E169 Ellen Slots

This week's guest is Ellen Slots, who joins us from Sunny and Warm Orlando, Florida. Ellen currently runs her own business providing beverage consulting to small businesses that are trying to gain momentum and increase their presence in the industry. Ellen originally developed a passion for wine after graduating from college. After moving to Chicago to attend graduate school, Ellen continued pursuing this passion for wine while she spent a number of years working in numerous roles as a program director for a nonprofit organization, marketing manager for a real estate company, and an event director for a conference production company.

It was after spending several years working in corporate America that Ellen decided to turn her passion of wine into a career and soon found herself working as a server, bartender, manager, event director, Somalia, and beverage director. It was this passion for wine that led to Ellen discovering her true calling to working in the hospitality industry and which led her to running her own business today. Enjoy the show. All right, we're back with another episode of the industry podcast.

I'm Kip. This is Dan. What's happening with you, sir? I know.

Not much joining a long weekend up here in Canada. That's my next evening day. We can record this. As we're recording now.

Yeah, yeah. October Fest is in full bloom in Kitchener Waterloo here. That's right. The second part is October Fest outside of Munich, I believe.

That's correct. And then third is Cincinnati, which I think is weird. Well, Kitchener, being weird number two is also weird. We did a little bit of it on the weekend and it was the up the venue to the times that was a nice change.

We did not have to drink another Molson course is no longer the main sponsor. It was nice not to have a great course light. Thank God. We actually got German beers and microbrewery beers.

That was exciting. It was pretty good. It finally figured it out. Also killed all the bar business for the weekend.

That's great. That was great for me. Friday was below average. Saturday was one of the worst nights we've had a long time.

First of all, you're out of the pandemic. I'm kind of here. I'm not comfortable doing anything. We said one weekend about the work.

That's it. We don't need a week of it. Anyway, it's actually about the weekends now. It's like three, four weekends now.

Terrific. All right. Enough about my problems. We already did that one thing.

If you are in the Kitchener Waterloo area and you don't like drinking beer out of plastic cups and listening to polka music, then you should come to one of my bars. In the Tri-City area, we have Sugar Run in Kitchener Downtown. That's the speak easy. Check at Sugar Run Bar on Instagram for all the events going on there.

Then up down Waterloo, we have Babylon Sisters, at Babylon Sisters Bar on Instagram to find out what's happening there, DJs on the weekends. In Preston, Ontario, it's the Argyle Arms where we have lots of live music, trivia night, music bingo, at Argyle, underscore Arms, underscore 2023 to find out what's going on there. What else? If you like what we're doing here on the show, you should subscribe, review the show.

That helps us out. If you want to be a guest on the show, it's at the industry podcast on Instagram, you can DM us or you can email us directly info at the industrypodcast.club. And Zach Hannah is the man who does all the artwork on the Instagram page. So that's at saccana.co.

Check him out for all your graphic arts needs. And as always, as I mentioned, all those links we talk about are always in the show notes or check those out. You can find everything we talk about there. All right.

So I think that's enough about us. And we should bring in our guest for the evening. Alan Sloth coming to us from Orlando. How are you, Alan?

Excellent. Thank you guys. Great day. Over here.

Nice to see you. Nice to see you. We had great weather last Monday. I was like 28 Celsius today.

It's six. We're full into a fall mode here. So that happens out two seasons. Yeah.

Winter. Winter and summer. That's all we get anymore. Or winter construction actually seems to be.

Yeah. Okay. So let's talk a little bit about how you sort of crack into the service industry. What was your first gig?

When did you decide it was kind of what you wanted to do? Yeah. So I think as much like most people growing up in the United States more specifically, I think when you're in your teenage years, you get your first job doing whatever you can do. That's usually working in a restaurant and working in retail at an expensive restaurant.

So going through out just to make money, just to try to be able to afford going to the movies and paying for gas and stuff. I then thought that I would go and pursue corporate America and go down that road of traditional education, getting my college degree, getting my not just bachelor's but master's degree too. And I'm working in corporate America as a program director for nonprofit organization, as a conference producer, as a marketing manager as well for real estate and all that, all those other ventures and avenues that kind of kickstart people that then want to do something more in that area, which I didn't really know. But once I graduated college, I went on this trip along because I grew up into the California, went on the struggle on the coast of California and was with my friends and we hit wineries.

