Christa Donofrio and Christy La Mountain of Beertooth Taproom/ C&C Endeavors LLC talk about creating a business after corporate career in science.

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Key peaked interest, KPI, entrepreneurial insight,

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L-G-B-T-Q editions. Today's guest,

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Krista Dino.

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Kristi la Mountain of Beer, tooth taproom.

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Welcome to the key peak interest, KPI, entrepreneurial

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insights, L-G-B-T-Q edition.

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We're here with Krista Rio

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and Christie la Mountain of CNC Endeavors, LLC.

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Hey y'all. Hey. Hey.

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I found out about you guys by just looking up, uh, you know,

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folks that are doing business, uh, in, in the area,

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and that are L-G-B-T-Q.

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Mm-hmm. We wanted to do this

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and talk to entrepreneurs that are doing business together.

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Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And I realized

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that everybody has a different sort of way it looks, right?

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Mm-hmm. So how did you guys

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start working together?

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Oh, no, really? Yeah. Well, she's your brainchild.

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Well, more interestingly, we worked together in our,

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before the tap room,

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we worked together in the pharmaceutical industry.

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You met at That's how we data. Yeah. Okay.

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Um, but yeah, so I got outta the pharmaceutical industry.

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It just did not suit me very well.

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And as, uh, my interest

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and passion for beer grew, I found that

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the two of us could probably make a company

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and actually provide a service instead of just serving beer.

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Be able to talk to people intelligently about beer

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and help them order beers when they go out elsewhere.

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And, you know, without her support, this would not happen.

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Oh, absolutely, man.

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I, you guys, okay,

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so you're working together at your day jobs,

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and then you decide you're gonna start this

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side hustle, new endeavor.

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Like how, how does that conversation even get started?

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So, Krista was working at another tap room.

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She was managing it, and she mentioned, you know,

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queen Bee Syndrome all the way.

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Yeah. Oh, I could you think. And so, um,

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when she was ready to leave there, she mentioned,

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she's like, you know, maybe I should open a tap room.

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And I was like, that would be okay.

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I amm like, sounds interesting. What do?

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I was like, I was like, what? What?

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I was like, I was like kind of hesitant. I'm like, okay.

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I am like, so what do you think?

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And so we kind of talked about it

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and brainstormed what it would be.

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But how long did that process go on? Ooh, a couple months.

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Oh. Until we actually took the leap

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and we were walking through the space

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and found the phone number

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and we're like, I was looking at a spot elsewhere in the

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shopping center, but it turned out

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to be way too big for what we needed.

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Um, and so we said, Hey,

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we're interested in moving a tap room into this, uh,

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sub, uh, space shopping center.

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Yeah. And she's like, well,

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I don't have anything in your size right now.

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She's like, but I'll put you on the list.

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And we're like, okay. So we were waiting and waiting

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and it happened much quicker than we expected.

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We got a call that somebody that was in this spot was ready

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to move to a smaller location.

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They didn't need this much space.

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And so she's like, would you guys like to come check it out?

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We're like, sure. And so, um, the rest is history.

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We were like, okay. So you took your, your knowledge

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as an employee, a manager mm-hmm.

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In another, uh, business, the same type,

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and you were like, okay, you know, what to look for as far

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as space goes and seats and taps, that sort of thing?

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Or does that something that you learn

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since you've been open?

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That's definitely a learn on the fly. Yeah.

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Um, being a manager, basically all I did was, well,

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not all I did, but I ordered beer

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and just kept things running in that sense.

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I had no idea what business ownership looked like.

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Um, Brian. Oh, you're laughing. We gotta get get back.

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Come back at that. But,

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but one thing to know, we hadn't worked together.

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When did we leave in 2006?

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I started 2005. I started 2005.

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So we hadn't worked together since 2005.

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Um, we went to different pharmaceutical companies

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and then we both, we did it so we'd have more job security

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because ours had a big layoff.

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Yes. And we both got scared, but we both were lucky.

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So we decided to go to two different companies. Okay.

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And believe it or not, we both lost our jobs within a month

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of each other at two different companies.

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Wow. Yeah. Um, she ended up going back in the pharmaceutical

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industry and I'm like, I'm so done with this.

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It, it, again, it didn't suit me.

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I'm a very transparent person

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and I will tell you if something will not work.

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And bosses don't wanna hear that.

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So being my own boss is kind of important in that sense.

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It's, well, I'm glad that's a great

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thing to know about yourself.

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You've got this, this definite like boundary.

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It's like, I'm gonna tell you how it is

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and if you're kind of chafe about that,

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maybe I'm not the right employee for this organization.

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Yeah, exactly. And, you know,

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not to throw too much information out there,

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but I ended up getting cancer.

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Uh, I got breast cancer and Christie looked at me

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and she said, and at the time I wasn't,

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I was just doing volunteer work.

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She looked at me, she goes, you

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will never have to work again.

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Just you do the work now and get through this. Yeah.

