You’ve Got To Invest In Yourself

Owning a business requires a lot of self-belief and sticking with your gut feeling, even when persevering through the tougher times.

Today we’re meeting an entrepreneur whose drive and determination has created a globally successful business and won her many awards, despite nearly losing it all during the 2020 pandemic. Inspired by her grandfather’s homemade spirits, she has captured the attention of some big investors such as Russell Crowe, Ed Sheeran and Jimmy Carr, and is investing back into her local community with the opening of a brand home local visitor centre just this year.

Our guest today is Global Irish Business Entrepreneur of the Year 2024 and Founder and CEO of The Muff Liquor Company, Laura Bonner. Visit https://www.themuffliquorcompany.com/

For your convenience, we include an automated AI transcription.

Laura Bonner  0:00

So May 2020 was when it all crashed. Because we didn’t know how the disease was being transmitted at that time, every order was suspended just one after the other. And I was like, officially, I do not have a business.

VO  0:15

No unicorns, no brands, just hard-working people who built their business from the ground up sharing their experience so others can learn. Presented by Larissa Feeney from Kinore. This is Real Business Conversations.

Larissa Feeney  0:34

Hello. My name is Larissa Feeney. I am CEO and founder at Kinore Finance and Business Services. Today, we’re meeting an entrepreneur whose drive and determination has created a globally successful business and won her many awards. Inspired by her grandfather’s homemade spirits, she has captured the attention of some big investors such as Russell Crowe, Ed Sheeran and Jimmy Carr, and is investing back into her local community with the opening of the brand home in  County Donegal just this year. It’s a pleasure to welcome founder and CEO of the  Liquor Company, Laura Bonner.

Laura Bonner  1:10

Thanks for having me. It’s good to see you.

Larissa Feeney  1:14

I’m delighted to have you here today, and you’re so good to give us, to give us your time. I really do appreciate it. I know you are incredibly busy. Um, you’ve had the most amazing year. And would you be willing to start by maybe telling us a little bit about 2024 and everything that you’ve achieved this year.

Laura Bonner  1:31

I guess 2024 seems to be I’ve lived 2000 months like we’re not even finished yet. I was living in Australia until April, and I was coming home because obviously the build of the brand home in Moff was was taking place, so I was obviously coming home for that too footage, because it was very, very difficult to try and project manage a building when you are 11 hours difference in a different country. Had opened up our brand home in Muff. We had a big launch party. We got our deal from America. We got our first shipment on the water. I’m currently talking to you from Miami. I am now living here. I relocated to the states nearly two months ago. It feels like a year ago. So yeah, like when I say a lot happened. A lot happened. Let’s

Larissa Feeney  2:18

start to the very beginning. Then, because we you today, you’re in America, you’re about to see your physical bottles on shelves for the first time, which is a fantastic achievement and a super moment to mark. Take me back to the beginning,

Laura Bonner  2:34

to the very beginning. Well, like this, is a 20 year dream as such. You know, I first sent my first email at 19 to my family call it at the buffalo company, and announcing that I was dropping out of law school to move home to learn how to make vodka from Brandeis potatoes. I was gonna own this alcohol company. I think I like, I was like, just gonna, just gonna start it, and then I’m gonna sell it. I think was kind of my attitude. My mom was terrible ill at the time. My brother was like, You are not doing this? Are you absolutely insane? We have got so much going on. What do you know about making alcohol or even setting up a business at this age, I stayed in law school, qualified, hated it. Moved to London. I worked in real estate, which is, I have, like, a passion for it. Still, like I absolutely loved it. I never had a job that I didn’t like, which is quite rare, I think. But I really, really enjoyed everything about but the passion and the idea of the loveliker company never left me for those 12 years. I constantly talked about it. I would constantly come up with drawings and ideas. And I had the domain. And then my business partner, Tom, so I was his account manager. They’re like a huge property. I could in the UK. I was their account manager for eight years. And he kind of just said to me, Look, we’re sitting in Shanghai. I was 30 or 30 what at this stage I was a director of the UK. It’s like, we have 300 staff, 17 offices. And I was miserable. I was like, really, really, really visible. And he was like, You have absolutely everything going for you. I was just not what I want. And he was like, please do not mention the Muff Liquor Company. Please don’t mention it again. I was like, that’s what I want to do. I was like, my body is physically telling me to make the jump. So he sent me an email the next day, and he said to me, Look, whatever you’re selling, I’m buying. Like, I completely trust you. So if you need money, which obviously that’s what I needed, he was like, let’s team up together. And he goes, Let’s become partners. He goes, but I need you to resign, pack up your stuff and move home and do it. And I did that in less than five weeks. Wow, that was a start. That was the start of me crying.

