Lessons - How to Build Brands That People Would Tattoo on Their Body | Brett Berish - Sovereign Brands CEO (Sold Ace of Spades to Jay-Z)

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In this lessons episode, discover why building a lasting brand requires passion, patience, and a clear sense of purpose beyond the exit.

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Understand how a compelling story can create loyalty and global demand.

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Explore why chasing rapid growth can distract from building something real.

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And uncover why defining success on your own terms creates a healthier path to entrepreneurship.

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When you look at even like the brands that you have right now, what is the strategy?

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What's the framework behind...

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this is what we're going to put out into the world.

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This is the story behind it.

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This is who I want it to resonate with.

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It, it, so it, I take Bamboo.

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Yeah.

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So Bamboo we launched maybe five or six years ago.

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The goal was, uh, the goal wasn't is, uh, I want to create a new level of rum premium.

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I think rum is unappreciated.

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I, the, the,

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And when you look at it, again, it goes back to this idea, if you look at trends and if you ask anybody in our industry, they would say, stay away from rum.

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Well, they're probably going to say, go to tequila.

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Correct.

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Well, that's the hot thing.

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So rum is not hot and it's declining.

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And you've got these big giant brands like Captain Morgan and Bacardi.

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And I want to do something that's better than them.

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I think there's a better product out there for consumers.

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I think there's a product that tastes better for them, and it's more premium.

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And we hit on a taste that we love.

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And then we created a story around it and brought history in.

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So there's a story around bamboo.

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Back in the 16th century, merchants who traveled the West Indies, the Caribbean didn't like the taste of rum, which they called grog.

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And they would craft their own out of it, and they would call it bamboo.

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And we brought that back.

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So once we have all that, then it's birthed into the world.

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Yeah.

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But I don't know what we have yet.

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So I kind of let things breathe and you figure it out.

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So now fast forward, not even fast forward, Canada, where you're from, is our single biggest market in the world for bamboo.

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Single biggest outside the United States.

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And I jokingly say until this year, no one from our company has ever been there.

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That's so funny.

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No one.

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So there was a gap in the market.

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Well, to me, it's always, it's not a gap.

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To me, it's always with anything.

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If it's a great brand, people will find it.

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You know what else?

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So I used to drink a whole bunch of Captain Morgan.

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That was like my high school drink.

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That was my go-to drink.

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But...

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There was no story behind it.

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Nobody gave a shit.

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It was just like the cheap... Tequila wasn't really that big when I was in high school, university.

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So it was always Captain Morgan.

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But then the second you find something else, you move off of it because you don't really care.

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There's no affinity to that.

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There's no story behind it.

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But you were...

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I think in one of the videos I was watching, you were saying that...

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this is in like 30, at least when the video was pushed out, it was 35 countries and you can't even get it in more countries because you're always selling out.

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Actually today it's in 80 countries.

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Oh shit.

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Okay.

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Sorry.

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No, no, no, no.

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But, but it's, it's, but what's, what's fantastic about this story is, and again, it goes back to this idea that if you believe in something, it can happen.

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We're in, we're in like 80 countries today and we're,

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There's only one market in the world, and I didn't even know, that's a premium rum market, and that's France.

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We do well everywhere in the world.

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And all these markets are not premium rum markets, or they're not even rum markets, and we crush it.

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It's a great brand.

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If your brand is great, it'll get talked about.

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People will find it, they'll consume it.

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And I also believe in premium.

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It's like your Captain Morgan example.

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I think premium brands can exist everywhere in the world.

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Cheap brands, it's difficult.

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When you think about building out a brand,

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Do you care if there's going to be like a wave or a cultural shift towards that thing?

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Or do you not care?

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Do you just want to get a little, like, are you banking on rum becoming the next tequila?

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Or do you not care?

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Maybe you're just thinking, I just want to be a significant part of the existing market and we're going to be premium and we're going to be talked about.

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We're going to have loyalty from our customers and evangelists from our, you know what I'm saying?

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I think you can't,

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You can't see the future, but look at Patron.

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And I always used to laugh when people would say, and I get presentations, you know, I want to be the next Patron.

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You know, I just want 1% of the category.

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And Patron took 30 plus years.

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Yeah.

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So if it happens overnight, God bless, but that's not the way it's supposed to be.

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And I was that person who had that business plan that said, I'm going to get 1% or 5% of the industry and the multiples are 20 times and I'm going to sell it for X.

