With a background spanning fitness, marketing, and bartending, Sam Pence had a variety of routes he could take. But after finding his passion in cocktail making, he was inspired to start his venture into content creation. In this episode of The Spirit Guides, we chat with Sam Pence, better known as @servedbysammy, who rapidly gained a following of over half a million across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
How @servedbysammy Serves Up Fresh Batches of Cocktail Content
Sam shares the unexpected journey that led him from bartending in Boise, Idaho, to becoming a go-to source for online cocktail recipes for a growing online fanbase.
Sam reveals behind-the-scenes insights into his creative process and how he initially set out to make one video a day for a year to see how things panned out before seeing his follower count skyrocket. He explains that by listening to his audience, he learned that most people were looking for straightforward recipes like your standard margarita and batch cocktails rather than complex concoctions.
He reflects on how he collaborates with brands to create fun recipe videos that his audience can’t get enough of and how he decides which brands to say yes to. We also hear how he balances his day job with his growing online fanbase and what his family, friends, and colleagues think about his online persona.
In This Episode:
- What Sam learned about his audience and how that influences his content
- Behind-the-scenes insights into Sam’s creative process
- The first question he has for brands before agreeing to work with them
- Why Sam doesn’t just rely on social media marketing
- His first step into monetization with cocktail books
- How he decides what brands to work with
- Who he’d love to sip a cocktail with
- Plans for the future – cocktail books and collabs
Resources:
This podcast is brought to you by LoveScotch.com and produced by our friends at Content10x.com.
Served by Sammy: How a Fitness Studio Manager Became a Cocktail Recipe Superstar
- This Transcript has been Automatically Generated.
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[00:00:00] The most rewarding thing that ever happens to me is people make my cocktails and DM me pictures or tag me in them. And them and their family love them. Like that to me is the best part of the whole thing. How did the former general manager of a fitness studio become the go to source for home bartenders? Let's find out on the spot. Spirit guides, Sam Pence is served by Sammy on Instagram and Tik TOK. In addition to his fitness gig, he was a TV station sales rep. He was owner of a marketing agency. He was a bartender at a restaurant in Boise, Idaho.
And in just a couple of years has accumulated half a million followers of his easy to make accessible cocktail creations. What is next for Sam and how has his life changed since he started on his journey As a Spirits content creator, we'll find out on this episode of the Spirit Guides, the show [00:01:00] about the entrepreneurial journeys of the world's top booze influencers.
I am your host, Tequila J. Bear. Fans of the show are known as the Sippers, and all you Sippers know that every episode can be found in At the spiritguides. info. And the videos are always at the spiritguides. video. The show is sponsored and underwritten by our pals at LoveScotch, lovescotch. com. The premier online shop for scotches, obviously bourbons, tequilas.
Uh, whiskies, gins, rums, and everything else. They've got an extensive collection curated from all around the globe. They bring it right to your door. And one of the things I like best about Love Scotch is that shipping is always 19 bucks. So if you buy a bottle, it's 19 bucks. If you buy 10 bottles, also 19 bucks.
Uh, so stock up great deal offer doesn't apply to you know, hawaii alaska, uh, you know lichtenstein or whatever but in the continental us 19 always go to lovescotch. com. That is lovescotch. com And the show is produced by our pals at [00:02:00] content 10x They've got you covered for all your content production and editing needs content 10x.
com Com and now here is the spirit guide, Sam Pence, Sammy. Thanks for being here. Yeah. Thanks for having me. I'm excited. I, uh, really excited to, to talk to your sippers and get to know them a little bit and come be in your world for a while here. Uh, thanks so much. I appreciate you taking the time. Uh, my background is, is in digital marketing.
So the fact that you're in a digital agency, It's interesting. I started in 1993 in that industry when domain names were still free and owned a whole series of global digital marketing agencies. And, and you were telling me kind of how you got started was at sort of a digital marketing event. And that story is crazy to me.
I'd love for you to, to tell us about that. Yeah, it is actually a really interesting story. So, There's a, well, I say a local company. They're a worldwide company called ClickFunnels huge company. Yeah. Like I said, I sent you an email and I said, anybody listening to [00:03:00] this has either heard of them, use them or bought something off something off a website built on ClickFunnels.
