NEWSMAX

Yeah. So walk me through like a textbook customer. Where are they? Can you explain first, can you just explain the product? Like, I'm five. Yeah. Like, how big are we talking? Is this diesel generator size? Yeah. So we launched Access this week, which is our first consumer product. We're a little bit more in the middle market, going into customer bases that already exist. So maritime industry has these types of products. It's a reverse osmosis is at the core of our technology. What we do is we're able to do that manufacturing process at a much, much lower cost and in a much higher volume. So. So the product that you're seeing on your screen, access the facility that we got here in Torrance, we're able to produce more of these devices in a single month and currently exist. So we're kind of really taking that whole. Taking that whole process. Okay, but explain. But. But sorry. Sorry is you put a hose into salt water, and then it goes into the machine and out comes potable drinking water. Exactly. We always say we design for Terry, for the audience, I wanted to be clear. Push button hydrate. Yeah. How many people off.

DJ Calvinia. This is better than anything I've ever done. Should zooming out. Should every celebrity launch a product? Should every influencer have a product? What advice are you giving to other celebrities? Absolutely not. I would say that from a celebrity perspective, most celebrities should not create businesses that they want to own. The endorsement model is a good model for most celebrities. But for entertainers who truly have the understanding, the know how and the commitment to put in the work and prioritize said project over everything else outside of their day job, that's when it's compelling. And that was what was compelling in this partnership. Well, I don't, I don't even like the word, the word celebrity when it's used and attached to me because it's, it's, it's, it's not what we. Yes, it's underwhelming to what I really am. Right. And I get it. I get what that is. Yeah, I get the star, celebrity, et cetera. But as an entrepreneur, as a, as a real business mind, as a real, like, worker that's not afraid to do, build, etcetera, you're so much more right. Like the, the idea of a mogul or concept of that is just a person that wants so much and is willing to do so much. And in doing so much, it means I'm not afraid to partner or align with people who have done so. In this space, slapping somebody's name on something and just thinking that it sells, it doesn't work. It doesn't work. You're in rare air of opportunity. And the celebrities that have had amazing success in the space of business, brand portfolio, they do the work right. Like just throwing out names. You look at a Kim Kardashian, I don't think Kim gets the true credit that she deserves at all times of actually doing the work. People don't understand. Kim shows up. She doesn't just have the idea. She shows up. Like the people know that they're gonna see her on a daily. The office full of employees know that Kim walked through the halls. They know that her office is there and she's in meeting. She does the work. So I myself am a do the work individual. And I think when you are and you are committed, there is no world of loss. You're always going to win because you're doing what everyone else refused to do. Because they don't have the patience, they don't have the strength and mental ability to stay true to something through the ups and downs and see it all the way through. It's not easy It's a very, very hard space to operate in. And, yes, we're in amazing era right now, and I love it. Will it stay this way? Who knows? But no matter what, if you're committed to it, whether it's up, down, whatever, you're true to the process. And you know that ultimately, sun is always going to be at the end of the tunnel. Yeah. That's where we are. That was the most compelling part of this partnership, having a partner who understands, is willing to be on the phone every day, the good days and the bad. Yeah. But ultimately understanding the business behind the brand. Yeah. So, Kevin, how are you thinking about maybe not work life balance, but work, work balance? You have multiple roles, multiple projects. If you're going into.

Good. And today the pitch now becomes like, you know, these AI models are so well trained on React and JavaScript, TypeScript, et cetera that like they're really, really good at this for this. But the other really important thing there is like Expo isn't just a way to build mobile apps with JavaScript. Like we kind of see saw that attempted in the past and it just didn't work out that well because people would use, you know, the HTML5 as a content delivery mechanism and it just wouldn't feel right. It just wouldn't be good enough. Phonegap was one of the popular ones at the. Yeah, stuff like that. What's different here is just that expose really a way to make apps with TypeScript and React Native and stuff like that, but also let you drop down really easily to Swift and Kotlin and stuff like that. So wherever you need to, you can go make that polish. Sort of in the same way that a developer making server side software might write a code base in a mix of Python and Rust or something like that. You can move in between them seamlessly and that's a huge deal and means that the people are making apps with Expo are making sort of like stuff that's, you know, top tier, top of the App Store charts, that kind of stuff because you can hit that quality bar that people expect on mobile these days. What's your view on how like maybe I won't ask you that, but I would say like what do you think Apple, how do you think Apple should be approaching the explosion of new software applications like they are? I. There's been so much frustration with them. They've been under pressure because of, you know, billing and payment policies, but they certainly specifically just looking at like if you just, if you 10x or 100x or maybe someday a thousandx, the amount of software that is a real challenge for them. And so they're not going to get everything perfect. But I'm curious like what advice you give them? 1, 1 place where they think they've done a nice job is on, on the Macintosh where or Mac I guess they call it these days, where if you want to get software on the Mac, you can go to the App Store on the Mac or you can get it from.

