Authentic Brand Storytelling: Embed creative within your business model (podcast episode #105)

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Be careful you don’t engage in marketing color by numbers so to speak. It’s easy to get lost in process flowcharts and databases.

You could build out the perfect infrastructure – the right media buys, marketing automation and drip campaigns all set, everything is being properly measured and attributed – yet in all that work it is easy to overlook what that infrastructure should be for. This is just marketing color by numbers.

So I love this lesson from my latest guest – ‘Embed creative within your business model.’

To hear the story behind that lesson, along with many more lesson-filled stories, I talked to Diego Osorio, Founder & Chief Creative Office, Lobos 1707 Tequila.

Lobos 1707 is a privately held company. Investors include Lebron James, Anthony Davis, Draymond Green, and Rich Paul. It has had a product in market for three years.

Osorio oversees a team of 100, and directly manages a leadership team of 13 people and a nine-person marketing department.

To dive deeper into Osorio’s strategies and gain actionable insights for your marketing journey, listen to the full episode using this embedded player or by clicking through to your preferred audio streaming service using the links below it.

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Stories (with lessons) about what he made in marketing

Here are some lessons from Osorio that emerged in our discussion.

Authenticity should be at the core of a brand

Put simply, you can’t fake what you do and especially not in today’s volatile and cluttered marketplace. Consumers will see right through it. They want to experience your brand immersively and know what you stand for.

For Lobos 1707, a huge part of who the brand is comes from their unwavering commitment to ensuring authentic tequila culture and Mexican culture. That culture is woven into the heart and soul of the brand. Osorio’s team jokes that he’s allergic to gimmicks. And it's accurate, he can't do things that aren’t true. A lot of brands are made in the boardrooms these days. He takes immense pride that their brand is true and real. It's anchored in a 400-year family history and that's not a responsibility he takes lightly. Everything they do, every aspect that they build, has to be true to their values and heritage.

Tequila is in its golden age right now – it continues to be one of the highest forecasted growth businesses, and with over 2,200+ tequila brands now available, it’s a challenge to break from the ‘sea of sameness.’ That's where authenticity has become a true differentiator for them, both on the shelf and at the bar. By being consistent in their story and brand ethos, they demonstrate that their actions are aligned with their values, and consumers have been generous enough to repay the brand with their loyalty.

For example, the legend behind the wolfpack is a core design element of the Lobos 1707 brand. The Osorio coat of arms is composed of wolves, the escutcheon animal, and the Agave Wind Rose Compass which represents an adventurous spirit honoring the brand’s Spanish and Mexican heritage. The wolf connection lends to the company’s philanthropic efforts supporting wolf sanctuaries.

Osorio also talked about understanding what authenticity means for your ideal customer, and how it differs from other brands that may be doing great things you can’t imitate because they have a different brand voice.

For example, he credits The Rock for having an amazing understanding of his audience for Teremana Tequila, but Lobos 1707 couldn’t do the same things Teremana does and still be authentic because they just serve a different ideal customer. As another example Osorio said, it wouldn’t be authentic for the brand to come off as too funny. “We could never be Ryan Reynolds funny.” While that works for Reynolds and Mint Mobile, it’s just not authentic to Lobos 1707.

When they do choose a venue, they make sure to show up in their own way. For example, when they attend LPGA tournaments, they have a golf cart playing music by The Notorious B.I.G. and Drake, which most people wouldn’t associate with golf.

Showing up in their own way is partly informed by investors that Osorio says are “writing culture as they go,” like Jimmy Iovine, Bono, Another Davis, and Lebron James that have very strong opinions out in the world.

Osorio also discussed what being authentic means for the individual leader. He referenced advice he got from Paul Wachter about considering both perception and reality.

Embed creative within your business model

A big component of Lobos 1707’s authenticity comes from storytelling. For Osorio, he comes from an unconventional background as an actor and director. And the truth is that there are so many lessons from that phase of his career that have transcended into how he has built this brand. His role as Founder and Chief Creative Officer means he is the custodian of the Lobos 1707 story. He sees their products as the actors and he is the director shaping how the storyline plays out. What would these characters do? What would they not do? All grounded in the essence of the culture and what they stand for.

Creative shouldn’t be viewed as just an ancillary element of the business; it should be embedded in every facet of the work. Osorio doesn’t say that solely as an amalgamation of the necessary work and practice behind unifying creative and business given his roles. It's more that a consumer needs to be able to touch, feel, see, experience a brand at every touchpoint and every interaction. For them, that comes from how the liquid is produced, but also how it's packaged and down to how it's marketed.

That creative approach informed the launch of Lobos 1707, which occurred during the COVID-19 epidemic. The company launched with a video from Osorio. When he asked CEO Dia Simms for advice on what to cover in the video, she said “The truth is easy to tell.” He shot part of the video in Mexico, and the rest in Los Angeles with investors Lebron James, Anthony Davis, and Rich Paul.

Once he shot the video, Osorio realized that for the first time in his career he didn’t have a producer or client to answer to, meaning the final call was all on him. He called Maverick Cater and asked for advice. Carter asked, “Do you think this is the right way to do this story?” Osorio answered, “Absolutely.” And Carter reassured him, “Then go and do it.”

Break down the barriers of titles

Great ideas are the foundation of great companies and those ideas can come from anyone, anywhere and at any time. Osorio has encountered so many leaders that choose to command all power, and he truly believes that's a shortfall. While his title is Founder and Chief Creative Officer, he is the first to acknowledge where his expertise starts and stops. He would never ask someone to do a job that he hasn’t done himself, and with that also comes the recognition that he is not an expert at everything.

His responsibility, as a leader, is to guide the ship in a way that feels right. And that usually is based on gut instinct. It comes down to whether something “feels like us” or doesn't feel like their brand. He leans on the experts, seeking opinions and consensus. And most importantly, he strives to empower people to do their job. He sees it as his responsibility to set the vision, but turn to the team to say, “Alright, now how do we get there?” This not only creates a breeding ground for creativity and new thinking, but it fosters a sense of inclusion among the team who is driving the work. In their marketing campaigns they talk about how if the table isn’t big enough, they’ll make it bigger. That philosophy translates into their working culture, too.

