From Maine, With Love - An Allagash Brewing Podcast

S1 Episode 11: Selling Beer & Eating Chocolate Chip Cookies

• Allagash Brewing Company

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In which we talk about secret ingredients and techniques for the perfect chocolate chip cookie, the broad strokes of a decadent béchamel, and what it's like to sell craft beer. Seriously, we had so much fun recording this episode with Suzy and Mike of our sales team, talking through basically everything you'd want to know about selling craft beer. How does beer selling work? What's the Allagash selling philosophy? And, most importantly, what are those cookie secrets?!

Brett Willis:

So this is From Maine, With Love an Allagash brewing podcast, where we talk about beer, our community here in Maine and things that generally make us happy. Um, this was just such a fun podcast to record cuz Suzy and Mike, uh, who are both on our sales team are just such engaging, interesting people who, uh, represent Allagash away from Allagash. So, um, Suzy's in Philly, Mike is in the Chicago area and it's just, we go into a lot about what it's like to work on a, uh, work as a person who sells beer, uh, what it's like in their particular areas, both in the beer scene, uh, that they have in Philly and Chicago. And then also, you know, what does Allagash look like in that scene? You know, how does Allagash fit in there? Um, and what do people think of it? And then also just kind of talking about, you know, trying to stay connected from afar as well. There's a lot to, uh, when you're a salesperson and you're farther away from the company, you know, how do you keep that connection to the company and keep that connection to the sense of place? Because we obviously care quite a bit about our sense of place here in Maine, uh, at Allagash. So, um, I mean obviously just, just, this was just such a really heartwarming conversation. I'm gonna say, uh, it was just so fun to hear the real candid, um, sort of thoughts of Mike and Suzy. I had a blast. So if that sounds good to you have a listen.

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Today, I have two excellent members of our sales team, uh, along Liz joining us. Uh, and so it is me Brett Willis, Liz Wilson, also on the marketing team.

Liz Wilson:

Hello? Hello. W

Brett Willis:

e have Suzy Woods, our Mid-Atlantic area manager. Hi Suzy.

Suzy Woods:

Hello.

Brett Willis:

And then Mike Poulos our central area sales manager as well.

Mike Poulos:

Hey, everybody. Great to be here.

Brett Willis:

Thank you both for making the time, uh, to join us. And so we're going to talk about what it's like to sell our beer away from Maine, or just sell her beer in general. I think, uh, so, you know, I have some of the best beer selling folks, I think in our, uh, company here. So maybe, maybe the world, maybe the universe, uh, leave that for you to judge. And, uh, so before we get talking about selling beer and everything else, that kind of goes around that. Uh, I wanted to ask some questions. So my first question goes, Suzy, you make a mean chocolate chip cookie. I've heard. Uh, and the question is what's your secret or

Suzy Woods:

Secrets? Oh, um, uh, I'll share cause it's somebody else's secret really. So I feel like I'm just, I'm passing it, um, toward, uh, Christina Tosi behind milk bar in New York city. Mm-hmm she Browns the butter. So that's one thing. There's three things. Um, Mike already knows this too. Mike knows the secret. So now everybody knows the secret.

Mike Poulos:

I'm biting my tongue because I wanna share the secret, but it's not my secret to share

Suzy Woods:

<laugh> you brown the butter. And that gives like this neat little toy character to the cookie mm-hmm. Um, she also uses a, um, a powdered milk, which, um, I couldn't, I can't really articulate exactly what that does for the cookie, but I always do it two tablespoons.

Brett Willis:

Um, that's a, that's not insignificant

Suzy Woods:

You. Um, I do chunks instead of chips and then, um, another shout out not to wear sponsors, but Maldon smoke salt. Oh. So I finish it off with a little smoke salt. And then there's also the, um, the cookie sheet bang where I take it out with about four minutes to go and I do a little counter bang and spreads them out a little bit. I don't, I don't wanna puffy cookie. I like chewy cookies, but I don't want like a cake cakey are the worst. Um, and so, yeah, I'm glad that that the word is out, that I make a good, uh, chocolate chip cookie. That's the, that's the three things powdered milk, which sounds gross, but powdered milk, um, brown butter and mild on smoke, sea salt.

Mike Poulos:

They're, they're lovely. Um, as a chocolate chip cookie connoisseur myself, I was lucky enough to receive some of the post from Suzanne and they were just delightful.

Suzy Woods:

<laugh> yeah, can't get a birthday card in the mail half the time, but my needs cookies, I'm sending them to Chicago.

Brett Willis:

Got the cookie. Hey, I mean, and they, and they stood up in the mail. I feel like that's another mark in, uh, favor of the cookie. Amazing. Yeah. Big

Mike Poulos:

Time. Pleasantly surprised with how, uh, the condition in which I received

Suzy Woods:

Sturdy. Ooh.

Brett Willis:

Also props the post, sending a good cookie. Um, Liz, do you like you're I feel like you're into, I don't know. I could. I see you could, I could see you rare in to say something about the cookie.

Liz Wilson:

I, I mean, I just love chocolate so much, so, um, I'm excited and I might offer Suzy. I don't know something to get me some cookies cuz so good. And I'm a big fan of milk bar. Um, yeah. I have eaten a lot of their truffles, uh, and yeah, the powdered sugar. I think I, the powdered milk I've made some recipes of theirs with the powdered milk and it's an, it's an odd, I would not call it a pantry staple, but it is, um, does something mm-hmm<affirmative> does something good?

Brett Willis:

You wanna know this? We won't, we, we don't need to keep this on the podcast, but you don't, you know, who else uses that in a fair number of things, even tied, even tied folks. I think they might even use in their brown butter lobster roll like that milk powder. I, I talked to them one time and they were telling me about all the different places they put that milk powder. So that milk powder is like an industry secret at this point. Ooh, huh. Now the more, you know,

Suzy Woods:

The more Liz, if you share your address, I'll share some cookies. So sounds good. We'll send them up to Maine for you.

Liz Wilson:

Yeah. Good

Mike Poulos:

Deal. Basically. All I did Liz and I got'em too. Okay.

Liz Wilson:

So

Brett Willis:

Awesome.<laugh> all right, Mike. Uh, this is another food related question because I mean, why not? So I've heard you have a special cream sauce recipe for pasta and uh, I wanted to know, know what the special tea, special ingredient, special aspects of it are.

Mike Poulos:

I don't know that it's that special Brett, but I do love heavy, rich cream based pastas doesn't mean doesn't have to be 95 degrees out, but it is, and we'll still eat it like we did on Tuesday of this week.

Brett Willis:

There you go.

