Amani & Chima, Co-Founders of Duke & Dame

The latest episode of our Building Black Podcast features Maxwell in conversation with Amani and Chima, co-founders of Duke and Dame, a Salted Caramel flavored whiskey. In Partnership with @DriveToyota

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome y'all to the Building Black Bispodcast. My name is Maxwell, and
I'm joined with two two amazing youngmen who, gosh man, are shaking
up the uh deliberations world. Let'ssay, you know, the libations world.
Excuse me, there we go thatyou know what I mean? That
have that have a little product thatI think that I'm gonna have to you
know, get get a little tasteof pretty soon. Duking Dame is an

(00:24):
amazing cinnamon flavored gosh man. Well, let me first start off and say,
Amani Fema, thank you guys forbeing a part of the podcasts.
I really appreciate Japan, thank you, thank you, thank you for having
us having this being um, thisflavored whiskey game, and step it into
this space. I guess we shouldstart with the very beginning of it.

(00:46):
Um Why what was what was thereason why y'all felt that you wanted to
conquer this? Well, it startedwith just me being at dinner one night.
So Amany and I used to workin finance many years ago before we
started pushing whiskey, and at dinner, Fireball had just come out speaking of

(01:07):
cinnamon whisky. Right, So Fireballjust came out and it was the biggest
craze. So half of the tablehad tried the whiskey and the other half
hatten. So one of my buddiesbought around for the table and we all
took the shot, and it sparkedthe conversation, if you can start your
own flavor whiskey, what flavor wouldyou choose? And when the conversation came

(01:29):
to me, I said, Iwould create something reminiscent of Worth's original Sugar
Babies or Sugar Daddy's candy. Howfireball was reminiscent of Big Red Gum or
this hard rock candy called Atomic Fireball. And of course everybody at the table
was like, wow, what agreat idea. Yeah, yeah, I

(01:49):
mean, my gosh, Worth's inthe cup. That would be great.
And we all went back to work. You know, dinner conversation, we
all have it. You know,nothing ever happened. Yeah, And three
plus years later I had moved backto South Florida and that's where I'm from.
And about a year and a halfafter that, of Money had just
left his investment banking gig and Iwas on vacation here in Florida and we

(02:12):
were out one night just talking aboutnext steps. You know what you're gonna
do next, Well, you're gonnado next. And at this time I
was like, man, remember thisidea I had years ago. And by
this time, Tennessee Honey had comeout billion dollar brand around Royal Apple had
come out another billion dollar brand.So they're like, man, there's this
category. Flavor whiskey is actually athing. It's not just fireball anymore.

(02:35):
You know, like this category isshowing some legs and people making money.
And this idea of worthers in acup or as salted caramel was like,
hey, man, we should reallylook into that. But we were like,
all right, well, let's let'sinvestigate this. So Money went back
to New York. I was herein Miami and our kitchens looked like chemistry
labs, and we would just calleach other back and forth. You know,

(02:57):
we had beakers and pipettes and allkinds of stuff and it's in it
and we are one more middle elitehave died this and so we finally had
something we liked and we started introducingit to our friends. Money up in
New York and me down here inSouth Florida, and everyone's like, man,
you guys are onto something we metwith a couple of distilleries we actually
wanted to visit one and left sayingwe could do something like like this is

(03:20):
like real And now we've won tenantsNational Spirit Awards, rated third best flavor
whiskey in the world. Come on, now, gosh, what does that
feel like for your money? Tosee what went from dinner conversation to action
and to progress and now receiving theaccolades like your partner just said, um,
you know, being one of thetop rated in the world, what

(03:40):
does it mean to you all tohave birth this, you know, to
really take take what you thought,you know was just a passing, you
know, convot like we were justsaying dinner table to actually doing it and
special man, when you're when you'regoing to come through it through the trenches,
you know you have an idea.The next step is okay, how

(04:03):
do we make this happen? Andyou kind of just focus all your energies
on that, you know, youjust you just go on day to day
just trying to put out fires.You're trying to learn this new industry you
jumped into. You know, you'retrying to understand the regulatory aspect of the
industry, you're trying to understand thecontributors. You're just you're just trying to

(04:23):
make things happen. And at acertain point where you kind of take a
step back and you're like, oh, wow, man, look at what
we Look at what we built.This was our baby and it's last new
grow. And so when those momentswhen you can take a step back and
appreciate that that you built something,it's not working for someone else and earning

