[00:00:03] Ray Latif: Hey, thanks for listening to the BepNet Podcast. I'm Ray Latif. I'm here with John Craven and Jon Landis, and we are at the offices of Aid Kombucha, the brand spanking new offices, that is. We're here with founders Daina Trout, Justin Trout, and Vanessa Dew. Thanks so much for having us here.
[00:00:17] John Craven: You're welcome. Thanks for being here.
[00:00:19] Ray Latif: Now we're sharing mics because this is the biggest podcast I think in terms of participants that we've ever had. We have six, but we couldn't possibly do a podcast at Healthy without the founders and talk about all the great and amazing and crazy things that are happening here in your personal lives. I can't even imagine what it's like to be such a fast growing company at this point. So congratulations on what has turned out to be a really cool facility. We just took a tour, 50,000 square feet. You have the capacity to do, what did you say, was it 350,000 bottles per run? Per month.
[00:00:51] John Craven: Per month, my goodness. Sorry, 350,000 cases.
[00:00:53] Ray Latif: Cases per month. Yeah. Wow, very cool. So, why don't we start there? Let's talk about the process of, you know, why did you need a bigger brewery and why you built this facility and what this means for the future of HealthAid.
[00:01:05] Jon Landis: Well, I think the reason why we needed it initially is because of sales and we need to support the sales. We've been sold out for almost a year now. So we collect our orders every week and they're at least two times what we can possibly produce, usually three to four times. So we've had that tremendous pressure on the sales team to, instead of sell, sort of just manage relationships in that way. That's been very hard, but they've done a great job with it. So obviously we need higher capacity.
[00:01:37] Ray Latif: So, I mean, in terms of sales, where are you at right now? I mean, you're pretty much at capacity with your old facility in Van Nuys. Where are you trying to expand to in terms of distribution and retail presence?
[00:01:46] Aid Kombucha: Well, as Justin mentioned, we're trying to manage the out-of-stock conversation. So right now it's been putting a focus on our main customers, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's. We just got into Targets and Sprout. So we're really trying to manage the conversation so that we keep up relations with the customers who have made us. And as we move into 2017, we're looking to make a play into conventional. So we're making plans and scaling nationally with natural and conventional and in talks with Costco right now.
[00:02:14] Ray Latif: Wow. Wow. Target, you guys just going to target, how many stores do you get into?
[00:02:18] Aid Kombucha: Around 200, but regionally for California, because we knew we didn't want to bite off more than we could chew right now. So we wanted to do it in a local level.
[00:02:26] Daina Trout: Cool. Yeah. And I guess, how much do you think that speaks to where the category's at, too, that chains like that are considering kombucha?
[00:02:35] Aid Kombucha: I think it's amazing for the category, and Dinah, pipe in here, but kombucha's so hot right now. No, but it's true.
[00:02:43] Ray Latif: I mean, everybody is beginning to talk about it more. The category data is showing that it continues to grow. Even the market leader is growing. It's not really like other categories.
[00:03:02] Jon Landis: But I would interject, I would say it's less specifically about kombucha and more about the real food movement and what that's all about. Aid Kombucha is just the perfect poster child for what real food is. And if I do say so, that's our entire goal is to be that vanguard of the real food movement within kombucha. I love it because it seems like there was once a time when I considered kombucha like putting on yoga pants to go walk the dog like you've done that no like that's that was like putting on your gym clothes to like go out and walk the dog it's like you know there were people who were who were like you know wanted to have the appearance of being like super healthy, right? But like they really weren't. But now there's like, like you said, it's like part of this much larger movement that we're seeing with entrepreneurs who are starting businesses to do good, not just to sell to Coca-Cola and like, you know, make a boatload of money.
[00:03:55] John Craven: Right. And I mean, I will just say that it's 2016. I think we deserve real food on the commercial shelf. And right now, what you made at home and what was on the shelf, I think right now and in the past, what you made at home, what was made on the shelf was entirely two different things. And so we're not the only company out there trying to do what you would do at home, but just make a commercial. but I think we're the only kombucha doing that.
[00:04:15] Jon Landis: Yeah, and we're also at like, we attempted decouple the concept of health and real food from each other. Cause I think too often health gets caught up in calorie counting and things like that. Whereas real food has a lot more to do with common sense and following your gut, which is what we're all about. So it's trusting in what is naturally around us and what's abundant. And that's why we make the kombucha the way we do. And I think that has a lot to do with the success we've seen so far. within our own company and then the category and then the macro trends that are going on in a greater sense.