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And little did I realize that, um, while I was getting

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through it, I was learning more and more about beer.

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And that's when I ended up getting into the, the industry.

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Right. There's a certification, what was it?

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What's it called? Um, I am a certified Cone. Cone. Yes.

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It's through Sounds very Italian. It does, doesn't it?

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And it's, and it's through cone.org.

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There's, there's several different ways you can get

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certified with your beer knowledge

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and actually have the paperwork to show that you have that,

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you know, it gives you credibility.

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Right, right. And now that's,

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and like how many folks get certified?

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I'm just curious. The,

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the certified just, well, there's four levels.

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Um, I think maybe six a year become Master Cerone.

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I'm definitely not there.

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Um, the next level down is Advanced Cerone,

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which I am actively studying for.

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And by that I'm drinking a lot of beer

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and trying to keep my knowledge fresh.

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Um, and still learning more, more things

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'cause there's all these hot varieties and so on.

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So, um, the, the certified cone, which I am, uh,

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you know, it's a, it's a five hour test

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and there's a tasting and it, it, it, it's a lot.

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I studied from the time I became a certified beer server,

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which Christie is, until I became a certified cone.

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I studied for five years. Wow. Wow.

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You know, trying everything I get my hands on

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and, you know, research was half the fun.

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But, you know,

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and during that time, you know, it was, it,

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it, it was a lot.

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And keeping it fresh in your mind

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because it just builds each level.

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And I find it interesting too that, um, you know, women tend

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to overachieve with credibility, right?

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Mm-hmm. Where there are, like the boss

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or the other company, did they have their certification

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or did, or did they just No.

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Right. But the reason I wanted to have that, the paperwork

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and the credibility behind me is

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because one of the reasons of opening this place was

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to be an educational tap room.

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Which again, sounds almost like an oxymoron.

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People tend to drink and get dumber.

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And we, we are trying to drink

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and get people, um, not necessarily smarter,

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but to use the right words when they order at other places

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so they can get what they want to drink.

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Right. So we're, we're constantly like, when people come in

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and say, I don't want it hoppy.

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Well, you don't want bitter. What do you want? Yeah.

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What is it you're really at? So

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it's all about the adjectives.

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We always joke about that. Unpack your adjectives. Yeah.

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Good old schoolhouse rocks.

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So I wanna circle back around to this idea that, you know,

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you've got, you know, two incomes coming in, then you,

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you have this very scary, I mean, I Piper

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and I went through the same thing where I was diagnosed and,

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and I'm, I, you know, we were already in business

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and together together.

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And this is our only income. And it's very scary.

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'cause you hear cancer and you don't know.

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I mean, they'll tell you, oh, you'll be fine.

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But you don't know. It's still the big seed. Yeah.

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You, you don't know.

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And, you know, we, our our business was not set up

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for me to be gone.

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Mm-hmm. And we lost a lot of income. That was hard.

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And so, in that situation, you know, where were you?

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You hadn't started the business yet,

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but you were still, I mean,

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there's still a two income household not having, well,

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I wasn't working when I, I was volunteering when, okay.

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Well, I, yes, I was volunteering when, when I got diagnosed

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and Christie was working, thank God, with great insurance.

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Um, and then, you know,

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after the chemo and the radiation

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and the surgery, I started working for the other chap room.

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And again, at that point I was using beer as a way

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to not think about the cancer I was reading and studying.

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I didn't know I was gonna go into the

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beer industry at that point.

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It was just a big passion that you were discovering. It was.

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That's amazing. And so we, you know, we've,

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we've talked about this, how cancer kind

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of pushed me a little bit more towards beer than you would

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think cancer would.

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And then, you know, not to skip ahead,

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but we were open a year

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and two months when I got diagnosed with cancer again.

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Oh, geez. And just like you were saying, with with

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with your business, you weren't

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anticipating doing it without her.

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Imagine me being the face of this business.

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And now I, I don't even have a sense of taste anymore.

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I, I, you know, and that was a hard, that was hard.

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That was really hard. It's really hard. Mm-hmm.

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Because y you kind of,

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it just gra gradually sneaks up and he was like, what's happening?

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And you're like, trying to feed,

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like I was eating incredibly hot food

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and people around me like, what's going on?

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Right. And I imagine that, you know, that's a, you know,

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you can't do half the job.

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Yeah. Right.

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Well, what, and again, thank God I was a cone

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because I could read the descriptions, know what

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that beer was gonna taste like

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and what hops were in it, how it would present itself.

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Because everything tasted like pennies

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that sat in the bottom of a pool for five years.

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Everything without fail. I, uh, yeah.

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I had the same great memories. Right. Yeah. Yeah.

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Like, yeah. I can't taste anything. Yeah.

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So, and again, so, so how did you get

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through that with the business here?

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Did you already have systems,

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you had like employees going on here

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that were, were taken care of?

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We had two employees besides myself. Mm-hmm.

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Um, but we hired wisely.

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They were outrageously responsible.