Sure, job titles serve as rungs in a career ladder and are a representation of the skills an individual has obtained, but what titles don’t convey is the personal experiences of others that can actually lend well to your business decisions – be it in product development, accessibility considerations, marketing ideas and everything in between.

Osorio discussed Lobos 1707’s “Building the Table” video, the creative process behind it and how the process set the tone for a culture of belonging. The video embodies a spirit of inclusion and belonging – deeper than friendship, bigger than family, building a bigger table.

Lessons (with stories) from people he collaborated with

Osorio also shared lessons he learned from the people he collaborated with.

Grab the tiger by the tail

via his great-great grandfather

When you have an idea, you have to see it through. For Osorio, it began while he was working in NYC as an actor. He discovered the story of his namesake great-great grandfather's legacy as a Spanish Viceroy Kingt who transported Pedro Ximénez Sherry barrels from Spain to Mexico beginning in 1707. Once the sherry depleted, they filled the empty barrels with an agave spirit (now known as tequila), allowing the tequila to barrel age during their journey home. It quickly became his mission to replicate that traditional agave-based recipe enjoyed by his forefathers for centuries.

That initial aspiration soon morphed into the idea of bottling up the legacy and sharing that unique piece of his culture with the world. This is the foundation to how Lobos 1707 was born. And it still encapsulates his aspiration of growing it into a global brand.

It’s proof that ideas – if harnessed – not only have the power to be realized, but the power to be built upon to keep evolving into something tremendous. But, you have to conjure the courage to ‘grab the tiger by the tail’ and pursue it.

Build something you’ll be proud of

via Lebron James

This piece of advice really hits on the notion of authenticity for Osorio, and why it's so important to keep at the genesis of any brand. His interpretation of this advice was around how legacy is something you are given and it's up to you what you’ll do with it.

They were planning to launch Lobos 1707 in 2020 and contemplating how to do it, and they quickly realized all they had to do was tell the truth of the story and it would speak for itself, so that’s what they did. They took the history of his ancestors, reinvented it and applied it to this new era. They did a Hollywood version of the story which was a lot of fun, and also easy to tell because it was real.

Pressure is a privilege

via Billie Jean King

While he has received so many great pieces of advice over the years, all that advice came with a deep personal reflection that he thinks extends well to most business owners that’s worthy of being passed along.

Some of the biggest names have given him their confidence and have backed the idea of growing this brand alongside him – whether financially, as a sounding board, or simply casting their vote of confidence in his ability – so it is his responsibility to do everything in his power to maximize those investments and protect them. It’s an incredible motivator.

When it comes to pressure on his team, he looks at it like they are the chefs cooking the meal, and it’s his job to give them the ingredients they need to make it a success. For example, with Elaine King and Joanna Darst, who run marketing at 1707 Lobos, he starts with their vision of what the campaign is going to look like and ask people to do, and builds around that.

Discussed in this episode

Not Enough Lobster In The Ocean: Trusting their gut leads to 90,000% revenue growth at Mint Mobile (Podcast Episode #11)

“Authenticity” vs. “Professionalism”: Should you be your authentic self in your brand’s content and marketing? Or must you adhere to certain strictures considered “professional” in your industry?

Creative Marketing and Advertising Campaigns: Hold the line & get a door kicker (podcast episode #84)

How the Pandemic Inspired Brands to Rethink their Marketing Strategy: 3 quick case studies

Marketing Career: Can you explain your job to a six-year-old?

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Transcript

Not ready for a listen yet? Interested in searching the conversation? No problem. Below is a rough transcript of our discussion.

Diego Osorio: We're an ultra luxury product. Therefore, I can't market this if it's a 20 something dollar product. Right? So it's not even about the fact that we want to look luxury for the commercial to people to understand in the subconscious, but also because it's not authentic. But like, I could be in like a sports bar. And that I think is is most likely, you know, that audience won't be asking for for that kind of, you know, premium ness or on an average basis on there.

Well, tequila, you know, I would love to add to that market, but it's a market that for us it's quite rough. So if I were to set a commercial that in a place that it would be really hard. I think, for example, take take the opposite end of what we are on on the rock. They are super authentic to their market.

I always say the rock is and the stamp is audience amazingly and does a great job of that. But we are different.

Intro: Welcome to how I made it in marketing. From marketing Sherpa, we scour pitches from hundreds of creative leaders and uncover specific examples, not just trending ideas or buzzword laden schmaltz. Real world examples to help you transform yourself as a marketer. Now here's your host. The senior Director of Content and Marketing at Marketing Sherpa, Daniel Bernstein, to tell you about today's guest and.

Daniel Burstein: Be careful you don't engage in marketing color by numbers, so to speak. It's easy to get lost in process flowcharts and database is you could build out that perfect infrastructure. You got the right media buys. Marketing automation, drip campaigns are all set. Everything is being properly measured and attributed. Oh, but all that work. It's easy to overlook what the infrastructure should be for.

That's just marketing. Color by numbers. So I love this lesson for my next guest embed creative within your business model. That's why we have that infrastructure, right? To highlight that creative, get it to the right customer at the right time. You know, share the story behind that lesson, along with many more lesson filled stories is Diego Osorio, founder and chief creative officer for Lobo 1707 tequila.

Thanks for joining me, Diego.

Diego Osorio: Thank you for having me. Daniel.

Daniel Burstein: So let's take a quick look at your background so people know I'm talking to you. You've been an actor, a producer, a director, and you jumped in the business world about four years ago when you founded Lobos 1707. Lobo 1707 is a privately held company. Investors include LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Draymond Green and Rich Paul. they've had a product at Market for about three years now.

Diego runs a whole company, so he's got about a team of about 80 to 100, he said, depending on the season in his company overall. But 22 people you interacts with directly every day, including his marketing team of nine and his leadership team of about a dozen. Sounds like you're a busy man, Diego, so give us a sense.