Should zooming out? Should every celebrity launch a product? Should every influencer have a product? What advice are you giving to other celebrities? Absolutely not. I would say that from a celebrity perspective, most celebrities should not create businesses that they want to own. The endorsement model is a good model for most celebrities. But for entertainers who truly have the understanding, the know how and the commitment to put in the work and prioritize said project over everything else outside of their day job, that's when it's compelling. And that was what was compelling in this partnership. Well, I don't, I don't even like the word, the word celebrity when it's used and attached to me because it's, it's, it's, it's not what. Yes, it's underwhelming to what I really am, right? And I get it. I get what that is. I get the star, celebrity, et cetera. That's not why we partner with each other. But as an entrepreneur, as a real business mind, as a real worker that's not afraid to do, build, et cetera, you're so much more right. The idea of a mogul or concept of that is just a person that wants so much and is willing to do so much. And in doing so much, it means I'm not afraid to partner or align with people who have done so. In this space, slapping somebody's name on something and just thinking that itself, it doesn't work. It doesn't work. You're in rare air of opportunity. And the celebrities that have had amazing success in the space of business, brand portfolio, they do the work right? Like just throwing out names. You look at a Kim Kardashian, I don't think Kim gets the true credit that she deserves at all times of actually doing the work. People don't understand. Kim shows up. She doesn't just have the idea, she shows up. Like the people know that they're going to see her on a daily. The office full of employees know that Kim walked through the halls. They know that her office is there and she's in meetings, she's on call, she does the work. So I myself am a do the work individual. And I think when you are and you are committed, there is no world of loss. You're always going to win because you're doing what everyone else refuses to do. They don't have the patience, they don't have the strength and mental ability to stay true to something through the ups and downs and see it all the way through. It's not easy. It's a very, very hard space to operate in. And yes, I. We're in amazing air right now, and I love it. Will it stay this way? Who knows? But no matter what, if you're committed to it, whether it's up, down, whatever, you're true to the process. And you know that ultimately, sun is always going to be at the end of the tunnel. Yeah. That's where we are. That was the most compelling part of this partnership is having a partner who understands, who's willing to be on the phone every day, the good days and the bad, but ultimately understanding the business behind the brand. Yeah. So, Kevin, how are you thinking about maybe not work, life balance, but work?

From there, like, oh, like if you could just deliver a low cost product, people want to use it. Yeah. So walk me through like a textbook customer. Where are they? Can you explain first? Can you just explain the product? Like I'm five. Yeah. Like how big are we talking? Is this diesel generator size? Yeah. So we launched Access this week, which is our first consumer product. We're a little bit more in the middle market going into customer bases that already exist. So maritime industry has these types of products. It's a reverse osmosis is at the core of our technology. What we do is we're able to do that manufacturing process at a much, much lower cost and then a much higher volume. So, so the product that you're seeing on your screen, Access, the facility that we got here in Torrance, we're able to produce more of these devices in a single month and currently exist. So we're kind of really taking that whole, taking that whole process. Okay, but explain. But, but sorry, sorry is you put a hose into salt water and then it goes into the machine and out comes potable drinking water. Exactly. We always say we design for Terry, for the audience, I wanted to be clear. Push button hydrate. Yeah. How many people off.

Lower flow rate and lower brine concentrate as well. What about battery? Is this bat, is it battery powered? You plug it in. What's battery life like? Could you eventually create some type of solar array so that it's entirely self sustaining? 100 yeah. So it runs on AC DC. It's got an integrated battery. If you're cleaning ocean water running for about an hour using pressure fresh water anywhere from about probably closer to three hours. So it all depends on the source water that you're cleaning. So ocean water has a ton of salts inside of it so it's really difficult to remove those at higher pressure fresh water is much, much easier. You're essentially just killing bacteria and viruses. So yeah you can run it on AC dc. We do integrate with solar as well. So you know if you have a decent sized solar panel you can run this thing as long as you have sunlight. Amazing. Talk about.

Topics that people are discussing in particular, Obviously, the conflict in the Middle east is big, but then AI is big. What's actually driving the conversation today? You know, every conversation winds up coming back to AI. Really? And, yeah. And I think whether that's, you know, Bessant. Actually, I did an interesting conversation with Besant on stage where he really downplayed the conflict with Anthropic said they have they have kind of like some minor technical issue with the Department of War. The treasury is working with them to make sure, you know, the banks don't go down. Sure. But just, you know, I think there's.

Same place, and you can swap one out. You can be driving a BMW one day, go to the dealer, turn it in for a Mercedes, and you're going to have a pretty. Yeah. Or the other. The other example that I was using with the team earlier was this idea of, like, if you're. If you're a delivery company, like FedEx and you have a lot of, like, Ford. Ford vans, and then. And then Hyundai comes to you and says, hey, you've been spending like, $50,000 per Ford van, but, like, would you consider a Hyundai van? We'll sell it to you for $35,000. It's just as good. And it could be, like, mildly inconvenient for the company because, like, they're kind of used to using. Using Ford. They maybe have, like, an internal team that does some maintenance. But when you start looking at that cost differential, it can start to get pretty interesting to say, like, hey, we should. Why don't we try out some Hyundais? Let's like, move over some of our routes to Hyundais and, like, see how that goes. They try it and they're like, hey, there's actually. This works pretty well. Maybe, maybe there's, like, you know, higher maintenance, but it actually, like, maths out. Yeah. And like, we're going to actually start adding more Hyundais to our overall fleet. Yep. And so Jensen's point on the podcast is that, like, we're not. We're not selling cars. Right. This is not like something like you, you can just swap out. Yeah. And where cash was obviously pushing back. And for a lot of companies, swapping out Nvidia for TPU would be very difficult. Some workloads that Jensen Focus focuses on, he says, we're not a tensor unit where an accelerator. There's a whole bunch of scientific computing workloads that work particularly well with Nvidia. The, the problem that. And of course, was just saying, like, yeah, well, it's perfectly fine to have, like, a specialized chip for specialized workflows because the, the biggest companies in the world, the biggest buyers here, have like, a single type of workload that they're trying to do, and that's why they're using your competitors. Yeah. And so because the AI.

