Have you ever had a time where you took a break from drinking? Maybe dry January, during pregnancy or just a health stint? Well, if you have (or even if you haven’t), you may have noticed that there are not many options out there.
Have you noticed that there seems to be a different type of kombucha or sparkling water launching every week, yet the non alcoholic beer options are still the same (boring) brands??
Today’s guest is on a mission to change that! Emree Woods is the founder of Rightside Brewing, a hand-crafted non-alcoholic beer that combines premium ingredients with authentic taste. She aims to help people prioritize themselves allowing you to socialize without sacrifice!
Emree dives into her road to starting Rightside, how she manages to juggle the new start up with her current full time job… and two kids! She’s open and honest about what she does and does not know and how she leans into that; outsourcing where she sees its most beneficial. One in particular she talks about is the branding expert she pulled in to help her figure out the competitive landscape and having someone to talk to about the brand itself. We dive into one of my favorite topics, pushing through on the days that she doesn’t want to and how she includes her kids in her business.
Emree had such an amazing approach to things and a real self awareness that you don’t often find when people are in the throws of starting a company. Not only will you get some great insights and tips, BUT you should check out their product — I promise, its worth it, and Dana approved! Check out Emree and the Rightside Brewing team on Instagram, Facebook and their website!
Apple Podcast | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Radio | Google Podcast
Full Transcript:
Dana: Are you dying at the thought of missing a single one of your baby’s first would have no idea how you’d give up the security that your nine to five job brings.
My name is Dana Graham and I had no clue how to escape that vicious 40 Hour Workweek cycle either until I did, as the wife of a traveling husband and mom of two tiny humans, I made the terrifying and totally bizarre leap from health insurance broker to successful newborn and family photographer, all with the amazing craziness of a two year old and the newborn in tow. But I’m not the only one. I’m so glad you’re joining me as I chat with other moms who took the leap into entrepreneurship and created the ultimate best of both worlds life doing it all amidst the chaos.
Welcome to another episode of amidst the chaos, I’m so excited to have everybody here today and I was so excited when recording this episode that I completely forgot to introduce our guests and what she does and have her tell you a little bit about her company before we dive right into all the good content. So Emery Woods is the founder of rightside brewing which is a non alcoholic beer, and she had the idea for it when she was pregnant with her first child, and has this fantastic product for anybody that’s looking for a non alcoholic solution to a beer in their day, so she wanted something that was not quite as big as some of the main name brands do here and something that tastes really really good and I can vouch for the taste I ordered both flavors myself and they are delicious so. So know that going into this episode that she’s founded this non alcoholic beer based on you know both her journey with her having her children and being pregnant, not being able to drink, and also with everybody’s idea of moving towards more healthy lifestyle without having too much alcohol in their lives as kind of a byproduct of starting this business so that’s what she does check her out on Instagram, she is on there all the time doing hilarious things with her kids, so enjoy the episode and I’m so excited to have everybody joining us today.
Okay everybody, well we are here for another episode and today I have on a super special guest, her name is Emery woods and she is the founder of right side at brewing, so I’m super excited to let her tell you, tell us what she does and how she got into this business and what she has going on in her life right now, so welcome Emery thanks so much for being on.
Emree: Thank you so much for having me Dana I’m really excited about this topic and excited to talk about starting a business, as a mom, and ready to jump in.
Dana: It’s funny, I do like a little intro call with some of our guests before they come on just to kind of chat about what you know the interview process is like how this works and all the things and she was just saying, we were talking about how funny it is that you know you don’t necessarily have a ton of people to talk to about your business and so it’s super fun when you get to have a whole conversation about what you have going
Emree:I know, so nice to find, you know like minded people.
Dana: Yes, for sure. Well, again, welcome and thanks so much, so why don’t you start us off, kind of with what your life looked like before you even had this idea to start this new, new journey and entrepreneurship.
