As a high school student, Christie had her life mapped out: she knew exactly where she wanted to go to school, what she wanted to major in, and what career path she wanted to take. How did Christie go from a Journalism major, writing a story about a weapons exchange while living in Germany, to becoming a leading woman business owner in the Beverage Marketing Industry? What is Beverage Marketing? Although that is seemingly a very different career outcome, Christie tells us how she is still writing, still creating, and still contributing to her industry in a meaningful way–to the extent that she started a non-profit to support women and address major issues in the industry. Having life take a different turn that what we originally planned can often be far better than we dreamed! Don’t miss Christie’s story, advice she gives to students, her conviction to serve and support women, and a glimpse into life in the Beverage Marketing Industry.
Follow Christie and her work at https://cjlconsults.com/, where you can find all of her social media handles, information about The WITI group, and listen to experts and changemakers in her industry on her podcast, Lawler Out Loud.
As a high school student, Christie had her life mapped out: she knew exactly where she wanted to go to school, what she wanted to major in, and what career path she wanted to take. How did Christie go from a Journalism major, writing a story about a weapons exchange while living in Germany, to becoming a leading woman business owner in the Beverage Marketing Industry? What is Beverage Marketing? Although that is seemingly a very different career outcome, Christie tells us how she is still writing, still creating, and still contributing to her industry in a meaningful way–to the extent that she started a non-profit to support women and address major issues in the industry. Having life take a different turn that what we originally planned can often be far better than we dreamed! Don’t miss Christie’s story, advice she gives to students, her conviction to serve and support women, and a glimpse into life in the Beverage Marketing Industry.
Follow Christie and her work at https://cjlconsults.com/, where you can find all of her social media handles, information about The WITI group, and listen to experts and changemakers in her industry on her podcast, Lawler Out Loud.
Thank you for joining us today on Paths in Progress. I'm your host, Carrie Young. On this podcast, people in a variety of career fields, talk about their journey from choosing their college, deciding which majors and minors to pursue, their first jobs out of college, and all of the hurdles, detours and victories along their path through today. Our goal is to help students hear about a variety of exciting opportunities out there and understand what day-to-day life is like in these careers. I hope you enjoy and learn from our story today. Thanks for listening.
Carrie:Hi, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. We are here with Christie Lawler. She is a Beverage Marketing Expert. She is a founder and owner of her own company and she is the creator of JAB Mixology. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and she has her MBA. Christie, thanks so much for joining us today.
Christie:Absolutely. Thank you for having me. I'm looking forward to this.
Carrie:Me too, and I know that intro does not even cover everything that you do. So I'm excited to dive into that. Seriously, I mean, every time you post on LinkedIn and stuff, I'm like, how on earth does she do all of this? So I'm excited to hear about it.
Christie:I don't sleep much. That's the answer. It's, it's not good advice, unfortunately.
Carrie:Right? That is often the answer, isn't it? So, can you take us back to your teenage years and in high school and tell us a little bit about what you were thinking regarding looking at colleges and what you were thinking about your career path?
Christie:Yeah. I was one of those kids I had my entire life road mapped by the time I was a freshman in high school. Oh, wow. I knew exactly how things were gonna go down. In all of our teenage brilliance when we're 14 years old, don't we all have everything figured out?
Carrie:Right. I was gonna be a fashion designer. Oh. So clearly that worked out. Yeah.
Christie:It's funny because, you know, I'm still friends with a lot of folks who are like, I'm not sure what I want to do. Well, we're in our forties now, you know? Yeah. So I don't think that there's any time where it should be a target where you figure it out, right?
Carrie:There's no destination. Like no, it's just the journey continues.
Christie:Life is a journey. Exactly. But yeah, I knew exactly what I wanted to do and I was going to work toward that. I was assigned myself a to be editor of our yearbook. I worked at the school newspaper, I worked at the school television station. I knew I wanted to be in journalism in that space. I knew I would prefer to be behind the camera taking pictures. Turns out I'm not a good photographer. That's not in my skillset, but I really love taking pictures and telling stories through pictures. I just wasn't good at it. But I was really good at writing, so I followed the path of becoming a newspaper reporter. Because I literally, I knew exactly I was gonna go to Arizona State, I was gonna go to the Walter Cronkite school. I was gonna get a degree in journalism, and I was gonna go be a journalist in whatever way the industry would have me. I was gonna do the job.
Carrie:Where did that come from? Were you inspired by a particular person or did you have a life experience that made you wanna do that? Do you remember what sparked that?
Christie:I loved writing. I loved writing and reading as a kid. Like my favorite things to do were, you know, crack open a book or sit and write a poem, or write a short story or just write my journal. I was like, oh my God. I can make money writing, so why wouldn't I do that? I also wanted to be a writer. I wanted to pen some novels. Communication was my jam. I mean, obviously I loved watching like Oprah, Barbara Walters and Katie Couric, like, I loved watching them, watching their interviews. You know, Barbara Walters, her interviews always were so amazing. Yeah. And I was like, wow. She could pull anything out of anybody. This is awesome. I didn't want to be in front of the camera either, because, I was afraid of some of the pressure of what it takes as a female to be in front of the camera. But yeah, I ended up doing it for a short while too as a career, you know, managed to get on a newspaper staff and become editor of a publication. It was awesome.
Carrie:Nice. So can you tell us a little bit about your college experience? As a journalism major who already knew what you wanted to do, how did you take advantage of that time in college to gain experience and work toward your goal?
