Cheers

Kelsey Gray started at Cheers 6 years ago today. She was our "Office Administrator"... who then refused to leave the office until everyone left the office—which back then would be as late as 9pm. We had just aired on Shark Tank and things were nuts. We went from doing like $200k/month to $600k/month overnight. Inventory was 2 months behind but we were still taking orders. We didn't get a deal but were raising $2.1m venture capital. We were being sued over our old trademark "Thrive ", which we rightfully owned, but a big company was feeling threatened by. And a few other things were going on as well... It was the hardest I've ever worked in my life. 9am-9pm was a norm. It was a BUSY and STRESSFUL 12 hours/day... It was just 3 of us in the HQ. And I was just 24 years old at the time. I knew Kelsey from church. She was a volunteer leader as I going through high school and I always really liked and respected her. In 2018, she was working part time in our warehouse under my parents who were running that operation. My dad called me and said: "Kelsey is amazing. Maybe you could use her at HQ?" I said: "Idk what we'd have her do, but sure, let's see." So she showed up and she just started helping where she could. The idea was for her to work a standard 9-5. But in that craziness, she simply would not leave at 5pm with us still in the trenches. She'd stay until we got what we needed to do that day. And she'd fill in anywhere and everywhere she could. She's been our rock ever since. Now these days she runs our whole supply chain and also helps me implement EOS, which is how we do HR and strategically staff our team to manage all of our operations—processes, projects, metrics, AORs, issues, etc.She's the epitome of dependability. She's also the most supportive... and yet firm person on the team. And she never lets emotions get in the way of decisions—especially as the emotions of those around her are running wild. She's also just a lot of fun and we all love working with her. I hope to build businesses with her for the rest of my life!

If you wanted to see one of the main brains behind Cheers' marketing, then look no further than our Creative Director, Dalia Steichen! 🎥 🧠 Today we're filming educational content & ads with a functional medicine & media dietician and Dalia has the whole thing planned out from 7am to 4pm. She's spent over 20 hours meticulously curating the scripts, topics of conversation, shot lists, schedule, etc. to make sure that we have everything we need for content over the next quarter. She'll then take all this footage and convert it into our "Smarter Drinking" educational videos, ads, and all kinds of other marketing elements. One of the biggest blessings of being involved with Cheers is getting to work with so many talented, hard working, & clever people! And Dalia is at the top of that list. 🙏

Over the past year we have doubled Cheers' revenue from $25k/day to nearly $50k/day. Now we're shooting to double it again over the next 365 days. We printed the goal on our coffee mugs: "$100k per day by May"! 📈

I just received my welcome package from the Cheers team and wanted to share a bit about what they do. Cheers is the leader in alcohol-related heath. They create products ranging from liver supplements to multivitamins designed specifically for drinkers, to solutions that help you feel better the day after drinking. I'm incredibly grateful to Kanishka Perera for pairing me with the perfect client and Oceans for making it all possible. From day one, the Cheers team has been inclusive and welcoming, even as we work remotely. Their thoughtfulness is evident in gestures like having an office clock set to IST, including us in town hall meetings, and even sending this welcome package. Special thanks to Shelby Powell 🥂, Dalia Steichen, and Brooks Powell 🍻 for their continuous support, taking the time to check on me, and preparing resources to guide me step by step. And to Anjalie Rajapaksa, thank you for reaching out on my first day and helping me settle in. Moving to a new industry in a different country has been a learning adventure. I've gained so much insight into Marketing and Social Media. I'm excited for the challenges ahead, and knowing I have an amazing team behind me makes it all the more rewarding. Cheers to new beginnings and an amazing journey ahead! 🍻 #cheers #remotework #socialmediamarketing #marketing #professionalgrowth

Sometimes I think people look at me and judge me: "Suburban kid with rich parents who went to Princeton." They think: "He was born with a golden spoon... so of course he's successful." For tax reasons, yesterday I had to go through and pull our tax filings and financials since Cheers' inception. It ended up being a trip down memory lane. Cheers used to be called "Thrive " before our rebrand—hence the name at the top of the balance sheet. Sometimes I truly forget how far we've come... this was how much I started Cheers with: $20k. That's it! I won the lottery of life in 2 ways: 1) I was born in the United States—the country with the highest opportunity to become a millionaire. People move here from all over the world for the chance of a better life... being born here is the lottery. 2) I was born the only child of two AMAZING middle class parents who put their heart & soul into me and encouraged me to be the crazy person I am. They gave and still give me their unconditional love. I have never once doubted that no matter what I do—good, bad, & dumb... that I will still be loved and welcomed in my family. That has allowed me to take risks that others would not be able to emotionally handle. I was born and raised in the suburbs of Houston where I competitively swam from the age of 5. By my senior year of high school I was the fastest 50 freestyler in the state of Texas—winning the state championship 3 years in a row. At just 5'10", it was unlikely for me to be the 8th faster high school 50 freestyler in the nation, but I was. I had a bad GPA my freshman year of high school, but I still finished 11/425 students at my public high school by the end of 4 years. I wasn't nearly good enough academically when it comes to Princeton standards. While I was being recruited, the Princeton coach told me it was a stretch to get admitted, but they'd support me anyways. I wrote my admissions letter and explained that every year of high school my GPA improved. And, in fact, if you deleted my freshman year from my average that I would have been valedictorian. I asked them to please consider my trend line rather than my average. The argument worked, because despite my low chances, I was accepted into Princeton and became the first person from my family to attend an Ivy League. The plan was for me to become a Baptist minister and go to seminary upon graduation. But then God put DHM in my path and the rest is history. I called my parents and told them I wanted to start a company around this ingredient called DHM and brand it as an "alcohol supplement". Rather than call me crazy, they told me they could give me the $20k inheritance that my grandfather had left me for after graduation so long as I agreed to finish getting my degree from Princeton and not drop out. In 2014 I only did $10k in revenue. Now in 2024 we're on pace to do somewhere between $15-20m in revenue. Never judge a book by its cover. This has been a long journey from humble beginnings!

