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[00:00:39] Ray Latif: Hello, friends. I'm Ray Latif, and you're listening to the number one podcast for the food and beverage industry, Taste Radio. This episode features an interview with acclaimed actor and co-founder of Crystal Head Vodka, Dan Aykroyd. Sketch comedian, ghostbuster, vodka entrepreneur. It's all in a life's work for the remarkable Dan Aykroyd. An original cast member of Saturday Night Live, Dan is perhaps best known for the film franchise Ghostbusters, in which he plays Ray Stanz, the proton pack-wearing ghoul fighter, a role he will reprise in an upcoming sequel. He's less recognized, however, as the co-founder of Crystal Head Vodka, a globally distributed ultra-premium spirit brand identified by its distinctive skull-shaped bottle. Launched in 2008, Crystal Head Vodka is atypical of celebrity-backed spirits in that its association with Dan is not front and center. Although he does meet and greet events with consumers and occasionally goes on sales calls, the brand was designed and developed to be sold on its own merits. It's a point of pride for Dan that the company is rooted in traditional business fundamentals and adherence to premium positioning. In the following interview, I spoke with Dan about cutting his teeth in beverage alcohol, as an importer of Patron tequila, how Crystal Head Vodka enhances its resonance with the heavy metal community, how he attempts to establish an authentic relationship with consumers, and why, despite the company's longstanding independence, he may be interested in aligning with a certain luxury-centric conglomerate. Hey folks, it's Ray with Taste Radio. Right now, I'm honored to be sitting down with the legend, Dan Aykroyd, the founder of Crystal Head Vodka. Dan, so great to see you. And you, sir. Yes, you have a bottle and I have a bottle. Everyone has a bottle of Crystal Head Vodka, or they should. This is a pretty outstanding vodka and a really remarkable brand. The one I'm holding in my hand is your pride expression, your 2023 pride expression. That's right. It's a beautiful, beautiful package dotted with a whole bunch of splotches of paint.
[00:02:55] Crystal Head: Yeah, spattered to represent the various colors in the LGBTQ movement and pride, you know, around the world. You know, thank God that there's some support and awareness out there in a tasteful way that doesn't ram it down people's throats. We offer this up as sort of a, you know, a tribute to the, I guess, the arduous path that some people have had. In terms of expressing themselves, coming out sexually with their gender, you know, that shouldn't be a painful process. That should be one that's easy, and it's not these days.
[00:03:28] Ray Latif: 100%. And this is the second edition of your Pride bottle.
[00:03:34] Crystal Head: Yeah, we had a rainbow bottle here. There it is. The rainbow bottle's quite nice, but we wanted to represent more colors there. And so, yeah, that's fun. Then we have on our onyx, which is the agave tequila. I mean, the agave vodka. It's what I mean to say is agave is, of course, what they make tequila out of. And we've done Head Vodka distillation on this. The notes are long and earthy on the finish. And we have our corn. Here's the party head, 1.5. You'll see that on bars in Ibiza and tropical. hangouts around the world. We do not go out and do advertising for college kids or youth under 25. We're not at Corpus Christi or Destin or Fort Lauderdale with a big trailer and handing out shots. You know, this is a premium vodka for people between 25 and 75 or 85 or 95. And it's priced so that you have to be fairly prosperous to buy it. However, it is an affordable luxury. It's only 45 more cents a drink than some of the leading premium brands. And what you're getting is a great package and a fluid that we take great care of manufacturing. So, you know, between 50 and 60 bucks for a bottle for the 750 milliliter corn, it's a pretty good deal for what you're getting.
[00:04:51] Ray Latif: I would 100% agree. And you used two words there that I want to touch on, package and luxury. And I'll admit the first time I saw a bottle of Crystal Head Vodka, I thought there was an association with the artist Damien Hirst. And then with the most recent edition of your Pride release, it actually feels like there's a kind of a combination between Damien Hirst and Jackson Pollock in so many ways. But obviously there is no association with Damien Hirst. But this package is really recognizable. I think anyone who saw this in a liquor shop or a bar back would know that it's Crystal Head Vodka. Talk about the inspiration behind not just the brand, but the package itself. And, you know, I wonder, how did retailers think about this? Because this literally, you know, might have a hard time fitting on a shelf.
