Your Happy Hour - Episode 22: The Tipping Point

Episode Date: May 3, 2024

Happy Friday everyone! Tune in to episode 22 and let’s chat about: The Tipping Point.In this episode we are joined by Vanessa Royle, co-founder of Tilden Cocktails, award-winning, ready-to-pour non-alcoholic cocktails that stir the senses. Vanessa is not only pioneering the current wave of consumers looking beyond alcohol to a more healthy life, but she is tackling entrepreneurship while navigating building her family. Vanessa has had many tipping points in her life: her decision to turn away from alcohol, the initial idea behind Tilden, and the point at which Vanessa and her cofounder chose to pursue Tilden as a business. We unpack topics like: the sober scene: it’s not just a fad, empowering authenticity, being your uninhibited self, taking the hard route and being open to creating waves of change, hiring in the start-up scene, the Tilden trademark and having the insurance policy while following your passions.We’ll be here - every Friday - celebrating with you!Connect with us @ friday-feels.co▶ Podcast Chapters01:18 New month, new theme! Welcome Vanessa!02:15 The Tilden Journey: From sobriety to successful start-up05:05 Waves of Change: Wellness in the Gen Z era07:37 Empowering Authenticity: The uninhibited sober self12:05 Brewing up ideas for a brand17:29 Be curious! Be open! 21:18 A job is a job: Choose your hard28:12 It’s not just a fad30:30 Speaking candidly and the social media trap35:25 Hiring in the start-up scene & having the insurance policy!42:58 A year from now…45:15 Find your flavor! 46:33 The Tilden trademark49:55 Gems of the week! 01:00:05 Final thoughts, next week and farewell

Happy Friday beautiful people and hello to you all out there tuning in for your first sip of the weekend. We're celebrating all you working professionals out there doing your crazy craft, embracing the beauty of being human and connecting authentically. We are host Saja Nicole and we're living and working around the world, holding space for you and keeping it raw and real as we share fresh content with you every week. So follow us on LinkedIn at Friday Feels and Instagram at These Friday Feels for updates throughout the week. In our last episode, we chatted to multi-preneur Matt Davidson, who is the founder of OG Ventures, Travel Attractions, and the very cool space of Cape Co-Living. We loved how honestly Matt shared about his hustle of living and working

around the world and the difficult realities of entrepreneurship. Stay in for episode 21 if you haven't already and get 10% off your stay in Cape Town via Friday Feels. And this week we are uncovering a brand new theme for the month of May. Hello to quarter two of this year and we're delighted to be talking about something very important, the tipping point. That moment you knew things had to change and you were going to be part of making that happen. Now we'll explore this journey leading up to and after major shifts in the working human life. And to kickstart this theme we are welcoming a very lovely lady to the mix. Vanessa Royal is not only the co-founder of Tilden, pioneering the current wave of consumers looking

beyond alcohol to more healthy life, but she is tackling entrepreneurship while navigating building her family. And we are very delighted that she can join us today with a baby just around the corner. Vanessa, thank you so much for taking the time to come and share with us about your journey of creating waves of change and embracing difficult decisions of change in your life. Thanks so much. I'm excited to be here. So tell us a little bit about how you got to this point. What does this topic, the tipping point, mean for you? And yeah, just tell us a little bit about your journey. Sure. I've had a number of tipping points, I guess, in my life and most related to Tilden. I quit drinking nearly four years ago. So that was a huge personal tipping

point in my life. It was the thick of COVID and I was having a lot of anxiety, feeling very cooped up and isolated from my friends and family. And out of somewhat desperation and feeling better, I cut out caffeine, sugar, and alcohol for a few weeks. Alcohol really stuck. Caffeine and sugar came back quite quickly. I love a good coffee and a dessert. But it was sort of my tipping point in realizing that alcohol had never been a positive thing in my life. It had been a social crutch. It had been something I'd definitely abused in college, you know, at parties and for social situations. And it no longer really served my life and what I wanted to achieve. So I kept at it with the early stages of sobriety, went off to business school a few months later, which if anyone's been to business school,

you know, it's generally a very social group of people who like to party and drink nice drinks. And that was another tipping point professionally, because I was in this new environment, really exposing myself to new frontiers, very, very vulnerable from the business side, not having done a lot of these types of courses before and also very vulnerable being newly sober. So went off to business school and was really proud of myself that I stuck with the sobriety piece amongst my peers who were drinking and having a good time. But it was during business school that my co-founder and I came up with the idea for It was during business school that my co-founder and I came up with the idea for Tilden. And a lot of that came out of that frustration and not having a great non-alcoholic drink at networking events and dinner parties and wanting something better for ourselves.

I love that. Yeah, it's a difficult one being here in France. I haven't been drinking for a long time because it's so expensive in America. But wine's pretty good and cheap here. But it's such an interesting, you were mentioning the other day, also a current wave of change that's happening globally, I think. People are becoming a lot more aware of, you know, that tipping point of making that change. Is that what you're finding that your audience, your drinkers, your drink-tilden crowd, is they making that change from a young generation? It's very interesting because, yeah, the younger generation, Gen Z, so drinking age, you know, 21 to 27, by and large, are not drinking in the same way previous generations

did. So about 42% of that age group has never had alcohol. So it's very interesting when you talk to, you know, 21 to 27 year olds who've never had tequila or gin or wine, and you know, they're asking you what your product tastes like, and you're trying to kind of give them flavor notes. It's great for us because we really focused on the non-drinker first with our flavors. We didn't want to mimic an alcoholic drink that already existed. So people can have their own flavor journeys with our beverages and it's not, you know, attempting to be a direct replica of anything else. But it is very interesting because older generations, they come up and ask, Oh, is this supposed to be a whiskey? Is this supposed