Christie:I did a lot of internships. I've always been a person that burns the candle at both ends, so I had to work full-time in college to pay my bills. I also had to take a lot of extra classes because when I transferred to Arizona State from community college, I had a full year worth of unused credits. Like I transferred with 22 more credits than I needed to graduate, and they weren't gonna help me graduate. Oh wow. Because they were pointless. Yeah, they were pointless. Classic. Also, never follow your parents' advice fully. My parents dictated that this is what I would do. I said, that's not how this is going to work. It doesn't make sense. We agreed to disagreed and in the end I followed what they told me to do and they were wrong, which was really fun when they sat down with my counselor at Arizona State being like, why is she not graduating on time? She's like, well, she's got 22 extra credits mm-hmm. that she can't use. So she transferred here with only a year and a half instead of two years. And now she's had to make up for all of that and it's taking quite a bit longer. I mean, I was taking summer school classes. Yeah. Like I was doing everything I could and one semester I took 21 credit hours. Yeah. Plus working full-time and internships, and I had multiple internships. I walked out of there with three different internships under my belt.
Carrie:Wow. Can you tell us a little bit about what those were?
Christie:I worked at Ello Radio Station, a local alternative rock radio station, which was awesome. I loved it. And then I worked for USA Films, doing movie promos. And then I worked for our local ABC affiliate television station. And that was the one where I really got the most hands on because I sat on the assignment desk and I would go out with the reporters or the videographers and actually like, be a part of shooting the stories, like the videographer I loved working with most, even though I just butchered that word, cause I can't say videographer with a head cold. He would let me, like, actually shoot. He would hand me the camera. Wow. Yeah. He really, I can't remember his name and even if I did, I wouldn't say it, but he really just, He gave a shit, you know? And that's what you want. Yeah, right. You want those people that really care, and they're there to help and they don't feel threatened by someone who wants to learn. So I had amazing intern experiences before graduation. I tried everything and figured out what I wanted to pursue.
Carrie:So did you feel like the internships you did, were they kind of a confirmation of what you wanted to do and just help you move forward on that same path?
Christie:Absolutely. Yeah, totally. Because each one of them was different. I mean USA films, that was much more in the entertainment space, but, each one of them taught me that no matter where I land in this business, As long as I'm doing this, I'll be happy and fulfilled.
Carrie:Yeah, that's great. So when you graduated from college, what was your first job? What did you start doing?
Christie:Well as soon as I graduated, we moved to Germany. So that was, that was a kink. So that's big in my career.
Carrie:You wanna talk about that for a second?
Christie:Well, Brandon was in the military, so Yes. Yeah. We got reload to Germany. I was like, okay, well that affects my ability to get a job in the US. Mm-hmm. there was no such thing as remote work in 2000. Mm-hmm. So we picked up and moved to Germany and working for the US government was a very different prospect because it wasn't like civilian companies where they could just hire a role. They had very few roles and they were completely dictated by budgetary constraints that were placed arbitrarily on the different divisions. So I had to intern for free for six months at the newspaper for the shot of getting a job at the newspaper. Oh my, it was my gosh option. So I worked as a cashier at the commissary and a front desk agent at the local hotel on the base. And then in the daytime I would go and volunteer my time as a newspaper reporter. And I did that for six months, which was incredibly hard, like mentally debasing. Like, I'm like, I have all this experience, all this passion, all this knowledge. I'm so excited to do this. And I instead have the code for bananas memorized, right. And I'm working for free. And the woman I was working for was an unmitigated nightmare of a human. She was the most hateful person I'd encountered to date in my life, and she was my boss. Oh wow. So when the job finally opened, I applied and she hired someone else, and she's like, yeah. I needed somebody that's better. I'm like, ouch. Wow. Says that to someone. Yeah. And well then the person turned it down and so she comes over to my desk. Mind you, I'm still working for free. Even after she's completely dehumanized me for fun. She comes over to my desk and she's like, well, Maria turned it down. So I guess I'll give it to you. I mean, you're all I have at this point. Thanks. I took it. Wow. But luckily bosses above her that valued what I was doing, the work I was producing, the level of energy I was able to maintain. They also knew how she was treating me, so they protected me from her. They would see how she was treating me and they managed to find me different roles and promote me around her and give me different jobs so that I had opportunities outside of that space. And eventually I did get a full-time gig, and she was gone. Yeah. I definitely don't recommend sticking around. Mm-hmm. when someone's abusing you, especially to that degree. But back then, I mean, I couldn't pay my bills. I wasn't making any money. I went from managing a bar making, you know, 5K a month in gratuity to working for a thousand dollars a month.
Carrie:When we're so young and new in the workforce, sometimes people just don't have enough experience to understand that there are things you can do, there are things that you can report. Just the newness too. Sometimes you feel like, oh, well, I'm a newbie and I kind of have to go through this. I've heard so many people tell stories like, well, I thought this was kind of normal when you start out in a place, you know that it's gonna be really hard and you have to work harder and you barely get paid anything. And that is an unfortunate truth that a lot of us experience. Right. But I'm glad you're saying it this way, so students can hear that and recognize, like, you don't have to put yourself through that. You can walk away or talk to someone or evaluate your options with HR or whatever it is in the space that you're in. Yeah. What kinds of things were you writing about in the six months you were working for free, and then as you transitioned into the paid work, what were the kinds of things you were working on?
Christie:I mean, it was literally any story that came across my desk. I wrote stories on events that were happening in the community. One of my favorite ones, there was a weapons exchange with the Russian Marines at one of the posts in our community. So I got to cover and it was like our special forces and the Russian Marines and they were doing a weapons exchange. So like they were in our firing range, which is an old World War II bunker. And they were literally shooting each other's guns. which was fascinating cuz I'm like sitting there. And of course I don't speak Russian. And like a lot of our guys don't speak Russian and a lot of them speak way better English than we speak Russian. Mm-hmm. But it was fascinating just shooting each other's weapons and then at one point, one of the guys looks at me and he says in Russian and then the commander of their force translated, but he pretty much said, I can't believe this is what Americans get to use for target practice. This is where we sleep. Hmm. It's like, my gosh, I mean it's literally, it's a dirt ground cement bunker. There's nothing, I mean, it's completely exposed to the elements. Wow. And I was like, wow, this is like, this is your barracks. Wow. But it was everything from like a teacher shortage or a substitute shortage to a new class rolling out at the gym, to a new family program, rolling out with the family and child programming. It was literally anything and everything. It was fun.