[00:05:42] Crystal Head: Well, to answer your last question first, no problem. It's a standard size bottle and can fit on retail shelves, and it looks great on bars. And as far as the origin of the bottle, well, I have a good friend, John Alexander. You can do search on him. He's a Texas artist. His work is spectacular. And we've been very old friends from Saturday Night Live days when the lady that I was dating on the show, Rosie Schuster, dumped me for him. And we became great friends, Johnny and I. And I was in Canada. I was in, no, I was visiting from Canada down in New York City. One night, almost 16 years ago now, And I was telling him about how I had brought Patron tequila to Canada. That's what got me into the spirits, was I just wanted a better tequila to make a better margarita on my dock at the lake in Canada. And I asked J.P. DeGioia, my friend, you know, can I get some cases shipped up? He said, well, Dan, you've got to bring it to the whole country. And I said, well, let's do that together. And so he made me the importing agent. We brought Patrona to Canada. There were only two other brands of tequila you could get, and we opened up the whole luxury tequila market there across the country, and it now remains 10% of sales of luxury tequila, Patrona. Love that. Bacardi bought it, so I'm no longer involved in it, but that got me interested, and it got me started in looking around, and, you know, well, what's the biggest category in the world? That's vodka, $50 billion in sales a year. Well, if I were to do a spirit, you know, if I can get a slice or sliver of that type of business, it might work out okay. So I'm looking at vodkas. I'm trying them. I'm tasting them. One smells like Chanel No. 5. One of them tastes like... I don't know, nothing. Then one's as rough as a cat's tongue, and I'm going, well, geez, why? Some of them are over viscous. I said, why are these unpalatable? I don't mention names. Of course, went to research the fact that all kinds of additives are put in there. Lemonine, and sugar, and glyceride are added. Now, not enough to kill you or hurt you, and they go into a lot of alcohol products. I thought, Imagine stripping all those oils out of there. What would you have? Well, you'd have a pure spirit. And Alexander and I were talking about Patron, and I had this idea in my head for this pure spirit. And he said, well, I've always wanted to put a tequila in a skull. And I said, well, I have Patron in Canada, as we're discussing here. That would be betraying my friend JP. I couldn't do that. But I said, I know what to put in a skull bottle, because I had it in my head already, this stripped down spirit. So I said, draw me up a sketch, and come back to me in a couple of months. He turns around, and in two minutes, he draws up this bottle. with the grin, with the little smile, beautiful cheekbones, the cant, canted back. The spout doesn't look as good straight up and down. You have to have a little cant in it. Now that's bad for machine fill, because we had to have special cradles made at quite expensive, special machinery, so that it could be filled and we keep the cant in it. What the factory wanted was for us to have the spout straight up, but no, no, no, wait, it doesn't look as good, you see? So he designs that. And I said, I know exactly what to put in that. I look at the sketch and I could make me a mold. He makes me a sculpture. And from there, we were off to begin this journey, which has taken us to 80 countries now. It's probably sold, I would say, if you count the minis and everything, between 20 and 30 million bottles of all our line and around the world. And it's been really, really fun. We used to travel to the distributors and the bars and retail places in a Freightliner tractor, which I bought. It's like what you'd see pulling race cars. And so we had a wonderful time. We painted Head Vodka on the side of it, the skull. It looked like a delivery truck. I love driving that thing, too. It did 90 miles an hour. Turn on the infrared light at night. And that thing, that turbo diesel whistled, man. We got all around the country. And that's what makes these brands. It's interpersonal relationships with Importer, vendor, distributors, retailers, bar owners. I have friends now that I'll know for life from this business. Whereas in the picture business, you only know them for months, you know, and I'll know these friends for life. And so it's personal contact, getting around. We did signings at some of the stores where people would line up and bring bottles and memorabilia. Those were always fun. and commitment to it. And that's what really makes a brand. And then, you know, if you've got the fluid, the quality to back it up, you're going to have a hit like we have. The fluid is clean and people love it. It's won awards. Our notes on the corn are sweet, vanilla, dry, and crisp. Our notes on the wheat are the sunset Head Vodka we make in the mirror finish bottle. Those notes are pepper, anise, a little spice. And our notes on this is, you know, long and earthy on the finish. We would be nowhere if it weren't for the fluid in the bottle. People are drinking it and they're going, it's the real thing.