Larissa Feeney  4:55

You need that push to make it happen.

Laura Bonner  4:57

And, you know, I did, I think. I was so afraid to do it on my own. But like, with all due respect to Tom, Tom is one of my closest friends. He’s an amazing business partner, but he’s very silent. You know, he knows he does. He has no running. Was a company. But secondly, I probably could have done it on my own, but, like, I’m really glad that we’ve done this together, and if he he believed in me, I didn’t even have a business plan when he gave me that money, like, he literally just transferred it into my account and said, off you go. So I was all right, which is unheard of, like, I’ll be forever grateful for him. Like, I don’t know if COVID had talked about it for 12 years, I probably would have talked to it for another I probably still be talking about it. I’d probably still be in London doing property.

Larissa Feeney  5:43

I think that’s, um, that’s really important. You know, the fact that you had that supporter early on, even though he’s been silent for vast majority of the journey, he gave you that confidence, that belief in yourself, yeah, by just, just putting money out there for you, yeah, with nothing in return. No business plan, no ask, no strategy. Yeah, nothing.

Laura Bonner  6:04

Well, 50% of the company, he still, he wants. He wanted 5050, which like again, like we are still equal to this day. I look absolutely adore him, like we’re we’re in it for the long haul. Now he’s not getting rid of

Larissa Feeney  6:20

1. So he’s been silent. And although he provided the money, which is obviously so important, you provided the knowledge, the skills, the know how. You didn’t know anything about the alcohol industry, you had to learn it all from the from the beginning. Yeah,

Laura Bonner  6:37

I had a clue. I mean, I remember having this money and then having this idea and going, so, like, what, what do I do now? Like, even, like, registering the company, like, I had to, like, bring my solicitors and the accountants and the revenue and the paperwork. Like, it is so overwhelming. But, like, I just asked, like, I asked for help, non stop, and I call people like, I always say like, I’d rather lose face than like than lose money. So I’ll ask a question, and I don’t care if it looks like, if you think you might come across stupid, I don’t care. I’ll get my answer, and then I move forward. So I didn’t know anything about it like, and I mean zilch, other than drinking maybe a few on a Friday night. So I went down to a distillery. I learned how the process of how to make it. And like, the thing is, like, I was only going to make vodka and nothing else. And then my friend who worked for was she Jamison or jazz, kind of remember where she was, but she says, you know, Lord, it’s gonna be this massive trend of gin. I think I hate gin. I think I can’t sell something that I can’t I don’t believe in. And she was like, I’m telling you, like you kind of need to get ahead of this. So went down to the distillery and messed around, and I figured out what it is that I don’t actually like about gin, and it’s actually juniper berries. I don’t like the sharpness. Okay, so my gin is not to never lead, so it tastes completely different to most gins. And that is how the moth gin, which, thankfully, it did happen, it kept me going. I was my best seller until the Americans took over. Yeah. So, like, that’s how that’s all began, those early days. Then you sought

Larissa Feeney  8:19

advice from experts, from the P anybody and anybody who would give you advice. How did you know what was good advice or what wasn’t or like? How did you know what advice to follow? I