The phone every day. The good days and the bad. Yeah. But ultimately understanding the business behind the brand. Yeah. So Kevin, how are you thinking about maybe not work life balance, but work, work balance. You have multiple roles, multiple projects. If you're going into a movie, are you telling everyone, okay, I need to, you know, I need space, I need focus for a couple weeks or are you trying to have, okay, I'll do something in the morning and then something in the evening. What, what is your workflow like on a day to day basis? Gonna be pouring shots for the whole cast and the director. This is an example of why things lead to. Why things need to fit your lifestyle. Yeah, right. If things fit your lifestyle and fit your day to day, you'll find that you're never forcing and truly fighting for time. Sure, right. Everything can be done correctly. I am a, I am a product of structure and operation. I have amazing team around me and within that, if I'm doing a movie, I'm doing a movie. But while doing a movie, well, how do I make my partners a part of said movie? Is there spaces for me to amplify partnerships or relationships? If I'm on tour, can I position or present certain relationships or partnerships that I have to be visible while I'm doing the things that I'm doing? Hey man, I'm golfing. What partners can I align or place in within what I'm doing on a regular? Hey, I got vacation time coming up. But when I do go on this vacation time, man, it's relaxing. But I have certain relationships and partnerships that service the idea of relaxation and what it looks like and what it should feel like. As a partner, you're always thinking of how to service those that are aligned with you. And when you have a mind like that and you operate like that, it becomes a systematic thing. It's never a fight. So yes, I am 365. I am, you know, a sun up to sundown person with work. But because of my system, nobody gets left out. Wife, kids, partners, business, comedy, film, you know, company. Let's just say within company, employee relationship. Like all of these things are embedded into an idea of my day to day and what I have to do. So it's never left behind, it's never skipped or overlooked. It's implemented and rightfully so. Yeah, everyone's been tracking a million different changes in media and entertainment over the last decade. Throughout your career, what has been the biggest crucible moment, what has been the biggest trend change that you felt, okay, I need to adapt my strategy I think everyone in my community needs to adapt our strategy. How have you processed the evolution?

Better than anything I've ever done. Should zooming out. Should every celebrity launch a product? Should every influencer have a product? What advice are you giving to other celebrities? Absolutely not. I would say that from a celebrity perspective, most celebrities should not create businesses that they want to own. The endorsement model is a good model for most celebrities. But for entertainers who truly have the understanding, the know how and the commitment to put in the work and prioritize said project over everything else outside of their day job, that's when it's compelling. And that was what was compelling in this partnership. Well, I don't, I don't even like the word, the word celebrity when it's used and attached to me because it's, it's, it's, it's not what we. Yes, it's underwhelming to what I really am. Right? And I get it. I get what that is. I get the star celebrity, et cetera. It's not why we partner with each other. But as an entrepreneur, as a real business mind, as a real worker that's not afraid to do, build, et cetera, you're so much more right. The idea of a mogul or concept of that is just a person that wants so much and is willing to do so much. And in doing so much, it means I'm not afraid to partner or align with people who have done so. In this space, slapping somebody's name on something and just thinking that it sells, it doesn't work. It doesn't work. You're in rare air of opportunity. And the celebrities that have had amazing success in the space of business, brand portfolio, they do the work right. Like just throwing out names. You look at a Kim Kardashian. I don't think Kim gets the true credit that she deserves at all times of actually doing the work. People don't understand. Kim shows up. She doesn't just have the idea. She shows up like the people know that they're going to see her on a daily. The office full of employees know that Kim walked through the halls. They know that her office is there and she's in meetings, she's on call, she does the work. So I myself am a do the work individual. And I think when you are and you are committed to, there is no world of loss. You're always going to win because you're doing what everyone else refused to do. Because they don't have the patience, they don't have the strength and mental ability to stay true to something through the ups and downs and see it all the way through. It's not easy. It's a very, very hard space to operate in. And, yes, we're in amazing era right now, and I love it. Will it stay this way? Who knows? But no matter what, if you're committed to it, whether it's up, down, whatever, you're true to the process. And you know that ultimately, sun is always going to be at the end of the tunnel. That's where we are. That was the most compelling part of this partnership. Having a partner who understands, who's willing to be on the phone every day, the good days and the bad, but ultimately understanding the business behind the brand. Yeah. So.

In. Thank you guys for. For sending. We will. We will enjoy it this weekend. Yeah, next time. The next time will be in the studio. I want. And I want to get all the effects in real time, man. Yeah, I need to. Your energy is unbelievable, man. You guys deserve. Scoot over. Screwed over a little bit there so you can. Yeah, yeah. There we go. That's what I'm talking about. Thank you, guys. Thank you, guys, man. Great waiting to see you guys. Congrats. We'll talk to you soon. Have a good day.

