Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Brand Building: Her Medase Cocktails journey is a masterclass example of entrepreneurship driven by vision, preparation, and authenticity.

Transcript

Brand Building: Her Medase Cocktails journey is a masterclass example of entrepreneurship driven by vision, preparation, and authenticity. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to my show.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: I'm Rashon McDonald, a host of money Making Conversations Masterclass,
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: where we encourage people to stop reading other people's success
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: stories and start planning your own. Now, you don't want
• 0:10
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• 0:12
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• 0:16
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• 0:17
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  Speaker 2: or wherever you listen to your podcast. New money Making
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Conversations Masterclass episodes drop daily. I want to keep you
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: on alert because my guests provide tips on how you
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: can uplift your community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Now, let's
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: get this podcast started. My guest is the visionary co
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: founder of Madossie Cocktails, a leading non alcoholic spirits brand
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: redefining how we celebrate. Under her leadership, Madossie is a
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: merchant as a trailblazer in the beverage industry, crafted elevated
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: alcohol free cocktails made with premium ingredients, including organic juices,
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: that deliver the full cocktail experience without compromise. Please welcome
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: to the Money Making Conversations with master class Monica Cornerture.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: How you doing, Monica?
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: Hi? How are you? Thank you for having me today?
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: The first one I got to ask this to jump
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: or do you drink or you're a person who samples
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: alcoholic beverages, or you just reject the whole concept.
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: I do not.
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: Reject the whole concept from the standpoint. I let people
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: do what they want to do, but I do not drink.
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: So I have not, you know, drinking alcohol for about
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: the past four years.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Now I don't.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna tell you so I have'm drinking a drunker
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: and alcoholic beverage since I was twenty three and I
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: was pledging and they made us drink alcohol before we
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: went over the burning sands, as they say. And before that,
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: I remember I was seventeen. I snuck into a nightclub
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: and this guy knew I was under age, and the
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: only drink I knew, Monica.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Was jack black. Give me a Jack Black.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: He gave me that drink and that was the strongest
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: drink I ever had my life, and I never had
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: an also even wanted to consider alcohol after that. So
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: I know that alcohol is favored by a lot of people,
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: but it what excites me and why I wanted to
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: bring you on the show was the non alcoholic beverage
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: line you're creating.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Why did you feel there was a need for that?
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: Monica, absolutely so.
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: In this industry, there are lots of people doing non
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: alcoholic brands, but I wanted minds to be different. So
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: my drinks taste like an authentic cocktail. So when you
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: taste my drink like my old fashion, it is gonna
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: smell taste.
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: Just like an old fashion.
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: If you drink a my scummiule, it's gonna taste and
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: smell just like a my scummyle I wanted to curate
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: something that was very similar to the real alcoholic taste.
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: And the reason being, I'll tell you, why don't I
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: tell people if you drink, you drink, that's perfectly fine.
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: I used to drink to killer all day. Every day.
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: I was to kill a girl. I'm not lying to you.
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: So Margarita was my thing, was my favorite drink. And
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: during the time when I created this brand, it was
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: at a time with my co founder, Inger Dyer, who
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: was actually going and battling breast cancer and at the
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: time she couldn't drink right. But in sitting with each
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: other and just kind of being friends. We were like,
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: remember those times. So we used to have a drink.
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: We used to you know, drink out Takilo, We used
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: to drink a Margarita's. There was nothing out in the
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: market to kind of allow us to celebrate that same way.
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: So we wanted to curate something that really was authentic
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: to the true flavor. So Inga passed away in twenty
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: twenty four for breast cancer, but I am kind of
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: continuing that journey.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Midassie. What did that name come from? Madossie?
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: It means thank you.
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: So our word for our friendship when we ended every
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: call was thank you. Thank you for being my friend,
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: thank you for not judging, thank you for just sitting
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: with me and not saying anything today as I kind
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: of go through the things that I'm going through life,
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: you know, it was it was a hard time.
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: So our word was thank you.
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: So we were looking for a word that meant thank you,
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: and when we hurt Madossi, it was just that word
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: that just felt good to both of us, and we
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: were like, that's the name of our brand. We're going
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: to build our brand around that name and really build
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: our brand.
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: Around thank you.
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: Gratitude, you know, supporting each other, you know, through whatever
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: journey that you're you know, going through.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: You know, it's really important that the reason I bring
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: that up because people don't under need to understand that
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: put some research in your name or your business or
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: your product. Because my name of my company is thirty
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: and fifteen Media, people always ask me what does that mean?
