Last Updated on May 10, 2023 by mark

Adam Rudolph is the Regional VP of Sales of SLRRRP. He has been in sales for over 10 years. Most of that experience took place in the Domestic, Craft Beer, and Wine Industries. He has acquired proficient territory management, product knowledge, and new product launching through this experience. He was promoted in this industry due to his hard work, creativity, and salesmanship. He was able to grow his territory and business exponentially through new product distribution, samplings, and taking market share from his main competitors in the surrounding areas.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: 

• Adam Rudolph is the VP of Sales for SLRRRP
• SLRRRP is a ready-to-drink category brand that started in Las Vegas in 2018   
• SLRRRP is a plant-based alternative to gelatin-based shots   
• Customer feedback and engagement are important for the brand 
• Marketing efforts on various digital platforms, including tracking impressions and followers   
• Brand familiarity was the biggest challenge in growing the SLRRRP brand   
• SLRRRP on acquiring partnerships with football and minor league baseball teams

In this episode with Adam Rudolph

In this episode with Adam Rudolph, Adam talks about their vegan and shelf-stable ready-to-drink jello shots. What sets them apart from their competition and what are the benefits of a plant-based approach to their product?

Adam Rudolph is the VP of Sales at SLRRRP, he shares his marketing strategy which includes a strong digital presence on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, where they track impressions to measure success. Customers provide feedback for new flavors, and the brand offers individual UPC codes for easy registration sales. 

In today’s episode of the Legends Behind The Craft podcast, Drew Thomas Hendricks and Bianca Harmon are joined by Adam Rudolph for a special SLRRRP tasting episode, Adam is the VP of Sales at SLRRRP, to discuss Adam’s marketing strategy despite facing obstacles getting into chain stores initially, SLRRP built relationships with distributors to overcome them. SLRRRP found ways to engage with customers while experimenting with new flavors without the product being impacted significantly. 

Resources Mentioned in this episode

• Drew Thomas Hendricks on LinkedIn
• Barrels Ahead
• Bianca Harmon on LinkedIn
• Stephen Houck on LinkedIn
• Adam Rudolph on LinkedIn
• SLRRRP Website
• Stone Brewing
• Oskar Blues Brewery
• Coors Brewing Company
• Matt Vernon on LinkedIn
• The Coca-Cola Company
• Trent Killian on LinkedIn
• Rocco’s Pizza & Cantina
• Canton Football Hall of Fame Partnership
• Superior Beverage Group

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is brought to you by Barrels Ahead.

Barrels Ahead is a wine and craft marketing agency that propels organic growth by using a powerful combination of content development, Search Engine Optimization, and paid search.

At Barrels Ahead, we know that your business is unique. That’s why we work with you to create a one-of-a-kind marketing strategy that highlights your authenticity, tells your story, and makes your business stand out from your competitors.

Our team at Barrels Ahead helps you leverage your knowledge so you can enjoy the results and revenue your business deserves.

So, what are you waiting for? Unlock your results today!

To learn more, visit barrelsahead.com or email us at hello@barrelsahead.com to schedule a strategy call.

Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Drew Thomas Hendricks here. I’m the host of the Legends Behind the Craft podcast. On this show, we talk with leaders in the wine and craft beverage industry. Today we’ve got a really special episode in store for you. We really strive on this show to kind of bring back the fun. The fun in wine and craft. And today we’ve got a really awesome ready-to-drink category online. But before I get into it, quick sponsor message. 

Today’s episode is sponsored by Barrels Ahead. Barrels Ahead, we work with you to scale your business through authentic content. Go to barrelsahead.com today to learn.

Today I am super excited to take a deep dive into the ready-to-drink category with Adam Rudolph, Vice President of Sales for SLRRRP. Adam, welcome to the show.

[00:00:59] Adam Rudolph: Awesome. Thank you guys for having me. excited to be here and give you the background on the company.

[00:01:04] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Yeah. We actually have an experiential podcast today. Adam was kind enough to send us some samples, so we’ll be sampling this ready-to-drink category. So, Adam, tell us a little bit about SLRRRP.

[00:01:14] Adam Rudolph: Awesome. So the company started back in 2018, and this little town, you guys might have heard of it, it’s called Las Vegas. So we started there. and from there we’ve kind of grown, grown the company, as far as brand, employees as well.