They're a massive. Uh, massive company and anyways, they're located in Meridian, which is just right down the road from me here. And so, yeah, when I was in grad school at Boise State here, I bartend. Well, I got a job bartending. I'm still there a couple nights a week at a place called solid bar and grill.
And it's about 100 yards from the knitting factory, which is a big concert venue. They're Russell Brunson and the ClickFunnels guys hold a big annual conference at every year. So anyways, I'm, I'm in school. I'm managing this bar. I'm kind of new to ish to bartending and kind of learning what I'm doing.
And they have this conference. And for a week straight, I have all these online entrepreneurs. I mean, anywhere from people doing a thousand dollars a month to like multi multi millionaires. And it seems like the one thing they sort of had in common is they wanted a nice little place to come drink and hang out in between their, their meetings and conferences and all that.
So for about a [00:04:00] week straight, I'm making cocktails for all these entrepreneurs. My bar's just full of them and being sort of the, the marketing and, and just sort of interested guy I am, I'm probing them the whole time and they're talking to me. And as the week goes on, I've got more and more of them saying, you know, what you do is a skill you could sell, put this online, put it on Instagram.
You never know where it could go. And so after about four or five days of that, you know, I think one of the last guys I talked to comes and sits down and we're kind of on a first name basis at this point. He goes, Sam, you know, I'd been talking to you all week about, about how you can make a course, or you could put this online or it should be on Instagram.
And anyways, I just sat through a conference and listened to a guy telling us about how he made 2 million in revenue last year, uh, teaching people how to open a hot dog stand in their hometown. And then he basically goes, if he can make 2 million doing that, imagine what you could do, teach people how to make cocktails.
And so the next [00:05:00] week I brought my phone, I set it up in front of me in a little napkin caddy. And if you scroll all the way down to my page, you can see I'm at my bar. It's literally, there's no face. It's literally just kind of this area of me and I'm making a cocktail at my bar top. And obviously I adapted and I have, you know, my whole setup in here now, but that's really how my journey started.
So I feel like I should start a new podcast called hotdog guides, which just tells the entrepreneurial journey of, of hotdog cart impresarios. It is, it is so great. I love that you didn't even mean to do it, but like, well, if everybody says we should, we should. And it's interesting too, because, um, you didn't start bartending necessarily to make fancy cocktails, right?
You were just bartending. It seems like a thing to do. Yeah. Yeah, I got it. It's, I mean, it's a interesting little journey to how I got there. I I've obviously, like I said, or like you talked about with the marketing agency, I've always, I've always been a creative guy. I've always liked the design and I, I've done some kind of product design and package design and, and.
You know, that kind of stuff and [00:06:00] bartending really, I, I was working a restaurant job while I was in school and I met a guy who owned a bar and then I actually went to try to go work for him right when COVID hit. So COVID happened and, and everything, especially restaurants sort of shut down there for a while.
When I moved, I moved into with my parents for a couple months while I was waiting to start grad school. And then once I got, you know, once I started grad school, I went back to this guy and I was like, Hey, if the, if the bar is still open, I just was looking for a serving job. I just, you know, if I could pick up a few nights a week or whatever, and I got, I actually got really fortunate because I was there for a summer.
I made really good money and save saved up for it. I was on scholarship, so my school was paid for. So it was all just money. I was put into my bank account. And he asked me to be the GM and at the same time I sort of, sort of started imparting myself into the bar a little bit. It wasn't necessarily, didn't necessarily start off as like, Oh, wow, [00:07:00] I'm really interested in creating all these new cocktails and all that.
It was more, the bartenders are making really good money. They have, you know, really good shifts. Um, it just was, it just was more, you know, kind of necessity for me at the time than anything. And anyways, I got, I got really fortunate because there was a bartender working there at the time. And he sort of took me under her wing.
Her name's Brittany Pool. And she is like, to this day, like far and above the best and most creative bartender I've ever met in my entire life. She's like, Phenomenal. And she, she kind of has, she runs her own business and she does like custom cocktails. She's kind of done it all over the country, but you know, she sort of took me under her wing and we'd have a lot of conversations about like, you know, Oh, what?
Like I was just, was learning like liquors and liqueurs too. I'm like, what is this? Okay. What would go good with that? How do you go about making these cocktails? And it was something I sort of just dove into. Um, and as me and her work more together and kind of developed our friendship and relationship, we.