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Um, we had one

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that is when I ended up hospitalized with Sepsis.

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We called her and she's like, I, I'm there.

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And just took over.

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We also had a friend of ours that studied,

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became a certified beer server without us asking.

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So if I needed to be a way she could step behind the bar.

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I know. That's beautiful. You know, you wanna cry?

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I'm a big cry, baby. I'll cry.

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We, we also had another friend that studied,

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became a certified beer server.

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So just so he had the credentials to be,

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help me clean my draft lines.

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'cause I do all that myself.

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And for a full year, he was here every day that I was here,

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wouldn't let me pick up furniture.

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Wouldn't. 'cause I had a port and everything. Yes. So, yes.

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It was amazing. Yeah. That's, that is really support.

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You feel so blessed to have that sort

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of support in your life.

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Well, this community got me through the second cancer.

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Like, so cancer drove me to beer

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and the beer community got me through the second cancer.

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That's beautiful. It's full circle to that. Oh yes. Cheers.

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To, to you as well. Yes, yes.

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You know, us, us stubborn survivors. That's right.

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You know, I, um, I recognize how hard it is

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and part of it is, you know, you're still here.

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And like for me, in my business, what that pushed me

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to standardize some things mm-hmm.

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To allow me to be gone. Mm-hmm.

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I don't know if that happened for you. Oh, it did.

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All of a sudden there were, there were lists.

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And because with me being here

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before the second cancer, I was here

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probably six days a week, six days a week.

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I stayed on top of the cleaning, the ordering, everything.

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And then it became like, okay,

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every other week the bathrooms will get

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thoroughly cleaned, you know?

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Mm-hmm. Deep cleaned and all these lists came about.

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And I think they're better. It

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makes the training so much easier.

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Yes, yes. Absolutely. Right. It makes it standardized.

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It makes it easy to get people in

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and make sure that the next person gets the same list.

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Yep. All that.

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Well, and Christie became a certified beer server

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because she was going with the, well, I'm an owner.

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I'll just be a bar back whenever you need me. Right.

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And finally she's like, you know what, I'm gonna step up.

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And she, her friendliness behind the bar.

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We are such total opposites in that sense.

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I'm, I'm the, I'm the snarky kind of smart alec.

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And she's just warm and fuzzy

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and, you know, it's,

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you can't have two of the same, it never works.

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So tell me a little bit about what your role is

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with the CNC endeavors.

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Okay. Which is the, I guess the umbrella for Yeah.

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The beard tooth. The beer tooth. Yep. Tap room.

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So I am actually behind the scenes.

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I'm the one that helps with social media. Okay.

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Um, all the communications.

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So I'm the Chief Communications Officer. Okay.

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So if we get press people ask for events,

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I help coordinate getting events in.

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Um, I try to keep up, like I said, with social media,

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if we get something from North Carolina Department of Labor

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or whatever, I'll forward it onto

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our CPA, that kind of stuff.

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So I was very behind the scenes.

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I wasn't doing administrative Yeah.

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Hr, all that kind of stuff.

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And she ran the tap room, you know.

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Um, so I was hesitant to step field

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'cause I was a little nervous about,

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I don't know the beers as well as her.

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I can't taste the things that she does

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'cause she's absolutely amazing with all that.

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So I can also read a description

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and let people know how something tastes.

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So as I spent more time behind the bar,

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I became more confident and I wasn't so nervous.

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And I'm actually glad I did it.

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'cause it, it's a lot of fun,

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you know, interacting with people.

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Yeah. You know, having fun at your business. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

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I mean, do you, you really have to have that passion. Right?

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Yeah. So, um, I wanna talk about

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how you discovered each other's strengths.

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Now, you, you'd been working together

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and you've been together for a while

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before you actually opened this.

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Right. And, and I mean, it seems pretty obvious

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that if you've gone and done the certification, that we know

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that the b tooth in, in the family

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is gonna be Kris Krista.

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Yes, most definitely.

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So how did you decide, like,

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you're gonna stay in the background, just,

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just your personalities, or it's just like,

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or have you come across something you're doing

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that you're like, I'm not gonna keep the books.

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Um, but you're keeping the books. Right?

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I think because I have the nine to five during the day,

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it kind of made the most sense.

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She's the beer, face of beer, tooth. It made more sense.

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She's, she wanted to run the taproom. I have a nine to five.

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So that's what I did. And I was like, well, I can still do

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behind the scenes stuff to help out

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so you don't have to do everything.

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So that's kind of how it came about.

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I got to stay behind and she got the step forward.

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Did you have a background in, um,

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small business, somebody in your family?

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You know, no, it's on the fly. Okay.

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No, that was also on the fly.

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Did did you, have you gone to like, you know,

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the small Businesses administration

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or some of the, the Women's center

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or anything to get training

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or anything that would be really smart, but not, not at all.

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No. So, you know, there are resources out out there

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that are, uh,

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that are great trainings for that sort of thing.

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Okay. And, um, resources.

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I can't remember when we, we had the business downtown.