Carrie:Did you feel like there was anything in particular that you really took from that whole experience working in Germany that kind of fueled you moving forward or that you always look back on and appreciate a lot?
Christie:I mean, I learned so much and I remember like driving down the freeway one day, because we had four bases in the area and I would always hit our posts and I would always have to like run between all of them and often get stuck in horrendous traffic on the Audubon. But I remember thinking as I'm sitting there in AAU one day, which is the word for traffic jam in Germany, like, well, I mean it could be worse. I could still be bartending at a dive bar, so at least I'm stuck in traffic in Germany about to go cover a story and doing my dream job. Yeah. So I'm gonna choose to be happy about this show. I loved it every day. Like it was always something new. When I was out of the office and I was being creative and I was away from some toxic folks, I was in my zen space, you know, I was super happy and it grew from there. I mean, it started rough, but it got better and better and better. I was grateful that I, you know, persevered and stuck it out.
Carrie:Yeah. And do you have anything to say to students just about having the experience in your life of living in another country and just how that changes you as a person and enriches your life during that time and the type of learning that you have to go through just to get through your day-to-day. I know it's a little bit different cuz you were on an American military base, but you still experienced a whole new country as a young person. Oh yeah. And I'm sure there's things about that that you felt like changed you.
Christie:Oh, every bit of it. Honestly. Every bit of it was actually an evolutionary process. The Germans, they all speak English. Even those that say that they don't speak English, they speak English. Cause they start learning English in kindergarten. Like we're so far behind as a country, we're learning a second language is actually not a focus. I think it's just we're doing ourselves a massive disservice by not expanding our cultural base. Yeah. And when you consider how multicultural of a country we are, it's really ridiculous, honestly. But, the Germans all spoke English and since I came from Arizona, my Spanish was very broken at best after four years of Spanish education. So obviously I didn't know any German and I would pick it up and I would try to speak it, but my accent was so horrible. They'd be like, can you just speak English please, cuz I can understand you. It was just like the differences of. you know, nothing's open on a Sunday, where in the us like that's when we get our stuff done, right? And yeah, there's no such thing as like a drive through car wash. Oh my God, you have to stop and actually wash your car. No drive through ATMs. Oh my God. I don't wanna have to park and go into a bank. Parking is not there. There were those kinds of things, but then it was the reason things weren't open on Sundays is because that is your day to just do nothing. That is your chill day. We don't give ourselves a chill day. They're pretty much off for over a month of the year because of vacation and holiday time and time to not be at work. They have a much happier existence than we do. And that pretty much goes for every country in the world. Nobody works as much as we do. Yeah. It doesn't benefit us to work as hard and as much as we do, because at the end of the day, we experience burnout where other people don't. Yeah. I mean, yeah, we may be productive when we're productive, but we burn out quickly. So, I mean, I don't think there's a right way or wrong way to do it, but I think the European model of focusing on life outside of work and not living to work, but working to live and pay bills is a very healthy model compared to how we've managed to put so much emphasis on The more you work, the better you are. No, no. We know that's not accurate. I mean, if anything, COVID taught us that, right? Yeah. When we didn't, we couldn't work. For someone like me who's a total workaholic, that set me into panic mode. I'm like, oh my God, I don't know what to do with myself if I can't work. Oh my God, oh my god. Does not compute break down. But I think it also, you know, taught me something that if I don't have a lot on my plate for work, I'm not going to expire. I just have to focus my energies elsewhere.
Carrie:Yeah. So how long were you all living in Germany and how long were you doing that work?
Christie:Three and a half years.
Carrie:And then how did you transition, when you moved back to the states?
Christie:So I got a job in Houston, doing what I'm doing now, but for a different company. And I really fell in love with the work. It's beverage marketing and even though I'd come from the food and beverage service industry, I mean, I'd done every role possible from busser all the way up to management. I never knew that this world existed until I was introduced to it. And it paired with my marketing background. And I was like, oh, okay, so this is fun. I like this. So I did that for quite a few years.
Carrie:So, for students listening, can you explain like exactly what you were doing when you say beverage marketing? What was your day-to-day like and what were the projects you were working on?
Christie:It was a lot of different areas, but pretty much the world of beverage marketing runs the gamut from producing menus, running the photo shoots, crafting the copy that goes into each drink, creating the drinks and the recipes, doing the training against those menus and the drinks and the recipes. But I did everything from creating a full wine training program for a chain, to putting together their menu, putting together their summer contests, putting together their overall employee incentive programs, even their drink Rolodexes. And I was constantly on photo shoots, which was really fun. It was a little bit of everything. Every day was different.
Carrie:So were the photo shoots for like print advertising? Were they the things we actually see when we go into a restaurant? What were you shooting?
Christie:Yeah, it was, yeah, we were shooting the stuff you actually see on the menu when you go into a restaurant. Like the food pictures, drink pictures, that kind of thing.
Carrie:So how long were you doing that work?
Christie:I did that for a little over four years, I think. Four and a half.
Carrie:And then what did you do next?