What is your day like as chief Creative officer?

Diego Osorio: I think founders can always relate to founders. Every bad thing comes to the founder at some point in the company, we don't get as much of the good things. but, I think my biggest job and my biggest duty, it's the personality of the company, who we are, what we're about, the kind of product that we want to be and the kind of company that that we want to represent and be like, I think that's my number one duty.

And that comes down to the color of our price stickers, too. You know, what is our messaging for the next campaign? Right.

Daniel Burstein: But I also want to ask, you said all the problems come to you, but you told me you don't use slack and the phone's on sound. So how do the problems get to you? Like how does anyone get in contact with you?

Diego Osorio: I don't know, but I find myself in zooms from like eight in the morning. Okay. You know, no. Like, I just give my phone all the time. I hate the vibration of the car and slack. I takes away so much of the personality of people talking to each other, and it's so opened. but I'm losing that battle, Daniel.

I, I think the company will join slack producing a, every every big leadership team meeting. They go so slack, I'm like, yeah, I know, I know. So we'll probably just like reason.

Daniel Burstein: Oh, there. But I've got pulled into it. I know, and it's funny, it's like this fake thing of someone visiting you. Right. Slack's got that knock. And now who's got that door bell? You feel like someone's actually visiting, but everyone's just on the computer, right? So let's take a look at, some of the lessons from some of the things you made.

So first, you mentioned that authenticity should be at the core of a brand. Tell me, how did you learn? How do you learn this lesson?

Diego Osorio: Oh, I mean, I come from everything about storytelling, right? So I kind of started this company by accident, almost, which is not true. I was very, very passionate. I wanted to if I was going to pour my life and soul into something apart from acting and directing, it would have to be something. I felt very passionate, but I what I say is this was never meant to be a company was because it was just going to be for my friends and family.

It was never going to be. So for me, authenticity and being able to to really show what you believe in and being selfish, in the product and the way you do it, it's everything. So storytelling has to be part of it, and storytelling and its core has to be authentic.

Daniel Burstein: So give us a sense, how do you tell this authentic story of your brand? Can you take us into, like when your recent campaigns or ads or the branding of it to bring that authenticity into the actual brand?

Diego Osorio: Absolutely. So, I hopefully the team won't tell me, but, the one that we just shot, which will come out after the election, at the election Olympics. it's it it has to be twofold. It has to be something that I think it's going to tell the story of the product and what our characteristics is, which in our case is, you know, Peter Herman, a sheriff in our Senate, you know, we have craft and culture.

You know, we all these things that we are proud of, but in a in a way that we're not taking too, too serious, right, because that kind of thing. And also on top of that, you know, there's a little bit of question marks around celebrities endorsing products, right? So what does that mean? So taking all that into a world and then make it feel in the personality that we were talking about, which is, you know, big time.

My job like you know, we are an ultra luxury product. So it has to feel ultra luxury. It has to feel that way. But it can be taking ourselves too serious because that's what other brands are doing. And it's not about us in that way. we I had to navigate that world, and within all of that had to be authentic to us.

Meaning we are not taking ourselves to see us, but we are also not too funny. I mean, we could never be Ryan Reynolds funny because that's him. That's what he does. He's amazing at doing that. And if you try to recreate that, not being authentic to yourself, you're going to land in your face, right? So we are not that funny.

That's what I mean by authenticity. Getting all of those factors of what the brand is, what everyone is involved, and package it in a way that audiences are going to want to look at this for, you know, 60s or 30s.

Daniel Burstein: Well, let me ask, how do you find when you talk about that authentic messaging, how do you find that right position within, for example, the tequila marketplace? There's 2200 different tequilas, I think, like what I mean, that they also want to have some level of authentic storytelling. And I bring that up because you mentioned Ryan Reynolds. I had the chance to interview the CMO of Mint Mobile on how I made it a marketing before, and they talked about kind of the idea behind those campaigns was looking at that, you know, cell phone, a cell service marketplace back in the day and finding, hey, there's this, this market here for this very low priced offering.

But I think, you know, we take our to ourselves too seriously offering. And no one's going to believe in bringing that celebrity in that joke. You know, it was kind of it was getting across that value proposition of, hey, you'd be surprised how cheap this is. I think one of them was like, the Ryan Reynolds and like, his daughter shooting the commercial or something.

And because they didn't have the budget for, you know, a big budget TV campaign like the Verizon's or something is one of them like that ads upside down. So yes, it was Ryan Reynolds. It was funny. It was his authentic self, but it was getting across okay. Here's our unique position in this very competitive marketplace. So for you with tequila, I understand, but the authenticity of the story.

But how do you fit that within okay. Now there's point 200 different tequilas. I can pick.

Diego Osorio: It. I mean, you hit it right on on the head I, I it's everything starts with product. What is your product and what it is. So you can't we're an ultra luxury product. Therefore I can't market this if it's a 20 something dollar product. Right. So it's not even about the fact that we want to look luxury for the commercial to people to understand in the subconscious, but also because it's not authentic to us.

Like I couldn't be in like a sports bar and that good thing because it's most likely, you know, that audience won't be asking for for that kind of, you know, premium ness or on an average basis on there. Well, tequila, you know, I would love to access that market, but it's a market that for us it's quite rough.

So if I were to set a commercial that in a place that it would be really hard. I think, for example, take take the opposite end of what we are to remind and the Rock, they are super authentic to their market. I always say the rock is and the staff is audience amazingly and does a great job of that.

But we are different, you know, similar market, similar product. You're asking tequilas, right? So we're just we're just different. So everything ties to the product. So we have a rich history. we are in tune with culture. So we need to make sure that those crossroads always happen for us, because I think that is our biggest differentiator of like having a liquid that one is experience or is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

But also we have some of the guys investors like you said, that are literally writing culture as, as we go. So I can't pretend to not be or be for everyone. Another day, another thing, right? I could be like evergreen. I'm like, you know it, everyone. I everyone should love me because you know, that kind of thing. I'm never going to be that guy because some of my guys like LeBron or Andrew Davis or one who's an investor or Jimmy Evans, an investor, they they have very strong opinions out in the world.