And going to college, you drink like the crappiest, shittiest stuff that you could find because it's the cheapest, right? So there's no way shape or form even considering wine as an area like something that would be of interest. When I went up to this little wine trip, went to Pass the Roadplay, went up to the winery, it was Road of Winery. I think they changed their name recently.

But went in and I thought wine was so pretentious and I thought it was like, that's not something that people might age drink. That's something older people drink. And when I went up to wineries, I was like, well, let's just see, let's check it out. And I realized quickly that it was much more than that, it was a foreign community.

And the whole city at that time hadn't been really established since this was like, you know, 15, 18 years ago, hadn't really been established at the point that it's been established today. And it was very humble and everybody was very welcoming and they would give you wine and then give you something to eat with the wine. So you can understand the flavor profile. So I had this in Vindell with a chocolate covered cherry and then they were like, try it together.

And I just never thought, why would this be important? And there was just that in that aha moment. Like, oh my gosh, I never realized these actually go together. And I never really thought about what I'm eating, what I'm drinking, because I don't have any money.

We're like, whatever I can get, right? So from there, even though I was pursuing corporate America, it always kept on the back end, like a blog of food for myself, food and wine and drinks as I was developing and as I was learning about it, because on my own, that was just something that I was interested in. When I was working in the program, Dr. Fernon-Pauch-O-Organization, I just got so fed up one day, I woke up at like five o'clock in the morning at that time, I was married.

And I turned to my, I turned to him and I was like, I've done and done with this world. Like, I want to do what I'm actually interested in and I want to do something. I can utilize my skills, hone in on that and apply them to the service industry in some way and shape or form. And I was like, are we good though?

If I do? He was like, yeah, you do and I was like, okay, perfect. And so I started working back as a server and doing like brunch gigs on the weekends. And I loved the hospitality of it.

I loved knowing what people wanted to explain to me that they wanted, but not knowing how to explain it and then me figuring it out and then satisfying that. You know, like, that to me is an element of like, yeah, I got it. Like, I wanted to help you and I wanted you to understand like, I can do that and I can be there for you. So that just was like on a surface level, very satisfying for me and kept me in continuing to engage in the hospitality industry.

In addition to that, there was a lot of support for education and to help me do exactly what I was doing on my own. But, you know, in like a structured environment for for my job, you know, just to serve. And then I got into bartending and then became, and then I thought maybe I'd do events or weddings for a small wine shop and realized that was a little too corporate and then became a GM and then a beverage manager. And I had at that point achieved a technology and education in wine and that is a certified song and so on.

And then went down that road and went into being a song for two Michelin Star restaurant and then working in myself down the lines of the East Coast, because this is more in the Midwest than I was in Chicago. But working down to the East Coast and then becoming a song and then eventually I got a director for a Vicer for a hotel at Fajina in Miami. I'm in the COVID hit. And you know, that's you got to make cuts wherever you make cuts.

So I was one of the cuts. And as businesses started to come back, there was a lot of businesses that were looking to looking for the people who had been in their previous positions, but like the best of the best not to my own horn because that's not what they thought. But like, just to try to bring in people who were really high positions and were able to manage, you know, like over $13 million worth of inventory kind of thing. And so people were asking me to interview and I realized what they're asking was for me to do three jobs for the price of wine.

And so I said, hold up. I see that you guys need some help and I'm happy to help, but let's let me just get you guys, let me try to help to get you guys back on your feet, revamp the program because it's been a minute, try to figure out how to do your inventory at a reasonable cost and then like cut me out after that. Like you're looking for operations more so than you're looking for my expertise. And I can just help you on the back end.

So I kind of constructed my own business out of that. And helping really I was like through interviews to look at these jobs. So an innovative way to try to get some work in there. But COVID had been going like up and down for a lot of businesses in Miami.

And so it kind of branched out to wherever other people were offering or interested in some of those places last, it's on them didn't because unfortunately not in a support and financial probability to survive. And then this past year, I've I took more like a hiatus because of family needing my attention and personal reasons for for that matter. So I was I've been on the travel bug or I go see my family more and then take care of them. Yeah.

And so I'm hoping to finally settle in our country and stay put for a minute. And we'll see what happens in there. But if I can transfer that, I mean, all the skills that I've acquired, everything that I gained out of my experience in the hospitality industry, I feel so confident will be no problem to transfer here in New Orleans. I mean, not like a far leap.

And I feel like whenever you're in that position where you've learned to gain so much experience, that goes everywhere. So like basically what you would say essentially is you're sitting to kind of get back into the hospitality industry kind of came from your love of what realized that you got excited about wine and started doing the education there. So what you were living in Chicago for the working at the nonprofit, right? Yeah.