Christie:I started this company, cuz I was working on my master's. I knew I always wanted my master's degree. It was a personal goal. I didn't really want to get it to benefit my career. It was just something that I knew once I reached the emotional maturity to return to college and work on my master's, that's what I wanted to do. And there was not a lot of support from my employer. The opposite actually. They had the audacity to say, you're signing your death certificate if you work on your MBA while working here. And I'm like, why? Wait, I'm in management. I'm sorry. Why would having an advanced degree be signing my death certificate? And they're like, because you don't need a college degree to work here. You going and getting your master's tells us that you think you're better than working here and you're looking for the next thing. And I'm like, wow. So the fact that I'm telling you that this is a personal goal takes no value here, and you're just gonna go ahead and tell me what you think it is.
Carrie:And you don't want to be at all encouraging the personal growth of your employees. I mean, I know. Wow.
Christie:And it's not like they were paying for it. I was paying for it.
Carrie:Right. Wow. So what made you decide to start your company? What were the seeds that were kind of planted in your head and what were you envisioning as you started?
Christie:Yeah, it was, honestly, I needed to finish my masters, because at that point I was getting really, really stressed about it. I was on the road constantly. I was tired of working on my master's at three o'clock in the morning from a hotel room. It was just exhausting. So I started the company because I wanted to see if I could manage to piece together enough work to keep growing my skillset, but really while giving my main focus to finishing my masters. So it worked. I mean, I wasn't terribly busy, but I was busy enough and that's all that mattered cuz I really needed to shift my focus back to my education if I was gonna do it my way. I was able to accomplish it. And then, quickly after finishing, I landed back in the world of national accounts, as a national account manager for Sydney Frank. They're now known as Moia Meister, but back then it was Sidney Frank importing company. So it ended up landing me in a good spot.
Carrie:So as far as the benefit of the degree on a career path for a position, even though that's not what you were seeking out to begin with, you felt like it did benefit you in that way?
Christie:I think it helped. It also helped that they knew me, the company knew me. The person that hired me, he knew me very well. In fact, he called me and was like, I found your resume in a trash pile out of 400 resumes. Why don't you call me and tell me you were interested? And I was like, ah, we're friends. I didn't wanna put you in a weird spot. He's like, I'm gonna interview you anyway, because I didn't have, like out of their bullet points of experience, I was missing a critical aspect. They had plenty of people who had all the, all the pieces of experience. But he still interviewed me and after all that process, I ended up getting the job.
Carrie:Have you seen a lot of the writing that's gone out over the last few years that women tend to do that more? Like if they see a bullet point they're missing? Yes. They tend to be like, oh, I wanna apply for this. Where guys will see multiple bullet points they're missing and be like, oh yeah, I can do that. Like, we're just wired to where we feel like we have to present, like we can already master the job that we haven't gotten yet. even though a lot of those times you can learn those things on the job and do it perfectly well without having that experience already.
Christie:Yeah. It's kind of disheartening. And I think it's just, women have been told where they belong for so long. Mm-hmm. And, and this is not, this is not blaming anybody. I'm not one of those people that's hold me down. We were told by our parents where we belong and what we can accomplish. I think there's this messaging and it's clearly global. But it's become part of the DNA where we hold ourselves back, we are our own worst enemies. Yeah. So part of my goal in life is to, one, no longer be my own worst enemy, which I'm still not there. I'm still my own worst enemy. But also to be that woman that pushes others forward. Mm-hmm. like get out of your head. My network is doing that for me. They're like trying to be like, Christie, get out of your head. Get out of your head. You've got this. Look at what you've been able to do. Like stop self-doubting, you know? I want to pay that forward because I've had people that have believed in me and pushed me forward. And I've always been really honest, like every job I've taken has been a job where I said no at first, cuz I didn't have the experience. And then I learned how to do something I had no idea how to do. Mm-hmm. I mean, even when I went from journalism into marketing, working for the US military, I turned down my marketing job when they offered it to me. And the chief of staff came back to me and was like, Christie, we literally wrote this job description with you in mind. Take the job And I'm like, but I don't have any marketing experience. I didn't study it in college or anything. And he's like, you've been doing it every day. What do you think you've done with all the stuff you've produced? Yeah, we will support you. Please accept the job. We don't wanna have to find someone else. We want you. I mean, like literally awesome. People had to knock me over the head with it. And it was one of those things, and I've been working for someone who'd been de debating me too, so I really felt like my value was in the trash can of what I could bring to the table. Those conversations where someone's literally altered the course of my career by saying, trust me, take the job, try this. Mm-hmm. that changed my perspective in like the way that you spin a Rubik's cube and you have a whole new question on your hand, you know? Yeah, yeah. It, it literally was a rewiring of my brain. And then I was like, oh, well, if I can do something where I have no experience and only a desire to learn, there is nothing I can't do. Yeah. So I've kind of taken that learning experience that he gave me in that moment, in that brief conversation that I'm sure he would never even remember, but it altered my entire mental perspective on myself. Every time I'm like, oof, I don't know what I'm doing. Well just say yes and figure it out. Yeah. And it's always worked. I mean, I didn't know how to run a business when I started this company. It definitely had a lot to learn going into it. When I reengaged in it back in 2017. I mean, now I'm building a website and doing all this bookkeeping. Hiring people and there's so much, and I'm like, here I go, I'm gonna learn it all.
Carrie:Yeah. Well to go back to the job you said you took working on national accounts. Can you tell us a little bit about in your industry what that looks like and what types of things you were doing?