Two days ago I received this email from Dave Beal at Market Performance Group about the speed at which the Cheers team concepted a display and then had it uploaded into 1WorldSync. In Dave Beal's words: "This has to be a record." And "Never seen it done this fast before." Dave Beal is an icon in the grocery industry and we're blessed to be able to work with him and his team. If you know Dave, then you know he's seen a lot, and therefore his compliments hold a LOT of weight! Want to know what I loved most about this email? I had ZERO part in this display or its execution. It was all Sam Swidensky working with Kelsey Mathews. In fact... I had to ask Sam what Dave was even referring to. You know your organization is starting to fire on all cylinders and you have built a great team when your business sets a record and you didn't even know what it was for! I'm super proud of what this team is becoming. And also super proud of all of our external partners like MPG that we work with and how well our team and theirs is collaborating on many accounts! That's good partnership 101.

Are you following Cheers on Tiktok? I recently have ramped up our Tiktok page and have been posting 2-5 videos per day. 🤯 We’ve heard a lot about TikTok Shop and seen a lot of success from brands like Frost Buddy, Brock Mammoser 👏 and Kanga Coolers, Austin Maxwell 👏 and want to see if we can crack the code. Social media platforms tend to be very strict around products in the alcohol space. We’re considered an “alcohol accessory,” so we’ll have to get creative in how we describe and talk about Cheers. We just signed with a TikTok agency and will start sending out hundreds of boxes to influencers each week to really kick things off. Follow along at @shopcheers! 🎉

PROVOCATIVE THOUGHT: If you're a business leader paid $100k /year, have many admin tasks, and are not working with a good executive assistant (EA)... then you are likely COSTING your company money. It's easy math assuming a fixed number of hours (e.g., 40-60 hours/week). If you make $100k /year then you're time is costs roughly $50/hour. But, of course, you're likely making your company 2-10x that. So you're actual contribution is closer to $100-500/hour. And this $ contribution is not from tasks like clearing the spam out of your email inbox... So any time that you spend on clearing out worthless emails, scheduling meetings, finding things, etc. is eating into your ability to do that $100-500/hour work. Now, of course, you won't trade hour for hour. Something that might take you 30 minutes might take someone else an hour. But... still, assuming their 40 hours at $15/hour ($600) can save you 10 hours a week at $250 ($2500) is still a great trade. When Shelby and I had our first baby 7 months ago I immediately realized a problem. I wanted to grow Cheers but had less time than ever. I mapped it out and decided it was around 55 hours/week that I would max out at before I became a bad husband/dad. And I was already letting things slip through the cracks... unanswered emails, forgetting promised followups, missing meeting change requests, etc. I didn't want to be unreliable. That's not my or Cheers' style. This sent me down a path of finding leverage for my time because that had just become my most limited resource. And I quickly came across books/podcasts that suggested working closely with a good executive assistant. In fact, the book "Buy Back Your Time" by Dan Martell suggests that an executive assistant is the FIRST HIRE that an executive should make, NOT THE LAST, which is usually the case as most people see it as a luxury. Let me tell you. The relationship between an executive and an executive assistant is not a luxury. It's a force multiplier that transforms an executive from a single individual and their limited time & brain power to a "department" that can operate like a well-oiled machine with processes and support. It's "1 1 = 3" type math. In this video that I sent to other executives in a share group you will see how I work with Anjalie Rajapaksa to handle my emails & meetings... which can often involve 10 meetings & 100 emails in a single day. (And this is just one of the many things we do!) If you're dying under the weight of your desk with emails, meeting followups, scheduling, losing/finding things, and needing someone that can support you, then I highly recommend working with an EA. From the advice of another founder, I found my EA through Oceans, who finds/trains/manages talent in Sri Lanka for roles like this. They make the process EASIER than hiring someone in America, and it's less than you would think. Now we have 2 people from Sri Lanka on our team and I already know we will have more in the future!

Big congrats to our partners at Lil' Drug Store Products for winning the 2024 US Best Managed Company award! 🍾🥂 I can confirm that Lil’ Drug is the best run company that I’ve ever worked with. I’ve joked that I think Lil’ Drug is the only company that I’d ever work for that isn’t my own—that’s how much I respect and enjoy working with them. We’re proud to be part of their collective of brands that they bring to the convenience, travel, and hospitality channels! 💊

We were all our morning huddle team meeting this morning and someone just said: "Guys, Sean Riley just posted about us!!!" 👀 We pulled the video up and it was quite a heart warming experience to see someone interact with the Quarterly Newsletter Box that we put so much time and thought into. Anjalie Rajapaksa, amazing job putting together the list of people to send this to. Dalia Steichen and Leah Nguyen, you guys did such an awesome job making this box. This was really a team effort. All I can take credit for is the idea and approving the budget for this program! We realize that building a business not only takes hard work from the internal team... but also all of our external partners—suppliers, vendors, merchants, brokers, lawyers, accountants, etc. It takes an army! This Quarterly Newsletter Box is our way of saying thank you to that army and keeping them up to date on all things Cheers. 📦