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: Why did you name your company thirty and fifteen Media?
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: And if you have a motivational, vertivational story, like you
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: just have a great story as to why you name
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: your company Madossie, and it compels people to do more
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: research or become more engaged with your brand, Is that
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: true or not?
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: Absolutely, it's your name, of your brand, the product that
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: you deliver, the story that you tell. You know, everything
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: has to kind of build up right to be able
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: to tell that compelling story for you know, anything that
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: you're looking to do in the industry.
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: I'm in. I knew that, you know, venture.
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: Capital dollars was important, you know, for us to build
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: a brand, right, and so I need to make sure
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: that there was a compelling story that make people emotional,
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: a compelling story to kind of grab people to understand
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: the why behind my brand, right, And that's exactly.
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: What I did.
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: Everything has a story behind it, the name of it,
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: why we did it, the taste of the flavors, why
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: our drinks are called. You know, our marguerite is called
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: Hello Sunshine because that was our word.
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: It was Hello Sunshine. How you doing today?
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: So our brand has everything and a story behind everything
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: that we do.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Okay, cool?
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: Now, you said earlier the rise of the zero proof
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: of movement is out there and it's competitive. You said
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: that to the top of the conversation. How does Monica
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: knowing is competitive? About there? Knowing? A lot more people
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: have media dollars you may not have. How do you
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: feel you're gonna, you know, cut your piece of the
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: pie and then grow that pie at the piece that
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: you carve out.
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: So one, it was the drink offering that I offered. Right.
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: When you look in the market, there's a lot of
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: non alcoholic drinks where they use carbonated water. They splash
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: them limb in it and they call it a social tonic.
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: Right, we go to a bar, you don't order that
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: watermelon drink that has the carbonated water. You order a
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: lemon drop, You order a margarita, You order an old fashion,
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: and so that's how I'm different, right, So I wanted
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: to be different in the market. I wanted that authentic taste.
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: I wanted bolt flavors. We use bold colors on our packaging,
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: which is another big thing that I do. When you
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: go down the shelf and you see my brand, you
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: can't miss it because we got the bold oranges, the
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: boat yellows, the boat reds. That's just gonna kind of
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: just make you stop and say what is that? And
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: then again you're gonna look at the name, right, Madosi,
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: what does that mean? So everything that you do has
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: to tell a story. So that's how I'm different. So
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: everything I wanted to do was being different in the market.
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: I didn't want to be the whole carbonated because it
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: was cheaper to make. Right, It's cheaper to make carbonated
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: water and throw a splash if some flavors in it.
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: My drink has organic seals on every one of the cans,
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: meaning I use organic juices. I don't use flavors. So
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: I have barrels and barrels of lime juice, pineapple juice,
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: cherry juice. So you're gonna get all the good stuff
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: out of my drink also right, And consumers are looking
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: for those drinks that are healthy for you also right.
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: So I did not skimp on the flavors, the taste,
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: the profiles across the board.
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: The other thing is, let's be.
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: Honest in this space, there's not too many black and
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: brown individuals like competing at this level, and I wanted
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: to be that one person that competes at this level, right,
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: which kind of let me into finding a venture capital
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: company that would support us, will allow us to take
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: it to the next level.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: You said a couple of finding a venture capitalist because
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: I hear vcs for sure, that's what they call them.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: What type of presentation of what type of model financial
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: models do you have to put in front of this
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: VC to let them say we can win with this
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: or I'm going to invest in you.
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: You know what, sometimes I tell people all the time,
• 8:24
  Speaker 4: and because this show is all about kind of giving
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: information out to people that they can use. Sometimes it's
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: not about the financial piece that you put put in
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: front of them. Sometimes it's about the story and the founder.
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: Those are the two things I let with. My story
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: was a strong story as to why I built this
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: brand as a founder, my background as the murders and acquisitions,
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: so all operations. And then my co founder, her background
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: was she was a lawyer, right, she was an entertainment lawyer.
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: So putting strong founders together with a great story was
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: the one thing that I led with to find my
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: v s right. So it's not always about all I
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: got to do ten million dollars in sales before you
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: get money, right, sometimes you need to know how to
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: talk the talk and walk the walk, as my mom
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: and dad would say. And that's exactly what I left with.
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: I left with my story in my background, and I still.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: Sat, Monica, you could talk. I love that you. You
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: are a communicater. Okay, where did you get that from?
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: Mom? And dad?
