Empowering Women in the Spirits Industry | Mara Smith | Inspiro Tequila | Profits on Purpose

Episode Description

In this episode of the Profits on Purpose podcast, host Nate interviews Mara Smith, the CEO and founder of Inspiro Tequila. Mara shares her unique journey from a career in law to launching a female-focused, additive-free tequila brand. She discusses the challenges of navigating the spirits industry, including legal complexities, the B Corp certification process, and the importance of quality and female empowerment in her business. Mara also reflects on her financial strategies, inventory management, and the lessons learned throughout her entrepreneurial journey, emphasizing the significance of celebrating small wins and the role of women in the spirits industry.

Key Takeaways

• Mara Smith transitioned from law to entrepreneurship in the tequila industry.
• Inspiro Tequila focuses on additive-free products and female consumers.
• The journey of becoming a B Corp was both challenging and rewarding.
• Mara emphasizes the importance of quality in product development.
• Navigating legal contracts is crucial in the highly regulated spirits industry.
• Fundraising requires a mindset shift from asking for money to providing opportunities.
• Inventory management is complex in the spirits industry due to production timelines.
• Balancing perfectionism with the need to ship products is a common challenge for entrepreneurs.
• Women in the spirits industry bring a fresh perspective and create a more relaxed environment.
• Mara's journey highlights the importance of celebrating small wins in entrepreneurship.

See More from Mara and Inspiro Tequila

• Inspiro Tequila's Website
• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Instagram
• TikTok

Listen to the full episode to discover how Mara's experiences can inspire and guide you on your entrepreneurial journey. Don't forget to subscribe for more insightful conversations!

I hope you enjoy this episode!

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– Nate and the Profits on Purpose podcast team

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Transcript

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00:00 Introduction to Inspiro Tequila
02:49 Career Reinvention and Entrepreneurial Journey
05:35 Navigating Legal Challenges in Startups
08:11 The Importance of B Corporation Certification
10:55 Quality Over Cost: The Philosophy Behind Inspiro
13:52 The Balancing Act of Perfectionism in Entrepreneurship
16:28 Funding and Financial Strategies for Startups
27:37 Navigating Imposter Syndrome
28:51 Building Confidence in Business
30:57 The Power of Female-Centric Workplaces
37:22 Managing Inventory and Supply Chain Challenges
41:13 Staying True to Values in Business
43:13 Advice for New Entrepreneurs

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Nate (00:06)
Well, welcome to the Profits on Purpose podcast, where we explore the journeys of purpose led founders and the financial strategies that have helped them survive and thrive. I'm your host, Nate Littlewood. Our guest today is Mara Smith, who is the CEO and founder of Inspiro Tequila. Mara left a career in law and corporate strategy to launch Inspiro in 2020.

After discovering that most tequila brands contain additives and completely ignored female consumers, her additive free tequila is distilled, owned and led entirely by women. Beyond crafting premium spirits, Inspiro is a certified B Corp with a mission to support and mentor other female founders. Starting just as a pandemic hit, Mara has grown Inspiro all the way from Illinois to have distribution across multiple states, all while maintaining a strong social mission.

Mara, welcome to the show. It's great to have you here.

Mara Smith (01:10)
Thanks Nate, love that intro.

Nate (01:13)
Well, thank you for joining us for a chat today. I'm really looking forward to learning about the journey you've had here, because it's quite a unique one. And I thought a good place to start would be to talk about career reinvention, because you've certainly been through some interesting pivots here. From what I understand, you practiced law originally, worked in corporate strategy, and were a stay-at-home mom for a bit before you started this company.

What was it that chose you to pivot into the world of tequila and how did some of those earlier experiences either prepare you or not prepare you for life as a founder?

Mara Smith (01:54)
Great question and one that I ask myself very often. How did I get into tequila? You know, the story of why I started Inspiro is basically, you know, that I really, I'm a super consumer in food and beverage. love the better for you category.

And so I knew I wanted to start a company and I knew it was going be in food or beverage. And the reason frankly became tequila is I've been a tequila drinker for years and then discovered that everything it was drinking contained undisclosed additives like glycerin and sweeteners, including aspartame and coloring.

