E222 Harley O'Grady

This week's guest is Harvey O'Grady, who joins us from Chicago, Illinois. Harvey is a bartender, turned Brand Ambassador for Petron Tequila. Harvey grew up in and around the service industry as her parents owned a restaurant. In our interview with Harley, we talk about how she initially had aspirations of working in fashion and design and how this transitioned into a career in the service industry, especially bartending and brand ambassadorship.

We discuss her journey from hostess to bartending and to her current role and her passion for the educational aspect of her work. We touch on the changing perception of the service industry as a career. We talk about the importance of building relationships and networking. Harley talks about her experiences at Camp Runamuck and the bonding and learning opportunities it provides.

We cover Petron Tequila's unique production methods and we cover a lot of other topics as usual. So make sure you check out the show notes as always for all the links and enjoy the show. Okay, we are back. It's another episode of the industry podcast, Kip, and the Brains of the Operation Dan.

Hey, that's me. How's it going? I'm still awesome. Thank you.

That's good. Well, that's Monday. So it's never awesome in my world on Mondays, but we get to this part of the day and it's good. Nice.

That's good. I'm drunk. So that's good. Congratulations.

One in a row. One in a row. Yeah. And you're worried you might have a mouth in question.

Yes. Actually from the last one. I've been worried you've had one the whole time I've known you. I've had a couple.

Yeah. Well, I hope it's not a serious one and your brain bounces back. Okay. Well, speaking of wiping out drunk, don't do...

I don't know where I was going to go out when I was trying to segue, but there's no segue happening. That is what it's actually outside of where it's inevitable. Yeah. Just don't do it outside my bars, which we will find.

Oh, there. I found it. In Kitchener, Waterloo. Come by, check it out.

Downtown Kitchener. It's Sugar Run at Sugar Run Bar on Instagram. Find out everything that's going on there. Waterloo.

Up down Waterloo. Babylon Sisters. At Babylon Sisters Bar on Instagram, you can figure out what's going on there. Always lots of activities and events.

And if you need any help with your wine or spirits needs, whether you're a bar or restaurant, or if you are a just private client and want to get some stock up for your home, kypp at BabylonSisters.ca. Email me directly for amazing spirits from a Lord of Distillery, Malivoir Winery, or Terwar Wine Imports. And I'll put links to that in the show notes because I think I'm glad to do that the last couple of episodes. Well, thanks for nothing.

That's what friends are for. And if you want to combine some of these spirits and wines into a house party, you should reach out to our good friends, Ali Gadoba, at alchemist.ali. Yeah, that right. Yeah, at alchemist.ali on Instagram, you can DM her there.

Yeah, throwing a party, throwing a wedding, having a baby shower on her birthday, having an anniversary, or just looking to get drunk with a party with your friends, giving her a shout out. She'll help you out. If you're running a bar program, need some assistance and she can help with that too. Anything you want?

Who's wise? Cocktail class? Everything. Yep, alchemist.al.ali.

Starting again in February at, I think, at Harper's Valley on Instagram, correct? I think so, yeah. Check it out, but I'll confirm. Please check out the great sandwiches, Harper's.

Those are happening at Babylon Sisters of Temwara Lou during the day. So that's Monday to Friday. And it is 11-3, 11-3 PM. Get those subs.

And we also have to thank Jean-Marie Dijon, for the fine work you did on our website. And once again, in Bibli, your go-to cocktail app that we highly recommend and you can do flavor profiles through whatever flavor you're looking for. And he's done a great job on it, a great job on our website, theindustrypodcast.club. So make sure you check out Jean-Marie Dijon.

And as always, links are in the show notes. Yeah, that's an invaluable tool, whether you're a bartender, a professional bartender, or a home bartender, I would recommend it for either in Bibli. We love it. And well, let's talk about this podcast that we're hosting here.

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The industry podcast, we're featured in the FeedSpot, Top 10 Service Industry Podcasts. Yeah, so that's a long link. It's like podcast.feedspot.com, Service Industry. I'll put a link to that in the show notes.

So that gives you a link to a whole bunch of 10 more other Service Industry related podcasts. Yeah, check them all out. This is how we spread the news of the Service Industry. A lot of great stories to be told in the Service Industry.

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You're all right. Bring in our guests coming to us from Chicago. It is Harley O'Grady. How are you, Harley?

