[00:00:10] Ray Latif: Hey, folks, I'm Ray Latif, and you're listening to the Top Podcast for the food and beverage industry, Taste Radio. This is episode 236, which features an interview with NFL legend Jerry Rice and Jaqui Rice, the co-founders of Better For You energy drink brand, Goat Fuel. Just a reminder to our listeners, if you like what you hear on Taste Radio, please share the podcast with friends and colleagues. And of course, we'd love it if you could review us on the Apple Podcasts app or your listening platform of choice. In the vernacular of our times, someone who is considered to be the best at a skill, sport, or profession is described as a GOAT, an acronym which stands for Greatest Of All Time. It's an apt term for Jerry Rice, the NFL Hall of Fame wide receiver who won four Super Bowl titles with the San Francisco 49ers and holds nearly every significant career receiving record in American professional football. Today, Jerry is tackling a new challenge as the co-founder of an energy drink brand, the aptly named Goat Fuel, which markets health-focused beverages made with green tea, natural caffeine, and cordyceps mushrooms. It's not Jerry's first involvement in the beverage industry. He launched an energy drink brand in the mid-2000s called E10 and was a longtime ambassador for Muscle Milk. and he's using his experience on and off the playing field to support the development of Goat Fuel, which was co-founded with his daughter Jaqui Rice, who is the company's CEO. In the following interview, I spoke with Jerry and Jaqui about the inspiration behind planning and launch of Goat Fuel, leveraging Jerry's fame in a way that's authentic to the brand and its positioning, the product's unique formulation, and how they evaluate potential partnerships, including a recent deal with gaming and sports betting company FanDuel. Hey folks, it's Ray with Taste Radio. And right now I'm honored to be with Jerry Rice and Jaqui Rice, the co-founders of Goat Fuel. Jerry, Jaqui, how are you? Good, how you doing?
[00:02:10] Jaqui Rice: Doing well, thanks. How are you?
[00:02:12] Ray Latif: Fantastic, fantastic. As I was mentioning to you, Jaqui, I'm so glad that I got the pronunciation of your name before we started this interview because I really would have butchered it and called you Jackie. And in fact, we have a Jackie on our staff here at BevNET, but her friends sometimes call her Jaqui, which is interesting.
[00:02:30] Jaqui Rice: I've never heard it in the reverse before. That's kind of cool.
[00:02:33] Jerry Rice: Yeah. That's my fault. I gave you that name.
[00:02:38] Jaqui Rice: Okay.
[00:02:41] Ray Latif: It's a beautiful name and it's a beautiful partnership. You have father and daughter working together on this amazing brand. But before we get into the brand, Jerry, I've got to ask you, okay, the NFL playoffs are set and I got to get your Super Bowl pick who's playing, who's going to win.
[00:02:57] Jerry Rice: I think it's going to be the Kansas city chiefs. And I would go with Aaron Rogers, the Packers and who's going to win. I got to go with the Packers.
[00:03:08] Ray Latif: Okay.
[00:03:09] Jerry Rice: Aaron Rogers. I think he's going to be the most valuable player this year. And, uh, and everybody that had counted him out, he, uh, you know, he's proving them wrong.
[00:03:20] Ray Latif: Well, he's having a fantastic season. And if that is indeed the match, it should be a great, great game for sure. Jerry, you've played in a number of Super Bowl, played in the NFL for so long. Now you're on the other side of the fence, so to speak, as an entrepreneur, as a business person, and again, working with your daughter on this new project, Goat Fuel. Tell me a little bit about sort of the origins of Goat Fuel. This is not your first foray into the beverage industry. It's not your first energy drink, right?
[00:03:49] Jerry Rice: Well, you know, I was with Muscle Milk for so many years. And, you know, when we started GoFuel, I decided to go back to those relationships because those guys, you know, just to go back in the industry and stuff like that. But I played for over 20 years in the NFL, and I always cared about what I put in my body. And people called me the GOAT, the Greatest Of All Time. But I, also saw it like a family of goats. That was the most important thing. And my daughter, she's an entrepreneur, and she drank energy drinks. And she came to me about the idea of Goat Fuel. But we knew that it had to align with my core values. And it's about work ethic, and also the quality of the ingredients.