Emree:Yeah, so I’ve always kind of had that desire to start my own business, I studied entrepreneurship in college and in grad school, didn’t ever had the idea, necessarily that thought would be the one until I was pregnant, so that’s kind of what catapulted me into starting my own business but I’ve always worked in small and medium sized businesses, particularly on the finance side, and nothing wrong with that because I do enjoy it but I just knew I always wanted to do my own thing.
Dana: Yeah, and so what were you doing what was your day to day look like what was kind of the ins and outs of what you did on a day to day basis.
Emree:Yeah, so I started in a corporate finance, kind of position with a very small company and so there were a lot of things that rolled up to me, I wore a lot hats like a jar and it, and finance and accounting. So I’ve always kind of had that role but just kind of grown in it, in larger companies. So that’s, I didn’t. I was never really trained in finance, with the exception of just like going to undergrad business school so I never really I kind of kind of fell into it but the day in day out was always, it was a lot like I think in a small business, you’re always kind of wearing the hats and working a lot of hours and just kind of doing whatever it takes, sort of thing. So I felt like that was good training for entrepreneurship.
Dana: That’s what I was gonna say I feel like it probably prepared you really well to wear all the hats you have to wear now, so okay so you’re working this job, you get pregnant, and you’re like, Okay, what was the motivation there did you feel like you needed to get out of that or did you just feel like you finally needed to do something you’ve always wanted to do like what made you jump ship.
Emree: Yeah, so rightside brewing as a craft non alcoholic beer, wine, so when I was pregnant with my daughter, I recognized the need for an adult beverage that didn’t have alcohol in it and back in 2017, this was a pretty novel concept, the only options out there were the larger ones that you’d normally think of like go duels and back. So I found myself in this scenario, where I wanted something different. And the more I explored it and the more I did research on it, the more I felt like this was a really big opportunity and something that could potentially be something I could do it was in a similar category I worked, I work in beverage, and felt familiar enough with the business, and the ins and outs of kind of that world on that industry to give it a shot, I think, you know, I will also say I’m still working in beverage, so I’m still working full time as a controller for a beverage company, and I’m trying to do right side at the same time and be a mom of two, so it’s a juggle for sure, but I do think it when you do what you love and I love doing right side and I also don’t hate. I mean I like my nine to five job too, so
Dana: Right, right, it’s helpful to do all the things that you like to do, it makes it, you know, fun, so and so that overlap between the two different gigs that you have obviously both in the beverage industry is that kind of what gave you the confidence to know that hey, this can work and there’s a need for this in the market, what was it about your current job that gave you some of the insight because I think a lot of people, you know, they want to find something they want to do, and there may be aspects of what they do with their nine to five, that translate right and that clearly was the case for you. So how were you able to kind of use that knowledge to pivot into making rightside,
Emree:for sure. Like I mentioned I have more of the finance background. So I felt really confident about the plan I was putting together and my, and even some of the volume assumptions and sales assumptions I was making and kind of what I felt like would make for a good growth plan for the company so I love doing that kind of stuff and so that I felt really good about that. So taking that same skill set, and just applying it to my own deal is something that was helpful. Yeah, but I will say there’s a lot I didn’t know. I’m still tackling and I know that’s going to be the case forever, but at least I felt like I had the solid ground on from a planning perspective to get something going.
Dana: I thought that’s really interesting because a lot of the people I’ve talked to had the opposite situation where, like, in your case, they would know how to brew a non alcoholic beer right they would know all the science behind that that was their passion, but the business side of the house they were like, right, oh gosh, but I think it’s really cool and interesting that that it was the total opposite for you because it gave you the confidence that you knew you needed in terms of product line and how to actually market your materials and how to know that it’s going to work from a financial perspective I feel like they should give you a good amount of confidence. When launching a business because you know your plan should probably work. I feel like a lot of entrepreneurs had the opposite so that’s really cool. So how did you translate that into, you know actually learning how to brew an alcoholic beer. And oh, by making that whole side happen.