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: Kind of from mom? I did it for mom. My
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: mom was a communicator. She was she was. She was
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: a hustler in her in her own right right.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: So well, you know how I love the word hustler
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: because back in the day when you said hustler, you know,
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: it was like today, a hustler is a person who
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: lives in a multiple streams of income.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: World.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: That's a hustler nowadays because they've just renamed it. But
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: if you got multiple streets of income, you hustling, you hustling,
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: and then and also if you had four or five jobs,
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: they say you're part time Jamaican so and all kinds
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: of slang for people out there who basically today that's
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: what you are told to do. Not to sit on
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: one paycheck, not to sit on one opportunity. So is
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: this what you're doing full time?
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: Monica?
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: This is what I do full time. So this is
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: all I do.
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: Medossie is my number one thing and it's the last
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: thing I do when I go to sleep. You know,
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: I always say, you know, with any company, you have
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: to invest the time right, and I know sometimes you
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: got to work and you got to balance out trying
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: to be a you know, a founder or entrepreneur. I
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: just say, find that balance right so that you can
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: get to a point where you are able to do
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: it full time so they can put all your energy
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: into it.
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: So this is what I'm doing full time. This is
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: what I'm talking to.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: The divisionary co founder of Medossie Cocktails, a leading non
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: alcoholic spirits brand redefining how we celebrate. On her leadership,
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: Madossie is emerging as a trail blazer in the beverage industry.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: Industry crafting elevated alcohol free cocktails. And like you said,
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: we're not just splashing carbonated water and MEDOSSI. We got
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: some premium brands in there. So that was important for
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: you to separate yourself from your competition.
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: Correctly, Absolutely, I mean, and on the shelves. It's going
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: to separate me also. Right when people look me up
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: one Instagram or Amazon, they're gonna see that I have
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: taken the time to, you know, put premium ingredients into
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: these drinks, you know, and the authentic taste also is
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: the number one thing that people buy us for right
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: when people buy us on Amazon. Right now, we're on
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: Amazon and we're doing extremely well. It was on Amazon
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: since June of twenty twenty five. I want to say
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: that we were probably two thousand or cell number one
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: drink when Amazon. Now we're in the teens. Right, We're
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: fourteen in some areas with some drinks. We're twelve in
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: other areas and other drinks. So we're moving fast. And
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: I get people who rap me a one, and when
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: they rate me a one, guess what they say, Oh
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: my god, this tastes too much like alcohol.
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: I can't do it. I love that, right, so I
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: just kind of reverse that because that's exactly what I am.
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: If you don't want that authentic taste, don't buy me,
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: right if you want that author taste.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: So you said a one is good for you because
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: they want five, you're chasing that one because I taste
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: just like alcohol. If you give me a one, thank you,
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: because I'm representing what you're selling.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: What you take it to the table.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: You know, it tastes like a turkey, look like a turkey,
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: but they're a turkey because it's your brand and turkey flavor,
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: as they say back in the day.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: But let's let's talk about.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: You a little bit here and putting together this brand
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: scaling because like you said us in the two thousands,
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: in the summer of twenty twenty five, now sometimes you're
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: in the high teens. When I say that, I should
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: say low teens because you're talking about twelve and fourteen
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: in certain brands that you have. How do you handle
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: the scaling? Because I'm gonna tell you something as a
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: black person that always scares us. Are we ready to scale?
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: I tell people, any founder, any entrepreneur, we know it's
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: a hustle when you first start your everything right, you're
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: doing market and you're doing this. You're doing that right,
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: but sometimes you got to pause and now you got
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: to operationalize yourself. That's where you're going to get the win.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: You need to know how many units am I bringing in?
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: How much does that unit cause?
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: You got to kind of really understand, like why am
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: I doing this event, why am I acting this activating
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: at this event?
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: What's my ROI?
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: You got to start thinking about all of those things
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: and really operationalize yourself.
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: Right, That's the only way you're going to get the scale.
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: So if I am ordering ten thousand products, I know
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: how much it costs per can right.
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: If I sell it, I know exactly what I need
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: to sell it for.
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: Some ofttimes we you know, we order more product, but
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: we don't adjust our prices, right, we don't get that
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: scale that we're looking for.
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: So all of those things you got to begin to do.