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Our office was downtown and,

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and we were just like figuring out, I had, I had worked

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for a bunch of small businesses, so I kind of knew

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some stuff and then, and I understood billing and invoicing

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and insurance and all that, that we needed.

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But we didn't formally do anything until somebody discovered

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that we were down the street and they were

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just wanna make sure we're recording.

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Oh, yeah. Yeah, we are. Okay. That would be important.

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Um, uh, so they came down the street

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and they were like, well, you guys are here.

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How long have you been here? And we're like, two years,

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I think at that point we've been down the street from them

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and they were like, well, we have an institute

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and we're having a course in two weeks.

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You're going to it. Yeah. They're like, you.

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And we were like, we, we can't get it.

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We can't leave the office. We are the office.

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And they were like, you can't afford not to.

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We're going to pay for everything.

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You're gonna go to this course, it's gonna be for four days.

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Mm-hmm. And we're gonna even put up your hotel room.

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You'll just have to come up with your dinner. Okay.

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And they were like, and,

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and we, we learned a lot about, oh my God,

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like setting up a lot systems.

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Like, you know, are you an owner or are you an operator?

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It's like, does the business own you

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or do you own the business?

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And they were like, does somebody know how

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to unlock the front door if you're not there?

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And we're like, nobody has a key but us. Yeah.

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So there, there are lots of things that, that,

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that allowed us, you know, to get insight into.

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And, you know, having those resources were great now.

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We were busy doing the work. Right.

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And so you get really good at doing the work, right? Mm-hmm.

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But eventually, you know, I know that the specter

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of cancer is always around,

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and it might not be you getting sick.

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And I bless, but don't want that to happen to anybody.

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Right. Don't want that to happen that either one of us.

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But, you know, part of it is, is, you know, there are things

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that you can do to be up,

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and I know that you want to do the tasting because mm-hmm.

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Who doesn't enjoy beer, right?

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I live to talk about beer, taste beer,

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think beer all the time.

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There you go. It's that bad. That's, and that's good.

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You know, you know, Piper was, uh, worked for, uh,

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Nancy Olson at the Quail Books.

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At Quail Corners. It was books.

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It was books at 12 Corners that had moved.

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But she was one of the first employees.

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I was the first employee. She was the first employee.

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And so she, she watched, um, Nancy develop, you know, know

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that, that model and go through that.

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And Jim had a, her husband had a job.

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He worked for state agricultural department.

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But he would come at night

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and he would be like, oh, I enjoy this.

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He'd be like, you know, Nancy, go home. Go out. Right.

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With your friends. And then, that sounds familiar, right?

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So Exactly. When, yeah. So I was thinking, yeah.

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So like, how do you guys come together

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and make business decisions?

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Do you do this formally or is it like you're brushing your

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teeth and you're like, I have an idea.

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Well, I will tell you, I am

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at my most creative at about three o'clock in the morning.

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So there, there was a lot of times I'd be like,

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wake up, I have this idea.

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She'd be like, are you kidding? But, um, yeah, I buy, yes.

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Some of my better, better ideas. Yeah.

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Um, but usually like when it comes

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to the beer and everything like that, Christie

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is not involved in that.

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But when it comes to hiring

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and, um, events, we like to talk it out,

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like how it's gonna go.

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I mean, our big events here are fundraisers that we do.

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And to me, I get very anxious about it

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because I wanna make as much money for those, the charities

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that we're supporting as possible.

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And a lot of times I need her to kind of go, okay,

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well this is, these are what we need to get this going.

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So we are, we,

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we do compliment each other really well in that sense.

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And, but the funny thing is, is both of us are introverts.

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Now, I'm a very outgoing introvert,

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but when I am peopled out, she'll step in.

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'cause she'll see it in my face. I'm like, I Yep.

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You just can't, you can't do it anymore.

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And she'll know when I need downtime.

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And, but again, 20 years together, she recognizes that.

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Yeah. So, so right now there's no real mechanism to like,

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get away and do like a business retreat to talk about, Hey,

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what are we gonna, so what are your plans

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for five years out?

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Um, we'll still be here. Yes.

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Right now, I mean, since we opened our doors in the middle

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of Covid, we got the keys to this place the day

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before the shutdown.

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The shutdown the day before.

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And we were, I'm not gonna say that we're optimists,

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but we were both like, well, that'll give our builders time

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to do the build out and no pressure

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and everything, everything will come in

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line and we'll be fine.

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Well, nothing came in line

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and everything quadrupled in cost.

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And so all the money that we set, we had ready to go

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to get us through the three years of growing pains.

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Right, right. You spent right away. Yes.

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So we, so how, how's business now we know how

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to tread water very well.

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This January was, I will tell you, a lot

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of lost sleep on my part.

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So, so you, you, you're seeing a cycle then in, you're like,

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you got a seasonal cycle that, that kind of goes like this.

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Right. Okay. Yeah. And we did some good events in January

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that I think we had a, just talking to the beer reps, I know

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that we had a better JA January than most places.