Mike Poulos:

For me, it's just heavy whipping cream. It's um, shallots with, uh, some butter, uh, sometimes a white wine deglaze. I love incorporating lemon to help cut through the richness. Um, and a trick that I learned way back in my restaurant days, uh, egg yolk to bind it all at the end. It's quite rich. It's quite luxurious. And we eat it about once a week cuz we're in the Midwest and that's what we do.<laugh>

Brett Willis:

Oh man, is this now a food podcast? I mean, I think so. It kind of, it kinda

Suzy Woods:

Complain.

Brett Willis:

Yeah. I, I would say that probably to a person, almost everyone at Allagash is passionate about food in some way, shape or form. Like I think that is something that tends to go through, uh, go hand in hand with beer, you know, it's food related,

Mike Poulos:

Suzy and I as area sales managers are on, um, area sales manager call with leadership in the national sales manager twice a week. And as we kind of alluded to a good five to 10 to 15% of it almost each week is talking about what we've just eaten, what we're going to eat. Food is big.

Brett Willis:

Yeah. For all

Mike Poulos:

Of us.

Brett Willis:

Yeah.

Suzy Woods:

I would really actually like to share what I had for dinner last night. Oh please. It was, it was amazing. There's a cool little, um, izakay kind of spot by my house in, in Fishtown, Philadelphia, two noodle and new, new next door, little sister restaurants. And it is, has Asian influences, Japanese influences, but they have two different types of hoagies, but not what you think. Like one is like a sushi Hoy and the other one was like Hoy on like a Sesame milk bread. And I ordered it like, can I have both the hokey cuz sometimes people order one hokey and they get the other one by accident. And I'm like, I want, I don't even know if you can see that. Yeah. But maybe I could text you guys. So one was like a, almost like a lunch meat kind of hokey with provolone. And um, it, it was just the, the milk bread Sesame bun was so good and I don't, I just couldn't believe it. And she's like nobody ever ordered it that way before, like I'll have hokey two ways cuz there's two different kinds of hokey and you would never think a hokey would be at a Japanese restaurant.<laugh> wow. Pioneer was really excited about it. Yeah.

Brett Willis:

I think, yeah. That's a pro move. That is a pro move. Nice job.

Suzy Woods:

I don't even know if you have hokey outside of Philadelphia, but it's very much a Philly thing hokey

Brett Willis:

We have, what is it? What's Connecticut. Liz. We're both from Connecticut. I've always called him grinders. Grinders. Okay. Heroes. Subs. Yeah. I don't

Suzy Woods:

Know. Chicago. What do you have? Mike

Mike Poulos:

Sangwiches?<laugh>

Brett Willis:

Sandwiches. Small sandwiches.

Liz Wilson:

Yeah.

Brett Willis:

All right. Let's get into, uh, the meat of, uh, so to say of this, uh, podcast. So first just, this is a question for both you, um, whoever wants to start can start, but how did you get into the beer business? What kind of got you in here?

Suzy Woods:

I'm glad this is being edited.<laugh> I'm like, do I give you the two minute version or the 20 minute version?<laugh> um, I like to talk five. Um, okay. I only ever consume, like I only ever drank better beer. Like I never had that, you know, shotty beer phase of my life in college. Like I would straight for, I don't know if it was like my freshman, a college freshman boyfriend or my brother to, uh, to thank for my, my first craft beers. But um, I remember it was like in a parking lot in a dorm. It was like Dixie black and voodoo. And then I was drinking double box with my brother on winter break and then my degree's in communication, so I sell beer. But um, after college my sister had a friend that worked for Boston beer company and her and her boyfriend had broken up. So I got to go on the big couples trip to key west and he was on the trip. So we're sitting there in key west and I'm drinking as, um, you know, 23 years old drinking all this free Sam Adams and um, loving life. And so couple, maybe about a year after that here, you said that they were hiring. And uh, at the time I was in hospitality, my whole life has been in food and beverage and you know, I had one county, which is funny when I started with Allagash 12 years ago, I had five states by the time I had one county and that was my first job in beer. And then from then on, it just became like, it just was everything. Like I started writing. I started a beer club for woman back in oh five, um, and just really loved the culture and the community. And then, um, reached out to Rob in 2011. And here we are, that's the, uh, short version

Brett Willis:

That we're gonna get back to the beer club. I think Liz, I mean,

Liz Wilson:

Yeah. I just know Philly has a really cool beer scene and Suzy you've been a big part of it. So I think we can talk about that in a minute, but um, maybe we can switch to Mike and Mike can tell us a little bit about how he got to where he is today.

Mike Poulos:

Unlike Suzanne, I did have a macro beer phase where I would drink Budweisers and cheap adjunct loggers because it was inexpensive and it was what I was not raised on, but what I first started drinking, um, like zoos too. I I've been in hospitality, bars and restaurants, um, for five years before getting into beer sales, which I've been in for over a decade now I started at an Irish pub chain and I remember just like the craft beer distributor rep, um, who worked for Wendy city, distributing our, our Chicago based wholesaler here coming in weekly and kind of just, I, I was like a sponge at that point. I was so interested and he would kind of educate me on the different beers he was trying to sell me cuz it was an Irish pub chain that had, you know, Micks, harp, Guinness, um, yeah, shock top. It wasn't, wasn't the most diverse lineup. Uh, and he would come in and he would, you know, talk about Lagunitas and Allagash and stone and two brothers brewing company. I just remember being very, very interested in it. And uh, I took a, took an interest to it, uh, asked a lot of questions, sampled, a lot of beers, kind of developed like a, a bottle list at this Irish pub chain and then was there for a bit and always had a really great relationship with this distributor rep. I ended up leaving that bar and went to like, uh, an actual like craft beer bar that had like 50 taps of all craft beer. It was just the coolest thing. And um, again, I just kind of stayed in contact with that distributor rep. And then when there was an opportunity to interview for that wholesaler, Wendy said distributing, I interviewed and got a route and worked there for three plus years and sold 60 plus brands. Um, and uh, really loved my time there. It was really cool learning the distributors side, learning how to sell, learning, how to overcome objections, um, hearing the, the romance and the nuances of these small breweries and the stories and stuff like that. And then you kinda start winning incentives and you get to tour and go to different breweries and see how they're all different. And, um, it was really cool cause I wanted incentive for selling Aash and I got to go to brewery and I remember I remember being there and it just felt different and it was just really, really cool. And I'd never been to the new England and never been to Portland. And it just felt like this like Oasis that was like the best kept secret and had everything. It was just a really, really cool weekend that I just, I fell in love with it. And so, uh, a short time later an opportunity came up to interview and go with Allian. I remember going through that whole process, it was like the gauntlet, there was so many interviews and it took so long and even like, and even when I came out to the brewery, just sat in what we call guest relations. Um, and just like someone from each department would come down and interview for me for 30 minutes. And then I would like take sip of water and someone come down

Brett Willis:

<laugh>

Mike Poulos:

Um, I always say this, cuz after going through that series of interviews, I went on a tour and I remember just kinda lagging the tour. I was talking to someone on the packaging line. I was like, how do you like working here? It's the best job I've ever had. I was like, okay buddy, like you bottling beer. I was like, what do you mean? And it wasn't until like three months after I got hired, I was like, this is the best job I've ever had. This is cool. And it's been seven plus years for me now. So I've been selling for over a decade, been with alga for over seven and it's pretty awesome. It's it somehow has been in a blink of an eye, but feels like a really long time too.