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: The hustle's great, but take the time to operationalize your
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: business and everything in marketing, you know, in the strategy
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: area and operations area and communications in pr in all
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: the areas that touch your business. There needs to be
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: some type of strategic in the way you operate.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: Please don't go anywhere.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back with more money Making Conversations Masterclass. Now,
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: I need for you to do me a favor right
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: now to follow or subscribe to Money Making Conversation. It's
• 14:21
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  Speaker 2: me that favor, follow or subscribe money Making Conversations. Welcome
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: back to Money Making Conversations master Class with me Rashaun McDonald.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: She's the one and only Monica Cornerture. She's from Philly
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: by way of Atlanta. Now she's in La doing her thing,
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: and her thing is Medisa Medossin Madossi. A's a cocktail
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: that's non alcoholic. It's a speed brand is redefined and
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: how we celebrate. I always look at the products like
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: this and I go, it's an idea.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: How did the idea move forward? I've had people.
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: Come on my show say they thought it out there
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: in their kitchen and now it's it's own store shelves.
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: You know a lot of things happened in the kitchen
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: and a lot of people take that and then translate
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: into successful business plans. Let's talk about when this idea
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: came to you, Monica, and that then then who you
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: had to convince and then you had to bring on board.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: Did you bring in a food scientist into your game
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: to get this rolling?
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: Talk to us?
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, that's a great question.
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: So, like I was talking about a little earlier, I
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: started the business with a really good friend of mine.
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: We were friends for thirty years, We went.
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: To college together, we pledged together, and as she was
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: bad only breast cancer, we were just looking for authentic
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: ways to celebrate, and you know, those celebrations came with
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: let's take a walk, we had water, let's meet that
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: you know at the grocery store and get a you.
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: Know, drink.
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: Everything was over a drink, right, And even when you're
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: hanging out with your friends, you're celebrating with something in
• 16:07
  Speaker 4: your hand. And we was looking to feel something in
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: the market, something that we were looking for. We were
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: looking for a non alcoholic, authentic cocktail and there was
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: a lot on the market, but it did not meet
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: what we wanted to meet, right, So we said, well,
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: let's look at this and let's think about creating our
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: own brand. I mean, we were both entrepreneurs, you know,
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: doing the work that we were doing before. And you're right,
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: it didn't start out in my kitchen. I could have
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: started mixing some stuff in the kitchen, but for me,
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: research was super important for me to start any business. Right,
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: having a business plan is important to start any business.
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: So we did that first, right.
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: We said, well, let's see the feasibility of this, right,
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: so we did a whole feasibility study to see if
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: we were even able.
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: To do this, you know, can it happen?
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: And instead of working on our kitchen mixing some stuff up,
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: we knew that we had to find a food scientist.
• 17:02
  Speaker 4: So we failed a black female food scientist run in
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: La who helped us around the table create the.
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: Flavors that we were looking for.
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: We went through multiple different ingredients house and flavorhouses to
• 17:15
  Speaker 4: find exactly what we're looking for. So it took time
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: to do the research. We didn't just jump out there, right.
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: We spent at least six months trying to strategize plan,
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: figure out you know, is this a good you know
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: plan to invest money in. And we used our own
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: dollars up front, right, and we knew how much the
• 17:35
  Speaker 4: maximum number we could use at of our own dollars
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: to get to where we wanted to be right. We
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: didn't want to start this process and realize, oh my god,
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: we don't have the money to do this, Oh my god,
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: we need more money of our own money to do it.
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: We said, this is the limit, this is how we're
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: going to do it, and we strategized and we made
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: sure we executed.
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: It that way.
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: So that food scientist, she was phenomenal. She helped us
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: create the flavors that we have today. But we knew
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: that to grow in this business you need more capital.
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: This is not like a lip gloss that's like thirty cents, right.
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: This is a heavy product.
• 18:09
  Speaker 4: This is a can of drink and it costs money
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: to produce that can of drink. Inga passed away before
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: we could get to this point, but we signed a
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: VC at that time. But it was all about planning
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: and strategizing. And even today, when I'm doing things, I
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: go back to my original plan and say, wasn't on
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: the roadmap to do this? And if I'm changing the
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: road map, I need to go back and change my
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: plan and think through it.
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: From when we get into end.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: Now, if we talk about stigmas all the time, when
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: stigmas usual to pop up when you're doing something.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: Then people say.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: I like it, but it don't taste right, or it
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: don't taste like we're alcohol, So why should I waste
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: my time drinking fake stuff? So what stigmas do exist
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: in the non alcoholic beverage world? Like you kind of
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: said a little bit when you said, people just dropping,
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: you know, buzzword fuzzy water and then put a little
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: flavor of lemon or flavor of orange, a flavor of
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: strawberry and say, ka, oh, that's the stigmas you're talking
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: about or what are they? So we can my audience
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: could be more informed than edge.
