Thriving Alcohol-Free with Mocktail Mom

EP 132 | A Pregnant Woman Walks Into A Bar: Meet Marina Castillo

• Deb, Mocktail Mom • Season 2 • Episode 132

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In this episode of Thriving Alcohol Free, host Deb Podlogar welcomes Marina Castillo, a passionate advocate for non-alcoholic beverages and the co-founder of Modern Mocktail. 

They discuss Marina's journey from the circus to sobriety, the rise of kava bars, and the importance of creating a supportive community for those in recovery. Marina shares her insights on the benefits of kava, the challenges of navigating the industry, and offers encouragement for aspiring entrepreneurs in the non-alcoholic space. Together, they create a special mocktail recipe that emphasizes the joy of savoring delicious drinks without alcohol.


Kava Haven, code MOCKTAILMOM for a discount. 


Marina Castillo is a passionate advocate for non-alcoholic beverages.
The mocktail they created is called 'The Bride'.
Marina's journey to sobriety began in 2019.
Kava bars are gaining popularity as non-alcoholic spaces.
The Global Kava Coalition aims to educate about kava.
Kava is a special pepper plant with calming effects.
It's essential to consume the right part of the kava plant.
Noble kava is the preferred type for consumption.


Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Thriving Alcohol Free
02:12 Creating a Special Mocktail
06:22 Marina's Journey to Sobriety
12:10 The Rise of Kava Bars
16:13 Navigating the Kava Industry
19:14 Understanding Kava and Its Benefits
32:22 Encouragement for New Entrepreneurs



Follow Marina on her Instagram page. 


Send me a message about the show!

Click HERE to get on the list for The Mocktail Summit.

Click HERE to download the FREE 12 Days of Menopause Mocktails

You are loved. Big Time Cheers!

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome up friends, and welcome to the Thriving Alcohol-Free Podcast. I'm your host, Deb, otherwise known as Mocktail Mom, a retired wine drinker that finally got sick and tired of spinning on life's broken record called Detox to Retox. Let this podcast be an encouragement to you if alcohol is maybe a form of self-care for you, or you find yourself dragging through the day waiting to pour another glass. I am excited to share with you the fun of discovering new things to drink when you aren't drinking and the joy of waking up each day without a hangover. It is an honor to serve as your sober fun guide. So sit back and relax or keep doing whatever it is you're doing. This show is produced for you with love from the great state of Kentucky. Thanks so much for being here and big time cheers. Hey friends, welcome back to Thriving Alcohol Free. I'm Dev. So happy that you're here today. I'm super, super excited because Marina Castillo is here to join me. If you're not following her on Instagram, please do so. Her account is a wealth of information, and I cannot wait to get to know. Cannot wait to get to know you today and have you share your story with our audience. But follow her on Instagram, MockTales with Marina on Instagram. So make sure you're following her. I'll put the link down in the show notes. We're actually going to make a recipe. We're going to make a drink together, but let me tell everybody a little bit about your background. Is that okay if I read a little bit? Tell them a little bit of your bio. That'd be all right. We won't go all the way back. We'll just go back a little bit. Marina came from the circus. I can't wait to hear about this, to like the non-alcoholic circus. You came from one circus to another. In 2021, um, she met her now husband, Tyler, and they managed a kava bar together for a few years. And that's where they learned that they not only love working together and work well together, but they combined their experiences and ended up making to make a bigger impact than they ever could have alone. They're actually expecting a baby. I don't know if I'm allowed to make that announcement. Yes. Oh, okay, okay. I was like, oh no, okay. So she's they're they're expecting their first baby. Very exciting. And they've they've been inspired to build a business together. Marina Mars is the name of your business officially.

SPEAKER_01:

The official LLC goes under the Marina Mars umbrella. But yes, the modern mocktail is our main consultation under that umbrella where we love to help the non-alic space.

SPEAKER_00:

I love it. I love what you're doing. Yes, because there's, I mean, there's like all this, the business is booming. So we need, we need guidance, you know? We need consultants. We need people to help us maximize profit, maximize profits and processes and and grow in a sustainable way. So, because so much is happening. So let's make a drink together. This is your recipe, right? From your wedding. It's called the bride, the smocktail.