Emree: Yeah, so the thing that really helped me solidify all of this because I was pregnant, I had two kids and three years, and I entered a business plan competition when I was pregnant with my second. My son and I came up with the idea when I was pregnant, my daughter so they’re only two months apart so it happened pretty fast. Yes. So I joined this business competition through my undergrad and I would strongly recommend going through that exercise for someone that just kind of needs to put pen to paper because something like that helped me go from, it’s all up in my head to someone else telling me like here are the steps to get it onto paper and I’m going to also go through like three validation gates with a mentor through this particular competition that was actually in brewing so it was a huge, whatever you want to call it, but it was pretty awesome to timing that this particular mentor and the competition was a brewer, and he had started his own brewery so he was helping me through figuring out if like, My Financial Assumptions made sense, or how I was gonna, how many barrels of beer I was gonna sell in a certain year. So he really helped me with that. The other thing he really helped me with was getting my model. There’s a lot of different ways you can get a drink to the market, trying to do it yourself or you could have someone else do it through a contract model and one thing I am sure of is I don’t know how to brew beer very well so I ended up going the contract route and he really helped me kind of again put that into paper on a plan, and gave me kind of the confidence of where to start with it. So, I think, just going through that competition and that exercise helped a lot. And again, I’m trying to outsource all the things I don’t know how to do very well in business, like brewing beer.
Dana: Well, and that’s a huge part of it is knowing when to say hey, this isn’t my realm, I know I can make the rest of that happen but this is someplace that I need to pull somebody in and really be able to help so do you think during that exercise, you know you are able to better see that because for me, I know things that I need to outsource at this point, like I figured that out, but at the beginning, I didn’t want to do any of that one for a financial perspective but to, because I’m a control freak and I wanted to do everything myself. So did that give you some clarity and like the push to say okay, I can do this and I know that it’s still going to be right for my business and my brand, but here are the things you know ABCD that I need to outsource.
Emree: Yeah, I think that’s a really good question and a really good point and something I have a two pronged answer to. Okay, one would be, I like you had a plan going into it, of what I could outsource and what I couldn’t, I think, to your earlier point too about building your network of people, like I’m on a few groups of women entrepreneurs, and where you can just kind of say, does anyone have a recommendation for X, Y and Z. And it’s amazing the insights you get back in the advice. I think it’s really helpful to hear how other people have done it, because it gives you a place to start. But the other thing that I would say is be prepared to pivot quickly, like I thought, I can do social media and I can and I, I do do a lot of our social media, but there are parts of it where I’m like, This is not my best use of time or resources, and I need to try to figure out how to offer this or my plate. Or, particularly as I’m working a full time job. There’s limited hours I can spend on my business and so knowing the right places to outsource and how much that might cost me is primary important
Dana: right and where those dollars for outsourcing are going to be best spent where you’re going to get the best bang for your buck that has the best ROI and all the different things and I think easing into that and kind of making smart decisions can be tough. I mean it really can be especially when you you know you’ve just started out and you’re not sure where it’s going to be so yeah.
Emree:I also like the idea of like an MVP right like your minimum viable product like you don’t have to spend, 1000s and 1000s of dollars on maybe just way to dip your toe into it and outsourcing I mean,
Dana: yeah, that’s a great point because you can you can just do a little bit at a time and if it’s working great and if it’s not pivot away from it. Yeah. So, okay, talk to me about the timeline so you had the idea when you’re pregnant with your daughter, and then started this competition when you were pregnant with your son so from there, what happened.