to be a margarita? And you kind of have to retrain them. No, this is its own thing. And, and it's quite unique, but it's very interesting to see that wave of Gen Z consumers, you know, who are starting to use their buying power really dictating that they want these new products. At the same time, I think we were very surprised just how cross generational this movement is. We ourselves are millennials. And so we, you know, we figured we'll target, you know, the coastal millennial who's interested in wellness and health and mindfulness, and that kind of fits who we are as people. But it's been very interesting to see, you know, Gen X boomers really loving our product. So many of them are having their own tipping points, whether it's health related or, you know, their doctor's

telling them they need to cut back a little bit, or there's been a number of articles in AARP magazine, you know, talking about, you know, just all the sugar that's in alcohol that isn't really disclosed. Talking about, you know, moderation is great, but if you can really take breaks it's even better so it's been very interesting to see our demographic and who who is really loving the product and I think the beauty of our product is it resonates with a ton of ton of different people for different reasons I remember when Saj when you sent the link to me we were both like we have to talk to these ladies this resonates with Friday feels so much and you know something that's interesting is sometimes I think people feel

they are more their authentic selves when they drink because the inhibitions come go down but when you aren't drinking and you really get to explore that space from a sober space of who you are who you truly are in the world and you get to be that I think that's really powerful so I it's wonderful that you are empowering authenticity in that way in the world absolutely we I think I was one of those people I thought I was better when I drank I was more outgoing I was funnier I was more outgoing. I was funnier. I was more myself. And yeah, people definitely say that, you know, you're most yourself when you're uninhibited. I think part of that might be true.

But, you know, alcohol is a drug in a way. And there's a lot of drugs that people take for good and bad reasons. But I found I was most confident once I'd had about six months of sobriety and I realized I could go to these social events and not drink. It gave me just this surge of confidence realizing I was in control. And that's one thing that I was really wanting during COVID when I gave up drinking was a sense of control over my life. And it was frustrating to me that after a glass of wine or two on a Zoom happy hour, I was feeling, I had the anxiety the next day I was hung over and it was like Groundhog Day, as I'm sure a lot of listeners remember. It's just a repeat of it was pretty horrible but I love that it was during business school that I realized I didn't

need alcohol as a crutch anymore and really leaned into the fact that I liked myself without without drinking but when you when you start drinking at 18 in college, and that goes on for a period where that's how you socialize and that's how you've kind of become an adult in the world, you kind of think that alcohol has to be a part of every social setting or networking event or gathering. And there's so much in our society about, oh, I need a drink for this, or I've had a long day, I need a drink.

I needed this, I needed that. And I've found, you know, I don't really need anything. I enjoy treating myself, for sure, and I love drinking our Tilden drinks, but it's not a crutch anymore, which is great. It's not a crutch anymore, which is great. Yeah. I think a lot of people use alcohol as a social crutch to either make themselves or other people more interesting sometimes. So it's nice to, yeah. But, you know, when you're pregnant, they tell you to stay away from all of these drugs,

including like sugar, alcohol. So if it's not good enough for your baby, I don't think it's good enough for you. So there is definitely a huge trend. And I think it's important. I noticed on your social media guides also shared that stat where it's a lot of younger people, which was surprising for me. I didn't really realize that. But that's awesome. You know, you brought up a lot of good points as well in terms of COVID. I feel like COVID really made people reflect on what was going on in their life, what they're putting energy into, because it took away so much. It took away so many distractions. I feel like even for me,

it was always like you're going to a baby shower, a wedding shower, a birthday, some sort of event, you have to get in a gift, you have to book a flight, you have to do and it just took all of that away at the same time. So when you don't have all those distractions, you really get to sit with yourself and be like, okay, what do I do with this time? Like I'm forced to stay inside or spend time with myself or the people immediately in my household. And a lot of people change jobs, change professions. That was a big tipping point for a lot of people. And I think a gift in, in some way. So definitely thank you for sharing that.

I'm sure you're not the only one, but at least something good came out of it, right? You spent that time thinking about, you know, how to make a change for yourself. One question I had, you know know your journey is very interesting did you see yourself like during covid opening a brand for non-alcoholic drinks after you let's say a year into your sobriety were you like you know what caused you to kind of make that jump? Was it always kind of brewing when you went to business school? Or did you think to yourself, Oh, I have this great experience,

I really want to share it with the world. Can you chat a little on that? Absolutely. I did not go into business school thinking I was going to come out with a brand. I was struggling so much mentally before business school that I was even happy that I made it there. I was just like, you know, so much had changed and I think I kind of wanted familiarity. So the thought of moving across the country from California to Boston and starting over with all these new people was so terrifying. So the fact that I got there and started and saw my business school journey through was sort of step one.

And then I was super open-minded going into business school. Wasn't sure the career I wanted. I just knew I wanted to pivot and do something else. I had done public relations for a tech company in San Francisco for a long time and really loved my job, but hit a point where I realized I didn't want to necessarily do that specific role forever and felt like I needed to build my skillset outside of what I knew. So I was going into business school, been to iBanking and consulting and working for other brands. And the beauty or the silver one of the silver

linings of COVID was everything was on zoom so I could attend a ton of information sessions and I didn't have to necessarily walk everywhere you could very much access everything on your computer so it was during this time where I was sitting at home a lot on zoom class a lot and my now husband made me a non-alcoholic Moscow mule one night and it was fine but I really wanted something better and something quick that didn't need to be painstakingly mixed the proper way to taste the same way. So I drew up the very, very early, you know, images of what would become Tilden almost two years later. But it was just an idea that I had. It was a frustration that I was constantly having when I went to parties. And it wasn't so much that I felt uncomfortable that I wasn't drinking because I kind of decided going in, I was just going to own

