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Tales Seminar: The Global Drinks Business

These are notes from The Global Drinks Business seminar at Tales of the Cocktail, lead by Phil Duff.

Please don't treat these facts as absolute or fact-checked - I'm typing fast and mistakes could be made. 

• In the Middle East, the duty-free market is enormous.
• "The world drinks locally." The overwhelming majority of spirits are consumed in the country in which they are made. 
• The world drinks whisky (not always scotch, but something that tastes like scotch), vodka (at every level. The first market out side the USA for Absolut was Russia.), and soju.
• In the Phillipeans they drink 27 million cases of one brand of gin, double the rest of the world's total consumption.
• How much does it cost you to make a bottle of a grain alcohol product: about $1 for the spirit. (Grapes cost 30% - 50% more). The bottle (a standard nice one) costs you $1.77 per bottle for a minimum large order.  Screw cap costs 14 cents. Bottling costs 70 cents. Case and divider 35 cents. $3.96 per bottle for less than 4000 cases. More than 4000 cases costs $2.97. 
• 100,000 case mark means your brand could be bought, or could be 'made more efficient.' 
• Producers margin on 1 bottle (for production cost $3.33) and selling price 7.83 is  4.50; or a  57.46 % profit. Then it goes to marketing. (There were a lot more numbers on marketing costs but I didn't catch them. Something about 30% markup.)
• The booze biz is one of the most heavily marketed industries. The best and brightest in marketing want to work in the booze biz. 
• Bailey's is so successful it sells one out of every 4 bottles of liqueur in the world.
• X Rated Fusion Liqueur - Only sold 60,000 total cases before the brand sold for $40 million. This is due in part to technological innovation that allowed the fruit juice in it to be stable.
• Grey Goose - Was  sold for 1.8 billion to Bacardi. For 20 times the earnings. 
• Ciroc - 2003 created. Distiller came up with name. Gave Puffy the equivalent of half the profits. Moved from 60,000 cases to 400,000 cases in one year. This year broke 1 million case mark.    
• Distributors add 30% to the price of the spirit. Retailers add 30%. So a product that costs $3 bucks to make is sold for $30 at retail. 
• "Nobody is making a great deal of money for an $8 cocktail." 

Tales of the Cocktail Seminar: Let's Not Sugar-Coat It

These are some notes from the seminar: Let's Not Sugar Coat It at Tales of the Cocktail. 

• Sugar Beet Syrup: 2 pounds of sugar beets, shredded, 32 oz water: In a pot combine sugar beets and water, over a med heat cook the beets until mixture becomes thick. Remove from heat, strain through fine mesh, discard solids. Should have the consistency of honey. 
• Stone fruit: Great example of fructose
• Rickey Ricardo: 1.5 oz Hendrick's Gin, 1 oz Cantaloupe juice, 3 oz Coconut Water soda, 1/2 lemon, 1 oz Lemon Juice: In collins glass, squeeze and drop half lemon into glass, then add ingredients, fill with coco soda. This drink doesn't taste tart, yet doesn't taste sweet. 
• Do not muddle citrus too much: It gets bitter. 
• If you cut a fruit and leave it, it won't oxidize that much. If you juice it first or shred it, it will oxidize faster. This is due to the sugars. 
• Even in Washington, DC, you can tend bees. 83% full is when you harvest your honey. 
• Situation Rum After-Hours: 1.5 oz Chairmans reserve spice rum, 1 oz lime juice, 1 oz honey ginger syrup, .5 oz coconut espuma, pinch lime zest (so tht coconut doesn't smell like feet). Shake/strain/foam.
• Honey can be damaged by overheating fructose, which is half of the sugars in normal honey, is especially delicate and burns easily. Honey contains protein from plants, so if heated it should be high heat for short period of time.  (Think of cooking meat, how it changes/shrinks.)
• Honey is a very pure form of energy, 64 calories per tablespoon.
• When you charge coconut milk (or anything with protein) with nitrogen, makes it expand and brings out its natural sweetness. 
• (Note: WOW!) Honey is actually an acid, with about the same pH of citrus. It is 3.42 pH. You have to dump a lot of honey in a drink to make it sweet. 
• Lighter honeys are milder in flavor than dark honeys. 
• Honey can be stored for 20 years! (But it's not good when it's old)
• Sugar is like an anti-freeze, so when making a sorbet/frozen things, you can't add too much sugar or it won't freeze.
• Stevia is a plant. You harvest it before it flowers. Can be used as a sugar substitute. Has a slower and longer finish than sugar. 
• Truvia brand is made from a part of the stevia plant. Popular in Japan.  
• Truvia is in Firefly Skinny Tea Vodka
• We tasted a raspberry mint lime drink with Truvia - tastes weird. The flavor of the fruit totally pops but you don't have the body, the texture/weight of sugar. I feel like this stuff could use a thickener/filler of some sort...