Emree:Then I had my son oh my gosh like you’re taking me back so I was 33 weeks pregnant 34 weeks pregnant and I had some beer sent up to go through this like experimentation of removal of alcohol and seeing the resulting taste, because it was some equipment I was going to purchase for the business. I fly up to Minnesota with doctor’s approval 34 weeks pregnant and go through this like pilot program for them taking out the alcohol, and like sitting there like waiting on the hand and foot sitting there. And just like the whole day it was just so funny. I think they were just kind of in shock there and it was just me, I think they were used to working with bigger companies, and so we went through this whole alcohol removal experiment, and then I was working with a brewery at the time that was just so wonderful and gave me the beer. And then we taste tested it afterwards. Once the alcohol was removed and so I had my son. And then we shipped the beer back, and then when my son was like three or four weeks old. I like take him and my daughter to the brewery and start doing some samplings, just to see people’s reaction to the taste. And we didn’t really, we didn’t doctor the BRF at all this was just beer they had so it was really just to test does this taste like the original beer when you take the alcohol out, and we had great reviews it was so was so validating and really exciting to just kind of hear what people thought of the first batch and I had a little taste test with some of my friends and so yeah, it was a really, that was like a highlight of that year and then from there I took a little bit of time for me to really solidify what my next steps were once we had the batch because I knew I wanted to contract brew it, so it’s a big ask for a contract brewery to take on someone else’s equipment and learn their process. So I was talking to a bunch of different ones around the country and happens that there was a new contract brewery opening up, just down the road, I mean, not just down the road but it was, it’s like 30 minutes from our house, and they, they were willing to talk they see the market where how I see it, and they’re willing to spend a little bit extra time and a lot of extra time and energy on me to see kind of how we, how we can grow their brand together so it took a while for me to find them. And then once I found them, I did have to raise a little bit of money from like a friends and family around to buy the equipment. So, that was January 2020
Dana: Oh wow, okay, so when you do, so you said you did the friends and family round to raise money so the equipment that you bought with that money goes, sorry I’m just, how this process works this is like, way far out of my wheelhouse yeah so you’re so then that equipment goes into their brewery.
Emree:Yes, and then they help you build a do the end to end, they brew it, and then take the alcohol and then package it. And make sure its perfect.
Dana: Okay and so the packaging, I will tell everybody that we had a taste test yesterday with my friends and I have this beer and it was fantastic. So, how did you kind of pick your design and your brand, did you work with somebody who was a branding specialist was that part of the competition like how did that work because it’s on point, like I love
Emree:Aw, thank you so much. Yes, so I found km branding studio. She specializes in alcohol and beverage but she does a couple other things too. She’s so talented. Her name is Morgan, and she just had a baby so congrats. Oh, but why oddly enough, I found her through Upwork, and I actually found a lot like we were talking about dipping our toe into outsourcing. I’ve used up work to find a lot of really talented people to help me with like, just very specific projects. And I think that’s where Upwork works best, but for anyone that doesn’t know it’s a freelance site where you can kind of specify your job and you post a job and then people apply to it. So I put the job on Upwork, and again, like, whatever you want to call it, but very Coincidentally, I found Morgan who just had the exact qualifications I needed, and did such a fantastic job with that. So we started out by just doing a brand book, and I’m trying to remember like how this fits in the timeline, but I believe this was probably like late 2019 We started out by kind of defining the brand and putting together a brand book with all of our elements of colors and fonts and who our ideal customer was, we started working on my brand’s story. I think that part is really important to do that pre work because and it changes too as you learn more about your customer and what your brand represents. I definitely think ours has changed a little bit but just to get that on paper, I think is really helpful for anybody that’s supporting you as an entrepreneur. A lot of times I think that is very clear in your own head of who you are and what you do, but when you bring someone else on to help you, then that is not easily translated without something. Yes, a brand book, and I’ll tell you I got an intern. The summer of 2020 to help me, even just go further with the brand book, particularly around the competitive landscape and avatars because I think it really is helpful for if you’re going to, especially if you’re going to raise money, but really for presentations for your customers if they’re if their businesses and things like that. It’s just helpful. So we spent a lot of time on the brand book, and then we went into design of the label and the packaging which I think, because she knew like I really wanted my brand be uplifting and bright and simple and clear on the shelf. She had an idea of what my packaging should look like because of that.
