Ben and Ollie on Cape Tide, Mascots, Shark Week, failed experiments

foreign good morning everybody welcome back what is Stephanie doing with two boys well let's talk about it in the studio with me this morning I've got Ali and Ben hi guys good morning how's it going yeah get cozied up chair microphones and let's talk um so hello everyone thanks for joining us this morning I've got to thank for us off our sponsors Rockland Trust stop on by and get your lemonade stand kits because we are raising money for Tommy's place which does amazing things in our community they've got a space in in Falmouth a new one in Centerville and you can go and uh just make a donation I'm gonna have Ariana Kerrigan from Little anchor Boutique on the show with me next week we're going to talk about her fundraising efforts there also MBR Home Services he is the paver King go see him his name is Bruno 508-280-0605 you can find them online MBR landscaping.com so I was at one of my favorite watering holes Shipwrecked and I for whatever reason I'm always looking for something new and I'm like what do you have I'm just so sick of all the same things and she's like Stephanie like the sweet tea vodka and I said yeah she goes all right these cute little boys from Falmouth and you're not little you're grown men by the way 21. they're allowed to drink responsibly um came in and they were kind of pedaling their their heart teeth you gotta try it and it was so good so good yeah so let's talk about it uh introduce yourselves say hi to your family first off hi Mom look at us hi guys I told her I told her to jump on at eight so we'll see if she woke up oh yeah right let's do it yeah but yeah uh my name's Ollie this is Ben um we're the owners or two of the owners of Cape Todd hard tea we're a hard iced tea we're based in Falmouth on Cape Cod um and our whole shtick is that it's just on Cape uh on Cape Cod We're Gonna Roll with that you got to say he's from Wareham everyone we're accepting him don't hold it against me um but uh yeah our whole Shake is that it's just four ingredients just brewed tea vodka fruit juice and natural flavor so there's no added sugars preservatives anything like that uh and it started by uh four best friends all from middle school I love that that is so super cute because uh I have one I have I have a squad for Middle School still that we still like talk with each other but I don't know if I could do business with each other so it has its challenges yeah it's uh you're still close enough to Middle School good morning JT thanks for joining us um so you're how did this begin like let's start at the beginning because four friends from middle school just don't say let's make booze yeah we you know we were we were all working you know normal summer jobs and stuff yeah and we kind of thought like oh you know we're in college we're like oh beer is cool we should like brew beer right um and I mean Ben did most of the Brewing he can tell you it's really hard yeah it's a lot of science yeah we sucked at it we weren't very good at it yeah but it's great to do something like that together in the summer I feel like a lot of times people go separate ways in the summer yeah we're just happy to be together um and as we brewed a little bit of beer we talked to a couple people uh learned a little bit about the industry and that's kind of what led us to testing out some hard teas I love that good morning Mari thanks for joining us and JT and other entrepreneurial friend of ours is on here thanks for joining us so you and your friends failed at beer making so you're like we're gonna do this for another summer and we're gonna try this yeah we kind of went so we came out of the summer knowing like what we wanted it to be um we didn't have a name or like a formula or really anything yeah Marie the hearty is really like really good it tastes like just regular tea kind of deadly continue and so like we kind of had nothing like of value besides like an idea coming out of last summer so it took a lot of work work like throughout the school year to get it going and yeah January February is when we maybe had something we could roll with or yeah yeah I mean it all came in pieces um we left the summer after mixing together vodka and brewed Lipton tea in a five gallon bucket yeah I love that though it's got to start somewhere yeah definitely um we like figured out a couple of the flavors we wanted to use but for the most part we were just like all I said with an idea um so we did a lot of formulation throughout the fall we met some really great people in the industry that helped guide us through that um you know we had no experience so it had you know had people holding their hand for some parts of it which was really helpful um and then we were kind of free for other parts of it um the marketing and the brand creation but we wanted our identity to look like that was a lot of the stuff that it would just be you know Group phone calls group FaceTime calls throughout the school year meanwhile they're going College yes this is their little