Baby Got Backstory

Co-founder, Laurence Spiewak, is sharing how Suerte Tequila came to be.  While it may not have been the most direct route, Laurence is happy with all the adventures his heart has led him on. Find out how a kid from Philly left the family business for occupational therapy, only to again follow his heart and build his own tequila brand.

Learn what’s possible when you follow your heart.

• The American Dream and A Call For Adventure

Laurence Spiewak is the son of an immigrant. His father taught him what it took to be an entrepreneur and own a successful and lucrative business. While Laurence will be the first to admit he didn’t necessarily have the entrepreneurial spirit early on in life, he did embrace the call to adventure and curiosity about other cultures from a young age. Determined to follow his interests and passions at the time, he convinced the dean at Penn State University to allow him to study both international business and art with the vision of combining the two in some way. He discovered his love for ceramics and the history of deep culture rooted in the art. During this same time, he also soon became aware of many of the environmental issues around the globe and learned he could have a significant impact in the world if he took action. He took this passion for the environment and made the move to Boulder, CO for a year after college, to be exposed to the wilderness. This exposure, however, made him realize how  curious he was to explore even more of the world, and he soon set out to travel and experience Europe and other parts of the world.

He first set off to Whales to live in community and help care for those with developmental disabilities, which had a very big impact on him. After six months in Whales, Laurence traveled through Western Europe, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. These adventures significantly shaped his future. Upon returning home, and knowing he wanted a career where he helped people to have better lives, he went on to study occupational therapy and ultimately went on to run rehab departments in nursing homes in New York. His love for helping people could not quiet the calling from Boulder, Colorado pulling him back.

After four years of working in nursing homes back in Colorado, Laurence was feeling some sense of burn out. He decided it was time to make a change, and reached out to a friend who had started a natural organic skin care company, asking if he could help grow this entrepreneurial endeavor.  This experience helped to solidify his familiarity with consumer packaged goods. He soon saw that he had a knack for helping entrepreneurs do business and financial planning, and began a career as a consultant.

During this time, Laurence’s friendship with an old co-worker, Lance Sokol continued to grow, bonding over a shared love of drinking and trying new Tequila. They made it their mission to try every tequila out there. Soon realizing they had tried many of the brands out there, and that the really good tequila cost a lot of money, they looked at each other and wondered if it was too crazy of an idea to start their own brand. They already were in the consumer packaged goods world, already knew how to set up products, how to source raw materials, how to create packaging and how to price things. They made a business plan in hopes their dream would become a reality. Lance soon met Pedro Hernandez Barba, a master distiller of tequila in Mexico who was looking for someone in the US to produce tequila for. The three got together and discussed their dreams and created a partnership. Laurence and Lance would act as the importer and brand, and Pedro’s family would act as supplier and distiller.

Luck seemed to find Laurence, thus suerte or “luck” in Spanish, became the name of their tequila brand. While this adventure seemed to get off the ground flawlessly, there was one challenge they continued to come across. The U.S. has what’s called a Three-Tier System for alcoholic beverages. In the alcoholic beverage industry you have the suppliers, distributors and retailers. So those are the three tiers. You can’t do business on more than any one of those at a time. So a supplier can’t own a distribution business  or vice versa. But even within the distribution piece, most laws have laws that prohibit you from selling directly to customers or directly to retailers. You have to do it with a middle man distributor. Each of those distributors have business in many of the brands they represent, which makes it very competitive until you actually generate some volume. These challenges do present themselves, but Suerte Tequila seems to be doing pretty well for itself, as luck would have it.

What was the last adventure you let your heart take the lead on?

Suerte Tequilla

Suerte on Instagram

Suerte on Facebook

Rudolf Steiner’s Waldorf’s Education and Anthroposophy

Crystal Ski Shop

Pangea Organics

Madhava

TTB

Wildstory

1. 40:00-40:40 (40 sec LS) But we were at Liquor Mart one night, and we were standing in front… we would start doing some business planning.