I'm great. How are you guys? Good. Doing well.

Thank you, Mr. Joy, and I saw this lovely Frosty Monday in January. Thanks for having me. It's actually not super frosty in Chicago, Shaka.

Oh, really? Oh, that's weird. We're at a nice 44 degrees. It's like that.

That's bad. I don't know. So the first thing I got to say is Harley O'Grady is like the best superhero name of all time. How did you like on that?

Tell us the story behind your name. My name is a blessing and a curse. Blessing in a sense that people don't forget it, but people not forgetting my name can also be a curse. I'm supposed to be too drunk.

Well, when you're bad at remembering names, you know, people are like, oh, I'm not going to forget that name. And I'm like, well, I can't say the same for you, but I'm going to do my best. But my dad would motorcycles growing up. And then my mom's last name is Porter.

And Harley is an old English name. So she always loved a name for a girl. So it was kind of like a win-win in both scenarios. So I don't want to say I'm named after the motorcycle, but it's definitely inspired by it.

Right. And I'm not even going to say that too, because as I've gotten older as well, I used to be, I've always been shitty at remembering people's names. But and especially if you're in the service industry, you just meet so many people all the time. It's like, totally realistic for people who expect us to remember their names.

But I've started to get, I've started to become shitty at remembering people's faces as well. And I don't know. Oh, no. It's like, oh, I forgive my faces.

But the names I need to use like some sort of device to help myself remember. Like I always think to house money when she meets people and she repeats their name back to them in like a deep, rusty voice. Right. So the person says their name is Harmony and she says Harmony.

And I'm not going to lie, that works. But because I remember a long time ago hearing one that was like, if you say it back to them three times immediately in like the first five minutes that you're talking to them, like use their name when you're like talking to them. That's supposed to work. But I tried that and didn't do shit for me.

So I don't know. Someone asked me that trick on or gave me a trick on asking people how to spell their name. And I tried that out when somebody told me their name is Sam. And I was like, yeah, I'm trying this new thing out to remember names.

And that was a bad trick. I mean, wow, you're an idiot. Yeah. Whoever invented that system did not think that through.

It works in many regards, but that was a rough choice. That's hilarious. Okay. So you are born in Mason, Chicago or did you move here more recently?

Move there. I grew up in the Northwest suburbs. So Crystal Lake and then I moved to the city in 2010. So I've been here for quite a while now.

And what, how did you end up starting in the service industry? So it's a really fun story. Actually, my parents were in the restaurant industry as well. My mom was a chef for many years in Chicago and she, there's a restaurant downtown called Shaw's Crabhouse.

My mom was actually the opening sous chef and my dad was opening in front house manager. And that's what I met. And they took their connections and talents to Crystal Lake and opened their own restaurant, which was called Border's Oyster Bar and Nightclub. And that opened in, I think it was like 86, 87.

There was actually a Facebook group called the Crystal Lake Historical Society who just posted the last two weeks, just posted these really awesome articles about my parents restaurant that I photo that I haven't seen since I was a kid. So they had that restaurant open for 17 and a half years. And it was an oyster bar with live jazz and blues music, opened late night on the weekends. And then so my first house was in the parking lot of the restaurant and then the restaurant became successful.

So they knocked the house down, expanded the parking lot, bought the building next to it and moved into our childhood home in Crystal Lake. And then when I wanted to start working in restaurants, by the time the restaurant closed, I wasn't old enough. It closed when I was 15. So I did a lot of counting lobsters and inventory and counting gallons of milk sitting in there with my mom, complaining about how cold it was.

And by the time I was old enough to work in a restaurant, my friend got me a job at TGI for at least. So that was actually my first paycheck restaurant industry job. What did your parents end up doing after the restaurant closed? My mom actually still is in the restaurant business, but she's the director of catering and sales for the 49ers.

So she works for Levy Restaurant Group at Levi Stadium and dad's no longer in the picture. But my mom's stuck in the bed. So, no, that's crazy. He's quite the legend.

Yeah, that's a lot of consuming job. We should have her on the show. Honestly, she'd be great. She's a veteran in the service industry and has been through it all.

So I got to ask, growing up, how do your folks want to see food based restaurant? Do you want to see food these days or do you have your field growing up? No, actually as a kid, I hated seafood. I think that is a result of my days and the cooler doing being forced to do inventory when I wanted to be at home like playing on the computer.