SPEAKER_01:

This one was super special. It actually began in a in the bar that my husband and I worked, where, you know, we just had a lot of ingredients that we loved playing with. And but there was one pregnant woman who had walked into the bar and she wanted something that made her feel good, but she couldn't have any of the functional ingredients that she normally enjoyed. So we came up with this for her and it helped her with her nausea. It also made her feel fresh and exciting, especially in Phoenix where it gets really hot. And if you're pregnant, that's just terrible. So that kind of evolved into this drink the bride for the wedding because we knew that no matter what, everybody could enjoy it. But also you can add any tincture or tea or any other functional thing to it, and it's a bang in good time.

SPEAKER_00:

Love it. Okay, I feel like it's like a joke. Like when a pregnant woman walks into a bar, you know? Like that would be a good name for this drink, too, right? That would be the perfect name for this drink. Okay, I love it. I love it. So now you are the pregnant woman walking into a bar. So this would be the drink that you would be ordering or making for yourself. Okay, do you want to walk me through it? I have beautiful glass with some ice, and I'll have you walk me through it. I'm not even gonna shake it up. We're just gonna use my stainless steel straw and give it a little stir stir and go from there.

SPEAKER_01:

So, since we're doing this at home, we're gonna use the folk method, which means you don't need to measure anything. You just have a good time. You just do this to your taste buds. So the two main things are the limeade and the ginger beer. So you get to choose your adventure on how you enjoy this drink. I'm a very ginger girl and again, I nausea. So I I want mostly ginger beer. But also the limeade is really nice because it has the electrolytes and it cuts that ginger beer so that you can, if you want to have like a longer sipping experience, more limeade. So, you know, if you're just like, look, I'm just doing a standard cup, I'd just do 50-50.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. All right. I put my limeade in and I have my Q mixers, my light ginger beer. Q mixers. So good. I love them. Yeah, it's delicious. Yeah, I don't know why, I don't know why they seem better than everything else that they always do to me. Okay, I'm putting in my ginger beer. I'm a ginger beer girl. I didn't really know about ginger beer until I became alcohol free. I wasn't really a ginger beer person before that. But okay, and I like the the folk method. I call it measuring with your heart, but I like the folk method. I like that, yeah. Just to taste. Just to taste it. Okay, and then I have lavender all the bitter. Or you could use like a lavender extract, did you say? Also, you can use it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, any anything that I like the extract base here because number one, I don't want to add extra milliliters or like extra ounces to my drink. I just want little drops. Um, but also lavender is intense, so you don't usually need too much unless you're a lavender person. Then go ahead and put to your heart's desire. Um, but that way you have a little bit more control. Um, and one other reason I do like it is if you are actually kind of stressed out and you're looking to use lavender more in that like functional way. That's why I like lavender tinctures because then you can get that dosage as quickly or throughout your sipping experience as you want. Love it.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, I'm gonna drink drink this. Do you have a little drink over there? Do you have anything? You have water or something that you're sipping on? No toast to you. What are you having?

SPEAKER_01:

I'm drinking a strawberry lemonade with three ice cubes. For whatever reason, this is exactly what cures my nausea at this moment. So this is where we're at.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, big time cheers, Marina, and to the beautiful baby that you are growing. I'm so excited for you and Tyler. Congratulations. Yeah, cheers to you. Thank you. This is delicious. Yum. Winner. Just easy. Talk about easy. That's my favorite kind of that's my favorite kind of drink. Easy and delicious. Make it to your heart's content. Easy, easy. And if you are a bar owner, very great cost. Okay. That's good to know. When a pregnant woman walks into a bar, ladies and gentlemen, the bride, we just made it together. I hope you guys enjoy this drink. I am certainly gonna enjoy this. This is delicious.

SPEAKER_01:

That's perfect.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for this recipe. Thank you. So fun. Okay, I want to hear your story. How you got into this, how you guys became the modern cocktail.

SPEAKER_01:

What a story. So I'm gonna go ahead and start when I was in college. I worked at a tea bar. This is in Madison, Wisconsin, uh, the drunkest state in the entire United States, according to a couple different studies that were done. And when I was working at this tea bar though, I was not sober. I just happened to like I just love serving drinks. I didn't want to work in an alcohol bar. And at the time, I was already starting to perform. So I was performing pole and burlesque and other circus arts. Really? Yeah. And it was a super fun time. It was a super fun time, but I really didn't know, like that was my college job. I didn't take the sobriety aspect of it seriously. However, I learned so much because we sold hundreds of different loose leaf teas. So we turned, and they weren't called mocktails, right? Because it was this is 2012 to 2016.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh yeah, within a virgin, a virgin margarita would be what it would be called, probably, right? Something like that.