1. My father was truly an immigrant himself along with his two parents. He got his start in business later on after high school and, so he was truly living and fulfilling the American dream. (LS)

Alec Stern was a kid from New Jersey who had a dream of moving to Boston one day. With his passion for customers and his drive to pursue the life he wanted, Alec co-founded the most well-known email software in the world, Constant Contact. He is sharing how his focus on customers, solving customer problems, and creating value for others helped propel his business to eventually sell for $1.1 billion. Alec is a founder, investor, mentor, and specializes in scaling companies. His story is one of perseverance, resilience, and the true reward of giving back.

Accomplishments are something to build on, not rest on.

• The Event That Taught Alec Stern How To Pivot In Life

Growing up, Alec watched his mom transition from a stay-at-home mom to an entrepreneur and business owner, while his father, who was in the textile industry struggled in his ability to balance work and family. Much of Alec’s childhood and high school career revolved around athletics, specifically football and when he broke his back during his senior year of high school, the college athletic scholarships also vanished. Faced with needing to find a new identity, Alec started college as a sociology major and transitioned to business, becoming very involved in campus life. His next pivot came when he had to make the decision to take a job in business while fearing an inability to balance his future family life with work. Thanks to two mentors who were examples of being able to work while being present for their families, Alec knew it was possible to do the same.

Alec has refused to take no for an answer more than once in his life. Upon completion of a college project with Prime Computer, Alec wanted to get hired by the company right out of college. This wasn’t something Prime Computers did and all employees hired had 5-10 years of experience and came from large companies, such as IBM and Honeywell. Alec decided to become persistent in his want and need to speak to the Senior VP of Sales and even after being told time after time that his called wouldn’t be taken, Alec opted to be placed on hold until after the Sr. VP came back from a trip to Europe. This resilience is what led him to not only get the call, get the job, but also create a recent graduate hiring program for Prime Computer. This also allowed him to live out his childhood dream of living in Boston.

Alec has co-founded multiple companies, grown companies, sold companies and invests in companies and his goal for Constant Contact was a want to level the playing field for mainstream, small businesses with an easy to use self-service tool. He wanted to drive revenue for businesses instead of being an added expense and the biggest part in ensuring this happened was in delighting the customer. You don’t have to have a finished product to bring to market, but you do have to have focus on your customer and the ability to know who your target customer is. Constant Contact didn’t start with a finished product or revenue, but they had a drive and ability to generate feedback and create a useful product that their customers wanted to use. If a customer said no, Alec took that as “not right now” and would always circle back to the customer.

Are you willing to pivot when faced with a challenge?

For your copy of the Pillars for Achieving Startup Success Workbook, text the word PILLARS to 59925.

G20 Ventures

Wildstory

• 13:55 – 14:24 (29 sec AS) – I had to sit and really think…not going to let it happen to me again.

1. Accomplishments are something to build on, not rest on.

Today we’re talking about the funnel process of naming or renaming a business or product. A name is the first introduction to your product. The right brand name becomes an asset. It can signal differentiation and lock into the consumer’s mind instantly. The right name creates an emotion in us that triggers a buying decision. The wrong name can end up costing the business millions. It's a process that is a combination of the magical and the logical. Learn how to effectively apply this process to your business, whether you're starting fresh with a brand new name, or you’re renaming.

• What Is Your Brand Identity?

The brand gives the name meaning, while the name can also make the brand what it is. Essentially, the brand and the name go hand in hand. Neither one can do it alone. Marc Gutman, of the Baby Got Backstory podcast, starts at the beginning, which is asking the question: what kind of name do you want? What are you trying to communicate with the name? Once this is established, we can start generating anywhere from 100-500 names. These can come from any of the four categories of types of names: descriptive, image-based, abstract, and provenance. Marc also highlights what to avoid when naming a brand.