But to backtrack a little, the company started with, Edward Farley, who is our founder, his background is a lot of in the financial realm, you know, he wanted to bring to light a, an easier, you know, simpler way to make jello shots, to have them ready to go right off the bat, you know, to make him without animal parts.

And then our CEO is Steven Houck. He comes from a phenomenal background in the craft beer world. Did some international sales at Stone Brewing, Oscar Blues. his family comes from a background in, Coors Brewing as well. So those two randomly met on LinkedIn, funny enough, and then the third one, that they brought in was, Matt Vernon.

So Matt comes from about 20-plus years of experience in the soda world. All of that being from Coca-Cola, he was a national sales director, a key account manager for those guys, so it was really great to have, you know, the financial aspect. You have somebody in the craft beer world and then somebody in the soda world as well to kind of round out the group.

So again, you know, we started in Las Vegas with our spirit side of the business, which was vodka. And then, you know, they started to grow and, you know, I was lucky enough to ask, to be brought on board with these guys to help with growth on the east coast. And I was hired, right after they started.

And you know, so the four of us, and we were up to about 25 employees now. We’re in 45 states, you know, close to 20,000 different retail outlets. So the brand is really taken off and grown. you know, we’re also sold internationally as well.

[00:02:48] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Well, that’s amazing. Yeah, so talk to me about this ready-to-drink category in general, and then, gelatin shots being just a subset of it, what prompted them to enter into the category and jello shots.

[00:03:00] Adam Rudolph: Right. So I think, you know, there was a need, you know, obviously the RTD category itself has really grown, over the past three, four years as a whole together, you know, with the seltzers, the vodka seltzers, things like that. And just, you know, there weren’t a lot of ready-to-drink shots, Right? So with ours, you know, we decided to make it a ready-to-drink shop. But the cool thing about the brand is it’s vegan. So, meaning it, it’s vegan, it’s plant-based. So if you’re vegetarian, you can do that it’s not made with any animal scraps, things like that, which is really cool.

So we kind of saw that there was a need to avoid as well for having a ready-to-drink shot. one that was available, you know, year-round. And to just in making it vegan, you know, and that’s just kind of how the concept came about.

[00:03:46] Drew Thomas Hendricks: yeah, I guess I don’t normally think of Jello shots not being vegan, but I guess there’s a good chance that they would be made from Jello, right?

So talk to me about non-vegan jello shots. ?

[00:03:55] Adam Rudolph: Yeah. Here we go. So technically, ours is gelatin. We can’t, you know, say jello shots, so most jello is made with animal byproducts, whether it’s, you know, bones and cartilage, things like that. Ours is, made with a proprietary, seaweed blend. Oh.

So one, it makes it vegan. We also have a two-year shelf life on all of our products, which is really, really cool. And then with it being plant-based, it’s also shelf stable up to 90 degrees. So if you don’t have cold storage, say you guys are out camping, things like that the product is shelf stable up to 90 degrees.

So it’s,

[00:04:30] Bianca Harmon: Whereas regular jello would have to be refrigerated.

[00:04:33] Adam Rudolph: Correct. Yep. Yeah, if you go into your supermarkets or your community source, things like that, and if you see jello, it’s typically in, you know, a cooler or an open-air cooler and already refrigerated.

[00:04:42] Drew Thomas Hendricks: So, wow. That’s to me, being uneducated in this, it’s a little counterintuitive like the two-year shelf life actually becomes, Comes from the fact that it’s more natural.

Correct. More of that vegan, which gives it that stability. That’s amazing. Absolutely. So when you started 2018, what was your first, I’ve got, you’re kind enough to send a few different ones here. I’ve got minis, I’ve got mashups. What was the first, your first inaugural launch?

[00:05:06] Adam Rudolph: I’ll grab, you know, mine as well. So we started off with, this is what we call our OG. It’s our original variety pack but I dunno if I sent you guys one. If not,

[00:05:14] Bianca Harmon: Yes, you did. You did. I just only dropped out personally the minis.

[00:05:19] Adam Rudolph: No. Well, you know what? that works as well. I’ll talk a little bit about the vodka then get into the smaller ones.