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[00:11:21] Ray Latif: So the package draws them in, but the liquid keeps them buying.
[00:11:26] Crystal Head: I would say so. We wouldn't be alive after 15 years, I guess, and in 80 countries, if it was, if they're just buying the package once. For sure. Yeah.
[00:11:34] Ray Latif: You know, I'd read in an article, a profile about you that you have a reputation as being a good salesman, a great salesman. How am I doing? Well, it's interesting because not everyone is a great salesman and sometimes a brand on its own can be its best salesperson. But I mean, I feel like it's really helpful when someone enjoys the process and like you said, develops the kind of relationships that are the long-term backbone of a brand. How do you become a good salesman? And I guess, would you agree that with a premise that you are a great salesperson and how do you become one?
[00:12:15] Crystal Head: Well, there are a lot of techniques that other people have written about more convincingly than I might be able to, but I think an ebullient personality helps, and a good voice can be heard in a room of three or four hundred people. I guess confidence in yourself and no wandering of the eye, look people in the eye. A really good salesman can basically sell anything. A good salesman, it doesn't matter what you give them, they can sell anything. I don't think I can sell anything, but I know I can sell this product and this vodka because I have confidence and faith in it. Some salesmen out there might not have confidence or faith in their products and kind of doubt that they're of quality and they're selling them anyway and they're doing a good job over history's time. But what makes me, I think, effective is that you can see that I know about the industry and what was added to these fluids in the past and what I have taken out of it and the impact that it's had on the consumer. I'm aware that I'm vindicated by removing these fusel oils, having a pure spirit and a great package, and winning awards and being worldwide. I can sell all of those as attributes and as real benefits to publicizing the product. So I've got a lot of help here.
[00:13:35] Ray Latif: Yeah. Well, and publicize what you have. You, you are promoting the brand on social media. I think if you Google Crystal Head Vodka, your name comes up pretty quickly. Although, and maybe I'm wrong here, I feel like the association between Dan Aykroyd and Crystal Head Vodka isn't as, I guess, apparent as that of say, Casamigos and George Clooney or... No. the rock in Taramana.
[00:13:57] Crystal Head: Am I accurate in thinking that? It's not. It's not. And that's good because if you ask our consumers, Many of them, I would say two thirds of the consumer does not know I'm associated with the brand. So that tells you that it's selling itself. The package is selling, the fluid's selling. As company, one of the senior manager, one of the managing partners, I'm a good effective spokesman for my brand and my company, but the brand is not relying on me to do that. I could step away completely, although I'm enjoying it, I could step away completely and it would not hurt the brand, you know, because it's, It's selling itself by virtue of its quality and then package appeal.
[00:14:39] Ray Latif: But when you are promoting it, I wonder, how do you use your celebrity and promote the brand in a way that comes across as authentic to consumers?
[00:14:52] Crystal Head: By meeting the consumer, by actually going out and saying hello to them, meeting them. We go to government liquor stores, we go to big chains and we'll do a signing and we'll publicize it. And I will sign bottles for as long as it takes to go through a line of between 600 and 1,000 people. And I'm able to see what other beverages they're buying, whether they're older. I get my full demographic array there. They bring memorabilia for me to sign, you know, and that. And they're coming because of the celebrity value of being there. But I'm able to actually Interface directly with them and see who is buying my product professionals what economic range gender All of it is available to me as an active survey when I do these signings. So That's how I use the celebrity is to go and actually meet the consumer find out who they are And and then we can go and target a little better. We we have a big following in sort of the heavy metal community the skull I guess and so You know, we know that we've got some good friends in the bar business and heavy metal bars around the country that have consistently consumed us and supported us. And so that's where we're going to send our love to the people who love us.