But yeah, I hated it growing up. There were only a few dishes on the menu I would eat. And it makes me sound really bougie when I say which ones they were. It would only eat the baked clams and there was a baked white fish with duchess potatoes that I would eat.

But then it wasn't until I started working in restaurants that I was like, oh, I don't care anymore. I just hated the smell of raw fish. I would eat all the seafood. And then when I moved to the city, I needed a job and so did my sister.

So my mom called up her friends at Shaw's. The parkers and was like, hey, my kids need jobs. So they said, send them in and me and my sister worked there for a couple years as well. And then I worked with that company for about 10 years afterwards.

So we carried on the family legacy. It's the restaurant owned by a restaurant group called Bata Centertania, which is huge nationwide really, but huge in Chicago. So after I worked at Shaw's, that's where I really started to love seafood. I started eating oysters and crab and then I actually worked at their sushi restaurant for the last eight years before starting this job.

So still eating hella seafood. What's the sushi restaurant called? Sushi San. Okay.

Because I remember going to a police in Chicago called Sushi Sanba. Do you remember that? People often confuse the two. I've never been there.

But I looked at Sushi San. They have a couple locations and then they also started at their ramen restaurant, which is ramen San, moved over to Sushi San and then helped them open their own Picassan room upstairs. And then they made the transition over here. So do you feel like you sort of just carried on the family business or was there a point in your career where you were like, oh, no, I'm actually like, I'm excited about working in the service industry.

Do you remember a time where maybe that that sweet happened? You know, when I was younger, I always was like, I want to be, I wanted to be a fashion designer and I was looking at, I was actually looking at schools for that when I was in college or in high school because I really didn't know what my direction would be. And then once I got a job in restaurants, I was quickly promoted for post-to-server and then down the line quickly promoted from the server to bartender once I hit the right age. So I feel like it was just once I started, it just was natural for me.

And my whole family worked in it. So it was seen as a career for us, you know, and my mom, no matter what we wanted to do, she would support it along the way. But yeah, I think it just kind of became a natural fit. And then I went to college for marketing and communications downtown and doing that, it was just kind of like, oh, this seems like fun, something I'd be good at.

And while going to school, I was working at restaurants downtown and then I kind of hit a point where I graduated and I had to pay for school. So and I didn't really find any jobs within the marketing world intriguing to me. I didn't want to be, you know, thrown on a ad campaign for something I didn't give a crap about. And I realized I was utilizing everything I did in school being behind the bar.

So I stuck with it and I knew that brand work was what I eventually wanted to do. So it just kind of was natural for me to not really do anything else. Although being in the restaurant industry, we all struggle with how do I get out? Yeah.

We love it. Well, it's funny because like I always find like just for myself, but also from people we talk to all the time on the show and even in person, like people who have stuck with it, there's often like this is period where it's either something happens, but we were like, wow, I'm really excited about it. This is like what I want to do with my life or more like me where it's just like, oh, I guess this is what I do now. You start getting older and you're getting older.

Yeah, yeah. So I think when I was growing up, it was not considered like an actual career. It was considered something you did until you found out what you wanted to do. And I think that that luckily it slowly changed in perception.

And I don't know, maybe that's because of like Netflix shows or whatever or like bar stars or star tenders or everyone talking about it. But like the role of the bartender has become, has started to be seen more as a career than it was like, at least when I was growing up during the industry. Absolutely. I mean, I look back at all the people I grew up with and I'm one of the only ones who's in this line of work from all the friends I had in high school and grade school.

And I think a lot of the pressure in the beginning when I was interested in going to fashion school or and I had no idea what else I wanted to do was I felt like in the community I grew up in, that was natural. You looked at what college you wanted to go to to figure out what your next step in your career was. And I, you know, I saw it be very successful for my parents and then I also saw it end. So I think when I saw it end, that's when I had this fear like, oh, that can't be my future, you know, it, because it was a very rough ending for my parents because it was ended in the middle of a divorce as well.

So it was pretty traumatic to experience all that at the same time and heartbreaking because it was such an amazing restaurant that people still talk about it to the day. And I think once I really started doing it on my own and finding my, you know, finding my way and realizing I was actually really good at it. I was like, oh, this can actually be something more. And then when I learned that a brand ambassador was a job you could go into, I was like, oh, there's something else I could do.