Coming up with a name can take as little or as much time that you’re willing to spend. Marc feels that 4 weeks is an ideal range of time because it allows you to adequately brainstorm, give the name time to breathe, and revisit with a new perspective. There are three different approaches to this process, including solo, collaborative workshop, and collaborative co-create. Wildstory specializes in these collaborative workshops. Marc breaks down these exercises that make up these workshops, step by step. The biggest challenge sometimes is choosing who will be the final “decider”. This usually is the founder with small businesses, or the CMO, owner, CEO, or someone else at a larger company. Once you have this “decider” chosen, you then build a brand team. This team should represent all departments, and be communicated within a transparent manner of how the naming process will work. It’s important to have all those involved to feel like the name represents them so that you have advocates and influencers when this name goes live.

While the name of a business does evoke emotion, Marc stresses the importance of not falling in love with a name. If there is a reason the name does not end up being used, you do not want to find yourself heart-broken. In order to remove bias, and/or unhealthy attachment, Marc has seven criteria to apply so you can ultimately ask, “Is this the right name?” Finally, it is important to realize that it's almost impossible to find the only name in the world for a particular name. As long as it’s not in the same segment or market, you are able to make it unique to your brand. For this to be achieved, Marc has put together a checklist to test your name against.

Far too often, many business owners will get hung up on not having their perfect URL available. This should not be a deal-breaker. You need to use some of that magical creativity and just get imaginative. It’s possible to add another word or two as a domain modifier or use the URL as a call to action. You could use a creative phrase that can reinforce your brand and aid in SEO. You could also use back-end modifiers for your domain as an alternative to .com.

Once you arrive at the testing phase, you will implement high-level clearing searches to determine if there are any conflicts in your industry, such as domain, legal, etc. Start thinking about your name visually in signage, business cards, email signature, and branding merchandise. Does it look right? Start speaking it aloud, in your voicemail, commercials, and conversations. Does it sound right? Could it be potentially offensive or misleading in another language or culture if it were to be used in a global environment? These are all issues to keep in mind, however, always remember to keep the whole naming process fun. This is probably the only time you get to name an awesome business that you love. Do you believe in the magic of your name?

Wildstory

• 13:37-14:30 (53 sec MG) You know, and I always think that...Awesome, awesome name.

1. All rules, under the right circumstances, are meant to be broken. Just understand what you are breaking and why and be conscious that those rules or principles are in place for a reason.

Founders and CEOs of Slumberkins, Callie Christensen and Kelly Oriard share how they started as two best friends telling stories of sloths and Bigfoot for fun and turned it into a multimillion-dollar business. This business is based on all-around storytelling. Stories have the power to provide meaning and clarity around some of life’s most challenging moments. These moms used their natural skills and expertise to equip parents with invaluable resources.  Find out how the two found themselves deconstructing plush blankets to pitching their business idea on Shark Tank, and everything in between.

Get ready to find out how storytelling changes lives!

• Discovering The Power Of Storytelling As Mothers

Callie Christensen and Kelly Oriard became fast friends in high school, bonding over their tall stature, volleyball tryouts, and pronunciation efforts in Spanish 101. Their friendship continued to grow through college, shared interests as educators, and leaning on each other as they each became new moms. It was through these commonalities that they realized there was a need for resources to help parents emotionally support their children from an early age. Utilizing their areas of expertise, Callie, a special education behavioral interventionist, and Kelly, a counselor and family therapist, along with their personal experiences, the two brainstormed how they could equip parents with the skills to lead the sometimes difficult conversations with their children. As parents themselves, they thought of how valuable bedtime routines had become. These are moments when they could really connect and engage with their children. They also realized the power of storytelling and the messages that could be delivered. And so began the early stages of Slumberkins; plush toy creatures with corresponding stories that help facilitate authentic interactions between parent and child.