it. And business school presented an opportunity to introduce myself to new people as a non-drinker. And it wasn't until a year or so later that many of my friends from home knew I had stopped drinking. So it was kind of this fresh cut, I suppose, or however you call it. But I was really frustrated with professors and classmates constantly asking me why I wasn't drinking. It was, are you pregnant? Can you tell me why you don't drink? Do you have a problem? People feel really entitled to hear your story. And I didn't know at the time if it was a forever thing. I didn't know how much I wanted to tell people. I didn't really feel like it was anyone's business quite yet. And it's so funny now it feels much more cool almost to not drink. I feel like I

talk to people all the time who don't drink. And it's not just, you know, because you had a problem with it or because you're an AA, although that's a ton of people as well. It's, you know, people just making a choice for themselves and it's becoming less stigmatized, which is great. But all that to say, had the very early idea for Tilden. There was a boot camp program that was offered also on Zoom. So I figured I'm not doing anything else. I'll do this for a few weeks. So I recruited a small team and I met my actual,

I actually met my now co-founder on zoom so she was in a different class at the in the program so I hadn't met her before and pitched my idea she is a lifelong non-drinker from Las Vegas which is a funny combo yeah she very much understood the frustration because she's, I call her like the hostess extraordinaire. She hosts the most amazing gatherings and murder mystery parties and has long made her own cocktails and very much leans into this idea that you don't need alcohol to have fun or be interesting as a human. And actually, you know, she thinks actually, she thinks people are less interesting when they're drunk, which I tend to agree with. So we started working on it together with two other teammates, Nicole and Carlton. And at the end of the two-week program,

I think Mariah, Nicole, and I really came out thinking like, we want to work on this, at least start you know, start working on flavors and see it through and see what we can do. And then upon graduation, Mariah and I really looked at each other and said, I think this is how we want to spend our time and started raising money. And the rest is history. We launched about a year after that.

So almost a year ago. Isn't it beautiful how the universe brought you two together in that way? Absolutely. Nothing's coincidence. So yeah, that's, yeah, what I, yeah, but I think it's, it's really, it's very inspiring. And I mean, also that you are open to those opportunities. You're open to the opening the windows to the tipping points of life. You know, I think that's really what really what's important to make that change. We feel a lot of that with having started Friday Feels and the way it came about was a big tipping point for us as well. Yeah, I think openness was a huge thing.

In undergrad, I was very insecure, very closed off, very much thought I had to do things a certain way. And I think that sort of anxiety and coldness almost exacerbated my abusive alcohol and just needing that work hard, play hard mentality was very much how I ran my life because I felt like I was so buttoned up and perfectionist during the week and the weekends I would just let loose. And I didn't want to lead that kind of lifestyle in business school. I felt like been there, done that. I'm older, I'm wiser now. It would be so nice to spend weekends not hung over and just feel like I'm in control of my life. And going into B-School from a professional perspective, I was very open to all these opportunities and I wanted to feel that way about relationships

and friendships and different things that popped up because I just realized I don't have a plan, but I know if I'm open to different things, I'll hopefully attract what I'm looking for and figure out a new path for myself. And I think being sober, alcohol-free was a huge part of that because there was no distraction. There were no groggy Sunday mornings. I really felt like I could make the most of my weekends. So it was great. That sounds like a major lifestyle

change, but gradually, right? And I think that's really important for listeners to hear is that it is gradual, right? It's not like you one day woke up and decided, okay, this is my life from now on. and find a company it's it's little bits and pieces that come together over some time of you kind of probably getting closer to your self over the time what you like what you don't like and it's good professional advice I think too I talk to a lot of younger people they're like oh I gotta find my dream job I haven't found it yet I'm like I don't know your dream job. I haven't found it yet. And I'm like, I don't know. Your dream job is just sitting out there. You could probably try to create it, but you probably have to try a lot of stuff before you figure out what you like, what you don't like. Do you like, you know, are you open to new things? You might be doing IT, but maybe you really like PR or sales. How do you know if you don't try? So I think sometimes also, also you know when you come out

with a university degree it's very cookie cutter what you could go into and being open is a is a good takeaway for people who kind of see the Harvard Business School degree or the Ivy League a lot of people go into consulting or like you said, or iBanking or tech companies. And it's really about pushing yourself, I think, to see what you really want to do, what really resonates with you. Sounds like this is something that was kind of always brewing that you probably came back to. Yeah, I had worked with founders before in the tech sector. So I'd seen what building a company generally looked like, but beverage and consumer goods

and doing my own thing was very, very different. But I want to go back to what you said earlier about dream jobs. I honestly don't think the dream job exists. I have a great job in that I'm controlling my own destiny. I'm the boss. I'm very flexible. I'm working on something I'm super comfortable and passionate about. And that brings me joy. And you could say that's a dream job, but there's highs and lows to everything. And I think so much of today's society is focused on, well, if it's not making you happy, you got to make a change.

