Episode 86
The Mother Clucker & Other Flocking Good Drunk Chicken Cigars | Box Press Ep. 86
Small-batch chasers and SOTL, it's time to give a woop woop to Drunk Chicken Cigars. This woman-owned, Black-owned boutique cigar company is headquartered in the District of Columbia. Hear how business professor Dr. Desiree Sylver turned a limited-run cigar hobby into a growing cigar business. The founder and CEO sat down with Boveda's Rob Gagner at PCA.
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Transcript
- There's a story inside every smoke shop
Speaker:with every cigar, and with every person,
Speaker:come be a part of the cigar lifestyle at Boveda.
Speaker:This is Box Press.
Speaker:(upbeat music)
Speaker:Welcome to another episode of Box Press.
Speaker:I'm your host, Rob Gagner.
Speaker:I'm at the PCA 2022 show,
Speaker:and I'm sitting down with Desiree Sylver
Speaker:from Drunk Chicken Cigars.
Speaker:Desiree, thank you for joining me.
Speaker:- Ah, thank you for having me. - Your brand
Speaker:caught me off guard.
Speaker:I was following somebody who was smoking a lot of cigars,
Speaker:and I saw this band, it was actually the Maduro,
Speaker:which is blue and it has silver and it has a chicken on it,
Speaker:and I said, "Who would put a chicken on a cigar band?"
Speaker:(Desiree laughing)
Speaker:And then on top of it, what's the name of this?
Speaker:So I quick, you know, Chicken Cigar, Googled,
Speaker:I don't have, you know, I don't know what it is.
Speaker:Drunk Chicken came up.
Speaker:I was like, "Oh my gosh, what kind of like creative mind
Speaker:(Desiree laughs)
Speaker:decided to go down this rabbit hole
Speaker:of naming all the cigars after chickens?
Speaker:Where did the name even start as an idea?"
Speaker:- So, I love chickens. (chuckles) I have chickens as pets.
Speaker:- [Rob] Okay.
Speaker:- And so I live in the Washington DC area,
Speaker:only about seven miles out.
Speaker:And my friends come over, and they see all my chickens,
Speaker:and "Are you crazy girl?
Speaker:What are you doing?" - How many chickens
Speaker:do you have?
Speaker:- On a good day, 30.
Speaker:Right now, we're probably about 25.
Speaker:We have animals that come and take them
Speaker:because we free range our chickens.
Speaker:- Awesome. - Yeah, so.
Speaker:- I mean, not that they come and take them,
Speaker:but they're free range, right? - Yeah, they're free range.
Speaker:- Do whatever they want. - They're free, yeah.
Speaker:And then at night we lock them up,
Speaker:and at six or seven o'clock in the morning,
Speaker:whenever I wake up, I let them out,
Speaker:and they go right back when it gets dusk, and I lock it, so.
Speaker:But sometimes prey get them. So, we're about 25 right now.
Speaker:And we named them all. (chuckles)
Speaker:- [Rob] Yeah.
Speaker:- And, I mean, I love chicken.
Speaker:I grew up...
Speaker:Every summer, my mom's from Jamaica, threw me out there.
Speaker:Go hang out in the chicken farm and the cow farm
Speaker:and the goat farm, running around barefooted out there.
Speaker:- [Rob] So you're a farm girl?
Speaker:- I wouldn't necessarily say that,
Speaker:but I think that I love that
Speaker:more than anything in life, the animals.
Speaker:They don't talk back. (chuckles)
Speaker:- You're connected to animals.
Speaker:- [Desiree] I am.
Speaker:- My wife is connected to animals as well.
Speaker:Like that actually is energizing to her.
Speaker:She always said, "I always have to have a cat or a dog."
Speaker:Like that's just,
Speaker:"Before you decide to marry me, that's a stipulation."
Speaker:And that's just good to know, right?
Speaker:Because that energizes her. That calms her down.
Speaker:So it sounds like your chicken hobby
Speaker:has really just been a passion project from day one.
Speaker:- [Desiree] Yes, yes.
Speaker:- And now, do you do anything special with the chickens
Speaker:other than raise them?
Speaker:Because some people bring them to shows and all that,
Speaker:the state fair and all that?
Speaker:- No, I just want them to live a good life.
Speaker:We do collect the eggs.
Speaker:I love to buy chickens based on the color of the eggs
Speaker:that they lay.
Speaker:Blue eggs, green eggs, pink eggs.
Speaker:- Pink?!
Speaker:- Pink, yes. I get a lot of pink eggs.
Speaker:- Interesting.
Speaker:- I only have-
Speaker:- You're talking about the shell, right?
Speaker:- Yes, the shell.
Speaker:- Not the yolk, right? - Yeah, just the...
Speaker:- They all the same inside. Just like hair color almost.
Speaker:I have some ducks,
Speaker:was trying to get a goat before COVID happened,
Speaker:and then when COVID happened,
Speaker:the lady that was selling me the goat said,
Speaker:"No, we look like we may have a food shortage.
Speaker:I'm gonna keep my goat," so I didn't get one.
Speaker:I had a couple dogs,
Speaker:one passed away. - Why did you want a goat?
Speaker:- [Desiree] Huh?
Speaker:- Why did you want a goat?
Speaker:- Oh, I just like animals.
Speaker:- You just like animals?
Speaker:- Yeah! - It wasn't like,
Speaker:you know, sometimes people are like,
Speaker:"I need the goat to kind of eat the grass
Speaker:or to eat this." - No.
Speaker:No, I just wanted the goat to hang out.
Speaker:- Cool.
Speaker:- I think they're cool.
Speaker:Some of the goats are fainting goats.
Speaker:I wanted a fainting goat
Speaker:that you scare them me. - Yeah. (chuckles)
Speaker:They go like.
Speaker:- They fall over. - Yeah. (laughs)
Speaker:- Oh, that's great.
Speaker:- But, yeah, I just like animals.
Speaker:They're free. They're, you know, no judgment.
Speaker:They hang out with you, you pet them. They cuddle with you.
Speaker:What's better in life?
Speaker:- [Rob] Right. So, do you have dogs, cats in the house?
Speaker:- Dogs.
Speaker:Well, my dog passed away
Speaker:recently. - Oh, I'm sorry to hear that.
Speaker:- Yeah, I had that little guy for a long time.
Speaker:But we are in the process of considering moving,
Speaker:so we are not buying any new animals right now
Speaker:until we decide where are we gonna move,
Speaker:what are we gonna do?
Speaker:- I wouldn't have thought of that.
Speaker:But that's like a whole new moving process
Speaker:because now you have livestock to move.
Speaker:It's not just furniture and a U-Haul.
Speaker:It's furniture, U-Haul,
Speaker:and a livestock truck. - My chickens.
Speaker:- Yeah, right. (Desiree laughing)
Speaker:- Yeah. - That's amazing.
Speaker:- Yeah, so, but as soon as we decide, like, "Are we staying?
Speaker:Are we moving?" how long we're going,
Speaker:whatever we're gonna do,
Speaker:we're just trying to think about our second phase in life.
Speaker:And a lot of the second phase in life
Speaker:is because of the cigars right now.
Speaker:- Really?!
Speaker:- [Desiree] Yeah.