side hustle and a big dream Mari says she wants to support you you can grab their drinks at Cappy's right you're at cappys um Amy good morning and hey Alana thanks for joining us so here we are with this dream and face times in the middle of hitting the books uh what are you going to school for I study uh economics at Wesleyan okay I do Spanish and Entrepreneurship so it's uh I can use a lot of this stuff at Wake Forest classes which is nice yeah it helps a lot and you're going to be a senior this year so like you're you're finishing up you're doing it I mean I'm just very jealous of your vision because I wish I had had that at your age in the forethought of I'm just you know gonna go and knock this off that college thing off and then what am I gonna do we're like doing it while you're in college and then going to school for what you're doing it's like honestly very admirable and really you guys are awesome thank you yeah it's super fun and it like it's definitely a lot um to kind of balance it all and I think all our grades maybe yeah get degrees so exactly that's what I tell my mother I don't know she's paying the bill for college I think she'll disagree so you've got this dream you're face timing in the middle of the school year and then where when did you decide like how long did it take you from conception of this idea to actually getting that first round of Cape tied out there it was uh it was probably March when we first saw it in the can it was in a blank can and we couldn't be more excited yeah yeah well we had been telling people for so long that uh we were doing this and they're like can I try something like not really we don't really have the show for it you guys we got nothing that was the scariest part was people like we tried to keep it quiet because like we didn't know if it was going to work yeah everybody when can I see it what's it like even like the winter like what's it called we're like we don't know yet I mean it's not a hard stretch to be selling moves to college kids no matter what if she's like we're like what is it can we try it we want it so that was the scariest got a great test Market there they probably would have drank some of that beer yeah right that's not that bad yeah are they undrinkable beer um so that that part was scary um yeah once we saw it like in a can it was like okay we might be able to pull this thing off and I think it hit shelves on May I say I think I know exactly when it had shot yeah because I'm like come on now this is time to break the 20th at 6 PM in Mansfield uh I love that it's like art our distributor sent us the picture of it like sitting on the floor because we had our first tasting event the next day and we were like oh thank God like I just saw with this big stuff yeah you're like all right look she's beautiful it's good this is gonna work thank God that's amazing like that is just incredible how did you get there financially I mean were you guys like doing everything to raise money and then you're like oh my god I've paid all of everything that I just made went into this it's just gonna do anything yeah we had to so we relied on like um Family route absolutely and sort of like keeping it super tight budget and like kind of penny pinching a little bit yeah especially through the winter did you try crowdfunding did you do anything like that or um we didn't get into that uh you know it was mainly the family and friends that's awesome too which was which was really great um made it easy to have those and I love that you kept your idea and you're with a really small distributor because I think that's so important just like in the music industry when you've got a product and everybody wants a piece of it and everybody's got something to say they want to they want to take it from you yeah exactly they want to take your hard-earned work and they want to tell you how they're going to just you know Gussy her up and let her go and you guys can just sit back and rake in the millions um I love that you decided to go with somebody small and and retain your rights yeah it was it was I think a good decision for us for sure especially too like you know we still don't know anything right about your baby so young so like having people that I think they're really willing to like work with us on every everything like that you know we call them they pick up pretty much every time yeah great relationships with the owners with their reps like it's really important in a really easy way for us to kind of like Get kind of guided into the industry a little bit yeah that's nice a big guy that will just kind of take your stuff and sell it yeah and you've got a great product too so I'm glad that you're really taking baby hands with us and and being good about it let's talk about your marketing you have a mascot we have a mascot I also have a mascot mascot so I got my little lemon my little Lemmy and I I love that you have that Alfie so alphy's is their um seal your harbor seal what is he yeah uh no he's a Gray Seal type okay that's what that's what we're uh okay