[00:16:09] Ray Latif: There's another brand that's pretty well known and beloved by the heavy metal community, and that's Liquid Death. Yeah. The canned water brand that's been on fire over the last few years. Although there's been some controversy around the brand because of its name, its association with, I guess, some outrageous kind of ways of being, for lack of a better phrase. And I know there was some controversy around Crystal Head Vodka in that there was an association with death and alcohol, or maybe not an association, an implicit one for sure, but one where people were wary of, you know, using a skull to sell liquor.
[00:16:48] Crystal Head: Well, I'll tell you, it was one person, only one person had, well, now there's some people who don't like skulls, and they're not gonna put them on the bar or their store, but officially, and in terms of an authority that was purchasing from us, there was only one person who felt that, well, first of all, it's got a grin, it's a happy skull, it's a head, I don't call it a skull, I call it a head. There was one person, president of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, and he was afraid that it would appeal to youth too much, and there would be a component of traffic accidents that would be a part of that. Now, to that I say, well, you have to be a prosperous youth to buy it, and we don't pitch to youth. and we don't pitch to youth. We're someone 25 to 75, and I say you go home with five friends and consume this. You don't consume it alone. We've been very responsible in our advertising, and basically when he left the office where he was working, we were able to get the product in fairly quickly after that. So that was the only official buyer who had a you know, who had a problem with it, because he thought that youth would buy more of it. But it's expensive for youth to buy, you know, 60, 50, 60 bucks a bottle. We're an affordable luxury, but we are a premium product. Only 45 cents a drink, then you're leading premium brands, we're only 45 cents more. So you're getting a great package and you're getting fluid that's guaranteed to be clean and good tasting because vodkas do have taste now and our profiles, as I said, sweet, vanilla, spicy, anise, long on the finish. You're getting that and you're paying, you know, as I say, 45 cents more a drink than the next premium brand down. It's not a bad, it's an affordable luxury to step up and treat your friends and impress people with how you can throw the skull like a basketball.
[00:18:40] Ray Latif: Oh, jeez. Be careful. Anyone who just saw the video, just saw Dan Aykroyd toss the skull, a head, excuse me, into the air.
[00:18:47] Crystal Head: Yeah, the head or skull, but sometimes they call it a skull. But bartenders can throw John or June up in the air. They don't care. John or June? John, yeah. John, this is John. Here's June. Here's John. Oh. John and Junie. Junie and Johnny, throw them up. Throw them up in the air. Oh, be careful.
[00:19:08] Ray Latif: It looks like you have a nice room that you're casting from or recording from. I don't want you to have to clean up any glass later on.
[00:19:15] Crystal Head: Yeah, this is the Zoom room in the town here, downtown near the lake, Lake Ontario. Nice.
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[00:20:13] Ray Latif: The price of Crystal Head Vodka might be prohibitive for some younger consumers, but I feel like it's pretty attractive to strategic companies, the large conglomerates, the large beverage alcohol suppliers out there, and that you have a premium price Paint Your have a loyal following, you have a well-known and well-recognized brand. Yet, and correct me if I'm wrong, Crystal Head Vodka is still an independently run company. Is that correct?
[00:20:39] Crystal Head: Well, there are four partners, myself as the originator of the fluid, John Alexander as the originator of the bottle, our senior executive, Jonathan Hemme, who has a long history in the spirits and wine business in Canada. He runs our company. And then David Brown, who, like me, is an ex-postie. He's an ex-postman. So the four of us own the company, and it's effectively managed. We haven't gone into our line of credit. It's very healthy, self-sustaining. Again though, here this is rare because this is a partnership of four individuals going on 16 years now, almost 16 years. And in business that can be comparatively rare. We were there with goodwill, we still have fun. And we've got a lot of room to grow, which is great. And we're gonna do it with all of our allies and friends in the next three to four years, you know, we should see consistent, significant upward trends, even in the face of the fact that beverage alcohol consumption is declining in millennial and Gen X a little bit. There are economic headwinds everywhere, such as the COVIDs that pop up in the world, but I think we've survived so far, and there were six vodkas that came out when we did. I don't name names of any other products, but there were six, and you'd know one or two if I did name them, but they're all gone now. They're all gone, and we're still here, and there's a reason for that, and that people are cracking it and tasting it and loving it.