[00:04:40] Ray Latif: And Jaqui, talk about the brand in planning, you know, given what your dad just talked about, you know, how did you go about planning this idea and then executing upon that idea?
[00:04:52] Jaqui Rice: one of the main things we had to notice was what was going on in the world, kind of what were their trends are. Now, obviously I knew that my dad was called the GOAT. I think the year that we launched, or like we came up with the idea of GOAT, we were coming off of Super Bowl and dad was on media row and they were asking him and saying like, you're the GOAT, like, who else is the GOAT? Like the popularization, like how popular that term is. It's really fascinating because not only is GOAT being used in the sports world, we started noticing a trend of like the goats of Jenga, the goats of skydiving, like whatever it was. I was like, this is cool. This is interesting. So having been a consumer of energy drinks, like I'm an industry outsider, really. I'd never been in beverage before. My background was more in beauty and tech. So kind of hopping in as a consumer only because like I really drank energy drinks at the gym, you know, to feel my Entrepreneur, I guess life and career and I'd be tired and go to the gym. I'm like, oh, that's a healthier energy drink Let me try it and it really became a part of my lifestyle So it was a it was a meeting of all of that to be honest It was noticing the trend of goat fuel noticing the trends of like more health forward Performance-based functional beverages and even talking to my dad and say hey, how do you feel about this? Everyone's always calling you the goat, you know, you've always cared so much about what you put into your body You you know, he's meticulous with it So let's figure this thing out. And by February of 2019, we came up with the idea of GoFuel. And April, May, we had our first prototype, Tropical Berry, which is this flavor here. This was our first flavor. And we kind of got rolling from there. And we launched with four flavors the end of, really, you could say 2020, the beginning of 2020.
[00:06:40] Ray Latif: And Jacque, I mean, having been a consumer of energy drinks, I'm sure you know that there are some juggernauts in that category. We don't have to name them, but you know who they are. Our audience knows who they are. Jerry, I'm sure you know who they are too, because if I'm not mistaken, you launched Energy Drink back in the day. Was it called E10 Energy Drink? So given all this information, knowing how big and difficult the energy drinks space is, you know, why get into it? Why choose that route? You know, again, I know you're a consumer of energy drinks, Jukwe, but there are other categories that are perhaps not as tough.
[00:07:18] Jaqui Rice: Right. Well, I find that energy drinks. It's just such a very it's such a special category. Think about it. Everyone's working from home. You know, people, they're grinding there. They're trying to get things done. I feel that now more than ever, you've got a lot of multi hyphenated people, people that do like multiple things. So it's like what's fueling them? You know, what's keeping them going? What is a trusted, healthy source of energy and caffeine that they know will keep them on their path to whatever it is that they're doing? So I just became passionate about that term energy in general. And once again, it goes back to the work ethic thing. You know, my dad was fueled. I think it was Flash 80. Wait, right? They called you Flash 80.
[00:07:58] Jerry Rice: Flash 80, yeah.
[00:08:01] Jaqui Rice: that means. That's energy. That's performance. That's going after that. And so this category I feel encompasses all of that the best way. So I think that's why we hopped in on the energy side as being a consumer myself. That Rowdy Energy and we know it's competitive. I mean there's giants in this land. I However, I do feel that our unique combination, there's like an emotional component to our brand that we're finding is resonating with people that are trying to achieve greatness in whatever it is that they're doing in their lives.
[00:08:36] Jerry Rice: I think also it's a. It's that clean energy, which is very important to us. You know, there's no preservatives, no sugar, no aspartame. Then you got cordyceps mushrooms and you got essential vitamins. So this is something that, you know, that we decided to take on. And, you know, I have the best CEO ever, my daughter, you know, running the ship. And, you know, I think we're doing a fantastic job and I'm just excited about this opportunity.