yeah that's the first time I'm hearing this yeah like I knew it was a steal I'm glad we knocked that off um so not only do you have a mascot but you actually like went out there and made a mascot or bought a mascot or did you yeah because they're not cheap no they're not they are and when we saw the price we were like is this really gonna be worth it they actually also didn't tell me about the price until they bought it um that was I feel like that that's the best way to go into things with friends I bought this uh we're all on the hook for this and they were right it was and it's awesome it has been our shaving Grace in the marketing department I love it by the way this is our first broadcast directly to lemonadio.com so if you just want to be listening and not watching us this will be the first time that I've melded usually I do my show separately and then do our live feed separately and uh today you guys are my test study here uh Roland we're both together all show in one so I'm really excited for that so you get Alfie you buy this mascot you're like I don't even know what we're gonna do with this but uh we had a lot of hard tea one day bought Alfie yeah he's gonna be great marketing tools the idea totally came on a whim we were like wouldn't it be so cool to like show up at the bars that were sold at in this mascot yes it's perfect because Ollie loves it because he can dance and no one can see his face I love it I love that yeah yeah it's been so much fun and uh I think it's a little different than what a lot of alcohol companies do yeah at bars so it's just like a way for us to show a little brand personality keep the the young side of us too but you're not just doing it at bars so here we are scrolling my death Scroll of Instagram and I'm watching this video of you doing was it the firecracker 5K it was the uh austerville fight Osterville 5K uh yeah Shane if you're just joining us we've got Ollie we've got Ben they're the makers of Cape tied two of them there's two more they are childhood friends that decided to come up with this product we're talking about their mascot right now Alfie and uh you ran a 5K in a mascot suit okay we did we did it was um another one of those things that uh it was at the point when I was kind of in my my stretch of my Alfie yeah dues so I was the man in the costume and uh there wasn't a lot of clearance discussed with me when I was signed up for the 5K I was kind of like hey we saw this we're doing it with me it's gonna be hilarious if you do it and I was like wow I really have no choice there but we did it and it was awesome we had uh Harrison and Ollie run by my side and guide me so fun yeah because you can't see anything in there that's the thing that we weren't expecting is like the eyes are up here so you gotta either turn it so your head is sideways visibility zero one star out of five don't recommend they were literally holding my hand for parts yeah we have like a video crossing the finish line and like I'm trying to video on the phone like that I love it it's veering right and I'm like grabbing him by the arm and trying to yank so awesome so good it's impossible to see and little kids actually like it more than anything else of course which is strange and parents don't seem to carry that the T-shirt says hard tea so but you can't see so they'll come up and just like hug your knees right and you just have to kind of like wave down because you don't know what's happening moms and dads have the tea and kids like Alfie it works yeah exactly good morning Robert good morning Ashley thank you so much for joining us so you've got Alfie you've run this 5K do you have aspirations to run the Falmouth Road Race with Alfie is this our next uh that was the first idea I'll believe it or not it was and then we saw the mileage and we were like maybe we should work up yeah it's a lot yeah there will have to be some more training that goes on before uh yeah like an oxygen mask in there even for his eyesight yeah yeah a road race alone like me in Paris you're like 100 I'm dying I know I'm only 21 but applied exactly uh good morning Danielle thank you so much for joining us so you've got Alpha you've got this fabulous mascot now you're kind of doing some shorts whoever is doing your social media is doing a really good job I love your little shorts and fun stuff since it is Shark Week and poor Alfie is uh not faring very well during this time the skits are fun yeah they are they take more takes should um like well you guys are growing up in an episode of the explosion of tick tock the explosion of all of the things that are just short form shows because we all have attention spans of like four minutes tops like get me or don't right yeah um so I think like the the one of us watching Jaws took like like yeah yeah a simple one shot but you know it's like all that stuff is is a ton of fun because we're just hanging out and it's just an idea that comes up like hey let's let's do this this would be cool you know there's no setup like that's what we were doing we were just