Just Call Me Shirley

0:00Mikayla Garcia:Welcome to the Emerging Brands podcast. Sharing the stories behind brands you'll want to shop next. I'm your host, Kelly Bennett. I am a New York City-based brand strategist for CPG Food and Beverage Brands. In each episode, I'll take you behind the scenes of founders that are building better-for-you products and bringing them to market. it. Also, I talk to brand builders, retailers, industry experts, and tastemakers who help bring those cool products to your shopping cart. You will hear stories of real-life founders, their launch strategies, and practical advice you could use to grow your own brand or simply discover what's next on shelf.

0:42Mikayla Garcia:And the best part is you could shop all the brands featured on the show. This podcast is brought to you by Glimpse. Glimpse is an AI powered deduction management tool that disputes and recovers invalid deductions, winning brands, thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours back to founders so that they can focus on what really matters most. If you're a brand selling and retail, go to tryglimpse.com backslash trial for 30 days free and let them know I sent you. Now let's dive into the new episode. Hi everyone. Welcome back to a new episode of Emerging Brands Podcast with Kelly Bennett. Today I have two founders who are building a very cool, modern, better for you take of a childhood favorite.

1:37Mikayla Garcia:I personally drank Shirley Tuples all the time growing up and I have Sydney and Michaela, the co-founders of Just Call Me Shirley on the show today. And I'm excited to talk all things building your brand, which is so cute. I love the branding. I love the vibe. So welcome both of you on the show today. Thank you so much, Kelly. We're excited to be here. You're so welcome. So to kick things off, Sydney, I'll start with you. What was the initial concept, white space you saw on the market that you had the idea for, say, a more adult, better for you version of a Shirley Temple?

2:22Sydney Attis:So Mikhail and I actually had a previous business together, a social media marketing agency, And essentially, we ran that for about three years and it was relatively successful. We had a bunch of clients. And during that time, we decided we wanted to focus on something that we were passionate about ourselves and growing a brand for ourselves, not necessarily continuing to help other brands grow. So we got to thinking on one of our regular work FaceTimes and we thought about something that we used to drink all the time when we were in college, which is where we met. and that was Shirley Temple's or Dirty Shirley's, as we like to call them, Shirley Temple cocktails.

3:03Sydney Attis:And after doing a little bit of research, we realized that there was a lot of white space in the market and there wasn't a real convenient grab and go Shirley Temple in a can or a Dirty Shirley in a can that we could, you know, bring to a pregame, bring to a housewarming party. And obviously that we weren't also seeing in bars or in the restaurant scene. And so we talked about it like very briefly and then jumped into branding sort of right away since that was like our bread and butter. But yeah, I think it was that we were wanting the product ourselves and wanting to be able to conveniently sip Shirley's whenever and wherever we wanted to.

3:44Sydney Attis:And knowing that there wasn't really something like that on the market that was accessible to us, especially, you know, we have the vodka version, we have the tequila version that was definitely not out there. And so we kind of just ran with that concept.

3:58Mikayla Garcia:So cool. So you have an NA and then a vodka and a tequila. Correct. Very cool. I believe I first saw your brand at Bubble Goods. They did a pop up at the Shopify headquarters in Soho. And I saw your brand and I was like, oh my gosh, this branding is so cute, so fun. And who doesn't love a Shirley Temple or a dirty Shirley Temple. I mean, it's so, like I said, nostalgic and just a really fun drink. Exactly.

4:30Sydney Attis:Yeah. Thank you. Our whole goal is to reintroduce a classic, you know, everybody grew up drinking Shirley Temples. Every time that we meet someone and we're talking about the business, that's the first thing they say. Oh, I love those growing up. When I used to go to restaurants, I thought it was like the fancy drink to drink through drinking alcohol. And so, yeah, the whole, the whole goal is to just reintroduce it as something that's more elevated, more convenient, um, and kind of just show that the beverage everyone grew up drinking matured with everyone.

5:02Mikayla Garcia:Yes. So Michaela, I know that you both were in business together for social media. What made you want to take the leap into CPG and also creating a ready to drink beverage, which is its own beast in itself. But what was that motivation for you to make this leap?

5:23Sydney Attis:Yeah, I think in the beginning, we clearly had no idea how hard it would be to be in this space. But the original idea actually, so we thought that it might be like an extension of our social media agency. And the logo for that agency was our two favorite cocktails at the time, which was a mule and a margarita. And so we thought maybe let's come out with canned mules and canned margaritas. But then we were like, okay, that's already a thing. What's something else that would kind of fill the space a little bit more, give us more traction and just like be a little bit more interesting. And so we decided, you know, what else do we drink?