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: I think.
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: I think there's two stigmas out there for me right
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: in my space. So there's the one stigma of the
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: people who drink alcohol and they say, well, this is
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: not really alcohol. I guess not for me, And I
• 19:25
  Speaker 4: say that's perfectly fine.
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: But when you're.
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: Drinking alcohol every day all day and you just need
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: to break but you still want that taste of flavor,
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: then call me up right. Then there's the opposite one,
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: the drink doesn't you know it's not for me? I mean,
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: I'm a non alcoholic person, but it's just not for me.
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: And I tell those folks that's perfectly fine because I
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: tell people minds have an authentic taste, right. But my market,
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: I know exactly who they are. I know they're looking
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: for my drink. They're looking for an authentic cocktail without
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: the hangover. I know they're looking for an authentic cocktail
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: that's healthier for them, so they're not drinking all day
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: every day. I would say the one market that is
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: popping up for me, they're black males who are looking
• 20:13
  Speaker 4: for replacement drinks for when they don't want to drink
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: all the alcohol every day. They're buying the old fashion
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: and it tastes like an old fashion and they want
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: to compliment. And they was like, they want to do
• 20:26
  Speaker 4: the alcohol and they want to check through a Madossie.
• 20:28
  Speaker 4: They want to do the alcohol. They want to do
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: a Medossie. And that's perfectly fine for me. And I
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: always say, don't be everything to everybody, right, find your
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: market and stick with your market, right, And that's what
• 20:41
  Speaker 4: I and even even the people who love alcohol, they
• 20:45
  Speaker 4: buy it to be a mixer. My my drink is
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: a is the mixer to start from, and then they
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: can add alcohol and that's perfectly fine with me as
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: long as they bought Madossie.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: I don't care what you do with it, because what
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: thing but Donsa's not going to get you drunk.
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: Okay, everything to everybody, and I don't want to be everything.
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: To everybody, right.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: I love that.
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: I love that in the market that I'm in.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: Because I hear that from a lot of people.
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: I love figures my whole thing that I hear a
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: lot of people they want to diverse their market share,
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: which sometimes cold. They want more white people buying their
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: product instead of finding it. Find your niche, find out
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: who buys your product for you start trying to get
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: somebody else to buy your product when you don't even
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: have a base buying your product.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: That's what you just said.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: Find your niche, grow your niche, then you can expand.
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: But if you're not expanding, if you're still expanding on
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: a theory, then your whole brand is going to collapse
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: because you never establish an audience that wants your brand,
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: that will recommend your brand, they will follow your brand
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: or promote your brand. Like she said, out of the blue,
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: she didn't know men were going to be attracted Black men,
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: especially so Chris what that's a niche she can now attack,
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: she can now grow, she can build relationships off of.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: Because that's an audience that's speaking very loud, and that's
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: very important because you seem to be very very savvy
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: Monica when it comes to marketing.
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and if you go on my socials, you'll start
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: to see I'm starting to do content with this young
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: man and his grandfather, right, and they're telling stories about
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: drinking Manossi, right, because that's I know, that's my niche,
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: like you know, so you know you'll see that I
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: do a lot of storytelling on my you know, Instagram
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: and social media sites for my market, right, Like I said,
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: for my market, You'll see tons of images and imagery
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: for my market out there.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about that.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: Because of the fact that marketing is so important and
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: when you make apprecientation and you're asking people for money
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: a BC, you have to have a plan.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: How are you going to get to how you going
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: to distribute your products? Now?
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: Right now, you say Amazon is would you say Amazon
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: is your leading distributor?
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: Of your body is my leading distributed So we started
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: in this market and tell people think about your strategy.
• 23:04
  Speaker 4: People think, oh, my God, and they what retail stores
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: are you in? And I say none?
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: Right now? No?
• 23:11
  Speaker 4: You know why because it costs too much money to
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: be in those retail stores. Right, So direct to consumer
• 23:16
  Speaker 4: was my first place that I wanted to be.
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: I wanted to really focus on.
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: Amazon, my website, TikTok shop, all those places are kind
• 23:26
  Speaker 4: of like online stores, and that is exactly what I attacked, right.
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: I attack those markets and I go strong in. Right.