And I thought I was drinking something that was like better for you as far as an adult beverage goes. So it was kind of the convergence of that and the discovery that all these women drink tequila. And I was like, well, if all these women drink tequila, why are brands not focusing on this consumer? So that was really what drove me to wanting to start in particular a tequila company. So was kind of this like a market opportunity of addressing female consumers, being able to do so authentically. Like you mentioned, we're distilled, owned and led by all women.

I thought who better to understand and speak to this thoughtful consumer than us coming from a female perspective? And can we create something clean, additive free, but still easy to drink and approachable and the taste profile she enjoys? that's kind of got me here. What do I think helped me as an entrepreneur in all those other moments in my career?

Most people have a pretty circuitous path on nothing like a straight line. Actually I started out, I mean, talk about a major deviation. My background, my undergrad is in accounting. So I got my CPA and then went straight to law school. So I think all of those things though, like helped as far as being an entrepreneur. The reason I mentioned that is because I was on a very myopic path.

I did not look at entrepreneurship as like a goal of mine or saw it in my future. was like, okay, heads down, you know, study, pass the CPA, go to law school, get the big law firm job. I had like blinders on. I never looked at like what other options would be. But all of those things I think were very helpful to becoming an entrepreneur. you think about it. One, I can understand the numbers just enough, you know, to hopefully be helpful and not too dangerous.

Then as far as the legal background, that really gave me a very strong analytical background. So feel like a way to look at strategy at the higher level, but then also very, very detail oriented, because I did transactional law. So like contracts, things like that. I'm a full-fledged client, so I do a lot of our own agreements and documents,

terrible client for a lawyer to have because they mark up everything. So I those kinds of things, work ethic, I tease that like I worked, I was an associate at the largest law firm in Chicago at that time and I work more now as a founder. So really understanding having a strong work ethic. And then the piece that I think, know, then corporate strategy, obviously I was like,

We were innovating and looking at ideas and it just gave me a very big, broader perspective. And that's where my, I feel like, entrepreneurial spirit was kind of sparked because we were looking at all these different concepts. was at McDonald's Corporation and things and how to innovate and different concepts. It really, really widened my view of everything. I think a piece that often gets missed, but I would be remiss to not mention is...

I honed a lot of skills as a stay at home mom that I think are directly applicable to being a good founder and having a startup. Right? My oldest were pre-me twins. I can multitask like the best of them and you find yourself doing that often in a startup. The flexibility before that, I'd like be able to plan my weeks, my days, what I'm going to get done. Well, with kids, no day ever goes as planned and that is the same with the startup world.

I'm constantly having to think of plan B and then plan C. that really helped change my kind of mindset there. And I'd say, you know, efficiency. I mean, I always had to be efficient because I was building by my hour, you know, the hour and stuff and when I was in service based industry, but nothing makes you more efficient than running a household and three kids and all their schedules. And I think that's very useful.

on this current journey as well. So I feel like everything you're gonna build and give me a wide array of different skills that are helpful.

Nate (06:49)
Interesting, interesting. I mean, it's certainly not a traditional background for an entrepreneur, but it all makes complete sense. And those are all incredibly valuable skills for, I guess, doing what you're now doing. Let me ask you a question about coming out this as a lawyer. You mentioned looking at a lot of contracts and agreements. I presume you might have contracts with agencies and co-packers and so forth.

I'll confess that I have dabbled in bit of rocket lawyering over the years and just downloaded some generic templates for stuff like this. What are some of the common problems that you see people in the startup world making when it comes to agreements and contracts as a lawyer?

Mara Smith (07:32)
My gosh, a lot. A lot of the agreements are really terrible.

And so I'd say, first of all, having legal background, one, just help me navigate. I'm in a very highly regulated industry. So spirits in the United States are so highly regulated. There's federal regulations, three-tier distribution. Every state has their own laws and regulations. So even though I practice anything in the liquor, in liquor law, I can still navigate that. So that was the first thing. I could wrap my head around it pretty easily.

As far as contracts and maybe because I worked at like a very, at a big firm at a really high level. And so I was like seeing contracts that like you're, you're negotiating, but they were generally written well, even if it's the other side. And now I see things. Yes. People pull something off. doesn't, you know, just like basic things that think people get into one.