SPEAKER_01:

There would be some teas we would make that would just be like wild and wacky. Like back then, no one knew what lapseong was, but we were like daring each other's to take these shots of it straight when it was just like nasty and all these things, but like all of that being said, like there were there was a wealth of knowledge, but I didn't feel like that was my end place because I loved performing. So Vegas ended up calling. I ended up moving, moving out to Vegas. I ended up working on a lot of different productions. I toured the country with my performance, but I also produced shows around the country as well. And the interesting part of this means that I was going through like, let's see, I was taking about 20 plus flights per year. So I was visiting, I mean, hundreds of bars. I have been in, um, I've also performed in wild like art galleries or um just like kind of pop-up events. So I've seen a lot of different ways that different people like to make money and like to set up events in this entire nightlife world. And at the time, I was like, oh, I'm an artist, I'm doing these things. I'm behind these barriers. I'm on a stage, or if I don't have to perform, or if like I don't have to talk to people, I'd go to the dressing room, or I'd just go right to the bar and I'd get preferential treatment. So I never had the experience in the 20s of like, like a lot of people would have like scarier bar stories. Security was always watching my back everywhere I went. So I went deep down the rabbit hole because it took a lot harder, a lot longer to find rock bottom in that way because I was kind of insulated. But at some point, I when I was in Vegas, this is wild. Okay, moving from Wisconsin to Vegas. Vegas was the most inspiring place to get sober ever, not because of rock bottom, but because I had started to perform with people who were also a part of Cirque du Soleil and I was producing shows with them. So I started going to their cast parties and all these events, and then I started to realize wow, they're all smoking weed and they're all just like eating charcuterie boards. Like, this is not Wisconsin. Like, this is not you can't like getting a cocktail in this environment would actually make you look weak. It would, it would not be good for your career. I mean, these are athletes that are at the the peak of their career. And so that inspired me. And I was like, for vanity reasons, I'm gonna quit drinking. So in 2019, I quit drinking and I quit smoking cigarettes at the same time. And actually, I was more motivated to quit smoking cigarettes. And I was just like, well, I heard it's easy to just quit drinking at the same time, so let's just try. It'll make me a better dancer. And the cigarettes were the hard part. That was the part that like drove my brain mad. I'm sure if I had quit both at different times, I'm sure the alcohol would have driven me more mad as well. But because I was so focused on the quitting the cigarettes, I barely noticed the lack of alcohol being around. And again, this was the end of 2019, though. So beginning of 2020, you know, I had a big tour booked in March. Like I was supposed to get on the plane the day the shut, the day the world shut down. Yeah, I was gonna do this whole big San Francisco thing. And then I was gonna be, I had this other fun thing with the burlesque Hall of Fame that I was working on. It was, it was, I was at the peak of my career. And instead of freaking out in that moment, I started an online coaching business because during that whole time I was also teaching dance and I was teaching performers how to make money in the industry. So, you know, when like shit, it's shiz hits the fan, yeah, and you're like, you either fight, flight, freeze, or you like you really learn who you are. Turns out I didn't know, but I was like, okay, well, I can't have everyone else losing their minds around me, so I'm just gonna figure it out. So I came up with my first online program, helped dancers, and that was super successful, and it really helped me see and stay sober. And after that, I was like, you know what? I can't be in Vegas anymore. I mean, I wasn't even everything just felt so dead end there. And I was like, I didn't expect to retire at the ripe old age of 26. I was gonna say, I was gonna say you're like still so young. What are you talking about? I'm like, why am I leaving this industry? But I didn't want to capture people's attention if it was pulling them away from reality. I felt guilty. The more I got sober, it was less about my own life. And like, I mean, I'd garner like anytime you're on stage, you have everybody's attention. What song you're playing, how you're acting, how you're dancing, the stuff you put on social media. You're essentially people who look up to you. You're giving them a guide on how to be. And I did not want to, I was, I'm not embarrassed if ever of who I was or what I've done. I I am I love that woman with all of my might, but she is not me. And because I don't want to bring people towards escapism anymore. So I vowed to not post another dance video until I could figure out how to capture people's attention appropriately. So I'm hoping I was actually gonna start dancing this summer, then I got pregnant, but maybe next year as I'm uh postpartum. Yeah, it was they have those little packs.