[00:22:11] Ray Latif: It is amazing that you've been in business for 16 years and that, again, you've stayed independent, even though, you know, by independent, I mean not aligned with a strategic company. And I'm sure there have been overtures and I'm sure there've been companies knocking on your door asking, Hey, can we do a partnership? Hey, can we buy your company outright? What's kept you from doing so?
[00:22:31] Crystal Head: Well, number one, you sell a brand and then you've got a pile of cash, but then you don't have the brand anymore, you know, and you don't have the fun, the camaraderie. Also, we frankly believe that it can grow more and it can be worth more as time progresses. We think it can be worth more. But I think it's just because we're having fun with it. And meeting some great people and meeting challenges every day of being in a very, very competitive industry without having to be a pay or play. We don't go into bars and pay. You know, you want to buy us, we'll do pours, we'll do subsidies, we'll do extra bottles. But, you know, we're not going to go into a bar in New York City and pay 10 grand for a month's placement. We don't have the money to do that. A lot of the other brands do put their money there. That's quite an outlay for them. It's quite significant. And so we'd rather do subsidized pours. We'd rather do programs, tasting programs, hire another ambassador, for instance, in the world to go around. So we're allocating our resources within a very well-run company. What makes it a well-run company? I think our executive team, for sure. And the goodwill we generate in the world, you know. We don't go in there, we're not screamers, we're not, you know, we're not bullies. We're just good Canadian guys who want to have a little fun and build our business. And we're honest about that. And I think that, again, our executive team is superb. I can supply the public relations and media piece and mouthpiece quite effectively to those who want to listen and to those who care. And then also direction on strategy. We all weigh in on strategy. And then Jonathan covers with the executive team, administrating the office and going to all the bar shows. And so it's very effective. And for now, we're just going to keep growing it.
[00:24:23] Ray Latif: Yeah. I mean, you're not involved in the day-to-day that is the role of your executive team, your leadership team, but it sounds like you do have a significant hand in addressing strategy or concerns with strategy when you feel the need to address those concerns. Has there been an instance where you said, you know what, I don't think we should be doing this X, you know, we should be doing this. And how was that received?
[00:24:50] Crystal Head: We've been in harmony on all the major decisions. We have quarterly meetings, and I check in with the team, one or two of them, at least two, three times a week. I go up to Toronto to the office and go in there when we do our annual videos, so we have a meeting then. We've been in harmony on pretty much everything. I don't think there's ever been a an idea that came up that the four of us didn't just like and say, let's go for it, because we're all aligned sort of in intelligence and psychically, I guess.
[00:25:22] Ray Latif: Well, it may help that two of you are former postmen. I didn't know that about you, by the way.
[00:25:27] Crystal Head: Yeah, David, he walked around and I drove a mail truck for a contractor in both Toronto and in Ottawa and Toronto. I love that job, man. I love that job.
[00:25:37] Ray Latif: In this country, I think it sounds like a nice job in that, you know, you'll have a job and you'll have pension, but it seems like a very boring one for some folks.
[00:25:47] Crystal Head: Well, I grew up in Ottawa, Canada. That time I had shoulder length hair and I'd bicycle, even in the winter, bicycle the five miles to the truck garage. And in the winter, I would have to sit there and start the truck, if I could get it started right away, start it up and let it run for at least 45 minutes before I could even touch the gas before it's thawing out. So that made it interesting. There was driving in all kinds of weather. You know, back then, I'd light up a little J there to start my rote, and I drove high for the Queen for years, because I was a royal mail courier. You know, you're sitting in the seat, you're getting in, and that's it. THC and CBD, I found, can relieve certain physical... Situations in the body aches and pains and that so I used it back then now. I'm allergic to smoke You don't use it anymore. Uh, well, I I sneeze when I smoke it so Like multiple times. Yeah, but I like the good smell of it and I think You know everything in moderation again everything in moderation
[00:26:53] Ray Latif: For sure. I feel like if I were a postman in Canada, the first thing I'd want to do after I was done with my route is sip on some whiskey. Canadian whiskey, of course. You guys are getting into Canadian whiskey. Is this right?