So we started off, with OG it’s still our number one SKU across the country, there are five flavors in that. So you have strawberry, blue, raspberry, watermelon, and mango. I got a strawberry slammer in my hand here. Yeah, it’d be the last additional flavor is peach. Which one? Peach.

Another really cool, fun fact about ours is typically the way we designed it is you just pinch the bottom of the cup and, you know, give it a little suck, and goes right down.

[00:05:52] Drew Thomas Hendricks: You can definitely see the SLRRRP. I’m okay. That is delicious. It’s probably not what the podcast wants to hear, but that was delicious.

That was the strawberry. So talk to me about your vodka. It cuz it is a very clean taste.

[00:06:04] Adam Rudolph: Yeah, it is.

[00:06:06] Bianca Harmon: Taste like it has the amount of alcohol that it has in it.

[00:06:09] Adam Rudolph: Sure. So it’s just a low-proof vodka that, you know, we got lucky enough to source from someone that, you know, wanted to be a part of, you know, something new.

As far as growing a company and, you know, we’ve run with that brand ever since. And again, you know, it’s like I said, it’s just a low-proof vodka, the malt minis that you guys were holding up. So we just started, that’s an 8% ABV. So, Oh yeah. similar product.

Just malt based, the reason why we did that is to get into some controlled states, you know, for example, Pennsylvania, where you can only buy, you know, your liquor products at a liquor store. This is a malt-based item, so it’s considered beer. So, you know, it goes a lot broader into, you know, grocery convenience across the board. but again,

[00:06:53] Bianca Harmon: What are you, what kind of malt are you using when making these?

[00:06:56] Adam Rudolph: It’s just, you know, similar to, the brewery process and beer. Just, you know, it’s a nugget of hops in malt and barley and water and, we go from there.

[00:07:05] Drew Thomas Hendricks: That’s interesting. So you did technically recommend these to be like chilled or frozen, chill or frozen.

[00:07:11] Adam Rudolph: Yes. My wife loves ’em frozen. But yeah, definitely chilled or frozen for sure.

[00:07:14] Bianca Harmon: I actually tried some of the runs frozen. but it was good, but it also was really cold, like try to SLRRRP, right?

[00:07:24] Adam Rudolph: Yeah. So the texture is a little bit different, with it being plant-based versus, you know, actual jello.

[00:07:30] Bianca Harmon: Right.

[00:07:30] Drew Thomas Hendricks: We talked about sort of the vegan aspect of it versus animal-based, the fact that it’s shelf stable for two years. How has the SLRRRP brand really differentiated itself from all the other sort of jello-based or gelatin-based shots and ready-to-drink? I think that the packaging for one, you know, cuz it is, we do have the jar.

So you essentially can just crack that open and, you put ice in it and it’s Your little bucket to go, you know, a lot of the other shots in our competitors, it’s more of a liquid form. So, you know, that’s the differentiation from us and just, you know, the constant innovating, you know, whether it’s the flavors, the packaging, the branding, you know, we have a phenomenal VP of marketing, and he’s, you know, was, was lucky enough to bring a few more folks on board. So, you know, we’re on Instagram, Facebook, we do a lot of things digitally. So just, you know, those are some of the opportunities I think. And, you know, how the brand has kind of, you know, been innovated and pushed to the forefront.

We have lots of really cool POS too, you know, as far as off-premise and on-premise. So, talking about the different flavors. who comes up with the different ones like a strawberry banana hammock?

[00:08:34] Adam Rudolph: You know, it’s a combination, we have a lot of brilliant people at this company and a lot of characters as well.

Just a lot of brainstorming sessions and, you know, something that’s, it’s eye-catching and, you know, potentially slightly edgy, to your point, the strawberry banana hammock, but you know, that’s just, we brainstorm, you know, what we think would do well and, you know, we follow, you know, some of the seltzer categories because obviously, that category itself has continued to grow.

So just, you know, that is kind of a soundboard to what they’re doing, and you, kind of, spin it into, you know, the SLRRRP world. Oh, sure.

[00:09:06] Bianca Harmon: I see that you guys now have a cinnamon whiskey one. So is that like the shot, the fireball?

[00:09:11] Adam Rudolph: Correct. Yeah. So this is essentially our version of Fireball.

it’s our highest ABV right now. It’s a 15% ABV, you know, I think it’s more along the lines of a cinnamon flavor. it does have a slight, you know, bite too, but not as harsh as, you know, say fireball, it’s perfect, we launched this brand about a year, year and a half ago, in the fall.