(04:46):
a paycheck and having that you know, comfort of you know, pature coming
in every two weeks, it's likewe did this, We went out on
our own and did this. Andwhen you can take a step back and
appreciate it, there's no feeling likeit in the world. And then the
other part is we create something forconsumers, for people, for everyone.
And so being able to see howpeople react to the whiskey, how people

(05:08):
interact with the whiskey, how peopleexperienced whiskey the smiler puts on their face,
that's a special feeling. True entrepreneurship. I mean, really going after
it, how I'm gonna stay withyou money? How frightening was it too
for the both of you all.I'm sure you've had this conversation to leave
what was comfortable, to leave successful, you know, finance careers and dive

(05:29):
into a space that was maybe andI'm assuming it and I'm hoping that you'll
explain it brand new. Just yeah, you just really had to get in
and learn it and get your yourfingers dirty and your feet wet. Like
how how scary was it at first? If that's a scary endeavor in general,
But I think you know, forChima, he had ye had an

(05:50):
entrepreneurial background. He had started businessesin the past, right, so it
was a natural thing for him tostart something new. For me, um
doing some thing entrepreneur had always beenin the back of my mind, and
I had been in environments in thepast, so I kind of knew that,
Okay, if I ever get thatopportunity, I kind of know what
to do and how to approach it. And so for me it was less

(06:13):
of a fear thing and more ofan excitement thing because I had left,
I left my career in finance knowingthat, hey, I'm going to go
figure out what the next thing is, and so it was more of a
man, I'm excited to go buildsomething. I'm excited to you know,
take an idea, you know,from the idea stage into an actual product
that we can sell. So forme, it was very it was kind

(06:35):
of exciting as opposed to you know, being scared. So I mean you
can offer your perspective, yeah,please do. Yeah, it was It
was great to have something that wefelt was a consumer good and the feedback
that we were getting from the samplesize and the diverse group of people within

(06:58):
our circle, it really gave ofus ammunition to say, well, based
on this sample size or this controlset, you know, it's really a
good representation of the overall market itself. From my daughter who at the time
she was just twenty one, mydad at the time he was about to
turn eighty, and all the auntiesin between. Is we like to say,
everyone was just you know, reallygravitating towards this product, because when

(07:25):
you normally take a shot or adrink of a spirit on its own,
people normally cringe or they shrug theirshoulders or their you know, their face
looks exactly you do the shoulder strugand you know, the wink and the
clothing of the eyes because you're downingthis spirit that hopefully it's going to take
you somewhere, you know, letme just get through the initial process.

(07:47):
That wasn't the reaction with Duke andDame and everybody that we did within our
sample side just really loved it.And as Money mentioned, we we we
took that and we ran with that. We put our heads down and we
learned the industry and we're still learning, you know, but we really took
that little boost to say, youknow what, if we apply what we

(08:11):
know about financial business to this consumerproduct, we may be onto something big.
How many names do we go throughbefore we landed on Duke and Dame?
What are the meanings of those thosetwo strong names and having them come
together. We had a white wardup in the office. You know.

(08:37):
It started people always asking us areyou the duke? Are you the name?
And the reality is, you know, a lot of whiskey brands represents
either the founders or someone in theirfamily, their grandfather. For us,
our brand represents a consumer, rightabout that emotional connection with the consumer.
As she mentioned, when we firststarted sample of people, even our prototype

(08:58):
three actions we got were amazing.People would take a sip and smile and
be like, wow, this isreally good. You don't usually see that
when someone takes ye, so they'relike, man, we need to capture
that. Like when people try dcan Dame, they feel amazing, they
feel awesome, they feel magnificent,royal regal. And that led us to
be honorific titles and Duke can Dame. And then we noticed in our research,

(09:24):
and it surprised us too, thatthirty five forty percent of whiskey drinkers
in the US were women. We'relike, man, that's awesome for us
to, you know, give anod to women whiskey drinkers out there,
right. And also Chima mentioned toothat it's a whiskey for everyone, right,

(09:45):
young, old, kind of whiskeydrinkers, whiskey lovers, whiskey haters,
and so what's the perfect way tokind of see this is a whiskey
for everyone, the man and awoman combination. And then that that Bame.
She's a female knight who's earned herknight. She's strong in her own
life. So I mean, Shemaloves to say, you know, we
love to imagine this power couple enjoyingthat whiskey together. And that's really the