Things that could continue on and on and on. could have obligations that continue, you know, for too long and that is risky. You know, not making sure you have like the right termination clauses and when you should be able to terminate. I like, especially agencies, like you just never know. You think everything's going to work out just like with everybody, but I always want to have like a 30 day out.

And I always think more about that, like how you can get out rather than like, you know, or what constitutes a breach of contract versus what the penalties are. My feeling is if you're in breach, like the penalties are what the penalties are for that, but make sure whatever constitutes a breach that you're not in breach of contract. know, things like not having mutual indemnities, especially when you have a larger entity sending documents, you know, I like a emerging brand and founders.

And I think founders sometimes think they have to take whatever sent to them as far as an agreement because like maybe it's a larger company and that's I think probably the biggest downfall is like thinking you can't negotiate back. I, I send back every agreement redlined with comments.

Nate (09:47)
Interesting, interesting. So maybe I should be using a little bit less Rocket Lawyer in the future and actually asking an expert like you. It's my takeaway from that. So listen, I want to talk about B Corporation and B Corporation certification. First up, can you tell me why you chose to go down that route?

Mara Smith (10:08)
We met all the requirements and for business reasons, they have lots of tools and resources and companies that care about that so we can get in front of them. B Corp, interestingly enough, I did just because I wanted to formalize what we were already doing. It was already part of our brand ethos. We were already giving back from the beginning, ready like how we can support woman-owned businesses, how we can collaborate with them.

So for me, this like just formalized what we already were doing. I don't necessarily see a business case for it, maybe yet. I think some companies probably have managed to utilize it better, like a Patagonia and you know, there are B Corp and people who know that and it's whole wrapped into their entire brand ethos. Giving back, elevating other women in business, being a social impact company. It's part of everything we do and how we.

Look at who we're going to collaborate with and partner and what vendors we're going to use. And so it just is just part of everything and our entire brand ethos. But outwardly facing, don't know that there's necessarily for business that it's helpful. I don't think people know what it is enough yet. So if we're selling to a retail account, maybe Whole Foods has that as a box to check they care, but a general grocery store.

Nate (11:29)
Yeah.

Mara Smith (11:35)
Probably doesn't, because they don't open a liquor store. And same for consumers. I don't know that they are aware of how much goes into getting that certification. You have to meet a zillion requirements. It's a very long certification process. And I think it is nice to have, but not necessarily essential for a consumer. No matter what they say, first and foremost, you have to deliver on the

quality and taste, then that's like an added benefit. Like that's an extra like why, why choose this brand over another one? But it's never going to be as far as what I think and from research we've done, the decision-making factor if you don't first deliver on the things that consumer cares about the most, which is quality and taste.

Nate (12:23)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. That's so interesting. Yeah. Have there ever been moments where you've kind of questioned any of these decisions in terms of the commitments that you've made and what it has translated to in terms of higher costs and therefore, you know, lower margins, I would presume.

Mara Smith (12:46)
Actually, no. There's a lot of things I question myself on and many decisions, but not our raw materials or what we put into the bottle or what the bottle looks like. And I'll start with the bottle because there are a lot of tequila brands. And for me, it was really important to have one that stood out. And I wanted this sleek, sophisticated bottle. I wanted it slender in the middle so it's easy to hold and pour. I wanted it to resonate with our consumer.

By being a bottle, I'd want have in my own home bar. So even though people suggested I maybe start with a stock bottle, I think without that differentiator, it would be hard to even get my foot in the door anywhere. And all honesty, think having that bottle that people love is really essential. And it's essential to building a brand versus just having a product. Everyone recognizes it.

And then the quality of the product inside, I, again, if there's no differentiator there and we're just in a sea of tequilas, like it is very inexpensive and easy to buy bulk spirits. I could buy bulk tequila and stick it in a bottle and like it's in a different bottle and no one knows. Or maybe there's a little tweak. But that didn't sound very exciting to me in all honesty. I...

I'm not a natural sales person, I think. So the only way for me to be able to sell something is like, I have to really, really like it and believe in it. And if I had skipped any of those steps, I don't feel like it would have been something I love and I want it. You know, I also wanted a female master stiller to bring it to life. So having a master stiller who creates like literally she's in Mexico doing a production run for us like right now. I was there last week when it started.