6:04Sydney Attis:And that was a dirty Shirley. And at that time, it wasn't really a thing yet. But I think that we really hit the mark because now they're everywhere.

6:14Mikayla Garcia:um and so yeah very cool and when was that did you both made that leap in that transition

6:22Sydney Attis:uh about three years ago we started the um like once we had the idea it was okay what do we want it to be named sid's mom actually helped us with the name um and we like to say she doesn't have to be dirty just call me shirley so oftentimes too we'll say hey like can you grab me a shirley or things like that. So it kind of all just like floats. Then we went right into branding, tasting, everything, but by no means, like we had no idea what we were doing. We were meeting a bunch of people. We were trying to get a gauge on the steps that we were supposed to be taking. If someone didn't have the answer, we asked if they knew someone who did have the answer and we would be happy to meet with them.

7:05Sydney Attis:And that's kind of just how we got started. Once we had our first SKU, which was the vodka one, we thought that that was what we would launch with, but we quickly learned that in the beverage space to a distributor standpoint, they like a family of beverages. So rather than expanding our flavor profile, we decided to keep all the recipes the same, but then change the spirit or not having a spirit at all to one, also differentiate ourselves from our competitor. But two, the more flavors you add to a Shirley Temple, it's not a true Shirley Temple anymore. And we're focusing on the classic experience of it.

7:45Sydney Attis:So we decided to keep the recipes the same, but just swap out the spirits.

7:50Mikayla Garcia:That's a really interesting way to create a launch moment of it's the same recipe essentially, but changing out the spirits and an NA at the same time, which I feel like is pretty rare to see.

8:07Sydney Attis:Yeah, it definitely, we did start working with some beverage consultants. And so after we had the vodka one, we decided that honestly, that was our plan from the get go was down the line, we were going to create some with different spirits. But it adds even more versatility with the non-alcoholic because on the can, it says sip her solo or add your preferred spirit. because we also, when we launched on social, we had a few videos go viral and everyone was talking about how they had their Shirley Temples or their Dirty Shirley's with gin or rum or all of these things. So then the NA was also to touch the sober curious or sober people, but then also you could get the NA and add whatever spirit you want.

8:47Sydney Attis:That's not vodka or tequila.

8:48Mikayla Garcia:Almost like a mixer. Right, yeah. So cool. So Sydney, what was one of the first steps? I mean, you both have a great background knowing social media, marketing, branding. What a way to kick off stepping into CPG. But what were some of those early strategies to really get the buzz going, to get eyeballs? Michaela just said you had gone viral a few times. Like what was the strategy around how to grab people's attention to build the demand for the product?

9:20Sydney Attis:so I do think that being that it wasn't something that was super popular as McHale stated like now you know every brand like poppy ollie pop everyone's coming out with really temples um at the time like three years ago it wasn't something that um you know people were doing or that people had really heard of and so even just the first few videos we had posted to tiktok people were so excited because there is a serious you know shirley loving community online and in general there are people who you know are ride or die Shirley Temple so you know everyone was really excited in general and even just in the first few clips but we really wanted to you know show that we were doing something different and also that we were a part of the brand we had seen a lot of success with other CPG brands with you know the idea of growing in public and that has kind of been something that we've always wanted to do when it comes to social and marketing in general.

10:19Sydney Attis:So we tried to, you know, put ourselves into the branding, into the marketing as much as possible. So for example, with the vodka and tequila cans, I'm a vodka girly. So there's a blonde Shirley on that can and Michaela's a tequila girly. So there's a redheaded Shirley on that can. And so with our social, we were also sort of telling that story as much as we possibly could and kind of just sharing our different steps and different strides into getting into this very male dominant, you know, beverage industry, alcohol industry, especially alcohol. Yes, exactly. So that was all something that we were kind of, I wouldn't even say using as a strategy.

11:00Sydney Attis:It was more so just, you know, telling like our truth, like sharing the story of how we were building this and how we were going to continue building it. And, you know, Mikhail and I are also bi-coastal. I live in New York and Mikhail lives in Arizona. So that was also a portion of it was how are we going to grow this brand on social when we can't always film together? We can't always easily, you know, join forces when it comes to the branding or the content if we're not physically together. So that was also a part of the strategy was telling that part of our story. And yeah, I mean, I think people were just excited to see something new in the RTD space and even in like the mocktail space.

11:45Mikayla Garcia:Did you know that there was a Shirley Temple loving community on TikTok or was it like just a pleasant surprise?