Speaker:- So you're thinking of moving out of state or in state?
Speaker:- Out of state. More so Florida, closer to our rollers.
Speaker:My husband recently retired, so he can move wherever.
Speaker:I work remote, I can go wherever.
Speaker:So we're just trying, you know,
Speaker:figure out our second stage of life right now.
Speaker:- That's awesome!
Speaker:- Yeah. And the kids are grown.
Speaker:- Really? How old are your kids?
Speaker:- 19 And 17.
Speaker:The 17-year-old graduates from high school
Speaker:and gets a AA this year.
Speaker:- 17, graduating from high school?
Speaker:- And getting her AA at the same time.
Speaker:- Smart kid!
Speaker:- And my 19-year-old did the same thing
Speaker:when she graduated, so. - Wow!
Speaker:Okay, so that's like the total opposite
Speaker:of what technically the culture's doing right now.
Speaker:Like I feel like most people who are younger
Speaker:are going through high school
Speaker:and then onto college or some sort of secondary
Speaker:and then onto like experiencing their young adult life
Speaker:and then like slowing down in their 30s to get married.
Speaker:And then not having kids until they're in their 30s.
Speaker:And it's like your kids are on the total opposite spectrum
Speaker:of this like accelerated through school and onto the next.
Speaker:- Well, they have a mom with a PhD who's,
Speaker:I used to be a professor as well. (chuckles)
Speaker:- Really?! - Yeah.
Speaker:- A professor of what?
Speaker:- I used to teach at University of Maryland
Speaker:UMUC, Strayer University.
Speaker:And I taught any contracting class, any business class,
Speaker:any finance class.
Speaker:- Wow. - Yeah,
Speaker:so I have a Masters of Finance,
Speaker:a PhD in Organizational Leadership,
Speaker:a business PhD. - That's awesome.
Speaker:So, did you homeschool your kids?
Speaker:Is that why they're on the fast track?
Speaker:Or like, just happens?
Speaker:- I didn't homeschool, but education's very important.
Speaker:So if they wanna do extracurricular activities,
Speaker:homework came first.
Speaker:And then mommy homework, they always had mommy homework.
Speaker:(Rob laughing)
Speaker:I always bought workbooks, three to four grades advanced.
Speaker:So I sat down, I taught them.
Speaker:They knew how to spell their name before they were two,
Speaker:both of them.
Speaker:- [Rob] Wow!
Speaker:- And, to me, it's very important
Speaker:to sit down with your kids,
Speaker:figure out where they are in their learning process
Speaker:and teach them at their pace.
Speaker:- That is so true because I'm experiencing that
Speaker:with my small family.
Speaker:I have a one-and-a half-year-old daughter,
Speaker:and I just had a son who's three weeks old,
Speaker:and my daughter was like, sign language, and she's talking.
Speaker:And it's like, I gotta keep feeding that need to like-
Speaker:- [Desiree] Get workbooks.
Speaker:- [Rob] Right.
Speaker:- And they love it when they're writing and crayoning.
Speaker:And even if they don't understand it,
Speaker:just have it in front of them
Speaker:and then sit down for two seconds
Speaker:and just go through it with them,
Speaker:and you'll be surprised how much they pick up.
Speaker:- That's good advice.
Speaker:The time spent with the child during that development stage
Speaker:is so important to their development.
Speaker:- Yeah. And teaching them their name.
Speaker:Find a song that they love and sing it with their name.
Speaker:- We got the "Wheels on the Bus." She'll do that.
Speaker:She'll do the "Wheels on the Bus" every once in a while.
Speaker:- Yeah, mine was
Speaker:♪ S, Y, D, N, E, Y ♪
Speaker:♪ F, O, U, S, E ♪
Speaker:(Desiree laughing)
Speaker:- That's an advanced one. - Yeah, so that's how
Speaker:I taught her how to spell her name.
Speaker:So when she went to school, she knew how to spell her name.
Speaker:She knew her first and her last name.
Speaker:- [Rob] That is awesome!
Speaker:- She sang it, but she couldn't do it without singing it,
Speaker:but she develops it.
Speaker:So teach them where they are.
Speaker:- I don't know the word for it,
Speaker:but when you use a song or something
Speaker:to help you spell something, there's a term for it.
Speaker:But that's brilliant.
Speaker:- Help you spell, help you learn. Do crazy sayings.
Speaker:When I was teaching kids in college,
Speaker:"Okay, you can't remember this?"
Speaker:Come up with the craziest saying
Speaker:and one letter for each thing
Speaker:that you're trying- - Yeah, some sort of-
Speaker:- to remember. - acronym and a phrase.
Speaker:- It helps.
Speaker:- Yeah, it does.
Speaker:- Yeah, I'm that kooky person that believes in education,
Speaker:believes in bettering yourself.
Speaker:And education does not necessarily equate to college.
Speaker:- Right. No, yeah, exactly.
Speaker:- Yeah, so I never forced my kids to go to college.
Speaker:I forced them to learn.
Speaker:- That's smart.
Speaker:- [Desiree] Yeah.
Speaker:- There's a difference there.
Speaker:- Yeah.
Speaker:And if they want to go to college,
Speaker:what are you going to college for?
Speaker:Figure that out.
Speaker:And what is it that you're trying to do?
Speaker:And do you need a degree for that? If so, how long?
Speaker:- Right. - Yeah.
Speaker:- That's awesome. Your kids are, they're gonna be set.
Speaker:They got you guiding them.
Speaker:- [Desiree] They're amazing kids. I love them.
Speaker:- I love that.
Speaker:- [Desiree] Yeah.
Speaker:- So, okay, (Desiree laughs)
Speaker:I didn't even know all the professor stuff.
Speaker:(Desiree laughs)
Speaker:So, what made you switch over to this cigar stuff?
Speaker:- I haven't switched, I just add it in into my life.
Speaker:- So, you're still a professor?
Speaker:- I will tell you, I'm taking more of a hiatus.
Speaker:So, but if I ever wanna be a professor, it is always there.
Speaker:- Okay, so do you have a full-time job right now?
Speaker:- I do.
Speaker:- What is it in?
Speaker:(Desiree giggles)
Speaker:- I'm the program manager
Speaker:for the exchanges at NASA.
Speaker:- NASA?! I love it!
Speaker:- Yeah, I never tell anybody that.
Speaker:So it's really - Really?!
Speaker:- one of the first times I ever told anybody.
Speaker:- Do you not want anyone to know about that?
Speaker:- It's not that.
Speaker:It's just that always people go, "NASA?"
Speaker:and they go...
Speaker:Omar is at NASA.
Speaker:- Oh, yeah. - And, yes,
Speaker:so it's just a coincidence
Speaker:because I didn't even know Omar
Speaker:when he was at NASA. - Yeah, you don't wanna steal
Speaker:his thunder.
Speaker:- No, because that's what he does.
Speaker:That's how he's advertised.
Speaker:You know, and I don't want- - Yeah, that's not your story,
Speaker:right? - Right.
Speaker:- Okay. - Yeah, so.
Speaker:But I think Omar does amazing things,
Speaker:and so I don't wanna steal that away from what he's doing.
Speaker:- Well, that's really humble of you to say,
Speaker:so I appreciate that.