Dana: Yeah and I mean it is very like It looks like you’ve been doing this forever and you’re like an established brand, and we had my brother in law and sister in law and two of our friends over and even the guys were like, oh my gosh like who’s kind of on the podcast like it was, it was really it’s really really impressive. So I think, and I think that goes a long way. I mean you hate you hate it that you spent all this time on making sure the taste is right and your product is perfect, but then you don’t realize that so much of your success really is based on your, your brand and your opinion, and you know and I think it’s really cool that you have this from the very beginning, because this is, I mean this is still really early on in your business and it is so clear exactly what you’re here to do and I think that that translates really well, it’s really easy to understand and then people are on board so fast I mean I, when I first found you, it was like a meet like immediately I was like oh you are perfect like this is amazing, like you have, you know exactly what you want to do and it was clear to me, you know, right when you hit your website exactly what you do exactly what your mission is the kind of people that you’re trying to attract it’s very clear and I think you spending the time to know who your target market is and exactly how to appeal to them has clearly paid off because it was immediate for me.
Emree:So, like means so much to me. I really appreciate that I like hang on to every. I’m sure we’ll get into mindset issues but, I mean a whole wall of these things, most of the time.
Dana: Well good so okay so you have your brand you have, you know your packaging down and you have this, I guess it’s a brewery, is that what we’re gonna call them that,what were you calling them the Brewers
Emree: the contractors brewers.
Dana: that’s what it was. So they’re the ones that are burning this and bottling it for you and you know, getting it shipped out so how, at that point, how do you start to then market and expand this and go beyond your friends and family and that network because they’ve been all word of mouth like what type of advertising and growth have you done to get it out there.
Emree:That’s a really good question. So, so in Georgia. You have to go through a distributor to sell non alcoholic beer so I can’t just sell it to my neighbors or anything like that, so I knew I was going to also need some marketing money to get it off the ground. But it’s a limited budget, so trying to figure out what is the right spend for certain things is, I’m really having a learning process with that. So one thing I did do though was I hired someone to help me with PR. And she, we got we put out a in the summer, something around like coming soon. What at that point I was thinking I was gonna watch in a few months but it still took a few extra months. And we got picked up by a couple of the Atlanta newspapers and that really helped propel us getting on this scene, and certain beverage people read that and it helped kind of give us a little bit of credibility, if that makes sense. So I felt like that was important to start with some kind of PR budget. And then, the biggest thing for me in terms of marketing right now is getting people to taste it. So anything that I’m doing from a marketing perspective not anything but a lot of a lot of what I’m doing in terms of events is making sure people can taste it. From your point when I think that there’s a stigma attached to non alcoholic beer because people think of it as, for one thing and we’re trying to expand that to. This is a better for you product like a lot of people are trying to cut back on drinking like a lot of people are doing dry January are dry February, I just met someone during dry March, when I was. So like, I think people are using it like cutting out drinking as a way to either lose weight or just check in with their mental health, particularly during the pandemic, or just in general like I think people acknowledge that part of health and wellness is moderate consumption of alcohol. So, long story short, there’s some sort of reeducation that’s going on with the consumer too so I think they’re, I guess back to your original question of where are we spending our marketing dollars and how to, how am I figuring that out I’m still learning a lot and my I think my approach to this whole thing is I’m not going to put all my eggs in one basket so I’m all about testing a lot of different things and seeing what works. One thing that really worked well for us was we did this little thing called taste in a club, and got 100 cans out to 100 people, and they were, they’re supposed to review it, and that really helped because people were reviewing it in different Facebook groups or on their social media, and I think it was just trying to get word of mouth going, and I also quickly wrote I thought I could do all the paid advertising. So I started with Facebook ads and I have a friend that does it really well and she helped me, but I was not I was wasting some money on the right. So I ended up hiring someone to help me with paid advertising, and I took back organic, social, so I was outsourcing organic social, And then I took it back and then gave away paid advertising.