Tales of the Cocktail Seminar: How to Build a Cutting-Edge Ice Program

Here are notes from the first seminar I've attended at Tales of the Cocktail.

How to Build a Cutting Edge Ice Program

• Christy Pope - Cuff & Buttons, worked at Milk & Honey
• Chad Solomon - Same as above, but also Pegu Club
• Richie Boccato - Opened an ice company out of Dutch Kills
• Joseph Schwartz - opened little branch

Notes

• Glacial ice: because of the pressure from accumulating snow, the ice is compact and squeezes out all the air in it. - 
• Water and Bismuth are only atoms that expand when they freeze. 

Good Ice vs. Bad Ice

• Good ice: Big rock, holds its shape, slower melt rate, preserves drink at optimum balance (doesn't turn to slush in the glass), better aeration (because shaking longer because ice is bigger), bigger window of error between over- and under-shaking; both strong and petite bartenders can make the same quality drink. 
• Though Harry Craddock said never to shake twice with the same ice, or serve with the same ice you shook with, but maybe with big ice you can. 
• At Milk & Honey - started freezing, barbacks cutting them, putting ice into glasses and putting back into freezer. 
• Milk & Honey - started with hotel pans - for 40 seats had 3 chest freezers plus one for cut ice. 
• Little Branch has upright freezers (for the footprint), mak Collins spear - Tovolo ice cube tray, cutting out separators to get four spears from each. This saved time cutting up ice, wasted ice and effort. Takes 2 hours to prepare the ice for the shift each day, including all ice work and setting the bar. This serves 500-600 cocktails on a busy night. 
• Also they have different cut ice for shaking but now use the Tovolo "King Cube" trays. They use this ice for shaking and for a single old-fashioned. 
• To set up they pull molds out of freezers along with pans of ice (just switched to delivered slabs of ice instead of freezing them) - these slabs of ice are cut up and used for double old-fashioned glasses - plus fill them up after cutting for next day.
• Upright freezers, slab delivery, King Cube molds helped increase capacity and speed of ice program at Little Branch.
• Scotsman ice machine - pellet ice - better than crushed ice. 
• At Pegu Club - Kold Draft ice machine, double-stacked. Seating for 100 plus standing. At another bar, added chest freezer to a similar program for high-volume. 
• Water for an ice program. Water source and quality varies greatly between cities. Southern Cali - reverse osmosis with ion exchange filter for ice program. Everything else (for ice machines) used a water softener system. 
• Richie of Dutch Kills: Queens water is "disgusting." So bought block ice. Both cut in advance of shift start and during slow times in bartenders' shift. 
• To make clear ice: hot water and filtered help a little, but the solution is buying it made from a Clinebell machine. Okomoto Studio in NYC - provide the nice ice for Dutch Kills.  
• Clinebells - Need to put it in a good spot, but can get a block every 2.5 to 3 days. Freezes from bottom up from a cold plate. A pump rotates the water. The tank never fully freezes fully. You scrape off the top where the impurities are. 
• Weatherup - has one Clinebell machine in Tribecca that is the entire ice program. Make shaking, stirring, glass ice. 
• This one is cost-effective. If you have a half-way confident HVAC tech it's quite easy to maintain. Clinebell $6000 brand new, but you can buy refurbished and get an 8 year warranty. $2800 or so for refurbished. You can also get a hoist from Clinebell or buy one from an auto-parts store. Buy one there. 
• The hoisting process is th emost physically dangerous to humans. 
• Chainsaw is only $50 or so, other tools are common carpentry hammers and chisels. "You don't need fancy tools; you can buy it at the hardware store."
• Zane Harris now uses a vertical bans saw that has a teetering platform. 
• Hundred weight - another place Richie has that has 2 Clinebell machines. Climate-controlled room (cold). They make, cut, and store the ice all in an insulated room. 