Laura Bonner  8:31

eat too. Mostly it’s, it’s a complete gut feeling. I am so aware of myself that I could be listed as somebody, and I could be like, nah, this isn’t for me. The thing too, is like everybody has advice, that everybody has ideas, and like, people contact me all the time, like, oh, have you ever thought about doing this? Oh, my God. God. I always thought, I only wish I thought about that. Of course I have. But it’s quite difficult to do, like, to put things into into motion. So I think I wrote everything down, and then you just pick the things that like are drawn to and that make more sense to like. For me, I think it’s really important to make sure you know what your principles are, your morals are, what you stand for, what your brand stands for, what you ought to be known for, and all those kind of things. And when you actually like put it all together, you just know the feeling that you’re on the Yeah, on the right path. You got to trust yourself,

Larissa Feeney  9:24

yeah. And I completely, I completely agree with you. I think if somebody I’m I think listen to people is really important, especially people who have done it, who have built a business, or doing done whatever it is that you want to do, right if you can learn from them, but you do have to trust your gut, because your gut will rarely, rarely steer you wrong. Yeah,

Laura Bonner  9:47

yeah. Well, like, I think even with any business, like, people might sell phones, I sell alcohol, people sell like, they’re still the same process and the same struggles and the P l’s and cash flows and, um. All the above. So sometimes, like, when my brother said to me, like, what are you like? What are you doing? You’re moving home to sell gin. And I was like, Sure, I’m selling properties of houses that I didn’t know how to sell properties. I didn’t even know how they were built. I was like, I could tell you absolutely everything about it, and you build property now. I said, I don’t own it. So I say, so what’s the difference about me learning my own craft? Yeah, so that’s that was his. That was his kind of thing. And I’m coming from a house of entrepreneurs. Thankfully, my dad was a really successful My mom was a savvy business woman. She was a nurse, but like savvy business woman, my brothers are extremely entrepreneurial successful, and so is my sister, and then my nephews, who are near enough, the same age and we were the same. So I’m surrounded with good people, and again, I could pick up on the phone at any time and say, I’m in trouble. I don’t understand this. Do you think this is right? And most of the time, like maybe one of my brothers said to me, now, are you ringing and asking me for advice because you you are looking for somebody to reassure you, or are you asking because you really doubt yourself? And sometimes I’m like, Oh, I just want you to tell me I’ve done right. And he’s like, he’s like, don’t tell me, just do it. He was like, you know the answer?

Larissa Feeney  11:07

Yeah, great advice. Yeah. Just do it. Um, did you always know that you were going to build a global company that always you’re efficient? Yeah?

Laura Bonner  11:17

I think it’s one of the first things I ever wrote down that I was going to be one of the biggest and best alcohol brands here at COVID of Ireland. And I’m not there yet, but I’m well, on your way. I’m on a mission. Yes,

Larissa Feeney  11:30

absolutely. And from a practical perspective, then, okay, so you have this vision, alcohol production is one of the most capital intensive industries in the world, isn’t it? You need a lot of money to get to get you there. How did you figure out how to raise the money to make it happen?

Laura Bonner  11:51

Well, Tom and I bit stranded ourselves like we, we put in over a quarter of a million just the two of us for the first well, and then we realized Coronavirus not gonna actually get us too far in the alcohol industry. A lot of the thing is, like, they you, we have to pay everything up front, at least for two years. The banks wouldn’t lend you any money for two years. They need to see accounts. I think we had gone and spoken to a few grants to just again, we were so young, but, like, we hit the ground running, and we were like, but we need the money now. Like, we can’t wait for two years. Our first fun round that we did was cry cube, which was a really intense experience. I was probably too emotionally immature and too raw in the business to have done it. I found it extremely like, stressful, plus the fact you I’ve got nearly 500 of them, they gave me their money, and then when COVID hit, obviously, I was like, I’m gonna lose everybody’s money. I know half these people from my community, half of them are my family. Like, it was horrendous. Wherever it had just been myself and Tom’s money that we were losing, we probably would have been okay. That