[00:09:09] Ray Latif: Indeed, and thinking about your nickname Flash, it would have been interesting if you called it Flash Fuel. But as Jaqui pointed out, goat is part of our vernacular these days. And it's funny, Jaqui, when you mentioned that you can be a goat of anything. I do want to interview the goat of Jenga one day. That'd be pretty cool, actually.
[00:09:30] Jaqui Rice: He's really killing it on social media.
[00:09:33] Ray Latif: I'm sure he is. Jerry, I want to go back to a point you made about key ingredients, what's in, what's not in goat fuel. Cordyceps mushrooms is a pretty interesting ingredient that I haven't seen in many beverages or foods for that matter. I feel like it might be kind of an uphill battle in terms of getting consumers to understand why it's in an energy drink and what it does for you in terms of its function. So let's start out by figuring out, what do cordyceps mushrooms do for you on a functional level? And how do you plan on educating consumers about the benefits of that ingredient?
[00:10:09] Jerry Rice: Well, I'm going to let my CEO take care of that question right there.
[00:10:13] Ray Latif: All right.
[00:10:14] Jaqui Rice: It's me and my fiance, who's also a co-founder. So when you're talking about family, we're all in this together. We are fans of just the mushrooms. We've just been into knowing about the medicinal benefits of mushrooms for a long time. I don't know if it's because we're in Los Angeles and there's your local coffee shop that has mushroom add-ins. We just got into it. I guess how we decided to put into our drink is having used quarter sips before as a bit of a pre-workout going to the gym, like adding it to the water. And because we knew that quarter sips have been, I mean, the studies have claimed that it helps improve the way your body utilizes oxygen. It increases your VO2 max. Chinese Olympians had used it in the past. It's been used in traditional Chinese medicine for a long time. So anyways, we decided to kind of go off the deep end here. We did our research, our due diligence, and we did see that quarter sips and mushrooms hadn't really been integrated into this category yet. You know, maybe in some functional beverages, but not so much the energy category. But we knew that this could be our real key differentiator. So, you know, you won't taste them. You won't taste them in the drink. But what we're finding is our customers are saying, hey, I love goat fuel, gives me the energy I need, but no jitters, no crash. We're like, OK, that's great. Maybe these mushrooms, they're adaptogens. So they help even out that jitter thing that's typically attributed to energy drinks. So I mean, when it comes from the marketing side and educating our consumers, we launched with an explainer video on our website telling the story of quarter sips, which Interestingly enough, which we learned later, were discovered by goat herders in the Himalayas. So when we took that out, we just like, oh, the stars are aligning, like this is perfect.
[00:12:10] Ray Latif: That's incredible.
[00:12:11] Jaqui Rice: Yeah. So content. I mean, we do a lot of content creation. If you go to our social media, we have a lot of videos and campaign videos. So just content. That's the way we've been really trying to push the story about the quarter steps and educating our consumers as well.
[00:12:26] Greatest Of: Guessing your margins? That's risky. Belay Financial gives CPG brands the clarity to scale smarter, faster, stronger. Get your free inventory ebook by texting TASTE to 55123 and start making data work for you. Vibrant Ingredients is the natural ingredient partner powering food and beverage innovation, delivering flavor, function, and protection through a science-backed portfolio. Vibrant delivers purpose-driven solutions that help brands create extraordinary experiences. Discover what's possible with Vibrant today. Visit VibrantIngredients.com
[00:13:13] Ray Latif: A lot of times, brands and companies try to educate consumers on the packaging. And on the back of your can, which I haven't seen, but the back of your can, I'm assuming, has some information about cordyceps on there. Not much on the front of the can. It's very clean on the front, just says goat fuel, has your logo, energy drink in the name of the flavor, also zero calories. Why keep that key ingredient on the back versus the front?