Getting it in stores and then starting to push the promotion funnel versus just telling everyone about it and they're like, yeah, I'm excited, but where do I get it? Oh, it's only available in a few stores. Well, A is patience and B, it's actually realizing the real work that goes with that. Like, yes, I have a large platform and a huge social media following, but that doesn't mean that as soon as I post something and say do it, that people respond. Yeah, you have to like be on the ground. You have to do the real work. So within distribution, you gotta go and you gotta go talk and meet and shake the hands and build the relationships. Right. The work that you're looking for is a response of what people feel, the reason for your implementation in this space. Like when the partners meet you and they say, oh, he's not here for fiction, he's here for real. This is not fake. Yeah, we will support and we will back and we will suggest this to the new customer when they walk in. Try Kevin Hart's tequila. It's really good because Kevin came in here and Kevin sat in front of us. And Kevin made us understand not only why we should taste it, but why we should back and support it. It's no different from a new artist. If a new artist is really hungry. You're showing up at every radio station, at every DJ outlet and you got your, you got your CD or you got a hard drive, because I want you to hear my sound, listen to it and you're going to get way more nos than you are going to get. Yeses. But the breakthrough, yes, when it goes on the radio waves, makes the work so much worth it. In this space, the work of getting every restaurant, every brand, every chain, every wine and spirits, liquor store, independent chain, et cetera. Like, yeah, I went. So I expect to see the results of my work. I expect to see people responding because I know what I did to get it into a space of conversation. And I think for me, that energy is an energy that I'm not going to let go of. And my partners have responded to it tremendously. That's why we sit where we sit today. Where is the business today? How big is it? What are sales? What can you tell us about the shape of the business, the business today? Gran Cormino is now the fastest growing celebrity tequila brand in the world. There we go. We grew last year by 100%. Year on year, we've done $200 million. 200 million hit that gong. John. Congratulations. Turn into a DJ. Calvinia this is better than anything I've ever done. Zooming out. Should every celebrity like.

What can you tell us about the shape of the business? The business today Gran Coramino is now the fastest growing celebrity tequila brand in the world. There we go. We grew last year by 100%. Year on year we've done $200 million in recent. Hit that gong, John. Congratulations. Turn into a dj Calvinia. This is better than anything I've ever. Should.

It falls into a space where everybody jumps on and the expectations are of norm, and they don't understand that you got to energize the will. You gotta. You gotta go in with some new energy. And what you'll find those people will respond to that, I think. Our energy. Yeah. I don't know what that was, but yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah, Yeah. You need. You guys. We'll. We'll get you guys set up with a soundboard for some of your other meetings for when you're on Zoom. That just did something to me. Chicken espresso. In real time, for sure. Okay. So, yeah, Teresa, on strategy, you have a massive platform, but.

Uk it is a complicated space, but there's a big opportunity here. I, I would say, man, you know, you, you have to have access. So Juan Domingo Beckman Jr. Of course, the family, what they've done in this space, you know, you're talking about generations on generations of success and, and growth in the business, right? Like from a distribution, you know, outlet, opportunity. There isn't a bigger option. So I think for us, it was getting Juan to understand the real want, getting him to understand the passion behind my want and that this is not a celebrity play. This is not a check, grab and run. This is a want to build something that can literally be attached to my family name and give me an opportunity to build generational success, wealth, visibility, whatever you want to call it. But I want, I want that. How do I get that? You have to go to the people that have it. So I think that was our biggest, our biggest one. And as you talk about separating yourself, well, when you have that machine and that machine understands your real energy and those two things connect well, you're already so much different from anything else in the space, right? Like the space is crowded because people believe that, oh, let's get a famous person and put the famous person's name on the bottle and just put the bottle on the shelf and it's yourself. That's not true at all. Like, why did you make it? What's the story behind it? What do you care about? Do you really drink this? And if so, why? And how did you develop the liquid? What is your plan for a year, 2, 3, 4, 5? People really love a story, and if you have an authentic one, I find that people respond to it. So the years of operation and configuration as to what we want to do were the best parts of the business. Because after the liquid came out, well, it wasn't a shock to us of why we were happy and why we loved it. We did the work. We did the work. Yeah. Question from the chat. Walk us through the actual product development.

Partner and the responsibilities of owning a brand and building one of these businesses for the long term. But you, I think you understood early on what my, my wants and not wants work like, you know, the, the biggest not say the most important rule that I have. I'm never, I'm never slapping my name on anything. Right. If I can't embrace it or I can't do it on a daily and really have a authentic response to it and engage with it and as if I engage with everything in my life, then I don't want to do it. So all of my partnerships across the board, whether it's ownership plays, equity plays or ambassador like roles, I truly am invented and invested into the thing. So with the wine and spirit space, having my own tequila, it was necessary because I said, look, I only drink tequila, I'm drinking everyone else's product. So developing my own version of a product that I can then drink at the same level that I drink my own when I am in a space of comfort or celebration could be dope. But let's put a story behind it like let's make it, let's make it different and let's exist in some rare air. What can be defining or redefining in this space that basically represents me in the best way. And he was very diligent in answering those questions and helping me navigate on that road. Right. So the idea of hard work and hard work tasting different and, and the idea of a celebration being attached to Grand Coramino because we believe that life should not only be celebrated, but what you do on a daily should be celebrated. So hard work in whatever, whatever way, however it fits to you, how do you choose to celebrate it? My job is to give you a choice. Gran co Amino is that. You mentioned that the space was crowded. How did you think about finding differentiation on the product side, the distribution side?

Yeah. So Kevin, how are you thinking about maybe not work life balance, but work, work balance. You have multiple roles, multiple projects. If you're going into a movie, are you telling everyone, okay, I need to, you know, I need space, I need focus for a couple weeks or are you trying to have, okay, I'll do something in the morning and then something in the evening. What is your workflow like on a day to day basis? Going to be pouring shots for the whole cast and the director. This is an example of why things lead to. Why things need to fit your lifestyle. Yeah, right. If things fit your lifestyle and fit your day to day, you'll find that you're never forcing and truly fighting for time. Sure, right. Everything can be done correctly. I am a, I am a product of structure and operation. I have amazing team around me and within that, if I'm doing a movie, I'm doing a movie. But while doing a movie, well, how do I make my partners a part of sad movie? Is there spaces for me to amplify partnerships or relationships? If I'm on tour, can I position or present certain relationships or partnerships that I have to be visible while I'm doing the things that I'm doing? Hey man, I'm golfing. What partners can I align or place in within what I'm doing on a regular? Hey, I got vacation time coming up. But when I do go on this vacation time, man, it's relaxing. But I have certain relationships and partnerships that service the idea of relaxation and what it looks like and what it should feel like. As a partner, you are always thinking of how to service those that are aligned with you. And when you have a mind like that and you operate like that, it becomes a systematic thing. It's never a fight. So yes, I am365, I am, you know, a sun up to sundown person with work. But because of my system, nobody gets left out. Wife, kids, partners, business, comedy, film, you know, company, let's just say within company, employee, relationship. Like all of these things are embedded into an idea of my day to day and what I have to do. So it's never left behind, it's never skipped or overlooked, it's implemented.