Christie:Oh, totally. I mean, it was so much fun. I had about 250 different national buyer accounts. So like, you think like Chili's, that's one. So instead of calling on all 800 or so Chili's, I called on the corporate buyer. Mm-hmm. right? So I had about 250 different touchpoints, which is a lot. I mean, most national account managers have around 50. If they're buried, they have 60 to 75. If they have it good and they have a deep team, they're at about 20. I had a lot on my plate, at that point that I was selling Jagermeister, which was the largest footprint we'd ever had in terms of sales on that brand. So I was in the position of like, literally everybody sells Jagermeister, which means I sell to literally everybody. Yeah, and we had a lot of other fantastic brands in our portfolio that came in, came out, that kind of thing. But my job was to create recipes and get my drinks on menus and have those conversations, support their conferences, spend time face-to-face. Go to all the RFP meetings, which are much easier on the supplier side now that I'm back on this side, running them. You literally sit on your butt for 12 hours a day listening to pitches about different alcohol brands, and then you go and drink them all at night and then you do it again. It's a lot. I would spend a couple weeks preparing a pitch. You get one shot every year to get into that account in the way that you need to get into it. Hmm. And every single pitch was different. I couldn't just show them something that I was showing anyone else, no one ever saw the same. So I would spend weeks developing something new specifically to that account for that year. That's what I recommend to my supplier friends. Please don't show me anything you've shown anyone else because I will know if I've seen it before and I'll get very upset that my clients aren't getting something unique.
Carrie:Yeah, so how did you transition out of that job into what you're doing now?
Christie:So I left that company, it was a big buyout. We lost all of our brands. Sidney Frank ended when Jagermeister bought Sidney Frank. So I was selling like Casamigos tequila and Monkey 47 gin. I was selling some amazing brands. And they killed a few of our brands. Others went off to different portfolios. And it became Mastejager. So I was only there a few months after the buyout was complete. And I went over and started selling Lavatsa coffee, which I thought would be easier because I didn't have to deal with the control state issues and control state pricing and controlled state supply chain. Yeah, I thought, wow, Lavasa, I'm in the non alch space. That'll be so easy. Oh, I was wrong. I was way wrong. Contract agreements are very long. Equipment agreements are extensive. Everybody in the coffee space is really amped on coffee. Yeah, that was crazy. I mean, I love the coffee. Still drink it. It's one of my favorite brands. But yeah, that was, woo. That was a lot, that was a very stressful year. But then I went back and started my own thing again. And it's been, I mean, I've worked harder than I've ever worked in my life. I'm paying myself less than I've ever been paid in my career. But I am happier than I've ever been.
Carrie:People start businesses for all different kinds of reasons, right? So were you doing that because you wanted to live your life a different way? Were you doing it because you thought you could serve people better than what you were seeing in the corporate space? Like, what were kind of the reasons that you moved and gravitated towards starting your own company?
Christie:I mean, it was a combination of all of those. Primarily I was tired of people saying, no, Christie, you can't do that. No, that's too hard. I was tired of that. I was, and I was tired of people stealing my ideas, honestly. I was tired of cleaning up other people's messes only for them to really not even appreciate it. And the other thing was I was tired of people writing my name and my relationships for their gain. I should be making money on my name, not someone else. Right? I mean, I've worked my tail off to get this reputation and this level of credibility in this business and to build these friendships and relationships that are very trusting. And for someone else to profit off that instead of me is wrong. I'm done. And also I really wanted to focus more on giving back. When I came up with, The idea behind Witty and what that's turned into. The response I got was, why women don't need an organization to help them empower each other. That's really ridiculous. And how do we make money off that? I'm like, oh, wow. Well one, starting an organization that benefits women is not going to be a money making opportunity. It's not a revenue stream suggestion. It's an impact Suggestion. Yeah. And no one starts something to make a positive social impact with the intent to make money. And if they do, they're wrong. Well, if this was obviously coming from a dude. I just couldn't understand how someone who was married to a woman and raising a daughter didn't understand the benefit of creating a open, safe, empowerment space for women.
Carrie:You have all of these different arms of what you do. So you have your company, you have this organization that empowers women, You have your product that you developed. So can you kind of walk us through like what came first and then what came next, and what came next? I think a lot of people think about starting a company as like, oh my gosh, that is so overwhelming. You have all of these things to do. Like, what were some of your first starting points? Like what are kind of some of the foundational things that you did? I'm assuming one of'em was reaching out to your existing network and the industry, and then kind of steps that you took that grew into all of these different branches of what you do now. Yeah,
Christie:absolutely. So C J L started in oh nine, didn't reengage. Between 2010 until 2017 when I reengaged in 2017. People came to me and they were like, Hey, we really need your help. So that's kind of how it started. I mean, I've never had to try to sell our company because people have known me for nearly 20 years, pretty much at this point. I've grown up with my peer group in this space. Like we all were in our twenties when we met. Now we're in our forties. So there's that. And they've also known me, to be honest, even when it wasn't gonna serve me well. Which is huge, huge. You would think that that would be a foregone conclusion that people in any industry are just honest, even when it doesn't serve their agenda, and truthful. But it's actually hard to find people that are just honest to a fault. So I had that going for me. People would come to me and they're like, listen, we know that you're always gonna give it to us straight, and you're gonna say no even when we don't want to hear it and we need somebody that we can trust like that. So would you do it? And it was pretty easy. I kind of started going through a lot of internal work, at the end of 2017 when Harvey destroyed Houston. Mm-hmm. we were one of Harvey's victims. There was a level of trauma that I had not yet quite experienced, resulting from what that storm did to us. I started seeing a trauma therapist and came to the realization that, A lot of my trauma about Harvey was insecurities and instabilities stemming from previous life experiences and working in this food and beverage space, whether it was corporate side or you know, frontline. And as I was going through this healing process, I realized that there was a lot that I had never addressed or healed from. Hmm. And that's when, thanks to going through that, I came up with the idea for WITI and WITI stands for women in the industry. It's W I t I. I just started having conversations with other women in our space. I was like, were you ever sexually assaulted? Were you ever verbally assaulted? Were you ever like, forced to stay in a hostile work environment? I was like, I know these are hard questions to answer, but I need to know if I'm alone. Because I've had all of those things happen to me. and I need to know if it's just me or if it's other people too. Literally, every single woman I asked was honest and was like, yeah, like a lot. And I don't talk about it. I was like, yeah, I think that there's something we have here that now that we've reached this corporate side and we've got these glam jobs, we owe it to the women in our business to start talking about this and being like, really honest. It shouldn't happen. It shouldn't have happened to you. Let's openly discuss what's happening and let's change it. Let's stop it from happening. And let's create a silent list of the people that will protect us in this space and the people that will harm us. So we know who the predators are now, because we've been talking about it enough. And then we all have code names for the predators. And then wow. Know who the heroes are, right? We call them our witty men. But if you're in a position that is awkward, especially in the corporate space, if you're in an awkward position with like a client, a buyer, anything, and you need help, you can draw one of these, WITI men into the conversation and they will get you out of it.