Speaker:That's super nice,
Speaker:because we are all here based on our own journey.
Speaker:You're here based on your own journey.
Speaker:And so, you're absolutely right.
Speaker:You don't wanna mimic anyone to try to take their story away
Speaker:and make it less.
Speaker:- Right. And Omar does amazing things.
Speaker:He has amazing cigars. And that's his thing, so.
Speaker:- He actually came to Minnesota and visited me,
Speaker:and I had a ball hanging out with him.
Speaker:He's a blast. He knows how to have a good time.
Speaker:He's a great guy. - Yes, he does.
Speaker:- But on your side of things,
Speaker:you decided to launch Drunk Chicken Cigars.
Speaker:Why? What's the why?
Speaker:Like what makes somebody wanna just say,
Speaker:"I wanna make my own cigar?"
Speaker:- They're crazy.
Speaker:(both laughing)
Speaker:- [Rob] It's not easy.
Speaker:- No, it's not easy.
Speaker:And I didn't expect to, didn't want to, was never my goal.
Speaker:Rico, which is my husband,
Speaker:we decided to make cigars for ourselves
Speaker:because we both smoke cigars.
Speaker:And our running joke was, "All right, well,
Speaker:we can only afford one of us smoking today,
Speaker:so which one gets to smoke?"
Speaker:Because we were both smoking cigars.
Speaker:And cigars can be an expensive habit
Speaker:when I'm smoking two or three,
Speaker:he's smoking two or three or four,
Speaker:or whatever it is that day.
Speaker:And so that was our joke.
Speaker:And when we stumbled into,
Speaker:ran upon the rollers that we work with today,
Speaker:they were so amazing.
Speaker:Oh, we can make anything you want.
Speaker:We were just making a cigar that we liked,
Speaker:that we could enjoy, there were a variety of them.
Speaker:And we bought a....
Speaker:We blended these five with the rollers based on,
Speaker:he likes the DCO.
Speaker:It was number one.
Speaker:The Mother Clucker was great with red wine.
Speaker:That was number two. Number three was the Fat Hen.
Speaker:It was like that shorty Nub.
Speaker:I wanted to smoke it at work 45 minutes.
Speaker:Number three was Living the Dream because that's like,
Speaker:it's so smooth, it's so easy, I can smoke it anytime.
Speaker:And Sweet Dreams was my morning or afternoon delight.
Speaker:- That's what we're smoking now, Sweet Dream.
Speaker:- Exactly.
Speaker:So that's why, and we ordered 100 of them,
Speaker:and we numbered them one, two, three, four, five,
Speaker:so we know how to buy them again.
Speaker:- Yeah.
Speaker:So you're literally just building out a portfolio
Speaker:for you to smoke on a regular basis
Speaker:that wasn't gonna break the bank.
Speaker:- [Desiree] Right.
Speaker:- Brilliant.
Speaker:- And when we started going to lounges, our friends were,
Speaker:"What are you smokin'? What's that number one?"
Speaker:"Oh, just some cigars we made, here have one."
Speaker:"Oh, I love this cigar. You should sell it."
Speaker:And we heard it so much that we started investigating.
Speaker:We went to our so our lounge-
Speaker:- You're just answering kind of like, not really the demand,
Speaker:but like the natural occurrence of people being like,
Speaker:"Oh, this was good. Where can I get it again?"
Speaker:- Exactly. "I want one of those, sell me one."
Speaker:"Sell you one? We made 100. (chuckles)
Speaker:I mean, here have it."
Speaker:- I don't have any to sell.
Speaker:This is my inventory for the month.
Speaker:- Yes, so we went to our local lounge and said,
Speaker:"Hey, could you sell this?"
Speaker:They smoked it and said, "Yeah, we love it,
Speaker:but what is this band?" - That's powerful right there.
Speaker:So if you give it to a lounge owner, they smoke it,
Speaker:and they think it's good enough to go on the shelf.
Speaker:I mean it's hard to get shelf space.
Speaker:- Yeah, but we didn't take one lounge owner.
Speaker:Our friend's lounge owner,
Speaker:I actually traveled for my job and was in Alabama
Speaker:and didn't know this lounge owner from anybody else.
Speaker:And I gave him a cigar.
Speaker:I said, "I'm thinking about selling these,
Speaker:what do you think?"
Speaker:And he absolutely loved it.
Speaker:He said, "I'll buy them, just you have to change the band."
Speaker:So I heard the same thing again,
Speaker:"Love it, but change the band."
Speaker:- So, what was the band?
Speaker:- Number one on a white piece of paper.
Speaker:- Oh, yeah, so super like-
Speaker:- Super, just so I know what I was smoking.
Speaker:- Identify this, but there's no formality-
Speaker:- Nothing.
Speaker:- to the band.
Speaker:- Nothing.
Speaker:White piece of paper with a piece of tape on it
Speaker:with a number one.
Speaker:(both laughing)
Speaker:- Yeah, you need to change the band if I'm gonna sell this,
Speaker:or it's gonna go on the shelf unbanded.
Speaker:- Right. So, looked into what the bands would cost.
Speaker:Boom, bam, here I am. (chuckles)
Speaker:- Isn't that so cool?
Speaker:- It is.
Speaker:But, I mean, if I would've put more thought into it,
Speaker:because I took it as a hobby at first.
Speaker:- [Rob] Right.
Speaker:- And I went from a hobby into a full-blown business
Speaker:that the two people that said that they would buy,
Speaker:absolutely bought.
Speaker:Flew to St. Thomas.
Speaker:That same next day flew to St. Thomas
Speaker:after I delivered the two,
Speaker:got my third order in St. Thomas
Speaker:and been rolling ever since.
Speaker:And never put us a real business structure together.
Speaker:- [Rob] What's hard about that?
Speaker:- Now that I'm in full production,
Speaker:trying to go back with ambassadors,
Speaker:business structure together, thinking of it as a business
Speaker:and getting people to change as you change.
Speaker:And change, people don't like change.
Speaker:Yeah, and then it's a lot,
Speaker:it's hard when you don't have that structure
Speaker:already in place.
Speaker:Getting my bookkeeper, when I first got them on board,
Speaker:he was just like, "What is this?"
Speaker:(Rob chuckles)
Speaker:- Wait, you have a degree in finance.
Speaker:You taught finance, right?
Speaker:- People that do hair always have the worst hair.
Speaker:People that do nails have the worst (chuckles) nails.
Speaker:People that know that...
Speaker:But a lot of bookkeepers tell they have the worst book,
Speaker:the worst tax situation.
Speaker:Because when you do it yourself,
Speaker:you don't wanna do it for yourself.
Speaker:- Right.
Speaker:Yeah, it's not like something that fulfills you.
Speaker:You're like, "Okay, I gotta do the..."
Speaker:It's like work.
Speaker:I gotta work! - Right, it's your work, yeah.
Speaker:And then on top of that, I remember I was selling by myself.
Speaker:I was shipping, I was packaging, I was marketing,
Speaker:I was, you know, on and on and on,
Speaker:and by the time it got down to structure and finance,
Speaker:it was just like, it'll get there eventually.
Speaker:- Wow. - To catch up.