And I was living there for almost 10 years. Yeah. And so were you working in restaurants in Chicago as well? Yes.

So when you decided to quit the court of job, you were still living in Chicago. Yes. Yeah. So that's when you started to get back into it.

And so you're taking obviously all the wine courses to try and get your small yay destination and you're working in Mitchell and Star restaurants at the same time. No, I, in order to get hired to the business restaurants, I needed to complete obviously the course but certification but also just have some experience to be able to speak to the food and to the wine because that level is obviously a different level. Right. It's a little harder to answer into the hospitality industry on a Michelin, like traditionally restaurant.

So we need a little more experience. Right. Yeah, I would imagine. So were you working?

Did you work in bars or restaurants before those in Chicago? Yes. I worked with like, lettuce and a can you? Oh, gosh, with a lot of a lot of different big groups at Gibson and public and public and quality meets.

I forgot what that group was called since a minute. And then like smaller mom pops places there too and then a cadia with the Tumishland Star restaurant that I was starting out. So when you're so you're obviously doing a bunch of these courses while you're working in these other spots. So you're at the time you're thinking forward, like at what point do you, where you're like, okay, I want to be a song because that takes like some serious dedication and a lot of studies.

So it usually it's kind of like, and I took a few of the wine courses and I was like, okay, that's enough for me. Yeah. You know, like, I got the knowledge I need to do what I need to do at my job. And I was just like, I just didn't have the time to do the to keep going with it.

But I've always kind of wanted the actual knowledge. But at some point you either decide to go for it or you just kind of say, okay, that's enough. I got enough that I can make a cool wine list and like, etc. Right.

But so what point do you decide? No, I'm so passionate about this. I actually want to be a song. Well, part of me.

So I'm also like first generation American. My mother is Spanish and Italian and my father is Danish. And so I grew up in a Hasselt-Ditzichmore of European culture. And like understanding culture is so important to me because of the best difference and, you know, like the dichotomy of my own home growing up.

But it was like, I want to under I learned as I was learning about wine that it's also more than just the growing process. It's about like how it applies to different like different flavors go to different foods go to different cuisines go. It's just a whole experience. And that to me was something that as I was working in different restaurants with different cuisine types, I would start to see that why is this wine more important here.

And this wine is not important here when I was working with a restaurant that it was like, you know, the steakhouse or so they're talking restaurant or versus like an Asian restaurant. And it's like, why are these all different and buried? And there would be a lot of training and education behind getting hired and being able to produce like that level of serving to serve or two bar times that you needed to know. There's really like rigid standards that you needed to know why this is actually important.

And if you didn't understand that because it was so neglected in a lot of other places, then you fail on your sales and then you fail on your tips on getting paid as much as you can get paid. You know, so for me, it was like, well, that's interesting already. But now I recognize that there's a financial element to like the more you know, the more you can sell. And but not just to like sell to oversell, but to sell in the appropriate manner to people who are looking for something and you know what they what what you have to offer, right?

Right. I think that's the big thing right there is like the getting back to the fact that because a lot of people I know many people gone down the road of wine courses, whatever, and like you're proud of the knowledge that you've accrued. But a lot of people tend to use it as like almost like giving speeches to the guests like look how much I know about wine, right? And then the guy does not give a fuck like don't fucking care.

No, they just have to fuck up and maybe recommend some wine or just give them the wine they ordered in the first place, right? Like yeah, though, but I really like it. Like that's always my approach when I talk to my people who work with me. The same approach for them is like find out what the guest is looking for and then help them.

But like if you don't know what the guest wants in the first place, then how like you're just going up and giving them a speech about wine is not helpful to anyone. Absolutely. No. And I'm telling that I worked in several different restaurants and I had regulars come back not because I sold them the most expensive bottle of wine, but because they told me like I want a sunsare and I said, okay, do you want to traditional like you want something to strive traditional?

Yeah, great. Got it. And it would be a $70 bottle of sunsare, whatever. They would order five bottles of it.

They're like, I can't believe you didn't suggest the $200 bottle of sunsare that's on the list. And I'm like, because I know because I know based off of what you are ordering for food and based on just a brief description of the flavor profile that you told me that you're not going to be happy with the $200 bottle. And then you're going to feel like you got ripped off. And then you know, like you're not going to come back and return.

Regulars are much more valuable than and like, yeah, okay, you can have one bottle. You got two bottles. You have five bottles at $70. And you know what?