And having that words like our process, like I wanted to be our recipe, our process to get the taste profile we wanted. I was really specific with like, how can we make a tequila that is approachable, has some of those sweeter notes of some of the tequilas we were enjoying, but without using the sweeteners that they use to get those sweeter notes. Coming up with our own process, even a Rosa Reposado, it's...

You know, it's the first tequila age in rosé wine barrels. Like I wanted something to be different about it. There are too many tequilas on the market to just do the same thing. And I'm not a celebrity with like instant credibility and a huge following that I can just put anything in a bottle and put my name on it and hold it up. And everyone's like, my gosh. know, so it was really essential that like everything, and I'm just a, you know, we talk about like

Nate (15:27)
for a billion dollars.

Mara Smith (15:35)
Based on my background, a very detail-oriented person. And that's also the fun part of creating a brand is you get to think about all those things from the name to how you want the bottle to look to what the logo design. You get to put thought into all those things. And for me, it was a really meticulous process to come up with the final finished product.

Nate (16:02)
Yeah, yeah, interesting. Listening to you describe that process of kind of going through, you know, the whole journey and how thought you'll follow your bait in terms of the selection of the supply chain and the people and the ingredients and everything. I want to go back to the first question I asked, which was about your background and you gave some very interesting reasons why it positioned you incredibly well for what you're doing, but are there...

parts of this entrepreneurial journey where you think that background has actually hindered you in some ways, like have there been certain skills or ways of thinking that you've proactively had to try to unlearn over time, perhaps because of realization that they were not helpful or not as productive for you.

Mara Smith (16:47)
I mean, there are definitely a few things. I don't know if it is from my background or just my personality, in all honesty. Like one is I like things done a very certain, we talk about being meticulous in particular, certain way, everything from I have a certain way of writing. Everything I write is absolutely grammatically correct. Was it a good use of my time to rewrite every social media caption? No. Some things I had to like relearn to give up.

So that I'm a micromanager and that's how I run my house, that's how I run everything. So I've had to take a step back and unlearn some of that because at some point I'm kind of like, it's finished. And dawn is better than perfection. So I feel like there's that unlearning. Then there's a big piece of this that I just...

didn't know and that's marketing. I mean marketing is a really huge part of having a spirits brand. And I didn't know anything in that. On the other hand, I love to learn. Like I'm a lifelong learner. I'm just intellectually curious. I like to learn. And this journey, there's nonstop learning. So even like I knew not, I didn't have a LinkedIn profile, right? Like we connected, like before this I had

No, I didn't have LinkedIn profile. I know Instagram account like nothing and the fact that I had to learn about like email marketing and tools and SEO. I have to know about like everything. I don't have to be, you know, an expert in all the areas, but I have to know enough to be able to make decisions. So a huge learning curve and some things now I know you can send me, I like SEO strategies, you know, a plethora of them.

And it could be written in a foreign language and it would mean the same amount to me. I still am not going to crack up. And that's another thing now I figured out that like there's a lot of strategy, a lot of people you go to get like advice and things. And that was an unlearning for me too, you know, finding all these experts and strategy, like unless they're going to implement strategy without like that execution piece of it is not helpful. That is like more work.

Nate (18:46)
Right.

Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. You're making a really interesting point here about the balance between perfectionism and getting it, you know, just the way you like it and full disclosure. That was something that I struggled with, particularly, you know, the younger version of me. But as you say, there's this kind of approach to entrepreneurship and product that like, you know, if you, can't remember the exact words, I'm going to butcher this, but if you wait until you feel like it's perfect, it's, you know, you shipped it too late, right?

You need to ship something that at a later point you're gonna feel embarrassed about and you'll look back at it and probably cringe and go, oh my God, I can't believe I put that out in the world. And I've been dealing with a lot of that over the last few years. As someone who has a tendency to earth towards perfectionism, how have you found the right balance there? Like how have you decided when something is worth hanging onto? And yes, I should tweet this and...

put it through another round of revisions versus when should I just let it go and ship it in whatever form it's currently in? Maybe in your answer to that question. I read online somewhere where I was doing my research on you that your first batch you weren't entirely happy with and you ended up like throwing it out. I have no idea what it cost you financially, but I don't know. Maybe there's a story there which is relevant to my question.