Larissa Feeney  13:02

was really brave. I remember that. I remember that. So that was a crowdfunding that you did, yeah, crowdfunding campaign that you did, yeah. What year was that? Laura on

Laura Bonner  13:11

our first year, which, again, like, apparently no companies do that. But okay, so we still, we launched on February, February 3. So, yeah, it was a year and a half later. So we started it probably the following June, and the campaign was closed December, 2019 and like we had the most amazing business plan, we had these huge plans for 2020, and the whole world came down, crashed around us, 1210, weeks later. So, God, it was terrible,

Larissa Feeney  13:42

and that stress of having the expectations of what you say 500 people. How did you cope with that? I

Laura Bonner  13:51

didn’t. I cried every single day with stress. It’s not even out there, like I had my own house up as collateral, like my family to give me money, like my nephew would give me his, like, 21 he’d say, like, birthday savings. You know, it was my cousins and my best friends. You know, there were so many people, and then there was loads of people from, like, done all that had it like I was afraid to walk down the street with fear of them asking me a question, because, like, I didn’t know what I was going to do. Because no one, no one knew. So my whole thing was, like, every Monday morning the board would bring me say, right, Laura, so what are we doing? I was like, I don’t know. Does anybody have any suggestions? And they came back and was like, Listen, this is your company. You’re the CEO. You come up with the solutions. This is all on you and that. And that was the first reality check for me of going right. This is this is down to me to fix

Larissa Feeney  14:47

at the end of the day, no matter, this is actually a really tough lesson for any business owner at the end of the day. You can put the support around you with the board and the leadership team and investors and advisors, but it all comes down to you. Yeah.

Laura Bonner  14:59

Yeah, like, even during COVID, a lot of my advisors and my mentors that were very heavily evolved like they just all disappeared like they I didn’t hear from them. No, I do have my my inner boards of my circle. They were absolutely phenomenal. Like I every time we get together, I’m like, I will never forget how good you were to me to to just keep pushing me and and keep going. But again, it was one of those things. Like I was like, you’ve wanted this for so long. Are you Frank giving this up now? This this hurdle. So, yeah, I remember, like going down and go down and do, like a was, like a sunrise meditation. And I always say, Please, universe just gave me a sign, and the next thing we came up was the cocktail boxes. And I say it anytime. I’ll say it again for anybody who’s listening, who bought me bought a cocktail boxes during that time. I thank you so much, because we wouldn’t, I wouldn’t be in Miami. I wouldn’t have a company if we hadn’t had that support.

Larissa Feeney  16:00

Such a such a lesson in resilience. Um, though Laura like to have come through it. What? When did you realize that you had got out the other side of that period?