[00:13:40] Jaqui Rice: Well, we have to be a bit realistic, too, because mushrooms are not mainstream quite yet. So we didn't want to take the focus away from maybe the goat brand and Greatest Of All Time. We're leading with that position first. So, you know, we didn't want to turn anyone off and confuse them and when they see mushrooms on the front we thought about I mean we went through so many iterations of the you know the lay flats and just All Time romance, just everything and we just felt that it would be in our best interest to. you know, make the quarter sub mushroom story and everything present on the can and through our marketing efforts, but not at the very front. The focus on the very front is that term goat Greatest Of All Time and fuel and fueling that story of trying to achieve greatness.
[00:14:32] Jerry Rice: I wish I had go feel back in the day. You know, I probably would have shattered so many records, you know, with that clean energy and all that because I remember, you know, I still I watched everything that I put in my body, but I was trying to get like energy from different foods. And now you know, like wh feel, you know, you can g don't have the jitters or and it's all about being people in other professions too, you know, like the frontline workers. It could be a police officer, you know, entrepreneur, just a go-getter. That's why it's all about the GOAT family. And I'm having such a great time with this because, you know, I get a chance to interact with my fans, with my GOAT family and stuff like that on social media, you know, talking about GOAT feel and it's just a great relationship.
[00:15:34] Ray Latif: Jerry, I can't imagine you'd have many more records to break, even if you had Goat Fuel back in the day.
[00:15:40] Jerry Rice: Hey, I think I would have doubled everything.
[00:15:44] Ray Latif: Now, that sounds pretty amazing if you could have done that. Were you a coffee drinker back in the day? I mean, how did you get your energy back in the day?
[00:15:51] Jerry Rice: Yeah, you know what? Yeah, I would drink a little coffee, but, you know, I don't think it really did anything for me. But, you know, everyone else was doing it. And with Goldfield, it's like 200 milligrams of caffeine. But we have something really special here, and it's something that we have poured our hearts into. And like I said, my daughter is my CEO, then her fiance, He's a CCO. So it's like we started this and we all bought into it and, you know, we're making it happen.
[00:16:24] Ray Latif: I want to go back to something you guys were talking about earlier, which is that this is a product that can appeal to a lot of different people, not just in sports. It can appeal to professionals, just regular folks. But do you have a target consumer? Is there someone that you're really focused on in terms of who Goat Fuel can really appeal to, especially given the fact that you do have a functional ingredient that might appeal a little bit more to, say, the Whole Foods consumer than it would to perhaps the target consumer?
[00:16:54] Jaqui Rice: The sweet spot is like 25 to 35. You know, we've got the fringes on the outside and, you know, we started out 80, 20 male to female, and now we've been able to even that out. So we're more 60, 40 as well. So that's from the consumer side.
[00:17:09] Jerry Rice: I think the thing is, it says anybody that's daring to be great. That's what we are about when we talk about Goat Fuel. And there's a lot of people out there, they might need that inspiration. And for me, over the years, it was all about me leading the pack, letting everybody know that, hey, look, if you work hard, it's going to pay off for you. And I think it's the same thing with Goat Fuel. And if you're in another profession or whatever, if you work hard, it's going to pay off for you. So it's just that mindset.
[00:17:45] Jaqui Rice: And to add to that, you know, when it comes to retail, so you mentioned Whole Foods, you mentioned Target, we get it, but we see ourselves as a bit of a mainstream performance brand. We're not, you know, we're not 100% natural, but we've got, I mean, we've got the best ingredients. It's just our sweetener. We use sucralose and ASK, some of the standard creme de la creme of the industry. We didn't go the completely natural route, but that's going to work for us. I think that we're fine because I think we have the chance to create a healthier alternative in a mainstream market, if that makes sense. So we're not necessarily focused on only being in the era ones and the Whole Foods. That would be great if we can get in those stores. But, you know, we launched with GNC and, you know, we've got relationships and appointments to pitch to Walmart folks. And we see ourselves as more of a mainstream, healthier alternative.