[00:04:46] John Craven: Yeah, we have a, I guess it's a tagline or it's a core belief and it goes, we believe in the health it takes to be happy. So we're trying to associate health with happiness versus science, calorie count or- Perfection. Yeah, perfection. Things like that. Yeah. We're just normal here. As I think you are too, and as I think our customers are.
[00:05:06] Jon Landis: I like when Landis wears his yoga pants to work. He's just a normal guy. It's something that everyone does. If everything was just about health and, you know, we would just be drinking water and like, you know, eating Soylent and everything. And that's just not happiness. That's so bland and there's nothing, there's no point to it, you know? So that's what, that's what I think is the connection. Turns out people like food.
[00:05:26] Aid Kombucha: Right. And is Soylent healthy? Question mark?
[00:05:30] Jon Landis: Maybe. Who knows? I don't know. Maybe it's not so good with the gastrointestinal issues they're having right now.
[00:05:36] Ray Latif: I mean, let's talk a little bit more about this. Next year, you guys have, you know, Dinah, you were talking earlier about, you know, some marketing initiatives that you're going to be launching in 2017. And what is it going to look like? Are you trying to build more education around Aid Kombucha is? Are you trying to define your product and your brand versus the category? Are you just trying to build what HealthAid is all about and introduce the brand itself to a wider range of consumers?
[00:06:01] John Craven: Yeah, so I mean, I think it's both. Initially, I felt like I was going to have to choose one. Am I going to go after the people that don't know Aid Kombucha is? Or am I going to have to make them switch if they know what it is already? We're doing both. Right now, I would say 50% of our consumers are new Aid Kombucha. And so we're kind of like the first for them. And then 50% aren't. So you have to manage two conversations. For me, kombucha, because it's fermented, because it's made with a SCOBY, which is kind of weird, You don't want to get caught up. You have to be really strategic in your messaging. You want to make it simple because it is real food. And so it's been all about, what does that message look like? Next year, we're going to have a team all over the country that knows how to speak to it, how to explain it. They'll be able to get scientific if they have to.
[00:06:47] Ray Latif: How do you Aid Kombucha?
[00:06:48] John Craven: Aid Kombucha is simply put fermented tea and it's naturally rich in probiotics and healthy acids, period.
[00:06:54] Ray Latif: Easy enough.
[00:06:55] John Craven: Easy enough. But back in farmer's market days where we started, sometimes we would get stuck in hour long conversations where we'd be like in the weeds, you know, talking about scobies where they first came from. And you sort of be like, how did I get here? And I learned that it is actually very simple and it's not unusual. It's similar to yogurt, sourdough, kefir, and that it's very familiar to our ancestors and how other people used to eat.
[00:07:19] Jon Landis: Yeah, I mean, kombucha, it's not really manufactured, it's farmed. That's the important thing.
[00:07:23] John Craven: Aid Kombucha.
[00:07:23] Jon Landis: Yeah, Aid Kombucha. Healthy kombucha is grown and farmed. And so that means input equals output, putting in the best things, it gets the best result. And so it's not really too dissimilar from what you might see just from any organic foods aisle. you know, if you're trying to put together just a great dinner.
[00:07:38] John Craven: Yeah. I mean, I like to tell my team it's more like a bag of carrots than anything else.
[00:07:42] Ray Latif: Yeah. And then there's consumer marketing and then there's trade marketing. And Vanessa, you're running, you know, a lot of that, the on-premise and off-premise sales for HealthAid. And, you know, how are you approaching trade marketing and trade education?
[00:07:54] Aid Kombucha: You know, what's interesting is learning more about trade discussions. I find that people have just gone into talking about more of the same promotions. This is what my company will do. But I think HealthAid has a unique opportunity to talk to the trade, to talk to the buyers, to talk to the stores, to talk to the different channels in a way that isn't too dissimilar from educating our consumers who pick up a bottle. Because at the end of the day, the retailers do want to see value coming off of their shelf. So we'll have that monetary discussion and what health aid brings to them in a sales per point level, distribution, velocity. We'll have that discussion. But at the end of the day, they want to know they have a quality product on their shelf, what we do to make it different, and why consumers are going to come by and pick it up.