Mara Smith (20:30)
Yes. And it's great. And when you say, how did I figure out or find that balance, I don't know that I really have yet. To be honest, don't think I figured out how to balance my ideals for what just gets done. Because I think of everything as representing me personally and the brand. So everything that goes out there.

I am, you know, it's still hard for me to do knowing that it represents me. I am super authentic. feel like I'm kind of at the point in my life where I'm too old to do things that are not true to me and things. So even if comes to someone wants a mix of drink, and I may offend someone because they try the drink, and if I don't like it, I don't want to serve it. If it's with something that I don't like, how it tastes, I was like, this is...

It's really hard for me because I'm like, well, that's going to ruin someone's first impression of the product. So I've probably erred towards like maybe being like, yeah, that doesn't taste good. Can we change it to this? And maybe making someone not that happy about it. Because I think of everything as reflecting on me and this is so intricately tied to like

my own values and perspectives that it's hard to put anything out that I don't think meets those. As far as that production run, so what happened is I started this during COVID, so I couldn't get to Mexico for production. It was closed every time we were supposed to go down. So they started the first production run at our original distillery. We just moved distilleries. And we have this fantastic master distiller, Ana Maria Romero-Mena, she creates our profiles.

They didn't follow one specification as far as like the cooling of the agave. was interesting. At the time I would not have had any understanding of how essential it was to make sure it's cool, the four milling. Anyways, she wasn't happy with that. They sent me our first samples and I didn't really know that part of it, but they sent me my first samples. I was so excited and I'm like waiting and waiting and I got this bottle and I tasted it and I like broke out in tears. Cause like, my gosh, I don't like it.

And I was like, we've been waiting all this time and I was like, I don't, I don't like this. It's not what I wanted. It's too alcohol forward and bite. was like, what I wanted. So it was suggested there and we had consultants down there and things like, oh, well you could take that and a new batch and maybe like blend them. And I was like, oh, that sounds to me like taking something bad and something good and coming up with something like mediocre. And that idea just.

It just did not appeal to me. So it's like, let's just get rid of it. I don't know what they end up doing with it, but I'm like, let's just get rid of it and start over. So really it set us back a lot of time. But it was important to me that that first run, mean, you know, that was like everything is like coming to life. Like fourth child coming to life here. Right. Right. And so it probably set us back like another six months, but I think

that is a decision that I will never regret because I think that was the right decision. You're only as good as people's first impression.

Nate (23:49)
Yeah, yeah, that makes total sense. Yeah. Well, it sounds like a probably a fairly expensive mistake or process to have to have gone through, but I'm glad you ended up with the product you wanted at the end. But this is maybe a good point to ask about the numbers, the finance, the funding. How have you actually managed to get this business off the ground financially thus far? And is there anything that you would definitely do again? Or definitely do differently as it comes to the finance side of things?

Mara Smith (24:25)
Yes. And that's a great question, especially the part of what I would do differently or the same. So I bootstrapped the company for the first four years. Fortunately for me, I'm a little more seasoned entrepreneur, so we've had long careers, my husband and I before this. I didn't start this out of my dorm room. So I was able to do that.

And then we started, I just started like raising money, like friends, family, angels last fall. And that it's still an open round that I'm still raising. And I think the good and the bad. I mean, am I glad that I was able to get proof of concept and fund it myself? Yes. I think a big piece of why I did that is because there's a, it's a very major mindset shift for me.

I always say I'm not good at it. Yes. I am not used. It's just something different. When you worked for a big company or you did service space, I've never asked people for money. So it does not come naturally. It's just a very difficult one. Maybe if you're starting out and you have this great and I don't know, whatever it is and all the confidence, think it was a-

Nate (25:26)
As in you're not good at fun, right?

Mara Smith (25:52)
Very difficult for me to get over that. Someone told me to reframe it as not asking for money, but providing an opportunity for people. I was like that, I need to like literally have that message tattooed on my forehead and look in the mirror and see that every day because it's still a really hard one to get over. And even with my background of having accounting and legal, it's really an unknown world.