Our biggest one. And, and as you talk about separating yourself, well, when you have that machine and that machine understands your real energy and those two things connect well, you're already so much different from anything else in the space. Right? Like the space is crowded because people believe that, oh, let's get a famous person and put the famous person name on the bottom and just put the bottle on the shelf and it's yourself. That's not true at all. Like, why did you make it? What's the story behind it? What do you care about? Do you really drink this? And if so, why? And how? The liquid, what is your plan for a year? 2, 3, 4, 5? Like, you people really love a story. And if you have an authentic one, I find that people respond to it. So the years of operation and configuration as to what we want to do were the best parts of the business. Because after the liquid came out, well, it wasn't a shock to us of why we were happy and why we loved it. We did the work. Yeah, we did the work. Yeah. Question from the chat, walk us through the actual product development process. I'm assuming trips to Mexico, a lot of tastings, iteration, but what did that look like? So there's a lot more that goes into this business than meets the eye for the consumers. Right? So to your point earlier, the liquor business, the alcohol business, it's a very complex industry to navigate based on the three tier system dating back to the years of Prohibition. So there's certain criteria and ways you can navigate and ultimately to build success. Our perspective on it within consumer products and goods, and particularly within alcohol, where we saw the biggest opportunity over the last five years is large corporations typically do not disrupt, they innovate. They innovate well with liquids, they innovate well with package, but generally they're not disruptors. And that's not saying the alcohol industry alone, that's every large industry. So it takes independent entrepreneurial companies to be real disruptors. Like you guys are speaking to the guy from Grooms the other day. You guys are speaking to, you know, John from Happy dad. These are independent companies that are bucking the trend. And our model has been let's be that independent spirited business. Let's make those bold, calculated decisions in real time and be really fast and agile in terms of how we operate in the market day to day. But let's partner with the best large corporate in the business being proximal and Juan Domingo Beckman from the Beckley Corporation, and let's bring some real scale to the table. So that, that. That. That muscularity of the proximal. Proximal machine and the agility of us in the market every day, leading on what consumers see, that's been. It's been a very successful partnership for us, and it's helped us block that trend. And I also also think, just to add to that, right, like, you know, you're not dealing with rocket scientists, right? Literally, like, people that are successful and people that have won, they've done it for a reason. So you're not trying to recreate the wheel or redesign the wheel. You're trying to better service the wheel. So sometimes the will, it falls into a space where everybody jumps on and the expectations are of norm, and they don't understand that. You got to energize the will. You got to. You got to go in with some new energy. And what you'll find. Most people will respond to that, I think our energy. Yeah, I don't know what that was. Yeah, you need. You guys. We'll. We'll get you guys set up with a soundboard for some of your other meetings for when you're on Zoom. Something to me checking espresso in real time, for sure. Okay. So, yeah, Theresa, strategy. You have a massive platform, but you have to get the product to a place where people can buy it when you're promoting it. What was the thought between distribution, getting it in stores, and then starting to push the promotion funnel versus just telling everyone about it and they're like, yeah, I'm excited, but where do I get it? Oh, it's only available in a few stores. Well, A, it's patience, and B, it's actually realizing the real work that goes with that. Like, yes, I have a large platform and a huge social media following, but that doesn't mean that as soon as I post something and say, do it, that people respond. Yeah, you have to.

So Kevin, how are you thinking about maybe not work life balance, but work, work balance. You have multiple roles, multiple projects. If you're going into a movie, are you telling everyone, okay, I need to, you know, I need space, I need focus for a couple weeks or are you trying to have, okay, I'll do something in the morning and then something in the evening. What is your workflow like on a day to day basis? Gonna be pouring shots for the whole cast and the director. This is an example of lead to why things need to fit your lifestyle. Yeah, right. If things fit your lifestyle and fit your day to day, you'll find that you're never forcing and truly fighting for time. Sure, right. Everything can be done correctly. I am a, I am a product of structure and operation. I have amazing team around me. And within that, if I'm doing a movie, I'm doing a movie. But while doing a movie, well, how do I make my partners a part of sad movie? Is there spaces for me to amplify partnerships or relationships? If I'm on tour, can I position or present certain relationships or partnerships that I have to be visible while I'm doing the things that I'm doing? Hey man, I'm golfing. What partners can I align or place in within what I'm doing on a regular? Hey, I got vacation time coming up. But when I do go on this vacation time, man, it's relaxing. But I have certain relationships and partnerships that service the idea of relaxation and what it looks like and what it should feel like. As a partner, you are always thinking of how to service those that are aligned with you. And when you have a mind like that and you operate like that, it becomes a systematic thing. It's never a fight. So, yes, I am 365. I am, you know, a sun up to sundown person with work, but because of my system, nobody gets left out. Wife, kids, partners, business, comedy, film, you know, company. Let's just say within company, employee, relationship, like all of these things are embedded into an idea of my day to day and what I have to do. So it's never left behind, it's never skipped or overlooked. It's implemented and rightfully so. Yeah.