And, you know, it’s done fairly well for us, you know, just trying to capture a little bit of that, you know, that Fireball business, into a jello shot.

[00:09:38] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Do you get customer feedback or customer suggestions for some of these blends or some of these?

[00:09:42] Adam Rudolph: We always have, customers, reaching out, you know, asking, you know, what’s coming next, where to find it, you know, we have had, you know, several people say, Hey, why don’t you guys try, you know, this flavor. you know, so we always love the feedback, from customers and just the engagement.

[00:09:56] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Sure, going into like getting the word out as you’ve grown into what, 40 states now, which is incredible. Over 40, 45, yeah. 45 states. What was your go-to-market strategy for expanding into all these states?

[00:10:09] Adam Rudolph: You know, it really comes down to finding a really good distributor, partner, and distributor network.

It kind of varies throughout the country, whether it be, you know, Miller, Coors, or Anheuser-Busch but just finding, you know, that’s that partnership that they’re really engaged with the brand. They’re excited, they feel that their sales force, their upper management, and ownership could really, you know, take hold of the brand and run with it.

And the best part about it is, you know, we understand we’re an incremental sale, right? you guys aren’t going to the store to just to go buy jello shots, right? If you were, you know, hey, that’s, I guess that’s cool. but you know, when you, go to buy your beer, you know, your six-pack, we’re in a celebratory brand, right?

So it’s just, you know, it’s again, it’s just eye-catching and, you know, we like to partner with people that I guess to get the brand right. that understand it, you know that, you know, it’s incremental.

[00:10:59] Drew Thomas Hendricks: That’s a good point. I mean, it’s a really good way for a store to help increase its units per transaction. The people come in for the whiskey, they come in for the mixers, and why not have a couple of jello shots on them?

[00:11:09] Adam Rudolph: Right. And that’s the other cool thing too, is all of our shots have their own individual, individual UPC, so they can be sold at angles at the register as well.

[00:11:18] Bianca Harmon: Oh wow. I noticed that on each one of ’em, but I didn’t even really realize that’s what it was. Yep. So this is a nice scanner.

[00:11:27] Adam Rudolph: Correct. You got it.

[00:11:28] Bianca Harmon: That’s fantastic. So people could just, like, they have little mini airplane bottles, correct? Yeah, basically just snag a SLRRRP.

[00:11:37] Adam Rudolph: Yeah, we actually have created about, three months ago, a little nine-inch by nine-inch cardboard, dump in to put. At retail counters, just based on, you know, the incrementality and the sampling aspect.

It’s great if you never tried the brand, you’re at the counter, hey, jello shot for a buck when you’re grabbing else, why not? You know, you get that extra impulse to store us and it’s kind of, you know, how you grow and build the brand.

[00:11:59] Drew Thomas Hendricks: That’s a great way to do it. And what price point would a single one of these things would you see here in like California or?

[00:12:03] Adam Rudolph: You know, typically we get the, probably around a dollar, you know, I personally, I wouldn’t stray too far over a dollar 50, you know, right around that, that 99 cent dollar mark is a good price for our product for sure.

[00:12:16] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Okay. So really triggering that impulse sale and emphasizing the fund.

And then what sort of, broad marketing are you guys doing to?

[00:12:23] Adam Rudolph: So we have, like I said, our VP of marketing, his name is Trent Killian. He came from a, you know, a background at Miller course. So he’s the head honcho and I call him our marketing guru, you know, he really does everything from Instagram to Facebook to TikTok.

We have, you know, on pretty much all of the apps, you know, and digital offerings that are out there, you know, we’re on them.

[00:12:45] Drew Thomas Hendricks: What sort of on social, between, like, let’s talk about marketing just for a second on, and how marketing tracks sales. How are you able to track those channels?

[00:12:54] Adam Rudolph: We actually, I’m not super, super tech savvy, but Trenton, his team, there’s it’s called Impressions. So we can track how many impressions, you know, log into the website, you know, follow us on Instagram, obviously Facebook, things like that, to kinda get feedback, to where it is. I think we just hit our 16,000, Instagram followers a couple of days ago, I believe.