Like it's a whole different world, even preparing for that, the thing. So what I would have done differently is one, like start out in the beginning, like making sure I know how to do this and prepare and have things set up. Everything from, mean, now I have like a data room. I mean, the last time I did a data room, I have this digital data room, was like literally like an entire huge conference room that was set up with file folders, like when I was practicing. So understanding it.

And I think, probably starting earlier as opposed to later. And getting over, I think, a big my own mindset of like, you you ask people and it's a lot. It's like you have to follow up and follow up this way. I'm on a lot of like charitable organizations and boards, but I don't do any of the fundraising part of it because it's really, it's a totally different skill set. It's not just going out and presenting.

It's going out with this total confidence about it. And then it's following up, following up. for me, I'm like, well, am I bothering them? I don't like having to keep asking people.

Nate (27:31)
I feel like a sleazy salesperson.

Mara Smith (27:33)
Exactly. It was really outside my comfort level. And think especially for a lot of women, you take reentering the workforce and already having some imposter syndrome and like, who's going to think I'm credible? Like, who's this mom of three kids who now has a real company? Like, what does she know? Combine that with in general, like, women go in and get much more prescriptive questions like, how are you going to? It's all like...

You know, everything is about headwinds. Nothing's about tailwinds. It's all, are you going to do to circumvent this risk and this risk and this risk? And we generally go in without that same like confidence of like, well, when I do this, do this, do this. And I find myself saying, well, if we get to this, then this will happen. And it just, it's like, requires a lot of like retraining honestly.

Nate (28:25)
It absolutely does. Are there certain ways that you've managed to get better at it? I I hear you on the mindset shift and I totally appreciate that that's a big change to have to force yourself through. I mean, have you found ways to progress it? Like have you found certain approaches or tactics that are, you you're starting to see traction with and finding them work? No.

Mara Smith (28:47)
When I get into friendly rooms or when a woman brings me into her group, I do way better in those small group discussions. Like, her and some friends that might be interested and then I get to present. And then like that, I feel like a very good comfort level. do that kind of thing. But it's a work in progress on that.

Nate (29:13)
Have you looked at or would you ever consider equity crowdfunding?

Mara Smith (29:17)
I don't think that's for me.

Nate (29:20)
Okay. Okay.

Mara Smith (29:22)
I'm not, I'm too discreet as far as sharing information. So I don't love the idea of putting all your financial information out there.

Nate (29:32)
Yeah, yeah. A lot of people don't realize that about equity crowdfunding. It's for competitors and people wanting to learn about what other businesses are doing. One of the requirements of it is that you have to publish two years worth of P &L and balance sheet information. So it's actually a great place to find data and information on competitors. So I hear you. Yeah, it's a

Mara Smith (29:56)
I know and I still have a legal background like you know where I'm like everything's under an NDA and things like that. I like to keep things a little bit.

Nate (30:06)
Interesting.

Aside from aligning with your own personal mission and your values, do you feel like there's been any other particularly noticeable benefits from having an entirely female workforce here?

Mara Smith (30:21)
Oh my gosh, of course. I know. I'm going to say first, women who've been in this industry really find it like a breath of fresh air to all of a sudden be in a room. Like when we go and it's a salesperson or something or even a salesperson at a distributor or a salesperson we want to work with.

I think they're so used to walking in to a roomful of men that when we come in and it's like so casual and relaxed to be with like my head of sales and me, I even see that from like their perspective. So I'd say that, like, feel like everyone could kind of like, okay, it's just, it's like a, it's a much easier way, as far as like, I don't know what it is, but like the feeling, the,

you know, we're in an alcohol industry where it's like mostly men and mostly men at all these industry things drinking a lot of bars. Like it's just a very different feeling to be in a comfort level of like, right. And, you know, that I'm sure has led for people, women who have been in industry for many, years to having a certain perspective. I'm newer to the industry, so that's not maybe mine. But so I do see as soon as we're with them, like they like,

see just a very like at ease. Like it's a super easy to be all the sudden in the room with like all women. So I started from that, like just having that. And also the reason is just a lot of those women are also just super excited about a category where like they never felt like there are a lot of women in it. you want people that are excited about your brand.