Carrie:Wow.
Christie:So we've created a code society to some extent where we can safely eliminate the possibility of being assaulted, in any way, shape, or form. But our goal is not to just make ourselves safe because we're able to do that, but to protect and promote. The, the women that are coming behind us that are going to be leading this space in the next 5, 10, 20, 50 years. Yeah. And if we're not providing this very well lit path for them, the same things will continue to happen. I'm not obtuse in that I think that what happened to me in the nineties and two thousands, up until, I mean the last time I was assaulted by somebody, it was just gosh, a couple years ago, now in my forties, like seriously still not safe in my forties. But making that something where it's less and less possible is something that we're all acutely aware that it's still happening, even though we, we don't want it to. But if we can kind of stop it, We're headed off at the pass, if there's any way we can and help people stand up to it too, because the one time I stood up to it, I was slapped backwards verbally. So I shut up, put my head down, let it keep happening cuz I was threatened with my job.
Carrie:Yeah. I'm so sorry. And I know that sadly, so many women can relate to what you're saying and I just, so it's incredible that you are proactively having this conversation with so many women in your industry and engaging men who are allies in that way. And identifying people, like you said, identifying predators in your industry. I think a huge part of helping to stop this is helping women be and feel supported. Right? Yes. In forming that community because there are some women who individually will speak out and will report things because that's just in their nature. But a lot of women need that support behind them to do it because they're scared about their job, they're scared about their safety. Yeah. They're scared about something else in their future, and rightfully so. You know, a lot of times those are very real threats presented to them in those situations. So, thank you for that work that you're doing. That's just really incredible.
Christie:Yeah. Well, I mean, victim shaming is a thing. Yeah. Mm-hmm. I mean, we all remember the way, for those of us who are older, we remember how Anita Hill Yeah. Was maligned as a victim. Yeah. We remember that. That whole series of events and the way it played out and the way she was treated, really stuck in my head. I mean, that was, gosh, I was in high school. Mm-hmm. but, you know, my brain was still developing. My thoughts were still forming, but that lasted, that stuck with me. And, you know, I was afraid to speak up and speak out and it's happened in every single side of industry or business or whatever, in every single role. So I know that it's not specific to our industry, but this is the space I work in. This is the space that's given me my career path. So it's also the space that I must give back to because I think that when you reach a certain level of visibility in your space. If you are not giving it back and figuring out a way to elevate others and pay your good fortune forward, you're taking up space. Yeah. I firmly believe that, and I'm not interested in just taking up space. I do this, I run this company because it's a passion. I run WITI because it's the right way to be and the right thing to do. Everything I do is to go back to WITI, you know, build that nonprofit, build it to the point where one, I can focus even more of my time and effort and energy on building WITI and proselytizing, how we can build each other from it. Yeah. But eventually build it to the point where there's no reason for it to exist. I would love mm-hmm. If before I'm in the ground, WITI is pointless is just a golf club. Yeah. I would love that. That's a goal. That's a dream or a wish, but Yeah, absolutely. It's, yeah, it's definitely, it's given me everything and I have benefited from it too, and not financially speaking of course. Because I pay all of its bills. But I've got like 125 best friends. Yeah. Like women that I can count on. And men too. No matter what. People that I can trust, that I can talk to about personal situations or whatever, people believe in what I'm doing and support me. And they're like, Christie, I've literally had men and women alike say, no matter what you come up with next, we're in, count us in. Because I love it. It's impactful. It's making a difference and it's creating relationships that transcend the business relationship. Yeah. Which has always been strong for all of us. But it's giving us so much back in terms of the true bonds of friendship and sisterhood and brotherhood for our WITI Men. And I love those guys. They have t-shirts, they have their own shirts.
Carrie:I love that.
Christie:Yeah.
Carrie:Can you talk a little bit about like what does an average week or month look like for you? Because you're balancing your company, you're balancing WITI, you have your product. We haven't even talked about how you've done public speaking. What is it like if you're looking over a month, if you wanna use, if next month is easiest or just like an average month, what are you doing? What does that look like for you?
Christie:Oh my gosh. So every month is different, just like every day is different. Started the year by jumping on a plane January 2nd to head to Fort Lauderdale with our photographer and videographer for a menu photo shoot. Came home on Thursday night after, and this shoot was like, no joke. She took over 1900 shots and cleaned up and handed them 400 finished shots. Wow. And we're not gonna use maybe more than 30. Yeah. So now they have to pick, they have to whittle that down to less than 10%, to put in their menu. But now they have this massive library for social media and other marketing materials. So they're They're good. Yeah, they're happy. But our shoots were like 12 hour days on our feet shooting drinks and yeah. I mean, it's fun, but it's long. It's a very long day. Finished up on Wednesday night. Thursday morning, slept a little bit, got up and took our flights home. And then obviously I took my family on vacation the next day. Took him out to San Francisco to go see the Niners play cuz Keegan is my oldest. Keegan is a huge Niners fan and he's been asking to go see the Niners play in their stadium for years. But yeah, we got back on that Tuesday, so that was like the 10th of January. So now I've been on the road for the first eight days of the year. Got a couple days of work done, went and did a sampling at The Painted Tree for JAB mixology because you know, running a product line you've gotta put liquid into mouths so people understand what the product is. Mm-hmm. And then hit the road Monday morning and I spent all last week in Austin doing RFP meetings. I got home Friday night and I worked all weekend. This week I head back out on Thursday.