Brett Willis:

It's such the same boat. I mean, like we don't need to do dwell on the interview thing, but yeah, I think our interview style or our interview sort of process has definitely changed thoroughly when we were, when we were hired. It was very thorough. Yeah, it was, it was, it was good. I got to meet with a lot of people. Um, so touch on one quick thing, Mike, of what you mentioned, I think, you know, you were talking about distributors, you're talking about sort of like just kind of the nitty gritty, but could we do a brief step back of like, how does beer sales work, Suzy, Mike, you can both kind of chime in on this one, but how

Mike Poulos:

Just the three tier system three, three tier system. Yeah. And so, um, you know, it's not the only commodity that works in a three tier system, but alcohol sales basically as a whole work in a three tier system and it's beer specifically based off of federal and then state regulations up to a certain Barage how many kegs you produce kind of limits it. And so the three tiers of that are suppliers. So Allagash the next is distributors or wholesalers who are the ones that get the beer to the accounts and the third being the accounts. So we produce the beer, we ship it to our distributors, the distributors store it. Um, and then they're the ones that go daily to the accounts and fulfill the works. And so those three tiers kind of work in tandem. Um, Tandem's not the right word there, but those three, three tiers is kind of like how it works to get the beer from Allagash Portland, Maine to your tap or your grocery store, your liquor store and into your home. That your question. Yeah,

Suzy Woods:

It's really

Liz Wilson:

Using it's one of the questions we get asked most, I think from customers is like, can you send me your beer? Or how can I buy, you know, can I buy kegs or can you ship it to me? Or, and it, you know, from a cons from a, just a fan,

Mike Poulos:

You just want the beer and there's like, I dunno why you're making this so D difficult, just the beer. I know.

Liz Wilson:

Yeah. There's

Mike Poulos:

A bit more to it.

Suzy Woods:

Yeah. I just add one thing for, uh, my friends in the Keystone state, Pennsylvania three is not enough. We have four tiers, um, where often, um, smaller, um, smaller bars that, um, don't wanna just there's about six or seven different wholesalers in, in my region. And so instead of piecemealing and ordering different beers from different wholesalers, you would get them through a retailer and then you pay premium and then have all the different brands you wanted. Um, from that retailer, there's actually four tiers, um, instead, and it's a little harder to track sales, so it makes it a little bit more complicated, but uh, people, sometimes Pennsylvania blows people's minds with their, uh, their four tier system.

Brett Willis:

Yeah. And, and also just to be clear too accounts when Mike was talking about accounts, that's like bars, restaurants, grocery stores, you know, there are different ways we categorize them, but yeah, that's long short of it. Thank you. That's

Mike Poulos:

That's I mean, if you wanna even go, I mean, a little bit further there's on premise off premise on premise being your bars, your restaurants, your taverns, off-premise being your liquor stores, your grocery stores, et cetera. Um, you know, not everybody to Suzie's point, like there's just differences state by state, local breweries sometimes will self-distribute mm-hmm<affirmative> um, because they see it as an advantage or sometimes they don't wanna, um, they wanna have that more personal relationship with the account and tell that story. Right. Mm-hmm<affirmative> or, um, they have the means internally to, to satisfy the requests and control their demand. Um, so it works different for everybody, but when you're kind of on the scale that we've grown to, uh, we go through distributors.

Liz Wilson:

Yeah.

Suzy Woods:

And a huge part of our role with the company is sharing our brand story with the distributors and managing that distributor relationship. So much of our time is sh you know, giving them the tools cuz they represent maybe 50 different brands and Allgas is just one of them. And so a lot of our time is allocated to making sure that Allagash is, is top of mind and just, you know, showing them that we care and sharing our core values and all that and working on that relationship.

Mike Poulos:

Yeah. Yeah. That's a really good point. I mean like there's so many accounts, there's so many retailers nationally that are buying and supporting Allagash and we're just like so grateful for all that support. Whether it's a draft line, a six pack, what have you, the placement, but like the relationship with the distributors like Sue says is like our number one account. And it varies wholesaler to wholesaler, state to state as far as where you fall and just trying to stay top of mind because you're only one person you can only be in so many places. So having them having Allagash be on the tip of their tongue when a, when a, when a retailer says, what else you got, right. You want to be one of those two to three brands that they go, oh yeah, yeah. Have you tried this? Um, that is that's cool. Invaluable stuff.

Liz Wilson:

Yeah. And a lot of, a lot of the sales team has more than one distributor that they are working with. So it's not, it's even more layered than just a 1, 2, 3. There is, you know, some states have many distributors, some don't. And so it just really depends on where you are in the country or the market that we are. And I guess Suzy or Mike, do you have, how big is our sales team here at Allagash and what territories do we cover right now?

Suzy Woods:

Have quiz.

Liz Wilson:

I'm not looking. Yeah.

Suzy Woods:

Um, we're about 30, 35, but that includes sales admin

Liz Wilson:

Mm-hmm<affirmative>

Suzy Woods:

Mm-hmm<affirmative> does that sound right, Mike?

Mike Poulos:

It does. Yeah. I mean,

Suzy Woods:

I'm thinking just that, you know, when we're on a Google meet and you see all the names, I feel like<laugh>, I've seen that number 34 35 a couple times. So, um, and then we're in 20 states now we just launched Florida in the fall of 2021, which is exciting. And, uh, we're in Wisconsin now, which was a, um, launched mid pandemic. Michael has that territory. Um, I have, I cover Buffalo down to central Virginia. And so I'm one of 11 wholesalers, um, keeps me busy and then we are, you know, it's pretty much Eastern seaboard and then Chicago or Illinois now. And no uhoh edit, edit Illinois, uh, Wisconsin, and then California.

Brett Willis:

Yeah. We're not gonna edit that. We're gonna keep that one in. That's good. That's fun.<laugh> coming soon. Matt might end. I'm

Mike Poulos:

Sorry. Coming soon to the rest of Illinois. Yeah. 20, 23.

Brett Willis:

That's awesome. Uh, so this kind of goes alongside with, I think what we were talking about, but so you're talking about, you know, we have to sell and stay top of mind, but I think like, what would you say is the Allagash selling philosophy? You know, how do we, how do we sell beer?