Speaker:- So total opposite
Speaker:of what all the business books teach us to do.
Speaker:- [Desiree] Not even a business plan.
Speaker:- Yeah! - Whose playing what?
Speaker:- You didn't even have a business plan.
Speaker:(Desiree laughing)
Speaker:It was,
Speaker:"Do you like this cigar? - Still don't.
Speaker:- Could you sell it?" (Desiree laughing)
Speaker:"Okay, I guess." That's interesting.
Speaker:- [Desiree] Yeah.
Speaker:- Wow.
Speaker:- Business plan up here.
Speaker:- So you're backing up (Desiree chuckling)
Speaker:trying to take a bigger look at everything
Speaker:and cleaning up the rough edges
Speaker:of your entire hobby/business now.
Speaker:- Yes. And it's been a big undertaking.
Speaker:As of November last year,
Speaker:that's all I've been really focusing on
Speaker:because I have a great sales team,
Speaker:"And you guys sell, I have a distributor,
Speaker:you guys ship and receive,
Speaker:and let me put the structure together."
Speaker:And it's not easy.
Speaker:- No,
Speaker:- Because now You've gotta- - It's not easy.
Speaker:- put on that like project manager/business
Speaker:entrepreneurial hat.
Speaker:- [Desiree] Yes.
Speaker:- And stretch your brain in your mind.
Speaker:So, what is the biggest thing right now
Speaker:that you're stretching to learn
Speaker:so that you can keep up with the growth of your business?
Speaker:- So I look at my business and not where I am now,
Speaker:about where I want to go.
Speaker:So now it is always not current thought, it's future thought
Speaker:and trying to make sure that I have accounted for that
Speaker:with whatever structure I put in place.
Speaker:- Sure.
Speaker:So really what you're stretching yourself to do is pre-plan.
Speaker:- Yes.
Speaker:- Pre-plan what I wanna be in in the next...
Speaker:And how far out are you looking? A year?
Speaker:Two years?
Speaker:- No, no, no.
Speaker:I have 1-year, 5-year, 10-year,
Speaker:20-year, and a 30-year plan.
Speaker:- Sweet!
Speaker:- Because I'm always- - So you're building out
Speaker:that business plan as you go.
Speaker:- Yes.
Speaker:- Smart. - And I hope
Speaker:that one of my kids, or if not both,
Speaker:decide that they want to take over.
Speaker:I have two girls, but both of them know every cigar,
Speaker:every vitola.
Speaker:Both of them know all the blends
Speaker:because when I had shipping and receiving,
Speaker:guess who was doing it? (laughing)
Speaker:I would give them an invoice and say,
Speaker:"Go package it up and ship it."
Speaker:- It's a family business.
Speaker:- [Desiree] Yeah.
Speaker:- Do they enjoy it, or is it more of like,
Speaker:"Oh, mom is sucking us in to her passion, and gosh,
Speaker:when she asks us, 'Are you done with your homework?'
Speaker:You're like, 'Ah, I don't know if I wanna tell you
Speaker:if I'm done with my homework.'"
Speaker:- That's my youngest. (chuckles)
Speaker:- Yeah, really?
Speaker:- It's a chore. She doesn't like the chores.
Speaker:My oldest is like, "Okay."
Speaker:Because I do give them payment, just like any other job.
Speaker:I pay them. - Right.
Speaker:Compensation. - Yeah, but my oldest
Speaker:is like, roll up her sleeve, she's into it.
Speaker:She asks me lots of questions.
Speaker:- She sees the reward. - Have you thought about it?
Speaker:Yeah. And I can see her taking over.
Speaker:And, actually, um
Speaker:I think that my youngest eventually will come around.
Speaker:If she does, she does. If she doesn't, that's okay.
Speaker:She has her own life. - No big deal, right?
Speaker:- Yeah. - Yeah.
Speaker:- You appreciate the help now.
Speaker:- Yep.
Speaker:- And she probably appreciates the money. (chuckles)
Speaker:- Um, that, and I do...
Speaker:It's value and hard work.
Speaker:There's value in that because she's not gonna get,
Speaker:no one's gonna get anything easy.
Speaker:And I want that they see what I do,
Speaker:they see how much effort I put into it.
Speaker:So whatever they say, they not gonna say,
Speaker:"Oh, my mom didn't show me how much work it's gonna be
Speaker:when they get out there," because I did.
Speaker:- You know what I think is funny, is like,
Speaker:if you take the aspect of hard work,
Speaker:it's hard work to get something,
Speaker:you have to work hard for it to get the return,
Speaker:I think it's also hard work to basically be lazy
Speaker:or to try to get a handout.
Speaker:If you actually took that energy that it would take
Speaker:to try to make ends meet, or to try to just not,
Speaker:to try to coast,
Speaker:you would actually be doing something more productive.
Speaker:- Absolutely.
Speaker:- You know?
Speaker:- Yes. - So no matter what it is,
Speaker:it's hard work.
Speaker:No matter what, as people, we want to work,
Speaker:we wanna produce something.
Speaker:- Actually, even I take that a step further
Speaker:because if you're asking me, "Well, how did you do that?"
Speaker:Well, I can tell you how,
Speaker:and it's probably gonna stick in your brain
Speaker:for about two minutes.
Speaker:But if you go research how,
Speaker:it's gonna stick in your brain a lot more
Speaker:because you found more value in it, you've found more
Speaker:than what I probably could tell you about it.
Speaker:- Yeah, and then if you do it,
Speaker:it's even more stuck in your brain
Speaker:because it's like, "Now I have to do it."
Speaker:- [Desiree] Yes.
Speaker:- That's the way I always had to study.
Speaker:It was like I had to get a partner sometimes,
Speaker:and then I had to be like,
Speaker:"Okay, this is this, and this is why it's this way,
Speaker:and this is what this means."
Speaker:Because then it was like,
Speaker:"Oh, I'm teaching myself while I speak it out to you."
Speaker:- Now you know why I love to teach, because as I teach,
Speaker:I grow and learn because before I can stand up there,
Speaker:I have to understand it.
Speaker:I have to grow it, I have to know it.
Speaker:And so when people ask me the question,
Speaker:I'm able to answer it.
Speaker:And I really don't have a problem with,
Speaker:"You know what, it's a great question.
Speaker:I don't know. Let's all look it up together."
Speaker:- Right.
Speaker:- Anybody here know?
Speaker:- Start the journey. - Okay, yeah.
Speaker:(Rob chuckles)
Speaker:- Start the journey.
Speaker:Learning is so amazing to me.
Speaker:- Okay, so people who are passionate about learning,
Speaker:what's the Desiree rule book?
Speaker:Where are you starting to help you learn better?
Speaker:- For me, I'm an early morning person,
Speaker:so you have to actually know yourself, right?
Speaker:If you're an early morning person like myself, you get up,
Speaker:have your cup of coffee, and I've already,
Speaker:by the end of the day, this is what I'm gonna do tomorrow.
Speaker:So I'm looking what my yesterday told me I'm gonna do today.
Speaker:- You're planning for tomorrow already.
Speaker:- Every day.
Speaker:- That's interesting.
Speaker:- Every day.
Speaker:- That's cool. - So before I go to bed,
Speaker:I have a list of things that I didn't get accomplished.