Carrie:Can you tell us what RFP meetings are? Like what does that look like and what are you?
Christie:Oh yes. Okay. So RFP is the process of, we spend weeks crafting a message that we want all the suppliers to pitch to. So we'll create what we call an RFP guide deck that takes all of the data from the chain. We take their demographics, their sales, we break it down by sales, between food and beverage. Then we break down the beverage categories, and we put all of this into actionable data. Like, this is our area of opportunity. This is what our sales mix looks like. This is who our key demographic is. This is what they gear towards. This is the beer they buy most frequently style. This is the cocktail that drives them. You know, that kind of thing. Like really just break it all down. and that takes a couple of weeks because each one of those ones that we produce are completely custom. But once we have all of that done, we then send it out to every single company they're meeting with, which is usually around 40 companies. And we schedule a block of meetings, like we'll literally sit for a week and have meetings back to back all day, every day, where they give us back what they think fits from their portfolio and their strategic objectives from their brands fits into these little keyholes that we've defined as areas of opportunity. That is an RFP process. It is a lot.
Carrie:So are your clients mostly restaurants and bars? What is your client demographic look like?
Christie:Yeah, so we have a couple of restaurant chains. And then we have a couple of movie theater chains and we have a golf course chain. But yeah, everybody's different. We've got nine clients that account for probably about 400 restaurants, theaters, golf courses, and clubs around the US.
Carrie:So when did you decide to create JAB mixology? I think a lot of people have random ideas throughout their life. Oh, it would be so cool to create a product that blah, blah, blah. But to actually do that right, and to execute it and get it out there, what did that look like for you and what sparked the idea for you to do that on your own?
Christie:So this is like actually a pretty funny story. I knew I wanted a product line, being a service-based company and going through the process of becoming, certified woman owned, I knew that there was an opportunity for me to diversify my company into a second piece. And that was a product line. I just didn't know what that was. And then, we're all partying for New Year's Eve as Brandon is about to retire from the military. And I had this idea and I was like, oh my God. The idea was for JAB. I was like, I hadn't named it quite yet, but I was like, I know all the players on the sourcing side. I've got the creativity and the knowledge to create the blends. I know I can do this faster, better, cheaper than anybody else could ever do it, and I could do it at a higher quality at the same time for a lower price point. Oh my God. By the next morning when I woke up, I'd named it, I'd already figured out my first couple of blends and we got back home from our trip for new Year's snowboarding and I went to a spice shop in downtown Houston. And literally bought everything in the store and just started playing around with all of these different herbs, spices, roots, fruits, flowers, dried veggies, peppers, everything. By the end of January, I had already developed three different blends. I had my logo by February and I had my sourcing commitments by the end of February. I was ready to go and I was gonna launch it as like, something for the on-premise space for restaurants and bars, because infusions are something that everybody does, but they always do them with like fresh veggies or peppers or fruits. Well, the issue there is spoilage. The alcohol is only going to keep the fruit from turning to penicillin for so long. Yeah. When you have fruit, you can't guarantee the sweetness and the consistency of it. So you may not always get the right drink out of it. With peppers, oh my God, the spice level can vary significantly. That's a big risk because they're typically putting in like three liters of alcohol. So if it doesn't work, oh my God, you've wasted a considerable amount of profit, not what you've just wasted on the product cost, but what you could've made on that. So there's a big financial risk for restaurants that are already operating on tight margins. So that was my plan, but then covid shut everything down. I was in the process of developing all of this. I was in the testing phase, I was getting my blends back from the facility that actually produces our ingredients, for trial and r and d. I was like, well, I guess I'll go direct to consumer. So by September I had launched our website and our first four blends. And I kind of backburnered the commercial side, the wholesale piece for on-premise because they still weren't operating. I mean obviously it was like, September, October of 2020, they weren't operating. Yeah. They were starting to kind of come back, but they weren't at their full speed. I was really, really, really cautious with my clients because I didn't wanna be a source of any kind of pressure for them as they were trying to rebuild. So I actually just didn't charge my clients for work, for like six months. Until they said it was okay. Because if they weren't getting paid, why should I be getting paid? They needed so little. So that was kind of also why I didn't do the commercial line cuz I had no more funding, to be able to expand the product lines either because I wasn't getting paid Yeah. So there was that. Which was a very stressful piece. It was doing the wrong thing for all the right reasons, but also the way I see it, it was the only choice. It was the only right choice, was to stand there in solidarity and hurt with them, instead of watch them hurt, you know? Right. Yeah. I eventually launched two more blends, that were inspired by Covid. There are immunity and wellness booster blends, so literally every ingredient. Shocking that they mix so beautifully together cuz they're all so different. But every single ingredient does something for inflammation, helps the hair grow, helps the skin glow, helps the nails grow. All of the things. Like reduces anxiety, like promotes vitamin C, all of that. So yeah, those are really quite tasty. And I launched those, gosh, I think I launched those in 21 and now I'm done. I am done. I'm not launching anymore. I'm full. Six is enough. And I really wanna explore and expand the six we have with the bars and restaurants out there because there's something diverse about each of them. And outside of producing a custom blend for a client that's just theirs and not available for public sale, I'm not producing any more flavors cuz six is enough. Yeah, it's a lot to manage.
Carrie:How do you like run the operations for that? Is that another company that's handling all of the orders and the packaging and the shipping things out and everything? Or are you doing a lot of that yourself?