Dana: Yeah but that’s great I mean figuring that out, first off, like, there’s so many things that you’re like okay, just didn’t quite work. Each pivot here, but to recognize that like okay this switch is going to be so much better for the business like it’s frustrating to get something wrong at first but then you know, like, then you already know that that’s not the best idea and like we can move on to something else, it’s almost like an elimination diet where you’re like trying to Okay, what do I need to get rid of. So, yeah, it’s great that you figure that out and I think that, you know, back to what you were saying about people trying to improve their health and you were definitely solving a problem, I mean you have definitely found something that people are trying to find a solution for and I mean it’s, it’s the mocktail of beer, like it’s right. Right and I think that, I think, especially like With summer coming up like this is going to be such an awesome product for people to have so, so when you did this new, you know you’re getting it out, you’re like spreading the word out when was it officially launched what was the official launch day,
Emree: It was in January of 2021 So just a couple months ago.
Dana: And so when you did that what was kind of the launch strategy there did you, did you have like weeks leading up to it or was it just like hey it’s here, let’s do this like what was the plan.
Emree: Yeah, so it’s really tricky during COVID Yes, I think a lot of times people want to have like a launch party where they invite press or they do it up big and it was also hard to get media so hard to get social media attention around the holidays. So we did a 10 day giveaway, leading up to our launch and we did a soft launch a lot of, I’ll be honest, we just didn’t know when the drop dead date was going to be where we had product ready to ship. So we did a 10 day giveaway, leading up to a soft launch where we opened up our website for for preorder, because we can ship directly to the consumer and every other state basically except for Georgia oh my gosh, full of others. So that’s been a saving grace for our business because I thought, you know, the calm side for us was just going to be gravy and it’s been really nice. But that’s an aside because we, so we didn’t want to do an event because of COVID Right. Um, but we’re gonna plan a really fun first anniversary party.
Dana: So, there are gonna be in the next like two years, like you know, so many parties like I then not leaders are gonna are gonna get it back, I promise. I know it’s been such a crazy like struggle to hear all the different industries that are so heavily impacted it’s just been crazy.
Emree: Yeah, it’s really sad.
Dana: So with this launch you know and you know coming up to the soft launch, tell me about how you manage this like with your home life and your full time job and launching this like that’s a huge I’m sure you guys were like, you know, without knowing exactly when it was going to be ready, it’s a ton of work leading up to that so what did, yeah. How did your work life balance look and how has it, or even has it leveled out since then yeah,
Emree:I’ll be honest, leading up to launch was probably easier than after we got into the market because there’s just a lot more to do, and I’m taking on the once the beer is out there you know like now there’s a sales process that right, have to do and now there’s, you know, customer service and things like that, but I think that’s like for me I was just so anxious to get it out in the market, I waited so long and I was yes. Um, but, you know, I want to tell everyone that it’s so, it’s like, it’s easy but it’s not. I watch an hour of TV a week, and I, you know my friends talk about all these TV shows and I work every night, and I don’t mean to like make it sound so doom and gloom but we wake up at five in the morning and I work until my kids get up and I work at night and yep, and, you know, my goal is to do both my full time job and right beside for as long as I can without doing into service to either just frankly because of the financial situation, right, like it’s hard to quit a job. And so, that’s kind of right now what it looks like and i i also really protect the limited time I have with my kids, so they’re in full time daycare. So as soon as they wake up like it’s just on the kids, and then when they go to bed. That’s when I turn it back on. So I tried to really create boundaries with my time in terms of when I work on right side and when I work on my full time job and then when I take care of my kids so you know I think though, right now, I mean there are certain days where I’m like this is just too much, but most often I find so much fulfillment from working on right side that I’m getting so much enjoyment from that, like, more than I went from, you know, turning on Netflix or something so that’s, that’s where it’s at right now it has not leveled off it’s probably got harder, but I’m I’m really trying to figure out how to outsource. As much as I can for right side, like responsibly, so I can keep doing both for as long as I can.