Speaker:- A list?! - Yeah.
Speaker:- A written out list.
Speaker:How many things would end up on the list?
Speaker:Is it like a five-point list? Does it depend on the day?
Speaker:- Sometimes it's a...
Speaker:So, in the beginning of the month,
Speaker:I'll start with a growing list.
Speaker:It just grows.
Speaker:Every day I try to list out five things I want,
Speaker:5 or 10 things I wanna accomplish,
Speaker:or whatever I feel like is accomplishable for that day.
Speaker:Some things are crossed off,
Speaker:sometimes nothing's crossed off,
Speaker:but it goes on to the next day.
Speaker:So whatever's not crossed off goes on to the next day.
Speaker:If I have two or three things that are easy,
Speaker:I'll go to my running list, my big list for that month,
Speaker:and I'll put something else on there, I cross those off.
Speaker:So by the end of the month, I can go back and say,
Speaker:"Look what I've accomplished."
Speaker:- That's awesome.
Speaker:- It gives me great joy to say, "Oh my gosh,
Speaker:I made great progress." - Yeah!
Speaker:- Without that, I'm always feel like I'm just doing,
Speaker:I'm never accomplishing. - That's where I'm stuck.
Speaker:I'm just doing, I'm doing, I'm doing.
Speaker:I'm not seeing
Speaker:all this stuff I've done- - Accomplishment, yeah.
Speaker:- to feel good and not,
Speaker:it's almost like you gotta get rid of that anxiety
Speaker:because there's always something new to be done.
Speaker:So the anxiety of always having to do something
Speaker:is always there.
Speaker:- It's a small thing.
Speaker:Take 10 or 15 minutes out your day.
Speaker:The first day is gonna be the hardest
Speaker:because you're gonna write down everything
Speaker:that you think you need to do.
Speaker:And then you're going to continue
Speaker:by adding on to that list.
Speaker:Every time you think something, add on to that month list.
Speaker:And then you just every day add on,
Speaker:and at the end of the month, you reward yourself
Speaker:by looking at it and saying, "Look what I've done."
Speaker:It's almost like somebody patted you on the back.
Speaker:- Yeah, you did yourself.
Speaker:You're like,
Speaker:"Oh, look what I did." - You need that in life
Speaker:because I used to feel like,
Speaker:"Oh my gosh, I'm just not doing anything.
Speaker:I don't even know why. This is just endless, pointless."
Speaker:And then until I started to really...
Speaker:I started doing this in small portions
Speaker:until I started to implement it regular in my life,
Speaker:it's just so much more fulfilling for me now.
Speaker:- It's part of what you do now, but,
Speaker:so how long have you been doing this?
Speaker:Or when did it kind of start for you?
Speaker:- Um, probably about two years now.
Speaker:- Okay.
Speaker:Was it because of Drunk Chicken Cigars
Speaker:that you needed to start doing this,
Speaker:or was it just personal?
Speaker:- Oh, I did it on a smaller scale.
Speaker:I didn't do it every single day.
Speaker:I did a running list for the month.
Speaker:I always did that to keep up with working full-time,
Speaker:being a teacher full-time, and, you know,
Speaker:with my kids
Speaker:and their schedules. - Keep yourself organized,
Speaker:so you got stuff to do. - Yeah, so I always did
Speaker:a running list, the household thing.
Speaker:But now, I take 15 minutes outta my day before my day ends,
Speaker:whether it's workday or go to bed,
Speaker:and try to write down those things.
Speaker:And if I forget it, that's okay.
Speaker:But right first thing in the morning,
Speaker:okay, now let's start my day.
Speaker:Don't hurt yourself, punish yourself for not doing it.
Speaker:Just, okay, didn't get it done yesterday.
Speaker:What am I gonna do today?
Speaker:- Yeah, don't give up on getting it done
Speaker:just because you didn't do it during the time period
Speaker:that you thought you would.
Speaker:- Exactly.
Speaker:And then sometimes things get a little bit more complicated
Speaker:than you think, it just moves from one day to the next.
Speaker:- Right. Brilliant advice.
Speaker:- Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, time management is important
Speaker:when you are juggling so many things.
Speaker:- Yeah. And you got a lot of things to juggle.
Speaker:(Desiree chuckles)
Speaker:- Yeah.
Speaker:- A lot of things.
Speaker:- So, okay, with everything that's going on,
Speaker:how the hobby has progressed, looking back on it,
Speaker:you've already said you wished
Speaker:you would've had more structure in the beginning.
Speaker:But looking forward,
Speaker:you're talking about planning one, three, five,
Speaker:and so many years ahead.
Speaker:What are the things or what is the thing
Speaker:that you wanna be doing
Speaker:to make sure that you're setting up the future?
Speaker:So, we're looking retrospective.
Speaker:We wish we would've set a good foundation.
Speaker:What's gonna help you
Speaker:or Drunk Chicken Cigars grow for the future?
Speaker:What are we looking at doing? What's our one thing?
Speaker:- I'm looking at...
Speaker:So, I'm kind of doing some market research and seeing like,
Speaker:you know, what are, you know, some common things with,
Speaker:I'm looking at JC Newman, I'm looking at Rocky Patel,
Speaker:I'm looking at AJ, I'm looking at the big guys,
Speaker:and what are some of the common things that they're doing
Speaker:that are making them successful.
Speaker:And I'm trying to bookmark, gauge those things,
Speaker:and seeing where I feel like I can fit that aspect of it
Speaker:into my business.
Speaker:I know it's not necessarily a now thing,
Speaker:but is it a five-year thing?
Speaker:Is it a 10-year thing? Is it a 20-year thing?
Speaker:And so those are the things
Speaker:that I'm working into my future plan.
Speaker:But, you know, you have to start looking at
Speaker:who is successful, why are they successful,
Speaker:what's making them successful?
Speaker:And yeah, I know I'm not gonna go out there
Speaker:and do full page ads and giving away a million cigars
Speaker:and do a party like Drew Estate right at this point.
Speaker:But there are some commonalities that I can actually gauge,
Speaker:and then say, "This is where I would like to fit them
Speaker:into my business plan."
Speaker:- So, you're doing market research. I love that.
Speaker:To get ready for the future.
Speaker:And you're learning from people who have already done it.
Speaker:- [Desiree] Yes.
Speaker:- So much of what we do is learn behavior from each other,
Speaker:learn techniques from each other.
Speaker:Can anyone really ever say that they've pioneered
Speaker:or done something 100% original?
Speaker:- Albert Einstein? (laughing)
Speaker:- Really?
Speaker:- Maybe Albert Einstein. (laughing)
Speaker:- It's very few and far between, right?
Speaker:- Um, originality, it has a perspective.
Speaker:So it's very subjective. - Yeah, that's a good way
Speaker:to say it.
Speaker:It has a perspective.
Speaker:It might be original for you,
Speaker:but it's probably not the first time
Speaker:someone's ever done that.
Speaker:- And I will tell you, most things is not the first time.
Speaker:Anybody do it,
Speaker:it might be the first time somebody's done it that way,
Speaker:first times anybody's seen it that way,
Speaker:first time anybody's presented it that way,
Speaker:or presented it to you that way.