Laura Bonner  16:10

So 20 may 2020. Was when it all crashed. Um, see, because Ireland was so saturated with it was Jen and vloggers when we launched. Like, I mean, like, there was every county seemed to have a few, and it was really, really difficult for us to get the support that we needed. I didn’t know was because we were in Donegal and we couldn’t get into the Norris. And then people, you know, everyone was very like, people from each county are very loyal to their own county. So my attitude was like, right, let’s leave Ireland and go overseas. So we spent nearly 18 months in Asia just selling our souls, getting up and running. We’re like, right? We are ready to go. And next thing, because we didn’t know how the disease was being transmitted at that time, every order was suspended just one after the other 72 hours got my first email by 72 hours got my ninth saying everything had stopped. And I was like, officially, do not have a business. I do not have a penny coming in. I don’t know how I’m going to do run anything survived it. And then January must have been 22 I always get 2223 mixed up. I got an email from one of my big orders previously. Now they ghosted me the entire time during COVID, like I stayed in contact with them, never gonna reply, and then they sent me an emails. Is this like we were chatting yesterday with, Hey, Laura, Hope’s all well with you, and we’re ready to continue with your with this order. At that point, I was like, Okay, I don’t have the cash flow or the dry goods to actually fulfill this container, which said, I was like, It’s chicken and the egg. And a few of my advisors that said to me, you know, if you do do this, the chances are you You will go bankrupt, because you, you’ll be putting this money out, but by the time they actually pay you, there’ll be too many months and gone past. And I handed out, handed hands and like, I just couldn’t let it go. And I rang John tealine, who is one of the greatest men to walk this planet. And he said, Laura, sell a kidney. He goes, you make sure that shipment is on that water. So I was like, okay, so then I went to me, I went to my brothers, and I hadn’t gone to them at all because, like, I think everybody just expected me to go to them. But you know, like yourself, you were like, dinner’s on my own. Went to and my brothers, and of course, they were like, look, we’ll do editing for you, and we believe that you have this so of course, we’ll help you out. So my brother actually gave me money, and he said to me, it’s like throwing money on a fire, and that’s all he said to me. Didn’t say, make this work, or he wasn’t angry. That’s all he said to me. And I said, you can watch it burn, but I’m telling you, we’re gonna dance around it. So got my order out, and then maybe less than six or eight weeks later, I bloody met Russell Crowe. He changed my life that I will be forever grateful for that man. I rang my brother, and I was like, Do you want this money back? Or

Larissa Feeney  19:21

Or can I keep it? But you have to tell us. You have to tell us how you met Russell Crowe, because you met you, you make a sound like you just accidentally bumped into him on the street. And no, no, there was much more behind us to that.

Laura Bonner  19:34

Well, I actually, like wrote on my my vision board a year before I even launched the business, that I would have Ed Sheeran as a shareholder, that I would have Russell Crowe do the very first tweet I’d ever done to Australia. Obviously, had loads of things written my whiteboard, and then five years later, I got both of them as my shareholders and got them to do my tweet. So I, I really, I really wanted them, Ed, mainly, I just felt myself and Ed were very aligned. From the very beginning, I was told, like, 10 years before I even launched the business, that he had tried to buy the Muff Liquor name, because he, I think he was going to open a liquor store in Muff, like, is it like, you know, just, just because, just because you can, like,

Speaker 1  20:13

does he have any connection at all? No, no.

Laura Bonner  20:17

So I heard this rubber that I’ve now obviously spoken to him, I figured it was bloody true. So I heard that he wanted to buy it. Then we had the same life coach. We used the same brand agency. He had written his big historic song about his granddad. My story was with my granddad. His parents were Irish, I guess was like, we are so aligned. We are so aligned. So I managed to get to pitch to his manager, and they came back and said, look, the door is not closed, but as a jar, and it’s just not the right time for us. So to me, that was a rejection. So I like full lines through it. I was like, that is done. And then I was living in Barbados during I left during COVID. I took the nomads where you could go work remotely, a COVID free place. So I went out to Barbados, which was only COVID free for a couple of months, and kind of got stuck there for a while. And then I got managed to fly back to Ireland, and my dad threw the newspaper down and said, Russell Crowe’s in Dublin. And I thought,

Unknown Speaker  21:12

right.

