We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Erik Legenhausen a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Erik thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

My wife Courtney and I have been in the gift industry for over 17 years with our parent company Lotus jewelry Studio. We know the industry really well and we know who our customers are. Each year during trade show season we get the same questions over and over. The main question being “What’s new?”

Everybody brings new product to market each season, whether it’s a new color a new size a new shape but rarely is something actually new. I went home from our last trade show of the 2022 winter season and thought to myself, maybe I can be the one to bring something new to the gift industry. I made a list of all the things this new product had to be. This new product had to be light and flat for logistical reasons, it had to be made in the USA, it had to be unisex, it had to fit into any kind of store and it had to be easy for sales reps and stores to sell.

I tried lots of different existing products, but none of them checked enough boxes on my list, until I had the idea for a single serve craft cocktail. With tons of liquid mixers and cocktail infusion products on the market the idea of a powered mix in a single serve packet had never been introduced into our industry.

This all happened in February of 2022 and over the next 4 months I spent my time hiring a food scientist, developing recipes and finding a manufacturing facility. We were really focused on using natural fruit and developing a product that was not only innovative but tasted amazing!

Then I moved on to branding and packaging. I already knew who my customer was which made this part fairly easy. I was designing specifically for an audience I already had access to, these were already my customers so I knew what they were looking for. Our first trade show was in June of 2022 so this whole process took about 4 months. We showed up at the Dallas market with just this new idea not knowing how it would be received. We sold out in the first day! Now we knew we had something special and could hit the ground running.

Over the following 12 months we opened over 2,400 independent retail stores and sold more than 1 million cocktails!!! During our 1st year in business we have been working on ramping up production, new product and packaging development and just trying to keep our heads above water.

This whole process has been exciting and new and terrifying and invigorating. It’s like knowing how to ski really well and then trying to snowboard, it was all familiar yet different at the same time. We are excited for the upcoming year and all the exciting opportunities it holds. The best part is we get to share cocktails with friends, old and new. Cheers!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

We own Lotus Jewelry Studio and have spent our careers working with wholesale and retail customers. This helped making launching a new brand so much easier. We have an amazing sales force across the country who trust us to bring great product to market each season.

When we brought them this new idea of a single serve craft cocktail they jumped on board. We could have never taken a product from idea to 1st sale in 4 months then from 1st sale to 1,000,000th in 11 months without all these experiences and relationships.

Starting a business is not easy. The 1st time we did it we were much younger and very naive. This was our key to success. We had no idea failure was an option, so we just succeed. Now 17 years later doing it again was a much different experience. We cashed in alot of favors and reached out to lots of friends for help and advice. Our reputation in our industry is why this was all possible. We will always be so grateful for those who have helped us.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

When we started in the gift industry no one helped us. We went to trade shows and the majority of people around us were very standoffish. No one wanted to share information with a new company. Most of the people we met were dicks. They felt threatened there were some new guys experiencing success. This mentality is wrong.

So after many years in the industry one of my favorite things is to help the new guy. It brings me so much joy to help guide someone just starting out. If I can help get them in touch with a stores buyer or a rep group that would be a good fit it makes me happy. I have the mentality now that I want everyone to succeed. Someone else’s success doesn’t take mine away. I want us all to succeed together.

Not everyone in this industry is a great person. We have unfortunately encounterd some shitheads. When you encounter those people do not align your brand with them. Simply move on.

I think my reputation as someone who is willing to help is why we are successful. Take a minute to chat with the new guy or offer to lend a hand. Those moments can come back around as good karma.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

For both our brands that are focused on wholesale, trade shows and sales reps are everything. We very early on joined some of the best rep groups in the industry.

We also have participated in every major gift show in the US. They are not easy but necessary. The industry has changed and the trade shows have changed too. Attendance is down but they are still the most important part of what we do. I have never been a numbers guy. I take the approach that we need to do the major shows and if we have a down show we will see those customers somewhere else.

Building relationships with your reps and customers is the most important thing. Be a good vendor partner. Get to the show early, stay late, be helpful and say thank you.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.noblemicks.com
• Instagram: noblemicks
• Facebook: noblemicks
• Youtube: Noble Mick’s