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Uh, it was not profitable,

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but it was still a good, a decent January.

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Um, we did, we actually did an event

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with Mad Pop or two doors down.

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We did a beer and popcorn hearing

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and people liked to come out for that.

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Um, yeah. That, that's a nice people partnership for that.

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It is. They is very, yeah. Neighborhoody. Yeah.

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So, you know, right now we,

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we've exhausted all those funds, everything

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that we had stored up, and we did make the three year mark.

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However, that first year was a covid year.

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So does it really count? Right. Right.

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It's a different sort of accounting. Right.

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Couldn't, we couldn't grow our customer base. Right, right.

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Uh, that first year. So, you know, right now I think that

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that four year mark is gonna be that true.

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Will be the, the the former three year mark.

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So we're, are you're feeling com comfortable?

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Are you feeling optimistic? Um, Umhmm,

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I'm, I am a realist.

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Yeah. I know what I need to do.

557

Um, you've got your numbers, you've got your keep Yeah.

558

Performance indicators. Those, so whatcha you looking for?

559

I mean, are you, do you have like your number of like,

560

my imagination is like how many drinks sold

561

or how many to go things, you know, that sort of thing.

562

It, it is something like, honestly what we are,

563

what I look at right now is how many more pints do I need

564

to sell a week to break even.

565

Right. And, you know, sometimes just,

566

I don't, I don't like to be a pushy salesperson,

567

but if I'm watching someone drink the same beer for an,

568

like, have three of 'em, I'm gonna,

569

I'm gonna make sure we're asking, do we do,

570

would you like a crawler to take home with you?

571

You know, things like that. So we're trying to,

572

to make sure we upsell when we can.

573

Right. But not become that. Right. Right. Yeah.

574

No, I mean, he was car salesman mentality. Sure. Right.

575

So what other things are like in the marketing here?

576

I know that like, first year years, marketing

577

and being consistent is really a big thing.

578

Right. And so how are you finding your marketing KPIs?

579

So we're still gaining followers.

580

Um, I worked last night

581

and I, there were six brand new couples that came in.

582

They were like, we had no idea you were here.

583

So we're still getting that. Oh yeah.

584

Because we're kind of tucked in this little corner. Right.

585

Um, so we are definitely growing our customer base

586

and a lot of them are just finding us from word of mouth.

587

It's not social media. Hmm.

588

So we have a lot of really good regulars that talk about us.

589

Mm-hmm. Um, they'll bring their friends in

590

and their friends bring friends in.

591

So we wanna talk about you. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

592

We want, we wanna, because part of it is like the, the,

593

our community, meaning just Durham,

594

but L-G-B-T-Q community, um, we have, uh,

595

a lot invested in creating, uh,

596

businesses that are sustainable.

597

Mm-hmm. And that can help us, you know, do good works. Yeah.

598

Right? Mm-hmm. And so I wanna help, uh, help y'all get

599

more folks in the door if we can.

600

And, and, uh, thank you.

601

Looking at your, your marketing, uh,

602

what other things are you trying to to,

603

to cultivate, to get the word out?

604

So we started with Facebook and Instagram.

605

Like most people, we have a email. Mm-hmm.

606

Um, but we had a couple friends who were like, Hey,

607

what do you think about TikTok?

608

And I'm like, I don't, because I have no idea.

609

So we have a regular who's like,

610

would you mind if I created a beer tooth TikTok account?

611

And we're like, as long

612

as you understand the kinds of things you need to post.

613

She's like, oh yeah. She's like, I'm, I will, you know,

614

if you have any concerns about what I post, let me know.

615

So we have a regular that does TikTok for us.

616

She comes in, if we do an event, um, if we have trivia,

617

she posts stuff about it.

618

And we have another friend that just, um,

619

created a Discord account for beer tooth.

620

So a way to reach, ask questions, people

621

that we may not have reached through regular social media.

622

'cause not everybody has Instagram and Facebook.

623

So we're trying to find new ways to find people.

624

And we're not the ones coming up with the ideas.

625

Thank goodness we have such great customers Yeah.

626

That want to help us succeed.

627

Sore, like, Hey, what can I do? Yeah.

628

Raving fans want you to succeed. Succeed.

629

So we are very dependent it seems,

630

because we don't have time to research new technology

631

and what's going, you know, what's trending with people

632

and more, not to call us old,

633

but you know, we're gen, we're like, what?

634

I don't know what to love's doing Snapchat, not gonna do it.

635

So everyone's like, you should do YouTube.

636

And we're like, yeah, we'll get there eventually. Yeah.

637

I think, you know, so thinking about TikTok

638

and the way you love to go on about beer and tasting

639

and that sort of thing, I think, you know,

640

those are fantastic.

641

Uh, for TikTok where,

642

or YouTube where you just go, okay, this one is this X, y,

643

Z, that's it.

644

In and out super fast. That was the suggestion.