SPEAKER_00:

You can you can wear the baby, you know?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, exactly. So all that being said, I left the state of Vegas, uh the state of Vegas, the state of Nevada, and moved to Arizona. I very quickly found my first kava bar just from a yoga event. I was just trying to meet new people in a new place I'd never been. I didn't know really anybody, and it changed my life. I met my husband there. Yeah, so I was just cov attending. I was just behind the bar. And because ding, I love that phrase. I've never heard that, cov attending. Yeah. So kava bars, for those of you who don't know, kava bars are the OG non-elk bar. They've been around since 2002. So this industry is a lot older than a lot of people know because we haven't been in contact all together that long, right? But they've been around since 2002. They've been doing the non-elk thing forever. In fact, a lot of your favorite brands uh that's that were established prior to 2021 got their starts in kava bars, even if they aren't kava or kratom related. So that's that's the kava bar environment. We called ourselves kava tenders instead of bartenders, just to really differentiate and make sure people understood that we served zero alcohol there. And I, yeah, I loved it. But again, I had my coaching business for my dancers. So I was really just bartending because I it was right after COVID, like at this time, it was like 2021, the world was opening back up. I was in a new state. I wanted to meet new people. Great way to meet people. Get out there. Seriously. Yep, perfect. And I, yeah, I met my husband. We both ended up managing the establishment together. And then we saw such great business boom that the everything was just kept expanding. So we stayed with them for a while until we kind of when you're working with other people's businesses, you're going to hit a glass ceiling at some point because it's not yours, right? So it's a certain point, once you've done all you can, then you go and we were like, you know, we want to, if this is the amount of impact we were able to make in this one establishment, which was the first Kava bar in Arizona. Now there's over 20. And that didn't happen by accident, right? That happened because of the insane popularity that happened from the original Kava bars that showed people that it was a good thing. And so, yeah, so now we're like, you know what, we want to help as many people as possible, not just here, although we are very involved with Arizona. We want to help people nationwide, but also in the whole world. We're part of the global Kava Coalition as well, making sure that the farmers are getting treated right all the way up through the chain to the consumers who are enjoying the beverages.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow. And yeah, what if I mean you've seen so much change, just the growth of the expansion of Kava. Like I hadn't heard of it two years ago. I never heard of Kava. Yeah. I like Kava Haven. That's the one I probably use in cock mocktails the most, is Kava Haven. But I know there's lots of different options.

SPEAKER_01:

So Kava Haven does a really great job of representing Kava. They're very responsible. I haven't heard any bad stories in any way, shape, or form, which is just so wonderful because this is it really is a special plant. Granted, we do a lot of things with a lot of different functions, but Kava is where our hearts are. We think it's a miracle plant. Love it. Love it.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, so the Global Kava Coalition. Who knew there was such a thing? Turns out there is. It turns out there is. Yeah. Well, so what are you guys, what are you working on right now? Like, or just what are your your plans for like this year and obviously growing a baby? But um, just in terms of like your business and stuff, what do you love most about working with companies and stuff, businesses?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so we help people of all different types. We help bars and bottle shops, of course, that's the most obvious. But beyond that, there's so many other parts of the supply chain that people don't always see or recognize. And we like to kind of connect all that together. And part of that, one of the um, how to put it, not so pretty things, difficult to talk about, is we have to talk to a lot of health departments and we help governments understand what this is because they're like, I don't know. I don't even know how to regulate this. I don't know what category to put these in because it's just growing so fast, even though we knew how to regulate it before. But with the boom, it's just there's a lot to it. So what we've found is there's such a lack of education in so many touch points that all it takes is a good conversation and it will cure any sort of icky feelings that may come up for anybody, whether it's the government, business owners, or people of the public. Whenever there's a fear that comes up, usually it's just because there's some unknown. So our goal with our company is to fill those unknowns for people. It's impossible for me to give an elevator pitch. I mean, maybe I'll find the right marketing friend someday to help me elevator pitch what we do because it's just so complex. But at the end of the day, our favorite thing is closing those gaps and seeing success. So, for example, there is a Kava bar in, I think it's North Dakota, it might be South Dakota, one of the Dakotas for sure. In the Dakotas, in the Dakotas. For sure. I'm pregnant. Okay, my brain doesn't work all the way. Yes, no problem. We won't tell them. We won't tell them. So they were stalled for years. Like they were, they had already built out their business, like it was a physical brick and mortar, and they had to transition to being more of kind of like a smoothie and nutrition bar, even though that's not what they wanted to do because their health department wasn't allowing them to have kava and serve kava. Okay. And so after we all got in contact, both the modern mocktail and the global kava coalition put together a guide called Top Tips for Kava Bars. And we call it that just because that's the easiest umbrella. But anybody who serves Kava in any way, shape, or form, you're kind of a Kava bar. Like you fall under that category. It's fine. So this guide, it has number one, a lot of research that the Global Kava Coalition did. They hired a third-party marketing and stats firm, and they did a huge nationwide survey to understand more about Kava and the consumers and what their perception is. So the entire study is there. And then the next chapter after that is like top tips for how to talk about these things so people understand. The last part is all of the studies that show hey, this is safe. Hey, this is generally regarded as safe, specifically in that FDA category. And so long as you're serving it properly, you make sure that it hits certain specs on their COAs, their certificate of analysis. How does that be good to COAs?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Okay. So basically, what that means is all of the legal documentation that you might need if you have, oh, and there's also a letter from a lawyer from an attorney that has gone up against the FDA 14 times. So he knows exactly what he's talking about. He's won 100% of those cases. So this whole document packet together is now what we are unifying. We're trying to give it to everybody who serves Kava. And what happened was that Dakota Bar sent it into their department, their health department. And after years, they are finally allowed to serve Kava. Wow. And this is like insane. It's one of those things where we were like, man, we really hope. Maybe there's just someone, maybe there's a lobbyist in there. Maybe there's someone who just hates this stuff. Like, I don't know. Like you never know until you try. And we put all this research together and it worked. And they're serving it. So that that's the like that's just a huge win.

SPEAKER_00:

That's phenomenal. I mean, right, for for this bar has been waiting and waiting and waiting. And now the door is open for them. And now there's probably gonna be tw just like in Arizona, 20 Kava bars, right? Now in the Dakotas, north and south. Maybe each will have 10. Maybe they'll have 10 kava bars each of those states. Can you explain a little bit about Kava and like the benefits? And then maybe a little bit of like the hesitation that people have. Like, I didn't know anything about kava. Actually, you were very kind. You messed it, you DM'd me last year when I was like, I just got a bottle of this, and what do I need to know? So, can you share a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. So, kava is a very special pepper plant. It's a special pepper plant that grows in the Polynesian islands. So think Hawaii, Fiji, Tongan Islands, Vanuatu, uh, Tahiti, you name it. And since this is a very special pepper plant, it does have capsaicin. So that's what you're feeling when you feel the mouth tinglies. Yeah. But it doesn't have the spice because, again, we're talking tropical. It's a little different. And so the first thing you feel, of course, you feel the tinglies in your mouth, but after the first 30 minutes-ish at the most, you'll definitely start to feel a wave of calm. So this is really great because it doesn't impair your motor function. Again, if you are just consuming kava and you are drinking water, you're had having a great time, you're not going to have a hangover. You're not going to send regrettable text messages. And it's one of those things, too, that I've found is not quite so complex when it comes to people who have complications, right? People who have maybe those, maybe they're they have some dietary restrictions or they're having a hard time in life for whatever other reason in their body, kava tends to be very safe. That's why it's in that gross category for the FDA. It doesn't, there's not a lot of known issues with it. So let's go ahead and talk about the concerns because I think this will really highlight the benefits the best. Because years ago, when you were to Google what is kava, the very top thing that would come up would be this terrible study that was done in Germany, and it and it was trying to say that there that there could be liver toxicity with kava. And the Global Kava Coalition has actively in the process of paying a third-party lab to debunk this whole thing. But here's what happened. So kava, I just said it's the root of a pepper plant. So oftentimes you might think, oh, it's a tea. Do I drink the tea leaves? No, no. The tea leaves will make that's toxic. The little branches that the tea leaves go to or the leaves go to, those are not as toxic, but still gonna make you feel hungover essentially. I'm not saying it's gonna kill you, but that's called that it that will make a hangover in. That all being said, you have to consume the right part of the plant. So this study on liver toxicity, not only did it was it the entire plant that they just ground up together into one thing, but they never asked the people in the studies to give any information on their lifestyle. They didn't ask them to stop drinking alcohol. So how are you gonna say what it is? This is one is the other. And also not 100% of the people drank alcohol. So there is no way to actually correlate if kava had anything to do with liver toxicity in that case. Okay. Now, again, studies are showing and they're in the process of coming out, but really the thing to keep in mind here, like for example, being pregnant, I love kava. I also had a lot of anxiety in life. I'm good now. Kava has like really cured me over time. But let's say I wanted to consume kava while I'm pregnant. Now, of course, the official advice everywhere is gonna be don't do anything, all the things. So this is uh, in my opinion and in my experience, and I'm not a doctor. Yep. Despite I don't feel I would be threatening my pregnancy in any way, shape, or form if I was to consume kava right now. There's other functional things that I would not consume. But the reason I say this is the only part that people, the only reason that people are like, well, you have to be weary is because everything is processed by the liver. And when you're pregnant, your liver is working on overtime. So you just don't want to add any strain to it. So it's not that there, there's no proof of anything ever happening to fetal development, anything like that. And in fact, if you are a stressed-out mom and you are like panic attacking, what is worse for that child, right? A panic attack or, you know, kava and you are drinking water to ensure that your liver is still doing a good job. So that's one of those things where it's like, you know, that was the concern that came out of that initial like opinion. But as we're finding, really, there's no, we're not even finding cases of any carcinogens, right? Like if you take a look at people who have been consuming this traditionally for thousands of years, they don't have liver disease. They don't have these issues. And if they do, it's because of some other lifestyle thing, like they also consume alcohol. So you just have to be really careful. You really just want to be responsible.