Mike Poulos:

I thought a little bit about that. Cuz we've been talking so much more about that as, um, our sales team grows and we train internally. And I think that like the best way I could kind of, I, I feel like we focus so much on like a consultative approach at retail structured around like education and empathy, right? Like we want to be partners for the retailers. Uh, we want to educate them because the truth of the matter is like Allagash, Allagash beers, the amount of beers that we make. They take romance, they take education, they take storytelling, they take nuance. And to be able to do that, I think is a huge piece of it. Um, and obviously, you know, having really, really awesome beers helps, but there is a big piece, I think that goes into more approaching the sales call in a collaborative and educational and empathetic approach.

Suzy Woods:

I'll I'll just add that's yeah. I'll just add tying core values again. So it's like you think innovation it's like, well, what does that mean when it comes to sales? And it's trying to find solutions for our retailers and thinking about quality, like consistency, like, are we consistent? Like so many people do not follow up, you know, half the time you just have to show up. And so, you know, it's thinking about growth and what does growth mean? Not just growth for volume, but book gross, like thinking about growing knowledge and growing relationships and just caring. And then the other thing I'll add to that is just, uh, I was talking to our national sales manager, Matt, the other day about, uh, the acronym bar be at retail, which just goes back to showing up, you know, there's just so it's so cluttered out there and if you're not out there, you know, even if people like love Allagash and think about the trip they took to Portland six years ago, it's just somebody else could be in front of them. And you know, we make the best wood beer in the world, but there's a lot of other people that are, you know, I, I never go in like oozy Suzy trying to shoot down other tap handles, but you know, I feel like everybody's like, Allagash hardest tapping on takeoff in the country. I'm like that, that feels good. You know, it's because we've consistently showed up over the years, but if you don't show up, I it's, it's a, it's just changed so much that, uh, yeah. If you're not there somebody else is gonna be there. So

Liz Wilson:

Yeah. I'm sure both of you have seen, I mean, you've been with the company seven, 10 plus years. What are some of the biggest changes? I, I mean, there's what roughly 10,000 craft breweries in the country. Now it, some getting up there like that. So I'm sure as you mentioned, it's just so you

Mike Poulos:

Know, it's so much harder now. Yeah. It's so much harder now. I mean, when I started, when I was working for Wendy city back in, you know, say 2014, I mean, I was there from 2012 to 15 growth was just, everyone just said, everyone just said, yes,

Brett Willis:

The dog said yes too. He was just

Mike Poulos:

Mimicking everyone. Yeah. He's car by shocker. Uh, everyone just said, yes, go back to 2015. Craft beer was different. There, there wasn't as much competition everyone said, yes. Now there's grocery mandates. There's so many breweries. There's such limited space. Consumer buyer habits have changed to what they consumed, what they purchased. It's just a lot harder now to be honest with you.

Brett Willis:

I totally see that. Um, so you both mentioned empathy when you're talking about, you know, how we sell. Can, is there any, like, cuz that feels like something you wouldn't necessarily think of from a sales perspective? Like is there anything more that, you know, we can say about that

Mike Poulos:

I think, and I'll let Sue kind of tie in this in one thing I wanted to just jump in, cuz I, I, I think that putting your agenda on the back burner, when you go on a sales call and kind of be there to collaborate and be more of a consultant and ask what the retailer is looking for, what the retailer needs and see if you can then offer that is huge. Um, and that's kinda what we went into more with like the empathy and the consultative approach. But I dunno if Suzy's got something more to say there.

Suzy Woods:

I think, you know, we, we have a series that we do in sales called walk a mile. And it, that to me is, you know, you're literally walking a mile in whether it's the wholesale shoes or the retailer shoes or the, uh, order fulfillment person, like what it's like to, uh, get beer on trucks. And you know, you're just putting yourself in that situation. What would I want here? What would I, I mean, some of these, some people who own retailers, they're no, they're no spring chickens, B box they're little orders. If you go in and you help merchandise, be like, I can help you. I can build a stack. Um, you know, if somebody is having a baby, you know, we get the, that one season's in the mail so fast and that tap, line's not going anywhere. So you just think like what, what do, what do they need? How can I help them? You know, not just trying to, you know, get an extra sale. And uh, and they remember that, you know, it's people are, I think in the summer, Mike can probably agree with me. I don't know how many people are coming from his territory, but my part-time job is getting people up, uh, situated with their perk, passes up at the brewery and yeah, and sending my little Portland 1 0, 1 of everything that you know, where to drink, where Toine, and then they appreciate that so much. Cuz it's not like me just, oh, what's Suzy trying to sell me today. It's like, Suzy's trying to make sure I have a good time in Portland. And uh, and that's not, um, forgotten too quickly. So,

Mike Poulos:

You know, one, one other thing I want to kinda add to that too, is like sometimes it's not about making a sale. Sometimes it's just being there and like going in and having a conversation and just listening and being, letting someone vent, right? Like we've all had a last two and a half years that have been really, really tough. And for our business model, we're like 75 to 80% of our business was done in that channel of business that the lights went out, those retailers were hit even harder. And so the ones that have come back that are still supporting us that are still keeping their lights on supporting their families, their staff for our sales team to just go in and have a conversation and just be there, I think is one of the most important things as well

Suzy Woods:

During the pandemic. We, uh, we actually, we had these great note cards with scenes, um, from Maine, uh, that we, you know, had a list of a hundred, you know, different retailers, um, some on-premise and off-premise hi, how are you doing? You know, just a, a little note, uh, old fashioned note card in the mail, um, just to say, you know, you know, this two shall pass kind of thing, even though it's July 22nd and we're still here,

Brett Willis:

This two shall pass at some point COVID forever,

Mike Poulos:

Eventually

Brett Willis:

Hope fingers

Liz Wilson:

Cross.

Mike Poulos:

Probably not though.

Brett Willis:

<laugh>

Liz Wilson:

There's somebody I think playing the drums in the brew house. So I've been trying to use the mute button. Of course there is like the two times I come into this

Brett Willis:

It's branch, it's definitely branch, but, um, but to piggyback on the empathy and the sort of like relationship aspect of this, like I'm sure this is true for any business, but I, I think, you know, Liz I'm, I think you probably agree with me that like we've found more and more, even in the marketing space of like working with partners, finding people to do video for us, finding people to like be creative, like we have become so much more reliant on those relationships too. And it's just so cool to like, I don't know, from a business sense of building that trust with some people and like, you know, making it so it's not transactional, it's actually like, yeah. Oh, we're here to mutually help each other, you know? Yeah,

Liz Wilson:

Yeah. It's yeah, it's incredible. I feel like there's just leading with kindness and it sounds so cheesy, but it really like, and I, I feel like I've said this before as like I thought I was a relatively nice person before I started working here. And then I was like, oh, like I got a lot, a lot of room to grow in the kindness, uh, factor, cuz it was, it's just, uh, contagious around here. And I think, you know, that's, we work with and attract partners and try and help people in our community. And it's similar and approach people in that similar, you know, leading with empathy and, and kindness. And the few times that I've, you know, shadowed some of your colleagues on the sales side, who, what a day I was just in,

Suzy Woods:

Um, New Jersey, right? You were

Liz Wilson:

There. I was just in New Jersey and we had gone into a very busy store after a, a long weekend. And it was, you know, you could tell it had been a busy store. And so there was a lot of people in there and instead of trying to track someone down and talk to them, jar's like, oh, let's help. Let's put the, you know, there was a case of Allagash over there and it needed to go over here. And like in two seconds I was building case stacks and I was like, are you sure? Like, is that okay? Can we touch the things he's like, yeah, yeah, just it's fine. And it was such like this small thing and it was so appreciated. And so I was, you know, that on top of the amount of just territory you cover in a single day and the meetings you have and you know, it's really, um, it is it's, it's a busy day for sure.