So like they by nature are going to be a pulled into the company. But also reflecting on the product.

Daniel Burstein: That's great. I'm glad you say that because when we talk about a value proposition, we talk about a powerful value proposition, right. It's that for that ideal customer, right, that right product, for that ideal customer. And so when you talk about that, you know, in a business meeting and a conference and a value proposition workshop, everyone nods their head and agrees, oh, yes, of course, that's okay.

But then when it comes down to like, wait a minute, we can't turn down that business opportunity. Wait a minute. You're shrinking our total addressable market. What are you doing? And it's like, well, this is what it means to serve an ideal customer. So I love what you're saying. Like, hey, there's places we're not going to go. We could maybe get some market share there.

We could maybe sell some product there, but we're not going to go because that's not for ideal customer. That's not us. I think that's a great lesson for everyone listening.

Diego Osorio: Yeah, absolutely. And if you do, you have to show up in your own way, right? For example, like obviously sports for us is a core, core part of the brand. But like you would think golf might be a little less for us, right? But we love, sponsoring a female golf tournaments, because we show up in our own way.

We get a card and we play music and we have drinks coming out of the back, and, you know, and we do it, you know, we are we are playing like, you know, like Biggie or Drake or, you know, me, like we're playing like all those, like, cool songs that you not normally I identify with a golf course, but we show up in our own way.

So you have to understand who you are, even though you are going to unchartered territory or not your usual. You do so, I mean, whoever did it the best and obviously I have the ability to call them is GBA in with, with beats? They did it. They did an amazing ability to to open to different markets.

Daniel Burstein: All right. You mentioned who you are. You mentioned beats okay. Beats I think Doctor Dre. Right. Yeah. And so when it comes to this little thing of authenticity, I think something we're all trying to figure out and Covid just threw a whole monkey wrench into it, is how do we show up as our authentic self at work? But do we show up as our entire authentic selves?

I think there's there's elements of me that, you know, I don't know if I want to bring into work. And then I'll give you a quick example from our world, which is very different from yours. But, we did, this test, it just it just was a fluke. you know, we used to be an in-person company here in Jacksonville.

Our founder moved up, bought a ranch in Montana. No. Where's cowboy hats? So we went to the studio up there. He recorded a video. He was wearing a suit. Something was wrong. The video came back. He was hired as cowboy has I forget I'm doing this one. And so somehow they ended up having two videos. They tested both of them and we're like, oh, which will perform better?

And you know, we're all pulling for the cowboy hat because we want to live our best up. And the suit work better now in that situation like it was also it was like new traffic. It was YouTube. Know people didn't know us. I think it's different. They know you and we're a B2B. You know, audience business is a little different, but it does bring to mind we talk about a tequila brand.

People think, as you said, on the golf course or why you partying all this fun and stuff, I think is it's a business. You're in there as a business. And as you mentioned, there is just this intense focus on the founder inside the company and publicly, so for you, how do you balance what is the right way to figure out here's how I show up as my authentic self.

But there are certain things where I have to bring this level of, I don't know, for lack of a better word, professionalism to, to to this where which wouldn't be me on the weekend, you know, kicking my feet up or something like that.

Diego Osorio: So two things in that, first of all, I, I couldn't care less of the title job titles of founder or emperor of the world. I, I, I think it's, some people hold too much respect or too much, personality of their own selves into the job titles like when you meet people and it's like, what's your job?

And is like, I'm a founder. I'm like, that's not actually a job. You know? That is not a job description. you know, that that must be said. The other thing I think that helps me a lot, Paul Walker, which is probably one of our biggest investors and someone I could see a little bit of a mentor.

He always says, perception and reality. and I think that is a very important thing that I think it's. So do your own personality and how you show up. I think there's the perception to your point of what a founder should be and the leader and, and, you know, and what people look up to or look towards, when they're leading their own teams within your company.

And what values are you shared and, and that kind of thing. and then there's the reality, right? The reality has to be also very authentic to yourself. But the perception is real. Like by that, I mean, you know, people if if I'm the one taking the time in every email, send it saying please and thank you. I hope that that trickles down to the whole company.

Right. So I that is the perception reality. The reality sometimes is I that extra second gets me, you know, ten minutes or an hour later to bed by end of the day, you know, by all the emails, you're done. But you have to make that effort, to do that, because I think that is that mix of perception and reality.

I would love to see some emails. Yes. No. You know, go to how, like, but, but at the end of the day, you know, thank you very much. I do appreciate your value. I don't think this is the correct way doing it. I think that is that makes it, perception. Our reality.

Daniel Burstein: No. That's great. Email something. Especially since we don't have our voice and you don't see the person. It could be read wrong if you're not really careful. So I agree, like, you just want to fire them out, but you taking that extra time to get that email right. Yeah. So speaking of setting that culture, this thing you're talking about, you mentioned embed creative within your business model.

So I love this lesson. As I mentioned, sometimes I think founders, the other founders and you know there's enough articles about online. You just look at kind of the not the soul of what they did, but kind of the infrastructure of what they did, or here's how they set it up. Here's how they went public marketers, here's how their campaigns are structured or whatever.

But it kind of misses that soul of it. So can you give us a sense how did you embed creative within your business model?

Diego Osorio: Well, I don't know if it's by nature or trade, but I what I think I do better than amazing team that I have is the storytelling, right. That's what I think I bring to the table. and there's nothing better. Once I had the privilege of of asking, a big business guy and I said, what do you think your superpower is?

And they said, I know what I don't know. so for myself is, I know what I don't know, but I do know what I know. and what I know is creative. What I know is storytelling. And I believe that storytelling is what saves humanity. and we can get it to that another time. Daniel. But, you know, collective imagination is the only thing that humans do that animals don't do.

so I grab onto that, I, I want to build a company that is based on creative. It's based on storytelling that it's based on. Because Amanda Day, if and if this doesn't work for every company. Right. But with alcohol, it's emotional driven. It's a it's a form of art is a memory creating product. Right. So we buy it because, you know, we had an amazing time or is how we met our girlfriend in a bar or or how, you know, that time that I brought it to my friend's birthday and we had the best birthday.