Speaker:So, it is you...
Speaker:You learn, and you don't necessarily just,
Speaker:"Oh, I'm going to copy-paste."
Speaker:You copy, you add, you subtract.
Speaker:- That's where the originality comes in.
Speaker:You add your thing. - Right, yes.
Speaker:- And then
Speaker:you move forward with that. - You do it your way.
Speaker:- And then be true to yourself.
Speaker:Because if I'm gonna try to be AJ,
Speaker:I'm gonna fail because I'm not AJ.
Speaker:I'm not JC Newman, so I'm going to fail.
Speaker:I'm setting myself up for failure.
Speaker:So I'm going to fail. I'm setting myself up for failure.
Speaker:and what your beliefs are.
Speaker:- Very well said.
Speaker:When do you think it's visible
Speaker:when someone's not being true to themselves?
Speaker:How can you sniff that out and recognize it?
Speaker:Because we all can kind of,
Speaker:but what do you think is the tell, the giveaway?
Speaker:- So, I don't wanna say that I'm, you know,
Speaker:the judge of that,
Speaker:or anybody else should be the judge of that.
Speaker:I would tell you that from a person,
Speaker:you need to look within yourself
Speaker:and make that determination,
Speaker:like if you are true to yourself or not,
Speaker:and what that means to you.
Speaker:to yourself or not. And what that means to you.
Speaker:"You know what?
Speaker:That tie does not really fit your personality,"
Speaker:but you look at it and go, "Yeah, this absolutely is me!"
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:And so people are going to judge,
Speaker:people are going to have a thought about who you are,
Speaker:what you are,
Speaker:because of what you present to the world, right?
Speaker:But only you can make that determination
Speaker:if you are what you are, how you are, and why you are, so.
Speaker:- Yeah, that's really well said.
Speaker:You're absolutely right. There is judgment.
Speaker:And I suppose I kind of framed it that way,
Speaker:but it's just every once in a while,
Speaker:you do see that person who you don't think is living
Speaker:that 100% authentic person that they are.
Speaker:Like they might have just grabbed onto that idea,
Speaker:pulled it in, but they really truly don't fit that.
Speaker:- If they're not speaking it,
Speaker:then that's where you start going, ask the questions then.
Speaker:And so, okay, from that perspective,
Speaker:if you are talking to somebody,
Speaker:and they're presenting something to you,
Speaker:and they're unable to present it
Speaker:in a manner that feels authentic
Speaker:or feels like they're presenting something
Speaker:that they're passionate about, keep asking questions.
Speaker:And at some point, you're gonna go,
Speaker:"Uh, I'm not exactly sure,"
Speaker:that you even believe in yourself.
Speaker:- Right.
Speaker:- So.
Speaker:- Well said.
Speaker:I'm a huge "go with the flow," and my wife isn't,
Speaker:and it was sometimes, we would butt heads,
Speaker:so I've learned how to deal with it.
Speaker:Is your husband a go with the flow kind of guy
Speaker:or is that always been something
Speaker:that you guys have had to work on?
Speaker:- No, he's structured. I'm not.
Speaker:And I'm a little OCD on things that he's not OCD,
Speaker:so we kind of balance each other in that way.
Speaker:That's so great. That's the way I feel about my wife.
Speaker:It's not like we butt heads and then that's the end.
Speaker:It's like, okay, conflict, but let's figure this out,
Speaker:so we balance each other out.
Speaker:And it's super good. Super good.
Speaker:I do have to ask you, in the beginning,
Speaker:was there a moment that you thought,
Speaker:"This whole thing is probably gonna fail.
Speaker:I should just go back to it being a hobby"?
Speaker:- Oh, every day. (laughing)
Speaker:- Every day.
Speaker:- Every day. - What specifically
Speaker:about that though?
Speaker:Like why?
Speaker:- It takes a lot.
Speaker:I mean, when you talking about future growth,
Speaker:there's a lot of juggling that you have to do
Speaker:to make that happen.
Speaker:And there's a lot of people that are asking questions
Speaker:that are relying on you that wanna have answers.
Speaker:And I don't know if I always have the answer,
Speaker:or the right answer.
Speaker:So there's times that, a lot of times I go,
Speaker:(Desiree sighs)
Speaker:"Yeah, I could just smoke cigars."
Speaker:And I tell people, you know, when they go,
Speaker:when I get negativity, let me tell you something,
Speaker:I will smoke every single one of these cigars by myself
Speaker:and be a happy camper
Speaker:before I let you make this negative impact on me.
Speaker:So I am not going to take that negativity and own it.
Speaker:I just, I will smoke them all and have be happy.
Speaker:- Sure. (Desiree laughing)
Speaker:Yeah, because that's how you started, right?
Speaker:Like, "Ah, these are all cigars I like."
Speaker:- [Desiree] Yeah. (chuckles)
Speaker:- Okay, well, then, that's a great segue into,
Speaker:do you try to apply customer suggestions to your brand
Speaker:or is it a select vetted few that you rely on?
Speaker:- No, even going from the hobby to business structure,
Speaker:one of the first thing I did was grab people from all over,
Speaker:focus groups, and say, "Hey, would you smoke this cigar?"
Speaker:"Yeah, sure."
Speaker:"But you have to come on the Zoom with me
Speaker:if you're going to do that.
Speaker:And when you're smoking it,
Speaker:all I want you to do is tell me about the cigar.
Speaker:What the notes are, what are you feeling,
Speaker:what are you learning?
Speaker:Tell me."
Speaker:And I took those notes and used those for my descriptions.
Speaker:- Oh great.
Speaker:- Yeah, so, those descriptions aren't just my thoughts.
Speaker:Those are, it wasn't select few, people I met,
Speaker:people I was introduced to from New York,
Speaker:California, Florida.
Speaker:There were people all over the...
Speaker:We were in quarantine.
Speaker:And so I took that as,
Speaker:"We're home. Let's smoke a cigar and let's talk about it."
Speaker:So I gave away some cigars to people.
Speaker:"I'll mail you this,
Speaker:only thing I'm asking you is to show up on the Zoom."
Speaker:And 90% of the people did it.
Speaker:- That's so cool.
Speaker:- And so, did I take their suggestions? Absolutely.
Speaker:And I still do.
Speaker:When I did the Homicidal Hen, people kept saying,
Speaker:"Oh, it's not full body enough. It's not full body enough."
Speaker:So I try to give, make something that was fuller.
Speaker:That's why I made the Homicidal Hen.
Speaker:And I went out and started asking people.
Speaker:I went through about 30 iterations of that
Speaker:before I got people's going, "I love that.
Speaker:I love that. Repeat it.
Speaker:I love that. I love that.
Speaker:I love that. - 30 iterations?
Speaker:- Or more. I just kept changing it, kept adding.
Speaker:And then I realized something through the process.
Speaker:People confuse body with strength.
Speaker:So, I'm hearing- - Always.
Speaker:- I want something full body,
Speaker:and I'm trying to make something stronger in strength,
Speaker:but what they're telling me
Speaker:is they want more of a spice that's stronger.
Speaker:And I like smooth cigars,
Speaker:so I'm making cigars smooth but fuller in strength.
Speaker:So that's something, it was a learning process for me.
