Rants with Bethenny FrankelIs drinking out? PLUS: Demi Moore snubbed Kylie? and saying you're an "Involved Dad" isn't the flex you think it is.
Let's talk about dry January. Let's talk about sober. Let's talk about sober curious. Let's talk about sober ish. Let's talk about California Sober. I have a wine brand, Forever Young. It is a superb wine. It is a beautiful bottle. It is delicious. It has a gorgeous floral bottle with a glass enclosure.
It is elite.
If it came out at a different time, it would be every bit as successful as Whispering Angel or Rock Angel. It is every bit, if not better. It is excellent wine. Like anything else is marketing, Rose is crowded. It became the hottest space. When I was growing up, Rose was like not even a wine. It was like this zinfandet. It just wasn't a wine. And while it does well, the distribution isn't explosive. It's not skinny girl. I didn't invent something new. It's not a ready to drink cocktail, which I started the space of ready to drink low calorie. I started the whole you know, packaged margarita thing I started. I started the celebrity uh cocktail space as we know it. And I was sort of dipping back in and going back in versus like starting something new. The ma the sober life is interesting. Alcohol is down. It is almost like a reaction and a rebellion to what was going on during the pandemic. When alcohol was up. Alcohol was up, luxury goods were up. A lot of things were swollen, like you know, the watch, the luxury watch business.
Obviously, travel was down.
At home learning was up, Zoom was like, you know, there's a million things, but one of the trends was that.
Alcohol was crazy.
People were gaining weight and drinking a lot, and then the pendulum swung and sober is a reaction. It's a reaction and it's a new way of life. Young gen z they're not really drinking. I mean, young kids do edibles, et cetera. You make your own choices about what you think about that. But basically, drinking trends are down, and I'm finding that, you know, I haven't had any alcohol in a minute. I have pots, which makes me severely dehydrated. It's almost like a Shashido pepper. One to two out of every twenty times I'll drink, it'll hit really very dangerous and bad and dehydrated and like need an ivy and it just doesn't work for me really, but like is it boring? And how do you handle social drinking and how do you handle dating? Dating is a big one. Dating is hard to do without drinking. It's something to do, and so like now there are a lot of non alcoholic options, but of a weird do you feel uncomfortable and there are sober bars and it's kind of something you have to break through, you know, you have to break through. It's almost like a juice fast and you start to really start feeling healthier and lighter and your eyes whiter and sleeping better after a certain period of time, and with being sober, it's like sugar gets out of system and you become a little less social. You definitely do you're not staying out late doing stupid things, but it kind of can become your personality a little, particularly if you're not an alcoholic, like if you're just a person who can choose. Yesterday, I was trying non alcoholic wines, which all suck, by the way, and took a sip of an alcoholic wine by accident because I didn't realize and like, I'm not going to die, We're not going to go on a bender, which by the way a real serious alcoholic.
It could be very bad.
But you see that, and I think Alex Cooper talked about this before the holidays. You see that people really pressure what do you mean you're not drinking? What do you mean? Like New Year's about we didn't I was out on a date and we didn't drink, and like that was a feat. You had to sort of plan ahead, like what are we going to drink? What's our cocktail choice? What's our vibe? Like you could you're standing around for a couple of hours and it's like what are we doing? What's our activity? Some people are displacing, that's the California sober now. They want to do edibles and they want to smoke pup Like I don't want to displace with another thing, like well, I want to just get a bag of cocaine, but not drink alcohol like you know, and I know people who like do crazy shit. It's like, let's do heroin and get a facial mask and drink water and I'm not even kidding. So to just be sober and you need other things like what's the other thing? Is there good music so then you can dance? Is are you going to something that's an activity like do you have a sober partner, how do you handle what's your party line for what to say to somebody who's peer pressure in you? Which will happen into your adult, middle aged, senior citizen life, Like it's not just for college kids. My answer would be you do you, I'll do me, or it's for health rea, you know. But I think it's an interesting space and interesting conversation, and I think it's something to watch. I'm in the mocktail space and I'm watching this entire space because it's also like social.
Consciousness health, it's wellness.
There have been a lot of changes in the way that the Surgeon General the health community looks at drinking.
So it's just something to discuss.
Certainly, liquor brands are declining and freaking out. Okay, story about Demi Moore seemingly or allegedly snubbing Kylie Jenner at the Golden Globes because she didn't say hello to her directly, and Kylie wanted her to say hello. Who the hell gives a shit? Kylie Jenner Demi Moore don't know each other. Necessarily doesn't look like it in that video. You don't have to say hello to every single person that's famous, then you're an asshole. Also, oh, it's the famous person saying hello to other famous person's club. Like she's at a table, she was like trying to insert herself in the conversation.
Who cares?
That happens all the time with celebrities. Who gives a shit just because she's Kylie? Like good for Demi Moore for not like caring. She might have said a load to the waitress, but not Kylie Jenner, Like it's so fucking stupid. It doesn't like like sometimes I'll not at someone and they'll not at me because they are aware of who I am and I'm aware of who they are, basically just because we're public people. And then it feels really superficial and stupid too. It's like, yes, I'm famous, you're famous. I'm not that famous. You're more famous, you're less famous, you.