It's worth more because the experience is going to be better. And just as with simple math, seven bottles of $50, one or more expensive than one bottle of $200 bottle. And so that's the other thing is like you got to like, if you see a group of people there and you know, okay, that group with only, you can kind of flesh out that they're only going to have one bottle of wine, then maybe that's when you can recommend the more expensive one. But if you look like the type of group that's going to be having multiple bottles, why not just give them something in a decent price range that pays off?

Yeah. And then they don't feel like they got cheated or ripped off or anything. And that's another element of the experience when you're dining out. You know, you don't want to have that like, sour taste in your mouth about, oh, I didn't really want to spend that much money.

Right. Something I'm not that happy with. I also feel like sometimes it's good to like recommend like a couple different ones and a couple different price ranges and then let them make the decision. You know what I mean?

Yes, 100%. And I do that as well. But it's, but it's like, you know, when you're looking at a general table, when you're looking at the group, you're like, is it a group of friends? Is it family?

Is it what kind of, it's so many different psychological assessments about what it might, what makes sense and what are they going to be happy with? And you know, they can look at the list and then it's like, what are you looking for? Are you looking for something? And I don't have no shame to in also saying, what is your budget?

If they don't know anything to say about like what they're looking for? And like, just tell me what you're looking for to spend on a bottle. And and people will be very honest. They'll say just whatever you recommend.

So whatever. Or they'll say, I don't really want to spend more than $100 on a bottle. Great. I can find you something then.

And I'll give some range and price. And then sometimes they vary. I've gotten people who said, I don't want to spend more than $50 on a bottle and I'll show them a couple options. And then I'm looking at like, Oh, no, I don't want to be oh, no, I don't want to assert a girl.

I kind of want like a deep, okay, shard name. I'm like, okay, well, then I can show you what's on the list. Yeah, yeah. Money's the dollar value is going up.

Yeah. So like, we could talk, we could have that conversation. We can show you what's good. But yeah, it's it's got to vary.

But yeah, there's an opportunity to gauge what people are interested in and what they want, making them feel comfortable and making them feel that they don't have to kind of pull up their guard about on their wallet, you know, like, we don't want to do that. I've also found the opposite though, where you sometimes are maybe recommending, like trying to be, I don't know what the right word for it is, but like trying to be like, bollers. Yeah, well, or just like you're trying to recommend something like a lower price range. So it doesn't look like you're trying to force feed them on like a mixed fence by the wine.

And I've had them get almost insulted. Like, you don't think they can afford the higher price bottle. Have you had that happen to you? No, no.

I've had someone go, Oh, no, I'm looking for something a little bit more. Now granted, I don't know if this is also because although we don't want to say it and exist in this world, I'm a woman. So I'm saying this too. Do you like a man who's ordering?

He's like, Oh, no, no, no, we need that we can go through the roof. And I'm like, Okay, great. Here's a $1000 bottle. Do you find that most people are coming to restaurants like that?

Like what I never worked in a Michelin restaurant, I've worked in fine dining before though, and I know that it attracts a certain type of person. Do you find like, how do you find like, I'm trying to figure out how to work this properly? But how do you find a guest in general? Like, I don't have a Michelin star restaurant.

Is it like crazy snobby? Are most of them just like regular people who just happen to have a lot of money? Or like, what do you like? What's been doing experience?

Have you ever seen the movie, the menu? But I was speaking of these experiences at the same ending, but right. But it's the people you get such a diverse crowd of people, people who just want to show off that they have money, right? People who don't care and who are like taking business meetings or whatever.

And this is like a business expense. Or people who are cheating on their spouse. Or people who are so obsessed with the chef or the owner, that they're like fan growing out. So hard.

There's the one guy in that movie that you're talking about that like is like just obsessed with the chef. Yeah. Okay, I was wondering like how realistic some of those depictions are. I've also seen that movie.

What's the one with fucking Bradley Cooper? Oh, yes. Where he's trying to, yeah, he's trying to gain a much one star for his restaurant. Yeah.

And they had all these rules about like, oh, you can tell them if they drop a fork or whatever that's like, it is that crazy. Is it really? Yeah, it is that crazy. Yeah.

That's a movie. Yeah. Okay, interesting. Yeah.

It's like a quiet kitchen. And like everything needs to be wiped down and you can, your hands are not being in your pockets. They have to be by your side. You can have them behind your back.