(10:09):
form and basis of the brand name. Hearing you explain that that's exactly where
my mind goes. My mind goesto that power couple raising the glass,
you know what I mean, enjoyingit together, or maybe it's you know
what I mean, not the relationshipof the power couple, but just just
friends coming together and hearing you allexplain the process and the growth in the

(10:31):
beginning parts of stepping on on yourown and creating as black business, a
black owned business. Um, whatwas it like to have that tribe along
with you to help to help guideyou, To have those people who are
truly around you that I'll tell younow, this ain't it family, But
then also to have those folks aroundyou to say, yeah, this is

(10:52):
exactly what it needs. How importantis that? I want to definitely allow
y'all explain that to those who arelistening to the pod when billing your business,
it's not just the two of you, it's that familiar it's that tribe,
it's that power couple or you knowthat. Yeah, just how important
is that? It's It's priceless Tobe honest, Um, you you you

(11:15):
really have to know your your tribeto use your point because not everyone is
going to tell you what you wantto hear. Some people are just going
to either encourage your regardless or somepeople are going to be haters regardless.
And I think you really have todiscern to see who who that captive audience,
Who's going to give you that authenticfeedback. So even within our our

(11:37):
story, we have friends who arelike, come on, man, you
guys do finance. What do youmean doing whiskey? You know? Or
our parents, you know, ourmoms are a little conservative and our mom's
a money has a story with hismom and I have one with mine,
and they were like, really whiskey, Like like you guys, you know,
you guys are these professional guys,and so of course they love us

(12:01):
and our friends do too. Butthe the objective criticism of feedback or those
serious people around you who you feelwill will give you that honest feedback.
And what we did we really wereactive in seeking people within the space,
even the people we didn't know,and the thing what we wanted to do
and what we become with us whoare black spirit makers have really become to

(12:24):
or begun to create a little networkto where we can communicate with each other
and help and assist each other.Because when we first started, there wasn't
really a pathway. It's not ifI wanted to open a restaurant or a
barbershop or a clothing store. Youknow, we have many examples within our
community to where we can go andwe talk to somebody, we can network
through and find that. But withinour community of black spirit makers at the

(12:46):
time back and when we first startedthis idea in twenty seventeen, there was
no one. You know, weheard echoes of Uncle Nearrius where we didn't
really have a connection with them.You know, we're obviously family at this
point. They are amazing and sowith us in other spirit brands, we
have a connection, but we weren'tshy to go out and meet people who
didn't look like us to get theinformation in the knowledge that we needed.

(13:09):
And so between that, that's alsohaving a good core of people who actually
believe in ustaing who was honest withus what it was important. How cool
is it, you know, andalso how important is it for you all
to carve this space and to besuch a strong black owned business, black
owned spirit maker in a world,as you just said, where there aren't

(13:30):
many that look like us. Youknow, as you were just speaking GiMA,
you know, the only other onethat I could think of off the
top of my head, and thisis probably uh, you know, the
same for a lot of people isyou know, you think Uncle Nears and
that's that's it, you know,and then there's Duke and Dame. You
know. So how important is itfor you guys to to make noise in
the space and also to be ablack owned business that others like us can

(13:54):
look up to. You know.It's it's funny because, like you said,
when we first started, you know, they weren't a lot of us.
We've actually been encouraged because in thelast five years you've seen a lot
of black owned brands pop up,right in spirits in wine. There's actually
an event going on in Brooklyn onthe thirtieth of June called Taste of Black

(14:18):
Spirits, So it's actually an eventthat showcases black owned brands. So we've
been encouraged by, you know,just the evolution of folks enter in the
space who looked like us. Youknow, we never really approached the business
as we're going to create a blackwhiskey or we're going to be black founders.
We just wanted to give a greatproduct for everyone having said that,

(14:39):
you know, we'd be lying ifwe if we did in the knowledge that
you know, when we do ittasting in a liquor store. We had
an event and that black couple comesup and they're like, this is yours.
You see this bride in their face, man, and it gives you
this feeling like, yeah, it'sfine, and you can just kind of
see you can see that they're soproud of you that you're representing you know,

(15:03):
our community. Well, so that'simportant. And then of course,
you know, you want to makesure that you know, everything comes down
to economics and opportunity, right,And so some young kid doctor that sees
us, you know, not thatthey should be looking at alcohol, but
yeah, you guys did that.Oh I don't have to be you know,