[00:27:07] Crystal Head: Yes. We have a whiskey called Signal Hill. It's sold in Canada and I think somewhere in the States. I'm not sure. Again, it's a beautiful product. It's a rye. And it's from old stock that's been sitting around for years. We were able to find this beautiful aged stock, and that's where we started with it. And it's going very well. Brown spirits consumers are very strong these days. Everybody says that in terms of the profession and sophisticated bartenders, everybody in the sophisticated bar chef arena there, they'll come back and say, well, you know, I've got a lot of vodkas on the bar, I like a brown spirit. You know, vodka is not exciting, but I say, well, Head Vodka that has no additives might be exciting as a professional bar chef to you, because you're gonna add everything in there, you know, Fernet Branca, St. Germain, citrus, lemon, grapefruit, orange juice, emulsified sugar, Red Bull, you're gonna add all kinds of things to vodka, so why not have a clean slate to start with? And that, I would say, that logic has punched through to bar chefs worldwide that they love Crystal Head because It's the virgin canvas in which to pour all of these other mixes and all of these other additives. Because there's no additives in it and they're starting with the blank slate. You have to, you're gonna have, every bar's gotta have Head Vodka on it. So why not have the clean premium taste the affordable luxury of Crystal Head? That's my argument. You gotta have Head Vodka on there anyway, why not? It's only 45 cent more, buck 50 a shot maybe, 45 cent more a drink. than some of the premium vodkas that are below it. And there's a good margin there. Yeah, I would say so.
[00:28:54] Ray Latif: Going back to the Canadian whiskey, is it not branded as Crystal Head at all? I mean, is it a separate brand entirely?
[00:29:01] Crystal Head: Separate company, separate, well, separate, yeah, separate company. It's called Signal Hill Whiskey and it's, no, there's no skull bottle and no direct I would say fiscal association Crystal Head. It was funded separately, and it's a separate entity that Jonathan, our CEO, has, and I have a small share of it.
[00:29:25] Ray Latif: And is it a sort of test to see, you know, whether you can go beyond into other spirit categories as well?
[00:29:32] Crystal Head: Well, certainly we're doing very well with it and we'll see, but for now, you know, people ask me, you know, you want to do anything else? Well, you know, I'm in Head Vodka business and I'm also in the, people say, what about flavors? You know, and I'm saying, well, I'm in Head Vodka flavored vodka business, you know, and I, I'm, you're not likely to see the head come in flavors. Cause then we would compromise our purity story if we were doing flavors. Cause then we'd be adding oils and all kinds of things that would, uh, would compromise our beautiful filtration, which gets us so pure.
[00:30:04] Ray Latif: Yeah. Well, one person who I would assume has to sign off on the taste of your product before you really, really know that it's quality is your Ghostbusters co-star, Bill Murray, who I think knows a thing or two about quality premium spirits. Is he a fan? He's a whiskey guy. He's a whiskey guy. So he likes Signal Hill.
[00:30:25] Crystal Head: I think he would like it. I don't know that I got it to him this last round when we were together. I don't think he's tried it yet.
[00:30:33] Ray Latif: Well, hopefully the next time you guys are on the vineyard together.
[00:30:36] Crystal Head: Well, I have to, maybe I'll stop at Duty Free on the way across the border tonight and pick it up.
[00:30:41] Ray Latif: It's funny when you think about celebrities and promoting spirits or promoting anything for that matter, but when they own the brand, it's almost incumbent upon them to use their network to get other people to drink it as well. So for example, you'd say, oh, you know, it would be great if Bill could help promote Crystal Head Vodka. But it's not necessarily the easiest ask unless they have perhaps a financial interest in the company, is it?