• Ice handling - don't set a block down on a room-temperature table; the block will crack. "Ambient temperature is very important." 
• Don't shake with ice fresh out of the freezer - will crack and thus make the point of large ice moot. 
• Keep big ice on top of crushed ice in a metal pan at the bar.
• Aviary in Chicago uses blast freezers. $5000 - $15000 cost.
• It's pointless to have an ice program like this unless you have glass frosters for every piece of glassware! - Christie
• Breaking down a block: Consider the glassware for size, and use that to determine what kind of cuts to make. Start with your largest cubes, becuase if you break them you can use it for other purposes. 
• Don't let ice sit in Tovolo trays too long with ice in it or it picks up silicone flavors. 
• Keep your Kold Draft tuned, or you get bad ice. 
• It might be more cost-efficient to rent a Kold Draft machine that comes with maintenence rather than to buy it. 

• Richie says you can use an iron to smooth cubes. Google Okomoto Studios - look up video on Martha Stewart, shows ironing of ice.   

 

Live from New Orleans!

I'm here at the Tales of the Cocktail convention in New Orleans for my sixth year in a row. 

I'll be blogging daily here on Alcademics and of course posting stuff to the Alcademics Facebook group. 

And, Back By Popular Demand! I'll be tweeting every drink I have at Tales of the Cocktail again this year. My Twitter handle is @alcademics.

Here is what I consumed last year. 

Wish me luck!

What to Pack for Tales of the Cocktail

I wrote a story on this last year for Tasting Panel magazine. The story is here in digital magazine form.

Anything you'd add? 

Tales of the Cocktail Preview: Below the Equator

I am writing up several previews of seminars for the Tales of the Cocktail convention in New Orleans. This write-up is about the seminar called Below the Equator, lead by Jacob Briars.

I interviewed Jacob about his seminar. The questions and answers are below.

Time: 12:30 PM to 2 PM
Date: Friday the 22nd of July, 2011
Venue: The Queen Anne Ballroom, Hotel Monteleone
Moderators: Jacob Briars
Panelists: Sebastian Reaburn

Come below the equator to discover the 'other' Hemisphere, birthplace of sugar cane, home to the oldest spirit of the Americas and to many of the world's newest and most exciting spirits too. Latin America, South Africa and Australasia are also home to some of the newest and most exciting bar scenes in the world. Discover the context and culture of these spirits, and the new cocktails which are being born as new cultures meet new spirits, fruits and herbs, and where the future of Cocktails is as yet unwritten.

Will the focus of this seminar be primarily on the bar scenes of the Southern Hemisphere, or the spirits made there?

I guess this is an attempt to give a very small insight into the whole 'other' hemisphere which barely registers on the Tales radar. In fact, 'off the radar' would have been just as serviceable a topic title. Tales (to me but also other 'foreigners') has a very trans-Atlantic focus, particularly the spirits of the US and Europe, and the bar scenes and bartenders of NYC and London, often to the exclusion of all else. Even West Coast bartenders have been heard to make this grumble. Yet in the southern hemisphere we have a lot of spirits old and new (cachaca and pisco have been around a lot longer than bourbon and rum for example) as well as creative new takes on old spirits - Holey Dollar and Inner Circle rums from Australia, South African brandies (not ALL are bad) and many more. Further, hidden away in plain sight below the equator are some of the most creative and fast-moving bar scenes in the world - see Melbourne, Wellington, the newly awakening scene in Rio. Plus a surfeit of fruits and herbs that many in NOLA won't yet have heard of (pending customs approval, of course...)
I've lost count of the number of times in the US in particular, I've been served something as if it was brand new, when it was doing the rounds in NZ, Australia or even South Africa 5 years ago - elderflower, Chartreuse Dust, beer cocktails. Not saying that everything was done there first, but just that the US-centric press/media misses a lot of what is happening in the rest of the world.

I've heard you say that Wellington, New Zealand is one of the best small cities for cocktails in the world, and after visiting I'd most definitely agree. What are some factors that contribute to the quality of bartenders/cocktails in this faraway place?