Know what I mean.
Like it's sort of like dog sniffing in the dog park. But at that event where Demi Moore got her first acting award, and she's probably worried about her outfit and saying hello to the right person, and what is she's saying? You don't have to go say a lot to every single person, Like it's okay. Just because Kylie Jenner's a billionaire with a sister who as a cashmir aligned plane doesn't mean Demi Moore did something wrong by not saying hello to her. People are crazy and it's just clickbait. I mean, you know, it's just and her daughter chimed in, like give it a fucking rest, I think because it is, like, give it a fucking rest.
Who actually as a crap?
So in dating on dating profiles, I've been correcting and editing people's dating profiles. It's really fun, and you'd be shocked at how shitty people's dating profiles are. You couldn't believe the mistakes that people make, like the in your face way that someone answers the prompts on an app that would alienate anyone. And for me, I'm a pretty fucking harsh, aggressive person. Like, but I'm still aware that you don't need to like kick someone in the teeth in your dating profile, and you don't need like a picture of yourself with four hot girlfriends, or your mommy and your picture or your child with a hearty face emoji. But chlone, behold, I've found all of these things in very smart and savvy people's dating profiles. But anyway, one of the things that so the men want to show the picture with their kids, so they'll sometimes put the emoji face over or just show the kids because they want to show that they're a dad, and like they want to it's like puppy at the park, like bait for the women and you know, saying dad. You know, it's proud dad too or whatever. Girl, Dad is a little cheesy, but that's okay, that's fine, Like we don't need a picture of you with your kids. I know a guy who had like his arms around the kids in three pictures. It's like they want to show how involved they are. Very involved, Dad, I'm very involved. It's so irritating because women don't say I'm a very involved mom, Like it's pretentious. And it's also like, no shit, I'm a very involved mom. You guys like you're gonna get an extra cookie. It's almost like the way that like men can be a dick and not be called a name, but women, if they're bitchy in business or straightforward, they're a total like miserable bitch, you know, and like it's it would be, like how someone like Hillary would be probably Hillary or Kama would And it's not a Democrat Republican thing. I just these are the candidates that were women would be perceived versus like a Donald Trump in the boardroom or something. But it's the same thing in the sense that it's such a double standard, like very involved. Imagine I was like, yeah, I'm a very involved mom. A fuck off, you pretentious loser. B You don't get a cookie for that. That's basically that's like signing your name on the SAT. It's like you get that, that's it. That's like you just that's the three hundred points for signing it. Like you shouldn't even get the three undred points for signing your name. It's just annoying. It's like a man should not need to say very involved dad anymore than he needs to put his fucking kid kitty emoji anymore that he needs to be holding a giant fish. And by the way, I'm allergic to fish. So it's gonna be a big turnoff on your dating profile if I see that.
Okay, very involved dad, thank you. This is just a quick business rant because.
I have partners in very many different categories from popcorn to shape ord to salad dressing, to mocktails, to books, to podcasts to everything okay, and particularly with products, if you were interested in a product or launching a brand or a service or an idea, do not ever assume someone is smarter than you. And the reason I say this is because the most success I've ever had was with a partner who was moderately successful in the space, not the big dog in the space. I had nothing going on, and we just pushed something through ourselves. And had we listened to the market and listened to the advice and listen to all the people that told me what to do, who were experts in that space, the liquor industry, we would have bonded. And ever since that biggest success, I've been very successful at other things and made more money on other things than even the cocktail, but never had like such a concentrated boom, like just a you know, not instant, but like a power success where you turned and like you had a liquidity event. And now I find that everybody's relying on data. And I had this happen with a partner or in a specific drink where I told them what I wanted to do. I referenced a specific product that I love that I thought was going all the way. They had all this data to tell me what it was, what it was, and what the market was doing. We were going after what the market was doing, and it was a similar product to other products, and I knew it was not going to hit because I just felt like we were copying. And I was like, I don't want to do what somebody else already did, but do it differently, Like I want to start a new idea. Wait, but this is what people are doing. I don't care people are doing. I don't care people have been doing. I'm going to educate them and I'm going to influence them to do something new. To want this new thing. It doesn't exist yet, It's gonna goro margarita. Low calorie didn't exist in cocktails. Ready to drink didn't exist in cocktails in the way that it is today. Low calorie ready to drink certainly didn't exist. Celebrities didn't exist in cocktails. All of this seemed crazy to people because it was new. It was new. And I say this because the other day I was telling a partner mind what we need to do, and they were reading me data sheets, and I was like, data is great. It's good for you to support and be comfortable by data. But if we're looking at people already have done, or what your data is telling you based on what people have done, we're already lost. I tell people what they're gonna want. I show people what they're gonna want. So do not let the market drive what you do, and don't let everyone else's opinion and the deep data dive totally inform what you're gonna do. It's good to listen, it's good to talk to people, but it doesn't mean that they're going to be right.
You have a gut for a reason, and you know what could land.
And if something smells fishy it doesn't seem like it's gonna work, then it probably won't because you have to be fully behind it