And I think it's just, it's different for everybody and who knows that this is going to be what I'm doing for the rest of my life. But right now I know it's where I'm supposed to be and what my parents raised me to be really good at doing it. So when you transition to like, when you, this is a good way to talk about this, like when you discovered that the role of a brand ambassador existed and you're like, oh, that's something I could be good at, especially with your marketing background makes sense, right? So how did you then pursue that line of work or did it come to you?

Um, a little bit of both. So I had started getting more friends in the restaurant industry once I started bartending downtown and I started meeting people who were brand ambassadors that became very good friends of mine and going to events. And I remember having a click where I was like, oh, that could be a really cool job. Like I didn't really know that was a job that existed.

And my role at Ramen San, at first I was a server and then I was a bartender and then I moved up the ladder to be a lead bartender for all of their locations. So I was in charge of all front of house training for bartenders. And then I did all front of house Japanese whiskey 101 for the whole restaurant group. And I realized I really enjoyed the education portion of the job and being able to be a leader in that sense, but I didn't have any desire to go into management.

So it's kind of like, well, what's next? And I kind of just started really putting it out into the universe to anybody that said it by bar that was a brand ambassador, did brand work. And I said, how did you get here? What do I have to do?

And I'm interested in this, do you be me fitting in this world? And I was with that. I was with Ramen San and Sushi San for a total of eight years. So once I left Earth, sorry, when I transferred over to Sushi San, I got more responsibility in terms of creating menus and continuing education and then opening that El Macase room and it grew to be a lot, putting together cocktail menus and then doing all the education and helping with inventory.

It really, really started to weigh. I mean, in a way of just, I can't do it all, but I want to. And you know, it's that constant battle of I don't want to let go of what I'm making behind the bar to move into management. But if you want to transition to something else, sometimes you have to accept starting from the bottom.

So I actually have been hired for a mini brand ambassador role March of 2020. So the day that restaurants closes when I got the notice that I got the job. So I was so excited thinking like, oh, we're only going to be closed for two weeks. So I was supposed to fly to New York and do the training.

We did all virtually for two weeks. And then they just canceled the role. So that was 2020. And then flash forward to 2023.

I kind of hit this breaking point of I got figured out and I ended up getting offered a job in Mexico to work at a pop up bar for a program called the Mulberry Project. And I where they fly you out there pay for your cost of living and you just bartend. And I was like, you know what, I had an application in for a brand one specific brand ambassador job that I really, really wanted. And right before I left, I got my first interview.

So I was like, I'm going to Mexico for a month. I'm going to live on I was living on an island. And I just thought, you know what, I'm going to figure it out. And the day that I got there, a friend reached out to me and said, Hey, you've mentioned me before that you're interested in brand work.

And I saw this role with the throne. She was like, you're the only person I can think of to do the job. And I thought, and I never would have thought of that role for myself. And it seems like way too big for me since I've never done it before.

But my resume is ready to go. My cover letter is ready. So I sent it off and they called me back within 48 hours or 24 hours, actually. And then during the course of me living in Mexico, I actually did all my interviews.

Like I was living there, like in a corner of the beach on the sand where I could find Wi-Fi at each bar or and I had swimsuit bottoms on the bottom for pretty much every interview. I was kind of in this moment of like, I'm not going to get this, but I was feeling really, really confident in the interviews. It's kind of freeing though, right? Because like, if you don't think you're going to get it and you're on the beach and you're like, like, what's the worst thing you happen to stay on the beach?

Big deal, right? I told myself, if I did get the job, I was like, I'm coming back here. I'm going to branch out my condo. And then when I got back, my job granted me a leave of absence for a month, which was really, really kind of them.

And when I came back two weeks later, I got off the job and was like, well, here we are. I guess I never saw this coming. But it's been amazing. I mean, I was really fortunate to have my first brand job, be with such a big brand and such a big company.

And so I was coming up, April will be my two year anniversary. Amazing. And so like, just to back up a little bit, when you, like what point did you realize you could do the style of bartending that was necessary to like lead that whole program at the sushi restaurants and also the training of like Japanese whiskey? Because you got to know your shit.

Like that's not like, yeah, I mean, it took a lot of research on my own. And I fortunately had a team that was really educated on it as well. And what was really cool about that group is they were really great at taking really green bartenders and training them up. So I just, you know, put a lot of time and energy and said, educating myself on it.