watching Jaws you were razzed because you didn't open your can of tea yeah not only like our friends were like hey guys great job like open it like our distributor commented open the cans boys we're like suits all right all right busted there we didn't know how many takes it was gonna take this is true yeah we didn't want it to be warm and such had to go through a lot of them there's a lot of excuses there and when they say they're just sitting around talk about your investment of this past summer into your product I mean you guys have rented a small space where you're grown men now with a very tiny budget and a tiny room that you're all sharing yes it is um I I said it to you earlier it's probably the size of like the studio it's a postage stamp that they're sharing there's five of us yeah one is in the air mattress in the kitchen um I somehow lucked out I got the only full-size bed however that happens I don't even know how we let him do it he was the last one to show up I was the last one I was sitting there waiting for me that's not even like big brother your last to show up and get the best bed I know that's not how it's supposed to work he's had a roommate now for slept with someone in his him for like five years yeah yeah to sleep alone oh I think Harrison wanted like Leverage over me that's fabulous he's like all right go ahead and you're gonna hear about it so it's we're figuring out the living situation good morning Serafina Cindy thank you so much for joining us and uh do you adore me thank you I was like these boys are adorable they're really I mean I'm really in awe of you and putting this thing together as a fellow entrepreneur and I still feel like I have a baby business and it's been three years of doing this and every single year as a new cry is a new growing pain is a new something but I love the excitement that you're building and you're doing it very smartly so I have to commend you on that um do I get free tea absolutely kidding absolutely it's it's one thing when you're working up to something but when you come out with a stellar product already I feel like the marketing does itself you got somehow hooked up with my favorite boys crooked Coast talk about your little Vineyard trip yeah so I was doing a sampling at Falmouth Wine and Spirits yeah by the ferry parking lot and he came in or Luke came in yeah I was like yeah who came in uh he was with his kids yeah like gave me a card he's like yeah we do stuff with you know local drinks did Birdie talk to you or did she ignore you because the little she's uh okay she oh she took a sticker yeah see then you were sold she reached for the hard tea sticker and then Luke was if you got Birdie's approval then it's all right you're allowed okay and so yeah we got set up with him and I just like I hopped on a call a week later and he basically just kind of had the idea to this is like their one kind of big concert like in the area yeah and actually the kid who does our marketing and social media he's full-time on the vineyard so he's like oh nice easy like we've got great connections out there um and it was super fun like they had a party boat that brought everyone from you know Mainland to there um we got to like bring samples and then they had like thrown out t-shirts into the crowd during the show and all that stuff so that's so exciting it was so cool we had no idea to expect it was like our first you know partnership with a local band um and someone has been on that boat a few times I can tell you that it is a really good sign yeah and they were awesome too yeah John John said lastly I've been only listening to Crooked Coast for like weeks now yeah oh good like yeah we had an awesome they're so high energy they're super fun they're great guys and they're really kind yeah they're really great so they give back they do a lot of community work and I feel like whenever you have a product like that you have to give back you have to Foster your community and you guys are doing that what's your give back talk about that a little bit Yeah so um this week on the Discovery channel is Shark Week Shark Week which uh for us we were like this is great we have a seal mascots seals hate sharks right it's perfect how do we work this in um so we're doing some Social Media stuff with that but uh today we're gonna take a visit to Provincetown to the Center for Coastal studies they do a lot of marine Wildlife Research and conservation it's our great organization up there so um as we were looking for you know an organization like that to give back to and to connect with this week um they looked like you know the person yeah that's part exactly so uh we're gonna head up there learn a little bit more about what they do and then in addition to that we're selling some Shark Week t-shirts in which we're going to donate the money to the organization so perfect yeah I mean we just wanted to connect uh with the community you know like we've done a lot of different stuff uh in Falmouth but you know some doing some stuff with uh Wildlife Conservation was