Mike Poulos:

They can be long days. Most days are different, which I think is one of my favorite parts. Um, it's it, it's a double edged sword cuz now as like an area sales manager, I'm I, I'm not out in the field as much as I used to be, which I really liked kind of coaching and seeing things and surveying and being a bit more visible. So it's really fun to be able to get out and do that when I can. Yeah. Um, but just the fact that like everything is different every day is different, but they're long, they're fulfilling sometimes they're busier than others, but um, yeah,

Liz Wilson:

It's really on the road. Yeah. Yeah. But in your markets, what is the perception of Maine and what is the perception of Allagash in Maine, in Chicago and in Philadelphia, do you, I feel like it must be different than what we think here.

Suzy Woods:

I think the first bottle of Allagash white and I believe it was a seven 50 milliliter<laugh> of Allagash white whoa. Um, in Philadelphia, uh, was 2004, 2005. And so it's a, it's a brand that's been established 17 years and uh, it's, you know, one of the biggest compliments I get is sometimes it's all local like on tap and then it's there there's that wooden ha handle made in New Hampshire. Um, and that is really cool to know that we're seven hours away, you know, in Portland and that we've, you know, somehow that's our goal is to make us seem as local as possible. Um, and then, I mean, who doesn't think like, I think Maine, I crossed over that bridge from Portsmouth New Hampshire and I just think serenity it's like literally one of my favorite places in the world and I'm surprised how many people joined the pandemic. It was one of those trips that you got away, but you didn't have to get in a plane. So, so many people for the Mid-Atlantic region, uh, were, were heading up to new England, um, which is cool. And then they either were like, I can't believe I'd never been, it's now gonna be an annual thing. And um, I just love that my people love my home away from home. So I'd say that the brand definitely resonates down here. Um, yeah, Michael,

Mike Poulos:

A little different for me just being in the Midwest, like it's not a 6, 7, 7 hour drive. Uh, and I used to, part of my territory used to be in the Southeast too. So I, I didn't have as many visitors, uh, or as frequent, but when I did, it was like a big deal. Right. And I hopefully would get some notice and I would set'em up. Um, but I think the perception out here in Chicago is it varies, right? Depends on where you're at and your craft, pure knowledge and experience and how much you care basically. Right. Some people will just refer to Allagash white as the Allagash or they think that we're Portland, Oregon, not, um, not Portland, Maine. Um, but uh, I think it resonates. I mean, to Suzy's point there's a ton of local breweries everywhere. Uh, Chicago's no different and there's a ton of great, great breweries in Chicago and many retailers like to support that they want to have their menu be re local only, but there will be an Allagash white, whether it's in canned bottle or on tap. And, um, I think that people recognize the brand, they recognize the name. And most importantly for me is it's kind of synonymous with quality, which is always like the thing I hang my hat on the best, which is great. Like we're just tried and true. Um, and I think people, people recognize that as well, which is really cool.

Brett Willis:

Yeah. That's great. Like I'm gonna speak from my own personal experience of like perception of Allagash even within Maine. And I feel like it is either where's Allagash like, what's that like people in Portland who are like, what's Allagash what do they make? Uh, which is fine, you know, you're not, you're not supposed to know at everything. And then I think the other perception is like, oh, Allagash, like that's a big, they're big. Right. They're real big. And like for sure, for main for sure. We are, we are the largest brewery Maine, but like, I don't want, like, it's funny. I was, I was like thinking about this in my head. I was like, I don't wanna explain this with like a chip on my shoulder or anything. But I think like the, the, the fun part about working here is it is still not that big as far as like a regional brewery, sending our beer to Florida and stuff like that. Like, it's one brewery. Like I know everyone who works here, like, you know, it's got this like sort of small brewery feel, but then with a larger footprint. And so I think, I dunno, my sort of interests to a certain extent with this podcast is like, just kind of introduce people to the people of it too. And to kind of be like, you know, it's not just some big conglomerate that is, you know,<laugh> no one knows any, you know, I don't know, like, you know,

Mike Poulos:

It's just a different, yeah, I totally, I totally get that for sure, Brett, because like, there are certain retailers just like, no, you guys are, you guys are everywhere, right? Like it's, we're not gonna pour you guys are everywhere. And now that we can, we can like, the consumer can get our beer in local chains out here, like jewel and Mariano's Meyer. And, um, with that comes like this cache, like, oh, you guys, you guys are sellouts. You guys are it's like, you don't know how long it took us to get to this point. And like, we're just trying to grow. We're a small, independently owned and operated family business that is just growing and trying to be sustained growth. Um, and it's, you know, it's opportunities like this that help us get bigger and better. And it just makes us reinvest back into ourselves better to be more sustainable, give back more, make sure our quality is better. Um, but I definitely have that out here too. It's just like, no, not poor. What you guys are everywhere. We also have it where it's not the same where you guys in new England, people are just like, yeah, I have the Allagash and they'll get like tripled. They're like, well, this isn't what I thought it was gonna be like, I want an Allagash white. If, if you look at the numbers in Chicago in it's like 92%, Allagash white it's yeah. We try to, we try to get some focus on the other SKUs because white is just, it sells well, it does well. Yeah. It's our lead horse for a reason.

Brett Willis:

Yeah. And what is, what does SKU stand for? Great question selling. I don't remember.<laugh>

Mike Poulos:

Um, uh, scannable. Oh, what is it? Scannable unit

Suzy Woods:

Units,

Mike Poulos:

Right?

Suzy Woods:

Us free unit.