Sort of [00:08:00] just built off each other and it really kind of fed my interest in, you know, it really satisfies a lot of things for me. Like, you know, I'm, I'm there already and it's, it's kind of, I, I've got it right in front of me. And it's also a really cool and good outlet to be creative and come up with new things.
I've, I've always been big into cooking. So it's kind of a straight shoot off of like, Making something that looks appealing. And then you have this whole other element that a lot of other creative outlets don't have, which is like, it's got to look appealing, but also it's got to taste appealing too. So it's sort of just bringing more senses into that creative element.
And, uh, I think it just really resonated. You started making the videos pretty simply, as you said, just kind of setting the camera up on the bar, uh, and, and then had some success. How long were you making videos and social media before you realized, Oh, this, this maybe is a thing. I would say, so I made a commitment to myself when I, when I first started it and I said, I'm going to make a video a day for the next 365 [00:09:00] days, regardless of if I get one follower or a million followers.
And then I will have a good sample size to say like, okay, this is going to work or this isn't going to work, but I was, I was going to give it its time. And I think I made it like 300 days or something. But anyways, I would say it was about five months ish until things really started taking off. And I would say, I would say a lot of that five months is like, I spent a lot of time asking my follower, like when I first started it, I converted my personal Instagram account.
So I had like a thousand followers or something. And I started to get a couple here and there. And then I've just asked people, like, is what I'm making interesting to you? You want to see something else? And what I found was where I wanted to do like these blueberry basil and like these infused and all this stuff, like it.
What I really found out early was that people just want to know how to make a standard good margarita at home or people just want to know what's the difference between bourbon and [00:10:00] rye or like I think I had an idea of like kind of where people's understanding of cocktails and mixology was and it turns out that it's actually kind of more down here like they go to the bar and they know what tastes good and what they like but if I told the average person to just like make me a good margarita they'd be like Really have no idea how to do it.
So that's kind of when I really, it's really, there was three things that really started going for me. So once I started figuring out that, like, people need to know the basics first, like they may be interested in how to make more crazy cocktails that I'm interested in eventually, but they need to be educated first.
The second thing was I realized that like my, I need to put my face in these videos and I need to be talking and that's going to be. The only way to really build a brand around anything is, is to sort of have that face on. So you could scroll back and, and watch me struggle through the awkward phases of talking and talking into a camera because it Everybody, not just you.
I mean, it, yeah, it's not something that comes natural to me. It's not something that I just, you know, picked up on it. It's [00:11:00] very much like me fumbling over my words and, and kind of jittery on camera and it just steadily gets more and more, you know, comfortable. Um, so there was those things. And then the last thing that really took off for me was I, I sort of got a better understanding of my audience and realized that most people are making cocktails because they have friends and family coming over.
They want to entertain. They don't want to spend the whole night. You know, figuring out what's drink or what everybody wants and all that. And so then I started making batch cocktails, like the full bottle, build them ahead of time, keep them in your fridge for yourself or when your friends or family come over.
And so once I had those three things in place, uh, it really took off. So my girlfriend and I were on vacation. It was November and early December ish, uh, about five months after I started my page. And when we left on that vacation, I had two or 3000 followers. And by the time I got back, I think at 50, 000 and then after the next month [00:12:00] later at 150, 000.
So it really was five or six months of trying to figure out what's going to work, getting comfortable doing it, listening to my audience, and then a couple things go right for you. And it, I mean, it, it goes crazy overnight, basically. Like it really is insane once it starts happening. Now, how do you decide what cocktails to make and whether to do a batched cocktail or regular cocktail and some of it's probably, uh, brand sponsorships, et cetera, but, but how do you kind of think through the editorial approach?
Yeah, sure. I mean, it's very seasonal with me. So it's like, I really like to do, you know, summer flavors and summer type of cocktails. And like, it's, it's also very situational for me. So like this time of year, I'm doing a lot of like, these are good cocktails to bring to the beach. These are good cocktails for the pool.
These are good cocktails for hot days. These are a lot of like frozen and blended cocktails. Um, so that goes into it. I also, I read every comment, every DM I get, I don't always have time to respond to all of them, but I [00:13:00] have, you know, when, when people are requesting stuff, I make a big master list. And if it's something that sort of, it's sort of two things, right?