definitely important to us especially as we lean on the seals as you know our mascot absolutely get back to that for sure and I'm going to be in the Provincetown area later happy birthday Dougie once again I was promised Little People in ponies I pretty much demand that so I will see all of my prominent sound peeps later very much looking forward to it uh so what else do you have for the rest of your summer it's like is aren't you back to school in like two weeks yeah unfortunately um so I think we could both go back like the 20th or something yeah it's sad it's windy yeah so you know the volume definitely like slows down around here obviously too um so I think our big plans are sort of transfer a lot of volume over to Boston yeah we still have a lot of product left to get through and sell out talk about that so did you have to like buy the initial run is that how it worked for you yeah you buy your inventory yeah and then you just you know you sell to a distributor yeah so it's like we still have a good amount left um we added a we added a Iran right um yeah um we had some good feedback early on yeah so we made a little bit more which is great because it gives us more opportunity do you know like what what flavor is selling the best you know I kind of it's yeah because there are flavors by the way we didn't talk about that so we have lemon Peach and raspberry lemon we all have different flavors in the house we're all split yeah um but I I think lemon and you know probably Peach are more popular now yeah it depends on the setting yeah like at a at a sampling like raspberry crushes because it's like I think the most fun and interesting one yeah but then at a bar like lemon tends to do really well and then I may be on shelves Peach does the best I really do it's so hard to figure out and it sucks because well it depends on people's moods too and then one once one person tries one they're like swayed to that one so it's like whatever the mood of the day is everybody's like jumping on board to that space we have a variety the flavor of the day yeah and we do a variety pack which is like two lemon a peach and raspberry which makes inventory kind of complicated yeah it's like you're doing math for how many variety packs well he's the economics guy right like we don't know like how many like raspberry or Peach to leave oh gotcha what sells best so we kind of just guess every time so that's that would be a good goal for the winner to try to yeah I mean for that but definitely I love that you're you know using it as seasons and you're kind of like resting it when you go back to school and then yeah so get it while we have it people because we might not have it this winter is what I'm hearing loss Boston area that'll be the goal okay we're trying to transfer a lot into the Boston area so we sent John out on the road um a couple days ago he went to 40 accounts in Boston so shout out John for that that's awesome um but he uh yeah the goal is to kind of just get into like some good bars and restaurants and stores yeah yeah because I saw I said Ben um uh Shipwrecked is that what you were like talking about I was like apparently we should meet so talk about like those meetings and stuff like that is that stressful do you find that you're the one that takes the meetings and you disseminate between do you all take turns because you're running a business with four different people and it's got to have complications sometimes oh yeah definitely definitely yeah I think that um we all bump into different people at different events and make connections in different ways um so we definitely alternate like you know who has those conversations do you have like monthly meetings weekly meetings it's like you're all better be there or else is it we try to schedule Monday morning meetings yeah for us in the house um but you know well since you only have to like reach over and you're like meeting time yeah we're eating breakfast it's really just waking Harrison but um I think one thing that we've been uh really surprised about and grateful for is just how kind people in the industry have been to us yeah um we weren't sure what to expect being young um you know obviously we don't have as much experience so you know people could uh you know they could choose to not be as helpful as they have well to be fair when I was introduced to your product she said I don't even know if they can drink it but it's delicious it is yeah they're so fun yeah so it's been great I mean people are so helpful and so willing so we are uh we're very grateful well that's I feel the community that we are in and I'm really excited that you guys are part of it now you're with us okay so your successes are our successes this is how it works even if you you know moved from the gateway to now on Cape Cod permanently we're okay with that rtb thank you so much I will see you later Dorada thank you so much for checking in come to the beach Comer tonight oh maybe and where do you Stow the mascot costume when you have friends over that acquiring minds want to