Dana: Yeah and so you know you said it makes it worth it because you enjoy doing it, but is there. Is there anything, because for me, like, yes you enjoy doing it, but like those are really early mornings and really. Yeah, like what are the day to day, keeps you going, like, what, what frame of mind do you have to get into because obviously like okay I like this but like there are some nights, I promise you don’t like it, you know, what gets you through that like what little things that you’re like, What are you doing to keep yourself motivated because there are some nights where I’m like, Nope, this isn’t happening. This is happening. So and I you know I think having something tangible that other people can maybe do to would be held right as I need it.
Emree: That’s a really good question I have like a bunch of immediate answers. I think for me, making sure my cup doesn’t get to empty, so that, because when it does, then I’m just like, to your point, you just are like I don’t like doing this. So, I kind of like pressed time out over the weekend and I went for a walk with friends, which sounds so lame but like that that’s a luxury right now um yeah a lot. And it was so nice, and it was so good, and I felt just like reinvigorated and re motivated, I think, like I joked about our my wall of mindset stuff but hearing like and really accepting. Positive feedback is sort of I mean, for sure what keeps me going. I think hearing some of our customers telling me that, that this makes any of their health choices easier. I like hang on to those so tightly hearing that kind of positivity and then. And just like in general seeing positive momentum with the business right there’s, it’s always, there’s always going to be steps back and try not to focus on those. But really, really hanging on to the positive stuff. And the other thing that helps me is time blocking. So saving the things for late at night that I kind of like doing, like, getting rid of the getting the stuff done for me in the morning that it’s harder for me to get motivated, getting that stuff done first for me helps, because then I like, I kind of get excited once my kids go to bed and I get to do the things that really give you joy in business, there’s obviously things that you don’t want to do right like certain people might not want to do the bills or not writing the emails or something like that and just finding the time time blocking for me, when I’m feeling the most motivated helps to. And I’m saying like I don’t want to. This isn’t just me anymore I accepted money from my family and friends, and yes, that’s a huge deal, like I, I do a lot of mystery of them too.
Dana: Well, that is awesome and so speaking of your family and friends how did everybody react to you saying hey, this is my idea and this is what I’m doing and it’s happening like what was everybody’s thought on that.
Emree: I think so I think that the general feedback on the business idea was good. Like I don’t think anyone was like that’s a dumb idea. Obviously if they’re willing to invest right but I really think at this stage in the game and at least what they told me is that they’re investing in you, you are investing in the person that’s doing it. So I think that’s a lot of it.
Dana: Yeah, and that gives you a whole different sense of, you know, first off, it’s validation, I mean it is but it does give you, definitely a sense of like, oh gosh I really have to make this work and it’s nice to have, you know, a level of like of your friends and family saying hey we are invested in you like we believe in you. We know you can do this I mean that does give you. I hope it gives you a sense of confidence because without that and you’re just kind of doing your thing, you know, working on your business without, you know, including and involving friends and family, I think there could be an aspect of loneliness, but also, you know, that background competence level is not quite there, right, because people pushing you and saying hey we you This is amazing. You’ve got this you can do it. So I think, you know definitely involving your friends and family and your ideas from the beginning and getting, you know, knowing that they’re on board is mentally, a great place to get into. And obviously the financial aspect for you is, is great as well.
Emree: For sure, I will say I, I’ve gotten tougher, like thicker skin as I’ve gotten older, like I used to be the most sensitive, I mean, still probably am but I, same, same with thick skin, I think that you have to have to be an entrepreneur in here now and hear your ideas dumb and hear, you know, like, it takes a lot of work to continue to tell yourself and reinforce like, No, this idea works like this is gonna be, this is a good idea like I’m going to move forward with this regardless of what this one person said and but yeah I think it’s important to be able to have that conviction.