Speaker:Hearing my customers say one thing
Speaker:and interpreting different.
Speaker:So the next time I make a cigar,
Speaker:I hope it's going to be fuller in body.
Speaker:It may be a milder, it may be a medium cigar,
Speaker:it may be in strength, it may be full in strength.
Speaker:But I'm understanding now from what, you know,
Speaker:when they're smoking it,
Speaker:"Well, I love this, you know, strength or the body,"
Speaker:but we're not always speaking the same term.
Speaker:- That's so true.
Speaker:And we get that question all the time,
Speaker:and I even get it confused.
Speaker:It's like, "Is this strength or is this body?"
Speaker:Because strength can be hidden
Speaker:inside a very well blended cigar.
Speaker:So people are like, "Hey, is that a strong cigar?"
Speaker:I'm like, "I am the wrong person to ask"
Speaker:because I actually do not know if it's strong.
Speaker:What I know is, is it blended well
Speaker:to the point where I'm liking it?
Speaker:Yeah, I like it.
Speaker:Or "Well, was it strength or body that threw you off,
Speaker:like that you didn't like it?"
Speaker:I go, "I don't know, it like,
Speaker:you know, it was like boom,
Speaker:and it was like, 'I don't really like that.'"
Speaker:- Right.
Speaker:So that's one of the things
Speaker:that I've learned through this process
Speaker:that when listening to my customers,
Speaker:I'm learning to ask different questions now.
Speaker:- Okay.
Speaker:So, you kind of have like a little playbook of questions.
Speaker:- Yeah, so when you tell me, "Oh, I want a full body cigar."
Speaker:"Okay, so what is it about the cigar
Speaker:that makes it full body to you?
Speaker:Is it more spicy? Is it like heavy when you smoke it?
Speaker:Or is it that you get more of a nicotine kind of rush
Speaker:in your head?"
Speaker:Because there is a difference.
Speaker:- Okay, so if somebody says they like the flavor, that's
Speaker:"I want a stronger cigar, I want more flavor,"
Speaker:that's body. - That's body.
Speaker:- If they say, "I want a stronger cigar,
Speaker:I'm not getting the nicotine buzz,"
Speaker:that's strength. - Strength, yes.
Speaker:- That's a good way to put it.
Speaker:- Yes.
Speaker:- Thank you for clarifying that
Speaker:because it's always difficult to put those two together.
Speaker:- Yeah, so I say, "Oh, my Mother Clucker,"
Speaker:I used to say, "it's spicy."
Speaker:People go, "That's not spicy ."
Speaker:To me, it's spicy, but they're looking for a spicy,
Speaker:harsh harshness that I call harshness,
Speaker:they call body.
Speaker:So it's just different terminology,
Speaker:different way to describe it.
Speaker:But I'm learning.
Speaker:- That's so great.
Speaker:So as you've developed your palate,
Speaker:what's the like Desiree top three
Speaker:to get it better and better every day?
Speaker:What are the top three exercises or tips or tricks
Speaker:that you're using to get a better palate for cigars?
Speaker:- You know what?
Speaker:- Or maybe it's just one.
Speaker:- One thing for me is I'm not always gonna rely
Speaker:on my palate anymore.
Speaker:I relied on my palate because I was smoking the cigar,
Speaker:making the cigars for me.
Speaker:Now, I'm in a different position,
Speaker:I'm making cigars for customers,
Speaker:so I'm not going to rely on my palate.
Speaker:So developing my palate is a great thing,
Speaker:but making sure I listen to my customers,
Speaker:getting customer feedback,
Speaker:understanding what I'm hearing when I'm talking to people
Speaker:at different events and things like that.
Speaker:And seeing what's new out there
Speaker:and why it's so new and sexy,
Speaker:and seeing if that's something I should
Speaker:or should not incorporate.
Speaker:So I'm trying to keep my eye and ear and palate
Speaker:on the market.
Speaker:- That's perfect.
Speaker:What things, though...
Speaker:Okay, so as much as we ask customers what they want,
Speaker:how they want it, sometimes there's a saying
Speaker:that the customer doesn't know what they want.
Speaker:And then there's also this aspect
Speaker:of trying to go above and beyond
Speaker:the customer's expectations.
Speaker:So, how are you trying to go above and beyond
Speaker:or deliver something possibly that's far superior
Speaker:than what the customer's even asking for?
Speaker:- So, for me, again, being true to myself.
Speaker:I am making cigars that are high quality, well-constructed.
Speaker:What these cigars are made, smooth cigars, consistency.
Speaker:So that's what I'm trying to deliver now.
Speaker:Consistency, quality is something that when you pick up
Speaker:a Drunk Chicken Cigar, you're gonna go,
Speaker:"This is what I picked up the last time."
Speaker:So, that's why I'm trying
Speaker:to meet my- - Did you struggle
Speaker:with that before, like early on?
Speaker:- I did, yes.
Speaker:Because, you know, we bought from...
Speaker:We source our tobacco.
Speaker:So not every pallet that we buy is gonna be the same.
Speaker:So I learned that I have to,
Speaker:anytime we do new pallets
Speaker:making sure that we may have to tweak it a little bit.
Speaker:So, we learned that.
Speaker:So consistency, quality-
Speaker:- Because it's not like a recipe where you can say,
Speaker:"Add a cup of sugar, add two cups of flour,
Speaker:and boom, you're gonna get this magical cigar."
Speaker:- [Desiree] Exactly.
Speaker:- It might be that you need to cut some of that one out.
Speaker:It's not a cup of that anymore. It's only 3/4 of a cup.
Speaker:And you gotta add this one.
Speaker:And then actually we have to add a little bit of this one
Speaker:to mellow this all out.
Speaker:- Yeah, so we definitely, anytime we get new pallets
Speaker:test it against some older ones that we've had,
Speaker:making sure that the consistency is there.
Speaker:So, yeah, and then I've learned
Speaker:that I can't roll my darker leaves
Speaker:at the same time I do my lighter leaves.
Speaker:The darker leaves shrink up a little bit tighter
Speaker:than the lighter leaves.
Speaker:And when you get on a roll, and you doing the lighter leave,
Speaker:and you start rolling the dark ones at the same time,
Speaker:well, they're gonna shrink up harder.
Speaker:And so (chuckles) it cause a problem sometimes
Speaker:with the pull and the draw.
Speaker:- Sure. That's interesting.
Speaker:So you're changing up the density of the cigar
Speaker:based on the way it's going to perform.
Speaker:- Yeah, so now we roll one blend a day,
Speaker:or one size a day, so that we're not-
Speaker:- Yeah, because it's like muscle memory, right?
Speaker:- Yes.
Speaker:- You can't go from one to the other
Speaker:without having some failures
Speaker:with trying to figure out how to change.
Speaker:- Well, we did that, and we learned the hard way. (chuckles)
Speaker:- Really? - Yeah.
Speaker:- So learning the hard way,
Speaker:does that mean you had to buy back product, comp it,
Speaker:take the responsibility?
Speaker:- Yep, all of that.
Speaker:- How does that affect you and your business?
Speaker:- I affect the bottom line.
Speaker:I mean, it costs me money, but at the end of the day,
Speaker:it's a learning process.