645

I'm like, I, but I have the knowledge,

646

but I am not, I don't have a, that personality.

647

I don't, it doesn't matter. Oh, okay.

648

It's, it's about the knowledge.

649

Maybe I'll give it a go then.

650

It, it's, it's about the knowledge.

651

And like, if you can just be deep into the knowledge,

652

you're people will grab onto that

653

because it's like, you know,

654

'cause part of the shtick, the thing will be

655

she loves it, but look, she's presenting it.

656

It's like gold, right? Yeah.

657

People just want to like, see how authentic it is

658

and that, you know,

659

you're gonna light up when you talk about your beard.

660

You do. Yeah. That's true. You do.

661

We, um, most definitely do, one

662

of the things we do monthly is, uh,

663

we call it flight school.

664

Ah. Um, where we sit down, I curate a flight.

665

I don't work that day. So we have the students come in

666

and we drink a flight

667

and we talk about what it, what the topic is.

668

So last month it was, well,

669

February was pucker up buttercup.

670

We talked about, about sours, how they're made.

671

And it was, it was a lot of fun.

672

And when we started it,

673

I think my first flight school, we had three people.

674

And now we're maxing out at 12 every, every time.

675

We don't want the classes too big. Right? Yeah.

676

So they can't be more, you can't have

677

that one-on-one interaction.

678

So we were super excited. We had 12.

679

There's a suggestion that we start doing it twice a month,

680

you know, do a, a new topic, then go back

681

and do an old topic that people missed.

682

And I'm like, okay. You know? Well, it's more of your time.

683

Yeah. Well, it's more of your time. But twist my arm.

684

Talk about, talk about beer, talk and drink.

685

Because, you know, when you work here, you can't drink. Ah.

686

So drinking, it's nice having that time.

687

So who do you, who would you say are your,

688

like your raving fans

689

or your ideal folks here that come through the door

690

that you want to get more of in here?

691

Certain age group.

692

Certain, I mean, I know beer is for like, universal.

693

Well, honestly, everybody, anybody that

694

from the novice, I've never had craft beer before.

695

To people that wanna sit down and talk about the hops

696

and the beer, because you know, that, that whole range,

697

you know, I like, I like the newcomers when,

698

when you can like, start showing them.

699

Like, you, you don't like, you know, people

700

that come in, it's like, I'm gonna have a cider.

701

I'm not a beer drinker.

702

And then you have them try something and they're,

703

and they drink like three glasses of it.

704

And I'm like, well, you can't say that anymore. I love it.

705

I love the conversion because,

706

because like my mom, she was 70.

707

It's a beer church. Yes. Beer church. I love it.

708

Well, you know, you worship where you worship.

709

But my mom used to say, I'm the only person

710

of pure German descent.

711

I'm 72 and I hate beer.

712

Well, we finally sat down

713

and I kept trying to give her something lighter and lighter

714

because, you know, that tastes like

715

beer and ooh, that tastes like beer.

716

And finally, um, I'm like, what do you love?

717

Like, you'll never turn down.

718

She's like, chocolate ice cream.

719

I'm like, let's try a chocolate milk stout.

720

And now the woman's drinking bourbon barrel age Russian

721

imperial stouts at 14.9%.

722

And we also know not to give her more than two.

723

But you know, I, I glance of sleepy, sleepy.

724

But again, you know, if I can convert a 72-year-old

725

that's determined not to drink a beer, I, I hope

726

that I can do that for everybody.

727

Because not being a beer drinker isn't a good thing

728

because there's so many great styles

729

and you pair it with so many different, you know, dishes.

730

Mm-hmm. I mean, and you can sellar it

731

and pop open a, a 6-year-old bottle of a great stout.

732

And it's amazing.

733

We, we did this, uh, segment with a chef,

734

and he had was we were at, uh, Highwire

735

and he, he bought some,

736

some dark bears so that he could cook with it.

737

He was making, um, barbecue. Mm-hmm.

738

And, and it was, he talked about right,

739

what the ingredients were mm-hmm.

740

And how we picked the beer to use in the ingredients to make

741

what was So I thought that was amazing.

742

Mm-hmm. And I was like, that sounds so amazing,

743

because I do like to be, uh, drink

744

or cook with beer every once in a while.

745

So that's, that's fun. You

746

can't make chili without a porter.

747

I mean, come on. Exactly.

748

And Guinness Stew is Guinness Guin. Yeah.

749

Or Guinness, probably.

750

So what would you, um, advise people

751

that are thinking about going into business together?

752

If they're partners, if they're, what would you say to them?

753

I would say do a little more research.

754

Talk to people a little more.

755

Don't just say, Hey, we could do this.

756

And then just jump in.

757

Um, I think we probably could have done a little more prep

758

work and not hit some speed bumps that we have.

759

Like, we had a little more knowledge ing like, like,

760

you think you know what your bills are gonna be

761

and you think you have the calculations figured out,

762

and then you're like, that costs more than I expected.

763

Or we didn't expect beer prices to go up.