[00:08:37] John Craven: Yeah. Like I think it's relieving for everyone to know that it's food. It's not a supplement. It's not a drug. It's not going to change your life. It's not some kind of a miracle thing. It's a food and it's going to make you feel good. And it tastes great by the way. I think people in general are relieved for that. Like whether you're in the trade or in your consumer space. And I think there's been some unfortunate marketing done Aid Kombucha in the past that has maybe mixed or messed up with that message a bit. And people might be a little afraid or hesitant to try it. So we're all about sort of changing that message.
[00:09:07] Aid Kombucha: I think it's important where we put the focus too, because we just put the focus, push sales, push sales. You don't put a focus on the quality discussion. So for example, in all the marketing initiatives, the sales discussions, even the sales blitz that we're planning to do next week, there's a component in there that we're going to be tracking on the type and quality of conversation that we're having. Did the rep say health aid is the best tasting, highest Aid Kombucha? Yes. Did the rep have a quality interaction around why we're out of stock, what we're building to, what we stand for in the real food movement? Yes. So I think if we as leaders don't put a focus on it, it will never get done. And so that's how we're advancing and differentiating amongst other beverages in general in front of the trade.
[00:09:48] John Craven: Yeah, and there's like so much that we do differently than the rest of commercial kombucha. We, I think in the beginning of this year, found ourselves in a bit of a conundrum because our people were so passionate about what we did that they would get lost in these conversations. And there were 20 different things we did. And they, it was sort of like the law of diminishing returns, you know, and the customer kind of was like, geez, you know, would walk away. And we had to learn to really focus that message, pick the top three things and go there. And everybody knows exactly how to speak to it now. So it's been a learning.
[00:10:17] Daina Trout: So were you kind of like going against the grain a little bit compared to other kombucha companies then? Oh, 100%. Yeah, that's by design. And I guess that being said, are you, I guess, attempting to like effectively redefine what the actual kombucha category is about as a result of that?
[00:10:31] John Craven: For me, it's not a question of redefining it, although I guess in some aspects it is. I'm not trying to remove anybody. On a spectrum of engineered to natural kombuchas, we're the most natural.
[00:10:42] Daina Trout: Sure.
[00:10:43] John Craven: So that's just the niche. That's the place we play. I would never bash another competitor.
[00:10:47] Daina Trout: I'm not saying bash, but it seems like there's from at least what I've seen, I haven't heard any other companies sort of articulate an actual strategy about how they're kind of changing, you know, Aid Kombucha is all about, which it seems like you guys are.
[00:11:01] John Craven: Well, it's true. I guess, I guess in a sense, we're just reclaiming what it always was or should have been.
[00:11:07] Jon Landis: I think we're expressing what we're all about and it may have the effect of redefining a category or a type of drink or something, but that's just the effect of it. Are you consciously trying to like remove like a glass ceiling that might exist in a niche products Aid Kombucha?
[00:11:24] John Craven: That's really the impetus behind this, right? We always have been. I mean, think about it. The three of us started this with a tiny credit card in our nothing apartment in a farmer's market. We had no idea what we were doing. It's always been that kind of like, we can do this. We don't need, we can want what we want without apology. And it's funny, as we've grown, all of that message comes through in our product, in our people, in our conversations, and we love that. We love being the underdog, so we own it.
[00:11:49] Ray Latif: You also have some big-time investors. I'm sorry, John, I cut you off.
[00:11:52] Daina Trout: No, I was just going to sort of follow that with, or I guess follow what John said about the glass ceiling. And I guess it seems like one of the things that has Aid Kombucha back is that just kind of vinegary, weird flavor that Obviously, you know, we're still talking about a minority that, you know, knows kombucha has that, but there's only so far that's going to go right. And I think that's something that you guys have kind of recognized in what you've created and the message that you have that I think sounds a lot more palatable, you know, and tastes a lot more palatable, too.
[00:12:23] Ray Latif: I mean, it was really interesting when I talked to Tom first, I forget, I think it was three years ago, and he said, yeah, we've invested in Aid Kombucha company. And at the time, three years Aid Kombucha was still a really tiny category. Everyone was like, this isn't going to go anywhere. And now kombucha is one of the fastest growing beverage categories out there, non-alcoholic anyway. And he was so excited about it. He's like, this is the best Aid Kombucha I've ever had. It's one of the best tasting beverages I've ever had. I'm like, this guy's out of his mind. I'm like, how was he ever successful? And then you actually taste HealthAid and it is unbelievable. And we have HealthAid on draft in our office. And every new employee comes in, and they say, I don't Aid Kombucha. And they try your product, and they say, hey, this is actually really good. So I mean, you guys have to be consistent. You have to keep on that level of converting consumers into believers, really, of Aid Kombucha can taste like and how good it can taste. You have some big time investors that believe in the future of the category and really the future of your brand. Cavu Venture Partners invested quite a bit of money earlier this year in health aid, helped, I'm assuming some of the funds or a lot of the funds went to building this manufacturing facility. One of their key investment points is, you know, to really mainstream a concept or mainstream a brand or category. Aid Kombucha, it's growing big, but there's still a lot of opportunity out there.