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: Amazon is my number one. We ship product out to
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: Amazon pretty much probably every other week. We're shipping pilots
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: of product out to Amazon for Amazon buyers to find us.
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: Then I exactly did our website and then we do
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: you know, TikTok shop.
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: Right, And that's what I wanted to do.
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: We did that for about six or seven months, and
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: now just recently am I ready for retail stores?
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: Let's talk about that, because Monica, because of the fact
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: that you know your brand is growing, Now, how did
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: you convince how what is the procedure to get Amazon
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: to consider your product and then also to consider you
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: can meet the demands? Because this is Amazon worldwide, you
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: know somebody can tap you and say I won't four.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: Palettes instead of one palate or just a case. What
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: does Amazon do?
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: What is the vetting process that Amazon does for a
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: business like yours?
• 24:33
  Speaker 4: Well, I was gonna say for any business. Amazon is
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: a great opportunity for anyone. Amazon is really easy to
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: be able to apply to get on them. And the
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: one thing you gotta do is you got to make
• 24:43
  Speaker 4: sure that you meet all the requirements. Your imagees have
• 24:46
  Speaker 4: to be a certain way. You got to use all
• 24:48
  Speaker 4: the right word choices. You can't use words that will
• 24:51
  Speaker 4: kind of get you out of the algorithm.
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: So Amazon is a really good.
• 24:54
  Speaker 4: Marketplace, right, but again you do have to follow their
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: strict rules around image image sizes. You know what you
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: can say, what you can't say, So you've got to
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: follow all of those things completely. But the one thing
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: people do is they get on Amazon and they don't
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: do anything right.
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: Amazon also has tools where.
• 25:13
  Speaker 4: You can market right, you can purchase keywords so that
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: people can find you, right, you can put videos up
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: on Amazon. I would say, leverage those opportunities on Amazon.
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: That's how exactly how we went from where we were
• 25:27
  Speaker 4: before six or seven months ago to where we are today. Right,
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: So people are now finding us, people are now searching Madosie.
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: For instance, my word Madossie cocktails.
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: Because we're moving up.
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: I have other brands who are my competitors buying my words,
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: So that when you type in dossie, who knows, I mean.
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: That's just a generic word type cocktails.
• 25:50
  Speaker 4: You get all these other brands and be like, how
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: are they even associated with Madossi cocktails? Right, So it's
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: not like a general like you're not typing in like
• 25:59
  Speaker 4: mocktails or anything. You're specifically typing in Madossi cocktails. But
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: that's the great thing. Because they buy my words. I
• 26:05
  Speaker 4: buy their words, So I'm I am pulling customers from
• 26:09
  Speaker 4: my competitors, right because I push authentic tastes awesome.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: Well, her name is Monica Cornacher a drink. Madossi is
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: a non alcoholic beverage. I want to say, man and
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: when Amazon has been in two thousand, nine, twelve and
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: fourteen on certain flavors. So all it upward, upward and
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: up and up in a way is what I can
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: say about your brand. And closing, tell us how to
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: reach a U if they want to go online, but
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: also if they want to buy from your website, but
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: also other outlets that are selling your Madozzie brand, so we.
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: Sell on Amazon.
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: Just just go type in Madossi Cocktails you'll find us.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Spell that for them, spell that form Madossie M.
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: E d A S.
• 26:55
  Speaker 4: And then you'll find all six of our flavors on Amazon.
• 26:59
  Speaker 4: You can also go to our website which is Madossi Cocktails.
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: That's M E d A S E c O c
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: K t a I l S. Make sure you put
• 27:09
  Speaker 4: the S on there. You'll see our beautiful website where
• 27:12
  Speaker 4: you can also purchase all of our products there. And
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: then if you're on TikTok, just check us out at
• 27:17
  Speaker 4: at Madossi Cocktails and we sell on TikTok shop. We're
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: on Instagram and Facebook. If you want to reach me,
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: just kind of DM me on Instagram and I usually
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: will be the one replying to you. You can also
• 27:30
  Speaker 4: reach out to support at Medossi coocktails dot com.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: Also, my friend, thank you for coming on this show.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: You have you are the true visionary and speaker and
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: spokesperson for this brand and don't stop because you are
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: something special.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: Thank you for coming on Money Making Compings. It's a masterclass.
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much. I appreciate you having me.
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to this episode. Now, I need
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: for you to do me a favor right now to
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: follow or subscribe to Money Making Conversation.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: It's free.
• 28:00
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• 28:11
  Speaker 1: Keep winning.