[00:31:07] Crystal Head: Mmm, you know, I would say we've had some friends post, you know, on Instagram, drinking it, that type of thing. You can, if they want, if they like it, and they tell you they like it, and I say, well, you know, put it up on your Instagram, you're taking a shot. That's as far as we would go with that. We do occasionally, you know, if someone that's of notoriety or fame knows, that they like it and genuinely likes it, I say, well, yeah, put something on your Instagram or your social media where you're pouring a shot of it with a skull.
[00:31:37] Ray Latif: Fantastic. Well, once again, this has been a real honor for me to sit down with you, Dan. Thank you so much for taking the time. Thank you. Congratulations on everything you've built with Crystal Head. I hope it stays independent for a long time because it does have a beautiful, wonderful cachet.
[00:31:53] Crystal Head: You know, should the day come and we partner with someone or an acquisition, They, I shouldn't really say this. Please do. But they'll make their money back fairly quickly. With, say, an expanded sales force and some resources put into it, they will make their money back, you know, if we're looking at a nine-figure sale, one, two, three, four, they'll make the money back within 18 months to 24 months because of the margins of this product. And with resources put behind it, it can be, you know, even more huge than it is now. Massive, it can be. We'll see, but right now we're holding on and we're having fun.
[00:32:31] Ray Latif: Well, if Diageo bought Cost Amigos for a billion dollars, then hopefully what your selling price would be, if you do decide to sell, should be, I think, significantly more, right?
[00:32:43] Crystal Head: Well, again, it's a choice. Not so much the money, but who can make the best of it. Who is the best partner to take it to the next step?
[00:32:51] Ray Latif: Right.
[00:32:52] Crystal Head: And that depends on personal relationships. I love LVMH. because Salma Hayek is an actress and she's a colleague and I love that concept of maybe, you know, getting a luxury company like that to partner with us because we could do great things because of the designs. You know, the design is very, very strong. It does look like Jackson Pollock, that spatter, doesn't it?
[00:33:19] Ray Latif: It's Jackson Pollock-ish, for sure.
[00:33:22] Crystal Head: Yeah. Yeah. You don't have to be part of the LGBTQ community to purchase that bottle. I think the fluid is the same, so you'll love it. Of course, we encourage everybody to buy us. Yeah, that's just looking at that alone, even if you didn't know of the association and the support there that our company has for the movement, you'd say, oh, Jackson Pollock spatter. Yeah, it's good. That again was Johnny's consulting on that, Alexander, yeah.
[00:33:52] Ray Latif: Absolutely. Actually, I forgot to ask you one question. It's a bonus question. Our CMO asked me to ask you this. He said, please ask Dan Aykroyd, are you a god? Small G.
[00:34:07] Crystal Head: Small g. Appreciate you answering that. Very small g. Yeah. Small g lowercase. Okay.
[00:34:14] Ray Latif: Small g lowercase. Got it. Well, Dan, safe travels. Thanks so much again. I hope to meet you in person someday.
[00:34:22] Crystal Head: Okay, cool. Well, if you're in Boston, that's not hard. Yeah.
[00:34:25] Ray Latif: Stop by our office anytime and we'll share a dram. All right. Bye bye. Thanks again. Thanks. That brings us to the end of this episode of Taste Radio. Thank you so much for listening. Taste Radio is a production of BevNET.com, Incorporated. Our audio engineer for Taste Radio is Joe Cracci. Our technical director is Joshua Pratt, and our video editor is Ryan Galang. Our social marketing manager is Amanda Smerlinski, and our designer is Amanda Huang. Just a reminder, if you like what you hear on Taste Radio, please share the podcast with friends and colleagues. And of course, we would love it if you could review us on the Apple Podcasts app or your listening platform of choice. Check us out on Instagram. Our handle is bevnettasteradio. As always, for questions, comments, ideas for future podcasts, please send us an email to ask at Taste Radio. On behalf of the entire Taste Radio team, thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.
[00:35:25] Crystal Head: you