[00:13:14] Drew Thomas Hendricks: That’s awesome. And you’re able to actually buy these online?

[00:13:17] Adam Rudolph: Yes. Yeah, you can buy ’em from our website

[00:13:20] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Are you selling those directly or through a distributor, like,

[00:13:23] Adam Rudolph: We can do both. Okay. Yep. And then if you guys are familiar with drizzly

[00:13:27] Drew Thomas Hendricks: That’s what I was thinking of.

[00:13:28] Adam Rudolph: Anything like that? Yes, we have a partnership with those guys as well. Go puff.

[00:13:33] Drew Thomas Hendricks: That’s good. so talking about customers and the feedback and as you launched this category back in 2018, there must have been some like barriers to entry. I mean, it’s such a tap. Getting inventory on the shelves through a distributor is so tough. Talk to me about, you know, some of the barriers you faced and how you overcame them bringing.

[00:13:52] Adam Rudolph: You know, a lot of the things when we launched it was it was really new. So, you know, there weren’t too many barriers at that time, you know, some of the ones we did face were, you know, getting into chain stores, right? Like the big box grocery stores, things like that. but, you know, the good thing is again, you know, it falls on our distributor, relationships is, you know, once you build that relationship with those guys, they taste the brand, we have the old adage, liquid ellipse when you taste it, it’s kind of proof in the pudding, you know, it’s a good brand and you get people engaged and so forth. And then, you know, our POS is phenomenal for the brand. We have racks out at retail.

They take up, you know, minimal floor space, which is nice. So you can, we’ve got a lot of author chain authorizations from our pos, which Matt Vernon, our COO is the gentleman who typically designs all of that himself. So that’s, you know, I’d say the biggest thing was just getting people familiar with the brand.

And giving ’em engaged and saying, Hey, you know, a ready-to-drink category is there, this is a ready-to-drink shot category within that category. Okay. and being able to build that out.

[00:14:55] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Sure. And being in sales from a sales aspect, sort of what excites you most about SLRRRP?

[00:15:00] Adam Rudolph: you know what, I just, I love the brand. It’s a very fun brand, you know, obviously, it’s, we’ve had some trying times, you know, these past couple years with the pandemic and things like that, but

[00:15:11] Drew Thomas Hendricks: yeah. yeah, how did SLRRRP navigate the pandemic with it going down?

[00:15:16] Adam Rudolph: You know, I’ll be honest with you, we were a little nervous at first because, you know, again, we’re a celebratory brand and there wasn’t a whole heck of a lot to celebrate, right? You’re being, you’re locked in your home. And, But the cool thing is, you know, people found ways to still engage with the brand and it would send videos into Trent of doing shots at home during the pandemic. So, you know, there were, you know, still times where you saw that celebration, you know, whether it was with family or, you know when they started to open it up a little bit.

So, you know, we weathered the storm, thankfully, and, you know, we’re continuing to grow. But, yeah, I mean, I think for the most part, you know, I love the brand itself. Just the innovation, the flavors, the packaging, just the ownership itself, you know, very forward thinking and, how to grow the brand and, you know, take care of all of our employees as we do this.

[00:16:06] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Talk to me about growing the brand. I mean, are you a boots-on-the-ground type of sales? Like do you go into the stores or?

[00:16:13] Adam Rudolph: So we are, you know, again, when the company first started, you know, it was Matt, Steven, and Edward, you know, out in Vegas, literally pounding the streets every day.

And so we have what we call ’em Regional directors. So we have several of those guys kind of remote throughout the country. And then we’ve started to hire territory managers as well, in some key markets to really need, we need to focus on. definitely do have feet on the streets, you know, we’re still a small company. So we, everyone cover a lot of ground and, wear multiple hats. But yeah, I mean, it’s the way you have to kind of grow and grind it out to do it.

[00:16:48] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Yeah. You must have some great stories though about trying to get the SLRRRP brand into different stores and trying to educate people on the conception of what this

[00:16:56] Adam Rudolph: is? We do, you know, and as we’ve, you know, gone through, you know, the bumps and the bruises. It’s been really great, you know, for an example of a story is, during the College World Series, there was a bar called Rockos. It was right across the street, you know, from the College World Series.