(15:26):
relative of Jack Daniels to make whiskeyor I don't have to be you
know, wow, I can dothat. I can go create my own
brand, I can go have myown binary Like just being able to be
an example, um is amazing.And then also along the way, you
know, people have reached out tous asking about advice, and we've been
able to kind of share, youknow, the mistakes that we made in
the beginning the pitfalls to look outfor the resources that you need to go

(15:50):
seek out. So that's that's alsobeen been very fulfilling as well, you
know, um, you know tothat to that point, a body is
representation matters, you know, Andthat's what I love about being a part
of my zero one hundred family,my iHeart family, and just being that
person that someone could look I didn't, you know, enter the space thinking

(16:11):
that I needed to be, youknow, this particular person. I'm just
being myself and wanting to do something. And what I've been hearing a part
of this conversation is it's very consumerforward. It's I just want to do
what's best for those who are consumingthe product. And the fact that we
are able to walk into, asyou said, a tasting, you're going
into a liquor store, or you'regoing to an event and you know,

(16:33):
we see the two of you,or we see more people who look like
us. There is that sense ofpride that makes you want to fight even
harder to succeed. And uh,and that's kind of what I'm gathering from
this conversation right here, is thatthere's a lot of that in what Duke
and Dave really stands for absolutely.It's it's to a Mandi's point, there

(16:53):
is that sense of a pride whenpeople come up to you and he realizes
yours right now out you know,we're starting to get to the point where
people are recognizing us or they're definitelyrecognizing the brand. So if we have
the shirt on or you know,they're they're like, oh my god,
are you you know, and soit's it's cool for for that to start

(17:14):
to happen, and it encourages peopleto go out and do more. And
to a Money's point, the representationof being entrepreneurs and representing the community and
a positive light, it matters.Uh. We we we meet people at
events and tastings and a lot oftimes, you know, they come up
and they shake our hand not justfor being you know, a black spirit,

(17:37):
but just to follow through, youknow, because we realize that that
not all ideas actually get through ormake it through, or a lot of
us or a lot of great ideasgo to the grave, you know,
and we get congratulated on that quarter. And then as far as just congratulational
following through and so if people wantto do a whiskey or any type of

(17:59):
business. You know, one ofthe things that we have noticed when people
come up to us is they're congratulatingus not only on the business but seeing
the idea through. And that meansa lot too. That's exactly it.
That's you know, that's that waspart of why I wanted to you know,
giving your flowers at the very beginningof this conversation, because it's really
amazing to watch something go through andcome to fruition, especially when you're both

(18:26):
leaving something that's, as we saidbefore, successful. A paycheck is going
to be there every two weeks,you know, you know, the consistency
and you're stepping out on your ownand to be at this level right now,
UM, it means a lot forjust that there not only the fact
that you all have a product thatconsumers are are loving and that I'm going
to hit up my friend and tellhim he better give me one of those

(18:47):
bottles that he has at his deathdownstairs. But um, amany you touched
on this and I don't want youto give away too many gems though,
UM, but what is some ofthat advice you know that that you would
you would maybe give to other entrepreneurs. Um, you know, in wanting
to build their own business, whetherit be a black owned spirit or it's
just what just others that are tryingto to grow in an industry. What

(19:11):
are some of those you know,tidbits without giving away too many of the
secrets to do condemn. But youknow earlier I said, for me,
it wasn't really a scary proposition.Well that's not to take away from the
fact that this scary, right,Yeah. And I had, you know,
my situation was, you know,I didn't really have certain responsibilities I

(19:34):
had to worry about. It's justme. They didn't have a wife,
kids of more kids, right,Um, and you know I had saved
up a little bit, so Ikind of went into it, you know,
feeling confident that I was even ifthings didn't work out. But that's
that's kind of the first advice,Like you need to assess your situation and
make sure that um, okay takingthat risk depending on where you want your

(19:59):
left cycle because it's easier to say, oh man, just go do it.
You don't get anything without risk.But you know, if you got
responsibilities, yeah, maybe you makethis decision, you're gonna be sleeping on
the couch, you know, whatthat's a risk, you know if you
hustand and say, baby, Iput my job today because I'm gonna go
start making whiskey, and they getthat look id. But some people might

(20:22):
that, but I think you know, along with that, it's really just
first making sure you have a plan, right, and that plan is not
going to be informed by just what'sin your head. If you we all
think we're smart and confident in ourabilities, but man, you need to
go out and talk to people,right, people who have been doing it,
because from the outside looking, it'slike, oh, you just get

(20:45):
some whiskey, you put in thebottle, you sell it, boom,
you're good, numb. It's aboutit goes into it and you need to
go talk to people who have doneit, who are doing it to understand.
Oh wow, I never thought aboutthat, So let me incorporate that
into my plan. Let me incorporatethat. It's my model. If you
can go and do that and testyour assumptions and get questioned, don't be
afraid to have someone say, man, you sure you want to do that?