SPEAKER_00:

We'll talk about like, oh, they feel buzzed or whatever. I have to say, like, I've I'll probably have like an ounce and a half of the cavahavens when I've what I've been drinking. I feel relaxed. I do feel I like that little tingliness on my tongue. I like that, but uh I don't feel I don't feel buzzed. I just feel very relaxed. So I can't say that I'm it's not giggle, I don't get giggly, I don't get like, I feel like I don't get weird. I I don't want to hang over, I don't want to be zoned out. So like for me, I feel like it's a perfect little addition sometimes to a mock tail to just kind of relax, but it's not anywhere making me like not function like like I want to function. I want to be a hundred percent sober. I'm not trying to be California sober, I want to be Kentucky sober. I think I don't know, I feel like that's sometimes is a I feel like there's mixed reviews on people saying like I feel buzzed and stuff. And I'm like, I haven't felt that. Do people feel different things? I guess.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, they do, and there's two different reasons for that. Number one, kava does have a reverse tolerance effect. So if you don't consume it all the time and just sparingly here and there, you actually need more kava to feel it. If you are like I used to be, where I consumed kava on a regular basis, and I want to mention not not kava extracts, not kava cons, I'm talking kava tea. If you're drinking that all the time, it's like it trains your body to where I could just have one tiny little shot of the tea and I'm feeling it for days. And I'm not when I say feeling it, I'm saying, so back in the day I had like I'd get panic attacks and they'd be for no good reason. It's not like like I'd just be at the grocery store or I'd be on stage. Like it didn't matter. Life was just the same. And when I consume kava regularly, and then I'd say it was about a year, year and a half in, I stopped having panic attacks entirely. Um, I've been consuming kava at this point for let's say four years, minus this year, because of all the pregnant stuff. Um and again, I'm at the point where I just have a little bit. I could have one Lala, I can make a Lalo last me an entire social event and I'm feeling very calm, very open. So there's not even a feeling in my chest. There's also a lack of a to-do list going in my head. So there's a lack of mental chatter, and it's I'm so focused. So I get so multitasking, like operations-oriented that sometimes all if I'm too into it, I'll forget to make eye contact for a while. But if I'm drinking kava, now I remember to be a person and I'm not thinking all these things. I'm like with you. So that's how I would be at the best kava tender is I'd always be drinking some Tongan kava on my shift. And then, you know, another thing to mention is always having noble kava. So this is another thing that most things on noble kava. Like noble kava. Okay. Okay. Because the biggest thing here is there's two different kinds of kava. There's twoti and noble. Noble is the good stuff that's in all the products that you know and love, like Kava Haven, Kava Hall, the main things on the market. Like Lalo. They're not going to use the Tutti. Tuti, um, even though that is a Fijian word, you can think of it as two-day. And what I mean by that is you're gonna have a two-day hangover. That's the more um, it's kind of a more rough kava. And I wanna mention that there are technically like a hundred and three or a hundred and six strains of kava overall. So noble and two D are just like the two categories that those hundred strains fit under. Okay. And 2D kava, it's heavier, so you're gonna feel it in your body. So all the noble kava you drink, you're gonna feel it nice in the in the head and the mental space. But that 2D kava is more like in the body. So you need to calm down. Like, you know, the I would never buy like random kava that didn't have the word noble on it. That that'll be a big thing too.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, look for the noble, noble kava. Very interesting. Yeah, it's it's so interesting because you just hear you see different things, you see people experiencing different things with the kava. And but I think in general, like the nanaclock bottle shops, what they have would be used, they would all have products that are using noble kava. Am I right? Yeah, yeah. I feel like if you're walking into a nanacolk bottle shop, it's pretty safe of the kava options that they have available. But it's not a good thing.