So we want to recreate that again, or because that time that I opened it with my best friend and and we sat down, it was just the two of us. And we have that moment. So it has to be an emotional feel. and to your point of buzz words that you don't love us words, but, you know, we always say that we are a culture company.

That is memory making business that happens to sell tequila and, and and in that basis, therefore, you have to be based on creative because that's how you're going to get your audience, and that's how you're going to get the sentiment of your audience.

Daniel Burstein: Yeah. And buzzwords are fine. We just want to get we want to hear the buzz does dig into it. Let's hear the story behind it. Right. That's what we do here. We we figure out what's the story underneath that buzz word. And I want to talk about this creative. So can you give us a specific example of how you actually execute on that creative like that.

Some creative idea how and how you execute it. Because I think that's a big challenge with those big time thinkers, with creatives for example, I interviewed John Reid, the CMO of I identified on how I made it marketing, and one of his lessons was the key to turning great ideas into successful campaigns. You need a door kicker like Hannah, and he told the story of sending a bottle of Jameson into space when he was working for Pino Ricard, and his point was like, yes, you get that great idea.

But then, like, here's what it took to actually execute on it, the right people in the right place to hit his words, to kick down the door, to make that thing happen. So can you think of a, you know, specific creative idea you had? Okay, well, we got that idea. That's great. But now here's how we execute on that.

Diego Osorio: 100%, Covid. We get the company finance, Covid heads. are we still launching? We are launching. How are we launching? Well, this is what I do. Tell stories. Let me shoot a video. It'll be a 2.5 minute video. Will tell the story of why we're all here. And everybody thought I was completely insane. and at the time, I turned to the CMO that we launched with, which is DSM.

and I said, well, what story? Like, where do I start? And she looked at me, said, the truth is easy to tell. So I, I said, okay, let's set off to tell, to tell the truth. But to your point, I get to Mexico and we started shooting. We shot between Mexico and and L.A. because the whole idea was like, well, how did I start this company, how to let Brian James get involved?

Because those I knew what those were, the questions people were going to ask. Right. So I was like, let me do a whole video. It'll be two a half minutes for whoever gives a hell about watching this whole two half minutes, and then we'll create 50s 30s for people that don't have attention spans for more than three seconds.

Right. And, and then I remember getting to Mexico and in the production van, and it's a big, big shoot, like it's a pretty big shoot. And I remember being in the back of a van and I got a little nervous for the first time, and I directed big shoots and I it, but there's normally either a client or a producer behind me or someone that I can be like, hey, do you like this?

Or if people don't like it, it's like, oh, that's what the client wanted. This. It was all me. It was, it was. The boss stopped with me like, I if I look behind me, there was a wall. It was just myself. So I remember calling Maverick Carter and saying, hey, man, I'd like I this is what we're doing.

I'm a little, you know, we tell you so. And he was like, do you think this is right? Do you think this is the right way to do this story? And I said, absolutely, I have blind faith. This is what we need to do. And it goes, well then go and do it. So to your point, we were in Covid role wearing mask was in Mexico.

Then we came back to to L.A. where we shot with LeBron and Anthony Davis and Rich ball. And they were all there. and and it was that table shoot. It was it happened in, in a shut down hotel because no one was allowed to have hotels in the dream Hotel in L.A.. And so the execution was actually I was blessed to have a great team, and everyone very supportive.

But it was not easy.

Daniel Burstein: I like what you say about not having the client. Right. So now. Yeah, you're the founder. You've got these skills, you've used them previously with producers, whatnot. But it's up to you. Now, you mentioned break down the barriers of titles. So you said founder and that's not really a title. And you go by chief creative officer. So you want to give us a sense of okay now hey, it's kind of your company.

It's all in your hands. You have all these decisions, and one of your key decisions is to break down the barriers of titles. Why do you do that? How do you do that? And what's the result?

Diego Osorio: I think it it brings to the point of authenticity. It brings people opinion out. I think obviously as we're growing, that becomes harder. I think also, I may not care about the founder, but obviously I understand people's jobs, directions. And I understand that people do, have to have different titles for their careers as they move along.

but I do think having that idea of, like, we are a packed pun intended, of course, because a lot of us pack the strongest. You know, we are as strong as our weakest wolf. You know, the the internal model of the company, which is the for the strength of the pack is a wolf and for the strength of the wolf as a pack.

So that idea becomes easier when we are all in it together at the same time. And it's not. Oh, no, no, I only take, you know, I'm only head of trade marketing or I'm only head of consumer marketing and that kind of thing. If if we try to work as individuals and not job titles, I think that helps towards that a lot.

Daniel Burstein: You just and you just mentioned that interesting story about Covid. But I got to wonder too. So that was a great example. I think you said of like, hey, there is this big change in the marketplace. I mean, really the world, right? And but we're not, we're not, we're not changing. However, I gotta think, when you launch a product, when you launch a brand, you have these ideas, but then you get into the realities of the marketplace and you have to pivot in some way.

So I wonder, I'll give you a quick example as you think of any pivot you had to make. But I was I did a case study with Cisco WebEx about their rebranding, and it was during Covid, and they rebranded from just being known as a web conferencing company to being that one app for everything in a remote or hybrid workplace, right?

Covid was a great shift to what they can offer in a whole new and different way that wasn't available before. so for you, again, you, you know, there's all this background that goes in before launch day. That's how I think the company was around a year before you really even got the product to market. I think there was something, though, that changed in the marketplace or in your understanding of customers or whatever it was that made you think, hey, maybe there's a little pivot we need to make here.

Diego Osorio: 100%. So we launched through Covid, like you said, and people asking you, how did you adapt to Covid? I was like, it's the opposite. How do you like that coming out of Covid? Because we didn't know better. We didn't know world pre pre Covid as a company. Right. So 80% of companies have alcohol a revenue of of companies and alcohol come from off premise.