764

So we're like, how do, what do we do now?

765

Do we raise our prices? Do we not raise our, so

766

it was trying to, and setting KPIs.

767

That's another thing. We're like, we had no idea.

768

We're like, we're just gonna sell beer. It'll be great.

769

And then you're like, oh wait, I didn't think about

770

how many beers I had to actually sell.

771

Because you have new expenses

772

that come in that you didn't think about.

773

You need, you need more than just beer to pour beer. Right.

774

So. Right. Well there's also, you know,

775

business laws are constantly changing.

776

Um, we are very fortunate, a member

777

of our run club is a, is a business lawyer.

778

And he'll be like, Hey, did you submit this form?

779

It's a new thing. And we're like, wait, what? Right. What?

780

You know, but he's awesome and keeps us least updated.

781

Um, you know, things we didn't realize.

782

You know, we, we talked earlier

783

before this that you,

784

you trust your general contractor to do certain things.

785

I didn't realize that I needed

786

to be like the co-project manager

787

and be here and double checking things.

788

'cause coming back, you know, still right now,

789

once while I'll look at something

790

and be like, what was that?

791

You know, it's, but,

792

and you have to be, you have to be ready to not only be

793

the owner or the beer orderer.

794

You have to be the facility person.

795

Like, 'cause I get calls, the, the TV won't turn on.

796

It's not pleasant. The, the TV won't turn on

797

or 10 o'clock at night, the water,

798

the water's out, the bathroom's locked.

799

Well, is there someone in there?

800

You know, it's like crazy question.

801

Watching the cooler temperature go up over the course

802

of a day just going, oh, no.

803

Oh, oh dear, dear.

804

But, you know, I mean, there's all these things

805

and I, I used to always love going

806

to the mailbox personally.

807

It's like, oh, let's see what's there.

808

Because that was before I was an adult and Bills came.

809

Now going to the business mailbox, I'm just like,

810

opening the don, you have a different experience.

811

That's where our checks come in. Yeah.

812

I get excited because I'm

813

like, oh, maybe something will be there.

814

No, it's like depart. You see like, um, department

815

of Revenue, I don't wanna see that.

816

Department of Revenue, department of Labor.

817

And it is, and you're like, oh, here comes a bill.

818

Let's see. And then I have to remember how

819

to write a check in my, in, in QuickBooks.

820

I'm like, because now everything's

821

done with electronic transfer.

822

Every once in a while you're like,

823

you got send, send a check to.

824

I'm like, okay, learn how to do that again.

825

I gotta learn QuickBooks again.

826

So the question I always ask when couples are in business

827

together is, uh, so how do you deal

828

with dinner or meals?

829

Like, do you eat out a lot?

830

We, we don't, we get take out a lot.

831

So if she's working in the morning

832

and I'm coming in to close, I'll bring something so

833

that we can eat together at the tap room

834

before she goes home.

835

So we have, so we have some overlap.

836

Um, if I'm not coming into the tap

837

room, I'll try to cook at home.

838

She'll come home and we'll actually have a home cooked meal.

839

But yeah, we have to do a lot of,

840

a lot more eating out than we would like to.

841

Right, right.

842

And have you, um, delegated in any of the tasks at home

843

that you were taking care of before?

844

Like, you know, laundry, lawn, anything like that?

845

Um, no.

846

Um, we've now learned how to like just get our clothes out

847

of the clean clothes basket

848

because folding them is no longer an option.

849

That is the dresser now. Yes, yes. Exactly. Yeah.

850

No, typically I do the cooking.

851

Um, and we share the responsibilities with our dogs.

852

Like she'll go home, make sure they're fed.

853

You made it sound like we shared cooking

854

responsibility with dogs.

855

With the dogs. No, we shared, we're making,

856

I was wondering where that was going.

857

We share cooking responsibilities

858

and we also split up taking care of the dogs.

859

The dogs come enough. Yes. Yeah.

860

And we have a special needs dog that has to be fed, uh,

861

by hand three times a day.

862

So that is one of those things.

863

And he, he doesn't mind eating here

864

and we just have to keep him calm, but Yeah.

865

Yeah. But, but our little dog is a little loud sometimes.

866

So trying to balance that out. Yeah. So yeah.

867

So like that balance there that, like you said,

868

home life balance is, is is a tricky thing for, for us.

869

Um, yeah.

870

We've, we've asked all the couples,

871

I don't know if you've had a chance

872

to watch any of the other ones.

873

Talk about how, you know, there's supposed to be a boundary

874

and I, you know, boundaries are a big thing.

875

Oh, right. Boundaries. Boundaries are a big

876

thing to sort of set up.

877

You know, after X we're not gonna talk,

878

we're gonna just be a couple, which is no business talk

879

after Yeah.

880

After some time or whatever time. It is hard.

881

We, we don't have a problem with that.

882

I mean, honestly, usually comes in 20 years in,

883

well, it comes in spurts.