And to some degree, I think that's absolutely right. But I also think people are too quick sometimes to quit things or think there's something wrong just because it's not perfect 100% of the time. I think a lot of my friends who went into different career paths post-business school have realized that. We were all talking about the perfect job. And because we went to HBS, we're going to get these high power, lucrative career opportunities. And I think a lot of people just had this moment of, okay, well, it's a job. And some days I like it and some days I don't. Obviously, if it's horrible, you can move on and do other things. But I don't know, we work so that we can, you know, afford things and live our life and hopefully make a good impact on the world. But I don't know, I,

I don't seek out necessarily the dream job and I don't recommend others do either. I recommend people find things that they're passionate about and maybe build positions around that. Yeah, I think that's awesome advice. It's a choose your heart, right? Yeah. And you don't always have to work on your passion too. Sometimes it makes it worse because it becomes a job then. So I have a lot of friends who do side hustles or are small business owners who do markets and things like that on the side. And they love that because it brings them joy

and sort of extra income and things like that. But I think in general, a job is a job. So it's still going to be hard. And there's still going to be bad days. That's so true. And I'm quite curious when I think of like the topic of the tipping point I think a lot of people feel these moments like you say you had this idea you started drawing after until then and I'm also curious about the

name where that came from but a lot of people have these moments of ideas but don't necessarily always move into that tipping point of change you know like we're all kind of standing on that edge of that cliff but some of us jump and and you know what what was that for you and like what has been the hardest thing of falling into the or rather flying into into what it is now I think it was the hardest part was deciding to spend all my time on it outside of school. My now husband and I had a lot of conversations around, okay, you're at this fancy business school. Are you sure you want to forego these other maybe more lucrative traditional opportunities to do this thing that you don't know much about?

opportunities to do this thing that you don't know much about. And that was how I felt too. You know, it was scary, new, and all my classmates thought, Ooh, that's so cool. She's doing something wacky and different. But meanwhile, they were accepting, you know, very, very good job offers and like, Oh, how fun Vanessa's doing that crazy thing. You know, and we had a lot of detractors like I pitched Kevin O'Leary from Shark Tank very early on in one of my classes and he told me to stop working on it and was you know his normal lovely self Mr. Wonderful yeah yeah it was pretty

pretty bad uh it was on zoom in front of my whole class but oh man but then you know one of our competitors pitched him a few years later and he loved it so I thought you know what this this guy doesn't know what he's talking about but I think that's funny in terms of tipping point and me falling into it I just I kind of decided when during COVID, I wanted to choose the hard route. Actually, I think I decided it years earlier. When I came out of undergrad, actually, I had a pretty good job offer in sales that would have made me more money. And I had a PR job offer that was a very, very low paid internship. And I just, I chose the low paid internship because I thought, you know, this is more aligned with what I think I want to do. I think it'll set me up better. I

think, I don't know. I think I've chosen the hard path quite a lot in my life because I just am attracted to doing things slightly differently. And then in B school, I mean, I'm coming from a very privileged position where I did not have to take out loans and I paid with savings. And so that is definitely something to take into account. But at the same time, I felt like when you go to Harvard Business School, you should, I viewed it as an insurance policy. You know, it's, it's great on your resume. And if you can't take a chance after getting that, then what are you doing? So I kind of just felt like this is an opportunity to do something really interesting to go for it. I'll learn so much by starting a company. And I have, you know, in three years, I've picked up so many new skills and

random things that I never thought I would ever touch being in a specific role at a company. And so those were things I was thinking through when I was making the choice to fall, I guess, into entrepreneurship was, if I can't do it now, when will I do it? Will I do it when I have three kids and I'm trying to pay for school and do all this stuff? Or is it better to do it now? I don't know. I just couldn't not do it, I guess. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs say that is like when you have that idea

that you're really passionate about, it feels like you can't ignore it. And I also just felt like, again, if I can't do it coming out of this elite institution and with all these great connections and professors and funding opportunities, then who can? coming out of this elite institution and with all these great connections and professors and funding opportunities, then who can? So let's just kind of go for it. But I know a lot of my classmates who explored entrepreneurship ended up deciding not to pursue it. And it's just,

it's hard and it's hard to embrace the unknown. I think I was already comfortable embracing the unknown with COVID and sobriety. And it just felt like, well, why not start a company? Let's just add another crazy loophole. I like that you use that word, wacky. It's funny. I mean, entrepreneurship is not really like a normal career path out of business school. But everyone was like, oh, you're a weird mocktail company. And I was like, well, first of all, like it's a viable thing. And I think people back then were back then two years

ago where, oh, this little fad, this non-alcoholic fad. And I think we've proven it's not a fad. Like people are truly not drinking in the same way. And I think drinking is going to go way, way, way, way down over the next 10, 15 years. So I think we were on the beginning end of a big movement, but all that to say, yeah, a lot of people still look at me and they're like, you're still doing it. Wow. Okay. And then, you know, we're getting traction and things are going really well. So people are now like, oh, wow, I wish I'd done that. But at the time we were kind of the crazy. I totally agree with you in terms of, you know, that tipping point, I think, is when you look at yourself in the mirror and you go, I cannot not do this. I remember having a conversation with my dad and I was still working in corporate.

But I was already feeling that, like, you know, I need to make a change. And my parents are both entrepreneurs. I always admired, you know, I've seen that. I always admired, you know, I've seen that. I've slept on the mattress at 3 o'clock in the morning, you know, next to them as a child as they're working away in their businesses and designing logos and whatever. And I remember asking him, you know, but when do you know? When do you know is the right time to move into this?

And he said, when you know there's no other choice. That's just the way it is. You know, you can't not do it. And you're right. I think that's the feeling that you get, you know. And even now in our journeys, you know, what we're doing now, sometimes he'll ask me, like, are you still applying for jobs? And I'm like, dead.

What do you mean? So it is hard. I think it's hard to make that change. Even when you've made that decision, sometimes I think we're, like, on the edge, you've jumped, and then you're still you're still like flying through the air kind of looking back and going can I climb back on that ledge you know is this a bungee or so yeah but I think it's really brave and yeah it's wonderful that you are doing that and yeah it's not a fad anymore I'm so appreciative of you guys bringing this into the world. It's been a really beautiful year for me.

Now I'm drinking a little bit more wine here, but it's not really out of a negative motivation. But, yeah, it's just been so beautiful to see what that looks like. And I've also felt that, you know, I felt like I run into situations where I don't really know what to drink. So I can't wait for you guys to come into the European. We'll get there. Oh, sure.

