Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Talia Bennick. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Talia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Alright, so one thing we think people don’t talk about nearly enough is investments – either time or money. What’s one of the best or worst investments you’ve made and what did you learned from the experience?

Hands down. I’ve felt more passionate about building Crisp & Crude than any other work I’ve done. I’m sure a lot of entrepreneurs feel this way if they create a product as a result of a problem they experienced. For me, creating a mood-lifting non-alcoholic cocktail finally gave me the elevated alternative to alcohol that I had been searching for on my alcohol-free journey, and I’m fired up because it’s doing the same for many of our customers. The whole thing lights me up.

It’s also been the most challenging work I’ve ever done. These challenges are definitely stressors, and trigger anxious thoughts. I realized the key to Crisp & Crude’s success is to not just maintain but also grow the passion I feel inside about this brand I’m building with my team. And in order to do that I need to make sure that these stressors don’t lead to burn out.

All this to say, the best investment I’ve made thus far as a business owner is on myself in the form of coaching and personal development. I have a professional coach who specifically focuses on CPG founders. Our work together helps me recognize my thought patterns and how to change them up to stay passionate and to quiet the ego that comes up to try to protect me from the all the unknowns of starting my own business. That regular work and regimented goal planning paired with a few retreats where I focus on understanding and making room for my truest self have made me so much more open and available for what comes to me.

With this mindset I maintain through coaching and the deep work I do on these retreats, I’m setting myself up to know just what to do when my hard work pays off and opportunities present themselves. I’m prepped and ready for the scary unknowns that come with each new chapter as the business grows.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I took a long winding path to Crisp & Crude. I’ve never started a company before, but I have worked for startups and have a business background. I went to Yale for my MBA, and while I enjoyed the coursework, the thing that lit me up was leading the Food & Wine Club. But that passion didn’t register into a career path until several years later.

I started mixing non-alcoholic drinks at home whenever hosting parties because I myself was not drinking alcohol and wanted something delicious to sip on alongside beautiful bottles of wine and craft cocktails that I was serving to guests. When I learned about CBD, I started mixing some in to these drinks because I wanted them to be not only delicious but also relaxing. What I found was once CBD came into the picture, everyone around the table wanted one round of the drinks I was mixing originally just for myself. And, that’s where I started realizing this was more than just an at-home mocktail recipe. This could be a business.

Today, Crisp & Crude craft two lines of non-alcoholic canned cocktails with mood-lifting botanicals, one with hemp (aka CBD) and one that is hemp-free. We’re equal parts chill vibes and sensorial sipping experience. Each cocktail is mixed with a different blend of botanicals to invite you to relax in a particular way – our Paloma Daydream is more uplifting and euphoric while our OG Tonic more mood-centering for focus.

I’m most proud that we’ve created a beverage line that ALL can enjoy. We’re not precious about how we think you should sip Crisp & Crude – from the can, in a glass, with or without hemp, heck if you want to make them a little boozy, go right ahead. This is your drink, your way. We’re here to serve as an invitation to chill during your own relaxation ritual.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

Yes, we sell on our site as well as on Amazon. Both sales channels are essential and valuable to our business. With the shop on our website, we offer our entire catalog of products, including our hemp-infused line. Our store gives us the opportunity to really share our brand with the world, and of course, is a pure direct-to-consumer play.

We run our site on Shopify which is a great platform for consumer ease of use, but because some of our products contain CBD, we do not have full access to the Shopify toolset, such as ShopPay which is huge for conversion because it makes checkout so simple for the customer.

On our Amazon storefront, we offer only our botanical, hemp-free line. People love Amazon because of Prime (including me. if no prime, I’m not buying. sad truth). So, on Amazon we have the ability to offer Crisp & Crude with prime shipping, and it is incredibly valuable for customer trial and for high conversion rates. Of course there are Amazon-related fees; however, our ability to win new customers efficiently here has quickly made this sales channel integral to our business.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Cold calling. Pick up the phone and put yourself and your product out there.

Contact Info:

• Website: crispandcrude.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drinkcrispandcrude/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drinkcrispandcrude
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/crispandcrude/
• Other: https://crispandcrude.faire.com https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09QQRF1G8

Image Credits
Hart & Highland