11:53Sydney Attis:I feel like we somewhat knew. I wouldn't say we somewhat knew. I would say we somewhat what hoped and assumed like how much we love Shirley Temples. And, you know, we had asked friends and family, um, going into this, like, you know, what do you think of the idea? Is it crazy? Like that sort of thing. Um, and we got positive feedback, but I think we were overwhelmingly surprised. Um, it was one of our first videos had hit, um, like a million views and people were flooding the comments with how excited and how they couldn't wait. And, you know, when is this going to be available? Where is it going to be available?

12:29Sydney Attis:And that video also was something that was more about like the problem, like the, the, the hook of the video was essentially like two problems I have with my favorite or with my drink of choice. And so I think people were also surprised to hear that like somebody else's drink of choice at the bar is a dirty Shirley. And that, you know, bartenders don't know what it is or that it's just super inconvenient to order and that sort of thing. So I think that we were also providing like a solution to this community's problem. Oh, I'm obsessed with this.

13:01Mikayla Garcia:I love a niche community. I really, truly do. Okay, so Michaela, what was some of the first steps of then producing the product? I know that you said vodka, tequila, NA, and you also touched upon distribution, which I know is challenging to unlock for especially an alcohol brand. Can you give us some of that strategy of how you started to gain the attention of distributors and how the brand has been growing? Yeah.

13:35Sydney Attis:So actually just from, like I mentioned earlier, like meeting and talking with a bunch of people, we actually got connected with a manufacturer in St. Louis and kind of went down that rabbit hole, just trying to understand, you know, the cost of it, like how much we should actually plan to sell to distributors, how long is it going to take us to actually sell to distributors and things like that. But through them, then we also found some beverage consultants. And so when we work with them, I feel like the beverage space is truly, especially alcohol and distributors, it's all about who you know.

14:10Sydney Attis:And so our consultants worked in for Anheuser-Busch for 30 plus years. They had plenty of connections with distributors in the St. Louis area. And so we often get questions to like, why did you launch in St. Louis? And it's like, we just wanted to like get out there, like see what happens and just figure it out. I think that one, my big thing at least is like, don't wait for everything to be perfect because nothing's ever going to be perfect. So perfect world, we would have loved to launch in either one of the states that we live in, but But we actually built great relationships with our wholesalers in St.

14:45Sydney Attis:Louis and we go there often now. And it's kind of nice because it's like right in the middle for the both of us. Yeah, that's kind of convenient, actually. So launching in St.

14:54Mikayla Garcia:Louis, how have you been then scaling distribution?

14:59Sydney Attis:Yeah, so I mean, beyond that, it kind of just since we're already in the Midwest that it was continuing to use, you know, the connections that we were building there. And then it went to Illinois and now we're sold in Iowa. And we actually just hit shelves in January of last year. So 2025 is our first full year and the first two years spent, you know, building the brand and figuring out all the hurdles and how we want everything to go and whatnot. But yeah, so 2025 was our first year actually in store. And so three states in the first year was huge for us.

15:35Mikayla Garcia:That's incredible.

15:36Sydney Attis:people they hired a sales rep and who could be you know boots on the ground and going and selling for us too um so but it's definitely a lot you know we have a small team we don't have a huge budget necessarily so at that point in 2025 three felt like a good number for us to be able to manage and keep everyone happy right because we also don't want to let anyone down either we don't

15:57Mikayla Garcia:want to like bite off more than we can choose or open doors and then you don't have product right that's like such a nightmare for so many founders early on they're like oh my god I got all these doors open and they're like and now I have no product so I think what you're just touching upon is a really good reminder for emerging brands of if you are a lean team and you're bootstrapping and getting this off the ground yourself really pace yourself there's always more to do and always more to grow, but doing what you feel like you could fully execute on to have a great experience is tried and true building a business.

16:38Sydney Attis:Yeah, absolutely. I completely agree. I think also we did launch in California as well.

16:45Mikayla Garcia:I was going to ask about California because that is known as a bit more of a friendly state to open doors for alcohol. all?

16:54Sydney Attis:We launched in California in a small portion of California. So we're definitely not all over the state. I mean, the state is absolutely huge.

17:01Mikayla Garcia:It's huge.

17:01Sydney Attis:Yeah, absolutely. But it was exciting, at least in our first year of launching as well, that we were able to open some doors in California. And so, yeah, I mean, I think the first year was definitely a learning experience and we've gotten like kind of our bearings when it comes to how to approach distributors and how to like maintain those relationships. But like Michaela said, and, um, kind of like what you agreed to is, you know, almost like slow, but steady wins the race. It's kind of like, why put, you know, why put all of these feelers out everywhere and not be able to like healthfully maintain those relationships.

17:40Sydney Attis:And, um, you know, with the two of us, there's really not, we can't be everywhere at once. And so, uh, yeah.