[00:13:42] John Craven: Oh yeah, it's all white space.
[00:13:44] Ray Latif: How do you capture that mainstream consumer you know, who will never want to drink kombucha just because of that vinegary taste that they think is going to ruin their palate.
[00:13:53] John Craven: First, you have to never say never. But seriously, we do think that the conventional space is ready and waiting for kombucha. They just don't know it yet. We have the opportunity to be the first to market to them in many respects. I mean, even though there are brands in the conventional space, I don't think people are seeing them, certainly not buying them as much as they could be. And yeah, I think it's all about that conversation, bringing it back to a normal food and away from being this mystical, super scientific, functional, possibly even marketed as a supplement at times. making it approachable, both in taste, packaging, people, message, and then giving people a chance to just try it. That's a really big part of our campaign too, is just getting people to try it. Because once they try it, they can't deny that it's not maybe as bad as they thought. And in fact, they might even like it and come back for it.
[00:14:47] Ray Latif: And that's generally been our... Do you have a lot of soda converts come over Aid Kombucha?
[00:14:51] John Craven: A lot of people tell us that they converted, but to be honest, in general, I feel like it's just a good add-on. People will be like, oh, I don't feel like drinking coffee anymore. I'm going to drink kombucha. So sometimes it's from coffee, from soda, or sometimes from anything.
[00:15:04] Jon Landis: Yeah, I mean, it's not necessarily like a switch necessarily. It's not like you turn off sodas and then start drinking health aid or something. And that's part of the health it takes to be happy concept. I think if we limited ourselves to, okay, now here's the first step to being a customer, quit your vices. So it'd be perfect, okay? then ask for forgiveness, and then come over and be a perfect human, that's just way too much. Because I'm not perfect, and I don't think anyone else is, and I think it's way too much to expect. So I mean, if you're feeling like you get enjoyment from having a real food health aid, great, go for it. But you're allowed to have a salad without being vegan.
[00:15:40] John Craven: You absolutely are. And you can have a cigarette. And a cigarette.
[00:15:44] Jon Landis: Let me tell you, you're allowed. It's all right.
[00:15:47] John Craven: That's what our brand's all about. So I think that's how you reach the conventional space is you just meet them where they're at.
[00:15:55] Daina Trout: Well, I think some of that comes across also in the brand too. I mean, to your point of it being like a supplement in some cases, that kind of is how some of the brands are presented, right? And this is something that doesn't look like a scary, you know, sort of product. And that has to be a piece to the puzzle too, right?
[00:16:14] John Craven: Totally. How you look on the shelf, how you look in person and how you taste and everything in between.
[00:16:20] Daina Trout: So to some extent, like, you know, maybe you're not just switching soda Aid Kombucha, but also, you know, you're switching from, I don't know, whatever brand product that you're purchasing to something that's more appealing. And I think that's something you guys certainly done a great job with.
[00:16:35] Ray Latif: Now, as the brand has grown, as the brand has evolved, so have you. Four years ago, you know, you couldn't have imagined, I'm sure, being in this 50,000 square foot facility and being this great brand for a whole bunch of consumers. And how have you guys kind of taken this evolution on a sort of a personal level? Justin and Donna, you have a new son or relatively new, and it's got to be an interesting personal life to really be building this brand and building a category while trying to maintain and manage a personal life. Yes. What's that been like? Great question, by the way. Long pause. Excellent. And we're married. I'll get to that in a second.
[00:17:12] Jon Landis: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, that's a great question. The personal, the work-life balance thing, I think that it's always something that I was going to say at the end of the day, I would say rather, no, at the beginning of the day, you have to choose what are my priorities. And when I'm at work, I'm crushing it all day at work. And that's what I'm doing. But when I'm at home, I'm doing that. And I think it's really important to draw those lines because even if my wife wasn't the CEO of the company that I work at, uh, that we founded together out of, like she said, we could go into the original presentation. We made a bed net life, but, um, I want to get to that. Okay, great. Even with all that, if I just came home and all I did was talk about work and I didn't really do anything then outside of that, then I think that the scope of who I am would be really small. I think it would be anxiety inducing. It's not a good place to be. So, You just have to have a greater view and realize that this is work. It is what it is. I love it. It's my favorite thing to do, but I have so many other things I like too. And just keeping that don't get too obsessed level is positive.