What makes Wellington such a great small bar scene has a lot in common with what also makes the scene in smaller cities like Portland, Seattle and Edinburgh so good too. I use the term small here in a relative way, not to refer to a fixed size. Nationally they are the 'other' city or region compared to the national media hub, they have a small and collegial community of bartenders prepared to create a scene and to work hard and share ideas. This creates a determination to build a bar and cocktail scene ahead of individual fame. Also they don't have a 'historical' cocktail culture and so you building the culture from the ground up. This is very different from bartenders who might come to work in New York or Paris, who feel they are part of a long-lasting cocktail culture, in which their role is to nurture the prevailing cocktail community, occasionally rocking the boat in the case of Milk and Honey or ECC, but still being part of a greater picture. In the small cities, you are often building this for the first time, which means you approach the task with fresh eyes and a determination to build something. Fortunately for New Zealand, there was next to no cocktail culture pre 1995, and it exploded rapidly after that. Happily, this was in the early days of the interweb, which meant for young bartenders like me, we knew what was happening in the booming London scene and could read about Dale DeGroff was doing, and for bartenders in NZ and Australia this had a huge impact as we started to create a cocktail scene for the first time.
New Zealand also has geographical isolation, meaning many products are expansive and imported, which explains the boom in local products which are heavily supported by local bartenders. Portland would be a similar US parallel. Why support an expensive import whose owner lives in London when you can drink something locally made and just as good? Equally, in many smaller towns and countries many products can be hard to find. For many years lots of vermouths and bitters were hard to find, so bartenders made their own, either versions of products from abroad or brand new products entirely. Further, the small cities with a new cocktail culture also lack a mentor who tells you that things must be made just so. While there is a lot to learn from the classics, sometimes the reverence for the classical canon can be stultifying. I think both Australia and New Zealand have dynamic and creative bar scenes because they don't feel that every menu has to have a Manhattan, an Old Fashioned and a Martini. Any cocktail can stand on its merits. Its good (or bad) because of how it tastes, not because it is featured in a book by Jerry Thomas. Finally small cities tend to have a better reverence for local products and tend to be closer to their suppliers. In London a bartender can have passionfruits and limes year round, but they have been shipped for thousands of miles. But in Wellington limes are more precious than gold in midwinter, but the market gardens are less than an hours drive from the bars, so though range can be limited quality is higher. I think this also explains why you get so many delicious drinks in San Francisco too.

In many ways I think it is easier to start a cocktail culture from scratch rather than to forget bad habits. In New Zealand and Australia there wasn't a generation of bartenders who'd grown sloppy on sour mix and the 2 second shake. In fact, there were no sour mixes. If you wanted lemon juice you had to juice it from a lemon.
But finally I think one of the reasons that smaller, far-off cities have great bar scenes now, is that cocktails are not part of the normal behaviour as much. In Edinburgh, Melbourne, and Wellington you're more likely to sell a wine, beer or spirit than a cocktail, so that makes you work harder to convince your guests that cocktails are an excellent choice. Likewise in a big city a bar will be more specialised, and has a much bigger catchment. In New York a guest who walks into a cocktail bar is certainly in search of a cocktail. If they don't like your cocktails then no doubt the next guest will, after all your catchment runs into the millions of people. In smaller towns such as Wellington or Edinburgh, you need to offer beer, wine, spirits and cocktails and convince your customers to try your cocktails. You also have to work harder for those guests to return.

Your teaser mentions the local produce of the southern hemisphere and its use in cocktails. Do you plan to thrill/torture attendees with feijoa flavored vodka?

Hahahahaha, probably keeping it to Brasilian Cachaca (no prizes for guessing of course) a Brasilian acai liqueur (unlike certain other Acai spirits, this is one that actually has acai in it) Peruvian pisco (likewise you'll guess this too). Also a Kiwi vodka (probably honey) and possibly a liqueur, Australian rum, an Aussie gin made with native Aust botanicals, and maybe a barley/pot still Aust vodka too, and if we have time, Fijian rum and South African brandy.

When we hear about Brazil, we think about bars on the beach serving endless caipirinhas and nothing else. What is the cocktail scene really like in Rio or other cities?

Of course that is the tourist perception and while it is certainly true, it's also a little limiting. Just in the same way that in Australia you can find more than beer, and in NZ, more than lamb and wine. Like the cocktail scenes in China and India, the cocktail and bar scene in Brasil is developing fast, but not without it's hiccups. However I think that it will soon be easier to get a good cocktail in Sth America than in India, because of a natural affinity with spirits, and a huge range of fruits and juices not seen anywhere else.