You can't fold your arms. Everything needs to be on alert and ready. And when chef says something, you have to repeat it back and say, yes, chef or her chef or repeat exactly what it's being said to you, chef. Like, and so that goes on.

I don't know. I was wondering about that when I watched some of these little small documentaries and I'm like, why is everyone responding? Like they're in the military here? Oh, fuck.

We get that. We get in the kitchen or waterloo with guys who think they're bigger deals than they are. There's still, that's all goes on in kitchens, like everywhere. Like, because I think people have watched them into this shit.

And they think, well, like here's the difference. You're not a Mitchell and star chef. You're a just a chef. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, even in like food trucks and stuff, like, it's important because I've been in a situation, I've been in a situation where I was working in a restaurant and one of the cooks in the kitchen took out the grates from the oven and put it on the floor because it's hot and sensitive. And put it on the floor because it was hot and they didn't have the appropriate gloves on or whatever.

Yeah. And closed the oven and the man and then another, like, Porter who had hot oil, walk by and step on the grates and slip. Oh my God. Yeah.

He's like kind of lying now as a result. Yeah. So yeah, it's good to have the a major for sure. Yeah.

But like, he didn't say anything to anybody about like putting the grate on the floor or like, like chef, hold up, like, I need to do this. And then chef would have been like, heard, stop kitchen. Yeah. Yeah.

It started from a good space. Like the reason that that whole procedure started was because it was for safety purposes and to run a functional kitchen. But then it has expanded to like an ego thing in many respects as well. So yeah, I say, I like to all my friends, I'm like, yeah, heard chef.

Or heard. So yeah, like, for sure. You working in a place like that. And like, if you don't want to have to, but if you, how old were you when you first started working in like your first Michelin service?

I was, when you seven. So super young. And like, what was that like mentally for you going to work in that environment at that age? Like it must have been crazy stressful.

And I can imagine it was very fun. It wasn't fun. No. So I was working, I was working two jobs actually at that time.

I was bartending brunch shifts and at that's like kind of local bar that's like whole roasted meat that's up. And it was like very casual. Like you could like drink on the job and stuff. Nobody cared.

And then I would put chefs and work at night at the Michelin star restaurant. And the Michelin star restaurant paid good money because it was just, I mean, it's a good restaurant. And I needed the money anyway. So it was just like, all right, just suck it up.

Like I'm only working here. 34 chefs a week because they're not open all week, you know, really close. And it was just like every time. And it was like every, it just felt like, you know, when you're constantly being like judged and criticized for how you folded your napkin.

And everybody would go around the room and everybody would have to describe the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh course in detail and their own version of how they'd describe it. And if you varied from what everybody else said, then you may not be on the floor that night. Wow. So yeah, so it was like, if you didn't know, and if you if it was like, okay, if there's a gluten allergy, what's not what's being what's the substitution and how you describe it.

And like what courses that affect, you know, and stuff like that. And that's important. It's important, but it was like everybody, even back servers, front servers, manage, of course, managers, bartenders, everybody had a new. And that's crazy.

That's like, yeah, so I imagine it'd be pretty like, did you find yourself getting really stressed out on your way to work? Um, I didn't because it was, I had such a juxtaposition for my day. Right. You're coming up with, you had a few drinks in you from your brunch show.

I'm like, I'm like, I get a chill and hang out with like regular people and like shoot the shit. And it was actually a tattoo shop. So it was like, yeah, I'll throw to people coming by and then and then go back into robot mode. Right.

Well, is that kind of how you deal with your sort of shit, your brain down and going to robot mode? Yeah. You have to, I mean, it's only like a few hours and it's not every day. And it's not the only thing that was occupying my time.

So it was just like, okay, like, what can I take away from this? What can I learn from this? And every every day was really something new. I was like, Oh, okay, wait a minute.

So when we meet in class, we're changing it up. And now all of a sudden, it's like, we have a different set up for how the tables get set. And now a different set up for where the wine glasses go and a different set up for how food gets dropped because everybody's doing everything. Like, I was a food runner, I was a server, I was a thong, like, I was everything but actually the bartender and like the initial service or because it's such a small amount of employees.

And it was a smaller restaurant. So everybody jumps in and is like, you were just, you know, polishing glasses and back wear and in the back of the restaurant and such and like polishing silverware and stuff. It didn't matter. Everybody was hands on deck.

And it was because like, if you did, if you weren't passionate about what you were doing and about the industry and about providing the service, then you didn't belong there and you would be gone. Yeah. And you basically have to have that passion to work in a place like that. Like you can't be the person who is just trying to put themselves through college.