And these guys did almost 18,000 shots of SLRRRPing a week. Whoa. Holy moly. But what they did was phenomenal. And our CEO, Steven, got a lot of press from this, is each college, you know, came in and essentially the jello, it was who would buy the most jello shots and do ’em. So they kept it this tally along the board and they would send us, you know, pictures of empty cases throughout each day and we were just like, oh my God, this is phenomenal.

 And then we were able to give back to a local charity with those guys. So I mean, that was a phenomenal story. I just signed a partnership deal with the Canton Football Hall of Fame, several months back. So we have a two-year partnership with those guys. you know, so we’ll be all their concerts, you know, anything where they can serve alcohol, we’re essentially gonna be sold. And at the stadium for that, we’re in about 20 minor league baseball teams as well, you know, our product seems to really fit into, that venue, you know, cuz it’s minor league baseball, you know, still great, but it seems people like to party a lot more and celebrate a lot more at those games.

So those are definitely, you know, some big wins. As far as Las Vegas we’re in all of MGM properties, in the casinos, and at the retail stores as well. a lot of their swim-up bars, things like that. So, we have a lot of fun, you know, stories there to tell about the brand. For sure,

[00:18:28] Drew Thomas Hendricks: For sure. Now in something like MGM, in like a bar and retail, is it the same packaging or do you have an on-premise?

[00:18:36] Adam Rudolph: Nope. We do have the same packaging, you know, there are talks of potentially doing it on-premise package cuz we’ve had some people reach out about that. So that’s, you know, an ongoing conversation.

[00:18:47] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Oh yeah. So talking about the blends and the different flavors, you must have had some experiments with some combinations. This just didn’t quite make it to market.

[00:18:56] Adam Rudolph: We had, you know, oh my God, we’ve tried so many different flavors, you know, there’s been caramel, there’s been Mint Juul up, you know, it’s funny when we come up with these and when they get made, you know, essentially they get shipped out to us and they’ll show. And some of ’em, you know, show up and they’re brown and I’m like dear God, What is this? You know, I’m not doing a brown jelly shot. I don’t think anybody else will.

But it’s trial and error, a lot of the fruitier flavors, you know, seem to work for the brand. and the colors and things like that, for sure.

[00:19:24] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Sure. I’m looking at the, right now I’m looking at the white Cherry XOXO. Tell me about that.

[00:19:31] Adam Rudolph: You know, it’s just a lot of the other brands have had success with the cherry flavor. So, you know, we decided to bring that to the forefront. It was, you know, a little difficult to get that cherry flavor, you know, the coloring. Cause you don’t want it to look like the strawberry, right? So, we decided to go with white, you know, it’s, worked out well. We have it in our seasonal package, which is our America package. I didn’t send you one of those guys, but, it’s a red, white, and blue pack. It’s our spring and summer that does really well. And it does have a great cherry flavor and yeah.

[00:19:59] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Which leads me to the production of this, talk to me about your production and the supply chain and did you encounter any issues coming outta covid with so many others? having trouble actually getting the materials and getting the product on the grid.

[00:20:11] Adam Rudolph: Sure. So, production right now, we outsource that. and thankfully we didn’t have, you know, a ton of issues with COVID just because when we forecast, you know, the product, we do that in, you know, months out in advance. So, you know, we were lucky enough to have, you know, pretty good backfill, of the product when the pandemic did hit.

I presume, I mean, is there a time of year, you know, is like summertime, are sales better during, like, the spring summer than it is during the winter? Or, I mean, you know, with any, you know, adult beverage, whether it’s, you know, beer or wine or anything like that. We definitely see our ups and downs, you know, spring and summer are, you know, really our big months. We can trickle off a little bit, you know, after Christmas and New Year’s obviously cuz, you know, there’s not much going on, but yeah, we do, those are definitely our bigger months.

[00:20:58] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Sure. I would think, you know, for some reason I think this would be really good in ski slopes and the ski team,

[00:21:04] Bianca Harmon: That cinnamon whiskey one.

[00:21:07] Adam Rudolph: on our website, we actually have some ski signage. It’s funny you say that we’re trying to get more into, you know, the ski slopes and things like that. But again, you know, that’s a conversation you have to, you know, have with the people that make those decisions, just because they’re like, they don’t wanna force out shots, right?