Brett Willis:

<laugh>

Mike Poulos:

This is gonna have to be edited for

Brett Willis:

Sure. Just make it up

Everyone:

Stock keeping we're not even. Yeah. We're the only thing we was unit

Brett Willis:

Stock keeping unit. Yes. Everyone knew unit. I think that was So embarrassed right now No, but you always say SKU. Why it's like scuba, like, you know, self-contained like no one needs to know what scuba means. You just know what scuba means, like the acronym anyway. We're all good. Keep it in, keep it in. Uh, so I wanna like, ah, duh, da, which one do I want to ask first? I think while we're talking about specific areas, I do wanna touch back on Suzy, your sort of like connection to the Philly beer scene. Like I, you know, I think talking just a little bit more about that women's beer club. Maybe even like Philly beer week. I don't know if you've had any, like what involvement you've had there too, but I feel like there's such a cool robust scene in Philly. I'm interested to see here how you've been connected to it.

Suzy Woods:

Cool. Yeah. In the, in the early knots, it was like 2005. I was working at a, a restaurant with a Belgian focus, um, which was a great time of discovery. You know, your shift drink every night is like Guldendrak and Perrot and Chimay and, and westmalle tripel I'm, like this is the life. And, um, there was a few women that had come in and often, like it was neat cause people would try things. We had Miller light on the menu, but he, uh, put a surcharge on it. So he is like, if you wanna pay like five 50 for it, like you could get this beautiful Belgian beer for six, or you could get a Miller light for, for five 50. Um, and that's obviously, you know, 2005 pricing. But, um, so I was working in a Belgian restaurant. Three women came in and I still keep in touch with some of them. And they were so curious about the beers and they shared my enthusiasm and I was just like this. It was just a different table than all the other tables that I waited on. And I was like, you ladies are so excited. You make me wanna start a club. And this was, yeah, this was June of 2005. I don't even know if pink boots was established yet. It was. So it was within a year they would come. Um, unless Liz, do you have an answer to that? If conclude was 2005, six, but it around there, it was very long time ago once upon a time. And so we met the next Wednesday and then next thing know is the MySpace page. And it just turned into this. It just blossomed into this community of women that was lawyers, teachers, bartenders, um, and everybody, you know, some moms and everybody just had taken a Wednesday night to crack open a few beers. Sometimes we would have mixers and we'd let the men come. And now there's like, I think at least two marriages, not just the leader of a beer club, but a matchmaker. So, um, that's a claim to fame, but, uh, it was neat and it at about five years, and then I actually right around the time that I joined Allagash it was just like, I was a little overwhelmed and I think some of the women wanted to see it continue. But, um, you know, everyth, I guess, you know, we talk about shelf life all the time<laugh> in, in beer. Um, and it had its shelf life, but it was a really good five years, you know, so many, you know, amazing beers, relationships, conversations. And because of that, um, you know, it was, I guess it got national attention, which is pretty cool. Something I don't really think about too much these days, but it was a really neat time. Um, and so many other women are still in my life, which is really cool. And then with beer week, uh, you know, I think that we were the first city in the country, California might debate that. Um, but I think we were the first city in the country to have a beer week and it established like, Hey, we have this amazing beer culture. I mean, monks the autonomous monks, it's an institution been around since 1997, sir, Tom Peters. He was actually just at the brewery a couple weeks ago and he opened this, you know, he, they were exporting more beer from Belgium than they were actually selling in the Homeland because of like this man, you know? So I don't think one man can, can change, uh, change the world, like, or at least the beer world of Philadelphia. And he just upped the game for beer that after that everybody wanted to open a beer bar. And so there was just this really strong beer culture, tons of breweries. So of course there's like the local breweries, but also just the import game was so strong, like way back in the day. Like the first, I think the first Belgian import ever was qu and that port at the Chiver on, um, second street. And that was, and like maybe the early, early nineties, late eighties, like it wasn't happening anywhere else in the country, which is really cool. So it's like very rich beer history here. And so then beer week was like this extended week. So beer week was 10 days instead of the normal seven day week<laugh>. And um, at one point there was like over a thousand events. Like I personally, I think my record was 32 events. Like I can't believe I lived to tell it was<laugh> it was brutal. I was doing three events a day. I was like, you know, I just withering away into nothing. That was actually even before my, my time at Allagash though. So, um, Allagash wouldn't let me do 32 events in a, and it was,

Liz Wilson:

They probably didn't start at 9:00 AM. Maybe they did all,

Suzy Woods:

I don't know. Oh, there was beer breakfast. There was, yeah, it was, it was around the clock. It was in, it was intense, but it was also so much community because all the reps were doing it together and it was just like a big love Fest.<laugh> yeah, that's really nice. And then, you know, the pandemic happened and with anything it's just, it's gotten a little harder to get people out. Like what kind of dynamic events are you doing to get people like butts and seats sell tickets? What have you, but there's a couple people this year that like, we can't let beer week die, you know, cause with the pandemic, they try to go did it this year. Right. And then, yeah, kudos to, um, rich Colley and, and Ken at Memphis and the owner of human robot. They are like, we're gonna do this. And they, even though they had their own businesses, they promoted everybody's events, which once again just shows the friendship and the culture that the city has. Like usually bars are like, how many people can I get in my bar? But in Philly it's like these two guys were promoting everybody's events trying to keep it. So we'll see what happens in 2023, I guess if Ken rich have anything to say about it, we'll keep going, but we'll see.

Liz Wilson:

Yeah. That's,

Suzy Woods:

That's awesome. And then there's just beer weeks all over then, like I'd visit my mom in Phoenix and it would be like Phoenix beer week and that was years ago, but it's just, everybody had a beer week. And so for me with like major metros of Baltimore and DC, I would have the DC beer week and the Baltimore beer week and the Philly.

Liz Wilson:

Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. It's cuz there's, I mean, having there's local craft breweries everywhere now and everyone has a local spot to celebrate and it's, it's a great thing for the community.

Suzy Woods:

Yeah. And it was really fun. I mean, we would just do different races. It was like a field day. Like we were all Rob would come down and it was, I don't know. We, we still joke about some of our, our, our times, but

Liz Wilson:

Yeah. Speaking of, I guess, you know, Mike, tell us a little bit about the, the beer community in Chicago and, and what sort of makes it special. I guess I have some good memories of, I feel like once a, like Saison day there somehow was a cardboard cutout of Rob that made it to off color and every year around Saison day, it makes its way to the internet and it brings me great joy. So

Mike Poulos:

That is courtesy of our good friends, that off color who are the best and make great beer and our great partners. And we do a C on day event with them. We did one this past, uh, spring for the first time in a couple years, which was so, so cool to do again. Um, but we've been doing the Saison day thing in Chicago before it moved to local breweries off color. We did it at, um, the hop leaf, which kind of talking what Suzy was saying about Philly and monks. I mean, there's a few institutions in Chicago as well that have just been everything for craft beer and the beer business, I think, um, hop leaf, I think map room, I think Bavarian lodges, just the name, a few of the craft beer scene in Chicago is awesome. Um, there are so many, so many great breweries now, like any major metropolitan or even just the suburbs, like it's not even just Chicago, the suburbs out here, Chicago land has so many great breweries. Um, there is no shortage of options, uh, to go back to your question, Liz, about the RT cutout. Yeah. Our friends at off color took it upon themselves. Uh, I may have provided them the image, but they did all the leg work as far as making the cutout. Uh, and that was just awesome, man. We had a great, great turnout. Um, we did a collaboration beer with them a couple years ago as well, which is really cool. We brought some of our yeast out and, um, we used some ghost lemons to do like their kind of variant of Allagash white, which is really, really cool. We had some select bottles and kegs that made it out to the market, which is cool. Um, but the market is saturated and I don't mean that negatively because there is a ton of great options in Chicago and Chicago land and the surrounding suburbs. It's, it's very, very lucky. And it's not even just that because it's Chicago because it's the middle. We get everything from Rocky mountains. We get everything from the city Northwest. We get everything from California, from south, um, from new England, there is a lot of beer in Chicago, so there is no no shortage of great options. It is an awesome beer city. The weather is challenging as you guys in Portland know where we have winter for six to seven months a year. So around April, when we get our first 54 degree day and the sun's out, people are throwing their patios open,<laugh> wearing t-shirts and, uh, shorts and we're out and about, and we're looking to take advantage of patio seasons. So summers in Chicago, full effect right now, and it's going great is the best place to be in, in the country in the summer for sure. Awesome.

Brett Willis:

That's awesome. I, I think I have, I have like a couple small things that I wanted to go back on and just kind of explain Saison day being a holiday that we created here at Allagash that's for the Saison style of beer, French style of beer farmhouse beer built here at her told as farmhouse beer, doing that for a bunch of years.

Mike Poulos:

2015 was the first one, right Brett.

:

I think you're right. I actually can't remember. I always get the number wrong. I'm like, it's the fifth, it's the seventh. It's the ninth. And so we just put random numbers every year. We have it. Um, but yes, uh, I think 2015. You're right. And uh, yeah. Yeah. So there's Saison Day one thing I wanna go back to Suzy, you mentioned Thomas or Thomas Peters, is that right? Mm-hmm<affirmative>. Who is that? Is that what you said? So,

Suzy Woods:

Tom, it's funny. You say Thomas Peters, Tom Peters. Um, you he's been knighted, Tom Peters. Thank you. But he is, uh, um, the owner of monks and oh, monks cafe on 16th street and center city.

Brett Willis:

Cool. Sweet. Thank you. So thi I feel like this is a good place to, like, I feel like I got one more question, Liz, is that okay with you? Yeah, go for it. If, uh, so the last thing I'd say is if someone is interested in getting into the beer selling business, what advice SU and Mike, would you, would you give that person?

Suzy Woods:

I, back in the day, if I was asked this question, I would say remove the weekend from your vocabulary.<laugh> because pre pandemic is just, you know, you work a festival, then you can take some flux time during the week, but it's just, I think the challenges that are always on, you know, like there's so many, nine to five jobs that you five o'clock, you know, the day it's done. And there's always just, yeah, one more account. You can connect with one more, you know, case drop. There's just it's uh, I guess it would be to networking sounds kind of cheesy, but to, you know, find yourself at festivals, volunteer to help, you know, people pour beer. That that would be great. Um, the, uh, you know, just to make sure that they understand exactly what they're getting into, as opposed to like, I like beer, that would be so cool. Like, you know, how many festivals that I've poured at over the years where people just thought that I have a dreamed, I do have a dream job, but it's because of who I work for. Not just because I sell beer or cuz I love beer. Sure. Like I love beer<laugh> but uh, it's uh, I think some people don't realize exactly what they're getting into. And when, you know, Mike had mentioned diverse days before, it's like, this is such a neat job cuz you get to be creative. You get to think logistically you get, it really checks a bunch of different boxes to like really fulfill, you know, the people who are on board. But I don't even know if that answers your question. I would say just I have this like philosophy that's um, people always say work hard, play hard. And in this industry it's more of like a play hard work harder, you know like it's it used to just be like this like long party. I mean, it was like Mike said, it used to be so much easier than it is now. And it's like really treating it like it's profession and not just like this fun gig that you get to drink beer all day. Like it's, it's not exactly what everybody, you know, we work really hard. I mean, I look at so many numbers like<laugh> I get dizzy. It's like, it's not exactly what people think it is, but it's probably even more rewarding, you know, than they think it is because it's, it's not just talking about beer it's it's, especially at Allagash. I mean, we're talking about the environment, we, you know, now have a sustainability coordinator, which is amazing. Like, and we get to bring all that to yeah. Um, our accounts as well. So that's a short, short story long. I like to say, but

Mike Poulos:

That's awesome. Yeah. I think to try and get in trying to get into beer. Right. Um, it's not as, it's probably not as glamorous as you think, just like Suzy said. Um, but there's no shortage of breweries now. Like we've been talking about that this whole time. So there's opportunities get out there, be part of your community, educate yourself, try new things. Be a self starter, be motivated. You have to, you have to grind. Um, you have to get outta bed in the morning. You have to route yourself. You have to be organized. You have to be impactful. You have to be efficient. You gotta be friendly. Uh, cuz it's a relationship business at the end of the day. So to try and get in, I think it's just all about making connections, making relationships, getting your chance and hard work pays off.

Suzy Woods:

And I also will note that it's kind of fun to hire people that, you know, people will never get experience. If somebody doesn't give them a chance and everybody's like, oh, you need this, you know, amount of experience like, yeah. You know, we recently brought someone on board who was just this amazing storyteller and she did such a great job of thinking about her experience and creating parallels to how that will help her sell beer. And I just, I just thought it was so neat because I've seen so many people wanna get in the industry, but then like not had the experience. So whether they're a bartender or, um, a lot of people make the move like Michael did from a wholesaler to a supplier side, I think you see that, um, probably more often than anything else, but I, you know, would just encourage people to give someone a chance, you know, they won't get experience if everybody says no, and you never know, like when your next great hire might come from a totally different background.

Mike Poulos:

Yeah. And if you're working for a retailer, whether it's on or off premise, like we said, like bar Tavern or grocery store or liquor store, those reps come in weekly, um, say hello, make relationships, um, make an impact. I did like Suzy, I totally connect with what you're saying about not necessarily having experience in beer. And I think like Liz might feel this way a little bit too, because I had no beer experience before I came to work for Allagash like my expertise or my sort of wheelhouse was more in advertising, writing, marketing, and that sort of stuff. And it's like, I'm super grateful that they, you know, took a chance on me and were like, well, this guy can kind of can do what we need him to do, but he doesn't necessarily know that much about beer. And I definitely did not know that much about beer when I started at Allagash, but then it's like, you know, you learn and then you grow into the position. And like, I don't know. It's just so fascinating. All this sort of stuff.