I bet you guys will do awesome there. And I think you dropped so many gems there, really. It's nice to hear. And I think that's something that I really appreciate about this podcast and having people come on who are at different levels of their journey, different levels of however you want to measure success. It's just speaking candidly about what it's really like, like, it is still hard, you do have traction, your brand is not a little wacky brand. But maybe at one point, if we want to go so far as saying it was, it's the idea is that, you know, it's while you're building it is is when people really need to understand, like, this is what it takes. It doesn't just magically happen. You're getting resistance all over the place. You're also battling your own personal, you know, awareness and mental health and all that. Not you. I'm just speaking as any entrepreneur.

And that's what's really cool about having these conversations with people who are doing the hard things, who are doing the unexpected things. I mean, we really select people that we feel like will share with our audience exactly what it's like to go down this path. And it's really nice to hear from people who sometimes take the traditional path or try it or have it as an insurance policy, like you said. There's many people in business school that I hear say that, and that's smart, right? You made the decision for your life, but not always do some of the people who listen have access to someone who will share that with them you know we could have picked anybody from Harvard business of that year were they going to

actually share that I don't know you know so it's and I really appreciate that so I do want to say thank you for sharing that because sometimes you look at these brands or you look at people's Instagram stories and you think oh my god like their life is so amazing. Like, you know, they have the perfect spouse, they have the perfect wedding, the perfect friends, the perfect business. And then when you hear like how much it took, right, that's just a snapshot and how much it constantly takes every day. I think that it really starts to shed light on, okay, well, you could be doing this for yourself, or you could be doing this for a business. There's actually no right or wrong answer. But it's still not going to be super easy just because you're following your passion. Are you doing something you love?

I even myself as an entrepreneur knows the ups and downs, I get caught in viewing my peers who run companies who I who I know, and I know they're struggling, or I know, not struggling, but I know they're having their ups and downs too. And I get caught in the like, oh my God, they're doing so well. And they're getting every opportunity and they're doing this. And I've had to mute a lot of people, just not because I don't love them or their content, but it just makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong. And I think it's so true. You just have to remember, it's not a linear journey.

It's, you know, we get, we're fundraising right now. We're, you know, trying to set up all these distributor partnerships. We're expanding, you know, we just finished our first year of business. So we're really trying to figure out our sales strategy for the next year. And you get so many no's, but that's just part of running the business. So we're really trying to figure out our sales strategy for the next year. And you get so

many no's, but that's just part of running the business. And you have to be really resilient and figure out how to optimize for the yeses. But it can be very difficult to constantly hear no's or just face resistance or feel like not everything's going perfectly. And as someone who definitely glomper focuses more on the negative than the positive, sometimes it can be hard to remember that. Look at where we were a year ago, you know, we were in two places. Now we're in 150. So we made progress, but you have to highlight the wins and really, and I think that's why people on social media highlight those wins and highlight the good things, because you want to remember those. But I always appreciate when people kind of unveil what's actually going on and talk about the recalls or the hiring issues or the issues with fundraising, which are very pervasive, especially for women. And I think that's been helpful is kind of to realize that people are being more open about the struggles of entrepreneurship, the struggles of entrepreneurship

as a woman, the struggles in this economy for entrepreneurs. And it's also just, you know, it's hard to create a new category where we're going up against, you know, big alcohol and, you know, a lot of different pushbacks. But I think, luckily, consumers are wanting these products. So it's very much a need in the market. Yeah, there's a whole aisle in Whole Foods. It's fun to go through that aisle. Yeah. They get all my money anyway. So. But yeah, no, thank you so much for sharing that. And, you know, coming from a,

like I went, I went to NYU, their business school, and you see it because a lot of your classmates go on to, you know, their theater schools for a lot of the youth organizations. So 10 years later, you're kind of like, wow, I really just could have been on a whole different path. And I remember when I was starting out, I ended up interning at a startup. And after that, I was like, oh my God, this is crazy. Why would I ever want to go work at a large company? Because I had worked at a large company before, a few of them. And I went back once and I was like, no, I'm never going to do it again. You know, and so I like working on the innovative teams or on the startup culture. And I used to recommend it to all my friends.

I'd be like, you have to go like get like unlimited snacks. And like there's so much flexibility and they listen to your ideas. And like, you know what you're missing, you know, where like, you know, you go to some of these programs and it's like you can't raise your hand out of place you can't you know you want to take a day off you're like shitting bricks trying to figure out like how do I get asked for a day off like I just need to go to the doctor but it's probably not worth it I'll just die it's okay like you know it's it's a lot and it's it's programming right like you're just conditioned to understand like this is what is normal. And I remember one of my friends, she worked at one of the big four accounting firms.

And she was talking about like not being able to, she's like, oh my God, they switched over to no date, to unlimited vacation. This sucks. And I'm like, why does that suck? You can take unlimited vacation now. And she's like, well, now we're not mandated to take 14 days. So now we're never actually going to take it because nobody's going to want to take it. And I'm like, are you serious? Like, you're just not going to take any vacation because they switched you? Like we have unlimited and it's awesome. Cause at a startup, everybody's like, yeah, like let's do, you know, depends on

the startup. but now fast forward like 10 years later there's so many people that I know that have moved over to startup scene and that could be it doesn't mean like five people in a room you know figuring something out it could be 500 people who are on their series c or something and And they're super happy. And I think it's just, you know, not everything is always roses, but it's about making sure that you're making the right decision for your life. It's not always about the dream job title or the job title, I would say, and the money. Yeah. I also think understanding that grass is greener is something that happens kind of no matter where you are. There are days where it's hard and I crave the nine to five I used to have or the nine to six.