They don’t go hammered skiing and things like that. But, it’s low proof, you know, and it’s, again, it’s more celebratory. So I don’t think people are gonna be, you know, doing multiple jello shots. But,

[00:21:31] Drew Thomas Hendricks: And that kind of ties me into kind of a really important question, like when you’re dealing with a sort of a celebratory party brand where you’re emphasizing doing shots and the conviviality of it.

How to do you kind of balance that with responsibility?

[00:21:43] Adam Rudolph: You know I mean, that’s one thing we always do is promote, you know, being responsible. Whether it’s, you know, doing shots or even, you know, to our team and our company. You know, if you guys are out and about, you know, be careful if you need a ride home, you know, call, you know, just we do a lot of responsibility training, with that. We’ve changed our labeling on, you know, the jars and the packaging because that was one concern at retail, you know, some people are picking it up and saying, Hey, is this half called, is it not? So, you know, this is our third rebrand to where you’ll see on the jars the alcohol labeling at the bottom. It’s a lot larger and more to the forefront as well as, on the cases.

[00:22:19] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Sure, let’s talk about where the slopes going. What’s on the horizon for SLRRRP?

going in 23, 20 22?

[00:22:26] Adam Rudolph: You know, we’re continuing to grow. you know, we’re coming out with a margarita pack, in Q1. So, you know, we’ll have a margarita pack as far as, on the spirit side and on the malt side. And then just, you know, continuing to innovate, whether it’s gonna be, you know, on the marketing, the branding itself, you know, the new flavors, things like that. you know, we just hired two folks to oversee, the chain business for us, you know, a gentleman that’s gonna oversee the large big box stores. Another gentleman that’s gonna oversee a lot of the C stores, just because prior to that, you know, it was ownership and myself reaching out to all of these, chains trying to get, you know, activation and programming.

But now we have these two guys, this is their background, this is their wheelhouse, So, you know, it’ll be good to have them, you know, moving forward. That’ll help us get to a lot more chains for sure coming next year.

[00:23:09] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Absolutely. No, that sounds like a good goals for 2023, but so this is Legends Behind The Craft and we have kind of learned a lot about SLRRRP.

Let’s talk about you. How did you get into the craft beverage industry?

[00:23:21] Adam Rudolph: So, I started, oh geez, it was, so I’ve been in the beer, wine liquor industry for probably about 15 years. I started out as a merchandiser at Superior Beverage in Ohio, you know, and was in that role of building displays and rotating beer for about three years.

It’s not very glamorous, but, you know, it’s gotten me to where I am now, you know, started there and, you know, moved into a sales route, you know, successful there, you know, and then stepped away from craft beer, did some pharmaceutical things, and then worked my way back in on the craft side, you know, managing some distributors, some brands, two different distributors. And then, you know, again, was lucky enough to have SLRRRP reach out to me, you know, to come on board and help build a brand.

[00:24:03] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Sure. Like as you’re building this brand in merchandise, your background’s in merchandising, what advice would you give retailers today that you see some of the mistakes that they make?

[00:24:11] Adam Rudolph: I mean, I think, you know, with a brand especially like ours, or anything that’s incremental, you know, you want it in the beer department or in the liquor department, right?

You know, right at the register by the register, you know, cause that’s where somebody’s gonna, Hey, you know, what’s this? we’re gonna grab this to go, I think, you know, just being right by the registers is the best advice, you know, I could give any new brand, let alone, you know, our brand.

[00:24:35] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Get that front and center placement. Don’t put it on the bottom shelf underneath.

[00:24:39] Adam Rudolph: Yeah, absolutely. We’ve seen that today. I was out outta the store today and, you know, the rack was completely empty and I’m like, man, you know what’s going on? And gotta find the buyer and Hey, do you have any, you know, and I’ll bring it out and fill the rack for you, you know, they’re missing sales, we’re missing sales. But, you know, they’re appreciative of it, which is always nice.

[00:24:57] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Yeah. And as it, in sales, sales can be a, you know, it’s a stressful job. You’ve been in it for a while. How do you stay motivated?

[00:25:04] Adam Rudolph: You know what, I’ve always been a pretty upbeat and positive person, you know, and I think just knowing that you have, you’re selling something that you believe in, you know, that you have ownership in and things like that. And, you know, we’ve built and selected, you know, salespeople with a background to help build the brand as well. So it’s when you do that, it makes it a little bit easier.