Speaker:And if you're in business,
Speaker:you need to be able to take it on the chin sometime.
Speaker:You need to be able to apologize.
Speaker:You need to be able to say,
Speaker:"Hey, this happened and here you go."
Speaker:You know, these are 100% hand rolled.
Speaker:There are absolutely no machines involved.
Speaker:People have bad days.
Speaker:You're gonna have a bad stick every once in a while.
Speaker:But, you know, we are here
Speaker:to hopefully make your smoking experience better.
Speaker:- Right. And have as minimal amount of hiccups as possible.
Speaker:- Minimum, minimum, minimum.
Speaker:- Do you have any cigars that you thought,
Speaker:"This is gonna just be a massive hit,
Speaker:and it just turned out to be a flop,
Speaker:and you had to scrap it?
Speaker:- So, I made a cigar for a shop out in Texas,
Speaker:and we called it The Extreme.
Speaker:And we launched it.
Speaker:We had more problems with The Extreme, getting it launched,
Speaker:trying to get that band made.
Speaker:Well, we had problems. - So not even the cigar,
Speaker:it was like all the other ancillary things alongside of it.
Speaker:- And then we sat back and looked at everything and said,
Speaker:"Look, we have 14 or 15 different vitolas right now."
Speaker:- Whoa!
Speaker:- Yeah.
Speaker:- Wow.
Speaker:- Well we only have, at the time we had seven blends.
Speaker:- Seven blends, but 14 different vitolas. Gotcha.
Speaker:- Yeah, it was 15 or 16 at the time.
Speaker:And we were like, you know,
Speaker:"We need to be good at this group here
Speaker:and consistent with this group.
Speaker:And maybe we're moving faster than we should.
Speaker:- [Rob] Sure.
Speaker:- So not that The Extreme wasn't good,
Speaker:but The Extreme was the last.
Speaker:Extreme we were having problems with.
Speaker:Bye-bye Extreme right now.
Speaker:- You gotta pull that energy elsewhere.
Speaker:- Yeah, so we pulled it back. - That's so smart
Speaker:as a business owner and just as a person in general,
Speaker:why keep dumping energy into something
Speaker:that's not gonna produce?
Speaker:- Right, and it may produce later,
Speaker:but right now, I'm enjoying the boxes I made. (laughs)
Speaker:- Exactly.
Speaker:- And they're great smokes,
Speaker:but I just can't put the energy
Speaker:in trying to launch it for sale right now.
Speaker:I need to establish my brand, and that's the most important.
Speaker:And then once the brand is established,
Speaker:then we'll start adding more in.
Speaker:But I don't see in our next three-year plan any new cigars
Speaker:until we are a little bit
Speaker:more established. - That's awesome.
Speaker:The next three years you're just gonna dedicate
Speaker:to making what you got going just that much better.
Speaker:The consistency and the reliability that is gonna come
Speaker:from Drunk Chicken Cigars is just gonna be on point.
Speaker:So we know every time we pick one up,
Speaker:it's always going to be similar.
Speaker:Not the same,
Speaker:but it's gonna be that cigar we expect it to be.
Speaker:- Yeah. It's gonna be, yeah.
Speaker:So, we're focusing on our brand right now.
Speaker:- I love that. So smart.
Speaker:Love it. Okay, give me the Desiree top three cigars.
Speaker:I'm going morning, afternoon, and night.
Speaker:What cigars am I joining you with for morning,
Speaker:noon, and night?
Speaker:- Morning? I'm definitely doing a Sweet Dream.
Speaker:- Sweet Dream in the morning goes great with coffee.
Speaker:It's got that nice sweet tip,
Speaker:but not oversweetened to the point where it's an infusion.
Speaker:It's just a nice sweetness right on the mouth.
Speaker:Do you sweeten the rest of the cigar
Speaker:or is it just the mouthpiece
Speaker:that you sweeten? - Just the mouthpiece.
Speaker:- Got it.
Speaker:- I'm a big thing on infused cigars.
Speaker:I'm concerned about how the infused process,
Speaker:not all infused is the same infused,
Speaker:and when you're burning it, what are you burning?
Speaker:So you're typically not burning past there.
Speaker:So you're not burning anything when you do that.
Speaker:So my perspective, my perspective only,
Speaker:and I haven't done enough research on it
Speaker:to give it any more thought than that.
Speaker:- Got it. So what's my afternoon cigar?
Speaker:- So, in the afternoon, I typically like a medium cigar.
Speaker:So I either go with a Fat Hen, Mother Clucker,
Speaker:or Living the Dream, no, more Fat Hen, Mother Clucker
Speaker:because I want a little bit more body.
Speaker:I'm into my groove.
Speaker:I'm like the top speed, (chuckles)
Speaker:so I can burn off a little bit more.
Speaker:The afternoon?
Speaker:Depending on how many other cigars I smoked that day.
Speaker:If I smoked a lot- - You mean in the evening?
Speaker:- In the evening?
Speaker:- In the evening, okay.
Speaker:- Yeah, evening, I'm sorry.
Speaker:If I smoked a lot of cigars,
Speaker:I'm going with something light again
Speaker:because I've already smoked a lot of cigars.
Speaker:- So, yes, some people will go light, medium, full.
Speaker:And you're going light, medium, light.
Speaker:- Yeah.
Speaker:- Let your palate cool down.
Speaker:Still enjoy that great cigar, but not overpower your palate.
Speaker:- Yeah, I wanna cool down, chill out, relax.
Speaker:Sometimes I get- - So, which one
Speaker:- a little more buzz- - are we smoking?
Speaker:with the fuller cigars.
Speaker:And I don't really like that for myself.
Speaker:But if I'm gonna do it, I'm drinking whiskey,
Speaker:and I will have a full cigar,
Speaker:but I'm not leaving my house either.
Speaker:- Yeah, so, what's that evening cigar on the light side
Speaker:that you're grabbing for?
Speaker:You going back to the Sweet Dream
Speaker:that we started the day with?
Speaker:- Either Living the Dream or Sweet Dream.
Speaker:Sweet Dream sometimes can be a little bit much
Speaker:on the sweetness.
Speaker:When I'm doing whiskey or something like that,
Speaker:I don't really want that, the competing flavors,
Speaker:so I'll go with the Living the Dream that's really smooth
Speaker:and doesn't compete with anything.
Speaker:- Nice. - Compliments.
Speaker:- Wonderful!
Speaker:Thank you so much for sitting down with us,
Speaker:running through how you ended up starting
Speaker:this amazing brand.
Speaker:Check it out everyone at drunkchickencigars.com.
Speaker:It's phenomenal artwork.
Speaker:The naming and the whole convention behind it
Speaker:is just a blast.
Speaker:Desiree, thank you for joining me.
Speaker:- Oh, thank you.
Speaker:I really appreciate you having me,
Speaker:and I look forward to hanging out with you
Speaker:for the rest of this weekend.
Speaker:- Absolutely. I can't wait. (Desiree chuckling)
Speaker:That's another episode of Box Press.
Speaker:We're wrapping it up here at PCA.
Speaker:We got more interviews coming.
Speaker:And as always, protect those cigars with Boveda.
Speaker:Have a blessed day.