And I'm like, wow, that was so stable. I had my like five tasks I was doing every day. And then I checked out and I went home and I lived my life, but I didn't think about work until the next morning. And then there are days where I'm so thankful that I'm running my own company and an entrepreneur and I love what I do. And I think that kind of happens for everyone in different phases based on where you're at. And yeah, like you said,

I think pros and cons to working at a startup. And there's obviously many different sizes and stages of startups. But yeah, it's hard to work at a startup if you're not, you know, resources might be low, there might not be a ton of processes when you're working in larger corporate, you know, things are very set out for you. And so I think it's a matter of figuring out what, which environment you succeed in better. If you're someone who wants to do something a bit more traditional or tried and true, or, you know, you are very clear on your promotion path. And I think like a lot of people are attracted to that. And sometimes I am too, you know, I'm not going to get promoted beyond CEO

right now, but I think raises in the future would be nice but yeah I think it's just understanding that no job's perfect and you kind of just have to figure out the right the right environment for you to thrive in yeah awesome what would you say is your best professional advice that you've gotten yeah best professional advice one of my professors taught or explained to me the insurance policy thing that I mentioned about Harvard. Like, you know, you go and it's not just Harvard, but you, you know, you go to college or you go to trade school or art school or whatever you decide to do, you know, to get yourself skilled up. And you're doing that so that you have a place to fall back on. And, you know, he really explained to me, like, you should go for opportunities that you don't think you're necessarily qualified for or ready for because the whole point of getting these training programs and having these institutions or programs on your resume

is to fall back on, right? It's like you're doing that to bolster yourself. I think women a lot, we've seen data like don't apply for jobs that they think they're unqualified for. Whereas men, you know, we'll see, oh, I'm two of these 15 things. I'll just apply. I've seen that with hiring a lot with the resumes I get. It's, you know, people who are super, super underqualified. And then you get like two that you feel like are really good. And even in interviews, they're like, well, I don't have this one thing. And you're like, okay, we can train you on that. It's okay.

You know, we're looking for other things. So I think, you know, his advice to me was just, you really need to go for things. No one's just going to offer you stuff regardless of your background or where you went to school, maybe in some situations, but that has not been my experience. You know, you really have to put yourself out there and you have to voice what you're looking for. So taking his advice, I met with all my professors in B school and I voiced to them what I was working on and what I was passionate about so that if opportunities came up, they had me in mind and they could connect me with people. And it goes back to that openness. I was just decided, I had decided, you know, following my conversation with him to just be very open to everything and be very

proactive about voicing that openness so that opportunities would naturally be more likely to come my way. And I think that's how people should kind of think about hiring and recruiting. It's not just a proactive thing. It's, I mean, you do proactively need to be communicating what you're looking for in order for those things to come, but it's not just filling out job applications or, you know, hoping for something to happen. You really have to put yourself out there and kind of voice to the universe what you're interested in. Not manifesting, but you're, you know, you need to communicate to your networks and your friends and yourself what you're really open to. And then things will be more likely to come

your way we've spoken about this a little bit on the podcast before and it is it's like the moment you you open yourself like you say to those opportunities you kind of give the universe the opportunity to to magically surprise you you know if you can say i'm curious if this could happen i'm curious that what that would look like you know, and then leave the how to the magic of life. I think there's something really special about that. And it's great to see a living example in you. So thank you for sharing that. And I'm curious now with what you're putting out there a year from now, what does that look like?

with with what you're putting out there a year from now what does that look like yeah I think in terms of the business a year from now you know we have goals to be in you know 700 doors so you know accounts bars restaurants we really want to get our cocktails on more non-alcohol menus at bars and restaurants because that's where I've personally felt the most frustration is when you go to a restaurant and you're having this lovely meal and there's not a great cocktail to really match the meal that doesn't either have a ton of sugar or isn't like a soda and juice um so you know from a business perspective we'd love to be in more doors from a personal perspective I would love to go everywhere and just have children available. And I think in terms of our team, you know, we're being very conscientious about building great culture from the ground up. Your first

hires are so key to setting the scene for that culture. So, you know, my co-founder, Mariah and I were the first two. And then we hired operations lead Barry last year, who's amazing and has a ton of experience. And she brings a lot of fun and energy to the team. And then we've just hired a head of sales who has 25 years in beverage sales. And she brings a lot of interesting perspectives to the team. And we didn't maybe intentionally build a 100% female team, but we're loving we're loving it it's uh definitely refreshing in the the um more traditional i guess beverage industry to have to have a lot of you know high-powered women who are building this new new brand together so i think just in terms of team you know we really

over the next year want to establish a great culture and a great workflow and, and set ourselves up for, for future expansion. You mentioned, you know, Whole Foods, that'll, that'll come down the line as we, as we build the brand, but having Tilden just be more well-known and more present across, I think the bar, restaurant, hotel sort of situation would be my goal. Well, we are ordering directly from Tilden until we can get it in the store. So that shouldn't be a deterrent for anybody. Please visit their site and try their cocktails. I'm super excited to do that because I looked up the flavors and I was like, oh my God, this sounds amazing. Like I'm wearing them as lychee in it. And I was like. Yeah.

So you have two. We have a cucumber basil lychee. It's very fresh and herbaceous and just delicious. And then we have a bitter orange tart cherry ginger that's a bit smoky. That's kind of my favorite because it's quite unique to have a non-alk that is kind of nutty and smoky. They're both super low sugar, preservative free, all natural. And I also want to share your listeners can get 15% off with the code FEELS15.