Now that can be men and women alike. So I could be a distributor and they're salespeople and it could be, you know, men are like, oh my gosh, there's a new tequila brand that's focused on female consumers still don't know love by women. And they could be excited about that mission. But in general, you just want people who are like really enthusiastic and excited about it. And that's what I found a lot. I think it's just having the same, you know, a lot of this is just having the same perspective.

And people say, what's the difference? Like, I don't know any other perspective. I only can have a female perspective on like how I approach the consumer, how I look at this product, because that's all I know. And so I feel like having people who kind of like can understand that and like immediately like get it, like, we're on the same page. That's a benefit too, because that as far as them having to kind of like

understand the brand and where we're coming from. Because I think you could also reach a lot of people who are still of the vision like, really, women drink tequila? I don't know women drink spirits? And not having to go through that explanation part of it, yes, 54 % of tequila drinkers are women. So I do think there's something there. Now listen, we need allies.

Just because, like, it's essential. So I love nothing more than I go to women's events and there are men that show up to support. Like, that is fantastic. But, you know, because we really can't do it alone. And so, but I think with our team, it's like kind of just like really understanding kind of what's behind it.

very easily and quickly. And this just has like, it's even the terminology we use. I don't call the people who show up and we don't call them girls or things and I don't use promo models. Like it's a very old school way of thinking about it that again, would maybe take, and that's just the way people grew up in the industry. So that's what they're going to think about.

But I need people who are kind of like ready looking ahead. And I find having a women-led team, they easily kind of get that.

Nate (34:43)
Yeah. Yeah. Makes sense. I'm to let you in on a little secret. So over my six or seven years working in Ecom, I've had relationships with at least half a dozen different comans and three PLs. You want to know what the single biggest predictor of this, the strength and success of those relationships was? If there was women running the show. whenever there was a woman in charge, like

Stuff was organized, it would go as planned, great communication. They had their, you know, everything was worked perfectly. Whenever it was a hundred percent men running the entire show, it was a complete chit show. And they were some of the worst co-man relationships I had. And in fact, one or two, I, you know, had to go through quite a painful process to get ourselves out of it. But, yeah, no, I'm a big fan of women running businesses.

They're doing amazing.

Mara Smith (35:43)
Stats and like how like the returns women-owned businesses. I just talked to a gentleman the other day which I was like fascinated. He has like a family Foundation or some group and they've invested in like 50 funds and 48 of them were woman-run. I'm like, wow, really? First of all, I didn't know there's 48 women run. I was like, I like it totally taken it back. But I'm like why?

And he was like, well, because the numbers, like here are the returns and here they do. I'm like, my gosh, like it was great to hear. mean, we need more of that. I was like, OK, he did that as like a financial decision too. I mean, you know, not just. interesting. Not because it was charity.

Nate (36:30)
Yes.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, on the topic of managing complicated situations, I wanted to ask about inventory and supply chain. And, you know, for most physical products companies, including beverage companies like yours, I presume the inventory is one of, if not the biggest cost that you have. was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about the process of actually managing production and supply chain here.

what are some of the key learnings that you've had over the years and are there any key takeaways from all that?

Mara Smith (37:11)
Yes, because tequila is a little bit different in our process, it's a long process. You can't really do like a just in time inventory where you're like, OK, we'll get another one or whatever. We are produced in another country because it has be 100 % agave. It has to be done in Mexico. Distillery, you have to come through and go through customs. And then we have to get battles from a foreign country. So the process is very long. So I always went with the.

I always looked at it like I'd have more inventory that's here in the United States readily available and hold that inventory than worry about like, because it's just not going to get done quickly. Like even our Blanco Tequila, Blanco usually take 60 days if you use like really fast like diffuser machinery, 60 hours for traditional like ours takes like 45 days because we rest, we stabilize it for 30 days, then we rest it in barrels. So I mean, a minimum 45 to 60 days.

So knowing how long that is, always went with like, okay, we'll do a full production run, we'll bring it in and I rather have it like just here, especially not knowing what was going on. From COVID times to tariffs to everything, I was like, let's just have product here. So I'm fortunate that I was able to like hold inventory and not have inventory financing or anything like that. Cause I, as you know, can run, get really expensive. So.