(21:07):
Man you sure you want to notmake money for a long time?
Right, Like, if you're opento being questioned and challenge that's actually going
to make your idea stronger. That'sgoing to make your plan stronger. Right,
And so for me, it's reallyabout that preparation going in. And
then specifically, if you're doing aconsumer product or alcohol spirits specifically, man,

(21:30):
the product has to be excellent.Yeah, it's got to be excellent.
It's got to be amazing one.Right, you cannot cut quarters at
all. I mean, that's that'sone thing that separates you can name from
our competitors. We believe that whenyou taste it, you can taste the
quality. You can taste it's onehundred percent natural. You can taste that.
Okay, these guys and not cutcorners and making this product. The

(21:52):
packaging has to be excellent, amazing, right, because again represent your brand.
So you need to make sure youget those little things, I mean
the little things, but they arebig things. You got to get um.
And then you have to go andlearn learn learn your industry, learn
how it operates, Learn how tosucceed, Learn who all the key players
are, how do you interact withthem? How do I get a seat

(22:14):
in front of them at the table? Right? Are they even going to
want to sit with me? BecauseI'm such a small player that just started.
Okay, maybe not, but thenhow do I work around that and
figure it out and still get thatseat right? And then um, lastly,
not to keep going. Very veryimportant I said, I said,
don't give away all the gyms.Listen, we can talk all day.

(22:36):
I'm sure she began like that thingtoo, but very important to live with
this, you need to understand howyou're going to fund your business. Right
like week, ninety percent of startupsfalling. A big reason of that.
A big reason for that is cashflow, either mismanagement of cash way I
understand the cashlow, just not havingenough cash flow. So as you think

(22:57):
you figure out your plans, youhave to understand and that to grow this
thing and want to need investment.So now you need to have a plan
before you go in of how amI going to access that capital to help
me grow? Because if you getyou know, knee deep and you're like,
oh, don't have no real quick, Yeah, get real quick,

(23:21):
there becomes a lot of commas thatyou didn't know or you know what I'm
saying, you want to have beforeyou jump and have a good idea of
Okay, how am I going toget capital to to go grow and invest
in my business. Wow, Iwant to piggyback off of a part of
what you said there money and Iwant to come to your teama with this
one. You said the quality,the probably it has to taste nice.

(23:42):
It has to taste you know,it has to be you know, chef's
kissed all that um on its own, on its own, the salted caramel
whiskey, it's it's that we do. We mix it. Is there a
signature cocktail that you like? Howdo you prefer? Are we talking on
the rocks? Are we talking?What's up all of you above? Actually?

(24:03):
Yeah? So with yeah, wewe wanted to design, or we
wanted to create something that was sounique and different that we literally decided we
wanted to disrupt the space. Andwe saw the power of flavor whiskey,
but we didn't really like it.To be honest, Amani and I were
big Scotch whiskey bourber guys, andlike most people who are really deep in

(24:27):
this category, we have a disdainfor flavor whiskey because we feel it's been
treated a certain way just for commercialconsumption or quick consumption for the young kids
who are afraid of so let's dumpa whole bunch of syrup in there,
and let's do something and put iton the shelf and just move it.

(24:48):
And we were like, all right, this is one of the newest categories
under the whiskey umbrella. Why nottreat it with some respect. Let's create
a whiskey first. And Amani talksto that quite a bit, where we
wanted to create something with a greatfoundation and then happens to have a nice
flavor, a rollment and things likethat, and so we took the reverse

(25:11):
approach. And that being said,we're one of the few in industries that
don't use high potose corn syrve.We are the lowest sugar content and only
one gram of sugar pur serving right. Our closest competitor is Tennessee Jack Honey
at five grams of sugar purserving andeveryone else is above that. So for
us, we were like, let'screate this smooth, delicious, flavorful aroma

(25:34):
forwards spirit to really go out intothe market and introduce people to what we
feel flavored whiskey would be like.And that being said, we wanted to
first create all the whiskey cocktails.Great. That was the litmus test.
We had to do old fashions,whiskey sours, manhattans, whiskey to groanies.