It's like, does this sound good? Can I make a good recipe about this? And then also is there more than one person that's going to be interested, right? Like it's not slow niche that, um, and so as long as it meets those criteria, I added on the list and, and go for it. I mean, my thing is, is, you know, everybody has different taste buds.
Everyone likes different liquors and different things or whatever. So I try to do, you know, I try to do a nice mixture. I try to do, I try to cover all my liquors. I try to cover the sweet cocktails and the not so sweet cocktails. And sometimes I start going off on the things that I personally like, but, um, yeah.
And then. With the basketball thing and, and, and brand partnerships, I mean, my first question, whenever a brand reaches out to me and says like, Hey, we want you to make this recipe or we want you to use our liquor or whatever. I mean, my first question is always like, are you open to me? Turning it into a batch [00:14:00] cocktail?
Like, cause more often than not, they have, especially the big liquor companies, they have like, we're making this cocktail and this is what we want you to make. And I was like, okay, but if I do cups instead of ounces, I can make a full bottle and That's what my followers really care about. And most are pretty opening open to doing that with me, but it's my first question every time.
Oh, that's fascinating. That that's really kind of how you, how you lean into it is, is batch first and individual cocktails. Uh, second, uh, you know, and you think most brands would be into it because now you're like, okay, you need a whole bottle to make this, which is certainly, yeah, from, from a depletion perspective, you think they'd be all for it.
Yeah. I mean, and, and brands really, I mean, they're interested. Brands are really, really good about listening to you because they understand that even with all the numbers, nobody's going to understand your audience as well as you do. So almost every brand I work with is very open to like, what do you think is going to resonate?
And let's find some middle ground here where we can. Get what we want and you can do what's going to perform best. And usually that ends up being some sort of [00:15:00] batch cocktail every now and then it doesn't work out that way, but it's, it's pretty rare. So now that you've been doing this for a little while and obviously you've had great success, uh, what, what does your girlfriend, your family, your friends think about all this?
You're like, wait a second, you were, you, you were just, uh, you know, running the fitness center and tendon bar. And now all of a sudden you are, you are Instagram celebrity. Like, how's that conversation? Let me, let me take each group of the, each group of people one at a time here. I will, okay, great. My girlfriend is still in awe of the whole thing.
It's like almost every single day we show up and there's a new package on the door. And, and she's almost kind of the one that reminds me how cool what I'm doing is because I'm looking at it all day, every day, and I'm so immersed in it. That she's, she's a lot of times the one that kind of is like, dude, you have 500, 000 people on Instagram combined following you were like, it's incredible how many she is.
She's kind of the one that humbles me and like, brings me back to like, realize how cool what I'm doing [00:16:00] is instead of just being so hyper focused. Um, my coworkers is a funny, is kind of a funny situation because I went from being their boss to being a guy that's only there a couple of days a week. And and really sort of like this guy that now it's starting to be sort of people come into the bar and they're like, Hey, are you served by Sammy?
You're like, Hey, I think I. Follow you on Instagram and they all get to see that. And it's kind of an interesting, funny little situation there. I mean, they'll sort of, they'll sort of poke fun at me and they'll come in and be like, Hey, are you that famous guy? And just mess with me a little bit. Um, so that's kind of a fun experience for them to sort of get to see a little bit of my world there.
Uh, I would say the funniest situation out of all of it is my, is my friend group, because they're all sort of like, what do you do for a living? Like, how do you make money? So they don't really understand how. You know how I'm, I'm making a, you know, a lot of money. There's also another sort of little faction of [00:17:00] my friends that I feel like it's sort of inspired.
I've got one of my, one of my best friends started a golf channel. He's a phenomenal golf coach. And so I have a lot of conversations with him about sort of like what I would do and trying to build that. Um, and then I have another one that's a real estate agent that sort of tried to do the same thing.
So I feel like it's had a really positive effect on some of them. I think the funniest, I think the funniest antidote about how it affects my friends is something that my followers probably don't know a whole lot about me, but in my friend group, I'm like by far the least drinking friend that any of us have.
Like I, I, I don't drink a lot. I drink sometimes and I'll have a beer at dinner and I do enjoy a good cocktail and especially like when I'm making good cocktails and stuff, but it's like, Even in college or, or whatever, I've never been like the friend that drinks by any means. And so it's funny to all of these, all of my friends that are like.