 Our end is, you know, managers and things like that to really help out.

[00:25:27] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Do you get the motivation from the people around you or do you get it from sort of the results?

[00:25:32] Adam Rudolph: You know, it’s a little bit of both. I mean, I’ve always been, you know, a hard worker when I was young, so it’s just, you know, for me to get up and go out and work every day is it’s what’s ingrained in me, know, to have the brand and the ownership behind you to kind of, you know, push you and, give you that, the autonomy to kind of do things and get some wins on your own is, you know, the way to go.

[00:25:52] Drew Thomas Hendricks: That helps for sure. And to someone that, you know, they may just be graduating from college or they may have been in another industry that isn’t quite so fun. What advice would you give to someone that’s like, wants to like break into the wine and craft beverage industry?

[00:26:04] Adam Rudolph: You know what, just get the experience, you know, if you can start out a distributor and kind of work your way up and learn the industry, the ins and outs and things like that, you know, that’s the best experience I can give you, you know, it’s gonna be hards and dimes, at the distributor level, but that’s the way to gain your experience to move on to the supplier side for sure.

[00:26:22] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Well, yeah, that’s good advice. A lot of people think it’s a fun industry, but they don’t really know. They don’t know the product side of it, or they don’t know the selling side of it, they only need to know the buying and consuming side.

[00:26:32] Adam Rudolph: Yeah, there’s a lot of hard work that goes into, you know, behind the scenes and, building the brand and things like that.

[00:26:37] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Absolutely. So when you’re not, selling and you’re actually drinking SLRRRP, what’s your favorite, what’s your favorite flavor?

[00:26:44] Adam Rudolph: Oh, man. I like the peach bottom, you know, the strawberry banana’s a good one. Yeah. and then probably, I like the orange vanilla cream, which tastes like a creamsicle. If you guys haven’t tried that one.

[00:26:56] Bianca Harmon: I’m honestly just impressed with how much these flavors, it’s not very often you find something that’s like, the flavors are really spot on, especially like blue raspberry, right? You know, like I swear blue raspberry never tastes like the way that it should, and I don’t know.

I’m pretty impressed with how spot-on your guys’ flavors are.

[00:27:17] Adam Rudolph: No, that’s awesome. We appreciate it. For sure. I like the whiskey too. I’m not a big, you know, spicy cinnamon whiskey shot guy, but you know, it’s still good. My wife loves it as well, and she’s a vodka person.

[00:27:28] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Will the margaritas be using tequila or will it be

[00:27:31] Adam Rudolph: It’s gonna be an agave spirit.

[00:27:32] Drew Thomas Hendricks: It’ll be agave spirit,

[00:27:33] Adam Rudolph: Correct. Yep.

[00:27:35] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Well, excited to try that. So, let’s see it as we’re kind of winding down here, is there anything you’d like to talk about that we haven’t talked about yet?

[00:27:43] Adam Rudolph: No. you know, I think obviously, you know, if anybody wants to find the brand, you know, you can go to ww.slrrrp.com.

It’s SL three Rs and a p.com, three Rs, correct? Yep. if you’re out in Yeah, the grocery world, in Ohio specifically, we have a partnership with China Eagle, on the spirit side of things, sheets, convenience store chain, we do well with, our malt based in there. , We’re in some food lines down south, some Walmarts as well.

So, you know, we’re slowly, slowly getting into the bigger box stores and, that’s a plan and a goal for myself and ownership, you know, moving forward to get more chain programming for sure.

[00:28:17] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Absolutely. And, can I always buy one at www.slrrrp.com?

[00:28:20] Adam Rudolph: You got it.

[00:28:21] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Adam, this has been a really, really interesting, I have to say, I’ve been educated on ready-to-drink jello or gelatin shots,

[00:28:30] Adam Rudolph: Awesome. Watch my job, man. I appreciate it.

[00:28:32] Drew Thomas Hendricks: I’m kind of hooked on these. These are nice. thank you so much for joining us. I like them.

[00:28:36] Adam Rudolph: No, God, you guys are welcome. I appreciate you having me.

[00:28:38] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Thank you. Have a great day.

[00:28:40] Adam Rudolph: You too. Have a good holiday guys.

[00:28:42] Bianca Harmon: You too. Take care!