[00:18:14] John Craven: Yeah. So I think once, so you're talking about like being present in your space and we had to learn that by the way. It's not like we just knew that and it's been tough and certainly there are peaks and troughs. But one other thing I'd add is manage the expectations. I think in the beginning, and this kind of maybe ties into the perfection conversation we had before, at least me, I had this vision of being the best at it all. The best mom, the best wife, the best CEO, the best friend, right? The best daughter, sister, et cetera. And I would fail because you can't do that all. And as soon as I started to realize that it's okay, you know, you can't be super woman, but you can be super at one thing. You know, you can't do everything, but you can do anything. Then it's actually been a lot better. I'm a lot happier. I can say, okay, today I kind of had to work too much and I missed out seeing my son in the evening. That sucks. It totally sucks. But tomorrow I'm going to do the opposite. And I got my treadmill desk in here to figure out how I can move a little bit more and exercise a bit more in my day because I just don't have time to do that at night. And just being okay and a little compassionate with yourself for that has been a really big solution for me.
[00:19:21] Ray Latif: Vanessa?
[00:19:21] Aid Kombucha: I think all of us have really evolved personally as the business has evolved. It hasn't forced us, but we've been able to grow with the business on a leadership level personal level and just understanding there's limits or else we'll go crazy trying to make everything work and be perfect. And just in terms of where we are, we are so different than four years ago and we will be different in a year and we will be different in two years because health aid needs a different Vanessa, Dinah, and Justin.
[00:19:49] Ray Latif: Yeah. Have you been able to, uh, maintain, uh, the best friendship throughout all this? I mean, it's.
[00:19:54] John Craven: Yeah. I mean, but it takes work. Like, even though we see each other every day, we have to have date day and then same thing with Justin and I. And again, that's something we had to learn. There was one point at the beginning of this year that we're like, who are you? I haven't seen you in a year.
[00:20:05] Aid Kombucha: You know? I was like, wait, you had a baby? No, I'm kidding. Cause you couldn't tell.
[00:20:12] Ray Latif: Well, you know, it's really interesting. It's so amazing to see how you guys have grown and the growth of the brand. Because when we first met you, it was in 2013 at BevNET Live. You guys were participating in our New Beverage Showdown, which was the nerve-wracking beverage brand competition that we put on. Health Aid ultimately won the competition, but there was a lot to get Trout and Justin Trout me this story, I think it was about a year ago, about how seriously you prepared for it. And Tom Furst is involved in this story. And I just want to say, I want to go on record because earlier I think I made a clip about Tom. Tom Furst is an extraordinary entrepreneur and a guy I really and truly learn a lot from every time I talk to him. No offense meant to Tom first. But anyway, I'd love to hear that story that you told about preparing for the New Beverage Showdown.
[00:21:02] Jon Landis: Oh, this is great. So we were new New Beverage at the time. And so what do you do when you're new New Beverage? You end up at BevNET, right? You just like Google it and like, there it is. And so we're there and somehow we got involved and we found out that there was the New Beverage Showdown and immediately we signed up for it. Okay, yeah, of course we're in, let's obviously do this. This is exactly what it's built for. So then we talked to Tom, and he said- They had just invested in us. Yeah, Tom had just made an investment in us. We were very, very, very small at that time, the company. And so it was kind of a risky play. Like you say, Tom's a great entrepreneur, so he had the vision to understand where we're going with it. And he said, you guys signed up for the New Beverage Showdown? And we said, yeah, of course. He goes, OK, well, you have to win. You can't be in this and not win. That's going to look really bad. And we were like, oh man. Okay, well, we had planned on winning, obviously, but okay, now we really got to win. We were new in our relationship with Tom. So we were like, oh God, we better win. And so, boy, we set the planning and we had weekly meetings on it. We reviewed every single piece of material that the website had, took extensive notes, made sure that everything we did, we made sure to very clearly surpassed whatever had come before us and very clearly meet every single criteria. We researched the judges, we made sure we knew what they were all about. We rehearsed like crazy. A lot of revisions got in there and thank goodness we won because God knows what would happen if we didn't. You prepared for about a month, right? I mean, you were preparing every single day for a month.