[00:18:40] Ray Latif: Well, it certainly helps when you have a brand ambassador that's a celebrity or an athlete. You know, a lot of times I'll talk to early stage food and beverage companies and they'll say, hey, you know, what do you think about us aligning with this particular person? In the case of Goat Fuel, the celebrity in this case is a co-founder. But, you know, sometimes that works and sometimes that doesn't work so well. So how do you leverage fame? Jerry, how do you leverage your fame in a way that's really authentic to the brand? And Jaqui, you know, how do you help him get there?
[00:19:13] Jerry Rice: You know, it's not about me being a celebrity or anything like that. It's about me really believing in something that I have poured my heart into, you know, with the four drinks, uh, the tasting. And I remember that Jacque, how we did All Time tasting, the formulations and all of that stuff, All Time work that went into that. I have been there from day one.
[00:19:34] Jaqui Rice: Yeah.
[00:19:35] Jerry Rice: And I have been there 100%. You know, it's something that I really believe in. And I think this is like my soul. It's almost like it's me in a can. And I think a lot of people, they resonate with my work ethic and how I poured that into the game and never giving up, always giving 100% so they can identify with that with me.
[00:19:58] Jaqui Rice: Yeah, we've been just really lucky because this aligns truly with dad and his values. And I think that creates some credibility. You know, they trust us. They trust the product. They they trust. They get the story because they know of dad and and obviously All Time amazing things he was able to accomplish in his career from the business side. It's been a balance because we are creating a brand that we want to stand on its own. And we want people that drink it to feel as though they're drinking something that they personally connect to and not, you know, Jerry Rice's drink, right? So when we launched, we launched with the limited edition can. This was December 26th of 2019. We launched with the limited edition can and did some micro testing in LA. And then my dad's signature was on it. And then we made the executive decision like, like last minute at the plant, you know, labels are about to come in and we're like, you know, we've got to take dad's name off and we've got to invert the colors because this is a brand that needs to stand on its own. And so we made that switch because like my dad said earlier, it's always been about the family of goats. It's anyone that's trying to achieve greatness. It's other athletes, it's other entrepreneurs, it's frontline workers. So we wanted people when they picked up this can to feel that they had a personal why when they drank go fuel. But like I said before it's been a bit of a balance because obviously my dad is one of the best cheerleaders ever. It's amazing that he's a co-founder and executive chairman of Go Fuel. However we know that it's a family of goats and there's going to be other collaborations, other partners, other ambassadors. So, yeah, it's been a wild ride.
[00:21:45] Ray Latif: Yeah, that's such an interesting story about, you know, deciding to remove the signature or your dad's signature from the can.
[00:21:52] Jerry Rice: It was my idea. It was my idea. It was your idea. And, you know, I'm sure Dukui and Travion, when I said that to them, they looked at me like, uh, well, Oh, you want to take your name off the can? And I even had some of my friends say the same thing. It's about the brand. We want the brand to be able to stand on its own. And I felt like that was one way of the brand being able to stand on its own.
[00:22:21] Ray Latif: Yeah, I also spoke with another athlete who launched an energy drink brand last year, that's Kyle Bush, who launched a brand called Rowdy Energy, and Rowdy is his nickname. And he told me a similar kind of reasoning for taking a sort of, not backseat, but a lower profile approach to aligning his name and his brand with his energy drink brand. That being said, there is still a lot of value in incorporating Jerry Rice into Goat Fuel. I've seen you post some content on Instagram. I guess I'm wondering what the line is. Is there a fine line in between incorporating you as a person, Jerry, into the brand and taking a behind-the-scenes approach to Goat Fuel?
[00:23:13] Jerry Rice: And that's really what I wanted. I wanted that behind the scene. And I think a lot of people they reference to that the goat. That's what they really reference to, the Greatest Of All Time. And anyone that's daring to do that, to be great on any given day, that's really what I wanted to bring into focus. And it's great that my fans say I'm the Greatest Of All Time, but I never looked at myself that way. When you think about this pandemic and what's happening, you got so many people dying and all of that, and these frontline workers. Man, those are the goats. Those are the Greatest Of All Time, you know, who put their lives in jeopardy to save other lives. So yeah, I wanted to take that backseat.