Christie:I'm doing a lot of it myself. For now, I haven't gotten to the point where I've spent the time to investigate what that co-packing relationship looks like. I'm still doing it myself because we're still small enough for me to be able to manage it. But as we continue to grow, that is a high priority item. But I mean, I'm getting to the point where I have so many high priority items on my plate. I have to pick and choose which ones to focus on at which time. Yeah. So, like I said, I'm my own worst enemy. I think the important takeaway is that, especially for someone who's kind of like wondering how to get from A to B to C. Mm-hmm. don't say no, don't say you can't do it. Don't talk yourself out of it and try something that you've never tried before. Give yourself an opportunity to learn.
Carrie:So for students listening who are thinking, you know what you do sounds really great, they're really interested in it. This sounds like something that they may wanna pursue in their future. What is some advice you have for them, if they wanna enter this industry? Whether it's advice for things they should do in college or just kind of moving through this career? What is some advice that you have to offer them?
Christie:Well, I mean, I know now there are college programs for beverage management. That was not a course that was available when I was in college. I went to Arizona State. We had golf course management, but no hospitality. That's one way. But two, pay attention. Like if you're working in this space already, ask questions. When corporate people come in, ask them questions. Just curious. Like, I would love to move up in this space. I love this industry. I'd like to make a career out of it. Ask them about their path. Because every single person I work with has a different path. Even our account manager, who I couldn't live without, she's amazing. When I was like, I really need to find someone that can do this with me side by side every day. I put it out to the WITI group. We have a private page on Facebook, and one of our WITI women was like, I have someone for you. She couldn't have been more correct. I mean, she's a perfect fit for us, and we have become very good friends and very trusted colleagues. I am so proud of our relationship, and she had no idea that this world really existed or this job, you know? So it's one of those things where you never know what you're gonna fall into. So keep your ears open, pay attention, ask questions. Do some Googling. Like Google Beverage Director. Google distributor representative, like all these different things. There's a million ways to start in this business. And there's a ton of different kinds of opportunities too.
Carrie:So looking back over your journey, what is some of the advice that you feel like you've really learned about yourself or you've learned about how to navigate through this industry, or things that you felt like someone else said to you along the way that really helped you move to the next step or to grow?
Christie:I've always been really excited to do what I do and so always just seeing what's out there that I haven't done yet and trying to figure out how to do that has been pretty much my favorite thing ever. I listen, I listen, I learn. I try. I fail a lot. But I get back up.
Carrie:And do you have anything specific that you wanna say to women who are listening who would like to start their own business?
Christie:It's the hardest and most rewarding thing you'll ever do in your life. You will fail much more than you succeed. Just stay strong. Yeah, it's a learning process. Even when you think you've got it all figured out, you realize you have nothing figured out at all. Never close your mind off to the fact that there's always something new to learn. Right? I mean, it goes back to when I thought I was 14 and I've had it figured all out. I had my entire life plan mapped out and now here's the life I never planned for and I'm loving it. Never have that mindset of this is where I'm done, right? I'm at the top right. I'm plateauing, like always be looking for ways to grow and continue to expand. That's my advice.
Carrie:When you left journalism and went into marketing and then you kept going down that path, did you ever have like a mourning period for your, I don't wanna say loss of your journalism dream, cuz you were doing it for quite a period of time, but did you ever, or do you ever kind of feel like, oh, I missed that, or I wonder what it would've happened if I stayed in that space or, because I think some people have a hard time letting go of that first dream, right? Even if they find a new thing that they love, it's still hard to walk away from that thing that you held in your sights for so long. So did you ever experience that in any way?
Christie:I mean, I do to some extent. When I first went into marketing, I was still writing for the newspaper. I had produced another publication, that was more specific to our new focus for marketing. I was able to still contribute right? So I was still getting that creative outlet, even though my main focus was now something in a different space. I do miss the constant writing that constant creative process, but I'm still in a very creative space and I'm still writing to some extent. Now I'm writing menus. Training initiatives. I'm writing cultural development strategies. So I'm still writing. It's just I'm no longer seeing my byline. Mm-hmm. I mean, every once in a while somebody will post something, I'll be like, Ooh, I got a byline. But yeah, there's something really rewarding about seeing your byline. But now, instead, when I go out places, I see my work in restaurants. Yeah. That's really rewarding too. The first time I went out to eat and saw my work on the table, I was like, okay, that's pretty cool. Yeah. And that does not get old. So I'm still getting that sense of putting something tangible out there for others to digest, which is what journalism is. I'm still getting that return emotionally. But in terms of missing it, I mean, if I were to miss that, then I would somehow be doing myself a disservice with where I am because I'm loving this, this is better than my wildest dreams.
Carrie:Yeah. Well, if people would like to follow you in the work that you do, how can they find you?
Christie:On Instagram we are CJL underscore consulting, underscore L L C. We're also at JAB Mixology and at WITI Group, W I t I group.
Carrie:All right, awesome. Well, Christie, thanks so much for your time today. I really appreciate you telling your story and just sharing all of these different, exciting things that you do and the meaningful work that you're doing in your industry.
Christie:Well, thank you for having me. I really hope that this helps your listeners that are targeting a career in this space and I would love for them to reach out to me and I would be happy to offer guidance.
Carrie:Thank you.
Christie:Absolutely.
Do you know someone I should interview? Please DM me on Instagram@pathsinprogresspodcast and let me know who I should talk to. I would love to hear about how these stories are impacting your journey. Please follow Paths in Progress wherever you download your podcasts and leave a review to let me know what you think. You can also follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn at Paths in Progress Podcast. Our music is by John Grimmett and the artwork is by Edgar Alanis. Thanks again for joining me today.