Of all the people that has liquor in my, [00:18:00] in my office and, and teaches people how to make all these cocktails, I'm like the last person they would have ever expected to be doing it. Um, and so that's always kind of a funny conversation where it's just like the cocktail influencer who doesn't even drink type of thing.
I hear you. It's pretty great. Hey sippers, hope you're loving this episode of the spirit guides If you are would you please follow the show on Spotify? Apple or ever you get your podcasts or subscribe to the show on YouTube and the most important thing you can do for the show And for me is to leave a review.
It makes a big difference. Thanks so much back to the show One of the things I think is interesting, maybe it's your background in marketing. Um, do you do a couple of things different than a lot of other spirit guides? Like you've got an email newsletter, you, you've got a recipe ebook that you put together to collect email addresses.
So it seems like that you're trying to build relationships with the audience, uh, outside of just Instagram and Tik TOK, which as a marketing strategist, myself, I think is spot on, uh, [00:19:00] love for you to talk about that a little bit. Yeah, sure. I mean, followers is, you know, followers is cool and all that stuff.
It's like. I've never been kind of the kind of person that really feeds off like attention, right? Like I like the only reason why having that many followers is cool to me is one because I mean, I have a chance to like, you know, possibly help a lot of people do something that they didn't know how to do before.
But I mean, realistically, you know, you do it because. At a certain point, you want it to be a business and you want it to be something that can support your family and, and it's the dream for everybody, right? Like do something that gives you freedom, do something that you enjoy and make a good enough living off of it that you don't have to do a ton of other things.
Right? So. I mean, yeah, it is for me. It's really important for me. It's all not worth it and it's all for nothing if I'm not going to figure out a way that I can turn it into something that supports, supports my family. So, um, the cocktail books were sort of my first dive [00:20:00] into like monetizing the whole thing really at all.
I mean, brand the majority of my incomes brand deals anyways, but I know that with the amount of followers I have, there's a lot more out there, not only in like money I could make, but there's a lot more value I can provide. Provide all, all my followers and stuff too. So yeah, the cocktail books were my first thing.
We're doing the newsletter now more of as a way to like reengage people. It kind of, what I found is kind of one of the hardest things about social media marketing is it's very low. It's a, it's a very small ask to get somebody to just click a follow up. Right. But getting those people to interact with you outside of Instagram, where they have to open another app or they have to go to a website or they have to click on an email or something that is harder to do, but it also strengthens your relationship with people a lot more.
So you go from somebody that just, they don't think about it all until maybe they get on Instagram your face pops on their feet. To like somebody that they may [00:21:00] think of and get on your website or think of and go look for a recipe or think of and maybe go buy your recipe book. And so you're really just becoming a bigger part of these people's lives.
And in order to do that, you have to provide a lot more value, right? So it's like the email newsletters are always a ton more recipes that will never make it to my Instagram and they're all free. Uh, it's a lot of like home bartending tips that stuff I don't really get a chance to talk about on my Instagram.
Um, and so it's just a lot more value for free and just an incentive for basically the trade off is like it's an incentive for me to just have a little more extra communication with my followers. and the goal being eventually to learn enough about them to know whether it's like, does it make sense to do more cocktail books?
Does it make sense to do our own bartending course? Uh, do we want to come out like a glassware line? Like my business partner and I have a whole kind of stairstep of things that we want to do eventually, but the newsletter gives us a chance to learn sort of like what [00:22:00] people are most interested in. So we know what to do first or what ideas.
You need to go in the garbage. What ideas, you know, are good ones. What, uh, what questions do you get most often? Uh, honestly, I get, I get questions in my DMs mostly about somebody has an event coming up and they have this many people that they need to make drinks or, and like, They have one star ingredient.
They, they really want to be used. So I like, for example, the most recent one was, uh, uh, somebody's having a wedding and I think it's their daughter and they want to make Bosco mules and they want to use strawberries. And so it's like, what's the best way to do this? Um, I get a lot of that kind of stuff.
Honestly, I get just trying to be cautious about helping any of my followers here. I get a lot of. I get a lot of like questions that I answer to people. We'll just go kind of read the captions type of thing. Like how many servings does this make? How many, whatever, you know. Kind of, kind of stuff [00:23:00] that's, I'd say that pulls up most of my, most of my inbox.
