- While the core values aren't changing, it's like everything else is pivoting.

- The biggest worry would be we alienate current customers.

- So it's really really important with being such a young company that you need people on the ground.

- A couple of times every week we'll (mumbles) whole foods and just hand out samples, and it's basically just telling people why we're so different and why we care about ginger beer, and through that the world so much, and why we wanna make a difference.

- What we're trying to do is there are the big guys doing one thing, we're doing it with soul, we're doing it where we care about our ingredients, our relationships and what Ellen's doing is she's running that soul.

She's bringing that soul to the customer and our retail.

(upbeat music) - Willie's Superbrew is an alcoholic ginger beer and it's basically fermented ginger with lemon, and turmeric, and sugar and that's it, so it's really crisp, really light, really refreshing and it's the best thing to drink anytime, anywhere.

(laughing) - So we right now with Farmer Willie's have a product that actually sells incredibly well and we could just continue to expand that.

We're taking something that already works and we're blowing it up, because we think we can literally change what alcohol is and do something where the consumers actually are aware of what they're consuming and have a healthier profile on that drink that they didn't have before.

- It's almost starting as a new company in many ways, because they have new recipes, they're entire image has changed, the colors, the packaging, the slogan.

- That means that there might be people who are like "Why did Willie's face disappear from the brand?

"I loved the beard on the front.

"Why are you changing something that works?"

And what we would say is there's a bigger thing we can do here.

We can change alcohol.

- So it's gonna need everybody on board.

It's really really important that we build the team as quickly as possible.

What do you have for this weekend?

Any good news?

- Yeah, so I have all the tastings like normal, 13 brand ambassadors now, - so making my way up.

- Excellent - You're almost there.

- I finally figured out how many brand ambassadors I need per region, so it's like figuring out how many accounts we have in each region and then from there how many tastings per month, how long those tastings are, and then from those calculations, figuring out how many hours per month in each region.

- Okay.

- And so from there figuring out how many brand ambassadors I need throughout the summer, so we're at just over 30 brand ambassadors which is exciting.

- Okay, that's good.

And then you had mentioned last time that there were certain regions you were gonna target.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, so... - How is that going?

- It's good, it's good.

I need to recruit like crazy.

When I started there were three brand ambassadors and so it's really kinda been laying the foundations and building these structures that I can scale out, because this summer we're aiming to have more than 30 brand ambassadors, so, you know, ten-fold there has to be something in place that makes it easier for me to communicate with them and schedule and calendar tastings and it's definitely something that I have never fully done before in this scale.

- So what else are you doing with training the ambassadors?

You said you were working on the compensation scheme and really communicating that - Yeah - and job descriptions, so how is that going?

- It's good, so originally then everything was kind of everywhere and so consolidating it and presenting it to people in a way that was like, hey we're not trying to take advantage of you, we're not trying to exploit you for being a college student or someone who, you know, - I know - wants free beer, we wanna pay you, and we want you to have a good time and we want you to be part of the team, but obviously we're a start up - I know, but that's an issue - As well - the name brand ambassador which we talked about.

- I know, yeah I know.

- We actually discussed this last week as well.

We have sales reps and we have head of sales, right?

And then I have a brand ambassador program and branding and sales they do intersect so much, but we want people to know the core values of the brand.

We want people to know why we exist as a company, and it's not because we're trying to be hustlers and get all these sales, it's because we want to bring back human connection and real ingredients and respect the environment and live responsibly and so I think that all of those things embody the brand ambassador, would it necessarily coincide with the sales rep?

- What about brand representative or something?

- Yes, I think - Just because the ambassador definitely has the connotation, you're not getting paid.

- I know, I know.

- Unfortunately, the term brand ambassador has been abused a bit and there have been a lot of bad programs out there where, you know, there's even been some where students, it's usually students or young professionals, have been forced to buy product, so you actually lose money being a brand ambassador.

So that's something, you know, we're gonna work on.

And so I'm even thinking about you are attracting young people in college or brand new professionals and I'm even thinking what do they want to put on their resume?

- Product rep sounds too corporate (mumbles) - Ask them - Yeah, true - Maybe you can ask them, you know what I mean?

- Everyone in this company, be it Ellen learning to build a brand ambassador program, Jack learning to brew, Gil learning the sales side, Bruce running the marketing.

Each one of us doesn't necessarily know the perfect order of steps, but we're willing to go to advisors to ask questions, to make mistakes, and to help each other get there and to hold each other accountable and that type of individual growth is what's key to living through this whole journey and making it actually something where we're changing the industry.