Dana: And I didn’t have thick skin like I’m with you I was like the most sensitive like most I still am, again, same as you. You don’t have to have that to start a business, you’re gonna get it because right that’s just part that’s just a technically a bonus I guess of starting a business is that you will get the thick skin, eventually, it will happen or else your business is not going to happen. So, the growth I think I’ve seen in myself as just as a person has been really, really huge and it’s nice to hear that other people are having that too and it’s not just me that was like a shell of a human before very fragile. We’re working on it.
Emree: Yes, yes, absolutely.
Dana: Well okay so my last little piece in here i How old are your kids tell me, tell me kind of about them and what they like, think you do, because I feel like that’s super, super interesting to hear from people.
Emree: Yeah, that’s so amazing. My daughter is three, and my son Keating will be two in May and May as he is at that age where she just wants to help, help, help. Yes, she’s my biggest helper when I have to like pack anything up or anything like that she likes to put the stickers on the boxes. I mean she just zones right in like I need to do a couple things and she just wants to help, and I love that, and she’ll come with me, with just my Instagram, like it’s always I’ve got a kid in tow, doing something so I was passing out beer at a tennis match this weekend and Daisy was with me and it’s like becomes our Friday night thing, because we’re participating this Friday night League. So she comes with me and then we go get ice cream, and that’s our, that’s our little mom daughter business face so fun. So fun. Yeah, I mean, I want her to I want both them Excuse me, but he’s just so little. Yeah, I want both sort of, but I want both of them to see this you know and see this as, like, part of kind of what we’re doing as a family, it’s a family commitment to start a business, particularly when you’re a mom and, but I want it to be fun, like I don’t want it to be. I just want to be able to include them and, and wherever they are and I think it kind of makes it more like because our weekends are sometimes spent just doing right side stuff so it’s, yeah, find new ways to include them in that versus me being like I have to work. Like, it’s important.
Dana: Yeah, I think that’s a great point because there are so many jobs where you can’t just, you know, say hey, let’s bring you along, but when you’re an entrepreneur, you can kind of schedule the things do you can possibly do with your kids around, you know, to be able to have that during the times that you have them right to the weekends when they’re around you can kind of make it so that those are the times of, you know your work where you can include them in whatever you’re doing, I, my, my daughter will sit with me and like call through the photos like I’ll take 1000 photos at a session. I’ll save like the calling for when she when I know I’m, she’s going to be with me, like in the early morning she wakes up before my son like that’s what we can do together and she’ll be like, Yeah, you know, asking about the baby in the family and it’s fun to have her see me work but also like that’s technically quality time together and she loves me so
Emree: yeah, I think, for them to be able to participate and what matters to you is, they learn that from a very early age and I can tell like she really wants to be involved in it. And so, if again, if you can make it something that’s on their level and something that they don’t hate doing, it’s such a fun activity to do together. Yes,
Dana: yes, for short. Well, thank you so much for coming on Emery, this has been amazing to chat with you. So tell everybody where they can find you on online in general on social media all the places,
Emree: yes you can follow right side brewing on Facebook and Instagram. And our website is www.rightsidebrewing.com And you can if you’re in Georgia, you can find us in stores we have a little product finder but also online we ship nationwide. So we’d love for you guys to check it out.
Dana: Yes, we did we ordered the both the different flavors and it was awesome. So I think you, this is Dana approved for sure. So well thanks again, and we will chat soon.
Emree: All right, sounds great.
Dana: Thank you.
I am so honored you spent any minutes of your day listening to me babble about living this entrepreneurial life amidst the chaos in any mom’s normal day to day. If you love what you’ve heard and read more snippets of knowledge about this mob boss life, head over to our website at amidst the chaos podcast, calm. For show notes and links to anything mentioned in today’s episode. If you’re really feeling inspired, it would mean the world to me and my family if you take the time to write in with you. Thanks for joining me, amidst the chaos.
[…] Listen to the Full Interview Posted in Uncategorized […]