[00:22:36] Ray Latif: Oh, three months. Yeah, this was a long process.
[00:22:38] Jon Landis: Oh yeah, huge process. And we only talked like maybe once or twice during this whole process. You guys, Yeah, we're like kind of removed like you were doing everything on your own. We had a couple conversations Yeah, I recall but I knew that you guys were on it. Yeah, you had very few questions for me at the time and I had really nothing to add to what you were doing already and we kind of had an inkling that Uh, you were gonna kind of blow it out of the park from the get go.
[00:23:06] John Craven: It's funny cause I think we actually talked at one point you and I, um, you had said, I was asking you about a video. I was like, how do videos generally play out? And you're like, you know, they don't generally play out that well. And you know, generally when I hear no, like I want to prove it wrong. So immediately when you told me not to do a video, I was like, well guys, now we've set ourselves up. We have to do a fucking bomb ass video. So, and it worked out and that's exactly kind of how we are. But I'll just add a little bit to that story. The day of, the day of the event or the day of the two events. We just took it so seriously and so to heart as we do everything that I mean, Justin was vomiting in the bathroom.
[00:23:41] Jon Landis: I was like, Oh yeah, I totally threw up that day.
[00:23:44] John Craven: Yeah. And Tom, Tom, just to put Tom out there on a, on a,
[00:23:48] Jon Landis: To hang Tom out there.
[00:23:51] John Craven: On a cocktail napkin, he was sitting four down from me. He handed over, as I was so nervous, about to go up on stage and do my grand... Ray's announcing who's the winner, and here we are watching. And he puts, you're not gonna win. Here's who I think is going to be the leader. And he put one, two, three. And I can't believe, I can't remember who he put as one and two, but we were three. I remember who he put as one.
[00:24:13] Jon Landis: I remember it like it was yesterday. Vanessa Dew was one and two?
[00:24:16] Aid Kombucha: It was like chimp juice.
[00:24:17] Jon Landis: Chimp food.
[00:24:18] Aid Kombucha: Chimp food.
[00:24:19] Jon Landis: Which was a great product. I mean, it was really good, but like, come on.
[00:24:21] Ray Latif: And there was Happy Tree maple water as well. It was in the running as well. They were in there, that class, yeah.
[00:24:26] John Craven: But that is like a perfect example of how it's been all along. People really do tell us no, we do it anyway, and obviously we take advice from leaders that know before us. I'm not saying we're all in that way, but... It's truly follow your gut.
[00:24:38] Jon Landis: It still ranks as probably the best finals presentation we've had.
[00:24:44] John Craven: And it was so cool to be a judge last year, by the way.
[00:24:46] Jon Landis: Yeah.
[00:24:46] John Craven: Just want to say to be on the other side.
[00:24:48] Ray Latif: It's got to be interesting to be on the other side.
[00:24:49] John Craven: It was so cool.
[00:24:50] Jon Landis: I'm actually hesitant to recommend people who are preparing for the showdown to watch your video because they're like, we can't, I don't know that we can do this. This is out of reach.
[00:25:03] Ray Latif: From my side from from being on stage that day, and I was just about to announce the winner. I remember I was like talking to the judges and I looked, I glanced over the audience, I see Vanessa Dew Dinah dying. They were like over hunched over and I was there was down to the top two. And I think I announced I was like, and the runner up is Happy Tree Maplewater. And I just hear this squeak screech. She was like, And of course HealthAid was the winner at the time. And now that I hear the story about the preparation, the vomiting, all this other stuff, I can now understand completely how nervous you guys must have been at the time.
[00:25:39] Jon Landis: It was your friend who recorded that song too, or you recorded it with your friend. Yeah, I recorded it with my buddy. I went to music school with him. I think when you call the corporate line here, that's what plays when we put you on hold. It's a good song.
[00:25:52] Justin Trout: Started at the farmer's market.
[00:25:54] Jon Landis: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:26:00] Ray Latif: Well done. This has been really, really great. It's so fun to see you guys anytime we see you. And you know, it's even more fun to see you grow and have this incredible facility and kudos and congrats and everything else that there is I can say about your brand, your company and you guys. So thank you for having us and hope to see you again soon.
[00:26:17] John Craven: Thank you.
[00:26:18] Ray Latif: Thanks a lot.