And that's on our website. And then you can also see on our website, you type in your zip code and you can see where near you, you can go pick up a bottle as well. Amazing. Oh, thank you for that special offer. And I know everyone's gonna love that and I'll have to find a way to ship it to me please that's amazing and and I think it's such a nice segue into having a James of the week um you know we do this every week where we talk about what makes you a good working professional what's filled your cup and literally what is filling your cup with your drink this week so before we go into that i am curious the name tilden where does that come from so tilden is the

name of a nature reserve park in berkeley california I did my undergrad at UC Berkeley. We were thinking of names. We actually had a previous name and you learn very quickly that trademark is a, is something you need to check. So we had a previous name, decided to move on from it and wanted something that was trademarkable. So that was a big thing. Um we found a number of names that kind of fit that bill, but wanted something that spoke to our vibe of all natural ingredients, being present, being mindful. Tilden Park was a very important place to me while I was going through the tumultuous nature of my college experience. We also loved that it was kind of gender neutral. We wanted our brand to

resonate with, you know, all genders and, and preferences and be something that, you know, sitting at the bar, everyone would feel comfortable ordering a Tilden. It's a strong name. It's easy to pronounce with different accents. We had a lot of international classmates in B school who, you know, like say these names and we wanted it to be clear, easy to pronounce. And then we also did or created what we called the bar call test. So we ran around Boston and yelled names at each other in loud bars. And if you could understand it, we felt like that was a good, good institution. We very much envisioned Tilden being at a bar and, you know, over the loud noise being like, oh, I have a Tilden tandem.

And, you know, we wanted that to really fit the brand. So, you know, a lot of pieces to the name Tilden. It comes from a very special place and then is very much a good sort of steward for the brand and where we intend for it to be. That's awesome. That's quite a lot of research into a name. Naming is really hard. And I've had a lot of friends who've come up with names.

And then three years later, you realize someone else has the trademark for it, or people can't pronounce it, or it doesn't fit the vibe that you're building and you have to change. And yeah, so we own the trademark now we are very happy with the name and there's been a lot of Tilden's people with the last name Tilden who've come out of the woodwork to my product which is really fun too. Oh that's awesome. Yeah yeah I hope someone videoed you guys as you were doing the bar tip running around. Yeah it was only really till toward the the end of B-School because everything I hope someone videoed you guys as you were doing the bar tips. Yeah, it was only really till toward the end of B school because everything was kind of closed at the beginning.

But we did a lot of research with bartenders and bar owners in Boston, which is a funny. People think like, oh, Boston runs drinks so much, but it is a very young population because of all the universities there. So it's kind of this interesting mix of, yeah, people go out and they have a good time and they're very outgoing, but they don't want to drink as much. So, you know, we need these options at those places. So I think the crowd there has been very receptive to it and that's, my co-founder lives there. So she's very much tackling that market while I'm here on the West Coast. Two great markets.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for telling us about the name and the journey. I've been curious since we first connected. Now when we think about our James of the Week, what's been like filling your cup this week? Yeah, so this week we had some unexpected travel and moving and just craziness, complete chaos. And I was just thinking, I had to kind of tell myself, you need to think about

where you were a year ago, a few months ago. And that growth, just reminding myself that growth is not easy and realizing and kind of giving myself grace around that and understanding that it is a lot of change. So it will feel, you know, a lot of, I don't know, emotion surfacing. And I've just been trying to power through and get through it. But it like thinking about like, OK, how many things have actually changed, uh, within the past few months for me this week at like acknowledging that was a big thing and just helping me get through the week. And even thinking about, you know, like you, you know, in terms of entrepreneurship, you do make a lot of sacrifices like the stable job and the stable income.

And it has an effect on your life. I mean, you do make a lot of sacrifices like the stable job and the stable income. And it has an effect on your life. I mean, it would be stupid to say it doesn't, right? Like it doesn't, you know, oh, it's fine. Like you would be in the same place. Yes, like in actuality, you would be in a different place, both financially, but probably mentally in a different place as well. And so I think just kind of reminding myself, like you mentioned,

I think that was a good reminder that, you know, we do have insurance policies, but when else are we going to do these things? And I think it was worded very well. It's something I've felt. And I think what pushed me to start a lot of these things, like, you know, I work on Friday Fields with Nicole and we're also pushing out our growth consultancy, working with a lot of startups, telling you how to scale. And so even for ourselves, like thinking about that, it's just been a lot thinking about like, okay, why did I choose to do these things at this point in my life?

And how do I kind of manage it all? And then I thought about, you know, yeah, I could have went and got another job. And, but I don't think, you know, it would have been as fulfilling. And so just kind of constantly weighing the pros and cons and being comfortable with those decisions and acknowledging, you know, what they cost and what they're bringing in. It was good for me to do that kind of mental assessment because I think I was just kind of feeling the burnout, but I wasn't really thinking about, okay, well, you chose this. Why did you choose it? And is it worth it for you still? And the answer is like a hundred percent. Yeah. So then it automatically, you just, I felt like my shoulders relaxed.

Like I felt like my body just kind of be like, okay, well, you're not here because you're forced to be here. You're here because you chose to be here. And I think the constant roller coaster of entrepreneurship is just, I don't know, maybe you get more used to it. I don't know what it is, but just acknowledging that it's not going to be there, you know, it's not going to be all a bed of roses was really helpful for me in doing like a personal and professional assessment because I don't think

I was, I think I was just kind of go, go, go being like, okay, this is the next thing you have to do. I don't think I was, I think I was just kind of go, go, go being like, okay, this is the next thing you have to do. This is the next thing we have to do. Months pass by and you're like, okay, do you want to check in on how you feel about this? Cause obviously it's something. So for me, that was kind of my gem of the week is just kind of acknowledging and going

with grace on all the changes that have been happening. What about you, Nicole? Do you want to share to give Vanessa maybe a more, a better gems of the week roundup on understanding what it means? No, yeah, I, it's been an interesting week for me too. I think there's been a lot of energy in the, in the world about around what you're saying, so as you know, consolidation, just kind of checking in and kind of forcing you back to the present moment.