SPEAKER_01:

And if that changes, yeah, if that changes and I happen to see someone, best believe, I'll be so loud and I will tag them and be like, don't buy this. It's 2D Kava. So it's just no, like the industry is very, I want to specifically say Kava. The reason the Global Kava Coalition, Kava itself is so special is because we very much self-regulate because we don't want everyone else, like, we don't want what happened to Kratom or e-cigarettes or any of that kind of stuff to happen to Kava. So we're gonna do that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, there's a lot, a lot of noise about that right now. They didn't get together in time. No, no, they didn't have you. They need you, they need you. Um, okay. Any last minute or last words of encouragement for somebody, maybe if they're newly in recovery or, you know, just um what they can do in this non-alcoholic space as someone as sober entrepreneur.

SPEAKER_01:

The cool thing about the non-alcoholic industry, and this is again very hard for me to put in an elevator pitch, whatever your passion is, there is a way, if you wanted to turn that into a business, for you to do that and inspire others along your way, if that is something you want to do. So if if you're like, you know what, I feel like I feel very inspired by my own sobriety and inspired by the people who got me here. So I want to be that light for others. That is a great sign that you are ready to be open to the validation process, which can be a little bit difficult if you haven't done the inner work. So let's say you're in your sobriety and you're like, I do want to start a business, but I'm still focusing on trying not to lose my mind every day. I'm kind of scared to move in. Here's what I like to always mention. But addiction is something that happens alone. And the best way to get over anything that is stuck inside of you is to go help others, right? So, yes, there are some anxieties that come with running a business. I'm not gonna pretend that this is easy. Of course. But life in general isn't easy. There's a lot of other things that aren't. So if you have that like north star of passion of like, I want to help people, even if you don't know how, like, just know that that is going to be something that, like, that is the thing that makes or breaks if people are going to make it long term in this industry. If people are like kind of wishy-washy, I want to do this. Oh, I'm kind of scared, I'm gonna pull back, then you know, there are some confrontations with the self that have yet to be made, right? And so work on those things because business is always going to bring that up, but that's not a bad sign. In fact, anytime you feel that friction and you're like, this is the glass ceiling that if I do something about it, I'm gonna see different results. Like it's something that at first is scary, but over time, this is my favorite process that has learned learned me, that has taught me how to trust myself. And, you know, not everybody's first business idea or anything may like be exactly what you thought, but that's the cool part of the process. If the moment you're like, okay, I'm ready to be open to this, I know I want to help people, these are my skills and talents. So, what do the people need? That's the validation process. Being open to what people need and being open to being like, okay, so how can my skill set help those needs rather than being like, I already know exactly what's gonna help, and I'm just gonna do this without any validation, I'm just gonna go and not listen to anybody. Like that's gonna burn you out and it might set you back in a cycle. We we want to avoid that, right? So just have the right mindset and be excited about that process and how you could potentially help people and they're gonna help you fill in the blanks. I'm telling you, we started our business and within 30 days of going live, even though I had no followers on my page to start, because I was not an online person for a while. I after my performance career, I wanted to take a break. So I was at zero. We started, we literally just kept saying, Here's our skills and talents. What do you need? What can I help you with? What are you doing? And then we that's how we got really into the consulting niche that we're in now. And now we don't even, I mean, yeah, I have an ad on the podcast, but usually it's referrals now.