[00:23:59] Jaqui Rice: Yeah. And, and when we started, you know, the, the can says Greatest Of All Time, right? Like it says, go fuel Greatest Of All Time on the can. It holds you to some level of accountability when you've got, when you decide to start a brand called the Greatest Of All Time. And we wanted to make sure that people, it made sense and they understood, you know, why. We named it that and what our mission was. And to be honest, with Dad and his marketing in the early stages, it helped people click and get it. And then that's phase one. And then you build and you evolve All Time goes on. So whereas we started with Dad obviously being the spokesperson and talking about GoFuel and a lot of our messaging and marketing surrounding him, it was in a way to just be able to connect with the consumer and to, you know, and to launch with that strategy. And then we knew that we'd evolve All Time went on. So we have other ambassadors in line currently. We can't really speak about it right now. And yeah, my dad's executive chairman. So it's, so it's Travion and myself and our team, and we're in the day to day. And it's like, my dad's like the godfather who, you know, when needed and even comes, you know, you go to the meetings and retailer, you know, distributor meetings and things like that. But yeah, I think that we're trying to build a brand that in time will just completely stand on its own. So that's what we're working on.
[00:25:33] Ray Latif: The Vito Corleone of Goat Fuel.
[00:25:38] Jerry Rice: No, I wouldn't say that.
[00:25:41] Ray Latif: No, no, no, no. You probably wouldn't want to advertise that, no.
[00:25:47] All Time: Do you want more repeat buyers on Amazon? Well, this free resource in collaboration with Straight Up Growth will help your brand turn first-time buyers into long-term subscribers. Download Winning the Repeat Purchase Game on Amazon now at Taste Radio slash SUG. That's Taste Radio slash S-U-G to start building retention-driven growth for your brand on Amazon. Scaling a beverage brand into major retail comes down to operational readiness. From packaging lead times to co-manufacturing strategy, the details can make or break a launch. In a new e-book in collaboration with Octopi and Asahi Beer USA, industry leaders share what they've learned in helping brands scale. Download it now at Taste Radio slash octopi.
[00:26:36] Ray Latif: Jacque, you mentioned you have some ambassadors on deck. Are they other athletes or are they regular everyday people like frontline workers? I guess, are you trying to bring other folks into the fold who are aligned with the brand or aligned with your dad or both?
[00:26:52] Jaqui Rice: both. So whereas some are, you know, in sports, not the NFL, not football, you know, we're diversifying on that side. We kind of got started early on with just a small program. A lot of people wanted to rep Goat Fuel. And so, you know, we started accepting ambassador applications, kind of more on the affiliate side, but still, it was still building that community, building the diversity. So there's a lot of people that represent Goat Fuel and help get sales for us, because it's not only about the athletes. That's not how we view it. And then when it comes to frontline workers, we have a program where if you are a frontline worker or a first responder, you can sign up and apply and you can get, you know, go fuel for a discount forever. So it's us really trying to hone in more so on people that are just reflecting that ethos of greatness in a work ethic. And that can be on the field or that can be in a classroom.
[00:27:54] Ray Latif: Speaking about partnerships, one thing that came out recently was GoFuel's partnership with FanDuel. And, you know, it's interesting because when brands align with each other, there has to be some synergy. There has to be some reason for being. And Jerry, I'm sure there are people who have approached you in the past and brands who have approached you in the past saying, hey, can you represent our brand, can you be an ambassador for our company? Again, the stars have to align for that to work. When it comes to FanDuel or any other partnership at this point, what do you take into account and what are some of the opportunities that you try to avoid? What are some of the red flags?
[00:28:32] Jerry Rice: I think the most important thing is core values. They have to believe what you're doing and for us to partner with someone. And I have been asked to be an ambassador for, you know, so many products. And the thing is, I have to believe in it. I'm not just going to endorse something if I don't believe in it. And I think it's the same thing with GoFuel. Core values is the most important thing.