And I found that I had a really great time training people that were eager to learn and didn't know much. So the beauty of training a blank slate behind a bar is amazing because you have that opportunity to create good habits. And they have that spark in their eye that a lot of us don't have anymore. And I loved it.

It was a ton of fun. And being able to go around all different stores and be able to train all sorts of different people was amazing. And then I realized that a brand ambassador role was something that I could still be involved with bars. I could still help great cocktails and I could still help with education and all the bar to the people that I had trained up to bartend.

I could still be involved and be a mentor to them. Could be my only job. I was like, oh, this is it. And I went into sushi, saw me the other day and there were four people behind the bar that I trained before, some that started off as food runners and hosts and now they're all bartending at the bar that I no one will work at.

And that's incredible to see. I wanted to cry. I was like, look at all the little proud of you. Yeah.

Was there a point where you were sort of thrust into this role of like now you're making craft cocktails, start at TVIFs and now you're like creating, you're behind the bar, creating cocktails? When did you realize you were good at it and had the creativity for it? I feel like I just, I feel like I had to really develop palettes thanks to my mom and her being a chef. So I learned a lot with cooking in that regard.

And I think watching her just took it home without recipes, but to me that that's what R&D is. And I still to this day, I always felt imposter syndrome in that category because now bartending is there's TV shows about making pack till, like you said. And I think I just started, I had to just swallow all of my fear and just start making cocktails and people started liking them. I was like, oh, okay, I think I know what I'm doing.

I think it was a lot of just like swallowing it and hoping, putting out what I created and hoping people liked it. And I was really good at leaning on the people around me who knew what they were doing and asking questions and trying to participate in as many programs and events the city, the service industry has to offer. And I still know that I could be a lot better at it. And for the time where I was, I was, I think doing a great job and just trying to have as much confidence along the way, you know.

Yeah. Well, I mean, I think that's we all start in a certain way. I think probably having your background in the culinary world through your parents is probably huge for that, right? Because so much of cocktail creation, especially in the 2020s and on is so much food based.

Like it's almost like another chiff-roll. Yeah. Well, I feel like that's what I actually really found I loved with doing cocktails in Japanese comments, because everything is so simple. Kind of one of those things like don't fix what's not broke.

It's a lot of three ingredient cocktails and it's really clean kind of flavor profiles that don't overpower the fish. And I think that was kind of a really awesome challenge for me where you don't want to have this 10 step cocktail that has so much going on that you can't taste like this beautiful piece of niggiri in front of you. So it taught me a lot about just focusing on really fresh, simple ingredients. And I found that that was the style of making cocktails that I really enjoyed that you didn't have to do a whole lot to make a great cocktail to pair with good food, you know?

Mm-hmm. And like actually, I mean, I think most of our tenants would tell you like making a simple and delicious cocktails way harder than making a super complex one in a way because you're stripping down all of the all of the wrapping. Yeah. I mean, your dish is only as good as your ingredients and simic cocktails.

So it taught me a lot about having to, when I first started bartering, I wanted to do all these crazy cocktails with all these touches. And then the Omocosse room actually was what really taught me like, oh, you don't even do a lot to have a great cocktail. And in fact, like a lot of that stuff is like, it's just like window dressing. And like, because I went through this as well, like trying to put every fucking ingredient into a drink and then you realize, well, half the stuff that I put in there is not really affecting, if I take a half of that out, it would have tasted the same.

Yeah, totally. Yeah. Totally. The flavors get lost really easy.

But yeah, I learned a lot. Yeah. So transitioning into your role now, back to your role now as the Patron ambassador. So you get this gig.

You're kind of like what you were seeking out there. So like the job you wanted and then you're thrown into this world. You've never done it before. It talked to us about the first few days of being like an brand ambassador.

I cried. I cried. I was like, I'm not even, I remember during one of the interviews in Mexico. I, I, right before I had the interview, I started crying and my new roommate at the time we've known each other for three days.

And she's like, why are you crying? I was like, I'm not good enough for this. Like what? Who, I've never done this before.

Who do I think I am? And she was like, are you kidding me? I'm running for three days. And if somebody reached out to you because they think you can do it, who are you to say you have no idea, you've never done it.