Right. So things that are outside of bars and restaurants. And I can think of a liquor store as a. So we were heavy obviously in the off premise world because there was no on premise when we launched. Right. So we were happy because our revenue was growing. We sold eight times what we thought on the first year. We were ecstatic, but then we had to look at ourselves as we were coming out of Covid and be like, hey, people are back in bars and back in restaurants and clubs more than they were before.

And and we have yes, we have a presence, but we haven't really focus our sales team, our marketing creative. We, you know, all the things that go behind that, to that is like, we need to really understand this and who we are in this environment, what we do in and that kind of thing, and how we present a POS and all that kind of thing.

So for us, it was more of like, a focus change. I wouldn't say call it true pivot, but like, hey, yes, revenue is great. And we're we're hitting our numbers, but we're just hitting our numbers because we are big in our biggest size of the pie. But we, you know, brands are build in the on premise and sold in the off premise.

Right. we can forget that. And also we pride ourselves with being culture and we're not in the where the culture really is. so that that was I think in, in was our one of our biggest, you know, shifts in attention.

Daniel Burstein: Great. So we just talked about some lessons we learned from some things Diego built. And just a moment we're going to learn some lessons from people who collaborate with all their. You mentioned a few. but I should first mention that the how I Made It and marketing podcast is underwritten by Mic labs. I the organization of marketing Sherpa.

Right now you can get a free three month full scholarship to the AI Guild and a free quickstart AI productivity kit at joint Mic Labs ai.com to help you navigate the artificial intelligence marketing revolution that's joining Mech Labs ai.com. All right, let's talk about some more lessons from people you collaborate with. And the really the person I can attribute this to, I think is your great great grandfather.

you said grab the tiger by the tail. So what does that mean? And how did you learn it?

Diego Osorio: so for me, what it means is, you know, I have this love and this passion for for acting. you know, I'm. And actually being on movie sets and that kind of thing, which is like my artistic self. But I have this company love us, which is this tiger by the tail. so it's how we have to ride the trains that come in our life and, and do the best of our ability.

So do it the best you can, afford the time that you have to do it. So as much as I miss being on the set, this tiger, I have this tiger by the tail. And I'm going to see it from all the way.

Daniel Burstein: So as we mentioned, you kind of your career started in acting and directing. And I wonder, was there something specific that you learned from that career that you now apply either as a founder, leading your company internally or externally? Marketing. I know you talk about storytelling. That's obviously, key skill for actors and directors, but the thing that I've noticed in kind of culture or business over the past, maybe 10 or 20 years is there's just been this great amalgamation, like there used to be these separate industries.

There was like a film industry, there was a TV industry, there was journalism, there was marketing, there was whatever. But all these content creators have kind of just come together now. And there's this overlap where, you know, and like we talked about it, an actor is running a business and they're they're communicating this way. That's one way in, in a movie, but it's a different way in a commercial, not just as a paid hired hand, but as an investor and part of it.

Even on the journalism side, it's become just all content. And it's a little unclear what was actually just like straight journalism versus what is more of content marketing. So since we've kind of all come together, I think people like you, these actors, right, these directors, these producers have come more into the marketing world or more into the business world.

But I wonder, what is something that you brought from that discipline? Like any specific examples of how you learned something in that discipline and can use it in your marketing business career?

Diego Osorio: I mean, the thing that I use the most that I think is surprise people a lot and like you are kind of storytelling. Movie making is each of our products are different character and they behave differently, and they have different personalities and they do different things and they show up differently. Right? So, I become quite annoying and like, I think some people's when they have, you know, let's say a monster company and they have different monsters of different, different flavors and that kind of thing.

They treat them all the same because for consumers, they're focusing on the brand. Right? So the brand is. But I actually think what's in the actual glass, what's in the actual bottle changes the personality or the way that that affects to the brand or the connection to the brand. So you take our, our whole thing, which is our means young in Spanish, which is our youngest product, our cheapest product was still, you know, $45 in most markets in America.

still quite, quite a lot of money. But it is the one that is, is the youngest. It's kind of more, you know, flavored forward and it kind of has more of a vitality. Therefore it's cocktails and it's fresher. So for me it has a whole personality. Like for me in my head that is not a bottle is an actual person.

The sets and toxins different way and, and that, kind of that. So that would be my biggest takeaway. And the other takeaway that I must say now before we go is, listen to your mom. So my mom forced me to go to, I did, I did, economics, for a degree as well as acting.

And she was like, you can't just do acting. so I guess that also came in handy, so that that would also be another thing that I learned. along the way.

Daniel Burstein: So I love what you say. Well, listen, your mom, that's good advice, but let me just say about the, the, the that each one's a character, like, have you formalize this in some way? Is there like any sort of, I don't know, formal documentation that you use within the organization. So everyone understands that.

Diego Osorio: Yeah. Personality. Right. We so we only when each product has a breakdown when we give it to agencies. So that kind of thing part of the brand Bible, each product or excuse will have its personality down to the fact of sizing. Right. I don't think you know, our leader to our 375 have the same personality. Therefore they show up different.

And and you know, for our product, it's, you know, where our ideal placement on a shelf on the back of the bar, where is that ideal placement that changes per skew per type of product. and I think that that really shows up in our ideal. Obviously, it's hard to be when you're not the one placing it on the shelf.

how to get it exactly what you want. But if you don't ask, you won't get right.

Daniel Burstein: And I would assume by maybe having the reason behind it, you might be able to influence more where it's placed on the shelf, like bringing bringing them into the story, if you will.

Diego Osorio: Absolutely. And I always get a crackle, right? I always get a joke. And I think that when people laugh, they they tend to have that memory kind of engraved. But yeah, I mean, I do tastings in tall wines and beanies in Chicago. I do that for, at the highest level, meaning, you know, the guys that run the whole company to an actual store, right?