know it's either in my in the trunk of my car or it's in a broken down box like in our in our room for an expensive mascot I feel like I was gonna go all in with my lemon and then I was like oh that's really expensive yeah maybe that's a next year growth situation yeah definitely it's uh uh it's kind of trash because you can't like take it to your college door oh we will we definitely will um actually dibs but um I really want it but uh yeah it's it smells horrible I mean like speaking of well you ran a 5K in it afterwards never have and we did not um yeah yeah and you're also looking at the two guys who I think have only ever actually wanted in public um The Other Guys there's some anonymity it's also it's a is it a triple XL or a double it's like a triple I mean we were just going for whatever size they had well I'm five eight so it doesn't fit me at all the droopy sad seal and I have volunteered like I don't want to play the victim but I have worn it a good amount and you have obviously paid to do so we need to start yeah we got to enforce some sharing yeah absolutely but next summer we're gonna just appoint a suit wearer and let them do that yeah you're gonna be big enough to be able to hire somebody that is your full-time mascot like like a baseball team it's going to be that way for you that would be great for everyone so what are your big plans for the rest of your summer you've only got a couple of weeks left you have like lined up work stuff are you going to have a little r r time how do you what do you do to relax and what is your down time like your stress release here or is it just on yeah I mean again like we're working with our friends so sometimes it doesn't feel like we need a break yeah that's nice so much fun to be doing that stuff together um we'll definitely like take a week before school and just like make sure we have our stuff together yeah right Firebox and all that yeah should I sign up for the right classes um but yeah it is it is winding down but we'll continue to do some sampling events at different places and uh kind of just be out and about in some of the spots were sold out so yeah that's the plan definitely going to move west towards Boston um do some stuff out there but yeah it is it is sad it was a quick summer yeah for sure uh grab your cape tied tee wherever it is that you can find it Cappy's right now right yeah we're sold out online yeah we're we're in pretty much every store in Falmouth okay so we're in 100 spots across the cape other crust cave so exciting a little bit of South Shore so plug all of your places where people can find you um in Falmouth at least we've got West Falmouth Market Falmouth Wine and Spirits Cappies uh shipwrecks pier 37 Boathouse and Lee McGuire's Lee McGuire's Lee McGuire's karaoke night we've been wow so fun and we want to go once more um am I missing one for and your social stuff yeah yeah so uh just to the location side of it um on our website we do have a locator so you can punch in your area perfect check it out where you're near um but yeah the socials are drink Cape tied uh website is drink capetai.com so you did a little spoof thing with uh capeology she does a really good job yeah yeah that was great we got like yeah 300 followers yeah good well it's just a good launch too because people are always looking for something different something new and if you're that summer drink this summer then that's exciting maybe next summer also so yeah we'll be watching you and we're expecting good things from Ali Ben Stephanie have a great weekend oh we've got a big fundraiser happening over at knock about I am there from 11 to 2 on Sunday please swing through we're supporting the Boys and Girls Club they have some extra things that they need addressed power the their buses are in a tough shape the cost of our money for gas and some stuff hasn't been budgeted for so we need some extra funds this year the Boys and Girls Club does a fabulous job in Mashpee so most I think 99 of the ticket goes towards the Boys and Girls Club on Sunday so grab yourself an after-school IPA or I think there's a fun summer session Seltzer that you can grab a ticket for and that is going to go 100 uh to the Boys and Girls Club we just have to pay our beer costs which is awesome thank you so much knock about they're really wonderful if you've got a non-profit that you're looking to get a little money for please reach out to me I will hook it up for you and knock them out we've got our makers markets there so baby Crafters Artisans and anybody else that is looking to kind of do a pop-up shop they are so warm they're so welcoming and we would love to have you there at knock about uh and they're both uh both locations one in Mashpee Commons and then there are 13 Lake Ave and Mashpee location that's where we will be this Sunday raising money for the Boys and Girls Club of Cape Cod uh so from all of us here we wish you a great weekend we'll talk to you soon thanks for coming in keep tight thank you so much thank you thanks for having us this is fun bye thank you