Liz Wilson:

So Suzy you're in Philadelphia, Mike you're in Chicago, you know, how do you stay connected with Portland and the brewery and all of us up here. I know you get to visit us a few times a year, but what are some of the other things that, that help that connection, um, alive and well stay alive and well.

Suzy Woods:

Um, it's called for me with love the podcast<laugh> Nice. Um, uh, avid avid listener so far. Um, the brewery does, uh, like just a spectacular job of keeping us engaged. I mean, we have our internal communications. We have one-on-ones yeah. Where I'm, I'm constantly connecting. Um, you know, yesterday I, I reached out to, uh, my buddy in Vermont, Ben, Kenny, Hey, Ben, how are you? You know, just to say, hi, he's not on my team, but he is what a guy, uh, shout out to Ben on the podcast. Shout out to my whole team too. Shout out to Ben, Katie, Caleb<laugh>, um,<laugh> and it just, it is just ever present really. And then social media helps, you know, uh, I, uh, was an early adapter to, to Instagram. And so it's funny cuz now it's like, is this gonna be around forever or not? But uh, you know, seeing what the brewery's up to. I mean every single day I, I see what you're up to. I, you know, it's like everybody's keeping busy up there and uh, we just, we have meetings, but the meetings are good. The meetings aren't meetings for meetings sake. I feel like we all connect and we're just always just trying to make it better every day. And so I feel, you know, pandemic to current date, like I just, I feel extremely connected and, and hopefully, you know, our teams do too, you know, they said, I mean, a couple years ago I had hernia surgery and I got the most beautiful flowers I've ever seen. Like regular companies don't do that. I mean, not that I wanna get another hernia, but like I've never seen flowers at

Mike Poulos:

Makes it worth it. How almost makes it worth it. Huh.

Suzy Woods:

Almost makes it worth it. Don't don't get a hernia. Um, but like, yeah, I'm gonna send you chocolate chip cookies. You'll feel connected to me in Philly. Yeah. You know it's

Mike Poulos:

Yeah, there you go. I, I will say that being a bit farther based in the Midwest, this is probably the most difficult thing for me. And I don't wanna speak for my colleagues here in Chicago land or California, but I know that this can be tough. Um, we just got to go back to the brewery in June. For me, it was the first time in two and a half years, which was just nuts. And that may I tell you, fill my cup. I have enough from what I took away from seeing people that I hadn't seen in some time. I mean, Brett, you talked about it before, just like the connotation that Allgas big, we're the 23rd largest craft brewery now we're, we're, we're big. We still are like small and family. And like I got to walk through and see people that I hadn't seen in two and a half years and pick up like I was there six months ago and it was awesome. So being able to go back to the brewery, one to three, two to four times a year is huge. I will also say internally, Suzy mentioned our news flash that's internal facing that is run by our stellar HR team that just shares all the happenings, whether it's, what's going on from pilot beer to what's going on in different regions to, um, if someone had a baby, like it's just like a newsletter internal that really, really helps, um, keep you tied into what's going on. Uh, and then we've also did something throughout the pandemic, which was, uh, get to know a coworker soon as you wanna talk about that. Yeah,

Suzy Woods:

Sure. Um, uh, get to know a coworker was every week, uh, could be any department, it could be engineering, it could be accounting. Um, and you, you know, spent 15, 30 minutes, um, just talking about anything but work really, which was cool. Like at one time I was assigned, uh, our national sales manager<laugh> and I mean, we talk all the time.<laugh>

Mike Poulos:

You talk to the every day

Suzy Woods:

With, you know, how are the kids, you know, what, what you are you eating? And that was, uh, you know, it was just enjoyable cuz like we didn't talk about work and uh, you know, that was neat program and it's still going on. So it's that, you know it's yeah. Um, definitely a great HR does an amazing job of, of organizing programs like that to keep us connected. And I'll also say every year on April 24th, I get a call from Rob Todd, which is awesome that Rob calls me on my birthday. It's almost a joke cause I don't want anybody else on sales to feel bad if Rob's not calling them on their birthday.<laugh> cause I's like, oh, call Susan other birthday. He calls now they feel bad. Um, so that's great. And then I call him on July 8th. So that's just a neat thing that, you know, I just, it all starts at the top and uh, it's just, it's, it's really fun to work for him and to, uh, and he makes sure that everybody stays connected.

Mike Poulos:

We are lucky everyone when they have their birthday gets a cool gift and whether it's insulated cup or this cool homemade like checker set that was made or connect four, that was one time cheeseboard. Um, we have a ton of internal facing communication. I agree with Suzy. I don't think too much of it is wasted. So I get to see everybody, Suzy and I as area sales managers get to interface with you guys in marketing. Uh, we speak with HR, we speak with sales leadership, um, all of our teams, key accounts, general sales, we're always chat. So there is definitely that. And then like I said, when things are right, we're going to the brewery two to three times a year and that really fills the cup very nice.

Liz Wilson:

When the sales team is at the brewery, it, it brings so much joy. I feel like the energy level is like kicked up so many levels. It is. I don't know that it's just so much, much fun when everyone's in town. And I, I feel like the way that you feel coming up here, I feel the same excitement to have you here.

Mike Poulos:

We love it too. Cuz I think I made that joke. Uh, in June we did sales meeting. I'm like, guess who's coming to town to stimulate the local economy as well.

Brett Willis:

Gotta frequent a couple local accounts. Yes. You gotta

Mike Poulos:

Show love. Gotta support show love.

Liz Wilson:

Yeah. Yeah,

Brett Willis:

Yeah. That's awesome.<laugh> oh man. Well I feel like that's a wonderful place to finish up togetherness. Uh, yeah. Yeah. It's really nice. So Suzy, Mike, thank you so much for, for coming on the podcast. It was a pleasure.

Suzy Woods:

Thanks for

Mike Poulos:

Having us. Uh, yeah. So, sorry. Uh, this was so fun. Thank you so much for having us. You guys are doing awesome by the way I've been listening, uh, and like Suzy said, this is helping keep me keyed into what's going on at the brewery. And it's cool because I know everybody at the time. So I'm like, oh what's up? Um,<laugh> this is, you guys have

Suzy Woods:

To do a redo branch though without the wifi issue.<laugh> yeah, we need to, we need to figure out what else

Liz Wilson:

Dog.

Brett Willis:

I know dog box, no big deal. Now branches, branches, headphones. That was like Bluetooth malfunction to the max shocker.

Mike Poulos:

Thank you guys. So very much. This has been

Suzy Woods:

Awesome. All right. Enjoy the weekend guys. Bye

Liz Wilson:

Bye everybody.

Brett Willis:

Thank you. Bye. This has been an analog brewing production and if you have something you want us to talk about on the show, shoot this message@podcastallagash.com.