(25:55):
We needed to do and crush allthose things. Well, now on
top of that, we're like,because of the uniqueness of Duke and Dane,
let's show off our versatility. So, for example, we make a
killer espresso martini. For example,we could go down an MGM casino in
DC. We replace Tito's as thespirit for the espresso martini. Right,

(26:18):
So the caramel macchiato at Starbucks isthe number one drank for a reason,
right. Caramel and espresso go handin hand. Here on South Beach Yardbird,
we're on their menu for their espressomartini. So a lot of our
accounts are like switching out and doingdifferent unique cocktails. At Red Rooster here
in Miami, we have the numberone in number three selling cocktails. Our

(26:38):
top cocktail here is called the Dameand Duke and Dane Grapefruit Juice, slimmon
juice, a guy a red wineand we faked it up and we serve
that and then chilled coop with anedible flower. It's absolutely delicious. So
the versatility of the brand is keyactually at Red Roost in the back of
the house, they have a Dukeand Dane peppercorn chop. It's there one

(26:59):
hundred twenty five main State served withthe Duke and Dane demigloss right, So
we have some amazing Oh that pineappleupside down, kate that rooster right.
So, um, what we foundinto what omnia space. He's saying is
that we have been even surprised ourselvesby our customers where we expect to be

(27:19):
in the front of the house basicallyat the bar, but when chefs and
pastry steps get a hold of it, they're like, well, we want
this too, right, and sowe go to a lot of different accounts
and we see ourselves on the menuand food, you know, and not
just at the bar. So toanswer your question, it's extremely versatile.
We invite everybody to try and meatfirst and actually take two SIPs. The

(27:44):
first ship is going to be veryaroma cattle forward, surprisingly smooth, and
you notice that it's not as sweetas it smells, which is a plan
on the census. The second stepis, ah, now you're really getting
introduced to the whiskeys and the bourbonthat we have are blends. So you're
getting more oak, spice, burntorange. You can eat some of those
notes coming into as you can tieto sip the whiskey man. That's a

(28:10):
that's a testament to all that y'allhave said about quality matters. You're not
catching the chef putting you know.Uh, in no disrespect to any other
I'm not gonna drop any neame rights, but they're not they're not drizzling something
that you can just get at thecorner market that, as you said,
which is put out there because it'sa trendy flavor for the you know,
the moment on a on a stake. You ain't gonna do that if you

(28:32):
want to be taken seriously. Umdamn. All right, So after this,
let me hop onto Google flights andbook my trip to the South Florida.
Dang no but um but aside forthat, as he ran up to
wrap things up here, Um,there's there's so there's so much upside to
this. I mean, as y'allsaid twenty seventeen, that wasn't that long

(28:52):
ago. As if we really thinkabout it, and the growth is still
just exponential, what's what's on theyou know, what are we looking forward
to and not only the rest ofhard to believe in twenty twenty three is
halfway through, but the rest ofthis year and in a couple of years
to come. Like, what's what'sthe short term vision? Well, I

(29:14):
think short term vision it's really investingmore in our core markets, right,
really running out the markets, makingsure that wherever you go in New York,
for example, you want to seeDuken Dame. Right wherever you go
to Florida and Michigan, you're goingto see Duken Dame. Start building out
our market so that consumers know itwe're there and they can find it's very
easy. Step number one, Stepnumber two, start figuring out, Okay,

(29:37):
what's the expansion plan. You know, right now we're up those three
core markets, the DC Maryland area, we're in you know, six or
seven Caribbean islands, We're on everyCarnival cruise ship in the world. We
just started the relationship with Ford theCaribbean, and so we have a decent
footprint. We're still still very small. So now it's about let's let's show

(30:00):
up our core markets and then let'sstart to expand into new markets. Because
ultimately the goal is to have NewtonDame everywhere, right, Yes, so
we're really putting things in place towork towards that. You know, people
always ask us about new flavors andall that. Listen, we're in the
lab. You know, we're lookingat that until I was there, but

(30:21):
you know, you know, wedefinitely, we definitely want to expand the
portfolio a bit going forward as well. Listen, listen, don't trick man.
It took Nie a while before theyput the air bubble on the side
of the shop. You know whatI'm saying, But I'm doing it.
But those ones are still those thoseones are what it is though, you
know what I'm saying. It's like, you know it's gonna happen when it's
meant to happen. You know,for real, it's starting that foundation.
It's laying down those solid bricks thatare unshakable. Um now now you mentioned

(30:48):
uh, you know what I mean. The product is available in several markets.
But how is it that anyone that'slistening to this pod across the country?
Can we hop online? Can Imake sure that as soon as I
get about here and for whatever reason, I can't my flight to South Florida,
I can go somewhere here in Manhattan, where can we Where can we
get our lips on Duke and Dame, Where can I get it? Right?