We sit today. Where is the business today? How big is it? What are sales? What can you tell us about the shape of the business, the business today? Gran Corino is now the fastest growing celebrity tequila brand in the world. There we go. We grew last year by 100%. Year on year we've done $200 million in recent hit that gong. John, congratulations. Turn into a DJ Cal video. This is better than anything. I'. Should zooming out. Should every celebrity launch a product? Should every influencer have a product? What advice are you giving to other celebrities? Absolutely not. I would say that from a celebrity perspective, most celebrities should not create businesses that they want to own. The endorsement model is a good model for most celebrities. But for entertainers who truly have the understanding, the know how and the commitment to put in the work and prioritize said project over everything else outside of their day job, that's when it's compelling and that's what was compelling in this partnership. Well, I don't, I don't even like the word, the word celebrity when it's used and attached to me because it's, it's, it's, it's not what. Yes, it's, it's underwhelming to what I really am, right? And I get it. I get what that is. I get the star, celebrity, et cetera. That's not why we partner with each other. But as an entrepreneur, as a real business mind, as a real worker that's not afraid to do, build, et cetera, you're so much more right. The idea of a mogul or concept of that is just a person that wants so much and is willing to do so much. And in doing so much, it means I'm not afraid to, to partner or align with people who have done so in this space, slapping somebody's name on something and just thinking that it's, it doesn't work. It doesn't work. You're in rare air of opportunity. And the celebrities that have had amazing success in the space of business brand portfolio, they do the work right? Like just throwing out names. You look at a Kim Kardashian, I don't think Kim gets the true credit that she deserves at all times of actually doing the work. People don't understand. Kim shows up. She doesn't just have the idea. She shows up like the people know that they're going to see her on a daily. The office full of employees know that Kim walked through the halls. They know that her office is there and she's in meetings, she's on call she does the work. So I myself am a do the work individual. And I think when you are and you are committed, there is no world of loss. You're always going to win because you're doing what everyone else refuses to do, because they don't have the patience, they don't have the strength and mental ability to stay true to something through the ups and downs and see it all the way through. It's not easy. It's a very, very hard space to operate in. And yes, we're in amazing era right now, and I love it. But will it stay this way? Who knows? But no matter what, if you're committed to it, whether it's up, down, whatever, you're true to the process. And you know that ultimately sun is always going to be at the end of the tunnel. Yeah. That's where we are. So that was the most compelling part of this partnership, is having a partner who understands, is willing to be on the phone every day, the good days and the bad. Yeah. But ultimately understanding the business behind the brand. Yeah. So, Kevin, how are you thinking about maybe not work life balance, but work work balance? You have multiple roles, multiple.

And B, it's actually realizing the real work that goes with that. Like, yes, I have a large platform and a huge social media following, but that doesn't mean that as soon as I post something and say, do it, that people respond. Yeah, you have to like be on the ground. You have to do the real work. So within distribution, you gotta go and you gotta go talk and meet and shake the hands and build the relationships. Right. The work that you're looking for is a response of what people feel, the reason for your implementation in this space. Like when the partners meet you and they say, oh, he's not here for fiction, he's here for real. This is not fake. Yeah, we will support and we will back and we will suggest this to the new customer when they walk in. Try Kevin Hart's tequila. It's really good because Kevin came in here and Kevin sat in front of us. And Kevin made us understand not only why we should taste it, but why we should back and support it. It's no different from a new artist. If a new artist is really hungry. You're showing up at every radio station, at every DJ outlet and you got your, you got your CD or you got a hard drive because I want you to hear my sound, listen to it, and you're going to get way more no's that you are going to get yeses. But the breakthrough yes when it goes on the radio waves makes the work so much worth it in this space. The work of getting every restaurant, every brand, every chain, every wine and spirits, liquor store, independent chain, et cetera. Like, yeah, I rent. So I expect to see the results of my work. I expect to see people responding because I know what I did to get it into a space of conversation. And I think for me, that energy is an energy that I'm not going to let go of. And my partners have responded to it tremendously. That's why we sit where we sit today.

And also think just to add to that, Right. Like, you know, you're not dealing with rocket scientists, right? Literally, like, people that are successful and people that have won, they've done it for a reason. So you're not trying to recreate the wheel or redesign the wheel. You're trying to better service the wheel. So sometimes the will, it falls into a space where everybody jumps on and the expectations are of norm and they don't understand. Then you got to energize the will. You got to. You got to go in with some new energy. And what you'll find, most people will respond to that, I think. Our energy. Yeah. I don't know what that was, but yeah, Okay, I remember. But yeah. Yeah, you need. You guys. We'll. We'll get you guys set up with a sound for something or other meetings for when you're on Zoom. That just did something to me. I took an espresso in real time, for sure. Okay. So, yeah, Teresa on strategy.