[00:29:00] Jaqui Rice: Right. For us, we're a startup and every decision matters. I mean, it's a very, very crucial time for us. So we have to be so strategic. And obviously, we had a lot of interest because of dad's involvement with the company. However, you know, goat fuel is its own entity. And so we have to be very stringent about partnering with, you know, whether it's people or other companies, and making sure that they reflect our core values, like he was saying, and work ethic, and it just all has to make sense from a lot of different, I guess, layers, but we had to learn to stay focused. There was an influx of interest. No, we can't take for granted. That's wonderful. However, beverage is hard. Energy is hard. And so we also, when we decided to partner with Vandal, you know, dad, you and Vandal had already done something before. So we really wanted to work with someone who already kind of went through the vetting process. But yeah, we just, we have to stay focused.
[00:30:06] Jerry Rice: Yeah, so fan duo, they did this competition and you know, I thought man, this is the greatest opportunity ever for the goat family to be able to interact with the greatest running back like Emmett Smith or Warren Moon. So, you know, it was an opportunity of a lifetime and it's going to be a lot of fun.
[00:30:27] Jaqui Rice: Yeah, because they did a great job and really, I guess, amplifying. That's the cool thing with the brand, with GOAT, People's Association, and in a way it kind of amplifies themselves, you know? So with Bandle, using GOAT and being able to do to a goat contest powered by goat fuel, and we have Emin and Warren Moon. It was a really cool synergy. And it was our first time really rolling out a partnership to this kind of extent, but we're excited to see what's in store. And even from the ambassador side, we've got a lot of exciting things up our sleeve.
[00:31:06] Ray Latif: Fantastic. Well, can't wait to see what's next. Jaqui, you mentioned the beverage industry is very challenging. Energy category is very challenging. But, you know, to your credit, you have gotten off to a pretty good start. You're in GNC stores. You have this partnership with FanDuel. You know, a lot of people don't even come close to getting that at this point. But, you know, what's been the most frustrating part of your journey to this point? You know, what's been the most rewarding part of being an entrepreneur, being a beverage entrepreneur to this point?
[00:31:36] Jaqui Rice: There's nothing more gratifying than getting liquid in a can. That day, that day was victorious. It's so cool. It's so cool to have a product, you know, consumer products. It's just, it's a fun space because you have an idea and then you create something and people use it. Like, I just love that. That's so satisfying to me. GoFuel motivates me, you know, when I'm tired, like I just, yeah, it's, it's amazing developing a product, but doing all of that during COVID. I mean, it goes without saying that we were met with some very unprecedented challenges. Fortunately, we had already started building a presence online at that time. We launched direct to consumer, actually. We launched online. And if we hadn't done that, I don't know what 2020 would have looked like for us. We had started conversations with different retailers that pulled back once March happened. And we were like, oh no, what do we do? Fortunately, we had a business going online. We had our, you know, fulfillment, everything set up. So we were able to do well and be one of, you know, a fortunate business to grow during that time. But that was hard. That was really hard. It was hard when it came to team building, like building a team remotely in beverage when you have to have so many eyes on things. I mean, it's such a logistics based industry. But yeah, so that was tough.
[00:33:09] Jerry Rice: I think it's frustrating but you know it's like once you go in and you're you're pitching. you're trying to get people to help you raise money. That was like really, it was frustrating, but then you have to stand back and you have to look at it from their side too. And I think the thing is All Time meetings that we had together, and you know, for me to be there, for me to be present, you know, it was important because I wanted them to know that I was like completely part of this. This is not just an endorsement thing or anything like that. I have watched this grow from the ground up. And I'm always going to give 100%. I wanted them to know that. And for us to be successful the way we are, even during a pandemic, you know, it's a testament to you. You know, you guys believing that we could do this. And you know, you guys run this ship from day to day. And I just want you to know that I really appreciate you for what you're doing and how you have grown. It means the world to me.