And I think it was just a lot of imposter syndrome. I mean, I still struggle with it to this day because it's a role where a lot of eyes are on you and that's the goal, you know, to get your name and your face out there and create brand representation. And I'm very fortunate to have Chicago. It's such an incredible, it's an incredible, it's an incredible community.

We're all so close and like family and blood brothers. And right when I started, I mean my friends and fellow industry people were right up front at all of the events I had and it was, I was super fortunate. But the first couple of days were hard and having to learn the admin side of things, I also cried. I was like, hey, I'm going to have my mom's sheets and learning how to do expenses.

And it was crazy because I wanted, I was like, okay, I'm going to go into a job where I have more of a schedule, right? More of a routine. And I'm like, oh my God, I'd weigh more of a routine when I was bartending. Because you clocked in and you clocked out, you know, I can't do that anymore.

But it was a lot of excitement for what was next and, you know, realizing that myself that was bullshit. But it's still fighting back and forth with whether I'm doing a good job and whether I'm just an imposter in the role, you know. Right. So we talked to a few brand ambassadors on the show.

And the one thing that everybody kind of has expressed to us is that like you go into it and you know, like, because if you're, you generally get it because you were working the service industry already and you're like, say a bartender's view of what a brand ambassador does, it's kind of like hang out at bars, so showcase the brand, make drinks and people. Like it's a big social event. And what they don't tell you about is all the admin work that you were just referring to. So that must have been quite an honor.

Yeah. It was a huge eye opener. And I mean, overall, if you're organized, it's not a whole lot. But you know, a lot of times like the days where you think you're going to do your admin, that's when all the industry events are going on, right?

So it's a lot of just ebb and flow and having to be flexible with your schedule. And it has taught me so much about personal boundaries and being able to say no to things because it is really hard for me to say no to things. I always want to be available and I always say yes. And I'm a people pleaser to the core.

And this job has taught me that that's not going to get you very far. It can in a lot of ways, but it can also be a huge detriment to just your own mental health in the process. So the job, the and unfortunate of the job and making sure you stick to certain things like that has taught me a lot as well. So like how many hours a week would you say are devoted to admin on average compared to like being out in bars and doing the social.

Oh, I mean, I think it depends, you know, if you keep up with your stuff, like you might only have like maybe three to four hours a week or something. It's nothing crazy and it's something you can do out of arc, right? It's just when you can be out of our being social and talking to people, you don't want to sit and look at your computer, right? So it's nothing crazy.

It's just some things are due on certain days, but that events all in the same same days. So you got to figure it out. Like, but overall, I mean, most of my time has spent out in the field for sure. So we do out in the field.

Like what are you doing mostly just for our listeners who aren't so familiar with the job? I mean, relationships first and foremost are what my job is, right? My whole goal of this role is advocacy. And you know, I think a lot of it is just me being out and being present and making these bartenders feel seen and heard and supporting the work that they do and showing them there are people that care and finding ways to help highlight what they do and make sure they're making money and make sure that my tasks are my job are met as well.

But yeah, all relationships, I think just again, that making that bartender feel seen and heard by somebody in the industry is so huge because that's what I saw right in the basket is doing and that's why I wanted to do the job. So like I guess we just get more specific. So there's people who do a job called like a sales rep or like would be for whatever company owns but wrong right now. That's a different job than what you do, right?

So you're not out there trying to put product on bars and restaurants. So when you say advocacy, like more specifically, how would you describe that in comparison to being a sales rep? Sure. I like to explain it as I'm the hand between the sales teams and the buyers.

I'm a large part of the relationships that start in which they want to work with me and want to support me and then I bring in my buyers and I get to plan events, do educations, be present at the account often and get to know the staff, be having my finger on the pulse of what they need and when they need it and how we can help each other. And that's when I bring in the sales teams and the buyers and they have the numbers talks, right? So that's where I get to be like, all right guys. Y'all figure this part of it out and I got the rest.

But yeah, again, it's largely relationships and creating a feeling for the brand, right? So you can get somebody to drink any spirit and give them all the things they need to know about how it's made and how it's distilled and so on and so forth. But you want people to have an emotional connection to the brands as well. And I think that's a large part of what advocacy is.

And I learned a lot about that. Are you guys familiar with Camp Runamoc? Yes. Okay.

So I've done Camp Runamoc six times now. So that's also where I learned a lot about the idea of what advocacy is because of that whole campus put on by the help of brand ambassadors. So yeah, just really focusing on building those relationships. Yeah, we interviewed the organizer of the founder.