(31:11):
So in those five core markets youcan find it such your retail stores,
but even within those markets, alot of our customers are buying it
online. So you go to ourwebsite www dot Duke and Dame dot com
and you're able to go to someof our retail partners and actually buy the
spirit and so that will be deliveredto you. Obviously on our website,
there's a find us tab on ourwebsite. You can see it locally within

(31:34):
our local communities where you can findus, and obviously there's recipe ideas also
online. We're actually just kickstarting anew partnership next month. As far as
distribution, especially in Florida is sucha big state. We just landed Public
Supermarkets uh here, which yeah,that's yeah, yeah, it's massive.

(31:55):
So we're already in Total Wine ABChere, Walmart Liquors, but Public's footprint
is three hundred and thirty four storesthat we're going to be rolled out to
starting July tenth, so they canfind us at their neighborhood Public's locations and
as we Timoni's point within our coremarkers, we're just digging deeper, starting

(32:16):
new relationships and expanding locally. Soyou can always go to our website to
update on who has us at thattime. And let's encourage anybody that's listening
or watching. If you get toyour bar and you ask, and you
keep asking, and you keep demanding, let the bartender, let the own
or let the whoever it is thatis there to know that you need this

(32:39):
on the menu. It needs tobe on that top shelf where we could
actually get it. So that's whatI'm gonna do, my partner. I'm
first off, I'm absolutely make surethat I connect with my folks around here
who I know how to bother andyou know who you are watching, right,
But also no, it's it's amatter of going out and demanding and
letting them know, educating, andI think that's part of the expand and

(33:00):
of of us UM, you know, just just broadening this stribe and letting
you know, letting the world knowthat we believe. And I think that
that's what I love most about theseconversations UM with black business owners is that
it's it's that man, it's thatmentality that we're in it for Uh.

(33:20):
We're in it to help each otherout, and we've got to be if
we're looking to really um, youknow, make our make our market whatever
the industry is. So you listen, you got my you got my word.
Uh. Look look on the grandyou're gonna have pictures tagged. You're
gonna catch me with all of thesedrinks, all of these different combinations.
Man, But I am gonna startoff meat like you said, and take

(33:40):
two SIPs. I'm gonna do thatfirst. Man. If you go to
your local liquor store, ask forit, they'll order for you. Go
get it for you, and justbe careful when you get that bottle,
Chris as you've learned, and itcomes home if you leave it around may
not need it. I'm still surprisedthat you haven't gotten a bottle, man,

(34:07):
Dames here bro believe it. Well. Lastly, I will let y'all
go with this. You mentioned abonny. Um, yeah, there's a
there's something coming up popping up herein Brooklyn on the thirtieth. There they're
gonna be a footprint around with y'allhere in Brooklyn on the thirtieth with the
Black Spirits. Even that's happening.It's all taste of black spirits will definitely

(34:28):
be there. Um it's I don'tI don't have the avest on me,
but it's we'll get that black spiritsBrooklyn. You'll see it. It's uh
yeah, it's a great event.Come out. You'll be able to see
not just Stuken Dame, but awhole bunch of other black owned spirits.
You you may you may have heardof, you may not have heard of.
It all all delicious and all goodman. I cannot thank y'all for

(34:49):
this amazing time. I'm a littleheartbroken that we weren't able to connect in
person while we were all here inthe city a couple about a week or
so ago. But this is again, this is how it's meant to happen.
This is how the story is meantto be told. And there's gonna
be plenty of times where we're gonnabe hanging out in real life cheers in
the glass. And I can't thankyou enough for your expertise, your willingness
to go out and do what youfelt was right in your heart, and

(35:12):
to share what due condemn is withall the people who tap in and check
out our building. Black Bisins Podcast, truly blessings to the both of you
guys. Thank you Money, thankyou Chima. You guys are at for
real, for real. Thanks forhaving us man, thank you