Laura Bonner  21:15

I was like, I need to get in front of this man. So from my best friend’s best friend’s sister’s fiance, she sings in his band. So I managed to get in contact with her, and I was like, Look, I just need to know where he’s going to be, just so I can give him this box and like, anything like, I get people sending me stuff all the time for all the celebrities. And I always am like, I hate giving it to you, but I’m going to give it to give it to you because, like you just said everybody, though. So he got the box at half Ted on the Saturday night. It was a much gin and vodka and whiskey. I sent him a wee note. And eight o’clock i The X or, sorry, the Sunday I got a message saying, Do you have an investment deck that we can look at Monday morning, five past eight, got a phone call saying, Are you looking for investment now, at this stage, I was probably a week or two from fighting bankruptcy. I started, I started using the B word around and telling the team and telling the family that, you know, like, I think this is like, time’s up for me, plus the fact I was physically and mentally exhausted, that I was like, I just didn’t know if I had any more fight in me. When Diane met him for breakfast on the Wednesday and we had had some terms agreed the following Friday, wow. And then I found out from meeting the guys that Ed and Russell are such good friends that Ed told Russell about the Muff Liquor Company years ago. So when Russell got the box, he opened it up, sent a picture to Ed, and look what I’ve got. And Ed was like, I think you said, Oh, she’s an absolute hustler. You should meet her. And Russell reply back, okay, Russell, better reply back, I’ve met her, and she’s absolutely Mega. We’re all in and Ed has replied, okay. So I was like, Hold on here. I was like, Russell was having the story. I was like, Oh, don’t we take it away. My, my, my graft of my hustling. I was like, I can’t believe this. So, like, where it was meant to be, clearly, it was

Larissa Feeney  23:07

clearly meant to be. I mean, there’s, there’s no other way to put it, but he was aware of the Muff Liquor Company for years. Yeah, Ed

Laura Bonner  23:16

told me that him and Neil horn drank a bottle in Beverly Hills, some some house, and I would say, and obviously I would know this. I was like, That’s mental to think these two mega stars had a bottle of my gym during, like, COVID, when I was crying all the time, and they were drinking my product, and they were enjoying it like, I remember just thinking, that’s such a wow, wow, feeling like

Larissa Feeney  23:40

so at that so you were in Asia, you were selling into Asia. And was it as a result of that investment and their networks that you decided to also sell into states, or where the states were always probably in your mind, um, as a destination? Yeah, well, Asia completely

Laura Bonner  23:54

collapsed, um, during COVID, I have never heard from another one of those beings. I don’t have no other store life. I don’t know the company’s still there. Just the it just I, I’ve never been ghosted in my life, but I’ve been ghosted by those guys. So then we kind of were like, right? We need to refocus. I tried to come into America 2018 I came over here like, America is an absolute beast, and you don’t come here to test your water. You either come in here fighting be brave and bold, which else Irish are, or you just don’t, because you’ll be absolutely neither. So I was like, we’re not ready. We’re like, let’s let’s not and then when the investors came on board, obviously I needed to expand my team, like it was just my myself for the first nearly a year, and then Niall, who is my right hand man, he’s my head of ops, he joined me. I had Deborah, and then was just us, and then it was just back to myself. And now for years where it’s like, I think people thought we had this huge company, but it wasn’t. But we were kind of like, okay, like we’ve we need to expand. And. Then Tony Carl, who’s my global CCO. He came from CAST brands, Pina ricar, who’s, like, he’s an absolute boss in the industry. So the Americans kind of contact, like, they got in contact, right? Like, Tony, what’s going on with this girl? Like, what is this brand? Like, why? Why are all these celebrities? Like, why are you leaving, like, your position to join this, like, skating startup. And Tony was like, I believe in this brand so much. So then they were like, settled over these bottles, let’s, let’s try it. And then I was living in so they got a phone call saying, Here, any chance you can fly to New York for a pitch a meeting. And I was like, for, for what I was like, Are you actually you’re not seriously thinking we’re going to go into America at this stage? Said he totally is. Like, yeah, we are so flew, flew over. Did my pitch again? Couldn’t have aligned with a better brand. Blues bowls are great businessmen, like, they are huge beasts, but they are so they’re not corporate, like they were, like I was speaking like their their teams have been with them for 1015, 20 years. One of them said to another, you know, they had our marriage, it broke down, and they gave her, like, a month off, like full pay or something like insane like that, there and really, really good people. So again, I can’t do business with people that I don’t feel are completely aligned with my principles and my morals and just like respect, I suppose. So I left New York back to Sydney. Didn’t think I’d hear from these people for a while. I was there maybe 10 days, got a phone call saying, hey, any chance you can fly back to Dublin and meet the big guys for dinner? And I was like, what? So back on a plane into Dublin, and they said to me, you know, Laura, we don’t get on planes for anybody. And I was like, I would like you to know that I don’t get on planes for something for nobody, either. So again, got on amazing with them. They were like, we are heavily invested in you and your brand. We did a deal,

Speaker 1  27:11

and here we are, wow, and that was for 30,000 cases.