That is consistently frustrating. You know, you spend time writing out a pretty comprehensive caption that, that includes a lot of details that, that may or may not be included in the video itself. And then people ask that question either in the comments or the DMs, you're like, that's why there's a caption, right?
But, but a lot of people never look at the captions and, and both as just a sort of matter of course, and, and, or they're just, you know, don't take the time to do it. Yeah, and I, I mean, that's what I was going to say too, is like, it's really not their fault. Like they're not like Instagram and tick tock conditions people to, to, to scroll that read.
It's like, you see something, you comment on it. Like we're really not conditioned to, to sit there and take in what we're doing and do the research on it. And it's like, you know, it's the short term attention span thing that Instagram and tick tock is sort of created for everybody. So it's really not their fault.
I get a lot of, I get a lot of really good questions. I get a lot of, you know, I have this kind of liquor. What are kind of the best things I could do with it? You know, if [00:24:00] you have this ingredient, what's the best way to get the flavor, you know? Cause it's like, if you have a strawberry, for example, like the last one, it's like, there's five or six different ways you can impart that flavor of your cocktail.
And, and it would be, it would be wrong of me to assume that everybody knows exactly how to do all that stuff, because if they already knew how to do that, why would they follow? Right? So it's like, When I get good questions, I do my best to respond to them. Um, every now and then I just, especially when I have a video or two that's going viral at the same time, I'd sort of get drowned in my DMS and I, I lose some of them, but I do my best to risk to respond to everybody, you know, as best as I can.
So try to help as much as I can. You know, what's been the most rewarding aspect of this for you so far? Oh, the, the most rewarding thing that ever happens to me is, is people make my cocktails and then DM me pictures or tab me in them. And them and their family loved it. Like that to me [00:25:00] is the best part of the whole thing.
Like it's, it's still such a foreign concept to me to think that I'm like doing something and putting it online. And then there's all these people out there that are seeing that and, and changing something about their day to go to something that I did mind boggling to be like, it still hasn't set in that.
You know, even with however many followers I have or whatever, somebody sees a video of mine, goes to the grocery store, buy something they wanted to buy, make something they wouldn't have made, shares it with someone they wanted to share it with. And that's all because of me. It, I can't, it doesn't even click in my brain that that's what happens.
Are you starting to do things with brands or outside the spirits category? Um, it's, it's mostly spirits or like spirit adjacent, right? So it's like. It's mostly either liquor companies or like syrup companies or like soda or juice companies, or I did a thing with like smoothie King, but it's all something almost [00:26:00] everything that could be tied back to them.
The one exception is I do have, I hesitate to say sponsor now because they don't necessarily like pay me a fee, but, but this Rovac brand that I sort of promote all over my page now, um, that's another sort of funny story about how I, how I started working with them. And so, uh, I play, I play a lot of golf.
Like that's kind of my, that's kind of my main hobby outside of work. And anyways, I, I have a friend that got some grow back stuff off of podcasts and listen to, and I tried it on and it's just like, it is like the most high quality, like it's, it's just, it's just was like, perfect. I put it on. I was like, this feels amazing.
I'm going to reach out to them and I know they work with a lot of influencers and I'm just going to see if they. Would want to maybe like send me a couple shirts and I'll promote it or whatever. And so we ended up working something out where, uh, they, they let me shop. Basically they give me some pre close each month and I, and I sort of promote them on my page and do some brand awareness stuff, uh, So this is like the [00:27:00] furthest by far I've strayed away from truck liquor or like liquor adjacent brands.
That's great though. I mean, you got, you got to work close. Uh, that, that'll, that'll work. No, that's what I figured too. I mean, it's. Next you need to deal with like the, the electric company, right? The gas company, you know, the cable TV guys, like, you know, one of everybody, right? Cover, cover all the expenses.
That's the. That's the dream. Exactly. Well, that's what, but yeah, I mean, other than that, I mean, trying to think I'm doing, I've got a campaign coming up. That's like a, it's like a sober driving type of campaign with a company that, that pushes that. Um, and so, so I tried to do, I mean, honestly, When somebody offers me a brand deal, I spend some time researching it.