There will always be a place in Brasil for the sweet, strong Caipirinha, served on the sand, just like New Orleans bars will keep serving the hand grenade and faux-Daiquiris to a certain group of tourists. But that shouldn't blind us to the fact that across Sth America, but particularly Brasil, an increasingly affluent population, and more adventurous tourists, are starting to seek out local flavours in food and drink. See DOM restaurant (7th best in the world, right behind Alinea) or MyNY bar in Sao Paulo for evidence of this change. Small steps at this stage, but progress nonetheless. The Brasilian bar scene is characterised by hardworking bartenders with a growing appreciation of their own national spirit, local flavours and culture. These are the hallmarks of a great bar scene. Like Australia, they have a worrying love affair with Midori but an open mind about trying new things that perhaps a bartender in Italy or the US, feeling the weight of tradition, would not. I look forward to seeing it evolve over time.

What's one thing from your seminar you think people will be surprised to learn?

Maybe 3 things that will horrify the archetypal bearded American bartender: That the Caipirinha is possibly older than the Mint Julep? That Australia arguably has the world's greatest cocktail bars right now? That a blended Fernet and Cola is actually really delicious?

 

Tales of the Cocktail Preview: How The Global Drinks Business Works

This is a preview of a seminar that will be given at Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans, which takes place July 20-24, 2011.

I've been writing full-time about liquor since around 2005 and sometimes I'm still confused about who is the brand owner versus importer versus who has the distribution rights in which country and where stuff is sold. The global drinks business is some wild, wacky stuff. Based on the description below, I asked session moderator Philip Duff some questions. 

How The Global Drinks Business Works

Time: 3 PM to 4:30 PM
Date: Wednesday the 20th of July, 2011
Venue: The Riverview Room, Hotel Monteleone
Moderators: Philip Duff

Ever wondered what a SKU is? Or why you can get brand X in Arizona but not in Seattle? Or why a drinks firm has brand Y in America but not anywhere else? What's the difference between a brand owner and a distributor? Or between an importer and a wholesaler? And where do ambassadors come in? Industry veteran, bar owner, brand ambassador and fearless marketing consultant Philip Duff guides you up the ladders and down the chutes of the worldwide drinks business, from shore to shore and from grain to glass.

What do you think people are the most confused about the global drinks business?

I think everyone's actually pretty confused! Importers and distributors have slimmed down staff and outsourced functions to the point where brand directors rarely even have the time anymore  to go out to bars and on the road with sales reps any more, so they're not staying up to date.  Consumers are bombarded with information and choices that have expanded exponentially in just a few years while bartenders don't understand why brand X owned by company Y is available the next state over but not in their area.  Brands are very often less than transparent about where or how they are made. Companies are hiring brand ambassadors left, right and center from a fast-diminishing talent pool, and throwing them into the field with very little - and more commonly no - training on dealing with media, how the industry works and even basic details like how to participate in a marketing meeting and how to write a business letter or email.

How do you think this seminar might help bartenders or bar owners?

It'll give them - I hope -  a bit more insight into how local, national and global brands more closely resemble loose-related clones of each other rather than one big happy family; the questions to ask to determine where a brand really comes from or who owns it, and some tips and tricks for dealing with sales reps (who are overstretched) brand ambassadors (who are under-trained) and brand managers (who are drowning in KPIs). And what KPIs, SKUs and NLCEs are...I also hope this will explain a few of the more frustrating aspects of being part of the drinks business, and give a bit of insight into how business - any business, really - is done anno 2011. It's still a people business, albeit a complicated one. Given that there's a great chance you'll either be negotiating with a drinks firm at some stage, or be hired by one for an event or some bar consultancy, it really pays to know how the business ticks.

Do other countries us America's 3-tier system? Are there any advantages to it?

Not that I know of, and no, I can't see any advantages for a modern, democratic country like the US: the 3-tier system drives up prices while distancing importers from distributors and eventual point-of-sale in liquor stores and in bars, which cannot be a good thing. It makes it much harder and much more expensive for brands to break into the US, and a lot harder to hit critical tipping-point mass because you have to fight for distribution county by county, state by state. This is understandable in a federated place like Europe where countries remain separate, but baffling in a single country like the US.

How do you think emerging markets in China and India might alter or shift the current global drinks business? What are changes we could see when these markets come online? Do we have a good historical analogy to this?