Talk about separating yourself. But when you have that machine and that machine understands your real energy and those two things connect well, you're already so much different from anything else in the space, right? Like the space is crowded because people believe that, oh, let's get a famous person and put the famous person name on the bottom and just put the bottle on the shelf and it's yourself. That's not true at all. Like, why did you make it? What's the story behind it? What do you care about? Do you really drink this? And if so, why? And how did you develop the liquid? What is your plan for a year, 2, 3, 4 or 5? Like, people really love a story and if you have an authentic one, I find that people respond to it. So the years of operation and configuration as to what we want to do were the best parts of the business. Because after the liquid came out, well, it wasn't a shock to us of why we were happy and why we loved it. We did the work. We did the work, we've done. Yeah. Question from the chat. Walk us through the actual product development process. Process, I'm assuming trips to Mexico, a lot of tastings, iteration, but what did that look like? So there's a lot more that goes into this business than meets the eye for the consumers. Right? So to your point earlier, the liquor business, the alcohol business, it's a very complex industry to navigate based on the three tier system dating back to the years of Prohibition. So there's certain criteria and ways you can navigate and ultimately to build success. Our perspective on it within consumer products and goods, and particularly within alcohol, where we saw the biggest opportunity over the last five years is large corporations typically do not disrupt, they innovate. They innovate well with liquids, they innovate well with package, but generally they're not disruptors. And that's not saying the alcohol industry along with every large industry. So it takes independent entrepreneurial companies to be real disruptors. Like you guys are speaking to the guy from Grooms the other day, you guys are speaking to, you know, John from Happy, that these are independent companies that are bucking the trend. And our model has been let's be that independent spirited business. Let's make those bold, calculated decisions in real time and be really fast and agile in terms of how we operate in the market day to day. But let's partner with the best large corporate in the business being proximal and Juan Domingo Beckman from the Beckley Corporation, and let's bring some real scale to the table so that that that. That muscularity of the proximal. Proximal machine and the agility of us in the market every day, leading on what consumers see, that's been. It's been a very successful partnership for us, and it's helped us bulk that trend. And also, I also think, just to add to that, right, like, you know, you're not dealing with rocket scientists, right? Literally, like, people that are successful and people that have won, they've done it for a reason. So you're not trying to recreate the wheel or redesign the wheel. You're trying to better service the will. So sometimes the will, it falls into a space where everybody jumps on and the expectations are of norm, and they don't understand that. You got to energize the wheel. You got it. You got to go in with some new energy. And what you'll find, those people will respond to that. I think our energy. Yeah. I don't know what that was. Yeah, you need. You guys. We'll get you guys set up with a soundboard for some of your other meetings when you're on Zoom. That just did something to me. Checking espresso in real time, for sure. Okay, so, yeah, Teresa, on strategy, you have a massive platform, but you have to get the product to a place where people can buy it when you're promoting it. What was the thought between distribution, getting it in stores, and then starting to push the promotion funnel versus just telling everyone about it and they're like, yeah, I'm excited, but where do I get it? Oh, it's only available in a few stores. Well, A, it's patience, and B, it's actually realizing the real work that goes with that. Like, yes, I have a large platform and a huge social media following, but that doesn't mean that as soon as I post something and say, do it, that people respond. You have to.

That's been. It's been a very successful partnership for us, and it's helped us bulk that trend. And I also. I also think just to add to that, Right. Like, you know, you're not dealing with rocket scientists, right? Literally, like, people that are successful and people that have won, they've done it for a reason. So you're not trying to recreate the Wheel or redesign the Wheel. You're trying to better service the Wheel. So sometimes the Wheel, it falls into a space where everybody jumps on, and the expectations are of norm, and they don't understand that. You got to energize the will. You got to. You got to go in with some new energy, and what you'll find, those people will respond to that, I think. Our energy. Yeah. I don't know what that was. Yeah, you need. You guys. We'll. We'll get you guys set up with a soundboard for some of your other meetings for when you're on Zoom. That just did something to me, for sure. Okay. So, yeah, Teresa, I was trying to.

I think you understood early on what my wants and not wants work the biggest. I'd say the most important rule that I have, I'm never slapping my name on anything. Right. If I can't embrace it or I can't do it on a daily and really have a authentic response to it and engage with it as if I engage with everything in my life, then I don't want to do it. So all of my partnerships are across the board. Whether it's ownership plays, equity plays, or ambassador like roles, I truly am invested into the thing. So with the wine and spirit space, having my own tequila, it was necessary because I said, look, I only drink tequila, I'm drinking everyone else's product. So developing my own version of a product that I can then drink at the same level that I drink my own. When I am in a space of comfort or celebration could be dope. But let's put a story behind it, like, let's make it, let's make it different and let's exist in some rare air. What can be defining or redefining in this space that basically represents me in the best way. And he was very diligent in answering those questions and helping me navigate on that road. Right. So the idea of hard work and hard work tasting different and. And the idea of a celebration being attached to gran coramino because we believe that life should not only be celebrated, but what you do on a daily should be celebrated. So hard work in whatever, whatever way, however it fits to you, how do you choose to celebrate it? My job is to give you a choice. Grandmino is that.