Laura Bonner  27:18

No cases, yeah, 35 cases are here in the States. So I actually rang one of the stores there, they only got the stock on Friday, and they were like, we’re actually sold out. We’ve had to reorder. And I think what? And I was like, No, you can’t. So I was like, it’s just arrived. And he was like, Yeah, ma’am, um, we’ve got new stock coming. So I like, Now, did they only order three like, was it a very small order? Just test it. So anyway, I need to go find out. Now today, amazing

Larissa Feeney  27:45

and how, what has it been like? Because obviously, as you said, the US is a beast. How, like, how do you start in terms of marketing or advertising in a market like that? Well,

Laura Bonner  27:58

again, we’ve been aligned with probably the best brand agency for alcohol in the world, like in America. So we signed with Quaker CS study mercantile, which is run by Steve brass, who is like he’s notorious in the business. He actually created head mix from scratch. So they we flew to Philadelphia, met with their team. They have a huge team, and they are just amazing. Don’t get me wrong, the American advertising and marketing is a little bit different to what I and the Irish would see the brand. So I have the same now. We bend it, but don’t break it. So this is, this is new to me. So even though, like we’ve started the rollout, we’re not making any noise about it. We’re doing a very soft launch, just to get them into, like, the big retail stores. And we’re not launching now until the new year, because we were meant to launch in June. We were going to have it all in for Christmas. The hurricane came that latest, maybe 10 weeks, the water couldn’t get the shipment in. I think it is what it is for a reason. So 2024 is not our time to big launch, but 2025 well, so we’ll hit the ground running then and in the new year.

Larissa Feeney  29:10

So you’ve talked there about bending up, breaking this so are you talking about the approach to the market is very different. The brand might be a different there might be a different perception of the brand in the US compared to Ireland, and you have to accept that and trust the experts and go with it.

Laura Bonner  29:29

Look, as I said, they like so we were having loads of meetings on computer. I end up just saying, look before we actually before this contract, I actually need to physically be in a room and meet you guys, because I need you to meet me and my team and understand who we are and what we are and what we stand for. Because I was like as much as America, will have a lot of fun with this. Do not disrespect myself. My. Brand, my heritage, the local community, and they got it straight away. They were like, 100% so like, I just have to trust the process. Like, I’m here, this is what I wanted. You can’t you can’t be keep it safe all the time. Brands evolve. Like, designs change, stories change, and like, there’s always so much that my story that, like, I just tell the same story all the time. Like, nothing, nothing has changed in my story. Like, obviously we’re moving into America, but until maybe this time next year, like, God knows what’s going to happen, but I’m just putting, putting all my faith into the divine good there.

Larissa Feeney  30:38

But I think it’s, it’s a really important process, and it’s really important part of the growth journey that you’re never going to be comfortable with every unless you keep your brand really small, right, Laura, and as you keep it really tiny, and some people, some businesses, do, and that’s fine, but your vision has always been to go global, and by doing that, and you may have to be uncomfortable sometimes, and, and that’s okay, it’s