Well, essentially, we'd all better start learning Mandarin! Seriously, these countries will get rich quick and large swathes of the population will be upwardly mobile, but I think it's only a good thing for drinks firms. China historically is not quite so mad for distilled spirit as India, so we'll see a bit more A&P spend in China to rectify that situation, and just like in India we'll see more brands owned by Western firms but being developed specifically for China.

We do have an analogy - I think it's America. When America really got cookin' in the 1800s, it ushered in the first Golden Age of mixology and within a few short decades the US had a very high standard of living - so much so that Prohibition and two world wars were little more than speed bumps on that road to prosperity. Drinking in 1800s US was driven by immigrants, as was the birth of the US whiskey business, but what I think will happen in China & India is that people will move around within those vast countries; I doubt there will be significant immigration to those lands. Culturally wine is a greater part of Chinese DNA than Indian, so more wine snobs there, and we should start seeing some interesting Chinese and Indian-produced brands in West. We already have some good examples in brands like Amrut whiskey.

Thanks Phil!

Tales of the Cocktail Preview: Occupational Hazards

This is a preview of a seminar that will be given at Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans, which takes place July 20-24, 2011.

Occupational Hazards

This seminar, part of the pro-series, is targeted to bar professionals. Given the teaser below, I emailed seminar leader Charlotte Voisey a few questions. 

Details:

Time: 3 PM to 4:30 PM
Date: Wednesday the 20th of July, 2011
Venue: The Queen Anne Ballroom, Hotel Monteleone
Moderators: Charlotte Voisey
Panelists: Kirsten Amann, Ryan Magarian

A life with cocktails on tap is enviable to many. "You drink for a living? Are you hiring?" is the common retort to a cocktail professional explaining his or her work. But, just like a good cocktail, a healthy and prosperous career in this business comes from the right balance. Ryan Magarian and Charlotte Voisey host a long overdue session on bartender well being and life work balance with special guest Kitty Amann. Whether you aim to stay in the business longer or just be healthier while you do we'll discuss how to play it smart when it comes to diet, drinking, peer pressure, travel and exercise on and off shift. In addition the seminar will discuss the physical approach to bartending and offer tips, professional opinion and 'mocktails' for thought. Letter from your liver: please attend.

Your session says you'll be discussing the physical approach to bartending. Does that mean you'll be talking about workplace ergonomics?

I believe workplace ergonomics are an important piece of this puzzle, so yes we will address bar design, bartender clothing and shoes amongst other elements that contribute to one's physical well being.

What's the easiest way to sneak out of a party or bar when you've had enough but don't want all the cajoling to stay from your friends? 

 I used to worry about what conversations or bonding I was missing out on after midnight (as I would have ususally escaped by then) but then realised that after midnight  people usually go into story repetition mode and no one really recalls anything anyway.  But joking aside I would always make sure I thank my host and then slip out, if you try and say goodbye to everyone peer pressure may get the better of you.  Most real friends or supporters understand that if you are this industry for the long run that escaping a party to acheive balance is no shame.

You're on planes a lot. What's the secret to sleeping on planes?

Be small. My secret to a lot of things is exercise.  I rarely sleep badly in beds or on planes and I owe that to my body being active during the day so I am usually ready for sleep when night falls.  Blindfolds and ear plugs work if you have a window seat.  Plan to never be too cold or too hot (wear layers, bring a blanket).  I never carry too large a bag so I can always leave space to stretch my legs out.  Never cross your legs or even ankels, drink a good amount of water so that dehydration does not wake you up.  Reading always puts me to sleep.  Different things will work for different peole, but in general if you dress comfortably and condition yourself to relax it helps.  Book ahead and seek out the seats that give you extra room.  $50 to stretch your legs may give you six hours sleep verus none.

Do you have a general philosophy or important tip you can give bartenders to help achieve a proper work/life balance?

Know, or find out, what is really important to you in the long run and make sure your general behaviour is helping you to achieve those things.  From a professional stand point nurturing good realtionships and continual education are key and from a personal angle keep your body and mind fit and healthy so that you can enjoy family, friends, faith and all the things that you truly love.  There will be times when you have to immerse yourself in work to get ahead, just always strive to keep the bigger picture in mind - what is the end goal.  Ryan Magarian is very good at this work/life balance stuff which is why I wanted to work with him on this seminar.

Thank you Charlotte!