That part of it, mean, so we don't have, like I'd say, like an intricate system to do that. We kind of just do a full production run, bringing it in and hold it because our minimum orders are not huge, but not super small as far as like they have to run like whatever it is, two full ovens or something. And because it's also really impossible to time bottles coming in and all, like we don't have a lot of raw inputs, but there are some.

So I think that's kind of how we went. You know, I don't think I appreciated as besides I'm like, it's just a bottle and a tamper strip and the liquid like and a closure. I don't think I appreciated like how complex the operations would be. Cause even once there you still have have freight carriers and not every carrier carries across the border from Mexico to Laredo and then finding warehousing and all those things that go into it.

Now I'm looking for like less expensive warehousing in one of our states, you know, to see what we can get. there's a lot that goes in to that. but because we only have, we don't have, we have so few skews also. So it's not like a lot of skew management. So we're able to kind of manage this on, you know, like using spreadsheets. Like we don't have like intricate, like inventory management software.

So we're able to kind of like manage that ourselves right now because we have such a limited like number of products. But it is something that I think if you're gonna ask a key learning, I think that's something that we probably as founders forget to like think about that the operational piece of it is very complicated. Everything from even like I have to apply for credits after federal excise tax or things like that. Like there are so many things to go into it.

Nate (40:46)
Yeah. A lot of moving parts for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So I've got one final question here for you, Mara, as we come towards the end and wrap things up. If you could turn back time and give some advice to yourself as a brand new founder, what would you say to yourself and why?

Mara Smith (41:10)
Get ready for a very wild ride. That's what I would tell myself. Because I don't know that I appreciated just the roller coaster ride of entrepreneurship. Lots of ups and downs. And I think what I would tell myself is the key is not getting too elated at the highs or too deflated at the lows.

I feel like the more you can kind of keep a stay, you know, at stabilization and is regulation like writing it out. Except for I also would say not getting too late, but celebrating the small wins. It's really hard. You know, this we talked about being perfectionist. When you're perfectionist, want everything to be exactly even when there's a win, you're ready looking at the next thing.

Nate (41:48)
of regulation.

Mara Smith (42:09)
But I didn't get this or I didn't do this yet or I didn't do this or there's this goal. Taking a moment and stopping and I wish I did this more like every day. Okay. What was the small Wednesday? it, you know, there's a million things I can look at it like, I wish we did this better or this better, but like, I feel like even writing those down from the beginning probably would have been useful. Here's where we go. It's what we did. Huh?

Nate (42:34)
a little

Do you journal at all? Do you write this stuff down on a regular basis?

Mara Smith (42:40)
I don't, I should, I don't.

Nate (42:43)
Yeah, I've been through waves of it. Like I was actually doing it for most of the first probably four or five months of this year and I don't really know why I stopped because I feel like it was worthwhile. Maybe I should go back to it. But anyway, maybe something to...

Mara Smith (42:45)
And you forget everything.

I wrote a gratitude journal to start the year and I was writing every day, like kind of what happened each day and I did it, I also did it for maybe like two months. And then I started traveling and I'm like, I don't want to bring it with me and anyways, but I should probably, or just document the journey. I think it'd be like interesting later to look back and have a document.

Nate (43:23)
Absolutely. Well, Mara, this has been a fantastic conversation. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing the journey with us. If anyone listening would like to learn a little bit more about you and the business and what you're up to, where are the best places for them to look? I'm going to include all of this in the show notes below, by the way.

Mara Smith (43:44)
Thank you. Well, connect with me. I love LinkedIn. So connect me on LinkedIn, Mara Smith. That's my favorite platform to engage with people. But also find Inspiro Tequila on at Inspiro Tequila on all social media platforms. And then on our website, www.inspirotequila.com. Because there you can also learn more about the story and especially our process and giving back efforts and things like that. It's all there.

Nate (44:11)
Okay, amazing. Well, thank you again for your time. I really enjoyed the conversation today and wishing you and the business the best of luck. Keep on doing what you're doing.

Mara Smith (44:21)
Thanks Nate.