And when you tell them, it's like, hey, guys, I notice that this is the bottom shelf, but this should be here because this guy, this guy's a little louder and he wants to speak this one, and he's a more in your face. And then people remember it. And I come back three, four months later and it actually shift just because they, they have a reason to be.

Daniel Burstein: So when you say you do tastings at like a times like a local told one more, are you talking about your sales team or are you saying you personally go around the country and we'll go into these individual stores and do tastings? Just so I'm clear?

Diego Osorio: Oh, I do it myself. I was in Chicago last week at a vintage store, with both, and I did a session for the actual, you know, employees inside the beanies. And then I did one for the actual consumers. It was like 30 consumers that they came by. I did it in spikes in Texas, in Houston that day.

I do a ton of those and I love it.

Daniel Burstein: That's fantastic. So let me ask you, is there anything that's really stuck with you that you've learned from that, like dealing with your channel partner to retailers and your customers? Because one of the things as I mentioned, I think these days we are so is stuck behind our digital dashboards, behind these analytics platforms, behind research agencies, behind all of these things that we haven't done that as much, certainly not at the highest level of a company, let alone, you know, people over in the company actually go out, press the be in person with customers, with retailers, with channel partners.

So is there anything that sticks out to you of like, oh, like actually going out here and being with them? Like, you know, I got this idea or I got this better understanding?

Diego Osorio: Well, for us and for the sake of, of us talking, I think for marketing is really important because I think sometimes studies or panels, so that kind of thing, as great as they are, I mean, I'm a big believer that you can torture data as much to tell it. You know, you if you tortured enough, it will tell you whatever the hell you want to be.

told, that famous talking about the famous, Henry Ford quote. You know, if I would have asked people what they wanted to hear, said faster horses. so I'm a big believer of, like, the fastest and the best data is from the field listening into it yourself. So whenever we are developing one of the next companies or what is our sell, she'd say, or what is our shelf talkers say?

When I hear what people are asking me, that's what the questions I want to ask are in those shelf talkers and those that kind of thing, because that's what matters. And if I hear the same question in four different states in two weeks, that's the question that we need to answer, right? You know, to people in, in, in that's when you only have two things to answer.

So that for me is one of the most valuable thing. And the second is, you know, we we hear what people are thinking competition wise. I love listening to what you know, what I you know, I always say it's like, if you're not drinking love, what else are you drinking and why? And that goes on. So I understand a little bit more of someone that's taking the time of a Wednesday afternoon to come to a retail store to listen to me talk, which is I can't even believe that someone, even doing that.

You know, if you're doing that, I need to. I care a lot about why you're here, what you think and and what else do you behave. So I learned a lot from from that.

Daniel Burstein: I think that hopefully that's great inspiration for everyone listening. Don't just be hidden behind any analytics platform. Go out and meet people. That's fantastic. You do that, Diego. here's another lesson. You said build something you'll be proud of. I don't remember if we said we can mention who you learn this from, but if you can, please do.

And if not, we understand.

Diego Osorio: No. Absolutely. That was that was LeBron James. I when I had the privilege of him, one thing he called me, and he wanted to, to be an investor. and he said, I love the product. I love your vision behind it. And I said, okay, great. So we're going to do it for us, for our friends and he looked at and he goes, oh, no, Diego, no, wait, we're building this, to take over the world.

and we're going to build this for a company. And, and he said, we're going to build this, you know, because for him, it doesn't matter, you know, for most likely for him, you know, he's been very successful on and off the court. And it might change his life. It might change my life, but it won't change his life, even if we are extremely successful.

But I think the thing that matters to him is something that we look back ten years from now, and we're very proud of, and that is both in the product, the success, but also in the type of company that we, that we're building.

Daniel Burstein: Yeah. So, you know, I think a lot of people listening, especially if they're just on the marketing side, they don't have control over the company like you do. They can say like, okay, I can see being proud of, oh, you whip out that bottle of tequila, you're sitting there with friends, you know, you give it to everywhere and you're like this I made, you know.

But can you give us a, like, get us into your mind or something specifically you made? How do you build marketing that you're proud of? Because this has been a major change in my career. I started, you know, back when I was doing print ads in the Wall Street Journal and it was what, you know, the kind of old school marketing they bought the wall Street Journal, right?

They weren't looking for my ad. It just happened to be in there. And I got to move into the world of content marketing. And I love content marketing because it is doing like you're building something for people, like, for example, when we were trying to teach about conversion optimization, when it was a fairly new topic, I wrote a children's book about it, and we brought here's a children's book about, you know, so a six year old can understand what you do at work every day because I know my kids can understand what I did.

And, you know, that was hopefully marketing. And it got our message across, our value proposition across. But I, you know, look back on that and I'm pretty happy with that. I'm pretty proud of that. So can you take us into your world a bit and say like, okay, yeah, you can touch and feel that tequila. You can actually drink it.

I can be proud of that. But what about the marketing? I mean, we're trying to get people to act in a certain way. How are you? How can you be proud of your marketing as well?

Diego Osorio: I'll give you a great example. And that's the example that I tried to recreate. when I was growing up in the 90s, I would I'm a big sneakerhead, so I would wear the Jordan one Chicago, and you would crush someone. It still happens today. You would crush someone on the street and they would look at your shoes and you would have you share that nod.

And we all know what that not is. We've seen that. Not that for me. If we can get someone in the world five years from now, two years from now, across the bar, and someone orders love us and someone here is that across the bar, and they go and they have that. Not that would be my goal. And what it is something that I'm proud of, because that would mean that they know they share something more than taste for tequila.

They know they share a set of values. They share a set of value proposition, they share a set of ideas. And that for me is is as a company, as a person, is something that would be worth putting my name to, next to in history.

Daniel Burstein: That is a worthy goal. But can you take us into, like, any decision you had to make or any specific example of something you had to do in your marketing to make that happen? Because one thing that we talk about and teach about and, and research about, for example, is customer first marketing. And we show we did this research where we split, Americans into two groups.

One was a group of people who, weren't happy with a company. The other one was one where they were happy with a company. We asked all these questions, and one of the key differences we found was the people who were happy with the company. It's not necessarily that they only had good experiences. It's a felt like they put the customer first.