And if I am able to, I go out and try their product. If I haven't heard of them, most of them I've already heard of and know that I don't ever accept a brand deal that's, that's from a company that I don't like fully Sam. I'd like, if I wouldn't feel [00:28:00] comfortable saying, Jay, go buy this. I know you're going to like it.
I would never take money from them to do a brand deal. So, it's just one of those things where, you know, I have to filter through anybody that wants to work with me and make sure that I'm doing right by my followers. I'm not, I'm not recommending something that, you know, is going to affect my credibility.
Yeah, because ultimately the only thing you're selling is reputation. That's, that's all it is. Right? Um, you're an interesting guest here on the show because most of the people we've had on the spirit guides, uh, are, are sort of categorical, right? So they're, they're gin influencers or tequila influencers, or wine influencers or, or bourbon influencers.
You of course, being a cocktail creator are more, you know, pan uh, spirits across all the different categories. What's the next big project for you, you wanna tell people about? Uh, so I would say the next, I would say the next biggest thing we have is we're gonna be working on a full. Uh, cocktail recipe book.
So, so I did a, I did a spring thing last year. I did a summer thing last year and I brought on a new business partner who's incredible [00:29:00] and we're, we're going to be doing a full cocktail book, um, and it's going to be digital download or print, and then we're going to be working on turning that into a full batch cocktail kit, right?
So you can get the book, all the batch cocktail recipes. And then if you want, you can also get the kit that has the bottles, the funnel, you know, the measurement and, and it has all of that stuff. Uh, that's, that's the next big thing we're working on. And then I think after that, we're going to start working on that bartending course.
If you could sip a cocktail with anybody in the world, who would it be? I want to get a good answer here. So let me, let me think for a second. If I could sit down right now, sip a cocktail with anyone in the world. You know what I Xander softly just won the open championship and, uh, he's had a hell of a year.
I would, I'd sit down with Xander. He likes to smoke cigars. I probably I'm not a big cigar guy, but I'd smoke a cigar with [00:30:00] Xander and sit down and ask him about how this year changed his life. Talk to him a little bit about golf. I think that would be, I think that'd be pretty fun. I mean, there's always like Rory McIlroy is my favorite golfer.
I could always, you know, I could always sit down and, and he'd probably be very fun to have a drink with too. Um, Tiger Woods, any of those guys, but, but recency bias and, and just for the sake of talking to somebody that's hitting their prime and, uh, and just talking about what that's like and how that's going.
I think sitting down and smoking a cigar and drinking a cocktail with Xander would be I love that. Vander Schauffele. Great. Great answer. San Diego boy. Uh, having an unbelievable, uh, unbelievable year. Seemed like a good dude too, from what I can tell from afar. You need to get on that, that PGA tour celebrity bartender circuit.
I think that's the next step. I would love to. I'm trying, I've been sort of trying to figure out how to parlay my way into some of that stuff, like even outside the golf realm, like just parlay my way into like [00:31:00] making celebrity cocktails with them or, you know, with their liquors and, and getting them in some of my videos, like.
I spent a few videos really going hard after, after Snoop dog. I did a couple things like with his wine and cocktails. He'd been interested in and had all my followers tag him and stuff. And I, I did get a comment from him, but I never got to really like chat with them about it. But I, but I've been sort of trying to figure out how to work my way into that.
Category. Cause I would really love, I've got some really good ideas. And I would really love to start doing something like that, uh, where I can bring celebrities on, make a cocktail, like their favorite cocktail with them. Or if they have a liquor brand, we can use their liquor. And I've got some fun ideas for that.
I just need to figure out how to get there. I would love that. That's an incredible show. I hope you do it because I would definitely, I would definitely tune in. Yeah. I want to try to figure that out. Sippers. That is Sam Pence. Congratulations on all the success. Super happy for you. He is served by [00:32:00] Sammy.
You can find him on Instagram. You can find him on TikTok and beyond. Go to thespiritguides. info for links, show notes. Also, thespiritguides. video for the YouTube version of this conversation. Big thanks to our friends at lovescotch. com for their support. Don't forget, you can get their extraordinary curated collection sent right to your front door or your back door, if that's your deal.
19 shipping flat rate, as many bottles as you want. Thanks also to our pals at content10x. com for their production assistance. We love them. I am Tequila, Jay Baer, and Sippers, you can make mine a double. We'll see you next time right here on The Spirit Guides. Thanks, Jay.