Oh, Lindsey? Yeah, Lindsey, yeah. Oh, I heard that episode. Yeah.

Yeah. That was a while ago. I was like drawing a bike on her name as we started the show. I can't remember names anymore.

So yeah. But yeah, Lindsey, just a lovely woman and someone who's super excited about what I talk about advocacy, like advocacy for the service industry, like who has more of it than her? Totally. And I didn't mention this prior actually in addition to the question of how I found this role attending those camps actually was what really drove home.

We wanted to do this role. Okay. So many other ambassadors who are now my friends today and many people that I was a camper with when I first started who are all brand ambassadors now. But with those connections, those really helped me make my way into this world.

Yeah. Actually, do you want to talk a little bit more about your experience at Camp Runama? Because we've had several guests who have been there and just like were blown away by their experience and obviously having an interview with Lindsey as well. But tell us what I did for you.

Yeah. I think a large part of camp is what you make it. Some people look at it and think like, oh, oh, people just go there to party. And it's like, sure, if you go there to do that, that's what it is.

But if you're going there to make connections, you're going to do it. And I feel like the first time I went to camp, I was so scared. So I got there and I wasn't necessarily in a great headspace to be meeting 150 bartenders from all over the world and living with them in the cabin for a week. There's a lot of personalities at once.

And I tend to be the person in the room that's a lot of personality. So in that moment, I was not. And it was amazing. I mean, it really got me out of my comfort zone.

I met someone that was in my cabin and is still one of my best friends today and moved to Chicago after a couple of years after we met. And there were some people I met at camp that were from Chicago that I never met in Chicago. We met at camp. And I think that it just teaches you a lot about appreciation for what you do and what this community is.

And a lot of people who are at camp live in areas where they might not have as strong of an industry community as say Chicago has. And they get there and see like, oh, there's other people that are going through what I'm going through. Because it's not about showing up and being the best bartender who knows how to make the best cocktails. There was one year at Camp I Taught some girl I make an old fashioned.

And she's a bartender. She just never made one before. So it's just this really special place that is almost hard to explain because it's dirty. You're on a kid's campground and you're all showering in communal showers for seven days and you're hanging out at sweaty campfires at night and waking up until two in the morning and then waking up at 8am together for breakfast and next day and I'll get on buses to go to distilleries.

So you, it's a really hard and fast bond with people. Kind of like, you know, your friends in the restaurant industry versus outside of it. Your friends in the restaurant industry are your blood brothers. You've been through Helen back and the people you meet at camp, 87 days you go through Helen back together.

That many personalities and mental health crisis and everything all wrapped into one week is a lot. And it taught me a lot about being a leader. It taught me a lot about being a friend. And now any city I go in the world, there's somebody I know with that, you know, there's a Facebook page that you get invited to after you leave camp.

And it's an awesome resource to just stay connected all over and I couldn't be more grateful for it. I'd gone as a camper, a counselor, a head counselor and now I'm back as a sponsor. So I've seen it from all different angles and being able to be on the sponsor side and help facilitate that experience for these bartenders that are coming in and terrified is still rewarding on so many levels. That's cool.

Well, we're going to let you go because you've given us a bunch of time here. But there's anything you would like to speak specifically to about patron in general before we let you go. Do you want to talk? You want to give us the patron's feel?

Sure, why not? Yeah. The big conversation right now with the tequila world is out of free. I think what a lot of people don't realize is that patron being such a big brand, we are super fortunate to be totally out of the free.

Three ingredients are just a good way to sit water, right? Right down to the roots of the only three things you need to make a really special tequila. And the distillaries low-cated up in the highlands of Jalisco. And everything is a hands-on process and everything is a small batch from start to finish.

And no matter how big the brand gets, one thing I learned in the first week of my job getting to see the distillery was how special that was. And I'm just super fortunate to be a part of that community. And starting off in Japanese with the movie into the agave world, I didn't know a lot. And it's been a really awesome process to learn about and see how involved the community is and how it wouldn't exist without the people of Mexico.

We also have this Instagram account that's called Academic Patrol. So it's a great resource for really anybody who wants to find more education on agave as a role. Thank you guys for getting to look it up. It's great.

