trading secret from you. Like as an entrepreneur, a founder, a CEO of a company that has seen every single roller coaster and now hopefully so momentum moving in your direction. What is a trading secret given where we're at right now?

It's going to be May 2026 when this comes out. Talk to me about the trading secret you give us. At the risk of being a broken record because I forget my previous trading secrets. The only reason I'm still here, the only reason Loverboy is still here is because I de-rease. my entrepreneurial risk by ensuring I have multiple revenue streams on a personal level. So a lot of entrepreneurs feel like they need to be 110% in. Well, they do.

And you gotta find some way somehow to squeeze a little bit more out so you can actually cover your personal carry or your burn. And what I mean by that is like, okay, every single month, I don't care what city you live in, you have a cost of living. And so if for some reason, some reason you don't raise that round of financing or for some reason your brand or your startup

isn't profitable the only way you're going to personally be able to keep going is to personally keep your lights on so i think about a lot of people like oh come on kyle has the show why has he got a dj to cover that sba loan well as i've outlined that's a hundred thousand dollars a month of income that i would need just to pay the sba loan so i've i'm going out of my way to work seven days a week morning and night to make sure I have multiple revenue streams. I'm sitting here wearing bird dogs. When I first started filming Summer House, I was a founding partner of Bird Dogs.

I got paid in cash and some equity to help build this brand. I also had a consultancy. I did multiple things because guess what? When I started this show, there was no influencer marketing. There was no paid partnerships. There was no brand deals.

It was 2016. Right. And we had a teeny little audience. I had a teeny little following. So I define other ways to pay the bills. And I would just encourage anybody that has the entrepreneurial itch to a, yes, be all in. So much so that you're willing to put your own money into the business. You can't look to other people to invest if you're not willing to, but also have some means.

I don't care if you have to drive an Uber. Do it. Do it. Do it. I think it's a great trading secret. And it's great that you also found other means that can help contribute to Loverboy, like Dijing at a huge venue that could carry Loverboy. It's so smart.

And I think the trading secret I've learned from you too is like even your conversation with Carl, you saw a spike in your sales. And I think this conversation, you're showing vulnerability about the business and you're doing it through education. And I think when like this side of Kyle, we've seen the fun party style, we've seen the business side. But seeing like the vulnerable, this is who I am, this is why I am. It's so it's refreshing. It's educational. You're making impact.

We're learning from you and just keep doing it. and that people want to help people that will show the cards and talk about this stuff. And it's real. We're not taught it in the school system. I got an MBA. We're not taught in our MBA. It's real life and you don't see it all on the screen.

So Kyle, keep crushing it. We're all rooting for Loverboy. How can everyone here as we're wrapping this episode find you and also support? Yeah. So I'm pretty easy to find. Yep. Pretty much anywhere on the internet. There's any eat the end of cook.

But drink loverboy. dot com. Hi, Flowerboy, that's H-I. Flowerboy. That's our THLowerboy. That's our T-I-Flowerboy. That's our website. The pre-sales help. Yes, it takes a little time for us to get you the product or the merch, but honestly, thank you everybody for supporting us. I love it. There's only one last thing to do. Crack. Let's take one crack. ASMR, baby. Here we go. ASMR. Had to do it sober. Now let's have a drink. Cheers. Cheers, man. This message comes from Capital One Commercial Bank. Your business requires commercial banking solutions that prioritize your long-term success. With Capital One, get a full suite of financial products and services tailored to meet your needs today and goals for

tomorrow. Learn more at Capital One.com slash commercial member FDIC.