SPEAKER_00:

Like, you don't have to imagine. Yeah, I would imagine. I know. I saw your, well, I saw your face a lot uh when Buzzworthy Beverages in California opened. I think you were there, you were there making drinks. Am I right? And I'm sure you've been doing consulting with her and stuff. So yeah. It's really, really neat to see. Yeah. So somebody doesn't have to have. Do you feel like somebody has to have like that five-year business plan? Or like that feels so over. Like I have an entrepreneurial spirit. Like I was like, you know, shoveling driveways in Philadelphia when it would snow, I'd be like, wake up on a snow day and be like, I can make a hundred dollars today, you know. So I've been like that since I was a kid. But I'm not somebody who's had like a business plan. It's like more like it just unfolds, keeps unfolding of like, oh, I should try this. Oh, this sounds maybe I'm too much like this sounds fun. Maybe that's not no, that's true.

SPEAKER_01:

No, that's true. Business plans are usually garbage. Honestly, the only reason you ever need them is if you're looking for funding, period. Everything else, I I mean, I will say, like, if you're not an organized person in general, yeah. The idea of like having a business plan template and you can just squiggle in notes and you're and like it's not serious, like it's not that serious. Cool. It's a great way to like start. But like I said, so most people, like, if they're not looking for funding, they think they start with this idea. They're like, I'm gonna make a business plan and then I'm gonna validate my idea. Yeah. Yeah, you're wasting all of your time. So what you need to do is you just you have an idea. The people who are most successful are the quickest to just see in, even if they don't know how it's gonna work. So just get a minimum viable product of whatever that is. And again, we have a whole program. We love to help people with this. This is like my favorite part of onboarding new clients is like, welcome, like, let's figure out where your little place is. Um, but yeah, like it's it's just one of those things that uh you only learn by doing and being in the thing. So the only time you'd need that business plan is if you're looking for investors, funding. And and usually, uh again, in my course, I go through all of this. Not all business plans are the same. It depends on what type of funding you want. Because some funding you don't need, you still don't even need that. Some you just need a little pitch deck. And that you can make on Canva in 30 minutes.

SPEAKER_00:

Like that's not even Seriously, between Chat GPT and Canva, right? Yeah, it could be done for you totally. Yeah, you and you learn, you only learn by doing. And I think the same thing, like I found the same thing even just in making mocktails. Like, I never I never attended a bar. I was a waitress at TGI Fridays in like 1990. But um, you know, like I never made drinks before, but I've learned just by doing, by just dive in, have some fun, you know, and it just start you start figuring things out, whether it's you know, making new drinks or figuring out like a business idea for you, it just starts unfolding in front of you for sure. Yeah, it's a magical process. You can't you can't plan for a miracle, you know. I like that. You cannot plan for a miracle. No, we can't, we can't. No, we definitely can't. But they do happen. It really does happen. And just action and just diving in. Just dive in. Yeah. Yeah. And to be able to help others is the big thing. Marina, you are so sweet. Seriously. Thank you for sharing your Kava knowledge and just your business knowledge and just your commitment to this community. Is it's really inspiring to chat with you. So thank you.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you so much for all you do. I know I'm sure your all of your listeners can agree when they say that you brighten all of our day. And I'm just, I'm so happy to be here. Thanks for even thinking of me.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you. Oh my gosh, 100%. Yes, we should have done this a long time ago. And I'm so happy for you, and Tyler. Congratulations on your pregnancy and your drink, the bride, or a pregnant woman walks into a bar, is absolutely delicious. Love it. Big time cheers to you. Talk to you later. Big time cheers to you for tuning in to the Thriving Alcohol Free Podcast. I hope you will take something from today's episode and make one small change that will help you to thrive and have fun in life without alcohol. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post about it on social, send up a flair, or leave a rating and a review. I am cheering for you as you discover the world of non alcoholic drinks and as you journey towards authentic freedom. See you in the next episode.