884

Like, we'll, we'll be drinking coffee on like a Sunday

885

morning and it's like, just blah, blah blah about,

886

about beer tooth.

887

And then it's done.

888

I mean, and again, we've gotten our roles down enough that

889

if we have an event coming up,

890

I'll ask her opinion on things.

891

I'll ask her to make something in Canva

892

or whatever, poster wise.

893

But, you know, I try to let her know well in advance what,

894

what events are coming so we're not doing the last minute

895

thing because

896

that puts too much stress on us to do it that way. Gotcha.

897

I'm coming here because we had some tech issues with,

898

uh, hyperized camera.

899

So we're gonna let the audio roll with, um, the other shot.

900

And you won't see us asking the questions and

901

Income and revenue wise.

902

Revenue wise, what are you, what are you shooting for?

903

For the, uh, beard tooth, like dollar amount. Mm-hmm.

904

Um, like, like wishes or fishes. Right.

905

You gonna cast that big net.

906

What, what are you looking for this to, to, to start making?

907

Um, honestly, if we could just clear

908

15 a month, 15,000 a month, 15,000 a month,

909

we could break even.

910

I never got into this business thinking we were gonna get

911

rich or sell it, but not go broke.

912

Exactly. Or go belly up.

913

I mean, again, I am doing this because I love it.

914

And also I need the job security

915

of not firing myself 'cause of something I said.

916

So I want a place to come where I can be comfortable and,

917

and do what I do best.

918

And that's, that's what, I just don't wanna lose this place,

919

but you can only mark up beer so much.

920

And I refuse to gouge our customers. Yeah, yeah. To survive.

921

Yeah. That's not, uh,

922

not a good business practice necessarily, but, uh, no.

923

And also we wanna pay our, pay our employees well enough.

924

Are there, uh, um, associate beer associations?

925

I'm not really sure how that works.

926

Like taproom associations

927

or conferences and stuff like that.

928

I'm just curious. Well,

929

the North Carolina Craft Brewers Guild has now opened up

930

a retail side of it.

931

It used to only be like the production side. Yes.

932

And honestly, Christie and I went to one,

933

'cause we were, when we started thinking about making this

934

business, we were thinking about doing a brewery too, which

935

thank God we did not, um, because of Covid.

936

Yeah. Um, but we, we got to meet people in the industry.

937

That's where we met our, our beer lawyer

938

who keeps us legal in every way.

939

Um, we, that's where we met our accountants.

940

Those are things we knew we couldn't cover ourselves. Right.

941

We just didn't have the know-how. Right.

942

So we admitted where we had major weaknesses brought

943

and hired who we needed to.

944

But you know, there is the Craft Brewers Guild,

945

and now that they're doing the retail portion,

946

it's understanding, there's, um, pink boots, uh,

947

association, and that is, uh,

948

women in the craft beverage industry.

949

So, uh, cries, metery breweries,

950

tap rooms were women that like,

951

obviously this was a very male dominated industry,

952

even though beer brewing should be solely

953

for the ill wives, but Yes.

954

Um, and witches. Yes.

955

But, but the thing is, is

956

now there is a professional organization of women

957

and it's all about encouraging and inspiring one another.

958

And it, it's, and you

959

belong to that and you've gone through that.

960

That is so fantastic that you've found that. Yes.

961

And you're part of that. So a really good group of people.

962

The the funny thing is I always felt like an outsider

963

because they were all in the brewing industry

964

and I was in retail.

965

But, um, I've, we've made some tremendous friends.

966

We actually are hang out with some of them at hockey games.

967

I mean, it's just a really, really good industry

968

and organization to be a part of.

969

Uh, that's awesome. I think that's a really great up note

970

to, to end today.

971

Much success. Thank you.

972

I am rooting for you and I will do what I can to, uh,

973

promote, uh, beer too.

974

Yes. We appreciate let people know that you're here

975

and open for Cheers.

976

Cheer. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much.

977

We appreciate it. What a pleasure. I have fun. But

978

I wanna say thank you to the folks, uh, Kristy

979

and Krista over at oo at CNC Endeavors

980

because they were a delight

981

and for hosting us in their space

982

and can't wait to have them on again, maybe in about a year.

983

Key peaked interest. KPI, entrepreneurial insight,

984

L-G-B-T-Q additions.

985

Hey y'all. Hi y'all. I'm Piper.

986

I'm Monique. As a woman

987

and minority owned business, we're interested in talking

988

to couples that look like us

989

lesbian couples in a service business.

990

That's why this podcast exists.

991

I've been looking for a queer business podcast

992

that showcased L-G-B-T-Q

993

and Bipoc owners found the few in each category,

994

but none that mixed the two.

995

So we created Key Peaked Interest podcast.

996

This show is looking to honestly connect

997

with other successful L-G-B-T-Q couples in business.

998

We hope you enjoyed this episode.

999

We're open to nominations, introductions,

1000

and suggestions for guests.

1001

Hit us up in the comments and thanks for watching

1002

and listening.