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That's where I make mistakes.

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That's where people make mistakes.

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If you have a healthy brand and you're growing, you're going to get there no matter what.

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And when you launch these, these are kind of like your kids to a degree.

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How do you think through...

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As an entrepreneur, because this is very subjective, people could launch a brand and they want to hold on to it forever and they never want to exit it, never want to sell it.

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How do you think through that?

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Do I want to keep it?

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Do I want to sell it?

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Do I want to what?

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Again, it goes back to this idea that when I was younger, when I started this, my mistake was thinking about the exit before you even start.

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And I think that to me is my mistake.

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And maybe it's a mistake for a lot of people out there.

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I don't think about that.

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If it happens, great, but I don't think, boy, now I'm ready to sell, or the brand is mature enough, or this is the time.

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I don't think like that.

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My goal is build the brand.

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You keep building it.

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Whatever happens will come, but focus on brand building.

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That's the key.

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Do you feel like when somebody's focusing on the exit first, they're trying to take shortcuts or they're not paying attention?

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It's not real.

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It's not, to me...

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I don't know.

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I'm that guy who I have to love and have passion for what I'm doing because the exit may not ever happen.

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So you've got to to me, it's about being in that moment of loving what you're doing because exit doesn't matter.

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That's not the goal.

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So, and the only reason I can say this, Scott, is, and I tell this story to people.

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So, I've lost everything in this world and I've gained everything by being in this business.

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So, there was a moment where I did have investors and they wanted to wind up the company.

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And I remember speaking to my mom.

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We were in a board meeting.

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That day, and I remember speaking to my mom, who was my hero, and I was telling her about it, and she says, Brad, I'll sell all my rings for you.

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And I said, no, I'll figure this out.

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But I remember telling her, I was standing on Worcester and Broom Street in Soho, outside, because I didn't want...

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I had a fake apartment, which was my office, and a couple of employees up there.

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I remember telling her, I love what I'm doing, and if I could just...

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survive, make enough money to live this way and keep doing what I'm doing, I'm happy.

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And I needed that moment because then it's not about the money.

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It's just, I'm happy.

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I got to love what I'm doing and let things come as they go.

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I love that.

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I wish more entrepreneurs would hear that message because I think that...

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This is a great exercise.

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I don't think people actually even realize how much money they actually need to survive.

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And the things that they think are out of their reach or they would only ever get if they were worth, pick a number.

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It could be $10, $50, $100 million, whatever it is, whatever your number is.

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The things that you actually want in your life are actually not that expensive.

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And I think that most people screw that.

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The trips, the work-life balance, that you want to have a private chef, you don't have to have a hundred million dollars to do that stuff.

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I remember I was speaking at a Citibank conference about disruptive brands, and I was the next person to go on.

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And the person who was up there before me had started a company called Casper, the bed company.

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Oh, the mattress.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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I guess at that time, Casper was one of those unicorns.

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And he was saying, it was crazy.

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He was saying how they're in, whatever, seven continents.

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They've got 2,000 or 10,000 employees.

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They're global business within a year.

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And they've raised X billions of dollars.

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And I remember going up afterwards and saying, listen,

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If you think I'm going to tell that story, I don't know how to do that.

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I don't know how to raise money like that.

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God bless them.

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I only know how to do what I've done.

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So there's different paths to get there, but I don't know how to do the other one.

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I only know how I've gotten to where I am.

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Yeah, but then the question is, are you happy?

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Sure.

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Oh, 100%.

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So that's really all that matters.

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100%.

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Are you happy with your business?

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Listen, when I say, are you happy?

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It's not saying that this has not been highly successful.

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To have the reach that you've had, you've sold brands before, and throughout it, yeah, there's been ups and downs, but ultimately, you knew your North Star.

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But it's true.

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And you're hitting on what I try to tell my team all the time.

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Success is relative.

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So this is already successful.

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This is doing more than I ever could imagine or anybody else could ever imagine.

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So I have to be happy with it.

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It's still small in relative terms compared to other things out there.

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But I got to be happy with it.

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This Deakin we just launched is in 60 countries.

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I love the plague mask on the... Oh, yeah.

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Yeah, that's good.

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But that's... Like, it's all relative to what your own expectations are.

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So I don't want to... Just like kids, you can't force them...

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I can't force my son to be better at soccer.

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You know, he is what he is.

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So you've got to be happy with how far they've come.

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Oh, that's how I look at it.