But we'll see. YouTube, according to the Verge, now lets you turn off shorts. It is getting community noted. What does the community note say? This feature is a new setting for YouTube. Time management does not hide the Shorts tab in the app, nor does it hide shorts from appearing in recommendations when set to off. The only change is that a dismissible warning screen will appear when the Shorts tab is selected. Oh, interesting. Yeah, I've tried, I've tried. I land on YouTube on my phone, it immediately recommends a bunch of shorts. You can hit the three dots. Yeah. And say like, show me less shorts. And that feature does not work at all. And I don't watch shorts on and I don't watch shorts on YouTube. The shorts and the feed have been a lot. I wonder if they're seeing. Yeah, I mean they must just be seeing data that shows that the shorts are more retentive or keep people on there. Well, there are. When you're using YouTube as a video search engine, there are so many, there are so many types of searches where it can be vastly preferable to watch a 60 second video on something. So an example is like if you're doing research on cars. Yep. And you want to like quickly understand how the seating. I'm. I need to get a new like family car. Right. So I've been looking up different cars, trying to get a sense of like how spacious the cabin is, what, what the seating arrangement is like. And so I'd rather just click into a short and just get a quick, quick 60 second overview and then bounce. I don't need to see like a 15 minute review of the entire car. But yeah, it's that YouTube shorts creator, Forest Auto Reviews sort of pioneered the perfect 60 second car review where he talks really, really fast and says like inside you get Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and you know, the heater, heated leather massaging seats and vinyl on the dash and carbon fiber here. And he sort of runs through the whole car in 60 seconds. Shows you how fast it takes off if it's a f. Opens the door, shows you all the features and it's sort of like a 20 minute Doug Demuro video cut down to 60 seconds, which of course is doing very well. Doug's response has been to create one minute cut downs of his content. And so you can enjoy that as a short as well if you want. But if you do want to turn off shorts on the YouTube feed, the way to do it is to uninstall the app, use the mobile version and then get a plug in that there's an extension for Safari. I think that will just go and remove the actual shorts as they pop up. But it's a hassle and it's maybe slower than using the app. So hopefully this, this feature becomes more real in the future since it does seem like some things that people are demanding but always tricky to ask a platform to to give you an option that would in in theory increase churn. Very, very tricky. Well, we have.

You won't be getting access to it at least yet. Well, Adi gave Opus 4.7 the tiny man Bench which is a very funny one where you ask the model, I am a tiny man. When my son was born, they handed me to him. And Opus 417. That's a nice little riddle. The answer is a bar of soap. No, wait, let me think about it. Tiny man handed to him when his son was born. This sounds like it's pointing to a cigar. The tradition of handing out cigars when a baby is born. And a cigar can be thought as a little man shaped object. That is very, very odd. I mean this is like the new how many Rs in Strawberry where all the models seem to have weird results. For this we of course have Shrimp fried Rice Bench which no one has really solved, even just Humor Bench and tell us a novel joke has been increasingly difficult for these companies. Yeah, I think, I think going to have to wait and see on Opus 4. 7 How, what, what, what the reactions are. I will be keep an eye on Dan Shipper who is always does great analysis immediately after launch. Yeah, yeah. I mean I feel like generally benchmarks are like almost completely meaningless at this point. Like there's so many like umatours models where they can like really. I don't know, I don't know if you know if they're like actually benchmaxing. Yeah. But like you just talk to the model for a while and you say okay, this is a good model or this is not a good model. Like it's very hard, it's very hard to get like a, you know, quantifiable signal at this point. Yeah, I mean increasingly, I mean it feels like all of these models will be sort of like tested through like enterprise like rollouts and you'll just do a demo project, swap in something, test this model, test that model. Just see. Okay. Well our goal was to deliver value and we had some KPI. Like reduce cost, increase sales. Like were we successful when we implemented this model, rolled it out to our team, used it for a couple weeks, did we see a tangible result or not? That's at the end of the day all that matters for businesses. So I could imagine that that's where all of this goes. Well, OpenAI announced Codex for.

K over at Business Insider. She says Scoop Cursor plans to use Xai's infrastructure to train its Composer 2.5 code. Where's the golden scoop, Tyler? According to people familiar with the matter, Cursor will. You will use tens of thousands of XAI's GPUs, they said. And we got a scoop for Grace K. This one's going to Grace Grace. Congratulations. You win the golden scoop. The golden scoop. Congratulations. Now, interesting to see something we talked about probably midway through last year. Xi's shown a tremendous ability to on the kind of infrastructure data center side, spinning up a huge amount of compute very, very quickly ahead of any timeline that any reasonable party would have probably expected. And demand hasn't exactly followed in the way that they would have liked. And so opening that up to a like Cursor who has all the demand and what they really need is their own is their own model. Yeah. It was also interesting because I don't know if it was thrown out as a potential project for other companies. I feel like MSL mentioned it at some point, maybe OpenAI, but there was some talk of like, okay, if you're marshaling all this compute and you wind up with too much like, what do you do then? And the idea of becoming a cloud provider if you have a data center and everything. Yeah, that's been the big, the big question of like, you know, with, with everything that SpaceX is doing and now Terrafab, they're going to be creating all of this capacity. Yep. But what is the, what is the. Like, where's the demand for that capacity going to come from? Right. And so you could imagine a world in the future where if SpaceX has a bunch of space data centers, they open up that capacity to a bunch of companies other than just Elon Inc. Yeah, businesses. So Grace says the setup effectively turns XI into a kind of cloud provider. By renting some of its GPUs to other country companies X I could start generating revenue from its massive infrastructure while still developing its own AI models. The arrangement could help the company offset the costs of building and operating data centers, while also deepening ties with a startup that has access to valuable coding data. And so there could be some sort of trade deal going on. Ed Ludlow at Bloomberg has a report from the Tariff abroad. Musk's team is actively requesting price quotes and delivery timelines for a wide range of chip making equipment, photomasks, substrates etchers, deposition cleaning, testing tools. According to sources, Elon Musk lieutenants have reached out to chip industry suppliers for his envisioned tariff AB project. Remember, he was pictured with Lip Bhutan from Intel, I think last week. Early steps in an audacious and likely arduous attempt to break into the production of cutting edge chips. That is a very, very tall order. But maybe there's never been a better time to break into the, into the cutting edge chip market given that the. You, you don't need to, I mean, you sort of need to reinvent Cuda, but it's becoming, it's becoming easier potentially. That is the story. Well, there are two big releases.