I feel like I kind of woke up from this like year-long interesting adventure into myself and kind of like, okay, oh, okay, this is what I'm doing. Oh, wow, okay, these are the choices I made and I also felt that. And I think what's happened is because I've been traveling so much

and you kind of go, go, go know working on all these businesses on the side and every moment you you you know we all understand this like every moment you're thinking about it you're sleeping at you're dreaming at you you know take a quick like break and eat something and whatever else but I realized now recently as I'm building a little bit more of community in this very small village and making more friends and doing a bit more of balancing in my life that I, you know, sometimes you lose that. Sometimes you really, you go past the tipping point, you know, whatever it is. And so it's been a beautiful week for me of having lots of friends over and a really good friend of mine who's a composer

and so talented. We've been working on some music together. We've managed to put together a 12-minute song. So hopefully one day we'll be able to put that out there and perform it. And just being able to share a good conversation and laughter and kind of not be a bit more as isolated as I was even though I have Gracie with me it's not quite the same.

Yeah it's really been awesome and then just being doing some physical stuff like I had to stand these benches that were kind of damaged from the rain and it was just wonderful I didn't know how much I loved working with my hands and my nails don't really love me for it but as a woman but but it's so great and then you actually have opportunity to kind of go into this flow where you you forget about the things you were thinking about you know so I'd like to do more of that more more physical things um and and uh that's not creative in the motivation to build business, but just as a release, you know. And so, yeah, so that's really beautiful for me.

How about you, Vanessa? I did, we do a lot of events with Tilden where we, you know, go out into the community and serve cocktails. And last week happened to be a very, last week and weekend happened to be a very busy week I had four events four days in a row so you know on Thursday I did a a very um beautiful women's you know summit happy hour in Montecito which people know that's where Prince

Harry and Meghan live so it's very very fancy and a lot lot of high powered people and people love the product. And then Friday I popped up at a cycling studio to kind of help celebrate their grand opening. Saturday I did a yoga festival with a very interesting group of people and they were really excited about Tilden. And then Sunday I did a pop up with one of our customers. So very, very different events across the board and events always energize me because it's so refreshing coming from tech or deep tech to hand someone a product that you've spent so much time on and see the joy and excitement

and almost relief on their faces when they realize there's something great that's non-alcoholic. But it also was a great reminder that our products resonate with so many different types of people and for so many different reasons, whether it's someone's just, I've had a few glasses of wine and I want to take a break or someone's sober or they're maybe doing other things. They don't want to mix or it's 10 a.m. and they're walking by and they don't want alcohol yet. So it was just a really nice way to start the week was coming off these events where people were just so excited to talk to us and try the flavors. And it energizes you when you have that, you know, good customer feedback and it's people from all different walks of life so that was my gem of last week coming into this week where I started off with a really good mindset of like

we're building something really special and um just gotta keep going oh that's amazing and and on that note where can people find you how can people connect with you? Yeah, so people can check out Tilden. We sell around the US on drinktilden.com. Like I said, you can get 15% off with feels15 by typing that code in. And then we also have a account finder. So at the top of our website, there's a page called Stockist, you can type in your zip code and find the closest retailer bar or restaurant near you that carries Tilden. We're also constantly reaching out to new places. So I'd recommend DMing us or emailing us if you have connections or places you want to see us. I always tell my friends, they ask, why aren't you in this restaurant or that restaurant around town?

And most of the time the answer is, well, you know, they said no for this reason, or they have their own, you know, maybe lackluster non-alcohol menu that they feel very proud of, which is a good start at least. But I tell them, you know, what's really going to move the needle is you going in and demanding better and asking for Tilda. I can only be the crazy founder for so long. So customers going in, asking for product, asking for better products and demanding better is really, really how we're going to,

how we're going to grow as well. So all that to say, you can find us online. You can find us in about 27 States across the country and soon to be more. So exciting. Thank you so much for sharing. Absolutely. Thanks for having me.

As you expand and you grow, it'll be nice to watch alongside. And we all know the hardships, the tipping points. So thank you for being so authentic about your message today and also a thought to our audience out there you know as you're listening and thinking about your own tipping points and what do you feel is nudging you to make the move you know and

ride that wave or create the change in the world we'd love to hear about what that is or maybe if you still feel it coming what will that look like for you yeah thank you so much vanessa i think it was awesome just hearing your unique perspective and we look forward to cheering you guys on and helping in whatever way that we can at friday feels whenever you guys want to come to miami i will mention it to the people that we know i'm

sure they would love they would love to bring that in will mention it to the people that we know. I'm sure they would love, they would love to bring that in. We look forward to seeing all your success as always with all of our guests on here. And for all of our listeners, you know, we'd love to hear from you. Remember to tag us using hashtag these Friday feels and share your stories with this month's topic, the tipping point. And you can, as always, listen to us on all your favorite platforms and share your stories with this month's topic, The Tipping Point. And you can, as always, listen to us on all your favorite platforms. And to work with us,

you can reach us at hello at friday-feels.co. Next week, we are chatting with a very interesting global living and working gentleman, born and raised in Indonesia, graduated in Japan, and now designing for the next generation on the shores of California. We chat to Mohamed Azri as he tells us about his journey and a new business that he is starting as he's navigating the tipping points that I featured along the way.

But until next time, that is our mix. We have had so much fun mingling with you and we wish you safe travels into your bed, into the night and into this awesome weekend. See you next week and keep it real.