And so that's something we instill when you're in that marketing meeting, when you're when it comes down to that 5050 jump, all of what are we going to do in this campaign or the customer experience? Are we going to be a customer sometimes take that short term hit as a company and put that customer first, right. So for you, when you're when you're in that when you're meeting with an agency, right.

Or when you're in that boardroom and they're presenting that campaign to you and they're saying, here's what we're going to do after the Olympics or whatever it is, how do you make sure then to build that marketing your product, not just not just the product about marketing you're proud of while still it's got to convert and it's got to sell, right.

Diego Osorio: 100%. But to your point is, you want what we said at the beginning. You want to make everyone happy. You all you need to understand that. Right? So we we're a company that stands for diversity. It stands for female rights. And you know we are 60. I would need to check my last number. So please don't hold me because we've had a lot of highs but we're about 60% female employed.

We're about, you know, 65 to 70% minority owned. you know, like I don't that thing will trickle from the ownership of the company to what we do publicly. Right. So I think to your point is that is the value that I think it brings the value, but it also does decisions that you show up. Yeah. I mean, like we will be quite vocal about, you know, Pride Month will be pivot about female rights, will be quite vocal about that.

So those campaigns are when you are in the boardroom and allocated funds to campaigns. Those are the ones that are going to take priority because it's both. Authenticity is our value proposition, is our product and is who we want to be in the future.

Daniel Burstein: So, when I asked you in the opening about tell us about your day one things you mentioned, is it kind of all just flows down to the founder, like all the problems end up in the founders life. Right? But let us last lesson you mentioned pressure is a privilege. And you learned this from Billie Jean King. So how did you learn this lesson and how do you live it every day?

Diego Osorio: I have the privilege of of meeting her at the US open and I it's a quote that she says a lot. and I said, just so you know, it's, it's a, you know, I, it's a quote that I use a lot internally in the company. And she was like, so thankful. It's something that I told myself before every match, the fact that you are there, that you are about to step on that court, it's a privilege and it comes with that pressure.

So I think with our self-esteem, with our, you know, everyone that that is involved in the company, in whatever level I, we have the privilege to have this pressure. you know, I take that very, very highly in my, in my other priorities every day. And, and it's an honor. And you you have to take it twist is around what pressure is.

It almost gives it a good connotation, which is a much better, you know, something to empower you instead of to pressure you down, especially to like, salespeople. You know what I mean? Salespeople like, are fighting against number every month, that kind of thing. And if you if you give that number something to chase and instead of something that is, you know, in their back I think is a is a more positive idea.

So that's why I love that quote. You know, pressure is a privilege.

Daniel Burstein: So, you know, we've talked we've talked about Covid and kind of this kind of now we're in this post Covid era and there's hybrid work. There's all this stuff. And one of the things that really came up is burnout. And so, you know, I love this idea of pressure as a privilege for you personally. But also I wonder how you use that when you manage your entire company.

You mention you have a company of about 100, you have 22 people that you're dealing with every day and reporting to you. So is there anything you specific you do to engage with your, you know, employees to make sure that that pressure becomes a positive thing and it's not being overly negative and pulling them down.

Diego Osorio: I mean, we play unfair. We're an alcohol company. So we we we're we're not fair to most people out there. we have the, the enormous great thing of like, you know, we always have, you know, parties and events and going on and ensuring that anyone in the region or anyone that wants to come can come to that and enjoy and bring their friends would probably be the the biggest tool that that I have towards that.

just because, you know, if we are not having fun with our product, who else will be, you know, we have to have our own fun. and, you know, we're not a software engineering company, so you know that that, we play unfair in that way. but. So that would be the biggest tool, as I understand, but also understand kind of each employee's rights and needs and wants, you know, I mean, like, I, I love I have a lot of fun working.

So for me, the job, you know, life balance, it doesn't really exist because I really enjoy what I do every day. But that doesn't mean for everyone. And some people need more, you know, space in their minds and that kind of thing. So listening to that and trying to work around it would be kind of the more business focus.

you know, thing that I do that databases make sense.

Daniel Burstein: So we've talked about so many different things about what you've done with your company, how you built your company, how you build your brand. If you had to break it down. It's distinct of marketing. What are the key qualities of an effective marketer?

Diego Osorio: Well, well, you know what they say. You know, only 50% of marketing works and you don't know which 50 right? So, one of the qualities, I think, in my opinion, it's a for what I look every day, it's the teammate. Right. So it's knowing what you don't know. so I, I look at, you know, my head of, of marketing consumer, Joanna, she, she is our VP.

She's she's amazing. And I look at her the she's the one going to deploy the creative we do together. Right. So I, I look at her and be like, hey what do you need? And she was like, well, I feel I need this and I need that and that. And then we get together and build from needs to, to once, in that way.

Right. So I think like giving people that are building or let's people that are cooking the meal, they need to buy their own ingredients, you can help them. On the inspiration of what the meal is, but they need to buy their own ingredients. So what are you going to need for this meal that we're cooking together? Right. so I think in my opinion, is that teammate that that ability or the same thing was Elaine King, who runs our, our, trade marketing.

You know what? What is that summer campaign going to look like? Not look like an actual looks, but like, what are you deploying? What are you going to ask the sales team to do? What are you going to like? Because then then you can build, around that, creatively or even to the campaign, even to budgets and or even around.

So that bottoms up. really, for me, it's it's the most important thing.

Daniel Burstein: Well, thanks for your time, Diego. Thanks for sharing the ingredients to your success of your company. I learned a lot.

Diego Osorio: Thank you very much. Thank you for having me down.

Daniel Burstein: Thanks everyone for listening.

Outro: Thank you for joining us, for how I made it and marketing with Daniel Burstein. Now that you've got an inspiration for transforming yourself as a marketer, get some ideas for your next marketing campaign. From Marketing Sherpas extensive library of free case studies at Marketing sherpa.com. That's marketing rpa.com.