Right? Yeah. So and you also, luckily, because you're with a Psalm, a large part of your job is getting to talk about something you were super passionate about all the time. And that's always going to be different based on the table you're dealing with.

So yeah, yeah. So what made you decide to move to Miami and start working at the hotel? So I ended up getting divorced. That guy who was just so supportive of you.

I'm just joking. I ended up getting divorced. We had our differences. And I had no family in the Midwest, in Chicago, and he was from the Midwest.

So I stayed there specifically because we were married. But my, so I was like, well, now that we're getting divorced, I want to go be closer to family. And my dad lives in Southern California. And my other brother lives at that time.

He lived in Reno with my sister-in-law and my nephew. And then my other brother lived in Miami who wasn't married. And I was like, my mom lives in Panama, in Panama country. Oh, okay.

Yeah. So I was like out of these garachions. And I'm coming off as a horse. Where am I going?

Yeah. You made the right call there. So I was like, I'm going to one of the most funny fun cities in North America and hanging out with your brother who's also not married. Yes.

Got it. It was also a good time. Yeah. I'm sure he helped me kind of figure out life, I guess.

And he's like, yeah, come stay with me. And he's like, don't worry. In Miami, like, there's just, there's so much possibility and opportunity. And you can choose to do whatever you want here, especially with your experience.

I was like, okay, great. So many bars and restaurants, right? Like it's crazy there. So much.

And it's so based on tourism. And it's, and he's like, there's not even like a low season really. But there is, but he's like still, like, it's still better than Chicago, which, when it's knowing for like nine months. It's just a little different.

A little different. So I went down to Miami and I initially interviewed with Thomas Keller restaurant that was just opening up. And because I was thinking, Michelin Star, go to Michelin Star, Chef. And even though only recently did Miami, the floor to get Michelin, uh, Michelin died in general.

But I was like, at least I know that that's incredible enough. It's Thomas Keller, who is Michelin Star, Chef, is doing restaurant, then it's going to be open certain caliber. And then that'll be good. But unfortunately, by the time I got down to Miami, it was towards the near end of when they were hiring for this new restaurant that they were opening.

But the hiring manager was like, but I will recommend you to this other spot based on your background and everything. And they're looking for somebody and help me out. And I got the job within playing as a song for one of the restaurants to start. And then from there went to lead song, I'm quite quickly to like within three, three months, four months of my time being there.

And then from which meant that I was a lead song for several of the outlets, managing for dinner service and the inventory, of course. And then I was in that position for a few months and then catapulted to beverage director, which was for the district, which was, which was like 11 different bars, responsible for and managing. But I had the capability before then do, it was a stretch. I mean, it definitely got great hairs.

That's a lot. 11 spots like crazy. Like in room dining, private events, you know, there was another, there was, they were opening up two bars, two additional bars at their smaller hotel that was within the district and then like the nightclub and the pool bar and the three restaurants that they had there on property too, it was just, yeah, and the other additional pop ups like the pool and beach stuff. But yeah, it was, it was a lot, it was a learning experience.

It was all consuming of my time. I know. Yeah, which probably impeded on your ability to party in Miami with your brother. But I had a good run when COVID came out.

Actually down there was wide open still wasn't it? And then the stimulus checks coming. So So then you got the consulting into the sort of consulting realm of it. And like, what's the plan now that you've sort of done your traveling, your settled in Orlando?

What's next for Ellen? So I think what I've been debating about is trying maybe the distribution side, or even going into being like an ambassador for a winery and going that route. I was initially going to take up a job that allowed that was that position, that role. I am before like right at the start of COVID, but COVID lasted too long and the winery wasn't able to finance, you know, Good job.

Yeah. Good job. So that still is something that's been entertaining in my mind. But now I'm in a new location.

And so I'm just trying to figure out what possibilities there are for that. And maybe just trying to figure out different different, different, different, maybe try to go back into a restaurant just to see what connections would be made because why not? Yeah. Well, why not?

Well, it's super awesome talking to you, Ellen. You have a great story and I'm sure whatever you get a move on to actually going to be super successful at you seem very driven. So thanks so much for doing the show. It's a pleasure talking to you.

Do you have anything that you would like to promote social media wise before we let you go? I mean, okay. Great. Okay.

Trish Chantane is my suggestion. Yeah, there you go. That is that. Well, it's been super fun.

Thanks so much for giving us your time and that's a lot for everything. Thank you. I appreciate it. Let's talk guys.