[00:34:18] Super Bowl: Yeah.
[00:34:20] Ray Latif: That is a very nice moment. Anytime your parents can be proud of you and say it proudly is validation that you're doing something right. I know that for a fact. So it's just amazing to see you two coming together and working so hard on this. I'm sure, and this is my last question here, Jerry, that you've been asked this a million times. I'm sure that Jaqui might have asked you this from time to time. What does it take to be a GOAT? There are beverage entrepreneurs listening right now, food and beverage entrepreneurs listening right now, and they're saying, you know what, I want to be the best. I want to succeed at a level that no one's ever achieved before. What's your advice?
[00:34:59] Jerry Rice: You know, to be a GOAT is that you're daring to go and put yourself out front every day. You might not achieve exactly what you want to, but you always want to give 100%. I never had that perfect game. I could always go in the next day and I could watch that film and I could have did something better. So those are the GOATs. Those are the Greatest Of All Time that's willing to fight every day.
[00:35:27] Ray Latif: So the goat isn't perfect and should never be perfect because perfection is always the goal.
[00:35:33] Jerry Rice: Yeah, that's always the goal. That was the fear of failure that always pushed me.
[00:35:37] Jaqui Rice: Yeah.
[00:35:38] Jerry Rice: I never wanted to let anyone down. You know, it's like my family. And I can see this in Jaqui. You know, she's a hard worker. She's determined. And, you know, I'm excited to see that all of that hard work come to the front now. And I would think I might have had something to do with that. It might have rubbed off on her a little bit. But what she's doing now is incredible. And I think that's what the world is all about. It's giving 100% every day. It's loving what you do. And if you get knocked down, get back up and start swinging. Come back harder.
[00:36:18] Jaqui Rice: I just have to hop in here, because yes, dad, you were such an example, you know, in our household. And I think even one time, like, remember when you came to my basketball game, and you like pulled me off the court, because you're saying, you can do better, you can do better. And I was like, don't ever come to my games. That's such an example for us. And I think one of the main takeaways for me and when it comes to just being in the beverage industry, you know, it may sound cliche, but mindset. There's a lot of highs and a lot of lows like you have to stay. You have to try to, you know, keep it somewhere in the middle. Don't get too high, don't get too low because it's going to be a ride. And that's what we found, you know, just from our manufacturing process to shipping errors, to just all types of things that come out of left field. And if you reappear reactive every time, you just, you're just going to burn out.
[00:37:16] Jerry Rice: And that's really what the Greatest Of ever told me, Bill Walsh. He said, there's going to be highs, there's going to be lows. How do you deal with the lows? And I would always reference that when I was talking to different companies, and I would think about that. And doing a ball game, that's exactly how it happens. You have highs when everything's going right, then there's lows, then okay, now do you have the goats when everything is going the wrong way to fight out of that adversity? And we always had those type of guys.
[00:37:51] Ray Latif: Well, I gotta say, this has been such a great conversation. I started out being excited to speak with both of you, and having watched you play, Jerry, when I was a kid, it's such an honor to be with you. And as our conversation continued, It's just so rewarding for me to see the family business really coming together. That's such an important thing. I'm from a family business. My brothers and my father all work together. And it's so great to see. And I wish you All Time luck to succeed with GoatFuel. I think you're off to a great start. Please stay in touch. Let us know how things are going. All right. Thank you.
[00:38:29] Jaqui Rice: Thanks so much for having us.
[00:38:31] Ray Latif: Thank you very much, Jerry Joukwi. It's been my honor.
[00:38:33] Jaqui Rice: Likewise.
[00:38:37] Ray Latif: That brings us to the end of episode 236. Thank you so much for listening, and thanks to our guests, Jerry and Jaqui Rice. As always, for questions, comments, ideas for future podcasts, please send us an email to askatasteradio.com. On behalf of the entire Taste Radio team, thank you for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.