I actually have one more question for you because it just occurred to me now. So, Patrolon was sort of like the first big craft tequila that came sort of bludgeoned its way into North America, right? Because everyone was really shitty hoe-de-koey about whatever. So now that there are so many other of these craft tequila brands that are sort of in our airspace, like we're just overwhelmed with tequila became the hot thing.

And now it's like, it's actually amazing. I can drink like a million different types of tequila, some of them are garbage celebrity brands, some of them are actually like family distilleries that we just never knew about before. So how does Patrolon like keep its sort of credentials in that space where all of these new craft tequiles are coming in to people want to explore? Totally.

It's a great question because I'm overwhelmed with how many tequiles there are. And tequila's surpassed because the number one spirit in the world which is insane but also exciting because it means people's health is helping. Who the fuck that was going to happen? Who the fuck ever worked for?

Not me. Like nobody. I never think I'd be working in this world. Oh, certainly nobody growing like or like distilling their first agave plant back in Mexico was like one day this is going to be the spirit of the world.

Right. And it's really exciting especially for the people of that community but it's also something that needs to be talked about because it's not like you can just grow a plant, grow a peanut and then make a bottle of tequila in a month. It takes five to seven years for that plant to be ready. So I think what Patron does to maintain its integrity is again, relying on traditional methods.

They still are using to have one of wheels on site. Everything again like is bottled, labeled, numbered by hand, wrapped up by hand, stick her by hand and we continue to invite people out to the distillery. It's unfortunately invite only so it's not just open for people to go out to Mexico and see but anybody who has gone to visit to visit the distillery can fully attest to the brand being really true to its Mexican roots. And do you feel like it's almost like the side to where well you can go try these other ones but you're eventually going to come back to Patron.

I think the beauty of tequila like you said is there's a million to drink. Yeah. If there is one that you can find pretty much any liquor store you go to in the whole world, it's definitely going to be Patron that I would lead toward. Or like Quivo.

Or Quivo. Sure. And I understood it with Japanese whiskey but not in other regards and with tequila, if you're drinking cheap tequila odds are it was made cheaply. And that's not a bad thing.

If that's tequila you like to drink, drink it. You know, it's up to the consumer and whatever you want to drink. But I do think that if you want your money to be going towards tequila that their main focus is supporting the people that bring it to us. I put your own as first and foremost one of those number one brands.

And again, often the issue is the bigger these brands get the more they start to lean towards sugar or caramel coloring to tequila in order to keep up with production. And put your own as a do that. And then you're like, I mean, for its replication versus automation. So if we need PlayBrick Ovens, we just build another one versus making it bigger.

If we need more fermenters, we just make more versus making them bigger so that everything can be maintained in that small batch format and remain consistent. Well, I think it's amazing. Like, again, who would have ever predicted that tequila would ever at any point? Because like any like my whole time bartending or just drinking as a someone who likes spirits is like the hardest thing to get people to like would be tequila.

I'd be like, no, it's tequila is great. And they'd be like, oh, tequila is disgusting. That's the one thing I'm going to throw up. I'm like, and every time I'm just like, well, you're just drinking shaded tequila.

You're drinking poorly made tequila. And then you present them something that's great. And they're like, oh shit, it doesn't even taste like the same spirit, right? Right.

So like, well, my tequila wasn't as acceptable in the past. So it's understandable. I didn't know anything about it. You know?

And but you're almost like the first one that kind of brought that good tequila to North America. Yeah, absolutely. They created the top shelf category of tequila. That they did.

That they did. Well, that's why the bottle doesn't fit in your well. Well, that's a great way to end it. Thanks so much, Charlie.

We really appreciate you giving us the time. This was a super fun conversation. I'm glad that you're staying warm there. We're freezing here.

So but yeah, thanks for giving us the time. And it was a great conversation. Yeah, cheers to you guys. Yeah, cheers to you guys.

Yeah, cheers. And before you go, everyone wants to find you online. What's the best way to talk with you? Yeah, my Instagram is gnarlyharly4gn-a-l-e-y-h-l-e-y-y-4.

Wonderful. So if I ever have events going on, you'll see them on there. I'll put that link in the show. Thanks very much.

Because you guys in Chicago sometime, I'll buy you a glass of tequila. I fucking love Chicago. So I hope that happens too. Come and see us.

I love nothing more. All right. Thanks again, Harley. Thanks for watching.

See ya. Bye.