After realizing they may be on to something, the two borrowed $200 to purchase fabric and hand sew about 30 versions of their first edition of creatures. Binding the characters to their corresponding stories, written by Kelly and printed on cardstock, the two set off to sell their concept at a booth at their local holiday bazaar. They sold out quickly and returned home with $700. This process continued until they realized after buying out the local fabric store’s entire stock of plush fabric, that this was something bigger than they had originally imagined. Launching their business on Instagram and Etsy helped launch their “handmade side hustle” with access to an open market. They soon found themselves making an official pitch on Shark Tank. While it did not go as they had hoped, it really helped them take their business more seriously and give their business plan and mission the attention deserved. They realized what differentiated their product to the many other plush toys out there were their therapeutic storylines, and really connecting to their consumers.

Today, Slumberkins is a multimillion-dollar business with 20 employees and over 60,000 customers. They are currently talking with the Jim Henson Company to produce a children’s television series based on the Slumberkin characters. With the business steadily growing each year, the part that the duo are most proud of is their ability to connect with parents, teachers, and caregivers. Slumberkins has a Facebook social group where their consumers can connect and grow together. Callie and Kelly are having the most fun working together, something others warned wasn’t possible for best friends. They’re enjoying proving those doubters wrong and helping Bigfoot feel good about himself.

Let’s all say it together: “I am strong. I am brave and unique. The world is better because I am here. I like me.”

Slumberkins

Slumberkins Social

Slumberkins on Etsy

Slumberkins on Instagram

Wildstory

1. 27:31- 28:28 (57 sec KO)  Well, I think story in general… wanted to infuse both of those into one.

1. Let’s do something together. That’s fun. And that tries to affect the problem that we’re seeing in the world at large. -KO

Founder of The North Face, Hap Klopp shares how it was created and what this company represents to him. During his 20 years as president and CEO, The North Face was recognized for being one of the best-managed companies in its industry, for both the quality of its products and the investment in its employees. Hap has found that success comes from disrupting the status quo.  Find out how a kid from Spokane sold his family window business, moved to San Francisco, and founded one of the world’s largest and most recognizable adventure brands.

Discover what it truly means to disrupt an industry!

• Hap Klopp’s Climb to Success: A Combination of Desperation and Opportunity

Born and raised in the outdoors of Spokane, Washington, Hap Klopp realized from a young age that the corporate environment was not for him. He credits his values instilled by his parents, schooling, literature, and athletic activity, as giving him the self-confidence to develop his own philosophies and principles. After taking over the family window business at just 20 years old, he soon discovered the business wasn’t big enough to be competitive and decided to sell the company while earning his MBA at Stanford.  He knew he had a natural instinct for branding, sales, and marketing, but disagreed with planned obsolescence, gender and language discrimination, among other attributes often found in the corporate world. Hap felt that to build a great company, you just needed the best people, no matter their background. Self-described as idiosyncratic, he knew early on what he wanted to do with his life: to have fun, be in the outdoor business, and change the world.

After finishing his MBA in 1967, Hap worked on a business plan to go into the outdoor business. He knew in order to bring in cash flow, he needed to get into something that already existed, which would ultimately buy him time to use his innovation to develop new products and “disrupt the general camping business.” Utilizing materials from the war effort in Vietnam, Hap was able to lead the design of camping products that were 50% lighter than what was in the current market place. This innovation ended up creating a whole new segment, known as a backpacking business, which built the brand of The North Face as we know it today.

Due to the company’s exponential growth rate, after 20 years of running the business, Hap found himself spending the majority of his time meeting with external investors, who all had their own ideas of how he should be running things. Remembering that he got to where he was because he loved innovation and exploration, rather than business meetings, Hap decided it was time to sell the company and move towards the next set of adventures. These included starting a branding consulting company, authoring multiple books, speaking around the globe, and teaching at various universities to just name a few. Looking to the future, Hap says he is most excited to see how the healthcare system will be disrupted by digitization, democratization, and globalization.

How are you disrupting your industry?

The North Face

Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

Henry David Thoreau’s “Walking”

Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching

Reviv

Wildstory

1. 13:40-14:15 (45 sec HK) – I wanted to have fun, and I wanted to do things… a small part about changing it.

1. I decided that if I started a business around something I knew and cared about, that it was going to be the best path for me. And that was ultimately the inspiration. HK