Laura Bonner  31:07

just, it’s the fear, it’s the fear of the unknown, and it’s the fear of a bit of backlash. But again, you know, like I’ve had multiple meet interviews last week, now we’re under embargo until the new year. Out of the 20 that I had, 19 of them were amazing. But one guy hated it, hated so, hated my the liquid hated the name, didn’t like the celebrities. Just seemed insulted by everything that I said. And I was like, and I I laughed and like, it shook me, or like, I’m not gonna lie. And I lay in bed at quarter four that morning, got over the whole thing, and I was like, that was really humbling experience, and I needed to hear that, because my brand’s not going to be for everyone. People will be offended. People are going to want to like the name, they’re not going to like the liquid and like, that’s okay, like, and I, again, I met your customer, 100, so yeah, I was, I was I thanked. I have a thing that every night, I go through a list of everyone I speak to, and I do gratitude to thank them for their time and their experience. And I he was probably the one I thought about the most that night. Yeah,

Larissa Feeney  32:17

yeah. Unbelievable experience for you, though, and as you say, very positive experience, ultimately.

Laura Bonner  32:23

Yeah, well, you have to just take a you have to look at the positive from that like it is what it is, what it is. My PR team were like, oh my god, I’m so sorry. And I was like, Don’t you just don’t worry about it. I Yeah, like, yeah, she can’t protect me from everybody.

Larissa Feeney  32:35

No, no, no, exactly. Tell me, Laura, what are the plans then for 2025 so major launch in the us all going well at the start of January, hopefully, the video for the hurricanes and for the rest of 2025 What’s your plans?

Laura Bonner  32:53

America is obviously our main focus. We’ve got this opportunity now, like we will be grabbing it by both hands and running with it. I’ve applied for a late a later license for my the brand home. I don’t know what we were thinking. That we thought we could run a company and only be opened five hours or six hours, five days a week, like it’s just it’s not feasible. We’ve had a few objections, which we were kind of expecting. So hopefully we’ll get that, and we want to, obviously have more people come to any Sean and to the area and the brand home and and do events and the tours and stuff out there. And like, I absolutely love the brand home. And I know I was only home for a couple of months when I was open, but every single day when I opened that door. Like, so proud of you. Like, I love that this is buying. Or like, you know, it was all like, if I vision board for years and years and years, and I never thought, I honestly didn’t think I would get to a point where it would actually, like physically exist. So yeah, that’s my big my big focus for Ireland, and then the US is just, just be here and grow it as friends spread my fall over America. Get everybody to become a Muff Liquor member and listen, this is not much, yeah, broad awareness. Liquid to lips, get the sales and just keep driving good.

Larissa Feeney  34:11

And before I let you go, because I’m very conscious of your time, and we’re very grateful for it, because your story is just it’s just amazing. What advice would you give to somebody who was where you were back in COVID, or even before COVID, you know, everything that you’ve gone through, all the lessons that you’ve learned, the journey that you’ve been on, and you’re not near done yet, right? There’s a lot more to come. What advice would you give to somebody starting out?

Laura Bonner  34:36

Oh, well, when people starting out, I’ve got a few things now. So I always see you got to invest in yourself. If you cannot cook, you need to tell somebody like, I like, I would come home and sometimes say, like, I’m barely eating, or I’m eating really bad, unhealthy. And I say to my family, I need help. And they would literally bring me meals to make sure that I’m being fed. And. You’ve got to really look after yourself mentally, like, I Oh, my God, into therapy, life coaching, meditation, plant medicine, gratitude journaling, only in the last six years. Like my whole thing was, I said, God, can you imagine I was doing this in my early 20s? Like I would have been unstoppable. And I think it’s really you’ve got to listen to your gut. Like I don’t listen to anybody else other than my gut, even Tom my business partner will say the only person I’ll never argue is with your gut, because I generally believe that when I ask for some guidance from a higher power, that I will get it and just believe in yourself. Like, if you are doubting yourself, why in there? Should anybody else. Believe in you.

Larissa Feeney  35:41

Yeah, love it. That’s great. That’s just fantastic advice. Laura, you are a superstar. Thank you very, very much. I really appreciate your time. I know it’s been amazing to talk to you. Thank you so much.

Laura Bonner  35:53

Thank you. It’s also a pleasure. It’s great to have you.

VO  35:56

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